The Silent Kingdom
by Freedan the Eternal
Summary: One year after the death of Ganondorf, Link finds everything he cares for torn from him once again. In the company of Midna and Princess Zelda, he must travel to a faraway land to find an ancient magic power to save not only Hyrule, but the world...
1. Prologue

The Legend of Zelda: The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Right. I should say first that the actual concept for this fic, I've had in mind for some time. I just couldn't figure out what setting or group of characters would best suit it. About a third of the way into Twilight Princess, I realized that these were the ones I wanted. Unfortunately, after I saw the ending, I realized that it would be impossible to write this while staying true to the game's story. That's something I hold in high importance when writing my fanfiction, unless it's supposed to be off the wall and crazy, like my other Zelda fic, "Travesty of Adventure", which really has very little to do with Zelda anymore. But, one small change to the outcome of the plot is all it takes to make this story viable. So, I decided to call it a "What-if" and re-wrote the ending to Twilight Princess, featured here as the prologue. While I stayed true to the game for the most part, this is not word for word, and there are embellishments that have a bit of foreshadowing of the actual plot of the fic attached. Enjoy!

**Prologue: A New Ending**

It was finally over.

That thought echoed across Link's mind as his fur withdrew into his skin, as he felt his snout receding into his face. The transformation only lasted a second, but he could still feel every change that occurred within his body, from the shifting of his bones, to the startling change of his heart rate. Now, maybe, he'd never have to change again.

The massive bulk of the dark beast, Ganon, lay before him, glowing white fluid dripping from the scar tissue across its gut, splashing onto the floor of the throne room in drops as large as a human head. The fluid formed into a puddle, the glow dying away, turning into a black, oozing ichor.

Then the beast's body began to dissolve, dissipating in black smoke, which dispersed through the air, fading to nothing. It took several minutes for the gigantic beast to disappear completely, and in a moment, all that was left was the black stain of blood on the floor.

Link turned to smile at Midna, the imp princess of the Twilight Realm, who had been his constant companion since this journey began. She turned her head, returning a small smile. No words needed to be said. Their quest was finally over. The Twilight Realm, and Hyrule, were safe at last.

Then Link saw it. Infinitesimal flecks of golden light, floating off Midna's body. His expression must have shown his surprise, because her smile vanished, and her eyes darted across herself. As they watched, the lights, hundreds of them, floated through the air to the still form of the Princess Zelda, who lay limply in the throne. The lights poured onto her body, and color returned to her face, the corpse grey pallor fading into a much healthier tone. The moment the last small light touched her, her eyes flickered open.

She rose slowly from her seat, her gaze quickly scanning the scene, her gaze drifting across the small tears in Link's tunic, and the red strips through the cut chain mail beneath. She noted the large black stain on the floor, and her eyes finally came to rest upon Midna.

"I..." Midna began, but Zelda raised on hand for silence.

"No words are necessary, Midna, Princess of Twilight," Zelda's voice was soft, and in the large, empty throne room, had an otherworldly echo about it, as though it were a goddess speaking, "If only for a short time, our hearts were as one. I saw the events through your eyes, and I know that you have suffered more than any other for this victory."

She stepped toward the imp, her footsteps echoing loudly in the empty hall. Midna's gaze fell to the floor, as though she were afraid to meet the princess' gaze. Zelda reached out one hand, and gently lifted Minda's chin. A single tear rolled down Zelda's left cheek, "I am afraid the curse upon you is beyond my power to break. But I owe you a great debt. I will do everything in my power to find a way to help you."

"No, I didn't do all that much," Midna said, "Link did most of it himself. I was just along for the ride."

Zelda turned her gaze to Link. "And you, hero and wielder of the sword of evil's bane, I owe you a great debt as well. Name your desire, and if it is within my power, I shall grant it."

Link shook his head, "I just want it to end. I don't want anymore bloodshed."

"Then know that it shall never come to be!" boomed a massive voice within the hall. Link felt as though his eardrums were about to burst.

The three turned, and in the very air before them, fire burst into life. Flames floating on nothing grew, swirling in a mesmerizing spiral, finally coalescing into a fifteen foot image of a face. The face of Ganondorf.

Link's sword was in his hand in a flash. "Dammit," he said, "What does it take to make you stay down?"

The great mouth moved, laughter echoing through the hall. "You truly do not know what you are up against, do you?" the face said, laughing again, "Yes, you do not even know what that in your hand truly is, or what it stands for! You've just stumbled forward blindly, believing you were the chosen of some deity and their blessing gave you the power needed to smite evil from this world!"

Ganondorf's voice was practically dripping with sarcasm, "And now here you stand. Evil is before you. No one can come to help you now. What are you going to do?"

"Well, for starters," Link said, gripping the Master Sword tight enough to turn his knuckles white, "I'm going to kill the windy jerk, then I'm going to go take a nap."

_No,_ Midna thought, terror gripping her heart, _This has gone too far. He's too strong for you, Link! He'll kill you!_

The three fused shadows in her possession appeared as she summoned her power. _I know what I have to do now. I won't allow anyone else to die. I won't allow it!_

Link saw it coming. He knew why she had summoned the fused shadows. Realizing instantly what Midna planned to do, he leaped for her. Screaming for her to stop, he tried to reach her, tried to disrupt her concentration, so that the spell would fail. He was only a few feet away. He should have reached her.

His feet had left the floor. He was flying through the air. Everything seemed to be moving in slow-motion. He saw her turn to him. He saw her smile. A sad, lonely smile that made Link feel as though his heart would tear itself from his chest in sorrow. Then his body broke apart.

His arms shattered into small black squares, spiraling upward into the air. His shoulders and chest were the next to go, then he was blinded as his head shattered into pieces.

Link found himself lying on grass. He stood up, scanning the horizon to find his location quickly. If she hadn't sent him far, he might still be able to get back...

The castle stood silhouetted against the sun, about halfway down the western sky. Damn, it was nearly a full day's walk back from here! He'd never make it! He jumped when a hand touched his shoulder, grabbing for his sword. It was Zelda who had touched him. She gave his shoulder a soft squeeze, shaking her head sadly.

Link turned back to the castle, just in time to see an eruption of flame all about it. The great fires spiraled upward, mixed with dust and brick. A moment later, the ground began to shake, and the castle slowly collapsed upon itself.

Then Link saw him. Before the rumbling had even subsided, Link saw the midnight black horse across the field from him. Seated in the saddle was the man who had caused all the suffered he'd borne witness to. Ganondorf had resumed his human form, his jet black breast-plate, split in the center, a soft white glow emanating from within, and fully interlocked plates over both his arms and legs.

The stallion reared onto its hind legs, letting out a cry that sounded more like a demon than a horse, and Ganondorf held one hand high, and Link could see the dark shape against the sun. It was Midna's mask.

"No," Link breathed, his heart aching. It couldn't have been more painful if he'd been stabbed. He had never seen Midna without the mask, but he understood it was one of the four fused shadows. When combined, the shadows made a helmet that transformed Midna into a mighty creature of nigh-unstoppable power. And this man had taken her.

Ganondorf dropped the mask to the ground, it broke apart and crumbled into pieces as it fell. Link's eyes followed it to the ground, where the pieces rolled down the grassy hill, then stopped still.

Ganondorf waved his arm, and four images appeared about him. They seemed to be ghosts of some obscure creature, mounted on beasts that defied the imagination. With a cry of victory, Ganondorf drew his sword and charged.

Link was still watching the broken mask as it shook and bounced as the thundering hoof beats passed it by. He turned to face Ganondorf, bearing rapidly down on him, his face contorted in maniacal glee.

And Link's pain was suddenly replaced by rage. This man. He had just taken the life of a dear friend, and now intended to take yet more. He remembered what he had said to the princess. _I just want it to end. I don't want anymore bloodshed._

This man lived for blood. For death. It would never be over until he was dead. Link reached to the Master Sword, gripping the hilt tightly. _One more time,_ he thought, _I won't let your death be in vain. I'm going to bury that son of a bitch._

The Master Sword made a unique metallic ring when it was drawn. No other sword Link had seen even came close. Rather than the familiar metal-upon-metal slide, it sounded more like a hiss. Now, it was a comforting sound. The sword flared into blue light.

The ghost riders arrived first. With a massive underhanded swing, Link caught the first on his left, the blade piercing its necroflesh easily, and the spirit dissipated into the air. Link spun the other direction, catching the second with a full backhand swing. Carrying through the swing, he caught the third across the back and then the forth head-on.

He turned to face Ganondorf. The dark man was near, his blade raised high for a blow that would cleave Link's head from his shoulders.

Then, everything seemed to slow down. The scant feet that separated them seemed to take forever for Ganondorf to cross. Link could see Ganondorf's mouth, open wide in a hideous laugh, his eyes filled with burning hatred, and the sword in his hand, glowing with white light as the forward swing of it began.

Then all truly was still. Link realized that Ganondorf wasn't moving any closer. The man's face was fixed in the terrifying laugh and glare.

A soft hand took Link's shoulder. "Come with me."

Link turned to Zelda, who gestured into the distance. Epona, Link's great Clydesdale mare stood waiting. "You cannot hope to match him at such a disadvantage," Zelda said.

"Why don't I just cut him up right now, while he can't fight back?" Link asked, glaring at the evil man atop the black stallion.

"Touch him and my spell will break, and we'll both be at his mercy," Zelda said, "We much match him on fair ground."

Link realized she was holding a short-bow in her hand. It was carved from scorched black wood, and overlaid with golden designs and spirals. "Where did you...?"

"I am not of his calabur as a magician," Zelda said, "But I am not powerless, either. Mount your steed. We will defeat him together."

She leaned closer to him and whispered, "Lend me your strength for just a little longer."

Link grabbed the saddlehorn in his free hand, lifted his foot into the stirrup, and hoisted himself onto the large horse. "Don't misunderstand," Link said, offering Zelda his hand, "For me, this isn't about Hyrule, or its people, or even you. It began about the children who were taken from their homes. Once they were safe, I continued on only for Midna's sake. Now, she died to save us, princess. For me, this isn't about saving Hyrule. It's about putting that murdering bastard in the ground."

Zelda took Link's hand, and he lifted her onto Epona's back, seating her behind him. "You're a hard man, Link," Zelda said, "But though our motives are different, our goal is the same. You truly are like a feral beast."

"I'm no beast," Link said, taking Epona's reigns in his free hand, "I'm a demon."

With a whoop, Link spurred Epona, urging her toward Ganondorf. At that moment, he saw the golden glow on the back of Ganondorf's right hand. "He's breaking my spell," Zelda said, "I knew it would have soon."

"Wait," Link said, "He was _conscious_?"

"Yes," she replied, "He heard every word we said."

A golden flash erupted from Ganondorf. The world seemed to move as molasses, slow and oozing, then returned to speed, and Ganondorf was already turning his horse, trying to get his blade around. Link was upon him. "Take this!" Link cried, swinging from left to right, aiming at Ganondorf's neck.

Ganondorf got his blade around in time, sparks flew in a small explosion where the Master Sword collided with the white blade, and Link felt as though a charge of electricity shot up his arm. Then he was past, already guiding Epona into a wide left turn, craning his neck to get Ganondorf back into view.

He heard Zelda draw back her bow, and with a sharp twang and loud hissing, a streak of light shot from the bow. Suddenly, Link saw Ganondorf, circling his steed around to the right. Zelda's missile hit the ground just behind Ganondorf, with a small explosion of light, sent rocks and dirt clods flying.

Ganondorf steered his steed back toward Link. They were galloping toward each other, head on. "Watch out," Link said to Zelda, holding his blade aloft behind him. Ganondorf held his blade out to his side. This was one advantage Link had. Ganondorf was on his left side, so his blade was between himself and the evil man. Ganondorf, being right handed, and with this position, would have to swing across his horse to reach Link. Small though the advantage was, it was there.

They came together, and two massive swings connected, the swords collided, sending a shower of sparks all around, and Link was nearly lifted from his seat from the sheer force of the impact. Then they were past, and Link was reigning Epona about for another pass.

Ganondorf savagely pulled his stallion about, his maniacal frenzy from earlier gone, now he smiled softly. "No hesitation whatsoever," he said to himself, "Hard as an anvil. Very good, boy."

For a moment, Link's sword arm had gone numb, and he dreaded dropping his blade at a time like this. A moment later, though, the feeling returned, and he steadied his grip. "Damn, he hits like a battering ram kisses. Amazing."

"Link, can you get us behind him?" Zelda asked, "I'm sure I'll be able to hit him from there."

"I'll try, princess," Link said, and urged Epona forward again. This trading blows certainly wasn't going to do the job. Link had never liked sword fighting on horseback. There was no art to it, no skill involved. It was simply two men hammering at each other until one managed to knock the other from the saddle. There was no room for fancy moves or actual skill, or you'd likely cleave your own horse. Plus, a horse wasn't too capable of the same defensive maneuvers that Link was quite adept at.

Ganondorf was once again in front of him, spurring his horse for another charge. Then Link saw it. Beyond Ganondorf, a drop-off in the direction of the rocky pass leading to Kakariko. If his memory served, it was a good ways down. There was a chance that Epona would break a leg going down, but it would have to be risked. "Come on, girl," Link said, urging her forward, "If it does happen, I'll get you back together, and never again. I promise."

Nearly upon Ganondorf once more, this time, the dark man cave with an overhead swing. Such a swing was relatively useless from horseback, and Link easily deflected the blow. Ganondorf was testing him, he knew. They passed him, and Link kept going. Ganondorf steered his horse about, and gave chase.

"Link, go left!" Zelda cried out.

Link pulled the reigns left, Epona turning quickly. A white bolt of electricity struck the ground where they had been just a second ago, dirt flying into the air from the impact. "Go right!" Zelda called.

Link quickly steered right, narrowly missing another bolt. _Almost there, come on._

Then they were. Epona dropped down the wall, a good fifteen feet down. A bolt of electricity shot over their heads as they fell. The drop-off was extremely sharp, nearly straight down. But then they hit the ground, Epona snorting sharply, but she kept her feet. The landing had hurt her, but apparently nothing was broken.

"Well, that wasn't so bad," Zelda remarked as Epona came to a stop.

_Speak for yourself,_ Link thought, realizing rapidly that he shouldn't have been leaning forward on the landing.

A second later, with a loud whinny, Ganondorf's stallion leaped over the drop-off, sailing over their heads. Zelda drew her bow back, following them down.

Ganondorf landed, and Zelda's missile was away. But Ganondorf's stallion collapsed beneath him, its right front leg twisting beneath it, and they went down in a rolling heap, Zelda's missile flying harmlessly over their heads to slam into a nearby rock face, raining sharp edge shrapnel rock down on the nearby area.

Link dismounted. Ganondorf wasn't going to be getting back on that horse. He pulled his shield from his back onto his right arm as he walked. Ganondorf pulled his leg out from under his collapsed steed. "Very good," he said, turning to face Link, "Very good, indeed. You might be one of the best I've ever seen. Very clever idea, by the way. I didn't expect it to be quite that far down."

Ganondorf held his sword low, almost casually, "Of course, I guess such is to be expected from a hero like yourself. Your kind never cease to amaze me. Every one of you pulls remarkable feats I'd thought beyond you."

Ganondorf smiled at Link, pure malice radiating from him, "But you are different from the others. You do not need justice on your side, you do not need the belief that you are in the right, that the world needs what you would do for it, you do not need honor. All you need is a reason."

"No two people ever agree on what justice is," Link said, holding his shield before him and sword ready, just in case Ganondorf tried to strike, "I'm in no position to judge what's right for the world. All I know is what is right for myself and my friends. As for honor... Feh! I'm not about to fight honorably against someone who'd stab me in the back at the first chance. I can fight just as dirty as you, old man."

Thunder boomed overhead. The clouds were building rapidly. The sun was already sinking below the horizon. Very soon, it would be completely dark.

"Ah, twilight," Ganondorf said, gazing at the last bit of sun poking above the horizon, "A fitting time to end this, wouldn't you say, boy? Before we get started, though, tell me one thing."

Raindrops pattered down onto the brown stone beneath their feet. Link felt drops hit his face, then it really started, the rain pouring down in almost a torrent. Link could feel it soaking through is tunic and chain mail. The rain rolled of Ganondorf's plates in small streams.

"If not for any of these reasons," Ganondorf said, "What is it you fight for?"

"What do I fight for?" Link said, a growl coming into his voice, "I fight for me. I fight for the children you kidnaped. I fight for my friends, who are depending on me."

Zelda pulled up the reigns on Epona, who was trying to move closer to Link, "Easy, girl. He has to do this on his own."

Link's voice suddenly rose to a shout, "I fight for a precious friend of mine, whom you murdered in cold blood!"

A smile crept across Ganondorf's face, "I've murdered many people in cold blood. You should have seen my first rise to power. Oh, the mountains of bodies! The streets running red in fresh blood. In the end, what's one more?"

"You son a bitch," Link growled, "After all this, you don't even feel regret? You don't feel shame for these crimes against humanity?"

"You want to talk ethics now? I grew up in a world plagued by war," Ganondorf said, his smile evaporating, "I grew up starving in the desert. I grew up watching everyone I cared about, everything that was good in my life, I watched them all die so that I may live."

Ganondorf's voice turned to a growl, "Then I claimed the Triforce. I claimed the power of the gods. Then, in a sadistic trick by their hand, most of it was taken from me. I was left with but one piece of the three parts of the whole. This did not deter me, however. Many lives were sacrificed to keep me alive to reach that point. What reason could there be for such acts? The answer is simple. This is my destiny. To rule the world as a god!

"Yes... Destiny..." Ganondorf said, the growl dying away as he smiled at Link again, "Something you understand precious little of. Regardless of your reasons for being here, or why you think you're here, you've been destined to do battle with me since before you were born! That mark on your left hand is a Triforce, boy! You don't even have the faintest idea what that means, do you?"

Link glanced at his left hand, where the golden triangle mark was glowing faintly in the dim light. Ganondorf went on, "It's not a simple mark of the gods to show the hero, or a blessing of power from them as you believe. It is a fragment of the power that was stolen when I claimed the Triforce so long ago! It is rightfully mine! You have no right to possess it!"

Ganondorf stopped to take a deep breath. It seemed to have a calming effect, "It seems the Triforce is passed down through bloodlines. You see, the first one to possess yours, the Hero of Time, disappeared from Hyrule shortly after our conflict. That Triforce disappeared along with him. Now it has turned up in your grasp. My only conclusion is that you must be descended from the Hero of Time."

"I don't give a damn how it works," Link said, "It doesn't change what's going to happen next."

"No, indeed it does not," Ganondorf said, lifting his sword a bit higher, "But I still find it interesting. Perhaps a cruel prank on the part of the goddesses. You look and sound exactly like him. I've met many heroes through the years, and frankly, the similarities between them were startling. But you bear a resemblance to the Hero of Time that's not just uncanny, but identical. Killing Midna was nothing to me. Just removing an obstacle. But if you insist on seeing this through, I must warn you that I'm going to take a great deal of pleasure from your death. So much that I want it to linger on as much as possible. If you give me the Triforce now, I'll spare your life. You'll be able to go home, live out your life as you want. You won't see any interference from me. I want to rule this world, but not until I've amassed such power I'll truly be invincible. There are other great powers in the world besides the Triforce. I intend to claime them as well. You'll likely be dead of age long before then. So, what do you say? Don't throw away your last chance."

Link stared for a long moment at the glowing symbol on his hand. He considered. He and his friends would be able to live out their lives in peace. Everything he'd strived for would at last be at hand. But...

But it wouldn't bring back Mida, a dear friend who had saved his life on many occasions, and at last made the ultimate sacrifice for him.

"You want this?" Link said, holding his left hand out so Ganondorf could see the glow, "Come and take it."

Ganondorf's smile vanished. "So be it."

He lunged. It was so sudden that Link almost didn't react in time. Their swords clashed together, sparks lighting the darkness around them. The rain was making the rock beneath them slippery.

Link took several steps back, trying to keep his shield up for the next attack. Lightning flashed, casting an eerie over the area, and in the light, Link realized that they were next to a cliff. About six feet to Link's right was the eastern gorge that separated Kakariko village and Death Mountain from the rest of Hyrule. It was a sudden drop for hundreds of feet.

_Okay, he's stronger than me, that I know,_ Link thought rapidly, _But with his sheer bulk, and that armor, he can't be nearly as fast. My speed is my advantage. Just hope he doesn't use that magic of his..._

Ganondorf came at him again, swinging horizontally at Link's neck level. Link spun to his left, getting his shield up. The blade scraped upward and off the shield, over Link's head. Link spun back to the right, swinging hard. Ganondorf leaped back, avoiding most of the blow, but the tip of the Master Sword hit the notch below Ganondorf's breastplate and above his tasset, cutting through the chain mail beneath, giving him just a small cut to the skin.

And he was on the offensive again, leaping back forward with an overhead cleave. Link dove to the side, rolling across the rock, rising with an upward swing. The blow glanced off Ganondorf's right arm plating, who spun with his left hand out, and slammed a mailed fist across Link's face.

Link managed to keep his feet, but the small chains had cut into his cheek, and he now had a criss-crossing pattern of cuts on his right side. And when he looked back, there were three of his foe moving toward him, sword swinging wide and low.

Link leaped back, flipping through the air, barely keeping his balance upon landing. He glanced down for just a moment, and with a shock realized that the edge of the cliff was just inches behind him. Ganondorf ran for him, sword held high.

Link met his charge, locking blades with Ganondorf, fighting for his footing. "Goodbye, Link," Ganondorf said, "You are not the first, but you are the last!"

Link rammed his knee into Ganondorf's groin.

Ganondorf hissed sharply, his push against Link easing just slightly. That was all Link needed. With a mighty shove, Link forced Ganondorf back, then slammed his shield across the warrior's face, stunning him. Link pulled back his sword, and then rammed it straight into Ganondorf's stomach, into the white scar that glowed through the breastplate. Link then released the hilt of his blade and leaped to the side, getting clear of the dark one.

_Did that do it?_ Link asked himself.

Ganondorf took two steps forward, trying to keep his balance, Link noting that he was closer to the cliff. He grunted in pain. "Damn," he muttered, "And just like that..."

He turned, looking at Link. The rain was slowing. In a very short time, it had completely stopped. The sun had set. In the dark, Link couldn't make out Ganondorf's face, but his words came clearly. "Know that this isn't over, Link. The history of Hyrule is written in blood. So shall its future be."

"You seem to be frustratingly hard to kill," Link said, seeing a chance, "Why don't you just take all the time you want to die!"

He lunged forward, ramming his shoulder into the big man, sending him over the cliff.

No screams came. Only an echoing voice, "The Trifoce of Power is still mine. As long as it is in my possession, you will never win!"

Then, a sudden, clanging impact, echoing throughout the gorge, and all was quiet.

Link sat on his knees at the edge of the gorge, gazing into the blackness.

_Midna,_ he thought, _I've done it. I hope you were watching._

Morning came some time later. Link sat with his back to the rock face of the drop-off they'd ridden the horses off, chewing on a stalk of grass. Zelda stood at the edge of the gorge, gazing down into the depths. Finally, she walked to Link. "I sense no evil energies. It seems he truly is dead. I thank you, Link, for all you've done."

Link glanced up at her. "I've traveled all over this country, killing creatures of all shapes and sizes, and plundering ancient holy grounds, and that's what you're thankful for?"

"Link, you've done nothing wrong..." Zelda began.

Link stood up, holding up one hand for silence. "That's called a joke, princess. You might want to get your sense of humor tuned up."

Link walked over to Epona, who was occupied with grazing. "I'm going back to where we started this mess. If you want to tag along, princess, you're welcome to. I'm going to gather up the pieces to Midna's mask and..."

Link fell silent. The pain stabbing into his chest again more sharply than a dagger. He gently stroked Epona's neck with one hand, sighing quietly. Zelda gently took his other hand. "I understand, Link."

Link shook her hand off. "No, you don't understand, princess, and that's the whole point. I know you watched your people die when Zant attacked. I know the suffering you went through when agreed to the surrender. I know it must have been terrible to think that you were condemning them forever just to save their lives. But in the end, right now, you must be feeling relief that your surrender actually bought time for help to arrive. Me."

Link turned to look her in the eye, "But right now, you do not understand. Princess, I would trade my life, in an instant, if it would give Midna back hers."

He took Epona's reigns and began leading her, at a walk, back to where the battle had occurred the previous evening. Zelda watched him go for a moment. "I do understand, Link," Zelda said, "I understand all too well. Because I would, too."

She began walking after them.

When they arrived, Link immediately cast about, looking for the fragments of the mask. "What? Where did it go?"

Zelda stood behind him. He muttered to himself, "I'm sure the bastard dropped it right around here..."

Zelda looked up the hill, toward the horizon. Then she saw it. "Link, look up."

"What?" Link looked up the hill. At the top were two small horns visible over the crest of the hill. "It's... It's not possible..."

He broke into a run. Up the hill, not even slowing. At the top, he nearly fell over her. Just over the other side sat the small imp, holding the mask before her, placing the last fragment to it and welding it into place with a small spark of magic. Link realized this was the first time he'd seen her without the mask. Above her ears, she had strikingly red hair, previously hidden by the mask.

She slipped the mask onto her head before turning around and seeing him. "Link!"

Link opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly couldn't find any words. He reached out one hand, slowly, and gripped her shoulder. "This... This is real?"

"Link..." Midna began, but Link suddenly pulled her to him, pressing her against his chest.

"Don't you ever," he said softly, "do that to me again."

Midna suddenly found herself the one unable to speak, but she relaxed in his arms.

He released her as Zelda reached the top of the hill to join them. Midna turned to her, "Princess..."

Zelda smiled sadly, "It seems the death of Ganondorf was not enough to free you of his curse. I am sorry, Midna. I promise you that I will devote every second I can to finding a way to reverse it. It may take some time, though, as I also have a kingdom to rebuild."

"Oh, um... I don't mind, princess," Midna said, "There's just one thing I need to do soon. And I have a small favor to ask."

* * *

A few hours later found the Link and Zelda in the Mirror Chamber in the desert prison, where death-sentenced criminals used to be sent to the Twilight Realm, in order to free Hyrule from them. 

The Mirror of Twilight sat on the great pedestal in the center of the chamber, facing a great obsidian slab before it that acted as a portal to the Twilight Realm. When Midna had been cast from the Twilight Realm by Zant, they had been forced to use it to reenter the realm to track him down.

When the obsidian slab began to glow, the pair turned to face the opening portal. Midna emerged a moment later, and floated down to them. "My advisors agree with me about an imp suddenly appearing as the kingdom's ruler," Midna said, "The people wouldn't react too well. Things aren't in such a terrible shape as they first appeared, and I've left it in capable, and trustworthy, hands. So I'm free to hunt for a cure for myself."

"Then but one thing remains," Zelda said, "What shall we do with this?"

She gestured to the mirror of twilight. "A gateway like this cannot be left unprotected. I do believe in the power of the sages guarding this place, but I feel precautions are in order."

Link smiled, "Split it. We'll break it into pieces again. Zelda and I will each take one. When we're ready to open the portal again, we'll bring them here."

Midna shook her head, "And what about the corruption that occurred to each of the creatures who possessed a fragment? Have you forgotten what happened to poor Yeta?"

"No, I haven't," Link said, "That's why we wrap them in cloth for the trip, and lock them away in the darkest, most out of the way place we can find. Each of the corrupted creatures had access to the mirror at all times. So, we simply put it away and pretend it's not there until we need it. And with only half the mirror here, it's quite useless, so anyone looking for trouble won't find it."

"I can't say I'm comfortable with this," Midna said, "But I guess there's no better solutions. I could destroy it, but I certainly don't want to yet."

"Then we shall follow Link's plan," Zelda said, "If you would be so kind, Midna?"

"Right," Midna gestured to the mirror, and fractures appeared in the perfect surface, two pieces the size of dinner plates falling to the floor.

Link pulled off his tunic, and slipped one piece inside it, the folded the edges around the piece. His chain mail, worn beneath his tunic, was now clearly showing the numerous rips it had accumulated throughout the adventure. It was rusted a fair bit as well. "Oh, damn," he muttered, "We don't have anything for the other..."

He was cut off by the sound of tearing cloth. Turning, he saw that Zelda ripped her gown at the knee, circling around for a long strip of the cloth. She wrapped the second piece within it. "Well then," she said, "Shall we go back to the castle? I've certainly got a lot to do. And you, Link, you should go see that your friends get safely back home."

Link smiled, "Yes, your majesty. Let's go, Midna. I just want a nice bed to lie down right now."

Two stares greeted him. "I was serious earlier when I said I was going to take nap," Link said, "I haven't slept in four days. See what that does to you."

With a command word, Midna dissolved the trio into small black flecks that vanished into the sky, flying back toward Hyrule.


	2. Chapter 1

The Legend of Zelda: The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Just a small request. Don't nitpick over the ideas of medieval economy and eating utensils based off what I mention in this chapter. I don't really care if it's all entirely accurate, and I'm sure, in your heart, you don't either. Besides, 90 of what I know about medieval economy comes from playing _Stronghold_.

**Chapter 1: A New Beginning**

One year had passed since the death of Ganondorf. Hyrule was once more shaping itself into an acceptable economy. With the steady supply of goods from Death Mountain, Kakariko's bomb industry was growing rapidly, with several contracts to neighboring kingdoms for supplies of explosives for mining. Part of the income was used to fund a stone quarry near the goron establishment for the massive quantities of stone needed to rebuild Hyrule castle. A large caravan route opened between the two locations to haul the huge loads to the site of the old castle. Masons and architects were hired by the dozen from both Hyrule and neighboring kingdoms to fashion the new castle, and hundreds of workers were necessary for such a large undertaking.

At the end of the year, two floors of the main keep were complete, with the third and forth laid out in wood framing, waiting for the stone to be fitted. The outer wall was all but complete, only lacking the upper levels of the perimeter turrets to be finished.

Ordon, as the only primary farming community remaining intact after the cataclysmic events that blanketed the kingdom, was forced to cope with the massive amounts of food required to feed such a working force. The lands of Ordon quadrupled in size, nearly all the new land going to wheat fields, apple orchards, and an expansion for the ranch, including grazing ground for the goats and new oxen to serve as draft animals. Princess Zelda herself purchased the large number of oxen from a neighboring kingdom and presented them to the village to aid in cultivating such a large amount of land.

Wheat, apples, and cheese and butter made from the goats' milk were shipped to the castle town, where the wheat was used to make flour, which in turn, the bakeries made their bread. Some of the flour was shipped back to Ordon, to be used by the villagers themselves.

The gorons had reopened their mine as well, mining the precious iron ore used in the creation of the Hylian steel for swords and armor, so that the decimated army could be rebuilt and rearmed.

In short, Hyrule was rebuilding itself into a thriving kingdom once more.

Link found himself spending nearly all his time in Ordon, helping direct efforts and tending the ever growing goat herd. He had expected to be the one chosen to escort goods to the castle town, or to even play messenger when additional supplies of iron were needed for plows, or wood for expanding the grazing area, but Rusl volunteered for this duty, as a "grizzled old swordsman who doesn't really know much about farming," as he put it.

Link woke that morning to the feeling of the warm sunlight on his face. That alone was odd, as the sun had to be a fair way up the horizon to hit him through that window, and if he wasn't already up, there was usually someone shouting for help with something well before then.

He yawned, stretching his arms upward, and winced at the painful stiffness in his left bicep. That's right, he'd pulled a muscle pretty badly wrestling that stubborn billy yesterday, and any of the harder work was strictly off limits for him today. He rotated his arm at the shoulder, gritting his teeth as the stiffness worked out.

_Next time, I'll just rope the damn thing and tie the other end to a post,_ he thought bitterly, then smiled at the image of the goat hitting the end of the rope at full speed.

His stomach growled, reminding him it was time to get up. He reached for the pair of pants lying on the floor, shucking his blankets as he did so. _I'll wash 'em later, when I bathe._

About the time he had securely belted his pants into place, he realized he wasn't alone in the tree house. He could make out soft breathing just a short distance away. He had realized some time ago that, though he had not changed into a wolf for over a year, he still possessed sharper senses than most humans. Perhaps it was because he had not changed in so long that he realized this, since the sudden drastic changes in his hearing and sense of smell that accompanied the change were not constantly forced upon him.

He followed the breathing and found, to his surprise, that his old friend Midna lay curled up in his comfortable sitting chair in the main room, sound asleep. Link's house was composed of three rooms. His bedroom lay at the furthest end back, and was almost obscenely small, and the main room served as a sitting area, kitchen, and dining room, and then there was the basement, which was almost on ground level, where he stored the few important things he possessed.

A small smile crept across Link's face. She'd left nearly six months ago, giving him no warning of where she was going or when she'd be back, and now she appears in the middle of the night, without even a knock or hello, and is asleep in his chair.

She held a blue, leather bound book nearly as big as she was in her arms. Link eyed the spine, which read _The Birth of Hyrule_.

_When did she take an interest in Hyrule's history?_ he thought, seeing a large stack of similar books next to the chair. _The Legend of the Triforce, The War of Imprisonment, Ballad of the Hero of Time, The Great Flood, The Chosen of the Gods._ The list of titles went on, but that last one caught his attention. He glanced down at the triangle on the back of his left hand. It's golden glow had faded away, but the symbol was still was there, like a dark tattoo.

_What's with all those legends?_ he thought. Then shook his head. _I'll ask her later. Besides, I know what will wake her up._

Link snatched the shirt he had just tossed onto the table yesterday and pulled it on over his head as he walked to the door. He grabbed his boots from the floor next to it on the way out. Sure enough, the small community was alive already, everyone going about their chores for the day. Oxen hitched up to carts, and most people loading bundles of string and sickles to take out. Wheat was ready to harvest today.

Link spied Ilia's blonde hair as she moved by beneath him. "Hey! Ilia!" he called down to her.

She turned to look up to the balcony he stood on. He must have looked quite a sight, standing there is dirty pants and shirt, barefoot, with his boots in his hand. "Any eggs left this morning?" he asked.

"I think some were put aside for you," Ilia called up, "I'll go check."

Link called out his thanks as she turned to go to the henhouse. That was another recent addition to the village. Needed to be expanded and get more cuccoos, though. Barely enough eggs each day to feed everyone, and usually not enough to satisfy them. Besides, that was one thing they needed to get exporting to the castle. Demand for fresh eggs was more than the supplies coming from anywhere, and the prices were climbing. It was still under five rupees for a half dozen, but that was already getting ridiculous.

Link sat down to pulling on his boots. By the time he finished lacing up the second, Ilia came back, holding the fabric of her skirt like a small bowl. Link grabbed the sides of the ladder before him and slid down, landing lightly on the ground just as she arrived. "Only four left, Link," Ilia said, "Sorry."

Link gathered the small items in his hands before settling on dumping them into the loose tail of his shirt so he could climb back up one-handed. "That's alright. I've got some goat sausage left, too. You off to the fields today?"

"Yeah, nothing more fun that tying string around bails of wheat," she said, "Especially since the children and I are the only ones with fingers small enough to make a decent knot from it."

Link smiled, "Tell you what. After I eat, I'll head out and join you. If I can't do that without hurting my arm, I'll just need to be put out of my misery."

Ilia leaned forward and planted a small peck on his cheek, "I'll see you then. Got to go. Father's calling for me."

She turned and ran to the cart as her father cracked the reigns on the ox, and the massive beast slowly starting to move. Ilia pulled herself into the back of the cart, and turned to wave at Link as they joined the line of four other carts moving out.

Link turned and started to climb the ladder one handed, holding his shirt tail with his injured arm, to avoid dropping the eggs. He and Ilia had technically been "seeing each other" as they called it for almost two months now, but it just felt to him like they were taking the next natural step. If one was supposed court a girl to get to know her and see if you were compatible as a couple, then technically, he and Ilia had be courting all their lives.

He entered the house, snatching a small bowl and deposited the eggs in it, leaving them on the table. He picked up some wood from the small pile by the door and loaded a few small bits into the stove. Taking the lantern sitting nearby, he opened it and dumped a small amount of oil onto the wood before sparking the wood to life with a piece of flint and his knife.

Once he was sure it would burn, he shut the stove and made his way into the basement, and found the last sealed roll of the sausage. Needed to eat it anyway. Even with the seal, it was likely to go bad soon. Shame they didn't have any of those cold-storage setups anywhere. Problem was, it needed constant cold to keep the insides cold, and they could hardly afford even one magical one for the village, and the river wasn't deep enough to submerge a normal one to keep cool. Oh well. Something for the future.

Returning to the stove, he got some larger logs and put them into the flames, watching them catch. The heat started rising well now, so he closed the stove and grabbed a large iron skillet, into which he cut the roll of sausage. Setting it down, he took a second, smaller skillet and cracked the four eggs into it, took a fork, and broke the yolks, then started stirring them viciously together while holding it over the flame. In just a short time, the sweet aromas of frying sausage and eggs began to fill the small house.

He heard a nice loud yawn from his chair behind him, then a heavy thump as Midna lay the book aside and came around, floating about two feet from the floor. "Good morning," Link said cheerfully, "Sleep well?"

The furry imp rubbed her eyes, sniffing audibly, "Oh, yeah, fine. That smells good."

Link paused in the stirring of the eggs to flip over the small patties of sausage, then started stirring again. The eggs were nearly done, and the sausage wouldn't take much longer. "I figured you'd like something to eat. Where you been for the past six months, though?"

Midna sat down on the table, stretching her arms high, "The castle, mostly. A few other places, but not as much. Been digging up what was left of the royal library after a brainstorming session with the princess. You see, we figure that since the power of the gods that Ganondorf channeled through Zant was the origin of my curse, there might be a way to use your or her power to break it. So, we've been digging through the rubble, finding as many histories of Hyrule and legends related to the power that we could find. Most of the books were irreparably damaged, though, and many of them were quite rare as well. Zelda thinks there might be extra copies of a few in the basements, but there's so much stored down there that it would take some time to find them. And some areas down there are protected by magical fields that only the Hylian royal family can pass, so Zelda herself will have to check, and she's got to be nine places at once right now, so it will just have to wait."

Link dumped about half the eggs onto a plate, then the rest onto a second. "The basement survived the collapse?"

"More or less," Midna sad, scratching a spot on her neck, "Some areas caved in, and others needed shoring up, which all had to be fixed before reconstruction could begin. They're just lucky the foundation wasn't damaged, or they'd have had to dig the whole thing up and start from scratch."

"And the books you brought back with you?" Link said, flipping the sausage patties again, making sure they were well done.

"What we found intact that looks promising," Midna said, "I brought them back with me to get out of Zelda's way. Most people don't take kindly to the sight of me."

Link flipped four patties onto a plate, then turned and sat it in front of her. "Here you go. You know you're welcome here. Just tell me when you're going to disappear for a few months again."

Link put the rest of the sausage onto his plate, then turned and sat down across the table from her. Midna had grabbed a fork, and taken a small bite of the eggs by the time he was seated. In spite of her appearance, and attitude, she still managed the etiquette of a princess, in spite of the fact she was seated on the table. "Oh, gods," she said, licking her teeth and rolling her head about, "You don't realize just how much you'll miss something like eggs until you spend a few months eating nothing but bread and cheese."

Link swallowed a mouthful, "They're eating that bad up there?"

Mida took a large bite of the sausage, chewing and swallowing before answering, "It's not that it's bad, it's that there's very little variety. Apples actually don't do to well to make a meal out of. Not enough to go around. Occasionally there's some meat, and other vegetables, but just not enough to go around. Even Zelda herself is eating the same stuff. It's a good thing her people love her, or there'd be rioting in the streets."

_We just don't have the manpower to grow enough of everything for everyone, _Link thought,_ That's the main reason_ _relying on wheat and bread. One bushel of wheat makes a fair amount of flour, which make a ton of bread for its volume._

"There are some farms sprouting up outside the city walls, using imported seeds to start off," Midna said, "But it will be next year at the soonest before their first good harvest."

The sheer magnitude of rebuilding a kingdom hit Link once again. This was no small, nor cheap, task. "Hell, it'll be a wonder if their's any rupees left in the princess' coffers after this."

"Don't forget, the explosives exports from Kakariko are funding the rebuilding of the castle," Midna said, "Besides, the princess has pretty deep pockets. The seeds for the farms and the oxen for Ordon, that's just a drop in the bucket. It's finding someone willing to sell the volume of goods needed that's the problem. Not all the neighboring kingdoms are friendly with Hyrule, you know."

"We'd be wiped out if someone decided he wanted Hyrule right now," Link commented.

"But then," Midna said, holding up one finger, "It would be _his_ job to rebuild the kingdom and get it self-sufficient again. Most lords don't care for lands that drain money instead of profiting."

_True enough,_ Link thought. It would be easy enough for a neighboring lord to occupy Hyrule, but then the expenses to rebuild would be _his_ expenses. And as money grubbing as some lords are...

"So, what about your books? You learn anything useful to you yet?" he asked, changing the subject. Politics was never something he was interested in, yet he found it pervading even life around Ordon lately.

Midna rolled her eyes as she swallowed another bite of eggs, "Well, other than the idea of how Hyrule was created personally by three goddesses, and the rest of the world was just after-effect or something, not terribly much. I haven't read the other books yet, though, just skimmed through them, so I'll get back to them later. I think I'll try that one about the Hero of Time next."

A spark flashed through Link's memory. That's right, one of the books titles. _Ballad of the Hero of Time._ What was it Ganondorf had said? _My only conclusion is that you must be descended from the Hero of Time._

That was it, but there was something else. Just a moment later, he had said... _Perhaps a cruel prank on the part of the goddesses. You look and sound exactly like him. I've met many heroes through the years, and frankly, the similarities between them were startling. But you bear a resemblance to the Hero of Time that's not just uncanny, but identical._

_You are not the first, but you are the last!_

"The Hero of Time used the Master Sword as well, didn't he?" Link asked.

"Well, yeah, I guess so," Midna said, "I haven't read much of it yet, but I think he did. Why do you ask?"

"I may have to read that one myself," Link said, popping the last of the sausage into his mouth, "Maybe just to satisfy my curiosity."

"So where are you off to today?" Midna asked, savoring the last bite of her eggs.

"Off to join the others at the field and tie up bails of wheat. Care to join me?"

"What?" Midna nearly fell off the table in surprise, "No, no, I couldn't. Someone would be sure to see me, and then..."

Link leaned down, taking one of her shoulders gently in his hand, smiling his best reassuring smile, and said, "They already know about you."

This time Midna did fall of the table. "You told them?" she asked, picking herself up.

"Of course I did," Link said, "Malo and Talo kept begging me to tell the grand story of my adventure, with Beth pretending she didn't care but just as excited when I actually did, I wound up having to tell it three times, so everyone in the village knows."

He leaned down closer to her. "And as far as they know, I can't turn into a wolf anymore because the Twilight Realm and Hyrule are no longer overlapping. Keep it that way, or I'm sure I'll have to show them a dozen times a day, and they'll be begging to pet me. Okay?"

Midna growled at him, "Dammit, I am a _princess_! Not a circus animal! If I don't want someone to see me like this, then they won't, simple as that! You're lucky I let _you_ see me after all this."

"Is that all?" Link said, "Trust me, they'll have the proper respect, if that's what you want. But you see, we're like one big family in this village, understand? And as far as they're concerned, a friend of mine is a friend of theirs. And as dear a friend as you are to me," Link grabbed her under her arms and, much to her displeasure, lifted her up and hugged her to his chest, "You're practically family already."

Midna struggled in his arms, "Let me go! This is not dignified! Let go! Fine, I'll go! But it's on your head, understand?"

"Fine by me," Link said, releasing her and grabbing his green jerkin, "Let's go."

Exiting the house, Link leaped down from the platform, his hand riding one side of the ladder to steady his landing. He'd learned how to best position his feet and how much to allow his knees to give way for a good landing from such a jump, after the first couple of times that he tried and regretted the maneuver. Midna floated slowly down behind him, looking for all the world like she would be so much happier elsewhere.

Link put two fingers in his mouth and gave a sharp whistle. A moment later, Epona, his massive red Clydesdale appeared from the direction of the ranch, nearly at full gallop. "I thought you needed that horse-call grass for that," Midna remarked.

"Trained her away from that. It's too hard to find usable stuff in the winter," Link said, patting Epona's neck as she came to a stop before him.

Grabbing a handful of her mane, he jumped up onto her bare back. He wouldn't trust her without reigns in battle, but just a short ride wouldn't hurt. "Come on," he said, reaching back to grab Midna as he urged Epona forward.

"Wait a secooooooond!" Midna cried as she was suddenly drug, Warner Bros. style after Link.

It wasn't far to the fields, but it did involve going somewhat out of the way. The village was situated in a valley with rather steep rock walls, and the fields were located up the hills. So one had to ride out the entrance to the village and back around to reach them.

When they came to the fields, most everyone looked up to see him, the villagers with sickles going back to the cutting. Talo and Malo hurriedly deposited their loads of wheat at the end of the field where Ilia and Beth sat, twining white string around bails, then loading them into the carts.

Actually, Link thought, calling it string was a bit of an understatement. It was strong enough to hold the weight of a man hanging on to it. More like a cord, he guessed. Malo and Talo ran right up to Epona, already trying to get a good look at the funny little thing with Link. "Is that her? Is that the princess, Link?" Talo asked.

"Who else would it be?" Malo asked, "Think before you talk."

A moment later, Beth had run over to join them, "I've never met a princess before!"

Midna was doing her best to hide behind Link, peeking around his shoulder just enough to see. She was used to people fleeing in terror at the sight of her, thinking she was some sort of demon, or something. She had stopped bothering to try and get along with the Hylians, allowing only Link and Zelda to see her for some time.

Now, all she saw was three young sets of eyes filled with curiosity, not fear.

Link shook his shoulder, almost dislodging her. "Come on. Say hello."

Midna managed to find her voice. "Hello." She floated away from Link, enough that the children could see her.

They "oohed" at the sight of her, and then the barrage Link had been expecting began.

"Are you really from another world?"

"I heard you can walk through walls!"

"What kind of magic can you do?"

"Can you really turn into a giant monster?"

"Did you really come back from the dead?"

And so on. Link chuckled at the bewilderment on Minda's face as he clicked his tongue to get Epona to head for Ilia and the carts. "Wait!" Midna called after him, "Help me! You can't leave me here like this!"

"You're on your own this time, honey," Link called back, "If all else fails, throw something shiny. It might distract 'em."

"I'm gonna make you pay for this, Link!"

Link chuckled again as he slid from Epona's back and walked over to Ilia. "Can I help you, my lady?"

Ilia glanced in the direction of Midna, surrounded and outnumbered. "Well, since you hijacked the rest of my help, why not? I take it that's the famous Midna we've heard all about? When did she show up?"

"Sometime in the middle of the night," Link said, "Let herself in without even knocking. Can you believe it?"

Ilia tightened the knot around the bail she had just put together. "I see. You know, I just realized, you're not a nice man."

"What makes you say that?" Link said, feigning a pained expression.

She nodded toward the children, "Leaving her with those three. You're a cruel, cruel person."

Link smiled, whispering to her, "I'm not cruel. I'm a bad man. Women like bad men. Don't you like bad men?"

Ilia had to fight to keep from laughing, "Oh, you! Shut up and go get me more wheat!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Link said with an exaggerated salute.

Most of the day was spent in the fields. At last, as the sun dipped toward the horizon, bathing the world in red light, the carts were full, the tools were loaded up, and it was time to go back to the village.

Midna had managed to extricate herself from the nightmarish trio at last, and was headed for where she knew Link was. Boy, was he going to get it! She spotted him lagging behind the others. Who was that with him? Oh, it was that girl, Ilia. The one who lost her memory before. Ilia was rubbing Epona's neck, and checking her over. Most likely to make sure Link wasn't pushing her too hard, she guessed.

Then she turned to Link. With the sun in this position, all Midna could make out was their silhouettes at this distance. They were talking about something, but Midna couldn't make out what they were saying.

Then she saw Link lean down and kiss her.

Midna hissed through her teeth. He had dumped her to the mercy of the Lollipop Guild so he could go shmooze up blondie?!

Oh, to hell with them both! Midna dissolved her body into black smoke, riding the winds back toward the village. She had research to do. She needed to get this curse broken, so she could go back to her own people. Away from Hyrule. Away from Link. For good.

* * *

Deep beneath Hyrule, in a place forgotten by time itself, a spark came to life. The spark began to grow into a flame. The source of the spark was far away from the location, but it still carried a trace of intangible evil that guided it here.

Hyrule had had many heroes through the ages. It had had many villains as well.

But never in all time had it had two events threatening the country and even the world's very existence within the same lifetime.

Traditions were about to change.


	3. Chapter 2

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 2: The Deafening Quiet**

Only the faintest red glow of the sun remained when Link returned to his home. He came in to find Midna seated in his comfortable chair once more, her nose deep in _The War of Imprisonment._ He sat the bundle he was carrying on the table before walking over to her, leaning over the back of the chair. "You could have told me when you were coming back," he said, "Despite what you may think, I don't appreciate it when you just disappear into thin air like that."

Midna huffed, and didn't look up. Link took a glance at the book she was reading. Seemed like a very dry history of some old conflict. Link sighed, "Oh, all right. What did I do?"

"Oh, what did he do?" Midna said in a sarcastic tone, "He just dumped me as a babysitter for the day while he went to get his freak on with the milkmaid. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, other than the fact I now hate children with a passion and will likely never have my own, and thus without an heir, the Twilight Realm will officially go down the toilet. Thank you very much, Link, I appreciate all you've done for me. Any other kingdoms you need to ruin before bed?"

Link almost laughed aloud. "Oh, come on, you know that's not true. What's really bugging you?"

Midna opened her mouth to really let him have it, but then stopped, realizing that she was coming very close to saying too much. She shook her head and went back to the book, "Nevermind, Link. It's silly anyway."

Link reached down over the chain and gently gripped her shoulder. "It's not nothing," he said, "I can tell. I know you. But I won't force it. If you want to talk, I'll be here."

_Not this,_ Midna thought, _There's no way it would work, anyway._

"On to more pleasant things," Link said, turning to the bundle on the table, "Uli gave me some pinto beans and potatoes from her garden, and I managed to rescue a few carrots and other things. Care for a vegetable stew?"

"Oh, gods yes," Midna said, "Feed me like that and I may never leave."

Link checked the stove, noticing Midna seemed to have started another fire earlier. He added a few logs to build some more heat, then took a large pot and made a trip outside to get some water from the stream. As he dunked the pot to get the water needed, Ilia came to him. "Did you find her?"

"Oh, yeah," Link said, standing back up, "She came back here in a huff, saying I dumped her as a babysitter for those three. Don't worry, I know her. She'll be over it by morning."

"That's good to hear," Ilia said, then sighed.

"What's wrong?" Link asked, "You're acting strange."

Ilia shook her head. "Oh, it's nothing," she said, "I just have this bad feeling all of a sudden. Like something is about to happen. Something terrible."

"I hope that's not regarding us," Link said, giving her a wry smile.

"No! No," Ilia said hastily, "Well, I hope not. It's... Well... I had a similar feeling that morning, before those beasts came into town and captured the children and me."

"Ilia," Link sat the pot on the ground, then took he hand with both of his, "That's over. Those monsters have scattered to the winds, and the one who guided them is dead. I made sure of that myself."

"Yes," Ilia said softly, looking into his eyes, "Yes, you did."

"And I promise, I will never allow something like that to happen ever again," Link said.

Ilia nearly lost herself in his eyes. Like blue oceans they were, full of knowledge and experience the likes of which she would never know herself. So gentle in their gaze, yet behind that, she could see the ferocity of a creature that refused to be tamed.

She shook herself, pulling her hand from his. "I'm sure you're right, Link. I need to get going, unless I want my father to try his hand at cooking again," she said, turning to leave, "I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night," Link said, watching her go.

Bo's cooking... That's something Link wouldn't wish on his worst enemy.

He retrieved his pot and made his way back into his house, climbing the ladder with a trick he'd mastered of balancing the pot on his head. Once back inside, he set it on the stove to heat, retrieved a knife, and started peeling the potatoes.

"I was wondering how long it took to get water," Midna said.

"Well," Link said, dropping potato peels in a wooden bucket he kept handy, "There were three demon knights guarding the river, so I had to kill them with my bare hands first. Then there is the giant, man-eating turtle that lives in the river. I just beat it within an inch of its life, though."

Midna turned a page in the book. "With you, I could almost believe that."

Link smiled, reliving memories of some of the mighty beasts they'd slain together. Starting with the giant flesh-eating plant in the forest just a short ways from Ordon, to a giant aquatic worm, and even a dragon, which were renowned as the most fearsome creatures in existence. You didn't see dragons often, and you usually gave them a wide birth if you did.

Midna turned another page in the book. Link decided to sate his curiosity, "Anything interesting in those books yet?"

"You mean besides the fact that Hylian historians are the windiest bastards alive?" Midna returned, then giggled, "No, nothing much, other than it seems our late friend Ganondorf lived for over a thousand years."

Link turned to look at her, but the chair was facing the other direction, "What? That's not possible!"

"Well," Midna said, and Link could hear numerous page flipping, "This 'War of Imprisonment,' as it's called, dates back about that long, and a nasty guy named Ganondorf attempted to conquer Hyrule, before he was slain by the 'Hero of Time,' which the writer denotes the name as mere fantasy attached after numerous retellings of the story."

Link stopped, "Wait. Hero of Time... Ganondorf mentioned him... Said he was my ancestor or something. That's where..."

Link glanced down at the triangle on the back of his hand. That's when he first noticed something was wrong. "What in the hell!"

The triangle was glowing again. It was but a faint yellow now, so one wouldn't notice it unless they looked straight at it. The last time it had happened...

"What's wrong?" Midna asked, her head and shoulders appearing over the back of the chair.

Link lifted his hand to show her. "This thing last started glowing when those monsters first came to Ordon. It grew brighter from then on, and didn't fade until days after I killed Ganondorf. Something's wrong," he added as he went to the door.

"What could possibly-" Midna was interrupted by screams.

Link slammed the door open, leaping from his tree house to the ground, and was running toward the screams in an instant. Midna floated after him, fear gripping her heart.

Then they saw it. It looked like color was being drained from the grass in the direction of the livestock. Villagers were pointing at something, screams punctuating the night as more people poured from their houses.

Link strained his eyes, trying to see in the dark. The moon was nearly full, which helped. Then he realized what was happening. It wasn't just draining color from the grass. It was coming this way, an almost perfectly even line across the ground, and the goats and oxen the line crossed suddenly fell stock still.

"Link," Midna said, "This is very dark magic! Those beasts are turning to stone!"

"What?!"

The last of the herd was caught by the advancing grey, and it neared the village. "Run!" Link shouted, "Run for your lives!"

But the instant he said that, he realized they had no where to go. That dark magic was advancing from the north. There was no other way out of the village.

Ilia appeared from the crowd of people, who were growing to a near panic. "Link! What's going on?"

"I don't know," Link said, "But it turned the animals to stone."

"It's nearly here!" Midna warned, floating higher.

"Link, what's going to happen to us?" Ilia asked, fear streaked across her face.

Link put his arms around her shoulders. "I don't know."

The grey color of the grass continued its rapid spread, and was suddenly beneath their feet, and then everything fell silent.

Midna, hovering a few feet above the ground, looked around her. Every man, woman, and child in the village had suddenly been petrified. Their skin and hair turned a dark grey pallor and they stood stock-still, though their clothing was unaffected.

"The ground," Midna said to herself, "The magic was discharged through the earth, so it would carry further. I wasn't touching it, so..."

She floated a bit lower, examining the turf. "So that's why it looked like the color was being drained away. Even the grass has turned to stone."

All the trees, their leaves, even the cat and cuccoos had been petrified. Though she noticed that a stack of firewood by one house was unaffected. "Living things," she said, "Only living creatures and plants were affected."

Even the fish in the stream had turned into hunks of rock and sunk to the bottom.

And Link. There he stood, his stone arms wrapped around Ilia, a final embrace that would never be broken.

"Oh, gods, what am I going to do?" Midna said to herself, "I don't know anything about this magic."

A thought struck her. "Zelda! She might know what to do!"

Midna said the command word to use the twilight portal to leap to Hyrule castle. Nothing happened. "What? Someone's closed the portals! I... I can't feel any of them!"

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. Okay, first thing's first. Need to find Zelda. That means taking the long way to the castle. Three days at the least. And then three days back. A week. Damn.

She floated about in circles as she tried to get a plan of action straight. On a return, she noticed something.

A yellow light radiating from the stone Link's left hand. It was much brighter than earlier. She floated closer, to get a better look, then it suddenly flared brightly, nearly blinding her, and the next thing she new, she heard a loud screaming voice right next to her, and she was being pelted with a large number of small stone chips.

Her vision cleared, and she saw that Link was on his hands and knees, perfectly human, and breathing heavily. "Link, you're okay!"

He looked up. "Midna? What happened?"

"The magic spread across the village," she said, almost feeling ashamed of herself, "There was nothing either of us could do."

Link stood up, looking around him. The statues of the villagers, all still wearing their clothing, were frozen in fleeing, screaming, or still expressions of fear.

He saw Talo and Malo, running for their parents. Beth clung to her mother's leg. Even little Colin, trying to hide behind his father, Rusl.

And Ilia. She was frozen before him, looking up at him, empty stone eyes almost seeming to be accusing him.

Link felt a great weight grip his heart. "I promised I wouldn't let anything happen."

He fell to his knees, leaning his head and one arm against Ilia. "I promised... And then I couldn't do a damn thing!"

Rain began to patter down, gently at first, then growing into a pour in a few second. Link could feel water running from his hair to mingle with the tears rolling down his face. "I'm sorry," he said in a whisper, "I'm so, so sorry."

Midna turned away, trying to keep from crying herself. She hated to see Link like this. It is a huge blow for such a normally strong man to realize he was utterly powerless. She could feel her fur clinging to her from the wet of the rain. Such a thing usually annoyed her, as she shouldn't even have fur. Now, it just seemed to pointless to even be annoyed.

"Midna," Link said, his voice barely above a whisper.

She slowly turned back to him, to see him looking up at her. His eyes were filled with the animal ferocity she had come to know, showing none of the weakness they had a moment ago. "What brought me back?" he asked.

"I think it was the gods' power you possess," she said, shaking her head to dislodge water building up the top of her mask, "It started glowing really bright, and then you suddenly... uh... broke out."

Link eyed the stone chips on the ground around him. It had felt like he'd forced himself free of something. One time, a beast on Snow Peak had frozen him in a block of ice. With a little help from some fire magic from Midna, he'd managed to break out before he suffocated. It had felt something like that, when he'd exerted every bit of strength he'd had left to shatter a shell all about him.

"And you?" he asked, his voice getting a bit steadier. It seemed his strength was returning to him. Midna couldn't begrudge him that small moment of weakness, not after what they had been through together.

"I believe the magic was discharged through the ground, so it would carry further," she said, once more feeling ashamed, as though there should have been something she should have done, "I wasn't touching it or anything else, so..."

"So you weren't effected," Link finished, forcing himself to his feet, "Good thing, too. I don't think I could've handled being alone like this."

Midna looked up at him. Standing in the dark, in the rain, she honestly felt he was never more handsome than when his wet hair shined even in the dim light, when his shirt clung to him, leaving nothing to the imagination, and small streams of water were running off his glistening muscles. Now, he watched her with a small smile, and gentleness returned to his eyes.

"What are we going to do, then?" she asked.

The smile vanished, and the gentleness was once again made room for the feral ferocity within him. "I couldn't do anything to stop it, but I'm damn well going to find a way to fix it. We go to the castle, and inform Zelda of what has happened, and from there, likely try to find whoever or whatever is responsible, and fix it."

"Then I need to tell you," Midna said, "Something or someone has closed the twilight portals around the kingdom. I can't warp you anywhere."

Link's gaze drifted over to the herd, where Epona stood as a statue as well. "Then we walk."

He started toward his house at a determined pace. Midna followed behind him as he climbed the ladder two rungs at a time. Once inside, he made his way straight to the basement as Midna headed to her stack of books, and with a flick of her wrist, warped them into the invisible space she stored objects too heavy to carry. Then she floated down to the basement, where, in the dim light, she saw Link open a small chest in the corner.

He removed his shirt, then pulled a thick cotton shirt from the chest, pulling it on. It fell somewhat past his wasted, but this was the proper fit. Next, he removed his pants and pulled out a set of white cotton pants, suitable for his fast-paced, flexible style of fighting. After pulling them on, he reached into the chest again and came up with a shirt of chain mail. He slid it on over his head, adjusting it at the shoulders to make sure it was comfortable. Nothing like some metal chains wrinkling up just where you can't stand them.

Reaching into the chest once more brought out the famous green tunic of the hero of old. Link slipped it on, tightening strings woven into the sleeves and waist to ensure the chain mail would stay in place beneath it. He tightened his own belt around it, causing the part of the shirt, mail, and tunic that fell past his waist to flair out a tiny bit.

Next came the baldric. Midna realized as he pulled it out that the sheath they had found along with the Master Sword was still attached. The dark blue sheath with inlaid gold across the length of it was a fetching sight as any. But it was empty. The Master Sword was at the bottom of Kakariko Gorge, along with Ganondorf's corpse.

Link looked at it for a moment, then set it aside, reaching up to the wall, where a sword made for him by Rusl, the village swordsman and smith had made for him. He hung its baldric across his should, situating the sword's hilt at his left shoulder. He reached up and pulled it partway from the sheath, then pushed it home, making sure it was free in the sheath for a quick draw if needed.

Link reached into chest once more, and pulled out the green cap that matched the tunic, and stuck it on his head. He then pulled a shield, overlaid with blue steel and the three golden triangles that were the symbol of the royal family. There were two straps on the back side, intended for one to be held by his shield and, while the second fell about midway up his arm to steady it. He slipped one over his right shoulder, setting the shield over the sword to hold it in place.

He turned to Midna. "Well? How do I look?"

Midna shrugged her shoulders and managed a small smile, "Like a hero."

Link pulled a traveling pack from somewhere in the dark, "Well, I don't feel like one right now. Let's see, what do I have left..."

Link made a point of keeping traveling provisions ready, considering how well they kept, and he never knew when he'd need them. He dumped a few hardtack biscuits into the pack. If all else failed, he could bash someone in the head with them, maybe. There was some dried fruit he could take, so he dumped a bit of it in as well.

He turned to Midna, managing a smile, "You like jerky?"

Before she could answer, he dumped three packages of goat jerky into the pack. "Oh, boy," Midna said, "I can hardly wait."

"And if you're not hungry, no worries, because it'll keep and keep and keep," Link said, adding a coil of rope on top of the food, then casting about for anything else that he should take.

After a moment, he added a box with some flint and kindling, and a small bag of rupees, though he doubted he'd do much spending right now. After another moment of thought, he picked up the baldric with the Master Sword's sheath, and tightened it around the pack. "You ready? I want to drop by Kakariko Gorge on the way."

Midna floated up the stairs ahead of him, "You thinking what I think you are?"

Link shouldered the pack, reaching for the door, "Let's say I have my suspicions. I hope to the gods, I'm wrong."

"Here, let me handle that," Midna said, her luminous hand reaching from her mask for the pack.

"Thanks," Link said, holding it out.

The red hand scooped of the pack, and drug it off to whatever invisible storage place she had.

They stepped back out into the rain when Link remembered, "Oh, shit, the piece of the mirror. We can't leaving it here unguarded."

"Where did you store it?"

"Like I said," Link said, walking toward the river, "The deepest, darkest place I could find."

He stopped at the deepest part of the river. While not Lake Hylia, it was certainly a strain on the lungs to reach the mirror's hiding place. Link dropped his shield to the ground, then unshouldered the baldric, dropping the sword next to it. "Wait here," he said, then dove into the water.

Link was no zora, but he was an adequate swimmer. The river was no more than fifteen feet deep here, but he had discovered an underwater tunnel of sorts a while back, which he headed for now. The tunnel itself was nearly at the bottom, and headed straight away from the village for a distance. About thirty feet in, it widened into a small cave, filled with air. Link emerged into this cave, gasping for breath as he came up. He hated making this swim. Always felt like his lungs would burst before he made it in, but he had to check on the mirror every so often, if for no other reason than to convince himself no one had found the cave yet.

Link pulled himself onto the rock ledge inside, fumbling for the lantern he'd left in here. Finding hit, he struck the lighting mechanism and it flared into life, filling the cave with light. And the small raised ledge at the far end was where the mirror lay.

Or where it should have. The ledge was empty. "What!" Link rushed to the far end of the room, but he already knew. The mirror was gone. There was a depression in the dust on the ledge where it used to lay.

"Looking for this?"

Link spun about, seeking the source of the voice. Leaning against the wall at the far end was a person, but in the dim light, it was impossible to make out his features. But it was clear that he held out one hand, and floating in the air just inches above it was the fragment of the Twilight Mirror.

"Give it to me," Link said, the threat in his voice clear.

"Ooh! I'd heard you were a vicious one!" the figure said, with amusement in his voice rather than fear, "Sounds like you want to tear my throat out already! That kind of attitude isn't going to get you anywhere, friend."

Link took a slow step forward. "Are you the one responsible for what happened to my village?"

"Who, me? Naw," he said, twirling one finger, causing the mirror fragment to spin on its edge, "Though that is a slick maneuver, I must say. Best way to draw out the wolf among the sheep is to remove the sheep, I suppose."

"Someone wants to draw me out? What for?"

The figure turned his head away from Link, "Some stick in her bum about seeing you perform, or something. Didn't really pay attention."

"Who is it, then?" Link said, taking another slow step forward. If he could just get close enough to snag the mirror.

But at that instant, the mirror fragment suddenly started shrinking and fell into the figure's hand, which snapped into a fist around it. "Now, now, that would spoil all the fun. You'll find out in due time. When she's ready. In the mean time, she doesn't want you wandering off to other dimensions, so I'll just be taking this mirror with me."

"Like hell you will!" Link lunged forward, aiming to tackle the dark figure. The figure slipped back and through the rock wall. Link crashed into the stone, turning his face to avoid breaking his nose, but the lamp crashed against the rock, breaking and spilling its oil across the floor.

He picked himself up, looking around. That man had just stepped through a solid stone wall.

_Okay, so I haven't seen it all yet,_ Link thought, _But with that mirror fragment gone, that means the only one left is the one in Zelda's possession! We have to get there before he does._

Link made up his mind and dove into the water, swimming for all he was worth back up the tunnel.

When he broke the surface of the river, the first thing he did was shout to Midna. After pulling himself onto the bank, he quickly shouldered his sword and shield. "We have to get going," he said, "Somebody was down there when I got in. He took the mirror."

"What?!" Midna grabbed Link's tunic at his chest, "Do you know what that means? Don't you realize that mirror is my only way home?!"

Link started walking. "We'll get it back. Right now, getting the other piece in our hands is more important. That guy walked through a wall, Midna. What's to keep him from walking right into one of the vaults beneath the castle?"

"Oh, damn," Midna muttered, turning away from Link, "But no being of this world can do that, right? I thought only Twili could, and then it's only in this world, not our own realm. I have to really concentrate when I do it, anyway, so it's not really worth the effort. Was he a Twili?"

"It was dark, but he looked human enough to me," Link said, "Chances are he intends to use the mirror for something. Could want into the Twilight Realm, which could be bad all around."

They were entering Faron Forest, outside the village, which was the only way into the rest of Hyrule. The dark magic had come from this direction, and sure enough every tree, plant and animal around was petrified.

Midna settled herself into a sitting position on Link's right shoulder. She remembered last time a being who didn't belong was sent to the Twilight Realm. Ganondorf, after his capture two hundred years ago, had been cast into the Twilight Realm after the sages' failed attempt to execute him. Though weak upon his arrival, Ganondorf massed his strength, and channeled it through Zant, a power hungry Twili, and willing vessel for the dark man's soul.

Ganondorf, though Zant, had then sought to merge the Twilight Realm and Hyrule, to conquer both. It was through this method that he managed to slip back into Hyrule while they were bonded. Now, with the two realms separated as they should once again, such passage was impossible.

It was true that the original Twili were originally dark beings of power that were cast into the Twilight Realm so Hyrule could be done with them, but that had been several thousand years before. Ganondorf was the first cast through the gateway in nearly one thousand, five hundred years. The original Twili were all long dead, and their descendants, other than Zant, had accepted their lives and were peaceful.

_Add water and stir and boom, instant catastrophe,_ Midna thought.

Link stepped over a petrified hedgehog. "And what's more, this guy seems to be working for someone. Said she wants to see me perform, whatever that means. Apparently, she thinks I'm a circus animal. But I believe _she_ is responsible for what happened back there."

_So it's a she_, Midna thought, _That eliminates that likelihood._

"Do you still want to go by Kakariko Gorge, then?" Midna asked.

"No time now," Link said, "We go straight to the castle. That mirror fragment comes first. If they're even missing one piece, that mirror will be just as useless to them as it is to us."

"Well then, might I suggest a slightly faster mode of travel?"

Link glanced up to see her holding out the glowing red crystal that Zant had buried in Link's forehead long ago. It had prevented him from reverting from his wolf form even with the aid of the light spirits. But after Link had used the Master Sword to drive it from his body, Midna had held onto it, and they could use its power to switch forms whenever he pleased.

"Do it."

The red crystal began to glow, and Link felt the familiar tingling all over his body. With a sudden jerk, his knees reversed direction, causing him to fall forward onto all fours. Fur sprouted from his flesh as the bones in his face changed shape and rearranged themselves, elongating into a snout, and his teeth grew in length and sharpness.

His thumbs pulled themselves under and moved back and to the inside of his hands before they and his other fingers shriveled into practically nothing, while his nails grew longer, tougher and sharper. Then there was the sickening feeling as his rib cage moved to the sides and his internal organs rearranged themselves.

In a moment, it was all over. Link shook his head, pricking up his ears to listen. Everything was clearer when he became a wolf. He could hear a pin drop in a crowded noisy room, and he could follow a scent trail for miles. His night vision also improved greatly, allowing him to see as though it were nearly daylight.

But now, he heard nothing. There was a faint whisper of the wind, but there were no rustling leaves, no singing birds, nothing.

It was far too quiet.

Midna landed on his back with a thump that startled him. He looked back over his shoulder with a soft growl. He hated when she did that. "Right, let's get going!" she said, "Full speed ahead!"

Link leaped forward, reaching his full speed quickly. He could outrun any human easily, and keep up with many horses. He wasn't likely to beat his own Epona in a race, but this was the next best thing. Trees whipped by quickly, and he had eaten up the first mile in mere moments.

He couldn't run flat out like this for long, maybe an hour or so, but he could cover ground like mad while he did. They were already nearing the edge of the forest. The rain showed no sign of easing up, but that would hardly slow him down. Mud was no trouble.

They burst from the edge of the trees into the main field, the half-finished castle visible against the horizon in the distance.

"Oh no," Midna said as Link skidded to a stop.

As far as the eye could see, grey blades of grass and grey trees that dotted the landscape. The dark magic had not been confined to Ordon.

All of Hyrule had fallen silent.


	4. Chapter 3

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

NOTE: It took 45 minutes to think up the title to this chapter. Yes, I suck.

**Chapter 3: Voice in the Quiet**

It had been almost an hour since they had left Faron Forest, and the rain showed no sign of stopping. Midna clung to Link's back, gripping the fur behind his shoulders to hold on as his paws pounded across the ground relentlessly. She was soaked, and cold, and knew Link had to be tiring, but made no effort to stop him. They had come to the same conclusion. If the power he possessed had protected him from the magic, then the princess must be okay as well. Even if she wasn't, the fragment of the mirror in her care must be located before the uninvited guest found it as well.

Link ran flat out for miles, now he was panting heavily, and had stumbled twice, but showed no signs of slowing. Midna tried to be optimistic, to believe Zelda would know what to do, but was having a difficult time. The princess was an adequate sorceress, and a good ruler of the kingdom, but this was a dark magic, the likes of which the world had never seen.

Or if it had, it had been so long that the records were lost to the mists of legend.

Midna blinked rainwater from her eyes, when she realized Link was at last slowing. The countryside slowed in its passing, then she cried out as it suddenly flipped over and over. Link had misplaced a step, sending them rolling across the dirt, to land in a muddy heap.

"Okay, that's enough for now," Midna said, producing the dark red crystal.

Link was struggling to his feet, then went further and realized he was standing on two legs again. He glanced down to see his clothing and hairless hands. His fatigue had carried through, though, as he took great whooshing breaths of air. "Why did you do that?"

"Because," Midna said, floating up to his face, "You are about to collapse. You've run yourself ragged, and we're both going to sit here until you've caught your breath. Then, we'll start again, but at a more sane pace, so that we can make it without you killing yourself."

"So we'll sit out here and catch cold, then," Link snapped.

His temper evidently wasn't in the best condition either. Midna turned about, looking for a good place to shelter from the rain. A small grove of trees was visible just a short walk away. Well, if it was the best option.

"Come on," she said, her tone almost as irritable as his, "There might even be enough dry wood left to start a fire."

As luck would have it, due to the trees being entirely stone, including the leaves, all the water that passed through the branches fell in perfectly set, unchanging streams to the ground, leaving a dry area near the trunk. At Midna's gesturing, Link sat with his back to the trunk. His breathing had eased, but he was still quite winded.

"We'll stay here until I think you're ready to go again," Midna said, her tone silencing any argument, "You won't do anyone any good if you run yourself to death in the rain."

Link took a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh, "Sorry. You're right. Won't do any good to die from fatigue on the castle's doorstep."

Midna shook herself, throwing water from her fur, "Absolutely right. Besides, we still haven't eaten, remember? Would you like some dried goat meat, some dried goat meat, or some dried goat meat?"

"Oh, I'll take the stuffed pigeon in the sauce," Link said, smiling, "None of the cheap stuff, please."

Midna produced one of the packages of jerky and a pair of dried apples as she settled to the ground next to him, passing one of the fruits to him, along with the package of meat. At least she'd managed to get a smile from him. "I'm really missing that stew you promised earlier," she said.

"Me, too," he said, opening the meat and selecting a piece, "You'd think disasters would kindly wait until everyone has a full stomach before occurring. Be nice, wouldn't it?"

"I'd prefer it if they'd just wait until we were ready," Midna replied, "'Sorry, we're busy right now, come back next year!'"

Link chuckled as he chewed a bite of the tough meat. He swallowed, then reached for the apple, "Yeah, get all the disasters to take a number, we'll get to you as soon as we can."

Midna chewed thoughtfully on her bite of apple, watching the rivulets of water falling through the tree branches. "Link," she said at last, "Do you think Ganondorf could have a hand in this?"

"I don't think so," he said, "I stabbed him clean through, then tossed him off a cliff. He's dead. Why?"

"You were in such a hurry to check the gorge, before the mirror was stolen, and I'm thinking about something I saw while skimming through one of my books," she tapped her chin thoughtfully, "I can't remember exactly. Let me get the book."

With a puff of smoke, a large, heavy book appeared before her. The title was _The Ballad of the Hero of Time_. "I didn't read it yet, but I looked through it to see if there was anything interesting," she opened it before her and started flipping through the pages, "This one deals mainly with the legend surrounding the Imprisoning War, as it's called, so it's not just a dry history of events like the other one I was reading."

Link glanced down at the pages as they flipped by, noticing many were illustrated with images of various monsters, or obscure symbols he didn't recognize. Midna stopped on one page with an illustration of the three golden triangles that were the symbol of the royal family. "Here it is!" she said triumphantly, "The Triforce, left behind by the three goddesses upon their departure from Hyrule. While it is but one of the ancient powers, it stands among the most powerful of them. There are three pieces to the complete Triforce, or True Force as it is sometimes called. These pieces are the Triforce of Power, the Triforce of Wisdom, and the Triforce of Courage, each representing one of the three scales by which a mortal's heart is balanced. When a person with a heart in which all three scales are in perfect balance claims the Triforce, incredible power is granted to him, and he is free to use it as he sees fit.

"However, when one who's heart is not in balance claims the Triforce, it will divide, leaving him with only the piece representing what he most believes in. The other two pieces will be given to those chosen by the gods to be his balance. When the three of these beings are together, they make one complete, balanced whole. However, it is assumed that at least one will desire the True Force solely for himself, and will attempt to claim it from the others.

"The only known being to have successfully claimed the Triforce was the king of the Gerudo desert people known as Ganon. He has had other names, Ganondorf Dragmire, Mandrag Ganon, but the name he is best known by is Ganon, the king of evil. When he claimed the Triforce, the legend came true, and it was divided, leaving only the Triforce of Power for him. His greed insatiable, he began a search for the others who would hold the final pieces, so he may take them back."

Link glanced at the symbol on his left hand, which still glowed faintly. So, this was one of those pieces, like the villain had claimed. Midna turned a page and continued, "It was long believed that the Triforce granted wishes to those who claimed it. In a sense, this was true, as if one desired something, and possessed a piece of the Triforce, it would do all it could to see it true. It is believed Ganon made several wishes in this method. The first wish he made was to live forever."

"There's a guy with his priorities straight," Link commented.

Midna didn't answer, but continued reading, "The Triforce granted Ganon eternal youth, and greatly enhanced his body's durability, making him extraordinarily hard to kill. There were several times since that he was believed to be dead, yet managed to bring himself back."

Link put his hand on the page, blocking her from reading more, "Wait just a second. You're saying he can come back from the dead?"

"Are you sure he was even dead in the first place?" Midna asked, "I've seen people myself come back from so close to death that I was sure they were goners. It could be the times he was believed to be dead, he was close, so close that perhaps his heartbeat was so faint and breathing so shallow that he genuinely appeared dead, but brought himself back."

Link leaned his head back against the tree. Shit, that's bad. Now, a trip to the gorge may be warranted after the castle after all. _But this doesn't feel the same as last time_, he thought, _Ganondorf would try a takeover, not something like this. He wants to rule the world, what's the point if it's a world of statues?_ _Besides, that person who had taken the mirror had said it was a 'she' who did this. Well, he could be lying, but I doubt Ganondorf would bother to masquerade as a woman._

In any case, it didn't alter their course of action. "Let's get going," Link said, standing up.

Midna floated up, eyeing him closely. His breathing was normal and didn't seem about to collapse like before. "All right, but I won't let you push yourself like that again."

"We'll go for about forty-five minutes, then find someplace to rest until morning," Link said, "I bet we can make the castle town by noon tomorrow."

A three day journey in about eighteen hours. _Beat that, mailman,_ Link thought.

After a few seconds for Midna to transform him, they charged back out into the rain. On the horizon, the castle seemed no closer than before, but Midna knew they were closing in rapidly.

* * *

She could feel him moving beneath her. Feel his strong muscles as they moved like fluid under her body. She clung desperately to his hair, rain pouring down on them, landscape whipping by so quickly, she had long lost sense of direction.

"Hurry..." was all she could manage to say, "Hurry to... Princess Zelda..."

The light of the world was burning her. She could feel her skin burning in spite of the wetness of her fur clinging to her. Each breath she took sent a wave of pain through her body. Every heartbeat felt like it would be her last.

Then she heard a faint sound, so close but barely audible. His claws were clicking on stone as he hurtled down a city street, deaf to the cries of fear of the people as they leaped clear of the massive wolf tearing through their midst.

They just might make it after all...

Midna woke to the sun on her face. She blinked, the bright light paining her eyes so early in the morning. She lay with her head against Link's side as he curling about, his nose and tail nearly touching just past her feet.

They had found a small outcropping of rock that sheltered them from the rain the night before when they stopped for the night. There wasn't much room under it, so Link had opted to sleep in his wolf form, as it took up less space.

Now, the sun rose in the east, shining directly into their hiding place. Midna stretched her arms upward, yawning loudly.

Link opened one eye, swishing his tail. He tried to decide if he wanted more of the jerky that had made a fast meal of before sleep last night. He was already close to deciding he'd rather starve. At that moment, Midna conjured up one of the bags of it, and took the last pieces from it. Taking a bite from one herself, she held the other near his nose.

Link snapped at it, Midna jerking her hand away in fear for her fingers. "Hey! Watch it, fang boy!"

Link chewed the tough meat, making short work of it with a wolf's teeth. _Not bad like this,_ he thought, _Maybe I should always eat like this if it's traveling rations._

Once he'd finished, they left their little safe spot, and were away to the castle once more. Link settled for more of a trot this time, so that his endurance would outlast the distance.

In daylight, the effects of the dark magic looked even worse than before. Everywhere one looked, they saw the dark grey of stone staring back. Midna noted a small stone squirrel, crouched on the ground at the base of a tree. The birds had all been caught in the branches of the trees as they roosted for the night. Not even any insects were seen moving.

And the silence, the horrible silence, was overpowering. When all the natural sounds of the world fell silent, it was like death itself had swept through the land, cleansing every living thing from the face of the world.

Link's guess proved to be nearly right on the mark, as they reached the castle town just before the sun reached its zenith. A small number of Hylian soldiers were visible atop the outer city wall, caught by the spell as they made their rounds, or dozed at their posts. Inside the city, the streets were nearly empty, except for a few patrols that had been caught as they made their rounds for the night, making sure there would be no trouble at night.

There were a few civilians as well, most caught mid-stagger as they made their way home from the bar. But no matter where they looked, Link and Midna saw no sign of alarm, no panic as the people of Ordon did. "They didn't see it coming," Midna said, "It was upon them before anyone knew something was happening, so no alarm was sounded, they were just taken quietly."

Link looked back at her and cocked his head in the signal they had developed for when he wished to resume his human form. With a gesture, Midna activated the dark red crystal, and after just a moment, he was walking upright again. "The spell came from inside the city," he said, starting deliberately toward the castle gates, Midna trailing behind him.

"How are you sure?" she asked.

"Because there is no panic," he said, pointing to a group of soldiers that appeared to be conversing amongst themselves as they walked down the street, "I don't care how inept some of these soldiers are, we saw the effect of the spell coming in the dark. If it came from outside the city, _someone_ would have seen it and sounded the alarm."

They reached the city's main square, just before the castle, with its grand fountain marking the center of the city, still playing its water up and out, the only sound heard in the city. "As a matter of fact," Link said, "The best place to start a spell like that would be right here, in the center of the city. That way it spreads outward, consuming everything in its path."

Link walked closer to the fountain, his eyes running over every crevice and contour of its shape, hoping to find something that may be a clue. Midna hovered close to his shoulder, also checking over it over, though she muttered, "Since when do you know so much about magic?"

"It's not about knowing about magic," Link said, noticing a sudden red glare in the sunlight on the center pedestal in the fountain, "It's about using common sense!" he added as he climbed up into the fountain and walked to where he saw the glare.

He was rewarded with the sight of a small red gemstone wedged into a gap in the stone. Gripping it between his thumb and forefinger, he pulled it out, then held it to the light. It was about an inch in diameter, and a quarter inch thick. On one side was a black symbol, carved into the gem. It was an image of the letter S, with each end of the curved line curled around back onto itself, and a diagonal slash running from the upper right through it.

He climbed down from the fountain, shaking water from his boots, and held it for Midna to see, "You recognize that symbol?"

"No," she said, studying it carefully, "I've never seen it before. Is that the source of our magic? Awfully small, isn't it?"

Link slipped the gem into his pocket. "Sometimes the smallest things," he said, glancing at the Triforce symbol on his hand, "are the most dangerous of all. We'll show it to Zelda. Come on, if she isn't in the castle, we'll have to find some way to find her."

They made their way up the stone path to the castle gates. The wooden doors were up, though it seemed the top of the wall itself was incomplete. It was intended to be crenulated, with small barriers about a foot high and a foot apart all along it, to provide cover for defenders in the event of a siege, though at the moment it was perfectly flat along the edge.

With a mighty shove, Link forced the gate open. The gates of the castle were never locked, except in times of emergency, but their were always a pair of guards outside to prevent unwanted guests. Now, the guards watched in stony silence.

The first floor of the castle was finished, including the barracks and armory off to one side, and some stables at the far end. The keep rose in the center, though past the second floor, wood framing was visible above the stone, marking the plan for the builders to shape and place the stone, though no one attended it now. Link pushed the front door open, and stepped inside.

It was dark inside, with no torches or lamps lit. Some light made its way in through the windows, but it was not enough to light every corner. The main hall was still quite bare, with only a soft red rug covering the main area of the floor. Link had remembered great portraits of the royal family that had adorned the walls, the dull grey stone of the floor covered with a layer of polished marble, and great chandeliers that had filled the hall with light. Such trivialities were likely discarded as unimportant at the moment, waiting for later.

It seemed they had changed the floor plan, however, as there were a total of three doors within the hall, a great set of double doors heading north, one side door heading east, and a third heading northeast. To the west was where the barracks and armory had been, so apparently there was no direct connection to the castle from there.

"Princess!" Link called, his voice echoing through the hall, "It's Link! Are you here?"

They waited a moment as the echo of his voice died away. Midna put one hand on his shoulder as she floated close, "If she did leave, where would she have gone?"

"Not a clue," Link replied, starting for the double-doors, "We might have missed her as we were rushing here, if she came looking for us."

Then a small sound caught Link's ear. He heard the stretch of a bowstring being drawn tight. "Don't move," he said to Midna, "Princess! Don't shoot! It's just us!"

A light appeared above them. On a small balcony was a lantern, sitting next the Princess Zelda, who was holding her black bow with golden designs. The light was dim, but Link could see she wasn't wearing one of her royal gowns, but seemed to have chosen a set of dark blue pants, and a white cotton shirt, over which she wore a vest of chain mail, secured at her waste by a wide belt. Her brown hair was also in disarray, giving her a half-crazy look.

She turned up the light in the lantern, so it fell across them. Link blinked at the sudden light in his eyes. "Oh, thank the gods," Zelda said once the light had fallen across them, "I had hoped you would show up soon. Head through those doors and up the stairs," she said, indicating the double doors before them, "We need to talk."

She turned and disappeared from the balcony. Link pushed open one of the double doors. It opened into an empty hallway, some distance down stairs appeared on the right side, a few workers evidently on their way to bed when the spell hit. Link and Midna made their way up to enter a large, open room, where Zelda waited at the far side, her lantern still brightly lit. "I'm glad you're safe, Link," Zelda said as he and Midna approached, "You too, Midna."

"Please say you have some idea of what's going on," Link said.

Zelda turned, walking through an open door behind her, indicating they should follow. "Probably no more than you," she said, "It happened last night, just after sundown. Since you're here, I assume it reached as far as Ordon?"

"Probably further," Link said, pulling the red gemstone from his pocket, "Here, I found this in the city fountain. I think it's got something to do with everything."

Zelda took the gem, rolling it over in her fingers, and studying the symbol intently. "I haven't seen this symbol before. The gem itself is a blood ruby. It's a stone used to store a one-shot magic spell, which can then be easily transported, and even activated by someone without skill in magic. This one has been discharged, or the symbol engraved on it would be a dark blue, not black. This is likely the source of our spell."

They entered a small chamber that had evidently passed as a study and bedroom for Zelda. A white-sheeted single bed was against the far wall, and a single wooden table sat in the center of the room, with four seats around it. Blueprints of the castle lay scattered about the floor, evidently thrust aside in a hurry, and a large stack of books lay on the table, one open to a page about halfway through, and a few others tossed aside to one end of the table or onto the floor.

Link hadn't realized just how sparse Zelda had been living. He just always imagined her room would be huge, with a bed the size of his house, and curtains all about it, and everything else he'd assumed royalty would have. Apparently, she had decided that other things came first. "What have you been doing?" he asked as she sat the gem on the table and turned to the stack of books.

"Trying to figure out what the hell happened to my kingdom," she said, "Most of these books are useless, but I've found a few that might be useful."

Midna checked the open book on the table, lifting up one side just enough to read the title, "The Silent Kingdom?"

"That one's mainly legend," Zelda said, picking a second, titled _Forbidden Magicks of Olde._ "It goes on about an ancient kingdom of beings of untold magical power, within which all the inhabitants were turned to stone. It mentions that the greatest magicians of their time found a way to reverse it, but it doesn't mention the slightest hint as to how they did it."

"This isn't our only worry," Link said, "Where is your fragment of the Twilight Mirror?"

Zelda looked at him over the top of the book. "It's in a secure vault in the basement. Why?"

"Someone took the piece I had," Link said, "He walked right into the place through the wall and left the same way. He also talked like he's working for whoever released the spell that petrified everyone."

"Walked in through the wall," Zelda said, glancing toward Midna, "Is he a Twili?"

"I don't believe so," Midna said, "Link described him has having a human appearance, though it was dark, and for a Twili to move through a wall requires intense concentration and effort. Even then, I wouldn't do it myself unless the wall was fairly thin. Link said he disappeared through the rock."

"So we've got no guarantee he won't walk right into the vault beneath the castle," Link said, "The only safe place for that fragment is with us."

Zelda lay the book down and reached for the lantern. "All right. Follow me."

She led them back down the first floor, then through another door deeper in the castle. They went down a flight of stairs into the basement, then she led them through a long series of stone corridors. After just a few minutes, Link was certain they were going in circles, and then they suddenly came upon a dead end. In the light of the lantern, Link could make out a Triforce engraving upon the wall.

"This vault has been here since long before our time," Zelda said, "And can only be opened by a member of the royal family. While we're inside, I must ask you not to touch anything. There are a large number of items of power inside, many of them very dangerous."

Link nodded, then watched as she placed her free hand over the symbol. A soft yellow glow grew under her fingers, then she pulled her hand away. The symbol on the wall was glowing. A moment later, with a heavy grinding, the wall began to rise upward. The floor shook as the massive stone block grated upward, flakes of dirt falling from the roof and walls.

It took several minutes for the massive door to complete its rise. Then Zelda led them down a short tunnel on the other side. The tunnel opened into a large, brightly lit chamber. Well, Zelda had said not to touch, but no harm in looking, Link supposed. The chamber was filled with weapons and armor of various sizes and shapes, there were large tables where rings, bracelets, and necklaces were laid out, each one with a clear label with a number, bookshelves filled with books with titles Link had never seen, such as _Demons, Devils, and Their Kin,_ _Destruction of the Old Gods, and The Harrowing,_ just to name a few.

One item caught Link's eye as they walked to the far end of the chamber. "What's this?" he asked, gesturing to a sword laid a distance from the rest of the weapons. The blade was about the size of a normal longsword, but was jet black in color, as was the hilt, and large forward-pointed spikes rose from the pommal, where a dark blue gem was seated into it. Its sheath lay next to it, also black in color, with red spiral designs woven directly into the outer casing.

Zelda looked back at it. "That is Black Razor, a weapon from ancient times that came across the sea to this land. I don't know who made it, or its exact origin, but it is a weapon that rivals even the Master Sword in power, and has a unique trait of drinking the blood from the injuries it causes to heal its wielder. The blade is also sentient, and the wielder must be on constant guard against its voice, lest it drive them mad, or worse, they believe its hideous promises. It is a weapon for only the most evil of beings."

Zelda stopped at a small chest set underneath one of the tables littered with rings. She knelt down and pulled it out, then opened the lid. Inside was the fragment of the mirror, still wrapped in the fabric torn from her gown a year ago. "Still here," she said, lifting it from the chest, "Now, what do you plan to do with it?"

"Let me hold on to it," Midna said, the red, luminous hand extending from her mask, "After all, it is technically my responsibility."

The red hand grasped the mirror fragment, then quickly whisked it away to wherever she stored such things. "Okay," Link said, "That takes care of the first order of business. While we have at least this one fragment, we can at least keep our enemies out of the Twilight Realm, which keeps it safe. So now we need to find a way to reverse the spell, and get rid of the ones responsible."

"You make it sound so simple," Zelda said starting for the entrance to the vault, "We still have no idea what spell was used in the first place."

Link caught her shoulder and made her stop. Sure enough, he hadn't seen it in the dark of the castle. "Princess, those rings make it look like you haven't slept in days."

Zelda pulled away from him. "I was up all night last night, trying to find out what happened. Big deal."

"And before that?"

Zelda sighed. "There's so much to do, sleep just didn't seem important enough. Besides, you said you'd gone four days without sleep and managed to kill Ganondorf. No easy feat even if you were rested."

"You don't have Link's constitution," Midna said, "You need to rest. He and I will search through those books to see if we can find any information."

"There's no time!" Zelda said, starting toward the door again.

Link fell into step beside her. "You won't get anything done if you collapse. We'll handle things, and you are going to get some sleep if I have to knock you over the head to do it."

Zelda smiled softly. "You win. Just let me close the vault before you do."

A few minutes later, Zelda was safely in her bed, asleep withing seconds, and Link and Midna went to work with the large stack of books yet left unread.

_It's going to be a long day,_ Link thought, opening _The Silent Kingdom._

Some ways from them, in another part of the castle, a shadow moved silently through the halls. They were not alone...


	5. Chapter 4

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 4: The Uninvited Guest**

Link yawned. The sun had set, and they still were not sure what they were dealing with. _The Silent Kingdom_ had turned out to be an ancient legend of a city far off across the sea, before the fall of the ancient civilization that had created the forbidden magics. It seemed that everyone in the city had been turned to stone, sure enough, but there was no clue as to how to reverse it, other than one of the last of the ancient wizards had concocted a counter-spell, and used it to save the innocent lives within. Unfortunately, there was no mention of the counter-spell's name or method of casting.

Midna had been deeply absorbed in _Forbidden Magicks of Olde_, sometimes telling Link her findings on ancient magics, some he'd heard legends of, some that were new to him, but most were terrible in their effect. One she mentioned was something called "The Fingernail of the Accused," a dark magic that bound the victim to the caster's will. Should the victim of the spell betray the caster, the spell would activate, and spread a poison that rotted the victim from within, their bones crumbling to dust and internal organs dissolving as though placed in acid.

It sounded like a damn painful way to go, Link figured. The victim of the spell was marked with a blue fingernail on their right index finger, and as their heart swayed from their master, it would gradually turn purple, then red. The poison would take effect when the nail turned purest crimson, and then the person had about ten minutes to live. There was but one way to reverse it, said the book, and that was to wet the nail in the blood from the still-beating heart of the one the nail was used to force betrayal.

So, essentially, you could either kill your old friend, that you had no choice but to fight now, by cutting his heart from his chest and using the blood to save yourself, or you could die by the effect of the nail. _Efficient,_ Link had thought, _One way or another, someone the caster of the spell didn't like would die._

Another she brought up, named as "The Harrowing," was a destructive magic spell with enough force to level a city. It could also be used to wipe out an advancing army, or topple a mountain. Yet another, named "Venom," was a truly dark magic that literally flayed the victim's flesh from his bones, then melted him into a pool of thick red fluid, resembling blood but not exactly the same.

It was just as well the book did not list any method of casting any of the spells. If it had, and the book had fallen into unscrupulous hands...

Link glanced over at Midna. She had been seated upon the table as she read, but now was laying forward across an open book, snoring softly. Zelda had awoken for a time earlier, just long enough to show him where the larder was for Link to get some food that wasn't fit for years of storage. They'd settled for a meal of bread and cheese, augmented by a bit of the fruit Link had brought, and then Zelda returned to her bed at Link's urging. She'd feel much better in the morning.

Link shut the book, convinced of only one thing, that the Silent Kingdom had been in a land across the sea to the west. _Long trip just to reach the coast,_ he thought, _Have to cross half of Hyrule, then the desert, and then whatever else there is between it and the nearest port town._

Zelda wouldn't want to leave Hyrule, of that he was certain. But the fact that there was no one here who could possibly help them, and the fact that he'd seen more than one ancient legend become undeniable reality, he glanced at the softly glowing symbol on his hand, it was likely that their best chance lay across the sea.

Link stood up, rolling his neck about, wincing at the pop, then decided he'd likely just spread a blanket on the floor to get some sleep when he suddenly stopped. Something was wrong.

He could feel it through his feet. A very soft shaking coming up through the floor. It was so faint, had he been any closer to sleep, he'd have missed it. He quickly snatched up his sword and dashed from the small room into the hall, heading for the vault.

It was foolish, he thought as he descended into the dark, winding tunnels, hoping he could find his way back. He should have woken the other two before going down there. No time now, as he dashed headlong through the tunnels, the shaking ceased, but he was utterly convinced of what he'd heard.

Just when he started to think he'd made a wrong turn, he came upon the vault. Sure enough, it was open wide, and brightly lit within. Someone had lit the torches on either side of the door, and the pair further in as well. He could see a woman sifting though one of the tables of rings and other jewelry. He drew his sword from the scabbard, the scraping metal echoing down the dark hall.

The woman turned to face him. It was Zelda. "Link? What are you doing down here?"

Link took one step forward, careful to stand so he could move to either side quickly. "I think the better question is, what are you doing here when I'm positive you were asleep upstairs?"

"You must have been mistaken," Zelda said, turning from him back to the rings, "Since I am clearly here, not there."

Link lifted his sword, pointing it toward her, "Touch even one of those, and I'll take your hand off."

Zelda turned her head toward him, her lip curled upward in irritation, "What has gotten into you? This is _my_ vault, Link. I know what I'm doing!"

Link took two steps forward, so his sword was but a few inches from her. "I'm dead serious. Just come with me and we'll pay a visit to the study. If you're not still there, in bed where I left you, then I'll believe you. Until then, step away from the rings."

She took a step back, slowly, before turning to face him, eyeing the length of the blade pointed at her chest. "Link, it's me. There's no one else even alive in Hyrule right now. Who else would it be? And then who would have the magic to make an illusion as real as this?"

Look looked her over from head to toe. Every bit of her was exactly like the last time he'd seen her, sure enough. Yet whenever he looked into her eyes, behind the depths of knowledge and kindness he'd seen there, there was something else.

"You tell me," Link said, "Who would have the magic to make such a convincing illusion?"

"Well," she said, "Other than Ganondorf himself, no one. There are no other magicians of such calabur in Hyrule, and he is dead. You know this."

"So you must not be from Hyrule, then," Link said, moving a step closer, so the swordpoint was but an inch from her throat, "You're from somewhere across the sea, aren't you? You're some creature that we've only heard legends of, that can take the form of any being with but the smallest sample of them. What does it take? A drop of blood? A strand of hair? A clipping from a fingernail? Or is it something else?"

Zelda sighed, "Link, now you really are just grabbing things out of thin air. You might have a fever, after traveling in that rain, and it's making you delirious. Come on, we'll just take you to bed..."

She stopped when Link pushed the point of his sword against her chin with just enough pressure to let her know it was there, but not enough to break the skin. "Link," she said gently, "This has gone far enough. Put the sword down."

"You know of the creature I speak, don't you?" Link said, "You've heard of it before."

Zelda shut her eyes with a sigh, "It is called a doppleganger. It mimics its victim perfectly in appearance and voice, and is nearly impossible to spot one out from ordinary humans without some form of divination or physical evidence, such as seeing it resume its natural state, as they often do in private. They could likely exist within society completely unnoticed if not for their taste for human flesh. Many could be arrested and executed as cannibals, no one actually knowing their true nature at all."

"You know an awful lot about them, don't you?" Link said, only slightly easing the pressure from her chin.

"I've been reading a lot of ancient legends lately," she said, "You know that."

"You left out the part about how dogs can sniff them out," Link said, a half-smile creeping onto his face, "Something even Zelda doesn't know is about my heightened senses, even when not in wolf form."

Her eyes widened for a moment as he said that, but quickly returned to their calm look. Link wouldn't have seen it if he weren't looking for it. Link continued, "They aren't nearly as strong as when I am in my wolf form, but they are still there. And you see, you don't smell like the princess."

"I haven't bathed in two days," Zelda said, "Of course I wouldn't smell like I normally do, even if what you claim is true.

"Ah, I suppose that could be it," Link said, nodding, "But if I recall, there was one other way to tell. The book I was just reading detailed how a doppleganger infestation was discovered within the city, working as spies prior the city's 'silencing,' and went into detail about how one was discovered because of a scraped elbow. Dopplegangers have a different color blood than humans. So here, put one finger along the edge of this blade. It's quite sharp, so don't push too hard. All I need to see is that red line appear and I'll let you go, and apologize, and beg for forgiveness if that's what you want."

Zelda glared at him, her irritation quite apparent. "Link, just put the sword down. I am the princess of Hyrule and command you to do so. As my subject, you cannot disobey."

"I'm losing patience," Link said, "Either cut your finger on the sword, or I'll find out my own way, and it will likely be as the blood spurts from the hole where your neck used to be."

And then it happened. She moved so quickly, literally bending over backwards, her hands landing on the floor and her feet flying upward, one landing a good blow on his sword hand, causing a curse from him and sending the blade clattering to the floor. Without stopping, she caught both her feet on either side of his neck and continued upward, sending him flying over her to crash onto a table holding numerous magical amulets, breaking it in two, magical items flying everywhere as she regained her feet.

Link wasn't down long, snatching the first thing within reach, a spear from a rack next to him, and leaping to his feet. The Zelda look-alike was down on all fours, moving sideways in a crab-like manner, her arms and legs bent at impossible angles as her chest nearly scraped the floor.

Link hurled the spear at her, with the pleasing sight of it bursting into blue flame as it left his hands, its magic activated. Zelda leaped upward, the spear hitting the floor where she had been with a small explosion, forcing Link back a step as amulets and stone flakes flew every direction. A second later, the light of the explosion died, leaving a two foot wide black scorch across the floor.

Link looked about, trying to locate her, then looked up and saw her clinging to the ceiling. Her hands and feet stuck to the dark stone like a spider, and as he watched, her head turned completely about to looked down at him, and she opened her mouth and hissed.

"Don't need a sword, I need an exorcist!" Link said, looking about for another weapon, then snatched a halberd from a broken rack, "Let's see what this one does."

The moment his hands grasped the haft, the head of the halberd burst into flames. The Zelda look-alike hissed, scuttling sideways across the ceiling. Link gripped it low on the haft, for maximum reach, and swung at her. He fell short of reach by mere inches, but the smell of burnt hair was clear as it caught her loose-hangings.

Before he could ready for another try, she leaped downward, crashing into him, knocking him from his feet. The halberd fell from his grip as he swung a fist, catching her on the side of the head. Her neck bent sideways in a disturbing manner, but she didn't slow down, jerking him back to his feet and moving behind him with incredible speed. The next thing he knew, her legs were wrapped about his waste, and one arm was jammed around his neck, squeezing tightly.

Link gripped the elbow pulling with all his strength, but it wasn't budging. Her strength was far beyond a normal human's. Link stepped backward, and slammed her into a rack of spears, then through it into the stone wall. He took a step forward, then slammed back again as hard as he could. A grunt of pain was heard from her, but her grip didn't loosen. Link took two steps forward, then slammed back once more. This time the grip on his neck loosened. His lungs screaming for air, Link spun about, a full turn, and slammed her sideways into the wall, and by not stopping his spin, dislodged her from his neck.

But her legs still gripped his waste tightly, and now he found himself face to face with an angry creature, who immediately tried to bite his face. Link caught her throat with both hands, holding her back, then spun about again, slamming her head directly into the wall.

She collapsed. Her grip around his waste loosened, and she fell to the floor, where she lay still. Link immediately snatched up the nearest weapon, this time a six inch dagger with a gold, jeweled hilt.

She wasn't moving, and Link could make out a six-inch wide, two-inch deep crater on one side of her head. He was breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath. It's amazing how quickly you'll miss air once you don't have it.

Link took a step closer to her, leaning down to see if she was still breathing. He regretted this, as she suddenly lashed out with one foot, catching him in the stomach, knocking the wind he'd barely managed to regain from him. Then she was away, moving impossibly fast, and she snatched the halberd he'd lost earlier from the floor, its head lighting into flame when she scooped it up.

Deciding the dagger wasn't going to cut it, Link tucked it in his belt and grabbed the nearby haft of the first weapon he saw. It was a battle-axe with blue-glowing runes etched along its edge. The creature swung the halberd wide, Link ducking low under the swing, and he felt the heat of the flames pass by over his head. She continued the swing around and up, raising it over her head for a massive vertical swing. Link leaped sideways as the halberd crashed into the floor, the flames leaping higher for a moment. Link swung with all his strength, the heavy axe swinging down and smashing through the haft of the halberd and into the floor. The head of the halberd fell to the floor, the flames dying away as a sheet of ice spread underneath the axe's point of impact.

The Zelda look-alike tossed the broken haft away, leaping backwards to find another weapon. _Got to end this before one of us grabs something that levels the castle, _Link thought, then added, _Well, what castle there is._

She snagged a longsword with a red blade, which immediately responded by igniting in flame from hilt to tip. "Gods, what is with magic weapons and fire," Link said through gritted teeth as he dropped the axe. Too heavy to fight like that.

He snatched up his own longsword from the floor, raising it as she leaped at him. He caught the downward stroke with his blade, and could feel the heat of the flames upon his face. She pulled back and lashed out with a horizontal stroke at chest level. Link caught it with a one-handed guard, and slammed his free fist into her face, causing her to stagger back a step.

Link swung a high stroke for her head, and she bent backwards beneath the blade, and Link stepped back to avoid the kick that had gotten him earlier as she completed the roll away. As she stood, Link realized she was near the bookcases, filled with all those irreplaceable histories and references.

Realizing this, the Zelda look-alike passed her flaming sword along the spines of the books, laughing as she did so and they caught alight. "No!" Link ran forward, to attempt to stop her from lighting anymore of them, but she leaped upward, stopping on the ceiling, one hand still clutching the sword.

Link looked up to see her drop back at him, sword first. Link dropped his to the floor, and stepped sideways at the last second, catching her wrist in both hands and twisting before she reached the floor. Her hand bent sideways in a manner that would surely break her wrist, had she been human, and the sword clattered to the floor, the flames dying the moment it left her hand.

She was twisted about and slammed onto the floor with her back down, and Link was suddenly sitting on her stomach, the jeweled dagger he'd picked up held to her throat. "Enough!" she cried out, "I yield! I yield!"

Link looked up at the burning bookcases. It looked like the lot was lost. No way to put it out in time. He turned back to her, his face a mask of fury, "You've just caused me a lot of trouble. Now, I'm going to give you a chance to be helpful. Depending on how helpful you are, you might make it out of here alive. What were you doing down here?"

She took several deep breaths before answering. "I was... looking for something."

Link slammed the dagger into her right shoulder, causing her to scream out in pain as he scooped up a second from the nearby floor. Purple blood oozed around the blade. "Try again," Link said, "Be more specific. _What_ were you looking for?"

The Zelda look-alike gritted her teeth against the pain, hissing as she breathed. "A ring. A magic ring, with a purple gemstone, and red runes along the inside of the band."

Link held the second dagger to her throat, "What does it do?"

"I don't know," she said, then as Link moved the dagger to stab into her other shoulder, she suddenly shrieked, _"I don't know! _I was sent to get it! I don't know what it does!"

Link hesitated a second, "You were sent? By who?"

"She'd kill me if I said."

"I'll kill you if you don't," Link said, pushing the blade under her chin, just pricking the skin enough for a drop of purple blood to roll down the blade, "Who sent you?"

"Shaklator," came the response, "Or rather, Shaklator's lieutenant, Khall. I've never met her in person. He's a wizard across the sea to the west."

"Khall," Link muttered, remembering his own conclusion that they'd have to cross the sea. Now he had more than a hunch, but a reason. He produced the blood ruby they'd found in the fountain out in the city, "What about this? Do you know anything about this?"

She looked at it, then asked, "Is that the one from the fountain?"

When Link nodded, she continued, "I placed it there. Was told the spell would activate when it was immersed in water, so I had to be very careful to keep it dry on the way here. Khall told me I'd be protected, and then I'd be free to search for the ring. He didn't mention that you and Zelda wouldn't be affected by the spell."

Link gritted his teeth. "You're telling me, that the lives of everyone in Hyrule were considered expendable just to give you a clear way to search for this ring?"

She shook her head. "I didn't know what would happen, only what I was told to do. You don't question Khall's orders. People who do just disappear."

Link pocketed the gem again, deciding to move on to the next subject, "Okay, then. How did you get in this vault? Zelda said only the royal family could open it."

"Not exactly," the imposter said, smiling a bit, "The lock is keyed to the Triforce of Wisdom, passed down by the Hyrule royal family for thousands of years. It is a piece of one of the ancient powers of the world, and it is quite powerful, but it is not immune to manipulation. The amulet around my neck was created by Khall. I just had to be within about twenty feet of the princess when she opened the vault for it to... how to say this... learn the Triforce's power. It's not nearly as powerful as the real thing, but it is enough to open the vault."

Link reached down the front of her shirt, pulling the amber colored amulet about an inch wide from it. It was wrapped around her neck by a thin gold chain, almost imperceptible. Link tugged on it, and the chain broke. Hi stuck it in his pocket next to the blood ruby. "Alright, next... Was there anyone else with you?"

She thought a moment. "There was a man with me. Didn't see much of him. Kept to his cabin most of the way on the ship, wore a hooded cloak the rest of the time. I think his name was Zero, or something similar. We parted ways shortly after enter Hyule's sovereignty. I was told to just stay out of his way and not ask questions."

"Did you see anything of what he looked like?"

"Well, like I said, he wore a hooded cloak, kept his face fairly well hidden. I think he was about your height and build, and... oh! I think he's blind in his left eye. The couple of times I got a little look at him, it was completely white."

_About my height and build,_ Link thought, _Well, the guy in the cave had looked about my size, from what I could tell. So, he's working for this Shaklator, and to that extent, Khall, as well._

"All right," Link said, leaning close to her face, "Last question: Is there a way to turn my people back to normal?"

"If anyone would know, Khall would," she said, "He's the one who cast the spell that petrified everyone. I just placed the gem in was sealed into."

"Okay then," Link said, "Where do I find him?"

"Across the sea, in the country of Mystara, Shaklator has a citadel in the western mountains. It's nearly impossible to reach on foot, and they're sure to see you coming. Khall will kill you before you even get close."

She smiled wickedly at the thought. Link snorted. "We'll just see what Zelda wants to do with you. I'd kill you now, but there's a chance she might think of something to ask that I forgot."

Link picked her up, wrenching the knife in her shoulder cruelly, just to make sure she didn't try anything. After scooping up his discarded sword and slipping it into the sheath across his shoulders, he got her to show him how to use the amulet, and with the vault safely closing, he marched her up the tunnels, one hand holding the knife in her shoulder, the other at her throat. "Try anything and I cut your throat. Got it?"

She nodded slowly, careful not to cut herself on the blade against her flesh. At the slow pace required to keep her within his grip, it took the better part of an hour to get back to the room where Zelda and Midna lay asleep. Link shoved the imposter through the door, calling to them as he did, "Wake up. We've got a guest."

Midna yawned, sitting up, then did a double-take at the image of Link forcing Zelda onto her knees, a knife sticking from her right shoulder, and a second in his hand at her throat. "Link, what are you doing?!"

"What is going on?" the real Zelda said, walking over to them, clad in a loose-fitting, thigh length night shirt. Whatever else was going on with the castle, the princess had proper bedclothes, that was for sure.

Midna looked up at her, then back at the imposter, then at her again, then at Link, then declared, "I have a headache," and sat down on the edge of the table.

Link nudged the imposter's shoulders, "All right. Tell them everything you told me, and anything you _might_ have forgotten."

She reiterated everything she had told Link, though she needed prompting at a few points, and he told her of the fight in the vault, and the destruction of the texts, which brought a dark glare from Zelda, and soon they were up to speed on the situation. Once she finished, Link glanced at Zelda, "Do you know this ring she was talking about?"

"Yes," Zelda said, stopping to think a moment, "I believe in my great grandmother's time, the sages of the time took stock of the vault's contents, and many items considered dangerous before were declared to have either lost their power over time, or were never dangerous in the first place. After thorough examination and testing, many were discarded, and some were put back."

Zelda walked to a large dresser at the back wall. She pulled open a small drawer to the side, and took something from it. Walking back, she showed the item in her hand to the imposter. "Is this the ring?"

The imposter looked closely, her eyes running over the purple gem situated in a silver band. Craning his neck, Link could make out the red runes etched into the inside of the band in the dim light of the lantern. "Yes," the imposter said, "That's it. What was it doing up here?"

Zelda smiled. "I usually keep it on my person, to prevent theft. This has been the royal wedding ring for three generations now, given to the husband on the wedding day, and passed on to the daughter."

Midna and Link suppressed sniggers at the shocked expression on the imposter's face. "But... It's power can't have faded! I was told..."

"You were told by a man who has never been to Hyrule in his life," Zelda said, her tone darkening, "And if he has, he would not have entered the castle, or seen the ring, as I normally wear it on a silver chain around my neck, tucked inside my bodice. I don't remember any man checking there in the past few years, or any time before then for that matter."

Link felt his face growing warm. Yes, she had just said she was a virgin, get over it, you nincompoop! It just meant she was celibate until marriage. Not unusual for a princess in the least, considering many had to have political marriages, and most often, only virgins were acceptable for this. _So stop thinking about it!_ Link wanted to scream at himself.

"Hey, Link," Midna said, a huge smile on her face, "Why are you blushing?"

Zelda sighed, rolling the ring about the palm of her hand, "Well, I suppose this means our answer is in the west. We'll have to find this Khall and persuade him to release our people from the spell."

"Persuade?" Link said.

"I'll offer him the ring in exchange. It's what he wants, after all," Zelda said, "But until we meet him, we'll do research. If it turns out this ring's power is just hidden beyond even our sages' ability to detect, and could be dangerous in his hands, we'll move on to the second offer. He releases our people or we hand him his head on a platter."

"I hope we use the second offer, myself," Link said, remembering the terrified faces of his friends as the spell had rushed toward them.

The imposter chuckled, "You intend to kill Khall? You're all crazy! He's the most powerful wizard alive!"

"Bet I know one who's stronger," Link said, leaning down to whisper in her ear, "He had a part of the triforce, along with all his own powers. He's dead now. I killed him."

"And what about Shaklator?" the imposter said, her tone mocking, "You don't even know what she's capable of, and if by some miracle you kill Khall, you'd invite her displeasure upon you."

Link stood up, dragging the imposter up with him. "We'll cross that hurdle when we get there. Might be she's a damn nice woman. Now, the question is, what do we do with you?"

He turned to look at Zelda, who regarded the woman who looked like her with hard eyes. "You've potentially ended the lives of every person in Hyrule, doppleganger. I like to think in matters of justice I am merciful and fair. Unfortunately, you willingly committed your acts, and whether you were under orders of another or not, that makes you a murderer. The sentence is death. No time for a beheading, so cut her throat and throw her in the moat. It's connected the river, and may eventually carry her out to sea."

The imposter tried to move, leaping sideways from Link's grasp. He pulled the dagger back as she did so, and she crashed into the wall, wheezing through the new hole in her neck, purple ooze spilling onto the floor. She clutched her hands to her neck, trying to stop the bleeding, but the vital artery had been severed nearly in two, and she slowly collapsed to the floor, the wheezing growing fainter and fainter, until she lay forward and stopped moving.

Link walked to the body and pulled the jeweled dagger from her shoulder, and wiped it on the back of her shirt. "You mind if I keep this one?" he asked, holding it where Zelda could see.

"Go ahead, that one's not too dangerous," she said, walking back toward the bed, "If that's all the excitement tonight, I'm going back to sleep. We'll need to get an early start tomorrow."

Link grabbed the corpse's arms and drug it toward the door. "Need plenty of provisions if we're to cross the desert and make the coast," he said.

Zelda lifted the blankets up, slipping herself under them. "Yes. We have traveling provisions stored at the back of the larder, and I believe I can find a map of the desert with the locations of the oases marked."

Link nodded as he drug the corpse into the hallway and headed for the stairs. Midna floated a short distance behind him, staring at the lifeless eyes of the corpse that looked so much like Zelda. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep anymore tonight," she said.

"Why's that?" Link said as he descended the stairs, the corpse thumping down behind him.

"I just saw you essentially cut Zelda's throat and watch her die, and then both of you act like it's nothing."

"Wasn't Zelda," he said, "That much should be obvious. And she'd have killed us if she had a chance. Tried pretty damn hard to kill me."

Midna followed him silently for a moment, then spoke again, "You should have woken us up when you thought something was wrong, instead of going on your own. I'm a powerful sorceress, you know, and Zelda's no slouch there either."

Link glanced back at her, "Forgive me if I'm not comforted by the thought of more magic going off in that vault filled with unidentified objects that might do anything from tell me the time to make me cough up my skeleton. Or worse."

Link pushed open the door to the courtyard, and drug the corpse outside, toward the moat around the outer wall. The main gate was situated just past a bridge that connected to the city. Link hauled the corpse up and tossed it over the side, a loud splash following, then the corpse floated slowly away on the current, face-down in the water.

"Well, if you can't sleep," Link said, "How about you take first watch? With this 'Zero' still around, I don't want to take any chances."

"Sure," Midna said as they started back toward the castle, "I'll wake you before I doze off."

As they disappeared into the castle, the silent figure atop the castle wall chuckled to himself. "So, they dispatched Nirvana. Very good, Link. That's a step in the right direction. My lady will be pleased."

He lifted the sword he held in his hand up, resting the black sheath with red designs against his shoulder. "And I got what I came for while you were busy with her. Heh, I'm starting to enjoy this game. I'll see you in the desert, my friend."

And he turned, leaping down from the wall to land in front of the main gate, and calmly walked from the city.


	6. Chapter 5

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 5: Loose Ends**

When Midna at last could not keep her eyes open any longer, she woke Link, yet even as she did so, she could hardly contain the excitement in her voice.

While he had slept, she had gone back to the book of forbidden magics, more to pass the time than any hope of finding something useful. But now she shook Link's shoulder with urgency, and he yawned greatly as he rose up from his improvised pallet of three blankets. "Link! I found it! I found it!"

"Found what?" Link said around his yawn, scratching his head as he sat up.

"The spell!" she said, motioning toward the table where the book lay open, "I found the spell used! Come and see!"

Link stood up, stretching his arms as he did so, and arcing his back until it popped. He walked over to the table, where she gestured to the open page. "Right here," she said, "It's called 'The Silencing,' and is listed as one of the unforgivable dark magics. It's name is derived from the fact that once it is complete, everything in the area of effect falls silent."

"That makes sense," Link said, leaning closer to see the page, "I can't get over the deathly quiet of this place, anyway. It's even quieter than when the Twilight Realm and Hyrule overlapped, and everyone turned into spirits. But I suppose, even then there were monsters roaming about to make some noise."

Midna flipped to the next page, scanning over the information. "Yes. It seems the spell was only cast once before, upon a city named Darimar, which turned its inhabitants to stone. I believe that's the city that the book, _The Silent Kingdom_, is about. It also seems that a counter-spell was created later, to reverse the affect. It mentions here, however, that it was too late for many of the people by then, because they were caught outside, and the effects of the weather had worn away the stone they had become, making the counter-spell ineffectual. The people inside the buildings were fine, however."

A sudden image in Link's memory sparked to life. All the people of Ordon, outside, terrified expressions on their faces, exposed to the weather. "How long did it take to create the counter-spell?"

"It doesn't say," Midna said, turning the page again, "But for weather to wear away stone that much, it must have taken forty or fifty years. It takes a long time for rain, or even hail or sleet, to affect stone."

_Fifty years..._ Link felt like someone had punched him. He didn't understand much about the actual workings of magic, but he knew enough to know it was exceeding complicated to craft a brand new spell. But he had never imagined a timeframe like that. "Does it say how to cast the counter-spell?"

"No," Midna said, turning to the last page of the spell, "It only mentions that the counter-spell's creator was one of the mightiest wizards of his time, and one of the few survivors of the collapse of the ancient civilization of magic."

"What is that? I remember mentions of some ancient civilization in _The Silent Kingdom_, but it never went into specifics."

"It's mainly an ancient legend," Zelda's voice said behind them. They turned to see her sitting up in the bed, gazing at the ceiling. She went on, "Legend has it that more than thirty thousand years ago, before recorded history, an ancient civilization existed that had mastered a level of magic far beyond anything we possess today. They could reshape the face of the planet, move continents, even cause the earth to rise up and swallow entire cities, should they desire it. Unfortunately, they say that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

"More than one of these ancient practitioners felt that they possessed such power for a reason. That they were destined to become the ruling class of the entire world."

_That sounds similar to the ancestors of the Twili,_ Link thought, glancing at Midna. The sorcerers of Hyrule had mastered the dark powers of the Fused Shadow, and attempted to take the power of the Triforce from the holy realm as well, but the ancient spirits that guarded Hyrule had struck them down, and cast them into the Twilight Realm, and sealed away the power of the Fused Shadow. Now, the original outcasts were all long dead, and the Twili had no desire for power like their ancestors. Zant had been the exception, but he was dead now, killed by Midna, who now possessed the power of the Fused Shadow.

_But,_ he thought, _I suppose there's a big difference between simply having power, and having the will to not use it._

"A war began between these power hungry wizards, and those that held that their powers should not be used for such selfish ideals," Zelda continued, "Countless new magics were developed as weapons in this war. Horrible magics like the world had never seen, meant simply for destruction and killing. While magic had always been used as a weapon, it had never been on a scale such as this. At best, the war could have been called a stalemate. Both sides had run out of targets to kill, other than their main enemies, who never left their strongholds. Civilization collapsed, and humanity was all but extinguished. It was then that the dark wizards unleashed their deadliest weapon.

"A demon of destruction, who sought nothing less than the eradication of all life in the world. The first ones it killed were the wizards who had created it. A fitting end, I suppose, but then it moved on to other survivors, killing everything in its path. Many of the remaining wizards gave their lives trying to stop it, but it seemed to be invincible. At last, the last survivors found a way to open a gateway to the gap between dimensions, and were able to banish it, where it would not be able to harm anyone. In the time since, the world rebuilt itself. A harsh lesson had been learned about the magics they had wielded, and it was determined that such power was not meant for mankind, and the secrets of such power were locked away, never intended to be seen again."

She turned to look at them. "Of course, it may be quite exaggerated. That's merely the version I remember. There are lots of variations, but all of them agree that an ancient power existed, and records of forbidden magic, such as the book next to you, were left so that such dark magics could be recognized, and the villain responsible could be dealt with."

"So, how much of it do you think is true?" Link asked.

"Enough," Zelda said, "That's how much. The dark magics exist. Hyrule is now proof of that. What time is it?"

"About three hours past midnight," Midna said, then yawned, "You should get some more sleep, princess. I think I'll be doing the same very soon."

Link sat down at the table. Yes, certainly more than enough of it had to be true. It didn't really matter how much was true, because it didn't affect their problem now. Or their path. Across the sea to the west. Link realized he'd never even seen the sea before. That thought brought a small smile to his face. He was going to get to see the ocean, and even a land that no one he knew had, or likely even knew existed.

"What about the people being worn down by the weather?" Link said, "It may take some time for us to track down this Khall and get him to reverse it. We may even have to find the counter-spell on our own."

Zelda thought a moment. "I don't think it would take quite that long, but I suppose it is a concern. Fortunately, there is a solution to that problem."

She tossed the blankets aside, rising to her feet. "I never thought I'd have a use for the spell," she said, "Good thing I didn't wait to be proved wrong to learn it."

Spell? She was going to use magic, Link realized. Other than the Arrows of Light, Link had never seen Zelda use a magic spell before.

Zelda took a deep breath, closing her eyes, and she placed her hands together, her fingertips touching, and her thumbs straight toward each other, shaping a triangle with her hands. When she spoke, her voice was a completely different tone than normal. It seemed a bit lower, and seemed to echo all around them. "_Nganto sxtel folon_," she said, though Link hadn't the slightest clue how she had pronounced the words, "_Spirits of the Air, the Earth, the Flames, and the Sea, I beseech thee._"

A white glow formed inside the triangle of her hands. "_As life in Hyrule lays silent, may so the elements sleep in silence,_" she said, the glow brightening, "_Deathly Calm!_" she finished, the light suddenly expanding and flashing so brightly that Link was blinded.

Midna shielded her eyes, but the light was gone almost as soon as it appeared. "What was that?" Link said.

"The spell is called the Deathly Calm," Zelda said, sitting back down on the bed, "It is intended for use in such actions as silencing an erupting volcano, or putting an end to a deadly storm. It can also be used in the manner I just did. Can you feel the difference, Link?"

In fact, he did catch it. "The air isn't moving," he said, "Even up here in the castle, there's always a tiny breeze."

"Until I reverse the spell, Hyrule will have no rain, no wind, nothing at all. My kingdom is now truly silent."

Link had thought it was too quiet before, and it had creeped him out a little. Now it positively chilled him to the core.

* * *

They did not leave first thing that morning as they had intended. Link and Zelda had both determined that it would be wise to retrieve the Master Sword before departing. Such a weapon could be of great aid in slaying Khall, should it come to it. Link and Midna would use his wolf shape to travel to Kakariko Gorge, and get the sword, and then return. Link imagined they could get back just after sunset.

Zelda, unable to travel quickly enough to keep up, remained at the castle, and went to the larder, shoving supplies into traveling packs, and filling the water flasks they would need to cross the desert. Salt was an important nutrient in such a condition, in spite of what some would thing, so she found what salted meat she could to add to the supplies.

Link and Midna had reached the gorge just after midday. They sat on at the edge of the gorge, eating the light lunch they had brought with them. Link decided he had been right in his assumption of the effect of Zelda's spell. If the countryside had seemed too quiet and empty before, now it felt as though the entire countryside had died.

"Now," he said, gazing into the gorge. The bottom was well beyond sight in darkness. "How are we going to do this? Maybe that rope I packed..." and he started looking for a place to fasten it.

Midna rolled her eyes. "Link, have you forgotten who you're with?"

He turned to look at her. "A furry rodent in an ugly mask?"

"Oh, I'll get you for that one," she said with a glare, "Get ready. This might feel a little weird."

"What-" Link didn't get to finish, as he suddenly floated up into the air. Yes, it did indeed feel weird for nothing at all to be holding you up, but your feet hovered a few feet above the ground.

Midna floated over to him and gave him a shove, sending him drifting backwards. "How about that?"

Link realized he had drifted out over the gorge, and now he looked down to see his feet hovering over empty darkness. "Okay, I take back the rodent comment. Whatever you're doing, don't drop me."

Midna floated up and settled herself on his shoulders, her legs on either side of his neck. "Good boy. Hold on, we're going down."

_Hold on to what?_ Link thought as they slowly began to drift downward.

As the rock walls of the gorge rose around them, Link suddenly wondered why Midna had never done this before. It certainly would have been a handy ability in all those ancient temples they had explored together. Link heard her groan softly where she sat, and realized just how stiff she was sitting on his shoulders. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said through her teeth, "Now don't distract me. I'm trying really hard not to smash you into the wall."

Oh, that's why.

As they moved lower, it began to get darker. It was nearly impossible for the sun to reach this deep, apparently, unless it was directly over the gorge. But a moment later, his feet touched down on the rock floor, and Midna sighed, leaning against his head. "Oh, gods, that was harder than I thought."

The light was faint, but Link could still see. "You going to be able to get us out?" he asked, looking about.

"I can," she said, "But I don't want to do this again if I don't have to. It's easier to smash someone about than to move them slowly."

Link started walking toward a raised area of the floor, hoping to get a better look in either direction. "What about you? You hover all the time."

"I also weigh a grand total of ten pounds right now, unlike you, tin man," she said, reaching down to tug on the sleeve of chain mail sticking out from under his tunic. "You see, I also have to make sure I don't use so much force to lift you that I squeeze your insides out through your nose."

"Well, now I know what kind of nightmares I'm going to have tonight."

Link scanned the bottom of the gorge from his relative perch, and was rewarded by the sight of the familiar blue hilt above a dip in the floor. With a laugh of triumph, he hopped down from his stone and jogged to it, but the moment he could see into the dip, he stopped. "Shit."

"What's shit?" Midna asked, "Shit is never good."

Link gestured to the dip. "Just look. What's wrong here?"

The Master Sword was imbedded in the rock at the bottom of the dip. "No body..." Midna said.

"Precisely," Link said.

Midna's mind raced, trying to think of a reason. "Suppose the sword vaporized him?"

"Not happening," Link said, "When someone dies, there is evidence. There is always evidence. Whether it's a corpse, a skeleton, ash, or even debris, there is always evidence."

"The rain may have washed it away, if it were ash or debris..."

"Not likely. Water would collect in that dip. As it dried up, the evidence would be left there. And anyway, he seemed whole enough when I shoved him in. After a year, there should be a skeleton left, at the least. And all that armor's not likely to disappear fast."

Link gripped the hilt of the sword and pulled it free from the rock. It came easily, with a loud scrape as the blade drug on the rock. "Zelda said she had sensed no evil just a few hours after I'd tossed him in. That means he was gone nearly as soon as I dumped him over. Damn, I should have insisted on checking it that day, and then we would have likely found a trail and be able to finish him for good!"

"Link, you couldn't have possibly have known," Midna said, "It's not your fault."

"Then just who's fault is it?"

Midna chuckled, "If anything, it's his fault for being stupidly hard to kill, and wishing to live forever."

Link wasn't in the mood for jokes. "Get us out of here. We need to get back to the castle."

Midna levitated them back out of the gorge, but by the time they were on solid ground again, she was sweating with the strain. "Well," Link said, "You'll get to rest on the way back. We won't be leaving until morning, so you get a full night's sleep. Zelda and I will stand watch."

Midna leaned on his head, waiting to catch her breath before she tried to transform him. "Link," she whispered to him, "We're going into a great deal of danger once again."

"Yes," he said, starting at a walk toward the castle. Might as well make what distance he could now.

Midna remembered that nightmarish day, when she had first been cast into the light of this world. She had be nearly out of her mind in pain, and all she could think about was getting to Zelda, getting the princess to take over for her in guiding Link to his destiny.

It still pained her, the way she used him when they first met, thinking nothing but how to best go about her revenge. Removing the Twilight Realm's influence on Hyrule was only important because Link could not access the temples where the pieces of the Fused Shadow as a wolf.

She had roughed him about, kicked him in the dirt, insulted him almost every step of the way. And yet, when her life was on the line, he pushed himself nearly beyond his endurance to save her. He would have gone beyond, if he had to...

And then he had never spoken of it again. Princess Zelda had healed her, even given her the ability to exist in this world's light safely. It had very nearly killed Zelda in the process. They had determined to find a way to get back into the Twilight Realm to save both worlds together. Midna had constantly expected Link to turn on her and finally demand recompense for what she had done to him. Maybe it would have been easier on her if he had hated her. If he had in turn given her the same treatment she'd given him.

But every time he looked at her, it was with a soft smile, and his eyes gentle. She had seen his eyes full of feral ferocity in the midst of combat, and she had seen the merciless way he fought. Link could pull every dirty trick in the book, he could kill without hesitation, and would.

Yet he never spoke harshly to her. He never lost his temper when she corrected him. He did taunt her occasionally, but she could always tell by the look in his eye that he was playing, not meaning a word of it. And he never hesitated to leap to her aid if she were in danger.

Sometimes when she thought about it, it was enough to make her cry. She hated the thought that someday, the curse upon her would at last be broken and she would have to leave him. She sometimes liked to imagine, but knew it was in vain. It would never work. Couldn't. They were from separate worlds, and not meant to mix.

As long as he is safe and happy, she told herself on those occasions, I won't want anything else.

"Link, how are you about keeping promises?" she asked.

"Only broken one in my life," he said softly, "I promised Ilia that I wouldn't let anything happen to her. And now all this happened."

There was another reason it would never work, sadly. He already had someone he cared for.

"That's not your fault," Midna said, "You're no wizard. There's nothing you could have done about it."

"That doesn't make it okay."

Midna sighed. After what they had been through, what she had seen him do, Link was without a doubt a hero. After knowing he fought off undead, goblins, man-eating beasts, and even an aquatic worm the size of a building, he must have seemed larger-than-life to most people, they might even think he was invincible. Yet she probably knew him better than anyone now. In spite of everything he had accomplished, he was still human. He could still bleed, he still had to breath to live.

And he still felt guilt.

"Link," she said, barely above a whisper, "Can you promise me something?"

"What?"

"That no matter what happens from here on, you'll stay safe? That you will stay alive to see this country alive once more?"

Link couldn't help but smile. "I think I can promise that," he said, "Not like I'd die without putting up one roaring pig of a fight, anyway."

Midna put her arms around his neck, leaning against his head. "That's good enough for me, then. Come on, let's get you transformed so we can get back for supper."

"We need to tell Zelda about our latest loose end, anyway."

* * *

"Judge Ralthas! I'm glad you're here!"

The gold-bearded man known as the Judge entered the dark stone corridor. He wasn't wearing his armor of office, but he still wore a shirt of chain mail, and the pants with leather padding to help make the interlocking plates worn on his legs more comfortable. At his hip was his sword, an enchanted blade known as the 'Hammer of Justice,' with its silver hilt and gold gem fit into the pommel, contained in a dark blue sheath.

"Yes, yes," Ralthas said, stepping past the young man serving as the guard in the dungeon, "Something about one of the prisoners worries you. Show him to me."

The guard fell into step behind him as they marched down the corridor. Wooden doors were evenly spaced on either side of the hall, leading into cells where the condemned either served their punishments, or awaited their final judgement.

"It's that one they've got chained up at the far end, sir," the guard said, clearly nervous, "The one with all the magical wards on his cell. Well, he managed to break one of his hands free, and keeps muttering about 'the four' and something called a 'triforce,' sir."

"He has made no move to escape the cell?" Ralthas asked.

"Not yet, but he makes me nervous, sir," the guard said, "With the kind of protections on the cell, I doubt I'd be able to stop him if he did try to escape."

"Of course you wouldn't," Ralthas said, "You'd do the smart thing and find me or someone else who could stop him."

They came to a stop before a large iron door in the dead end of the hall. Ralthas reached up to the eye-slit and slid the cover aside, looking into the cell. Sure enough, the dark-skinned man had managed to break his right hand free of the shackle. No, wait, he'd torn it out of the wall. Maybe the nail had just worked loose.

The man now sat on the floor, his left hand above his head, which leaned forward, his mouth moving but no sound coming out. Ralthas then saw something unusual. On the back of the man's right hand was a glowing golden triangle. A tattoo? Or something more?

Better safe than sorry, Ralthas decided. He turned to the guard, "You wait here. I'm going to get someone to fix that shackle, and then someone to reinforce the wards on the cell. We're keeping this one here until he rots."

"You're going to be waiting a long time," came a voice from within the cell.

Ralthas turned back to the slit. The man had lifted his head, smiling at him, his teeth all dauntingly white and even, though his visible canines were nearly long enough to be called fangs. "Why do you say that?" Ralthas asked.

The dark man chuckled. "Because I can't die. Age can't kill me. You can't kill me. Nothing can kill me."

Ralthas realized that this was the first time this man had said anything to anyone. He had been locked away after he was found, near death, confessing his crimes in his delirium. Had he been found by anyone from any other city, he'd have likely gotten medical care first, before being tried. Here, he had instead gone straight to the cell, been expected to die, and if by some miracle he recovered, would receive a trial then. One of the magicians had examined him, and declared him to be a powerful wizard as well, so wards of containment were placed on his cell and an extra measure.

But what was amazing was that he was recovering. The white scare visible on the dark flesh of his chest and stomach marked an injury that few men could survive. Ralthas could even swear it was glowing.

"Sounds to me like you're still delirious," Ralthas said.

A rumbling chuckle escaped the man's throat. "More of my strength returns daily. If it weren't for the source of my injury, that accursed sword, I'd have recovered in just a few hours. Very soon, I will show you."

"Show me what?"

The man looked straight at him, the threat in his eyes unmistakable. "That I cannot be caged. That I cannot be controlled. You will understand this as you die. What's a few more weeks of waiting? I've got all the time in the world."

Ralthas slammed the slider on the slit shut. "He's utterly mad," he said.

But still, it wouldn't hurt to reinforce the wards holding him. And a few new ones.


	7. Chapter 6

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Please read the note first before you read this chapter!**

RE-EDIT: First of all, if you read the first edit note to this chapter and were offended, I apologize. I know all about maintaining the original works when writing fanfiction and support it fully. My remarks were made out of frustration and anger at the fact that my initial note was ignored, and informed how wrong I was by someone who failed to understand the fullness of the situation.

This chapter establishes a time line that will be used further in this story, and will play greatly into the later chapters, mainly due to the openings it allows for me to play around with. Yes, I know it conflicts with the official time line. Yes, I know it conflicts with so many theories of the Zelda storyline. That is the biggest problem with the storyline, as the original games were written without such an on-going plot intended, whatever Nintendo execs may claim, and because of that, the official time line contradicts itself at many points.

We can argue for months about how it all fits together, or you can just take the time line I've developed just for this story with a grain of salt, and try to enjoy the rest of it. That is my main goal with this story, after all. Entertainment. My entertainment in the writing, and the exercise of my imagination, and yours in the reading. I'm not trying to dethrone any theories about the Zelda time line, or say Nintendo itself is wrong.

As such, I would only like to say that the time line presented here is based solely off the content of the games, and a great deal of thought on my part. I feel it fits together logically, and is fine for this story, and promise that it will make sense as to why it must be established later.

Thank you.

**Chapter 6: Goodbye to Hyrule**

Zelda had greeted them in the courtyard upon their return. "Did you find it?"

Link drew the Master Sword from its sheath as he approached her, its unique metallic ring filling the air. The sun was nearly set, only a faint red glow visible over the horizon. Link held the blade out so she could examine it. "I doubt there would be a duplicate, and I doubt anyone could find a way to duplicate that sound, anyway."

He slid the blade back into its sheath, and it clicked home. "We've got more something more important to deal with. Ganondorf is still alive."

Zelda looked up to stare directly into his eyes, her own narrowing suddenly. "Tell me everything."

So Link told her what he knew, about how they had descended into the gorge to find the sword, and the discovery of no body, nor even any evidence there had been one. Zelda didn't interrupt, but once he had finished, she immediately put her question of him, "Where could he have gone?"

"That I do not know," Link said.

Zelda turned to watch the failing light of the sun. She crossed her arms, the fingers of her right hand drumming across her left arm. "Do you think," she said without turning back to him, "there is any chance he is connected to this?"

"I don't know," Link said, "I can't say for sure, but I don't believe so. This feels different from last time."

"Different?" Zelda said, turning her head just enough to look at him from the corner of her eye.

"Last time, he was out to conquer us," Link said, "He made no secret of it, in spite of his actions through another. This time feels like someone has other goals, and the people would only get in the way. Hence why this Khall sent another to retrieve that ring, while he awaits safe in his citadel across the sea. And I believe he, or this Shaklator he works for, has taken an interest in me."

"Why you, though?" Midna interjected, "Surely there would be someone closer and easier to get at, considering he'd have to drag you all the way across the ocean."

"I think it's not so much Link as both of us," Zelda said, holding her right hand out, the triforce symbol glowing faintly in the dim light, "This would be why. And if Ganondorf is alive, I imagine they'd have an interest in him as well. If he had been here when this spell was set off, he'd have been protected in the same way we were."

"A trap," Link said, "By using that magic on Hyrule, Khall must have known that we would find out our only answer lay to the west, across the sea. By taking one piece of the Twilight Mirror, he makes it useless to us, so we can't go there for help. And yet, we have no choice but to go."

"Precisely," Zelda said, turning around to face him, "And now that we know we are walking into a trap..."

"We turn it into our trap," Midna finished, "Catch _him_ unawares."

Link smiled, "Oh, what a devious pair you two make. Make an alliance between your kingdoms and soon you'd rule both worlds."

Midna and Zelda glanced at each other. "Actually..." they said at the same time, both smiling.

Link shook his head. "Oh, no! Not yet, anyway! Right now, we're going to eat, then rest so we can leave early in the morning. We've got a long road to cover before we even reach the coast, and we're going to have to go on foot."

They dined once more on cheese sandwiches, but Zelda had apparently come across a bottle of red wine during her hunt for supplies, so they did indulge themselves a bit before the night was over. Though Midna was evidently tipsy after only a few swallows, Link felt as though he could have drained the bottle without any ill effect.

"What's the matter?" Zelda asked, seated across from him as he stared into his empty cup, "Not strong enough for you?"

Link glanced at Midna, snoring lightly on his makeshift pallet from the night before. "Not like I was planning on getting drunk tonight. Just used to heavier drink. Bo had a still out behind his place, he made enough ale for the village, when the supplies were available. It was a fair bit stronger than the ale served in most taverns. I guess because it didn't need to be made in such large quantities."

Zelda tipped the bottle, refilling his drink. "What do you think is going to happen, Link?"

"For starters, we're going to cross the desert, then we'll get a ship to take us across the sea, then we'll find Khall and strangle the counter-spell out of him," Link said, then took a swallow of the wine. "Bah, I might as well be drinking water. And that thing," he added, glancing over at Midna, "evidently has all the constitution of a flea."

"You think things will go so simply as that?" Zelda said, ignoring his other comments, "That we won't have some kind of difficulty other than Khall himself?"

"Of course there will be other trouble," Link said, "But we have no way of knowing what it will be, or when it will come. We'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there. No sense in worrying about it now. Just like Ganondorf. If he shows up, we'll deal with him, if not, he can rot in whatever hole he's crawled off into for all I care."

Zelda smiled, shaking her head softly. _Gods, if I had your confidence..._

"I'm going to get to bed," she said, standing up, "Wake me for a turn at watch tonight."

Link nodded, watching the flickering flame in the lantern before him. He waited as she lay down on the bed, facing away from him. _Gods, what am I getting into?_ he thought, _If it were just me and Midna again, I wouldn't have this feeling. She's a princess. What does she know about traveling?_

_So is Midna, you prick,_ he chided himself, _But she never had any difficulty traveling mainly because she was either riding on your back or in your shadow. How long before this one started complaining about her feet hurting?_

Link turned to glance at the two of them, asleep in the dark room. _Well, she'll just have to toughen up, then,_ Link decided.

* * *

Well, as it turned out, she didn't. They had departed the next morning as the sun was rising, Link now wearing the Master Sword in its blue decorative sheath across his shoulder, his shield fit over it, one strap over his right shoulder so it could be quickly slipped down for use.

Zelda had selected a good pair of boots, with tough soles, meant for long travel. She also wore a chain mail vest, with no sleeves, under a blue sleeveless tunic, both hanging about four inches past the belt at her waist, along with a white undershirt and white pants. She carried a quiver of arrows and her black and gold bow over her shoulder, and a long rapier at her left hip.

Midna had lightened their load by taking the packs of supplies to her invisible storage space, though she warned that the food and water packed were causing her to draw close to her mass limit, and assured them that they did not want to see what would happen if they attempted to overload her.

The first part of their journey was likely the easiest, Link thought, as it was mostly downhill to Lake Hylia, and from there they could make use of a narrow pass through the mountains along Hyrule's western border to reach the desert. He didn't trust himself to make the proper adjustments to that psychotic canon-man's device. It was dangerous enough at the best of times, and he didn't want to find out he didn't know what he was doing when he smacked into a rock wall at over a hundred miles per hour.

They made good time, and could see the shores of the lake at nightfall. The feeling of the world around them made Link's skin crawl, still. The way the air just hung there, no breeze or circulation was a frightening thing. Even in the deepest tomb, it had always had some motion to it. It was the kind of thing one wouldn't notice until it was gone. It was fortunate that there would be no rain for the same reason, and the people caught outside would be fine in their absence.

Unless someone from outside the country decided to come in and start smashing them up.

_No_, Link chided himself, _We've got enough problems already without you inventing new ones._

They decided that this would be a good place to spend the night, especially since they'd likely spend the next few days in cramped spaces in the pass, likely sleeping on rocks, and afterward, they'd be into the desert, where traveling in the heat of the day could be fatal, and the coldest part of the night was just as bad.

As they sat around a small fire on the shore, from what wood Link had managed to find, he explained this to Zelda, though Midna was already familiar with the conditions from their last trip to the desert. "There are only two times of day that safe travel is possible," he said, "In the morning, as the sun is rising until noon, when it becomes far to hot to continue, and the evening, just after twilight, until about midnight, when it becomes cold enough to give you frostbite, if there were any moisture in the air. So, we must stop before noon, and dig a hollow in the sand down to the cooler sand beneath for shelter, and there we rest until evening, and then we do the same just before midnight to stay warm through the rest of the night.

"And as for water," he continued, "Too much is almost as bad as not enough in such conditions. Plus, it has to last until we reach an oasis, and those are few and far apart. So, you get one mug full at each stop, no more, and some food to eat. One piece of that salted meat should be enough of it, any more and you'll get too thirsty, and some of the other rations. We're all going to lose weight here," he added with a chuckle, "So don't be surprised when you have to tighten your belt. I'm sure we can find someplace to help put it back on when we reach the other side."

Zelda listened intently through it all, knowing full well that in spite of her learning and everything she had experienced, Link was the expert on traveling, a survivor who had been through horrors she likely would never know. She had her own horrors, sure enough, but she doubted she could have stood firm against the beasts that he had attacked without a second's hesitation.

In the meantime, Midna had gone back to the books she still carried with her, reading intently through _The Ballad of the Hero of Time_, hoping it may mention something that could possibly prove that Ganondorf was dead through some unknown power of the Master Sword, but it seemed to focus primarily on the Hero's journey, and the fact that he used the Master Sword was merely a detail, as he made use of many tools and weapons through his adventure. It also seemed that this Hero had been a fairly competent magician as well. He'd never have been called a wizard, but the abilities he had commonly exhibited involved igniting the very air about him in flame, and even forming a magical barrier about himself that arrows, stones, spears and the like could not penetrate. It seemed such a barrier did little against the magic of Ganondorf himself, though.

Yes, Ganondorf. Midna was absolutely convinced he had to be the same man, now. She knew too much about the Triforce now to deny it. Once within his grasp, it had split into three parts, one piece going to the Hero of Time, and another to the princess at that time. In the end, however, it had taken both of them to seal him away in the ancient holy lands, away from anyone he might have harmed. Neither of them had the power to kill him.

By her estimate, all that had occurred about four thousand years ago. Now, she opened _The Great Flood,_ and first read of the downfall of the old Hyrule at the hands of Ganondorf, who had increased his power to such lengths that he had shattered the seal upon the holy lands with ease. The people had expected the Hero of Time to return and rescue them once more.

But he had not come. Some apparently thought he had abandoned them for being weak fools, depending on a hero to save them, and others claimed that he had come and been defeated by Ganon. The sages at last cried out to the gods to save their kingdom, and instead it was lost beneath the ocean created by torrential rains.

She skimmed the rest of the book, noting how about a thousand years later, Ganon finally escaped his watery tomb beneath the waves, once more spreading his power, apparently intent on ruling this world, regardless of its condition. A new hero appeared this time, however, wearing the green tunic and wielding the Master Sword. This hero had been forced to find the triforce of courage, however, it was not simply given to him. Perhaps the gods had stripped it from the Hero of Time when he had not returned, or perhaps he himself had hidden it for one who would need it one day.

The Hero of Winds, and he came to be called, struck Ganon down, imprisoning him in a prison of stone. Once again, the hero had lacked the strength necessary to finish the job for good. Though in the end, the Hero of Winds was likely stronger than the Hero of Time had been, Ganon was far stronger than before as well.

Or perhaps the hero's heart was simply too soft.

In the final battle, the last remnants of the old Hyrule were lost as the barrier protecting them failed, and the ocean's water cascaded in, laying ruin to what small part of the kingdom remained.

It seemed that about five hundred years after the defeat of Ganon by the Hero of Winds, the flood waters at last began to recede. The descendants of the princess and hero established the new Hyrule upon the ruins of the old, and the Master Sword was at last returned to its rightful place, in the alter of the Temple of Time, which had somehow survived the events, though the temple itself had not.

Midna remembered where they had found the Master Sword, in an alter in the forest near Ordon, amidst the ruins of an ancient temple, which was itself surrounded by the ruins of what had been a large city. Of course, she decided, that's where the castle town of old Hyrule had stood. The forest had overgrown it, but it was still there.

She picked up another of the books, managing to piece together a bit more of it.

It seemed that Ganon had escaped his stony prison before the new Hyrule was even truly alive or prosperous. Once more, no hero appeared to save the people, and this time, he had taken the princess prisoner immediately, though she had managed to save the Triforce of Wisdom from his grasp by dividing it into pieces and scattering them across the land. He sent his followers to located the pieces, and held the princess in his stronghold.

The hero at last appeared, though this time he was not even a Hylian. He was a foreign adventurer who just happened to wander in at an opportune time to rescue the princess' servant from a band of Ganon's followers. After hearing of the situation from her, he immediately took up his sword and set out to recover the pieces of the Triforce the princess had scattered.

It had seemed the Triforce of Courage was nowhere to be found in this time, but when the final battle at last came, it was revealed that he had carried it without knowing the whole time, and used the powers of both Triforces in his possession to destroy Ganon utterly.

Or so it had seemed. Less than a year later, the princess was afflicted with an unknown magic that locked her in a deep sleep, and Ganon's minions were seen roaming the countryside once more. They were moving with purpose as well, taking the ancient holy grounds and subverting them with dark power. It seemed they were led by a being known only as Thunderbird, who sought to provide his master with a new body. It seemed that Thunderbird's primary choice was the princess'.

Taking his sword up once more, the hero journeyed across Hyrule, reclaiming the holy grounds from the dark beasts, and at last confronted Thunderbird within his lair. After a pitched battle, the hero struck Thunderbird down, only to discover he was too late. Ganon had not been idle, and had reformed his body within the safety of the Sacred Lands where the Triforce had originally slept. The hero was forced to fight the deadliest foe he had ever seen, a shadow of himself. It knew his every move, his every tactic, exactly how he would fight, and very nearly defeated him, but in the end, he had managed to catch it by surprise and finish it off.

Though Ganon's body had recovered, his power was still weak. The hero took him as a prisoner, and took him to the sages, watching over the princess. Through their coercion, Ganon had removed the sleep spell placed upon the princess.

In an effort to then be rid of Ganon forever, they sentenced him to death and attempted to execute him. However, they had waited too long, and he withstood their power easily, very nearly breaking free and beginning his conquest anew on the spot. In a last desperate effort, they made use of a relic that dated back to before even old Hyrule, the Twilight Mirror, and cast him from the world. The mirror was then buried, and the sages stood guard over it, to ensure that it would never be used to open the path to the Twilight Realm again.

Midna shut the book with a sigh. _And the rest is history, as they say,_ she thought.

No, that couldn't be all of it. There was still nearly a thousand years between the day they cast him through the gateway and the day he at last returned through Zant. He wasn't the kind who would just sit around. What had he been doing all that time?

"You going to sit there all night?"

Midna looked up, to see Link adding more wood to the small fire. Zelda had curled up with a blanket on the ground, her head resting on a second as a pillow, and judging by the location of the moon, it was past midnight.

"I must have lost track of time," she said, putting the book away to wherever she kept such things.

"Well, you seemed quite absorbed in those things," Link said, "Find out anything useful?"

"Mainly history," she said, moving a bit closer to the fire, "I'm convinced now that the Ganondorf we are familiar with is the same one who nearly conquered the world four thousand years ago."

"Sounds like a guy who needs a hobby," Link said with chuckle.

"But I don't believe you're descended from the Hero of Time like he thought," Midna said, "He simply disappeared, no family, no children. One hero who fought Ganondorf wasn't even a Hylian to begin with. Ganondorf simply assumed that you're all the same bloodline because of your looks, apparently. All the heroes seemed to have the same general build and all wore that green tunic."

"If there were so many of them, why couldn't one of them just kill the bastard and save us all this trouble?"

"I don't think they could," Midna said, "Ganondorf was steadily increasing his power since he first aquired the Triforce. He was far stronger when you fought him than when the Hero of Time did. That also means that you are far stronger than the Hero of Time ever was. Plus, there is one other thing different about you."

"And what's that?"

"All the previous heroes are spoken of as honorable warriors, who fought fair and avoided killing whenever possible. You, on the other hand, fight dirty."

"I fight to win," he said, turning toward her, the light of the fire casting an eerie glow across his scowl, "No point in being fair if they're just going to stab me in the back."

"I agree with you, Link," Midna said, "But I also know you won't hesitate to kill to finish off a foe."

Link made a 'hmph' sound, "Everyone I ever killed was because they were trying to kill me. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who tries to kill me, or my friends," he added with a glance in her direction, "has forfeited the right to their own life."

Midna glanced toward Zelda's sleeping form. "Even if Khall does cooperate," she said, "You're not planning to let him live, are you?"

"No. I'm not."

Midna sighed. "I hope, that when this is over, you don't become as terrible as some of our enemies."

She suddenly realized he had put his arm around her. Without her noticing, he had moved next to her, and now gently hugged her to his side. "I know you'll be there to keep me in line," he said, "If I start to look more like a villain, just kick me in the head as hard as you can, and I'll snap out of it."

Midna sighed again, savoring the feeling of his warmth against her. _But I won't be here forever, Link. I have responsibilities that I must take up again once my curse is broken. Then we must go our separate ways. But..._

_Until then, I will always be here for you. I promise._

* * *

The following morning, Link led them to the small pass near the western shore of the lake. It was a gravelly path sloping upward into the mountains, barely wide enough for two men to walk side by side, and it looked like it would get much narrower further up. The slope was irregular as well, sometimes going up, sometimes down, and sometimes was nearly vertical, and had to help each other past such obstacles.

There would be no deviating from the path, however, as sheer rock walls made up either side of the pass. Link was suddenly glad Zelda had silenced the elements of Hyrule, considering how it had been raining lately, and trying to cross this pass in the rain would be near impossible.

Gauging their progress at the end of the first day, Link decided he was right in his estimate that it would take three days to cross the pass. The second day, they reached the narrowest part of the pass, at some points Link and Zelda had to squeeze through sideways, holding their weapons out ahead of themselves to avoid becoming stuck.

It was also considerably warmer through the day, and there was very little moisture in the air, marking their closeness to the desert. The night was much colder than before as well, and the three of them huddled under one blanket through the night to keep warm.

On the third day, disaster struck.

A rockslide had occurred sometime in the recent past, completely blocking off the pass. Link looked it over, decided that if he were alone, or with just Midna, he might have attempted to scale it, but he doubted Zelda's climbing ability on the loose stone.

Zelda didn't complain when he suggested it, but then decided that they would simply have to remove it.

She told them to both get behind her, and stood about twenty feet back up the pass from it. It would be too dangerous to move it with a shock, such as a bolt of lightning, so she decided instead to try and reshape it.

She held her hands before herself, about six inches apart, closing her eyes as she began her chant. "_Serif teah mxtecotal,_" she intoned, her voice seeming to echo and reverberate all around them, though she spoke softly, "_I beseech thee, ancient spirits of fire, come forth and honor thy blood pact of old,_" a red glowing orb began to form between her hands, which she then cast forward into the blockage with a final shout, "_Hellion!_"

Then, the area erupted, at least that was the best way Link could think of it, into flames, though there was nothing to burn but rock. Link took a step back, holding one are up against the tremendous heat of the flames that now covered the rock wall before them, which appeared to now be shrinking.

_She's melting the rock! _he realized as the thick red liquid began to flow slowly from the base of the blockage.

It took several minutes for the blockage to melt completely away, and Link noticed that the passage was widening at the same time. She couldn't focus it, it seemed, considering she had essentially called wild flames. Link glanced at her, and saw her gritting her teeth as she held her hands out before her, maintaining the spell through sheer force of will. She was sweating, but from the effort, not the heat.

She at last relaxed, allowing the flames to die. The path ahead of them was now open, though filled with molten rock. They retreated back some distance from the radiating heat and set up to spend the night while it cooled enough to cross.

Zelda leaned against the rock wall, wrapped in a blanket as Link and Midna prepared what food they were going to have for the night. She stared down the pass at the pool of magma she had created. "You okay?" Link asked her, offering her a cheese sandwich with a piece of the salted meat they had brought.

She took it and nodded, "I'll be fine after I rest. Casting a spell is easy, maintaining it like that is what takes it out of you."

"All the more reason I'm glad I'm no magician," Link sat, sitting down next to her, "Where did you learn that spell, anyway?"

"My mother," Zelda said, looking back down the path, "She insisted that I learn every spell in the Royal Family's books, just as she had, because it was important that one should possess such power and not need it, rather than need it and not have it."

A curious thought came to Link's mind, "So, how do you compare to Ganondorf?"

She shook her head, "He is far more powerful. More experienced. He also possesses most of the spells I know, and quite a few I don't. I wouldn't stand a chance in a wizard's duel with him."

A wizard's duel. Link had heard of those, that they were quite a sight. Two men face off, about twenty paces apart, and battle entirely with magic, never actually touching one another. It was a strict balance of protective spells and attack spells that would win it, and usually there was nothing left of the loser but a pile of ash. And the surrounding area was usually decimated.

"That was also one of the most powerful spells I possess," Zelda continued, "Destructive-wise, anyway. Imagine the effect it would have had on a person, or group of people."

Ah, yes, he could imagine that. Fire was undoubtably one of the most painful ways to die. And the temperature that spell had reached would kill a person in a matter of seconds.

"Can you cast any spells that summon water?" Link asked with a small chuckle.

Zelda smiled, "I do have a few spells of ice, but they create ice from the moisture in the air. Not terribly effective in a desert."

"Damn, that would be useful soon," Link said, "Oh, well. We'll just do it the hard way. You get some sleep. We'll be in the desert tomorrow, and I want to get started as soon as possible so we can cover as much ground as we can."

The following morning, the set out across the new floor of the pass, though it was still warm through their boot soles, and within a few hours emerged from the pass to the sands of the Gerudo desert.

Sand was all that could be seen in the distance, and the sun was already halfway up the sky. Link took a breath of the air, noticing it was still moving, freshening itself. Zelda's spell hadn't reached this far. Had the Silencing spell? Well, they'd know when they reached the first oasis, he imagined.

Not wanting to lose any more time, they set out immediately, the sun at their backs, and the hardest part of the journey just beginning.

High atop a ridge in the mountains, Zero watched them go. He smiled to himself. "I guess this is where one says 'Let the games begin!' Let's let them get a few days out, though. There's no hurry."


	8. Chapter 7

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

NOTE: This chapter was partially inspired by a certain monster in A Link to the Past that I would love to see in 3D. Come on, Nintendo! You know you want to!

And I'll just mention before I get questions that song at one point in this chapter is "The Lonely Moon," used as the ending theme to the second Tenchi Muyo! OVA. I had intended to write an original song for the scene, but it turns out I'm terrible at such things.

**Chapter 7:** **The Sandman Cometh**

"Why did you send Zero after them?"

Khall turned, seeing Tharkus entering his study without knocking, as usual. Tharkus was a tall man, who wore his black hair slicked back, with his left cheek sunken where the cheekbone had been broken long ago. He had a long, hooked nose, and his eyes were a dark purple color, and always had a trace of menace about them. At the moment he wore a black cloak, wrapped about him, obscuring the muscular build of his body.

Khall turned back to the parchment spread across his table in the center of the room. "He's not going to kill them. Not yet. Just put them through some paces until we're ready."

Khall himself was a thin man, his blonde hair cut short about his ears, with unremarkable features, aside from his piercing blue eyes. He wore a loose fitting white sleeveless shirt and light blue pants with no belt, his powder blue cloak draped back across his shoulders so it wouldn't get in the way.

"And if he gets carried away?" Tharkus said, his voice low, sounding like gravel.

"In dealing with anyone else, I might think so," Khall said, only half-paying attention, "But killing the ones with the Triforce would bring the wrath of Shaklator down on him. That is something he fears."

Tharkus walked toward the table, eyeing the parchment spread upon it as he did so. It was a blueprint of the Twilight Mirror, with notes taken to integral locations on its design, as well as many written in the margins by Khall himself. It was in Khall's native language, which Tharkus had never learned, so he wasn't sure what was of such importance for the notes.

"Are you not going to check our preparations?"

Khall thumbed through a few pages in the open book next to him, scanned one line, then wrote another note at the edge of the blueprint. "I don't see why I should have to, Tharkus. You and the others know your jobs, and you know what will happen if you fail."

"Yet we can't finish until the mirror is in our possession," Tharkus said, "Has anyone been sent to retrieve it?"

"Zero will get it on the way back," Khall said dismissively, "Besides, that's not important to your current task. Have you located Mandrag Ganon?"

"Not yet. He disappeared shortly after arriving in Mystara, and we haven't been able to locate him since."

"That was nearly ten months ago," Khall said, glaring at Tharkus from the corner of his eye, "I suggest you find him, before the Lords of Chaos become one member shorter, Tharkus."

"You threaten me?"

"Not I. Shaklator."

With a growl under his breath, Tharkus turned and marched for the door. That arrogant bastard, Khall, just because he was Shaklator's favored. As he left the room, he turned to the left, walking down the dark hall. A torch was mounted every eight feet to light the passage, but the shadows still pervaded the place.

"Is it really so hard to find the only man alive with a glowing white scar across his stomach?"

Tharkus didn't need to turn to know who was speaking. "Watch your tongue, Mur'neth, or you'll lose it quickly enough."

The dark elf stepped from the shadow behind Tharkus. His coal black skin, combined with the dark leather armor he wore made him nearly invisible in the shadows. One would think the snow white hair might stand out, but if Mur'neth didn't want to be seen, he could be standing on your foot and your wouldn't be able to find him. He also wore a single katana at his left hip, the symbol of his office as a Shadow Blade.

"Oh, did I step on a nerve there?" he said, his voice carrying that damnable silkiness all elves possessed, yet at the same time was far colder and more dangerous in tone. "After all, I got my job done. You just had to locate a single man and haven't been able to do that. I think you're spending a bit too much time in that lab of yours and not enough on the job."

Tharkus didn't stop walking. "I don't have to listen to this from a lowly foot-soldier like you."

Mur'neth's voice was directly in his ear. "It would be so easy to slip a knife between your ribs right now..."

Tharkus turned, raising his fist to strike the impudent elf, but he was standing ten feet down the hall. Mur'neth smiled, and stepped into the shadows, and was gone. _Don't let him get to you like that,_ Tharkus said to himself, _He's been useful, and we're nearly finished._

As he moved through the citadel to the higher levels, he paused at a door to one of the higher balconies, taking a breath of fresh air. It helped clear his head. Yes, things were very near completion. Only a few months more and it would all be over.

At that moment, the wind changed direction, carrying a distant sound to his ears. The sound of someone playing a lute, accompanied by a woman's voice, singing mournfully in the night air.

"_I am lonely like the moon, you are far away as the earth. Though you say I light your thoughts, night after night, you soon forget. We are drifting in this dance, I can feel you circle my heart_, _keeping such a graceful distance, so close, yet somehow apart. Sometimes I cry for you, knowing you don't want me to. Sometimes I whisper to the stars, up in the sky, that I want to find a way to your soul, kiss in the sun when morning comes. You don't seem to count the hours when we are not together. I've seen a tender fire in your eyes, yet when I'm gone, you carry on. I float in this emptiness, till at last, love returns, with the night. And the lonely moon..._"

Tharkus decided he'd listened long enough and turned away, heading toward his lab. After all this time, she still sung it. The song for _him_. Well, let her sing. It wouldn't change anything in the end. Tharkus grinned as he imagined it. Oh, yes, it would be wonderful indeed.

* * *

The trio made good time across the desert, though by the first time Link called a stop, Zelda was already feeling the effect of the heat. She wasn't used to the conditions of such travel. Her hair was plastered to her neck from sweat, the sleeves of her shirt clinging to her arms, and the chain mail she was wearing was growing increasingly uncomfortable in the heat, and felt like it was chafing her. When Link called a halt just before noon, she felt ready to collapse.

She managed to keep her feet when she looked at him, though. His hair was plastered down, though some of his bangs still maintained their unruliness, standing proudly up above his forehead. The white sleeves of his undershirt were grey with wetness, as were his pants. The shoulders and chest of his green tunic were several shades darker than the rest with its wetness. If he could take it, so could she, she decided.

"Cover your eyes," Midna said.

Zelda did so, looking out from beneath her hand as Midna, with but a gesture, stirred up a cutting wind that seemed to pull sand from a spot in the side of a dune, slowing down a moment later when a shallow hallow was formed.

Link took her arm and guided her toward it. "Come on, princess. Time to rest. We'll get you some water and something to eat."

Midna pulled a blanket from her storage, and spread it across the bottom of the hollow. Zelda lay down in it, her feet instantly cheering. Walking across slippery sand dunes was far more work than it seemed.

Link poured water from one of the flasks into a small mug, which he handed to her. "Drink slowly," he said, "Just enough to wet your mouth at a time or you'll make yourself sick."

_Who knew ordinary water would taste so good?_ Zelda thought as she took the first swallow.

They all ate and drank sparingly. The supplies had to last, and Link and Midna had been through this before, so Zelda didn't complain when Link handed her a small helping of food, though her stomach did.

_We're going to lose weight, he said,_ Zelda thought, _If only I had weight I needed to lose._

They spoke little through the afternoon, though Zelda did realize Midna had dug the hollow in the east side of a dune, so they would have shade as the sun sank lower. _I wouldn't have thought of that, either,_ she thought.

When the sun at last dipped below the horizon, Link nudged her, and she realized she had been dozing, and they packed up and started moving once more.

The day's heat rapidly faded as the evening wore on, and a light breeze chilled them rapidly. When Link halted them at nearly midnight, Zelda was all too glad to climb into the new hollow Midna dug, and huddle under a second blanket with the both of them.

It was an odd experience, at one part of the day one was baked and sweating, then within twelve hours was shivering and their teeth chattering. They slept there for the night, and in the morning Link woke them just as the sun was rising to continue before it grew too hot.

Three days they traveled in this manner, then on the morning of the fourth day, as they packed the blankets away, Zelda saw him. On a dune to the east, silhouetted against the sun. "Someone's following us," she said.

Link turned to see. "Looks like," he said, "Might be a nomad, but I imagine he'd have a camel or a boar if he was."

He waved one arm high, "Hello, there!" he called, "What are you doing out here?"

The man on the dune didn't respond. Instead, he pulled one arm back, and threw something toward them. It was an infinitesimal speck in the air, and it fell well short of them, landing in the sand some distance away. It glinted red in the sun.

Link looked back to the east, but the man was gone. "What did he throw out there, then?"

"Should we go see?" Midna said.

"You two wait here," Link said, "I'll be back in a second."

He walked down the dune, toward where the speck had landed. When he reached the spot he was fairly sure it landed, he looked about, but could find nothing. "Must have gone under when it hit," he said to himself, "Never find it now."

Even as he finished speaking, the ground began to shake beneath his feet. Link stepped back rapidly as a dune began to rise right in front of him. It quickly soared to twice his height, and two more appeared on either side of it. Then the front of it began to show shape, arranging itself to the shape of a face, with two hollows for eyes, and a massive set of lips as wide as a man was tall. The two dunes on either side formed fingers, and connected themselves to the center.

A white glow appeared in the hollows that appeared to be eyes, and the mouth opened, revealing a swirling vortex of sand within, and it roared, a sound like wind rushing through a narrow mountain pass, howling across the desert, high pitched and shiver inducing.

The thing now towered over Link by three times his height. He reached for the hilt of the Master Sword as the thing raised one of its massive sandy hands, then Link realized he could hear Zelda and Midna both screaming for him to run.

"Oh, damn!" was all he said before spinning and running.

The sandy fist slammed into the ground, pitching sand in every direction, the waves of impact flying ten feet in the air. The sheer impact knocked Link from his feet, falling face first and getting a mouthful of sand.

Link forced himself up, knowing that even a second too slow would cost his life. He started running, not looking back, as a second sandy fist slammed into the ground, sending waves of sand flying upward and splashing across his back. Though Link stumbled, he managed to keep his feet.

Then he heard Zelda's voice, all around and echoing with the tone of magic. "_Hein zimaon tal ilan! Pyre Bolt!_"

A bolt of lightning lanced out from Zelda's fingertips, shrieking over Link's head and slamming into the colossal sand creature with a dull thump. Link risked a glance back to see sand flying in all directions, spreading outward like a great brown cloud.

_That spell skipped the chanting in an understandable language,_ he thought, though he figured his mind was wandering about a rather unimportant detail at the moment.

It wasn't to last, however, as before the sand even settled, the creature reappeared, rising up from the sand of the ground once more, unscathed. It moved across the dunes with terrifying speed, closing the gap he'd opened up. _Away from the girls,_ he thought, _Got to lead it away._

He changed direction, racing north, hearing and feeling the sandy fists slamming into the ground behind him, missing by mere inches. _Damn, _he thought, _There's got to be some way... The eyes! Maybe that will have some effect!_

Link spun about, stopping in an instant, pulling his sword and shield from his back and took a ready stance. The sand beast raise one hand and thrust it, palm open, forward. Link leaped back, the sandy hand slamming into the ground as his feet flew over his head, spinning about and landing on one knee. Not hesitating for a second, Link leaped onto the beast's hand and ran full speed up its arm and swung the Master Sword low, cleaving into its eye with a powerful upward stroke.

Which met barely any resistance. The blade cut through the sand easily, and suddenly Link realized he'd put too much into it as the blade went too high, overbalancing him and sending him toppling off the beast's shoulder to land behind it on his back.

He quickly got to his feet as the beast turned about, and he could see his cut through the eye was rapidly filling in with more sand, and the white glow wasn't even affected. _Oh, well, in that case... _Link thought, then turned to run with a shouted, "Damn!"

Then Midna was at his side, flying alongside him. "Are you alright?"

"As well as can be," Link said, fighting to keep his balance as the sand man slammed his fist into the ground once more, "Now get away before it gets you, too!"

Midna floated higher. "Bah, you're too worried. Let's see how the beastie likes a taste of shadow magic!"

The red, transparent hand emerged from the top of her mask as she faced the beast, and pointed toward it. With a grunt of effort from Midna, a bolt of black lightning streaked from it, colliding with the creature's forehead, then two more from either of her hands struck its face, creating three constant streams into it, sending sand flying in all directions, but the wounds filling in as fast as they were cut.

Midna cut off the streams with a curse. "Okay, Link, that didn't work, so the next plan. Try to lead it back toward Zelda. I'm going to get her and we're going to try something, okay?"

"Alright!" Link said as she flew back the way they had come.

_Okay, wide circle back,_ he decided, _try to stay ahead of it._

He veered to the left, and was almost instantly cut off by the hand of sand that swept wide. With a curse, Link fell flat as it swept toward him, flying over his prone body with inches to spare, and leaving a great deal of sand in his hair and down his color into his tunic. Link rose up quickly, then was struck from behind with incredible force, sending him flying through the air and landing headfirst in the side of a sand dune, swallowing a fair amount of it.

He forced himself up, sand flying from his hair as he shook his head, and saw the creature rapidly closing in on him again. "Oh, you _so_ did not just slap me!" Link shouted, facing it, taking his ready stance.

Then he saw it. A red glint in the sun right in the center of the beast's forehead. _The gem that jerk threw toward us! It's what made this thing! If I can smash that..._

The beast roared its high pitched screech once more, raising both arms high for a two-fisted strike. They came down, Link was ready, back-flipping away from the blow, then leaping forward again, only to slam into the open palm of the beast's hand as big as he was, and be sent rolling across the ground, digging a small trench in the sand, and wondering if there was a part of him that wasn't hurting now.

He lifted his head up, and forced himself to rise again. _I can't take too much more of this,_ he thought, wincing at a stabbing pain in his chest. Likely a cracked rib from that last hit.

He was back on his feet, but he saw it. The red, semi-transparent hand a distance away, waving for him to come over. Gritting his teeth against the pain in his chest, he started running. _Just don't let it pierce a lung,_ he begged, _If that doesn't happen I'll be fine._

He nearly fell from his feet as the shockwave of the next blow to the ground just behind him hit. Doing everything he could to stay on his feet, he ran for all he had left. Midna was coming toward him rapidly. "The gem! The red gem on its forehead!" he called to her.

Midna shot past him, shouting her acknowledgment, Link turned his head, looking over his shoulder, and as the creature roared once more, raising a hand to strike her down, she flew full speed into it's open mouth, disappearing into the whirling vortex of sand withing a soft plop sound.

_What is she doing?!_ Link thought as he stopped, turning on the spot, _She'll die in there! I've got to get her out!_

Before he could leap after her, Zelda's voice once more filled the air, the echo of magic all around him. "_Thysaxil boxim nagatei. Heed my call, spirits of the north, unleash thy breath upon mine enemy!_"

Link would swear the air was suddenly growing cold, in spite of the impossibility. The sand man was nearly upon him when Zelda finished the spell with a shout, "_Friezen!_"

The sand man slowed down. In fact, in just a few seconds, the seemingly unstobbable beast had drifted to a complete stop, the light brown sand of its body rapidly turning a darker brown, the dark color blossoming outward from its middle, then a thin layer of ice spreading across its body before its fingers had even darkened.

In just a few seconds, it had turned into a shiny brown statue. "Midna," Link said, stepping toward it, "I've got to get her out!"

He lifted his sword, ready to hack it apart, when it just exploded. Chunks and pieces flying everywhere, black lightning arced into the sky. Link turned his head and shielded himself as best he could with his shield as the debris crashed into him, chunks of sand the size of his fist and frozen hard as rock crashing into him and bouncing off his shield with loud metallic ringing.

Then it stopped. Link lowered his shield, and saw amidst the settling dust Midna, who was holding a water flask upside down, shaking it, with not a single drop falling out. "Oh, well," she said, "Guess it had to be done, though we'll cut it close, now."

Link walked toward her, slipping the Master Sword back into its sheath. "What did you think you were doing?"

She looked up at him. "I told you, Zelda and I were going to try something. We used the water in this flask to make use of her ice spell, then I broke the beastie into pieces."

Link stared at her for a moment. Zelda arrived at his side a moment later. "Worked, I see."

"Oh!" Midna said, as if suddenly remembering something, then held out a red gemstone, oval in shape, about an inch long and quarter inch wide in the middle, "This what you were talking about on the way by?"

"That's it," Link said, "That's what that guy threw at us, and what brought that thing to life. Must have been our 'Zero.' I imagine this is what he meant about seeing me perform."

With a half-smile, a small discharge of black electricity formed in Midna's hand, wrapping around the jewel. When it died away, she held a small pile of dust. "Good riddance, then," she said, dumping the dust onto the ground, "Though he must be disappointed by the outcome, then."

"Are you alright, Link?" Zelda asked, turning to him, "I saw what happened."

"Oh, don't worry," Link said as he slipped his shield onto his back, "Nothing's broken. Except my spine. Few ribs. Probably everything else. The pain's actually easing up now."

Zelda simply crossed her arms, intent on not letting him go. "Take off your tunic and shirt and let me see."

"Ooh, kinky," Midna remarked.

Link shot her a dark look, but gave in. "All right. Though the pain is already easing up. I don't think it's that bad."

Link removed his tunic, chain mail, and undershirt, taking the opportunity to shake them free of sand, and stood patiently as Zelda examined his ribs, gently probing each one to check for a break. She was no nurse, but that should at least tell her something.

No ribs were broken, though Link hissed and winced on two separate ribs. They were bruised, but not broken.

Link was quite a sight for the pair of them, in the sun, the muscles in his arms and chest glistening with sweat. Link was no show-boat body builder. Though not the size of many of them, he was easily as strong, if not stronger. The muscle on his body was developed through hard work, not simply for the muscle itself. Zelda smiled slightly as she ran one hand down his abdomen, feeling the rock hard muscle beneath his skin.

He evidently took no notice, as he reached for his shirt, and began redressing.

Zelda stood beside Midna as he adjusted the chain mail and the strings of his tunic. She whispered one word to the imp. "Wow."

"I know," Midna whispered back.

Link paused as he adjusted the baldric over his shoulder. "Why are you two staring at me?"

"No reason," Zelda said wistfully, smiling at him.

He looked at Midna, who was now faking retching sounds and making gagging motions with her left hand.

He turned away with a sigh and picked up his shield. "Women..." he muttered under his breath.

* * *

Ganondorf looked up. He could hear the footsteps of the guard outside the cell. With a wrench, he jerked his left hand down, pulling the shackle from the wall. He rose to his feet, the shackles still on his wrists, though they were hardly a worry.

He walked to the door, and tapped the shackle on his right wrist against it once, then three times. The footsteps of the guard outside stopped. He tapped twice more. Slow footsteps, drawing closer.

"Hey, tin man!" he called, "Get that pompous judge or whatever the hell he is down here! I want to talk to him!"

The footsteps quickly moved away. Well, that was easy.

A few moments later, footsteps returning, more than one person. Muffled voices, too. One demanding to know exactly what happened, and the other hurriedly explaining about a voice demanding to see him.

The slit two-thirds of the way up the door opened, revealing the brown eyes of Judge Ralthas. "Ah, I see you got the other hand free. Shame the wards are still keeping you in, eh?"

"Stow it," Ganondorf said, "I want some questions answered."

"Questions?" Ralthas said, "Why should I answer questions for you? You who wound up on our doorstep, near death, muttering in delirium about the countless murders you've committed, about you possessing one of the ancient powers that granted you eternal life? You who will never leave this cell except over my dead body?"

"Don't tempt me," Ganondorf said, "Or you'll be the first to die when I get out of here. What country is this?"

Judge Ralthas glared at him a moment. "The second kingdom of Mystara."

"How did I get here?"

"Hell if I know," Ralthas said, grimacing.

Ganondorf turned away from him. "Where are we in relation to Hyrule?"

"Hyrule?"

"The landlocked country east of the Gerudo Desert."

Ralthas snickered, "Oh, wait, I think I know. Hyrule is one of those countries on the eastern continent, isn't it? Long way away from here, friend. Planning a vacation?"

_How did I wind up across the sea? _Ganondorf thought to himself, _That damn inaccurate travel spell, combined with my scattered wits at the time, likely. Never again. I just travel on foot from now on._

He turned to see Ralthas glaring at him through the slit. "Are you still here? Begone! I'm done with you for now."

Ralthas slammed the slit shut, turning away from the door. _What the hell was that about?_

Ganondorf paced back and forth across his cell. His strength was still not great enough to break the wards containing him. Very soon, he decided, things will have to change. This time, he wouldn't hesitate to use his darkest magics to slay his enemies. It had been because he was spoiling for a fight with the green-clad hero that his defeat had come about. He had been foolish in his pursuit of revenge.

Never again.


	9. Chapter 8

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

CREDIT: The song in this chapter is "In Your Eyes," from the Project A-Ko soundtrack.

**Chapter 8:** **Dreams of the Impossible**

Three more days and nights of travel at last brought the trio to the first oasis. Fortunate timing as well, as they still possessed only half a flask of water. At the sight of palm trees on the horizon, Zelda had first asked if she was hallucinating.

Once both Link and Midna had confirmed the sight, however, they had set out in a beeline for said trees. It had still taken one more day after sighting them to reach them, however. The oasis itself was lush greenery compared to the rest of the desert. Around a pond of clear water grew a carpet of grass, numerous trees scattered at intervals, and even bushes along the waterline.

With the sun reaching its apex by the time they arrived, first thoughts were for shade. Taking one of the blankets, Link tied the corners off between two trees, creating a square of shade by the edge of the water. Zelda sat at the edge of the pond, her boots removed and her feet soaking in the water.

After tying off the blanket, Link kneeled next to her. "Let me see."

With a sigh, Zelda pulled her feet from the water. She had two large blisters on the heel of her right, a third in the front, and four spread across her left. "They look as bad as they feel?" she asked.

"Not as bad as I expected," he said, letting her return them to the water, noting the bruises around her left ankle as well. She must have sprained it recently, but she hadn't brought it up. "You're doing much better than I expected, princess. Royalty usually aren't the kind for this type of travel."

She shrugged, adjusting the sword at her hip to be more comfortable. "Not like complaining will change anything. Have to go one way or the other. The fact my legs feel like rubber bands makes no difference."

Link patted her on the shoulder, then rose to his feet. "You'll get used to it. We've got a long way to go, yet."

"Is the water safe to drink? There's little things swimming in it..."

Link smiled. "Good question. Look at it this way. That's likely the best sign that the water's drinkable. If it's completely clear and still all the way to the bottom, that likely means there is something in it that even insects can't stand, so I certainly wouldn't want it in me."

Midna appeared at his side. "Hey, you guys want to eat yet?"

"Wait one moment," Link said, "I'd rather not use our supplies if we don't need to. Let me go see if there's anything around here to eat."

He turned toward the far end of the oasis, but called back over his shoulder, "And keep your eyes open. Don't know when our buddy will pay us another visit."

Midna settled herself onto the grass next to Zelda, producing the number of water flasks they possessed. "Let's refill these before we start anything else."

Zelda picked up one, removing the stopper and lowered it into the water, letting it slowly fill. "Sounds good. After which, I'm taking a bath. I've got sand in places not fit for polite conversation."

At that instant, the unique ring of the Master Sword filled the air, both of them leaping to their feet, ready to rush after Link, but then they saw him, sheathing the blade and holding something up for them to see. "How you girls like your snake?" he called to them.

Link managed to find to find two more snakes, for a total of three. Collecting dry grass and branches broken from the bushes, he soon had a small fire going, the three reptiles spit on long sticks over the heat.

"Hey, Link!" Midna called from behind him as he slowly turned them to cook evenly, "Come on, those don't need constant watching! Come swim with us! The water's great!"

Link eyed Zelda's tunic, pants, and shirt, spread out on the grass to dry after washing. "No, thanks. I'll just stay up here and keep watch."

"Oh," Midna said, turning to Zelda, who relaxed in a shallow area of the water, making a half-hearted attempt to clean all the sand from her mass of tangles that used to be her hair, "The big bad hero's shy."

"Make sure mine's well done!" Zelda called to him.

After eating, the three settled down under the makeshift shade to relax for the afternoon, but it was soon voted to spend the night at the oasis. They certainly needed it.

As the sun began its lazy descent below the horizon, staining the landscape red, Link at last settled himself into the shallow water of the pool to clean all the sand away from himself. It was almost unbelievable just how much grit was rapidly visible in the water after sitting down. Dunking his head almost turned his hair into a mass of mud. And he noticed for the first time the beard rapidly spreading over his face, which reminded him that he forgot to pack a razor. He considered using his knife, but decided against it.

The water still held traces of the day's warmth, and it was doing wonders for the pain in his ribs. The bruises were quite visible now, across his chest and back, in a most interesting pattern.

He looked upward, toward the first stars becoming visible. _How long before we see the stars of home again? Just how many weeks... Months... Years? No, certainly not that long..._

He scratched an itch on his neck. _Khall... Shaklator... Just who are you? What do you have against me that would cause you to attack all of Hyrule in such a manner?_

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Link looked up to see Midna seat herself at the edge of the water. He nervously adjusted his position so she couldn't see him in the water. "Just got a lot on my mind. Asking questions no one can answer."

She nodded, leaning back to look at the growing number of stars. "Link, you're near exhaustion. You haven't been sleeping well at night, have you?"

"No," he said, "Nightmares. Always the same."

"What do you see in your nightmares?"

"I see the people of Ordon. Of Hyrule. All in stone, all looking at me," he paused to lay his head back on the grass, "All of them accusing me. For what I allowed to happen. And as I walk, I see Ilia. She is also stone, but I don't see the fear I saw that night in her eyes. I see disappointment."

He sighed, shaking his head without looking away from the stars. "Then I see someone else. A woman I've never seen before, clad in red body armor, hair like fire. She looks straight at me, and declares that it is all because of me. But what terrifies me is her eyes. Jet black, no pupils, irises or whites, just utter darkness. It feels like she can gaze into my soul. That's when I wake up."

Midna drummed her fingers on the grass, and neither of them spoke for a long moment. Then she turned to him. "Link, I can help with the dreams."

He turned toward her. "What?"

Midna wore a sad expression, almost looking depressed, like she should have mentioned it sooner. "There is a little bit of Twili magic I know that allows me to manipulate a person's dreams. I haven't used it often, but I can use it to help you get a good night's sleep, by preventing the nightmare. I don't know what you will dream about, but I can try to make it pleasant."

This was new. "What does it involve?" Link asked, somewhat distrustful of magics he had never seen, though not without cause.

"I must simply use the spell as you sleep, make the adjustments to stop the nightmare, then it is done," she explained, "You don't have to do anything."

A full night's sleep without waking in a cold sweat, knowing he'd do it again shortly later. That would certainly help. Yet the idea of someone tampering with his subconscious made him somewhat queasy. "Okay," Link finally said, "But if I decide I don't like the way it turns out, never again. Understand?"

"Yes," Midna said, a smile creeping onto her features, "Thanks for letting me try."

"No problem. Now, could you hand me my pants?"

* * *

Link woke some time before dawn. It was still dark, and he was certain it was too cold to get up yet. Until the sun appeared, it was far too cold to travel.

Well, the magic had worked, apparently. He hadn't had the nightmare once again, and it had been quite a pleasant dream, though he wasn't sure who the woman he'd seen was.

"Link? Are you awake?"

He turned to look at Midna, lying next to him, also awake. Zelda lay on the other side of her, still asleep.

"How do you feel?" Midna asked, whispering to not wake Zelda.

Link thought seriously about it for a moment. "Pretty good, actually. I might try to get a bit more sleep before sunrise, but I think your magic worked."

Midna half-closed her eyes, not looking into his. "Yes... Link, I have a bit of a confession to make. I didn't tell you everything about how the magic works."

"What do you mean?" Link asked, leaning up on one elbow.

"You see," she started, then choked, but then tried again, "You see, the magic actually involves linking the sleeping minds of two beings together. I know what you dreamed. Of the blue-skinned woman with the narrow face. I also know what happened... next."

Link lay back down, looking up toward the sky. "So, you know. Is it really unusual for a guy's dream?"

"It's not that," she said, "It's the fact that you didn't know who she was. Right?"

"Well, yeah. Haven't seen her before."

"I do know her, Link," Midna said, suddenly having his full attention, "She was me. Or rather, me in my true form, not this cursed imp you see me as."

Link suddenly felt his face growing hot. "Oh, damn... Uh... Well, I'd have loved to have dreamed of you in a more proper fashion..."

"Hold on, there's more to this yet," she said, "You see, with our minds linked in such a fashion, we actually shared the dream, and all the experience, with the one with the stronger will in control of the... events."

Link turned to look at her, and she wouldn't meet his eyes, though she continued, "You are... very strong willed, Link. I couldn't resist your dream."

Link stared at her for a long moment, all the humor of the scene evaporating as he realized the implications of what she had just said. "Are you telling me... that I just gods damned _raped your spirit?!_"

Midna hushed him. "Quiet! You'll wake Zelda!"

Link lowered his voice, "I knew this spell was a bad idea the moment you brought it up!"

"Link, I'm not blaming you for this," she said softly, "Please don't blame me or yourself. Let's just... put it behind us. I can if you can, okay?"

Link stared at her for a long moment, then turned away from her, laying his head down to go back to sleep. "Never again."

"Never again," she whispered, laying back, staring up at the stars.

_And now I'm terrified,_ she thought, _of how he'd react if I'd told him I didn't put up much of a fight._

* * *

They set out early the next morning, water flasks refilled, and Link and Midna saying nothing to each other, and rarely even looking in each other's direction. They walked with the sun at their backs in silence. Zelda could sense something had happened between them, but she politely stayed quiet.

When they stopped at noon to rest, the silence between them wasn't broken. Midna used a bit of magic to dig their hallow, and they all lay down, waiting out the afternoon.

Once evening came, they continued on, same thing, different time.

When they finally stopped for the night, Midna lay awake long after they stopped for the night, unable to sleep. Zelda's even breathing next to her said she was, and Link lay on her far side, so she was unsure.

She decided she needed a few moments away from them, and quietly slipped from beneath the blankets, then floated a short distance away to sit down on the top of a sand dune. From here, she could see for miles in any direction, and there was nothing in the night but bleak, gray sand.

_Perfect place to die,_ she thought, _No one would ever find me. I'd have peace at last._

She had long ago come to understand that Link could never be hers. It wasn't meant to be. They were from different worlds, they were different races. One that embraces eternal twilight, and another that exists in the light, shunning darkness. He had another that he cared for. She had responsibilities as the Twilight Princess, while he was a farmer.

No, not anymore. He was a warrior, through and through. He was a hero of this world, loved by his people.

He was also a hero to the Twili. It was he they had seen enter their world, carrying the light of salvation, returning them to normal from the hideous monsters they had become. She had hid in his shadow, so they wouldn't see her as she had become.

He wasn't fit for life in a palace, a prison of comfort. Midna herself had come to dread the thought of returning to it. The life of traveling that she had become accustomed to was hard, but it was fun. Certainly more fun than sitting on a throne all day dealing with petty disputes between individuals. There were little or no violent crimes in the Twilight Realm, and while she certainly didn't want them to occur, life just didn't seem worth living without a little bit of spice now.

And then back to the responsibilities of the seat. As the only ruler, she was expected to produce an heir. Yet another reason she couldn't be with Link. Could a Hylian and a Twili even have a child? If they could, would it be an acceptable half-blood, or a deformed creature incapable of even thought?

Midna loved him. She loved him with all her heart and every inch of her being. She had ever since that horrible night, when she had first been cast into this world, and he saved her life by taking her to Zelda. Zelda had given her a wonderful gift that not only saved her, but allowed her to exist in the light of this world, yet at the same time it was terrible.

She had fully expected to die that night. She had been convinced it was over. Her only thought had been to get him to Zelda, who would have been able to guide Link far better toward freeing Hyrule from Zant's influence, and in turn saving the Twilight Realm from his tyranny.

Zant, the monster who allowed Ganondorf to act through him, allowing him into their world. A small wave of pleasure washed over Midna as she remembered how, with but a fraction of her ancestors' magic, she had torn to shreds, the bloody ribbons of his flesh cast across the floors and walls, his bones shattered into fragments, and his blood splattered everywhere, dark splashes across the walls and drifting pools across the floor...

She had enjoyed it. Far too much, she realized. Link had killed far more beings than she had, and he did so without hesitation, yet his face was always grim as he did so, and he never smiled afterwards. He hated killing. Yet he realized when it was necessary. A live enemy was an enemy who could come back to haunt you. He was no murderer, but he was no soft-hearted fool, either.

He was the chain that kept her in reality, who hadn't allowed her to slip into the same power-hungry ways of her ancestors. Link was strong, able to stand up to beasts twice his size and strength, he had brought down monsters that could easily level cities and destroy armies, he had even wrestled with a giant aquatic worm in its lair, completely submerged and in the dark, and could have easily swallowed him whole.

Yet he hadn't swayed, and had confronted it directly, finding it's one weakness, the eye on its back situated over its relatively small brain, and put his sword through, bringing the massive beast down. Link's greatest power was his heart, his courage. It was his true strength. And his hope. He never lost hope, no matter how impossible the situation had seemed.

Even when she had all but given up.

And yet, as strong as he was, he was also incredibly gentle. His eyes, when not filled with feral fury, were oceans of calmness. He never looked at the children of Ordon, or Ilia with the harsh eyes Midna had seen him give his enemies. And he never used those eyes on her, either. Even last night, the fury had lay quiet, his eyes pools of painful gentleness.

She had seen him use his incredible strength to cleave heads from shoulders, to shatter armor to pieces, and even force doors that had not moved in centuries to open, feats of strength far beyond most men, and yet whenever he touched her, his touch was soft, his hands gentle.

Even in the dream, he had been most gentle.

No, she decided, she had loved him even before that fateful night. Even when she had treated him so terribly, she had cared for him. That was why her only thoughts, as she was dying, had been of him.

It was because of her love that she knew it would never work, but no matter how she tried to convince herself of this, she couldn't give him up. "Hope springs eternal," they say. Link's undying hope seemed to have infected her in the worst possible place.

She sighed, laying back on the sand, and looked up to the stars. This was one of her favorite things about this world. The Twilight Realm didn't have stars. Link had showed her so many constellations before, though most of them were too far east in the sky right now for the time of year. Once they reached Mystara, all the stars she knew would be beyond sight.

They did little to cheer her now. She had likely alienated Link for good. Even if he did get over what happened last night, he would likely never look at her the same again. She could have broken away from his dream, had she just exerted her willpower, but a part of her had wanted the same thing. The resistance she had put up was laughable at best. And now, if she could have gone back to change it, she would have in an instant.

She recalled an old song of the Twili, she had heard in her childhood. It was a sad song, begging one friend not to leave the other. She couldn't help but compare the current situation to it. The words began to come to her, whispering them into the night, then stronger, and with more volume, but sadness peaking in every note.

"_Looking in your eyes, how I hope that you will see my heart. That our lives will meet, never have to part... Feelings here inside_, _how I wish the world would go away, all but disappear. You and I would stay and I'd be forever in your eyes._

"_Standing in the dark, wanting only to be next to you, shine your light on me, nothing else will do. Deep inside my heart, I believe that you and I could be friends forever more, through eternity and you'd see me forever in your eyes._

"_The two of us together, I see it in my dreams. Nothing could tear us apaart. Through any kind of weather, it's always you and me._ _Together we can stand the test of time._

"_Feelings here inside, how I wish the world would go away, all would disappear but you and I would stay and I'd be forever in your eyes. The two of us together, I see it in my dreams. Nothing could tear us apa-art. Through any kind of weather, it's always you and me. Together we can stand the test of tiime._

"_Standing in the dark, wanting only to be next to you, shine your light on me, nothing else will do. Deep inside my heart, I believe that you and I could be friends forever more, through eternity and you'd see me forever in your eyes._"

The final, drawn out word softened and at last died away into the night. Now that she thought about it, it was more of a love song than one of friendship.

She nearly leaped out of her skin when Link's boots appeared next to her. He had been listening to her sing. He sat down on the sand, draping one end of the blanket he had wrapped around his shoulders over her. Midna only then realized just how cold it was. She was an idiot, sitting there with nothing to cover herself. She shivered as he settled next to her, sharing the warmth he had carried with him.

They sat in silence for a moment, then both spoke up. "I want to-" they both said simultaneously, then both stopped to laugh. "Let me go first," Link said, then continued when she nodded, "I'm sorry, Midna. I'm sorry both about what I did last night, and the way I acted afterward. I realize what happened was more my fault than yours, and I shouldn't have been so harsh. I realized that our friendship is something too strong to be broken over something like this, and far too precious to be cast away because of it. Things might never be the same between us again, but I certainly don't want it to end now. You of all people should know that half the stories they tell about me aren't true. In the end, I am but a man, and not infallible. I make mistakes. I hope... I hope that you can forgive me."

He fell silent, and they sat there a moment in silence before Midna spoke. "There's nothing to forgive. It's my fault because I could have escaped your dream if I put forth the effort. You can't blame yourself. It was... It was pleasant, Link, that you could finally see me as I really am, not this cursed form you see every day. You're right that things will likely never be the same between us again, but it's not a change I regret, Link."

She looked up at him, his eyes gazing off into the distance, the unkempt beard he was growing uneven gave him a bit of a savage look at first glance, and she imagined that with a feral fury in his eyes, he would truly look like a man beast-man. But now, he turned down to look directly at her, and his eyes showed nothing but warmth and kindness.

"Thanks, Midna. Sometimes, I think you're the only thing keeping me sane," he said.

"Even the weight of the world is easier to carry with the help of a friend," she said, smiling.

He smiled back. "You never told me you could sing like that," he said, "You have a very beautiful singing voice."

"Thanks. It was just an old song from my childhood."

"You were relating it to us, right?"

Midna suddenly felt embarrassed, looking away from him. "Well, yes, but just a little."

Link hugged her closer to him. "It's okay. I liked it."

"Do you know any Hyrulian songs, Link?" Midna asked, deciding to change the subject.

"A few," he said, "But my singing was banned by law as 'cruel and unusual torture.'"

"Oh, come on," she said, elbowing him, "You listened in. You owe me a song now."

"Later," Link said, "We need to get back over there before Zelda freezes. After we get out of the desert, I'll sing you one."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

The two of them climbed back into the hallow in the sand, managing to avoid waking Zelda, and settled down to rest for what was left of the night. Midna took the opportunity to snuggle herself against Link's side until he put his arm around her, holding her close.

And though she did not use the magic again, this time Link did not have nightmares.

* * *

Zero stepped into the Mirror Chamber in the prison at the northern edge of the desert, its back to the mountains beyond. The outer walls had collapsed long ago, and the only things of interest in the room were the raised center platform, and the large obsidian block before it.

Atop the platform was the magnificent round mirror that opened the portal to the Twilight Realm. From Zero's understanding, both the mirror and the block were needed to operate the device. If the two were separated, they were useless.

The mirror itself was broken, nearly a third taken off the top of the mirror in a fairly even cut. One piece in his possession would fill about half the missing area, but the other remained in the possession of Link and his friends.

_Well, not my job to worry about that,_ he thought, approaching the pedestal.

"Stay where you are!" a voice called out, echoing about the chamber.

Zero reached for the hilt of the black sword at his hip, its blue gem glinting as he grasped it, though not from the light.

"You tread on forbidden ground," the voice spoke, "Turn back now, or your life is forfeit."

"Show yourself," Zero said, adjusting his grip on the hilt of the sword, pulling it just slightly to be sure it was clear in the scabbard, "I spent most of my life with nothing but figments. I'll not waste any more time talking to figments."

Before his eyes, several figures appeared as if from thin air, all wearing the same white flowing robes, and masks that seemed to hover nearly six inches from their faces, though the faces themselves were not visible. "Begone from this place, broken one," one of them said, "You are unwelcome here."

"Broken one?" Zero said, testing the name, "Got to admit, that's not one I've been called before. Why do you call me that?"

"You do not wish to waste time talking to figments," the sage said, "We do not wish to waste time explaining what you already know. This is your final warning. Turn and depart now, or you will die."

A smile crept across Zero's face. "You and what army?"

Without speaking, all the sages lifted their arms, and unleashed their deadly magic upon him.

Zero raised one arm against the blast of heat that dyed the very air about him dark red. An invisible globe of energy formed around him, protecting him from the worst of the heat, and redirecting it to the walls behind him, turning them molten almost instantly.

"What are you?" the sage asked.

On the back of Zero's right hand, a symbol glowed red. A snaking S with hooked ends, and a diagonal slash through it. He smiled at the sages, drawing Black Razor from the scabbard and stepping toward them. "Me? I'm death incarnate. And you're the next on my list!"

Had Link and the others watched the northern sky that night, they would have seen the eruptions of lights and bolts of lightning that illuminated the battle within the mirror chamber.


	10. Chapter 9

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 9:** **Departure**

Three weeks earlier...

On a road running along the western coast, at nearly midnight, she found it. Laying there in the dust, a thin layer of dirt across its surface, placed by the wind. A small object about the size of her fist, and light as an empty jar when she picked it up. She brushed the dirt from its surface, the gold casing glinting in the moonlight, with four red gems spaced evenly around its circumference.

It was beautiful. Some rich traveler must have dropped it. Well, they'd hardly miss it. Yes, they certainly wouldn't miss it. After all, what was the real use of a gold sphere with red gems? Might make a good paper weight, but hardly any real value in it.

Perhaps she could sell it in town. Then they could melt it down, break it up, whatever was done with this sort of thing. Or maybe it would be better to keep it? Yes, she could keep it. It wouldn't hurt anyone. Maybe she could even show it off and earn favor with someone. Careful, or some pickpocket would just take it. She could have it forever. Forever...

And all she had to do was say the name.

She recoiled in terror as she realized the ideas in her head were not her own, but a low whisper, accompanied by a forked tongue. She lifted the object, ready to hurl it from her. No, don't throw it away! She could be rich! Powerful! She could even become the queen of the country of her choice, if she so desired!

Even the queen of Hyrule. All she had to do was say the name.

The name that inserted itself into her mind. The name that burned in her brain . The name that would release it from its prison within the object.

Prison? There was something trapped within? What kind of being could be contained within such a small object?

That didn't matter! Just say the name and all the rewards she would desire could be hers! Say the name and release it from this infernal prison! Say the name!

No! No! No! Don't say it! Can't trust voices! They always try to mislead innocent folk! It must be some being of dark power never intended to walk the earth again! Can't say it! Mustn't...

Say it or die! Say it or it would find someone else to say it, and then it would rend her body to pieces and feast on her flesh! Say it or her soul would burn forever in fiery torment! Say it! _Say it!_

With a scream, she broke into a run, as fast as she could toward town. The voice followed her all the way, shrieking at her to say the name. She gripped the object tighter and tighter in her hand without even realizing it.

She could not escape.

A lone figure, further down the road from which she came watched her flee into the night, her shriek the most pleasant sound he'd heard in weeks. He smiled, the red S on the back of his right hand glowing brighter for but a moment.

* * *

Present Day...

It had taken another four days to reach the second oasis, and a five day journey from there until the last of the desert was at last in sight. Small shrubs began to grow at irregular intervals, then clumps of grass began to appear, and at last, the thin, slipping sand gave way to solid turf, green grasses growing everywhere, and trees spaced along.

A few hours after reaching the grassland, the trio came across a small stream running south and were allowed to drink their fill for the first time in days.

The first night, they settled down under a large oak tree, and set watches, Link taking the second watch, as it was the most difficult, thanks to one's sleep being divided.

The following morning, they finished off the last of their supplies, and set out westward once more. Shortly before noon, they came to a road, running north and south. Deciding that either way had to lead to civilization eventually, they turned north.

Evening arrived, stomachs were growling, and the lights of a town were visible in the distance in the failing light.

It seemed they had misjudged the road, or it had changed direction so gradually that they hadn't noticed, for as they drew close to the outer walls of the town, no make that city, against the horizon tall masts of ships were visible against the increasing number of stars.

Signs of life in the town were evident even from a distance, and as they drew closer, voices could be heard shouting in the distance, and even a few cases of steel clashing against steel.

About twenty yards from the gate into town, lit by torches burning on either side of the large wooden door situated in the stone wall about fifteen feet high, Link stopped them to lay down some ground rules.

"Okay, first, we're here to get a ship, not advertise Hyrule's condition. I'm sure people will find out one way or another, but we don't want to cause a panic if we can avoid it. We also don't want unwanted types to figure out it would be relatively easy to loot homes at this point. We're here for a ship to Mystara, and rooms for the night, in that order. Princess, I suggest you don't advertise who you are, either."

Zelda nodded. This was no longer her land, and she knew there were types who wouldn't hesitate to attempt a kidnapping for ransom, though at the moment there would be no one to pay. "If anyone asks, I can be your sister," she said.

Link still couldn't get used to her hair braided into a tail like it was now, though. After the first stop at the oasis, she had done so to help keep sand out of it, and to keep it from gluing itself to her neck in sweat once again.

"Good enough," he said, then turned to Midna, "And for you..."

"I know," Midna said, "People might not react too well if they saw me. I'm all too used to that. I'll just go back to hiding in your shadow when people are around."

With a dive, she vanished into Link's shadow in the torchlight. A second later, two yellow eyes appeared in it, looking up at him. "Okay, all set!" she said, then the eyes vanished.

Link shook his head. "Okay, let's go, and see if we can locate a ship sailing soon."

He and Zelda made their way to the gate into town. Link rapped the butt of his dagger against the wood. A moment later, a small opening large enough for a man's face appeared off to the side in the wood. "Who's there?" an ugly man with a jutting chin and beak nose demanded.

Link turned toward it. "Travelers seeking lodgings for the night."

The ugly man eyed them over for a moment, then shut the sliding portal, and there was a loud click from the other side. A normal sized door opened, revealing him within, and he gestured for them to come inside.

Inside the town, there were still lights in many windows, and lanterns hung at regular intervals along the roads to allow lighting at night. Most of them were still lit.

"You seekin' lodgings, you said?" the watchman asked as he slid the bolts on the door back into place.

"Yes," Link said, "Is there any place with food and vacancy at a decent price at this hour?"

The watchman gestured toward the center of town. "Head straight up this street for six blocks, turn left and go two more down. On the right side, you'll find the _Glittering Wizard_."

"Do you know if there are any ships headed to Mystara soon?" Zelda asked.

He thought for a moment, scratching his chin. "Aye, there be the _Angel Marie_. She's a merchant vessel, goes to Mystara regularly. Deals mostly in non-spoiling foodstuffs and ale and wine, sometimes get goods from Hyrule to take across. Hyrulian steel is some of the best stuff imaginable, to my knowledge."

"Where's the _Angel Marie_ docked?" Link asked.

He pointed down the street. "Straight thattaway, turn right when you reach the docks. She's at the far end. They're gettin' ready to ship out tomorrow, so I imagine her captain or someone in charge will be there to help you."

Link tossed him a blue rupee, thanking him as he did so, and he and Zelda started walking. The town was bigger than it appeared from the outside. The majority of people were either already in their homes, though the occasional drunk was visible staggering home from the taverns.

There were three ships in port, two were fishing vessels, evidently offloading their catch, and the _Angel Marie_. A two mast ship, with her masts rising high above them. On either side, six canon barrels were visible, situated on the second deck, and at the prow of the ship was a carved relief of a nude woman with feathered wings.

At this hour, evidently supplies were being loaded last minute, ready for departure with the morning tide. Link spotted one man, who, with a great deal of cursing and waving his arms, was guiding about twelve other men in loading crates onto the ship. "Excuse me, sir, are you in charge here?"

The man turned toward them. A large scar ran down his right cheek, his eyes were set a bit too far apart, and Link could barely make out a small, curled mustache behind the enormous cigar jutting from his teeth. "Aye, I be in charge. Name be Samuel Herrig, Cap'n o' the _Angel Marie_. Ye have business with me?"

"We seek passaged to Mystara," Zelda said, "We heard you are departing tomorrow."

He took a long puff of his cigar, then turned to curse at one of the crewmen who nearly dropped a crate of something Link didn't catch the name of among all the rather colorful names the captain was coming up with for the crewman, then turned back to them. "Don' like takin' passengers. They eat our food and aren't worth as much once we arrive. Ye'd best be able to pay well, else ye got no chance of gettin' on my ship. How many?"

"The two of us," Link said, "We'll need lodgings for two, but food for three."

"Three?"

Link smiled. Oh, she was going to kill him. "My sister's pet."

He could hear Midna growl at him, almost inaudibly.

The captain chewed his cigar. "What currency?"

"Rupees.

He thought again for a moment. Then decided on a sum. "One hundred fifty, all in advance."

"Ninety," Link said. He'd be damned before he was cheated like that.

"One thirty."

"One hundred."

"One fifteen!"

"Done," Link said, pulling out the small bag of rupees he had brought from Ordon. He counted out the number the captain desired.

"All right," the captain said, "We be departing with the morning tide. Be about an hour after sunrise. Ye be late, we leave ye here."

"Thank you," Link said, turning to leave, Zelda following after.

He counted what rupees remained in his purse. "Damn, only thirty-two left. Hope that's enough for a meal and a room."

"I think we could afford some baths as well," Zelda said, producing a small purse from the front of her tunic. She opened it up, and then handed Link two purple rupees.

"What in the?"

Zelda tucked the purse away down the front her tunic. "Don't worry, there's plenty more where that came from," she said, "I just didn't bring much smaller currency, so I hope we can break it."

Backtracking to the street the watchman had previously indicated, they turned and walked down the dark ways until at last they sighted a sign from a brightly lit building with a carving of a pointed hat and stars, alongside which was engraved _The Glittering Wizard_.

Link pushed the door open. Well, the place was still lit well, but most of the customers had evidently gone home. Lanterns were mounted into the walls all about the room, lighting nearly sixteen tables spread about, only about four of which still had occupants, either finishing off meals or nursing mugs of ale.

At the far side of the room was a long bar, behind which a man, likely the tavern owner, wiped a white cloth through some mugs before setting them onto shelves behind him. To the right of the bar were stairs heading upward, and a doorway behind the bar itself that likely led to the kitchen.

Link and Zelda threaded through the tables toward the bar, and the owner turned at their footsteps. "Hello, my friends, coming in a bit late are we?" he said in a sweet voice.

_Goddesses almighty, that's a woman!_ Link thought.

She was a heavily built girl, even taller than Link, her arms nearly twice the size around as his, and she was considerably wider at the shoulders as well. "You still have any food left tonight?" Link asked.

"Sure, sure!" she said with a large, friendly smile, "Sit down, I'll get you some of my famous lamb stew!"

She disappeared through the door behind the counter, returning with two large bowls full of steaming stew. "I always tend to make too much," she said, setting them down before them, "Have to throw what's left to the dogs, but it's good to have plenty in case night owls like yourselves arrive. Good thing, too. You two look half-starved."

The stew was a thick blend of strips of lamb, potatoes, beans, carrots, and rice, and seemed like the best thing Link had ever tasted. The owner asked if they would like something to drink, and Link soon had a mug of Schnogger's Yellow Ale, while Zelda took a glass of a red wine with a name Link couldn't pronounce.

They both downed the delicious stew and were soon into seconds. "Would I be correct in assuming you two need a room for the night as well?" the owner asked with a wink.

"Two beds, please," Link said, "My sister and I will be leaving on the _Angel Marie_ in the morning, so could we get a wake up at about dawn, and possibly have bath-water for then?"

"Oh, sister," the owner said, looking toward Zelda, busy shoveling the stew with most un-princesslike manners, "Yes, I see. That won't be a problem, dearie. Price is twenty rupees for food and room, then another ten for heated water. You can pay in the morning if you like."

"Rather have it out of the way," Link said, counting it out of what small change he had left. He'd prefer not to be flashing around larger currency unless he had to.

The owner took the gems and deposited them beneath the counter. "Thank you. Any more stew?"

Link and Zelda both felt they had had enough of the stew, which had been remarkably filling. Link ordered one more bowl, though, and took it up to the room with them, where Midna leaped out of his shadow the moment he closed the door, and attacked it ravenously.

The room was fairly small, with two beds along the left wall, a small table to the right with a single chair, and a window at the far end.

Link at last unshouldered his shield and removed the baldric over his head, dropping the sword and shield both next to one bed. Zelda put her quiver of arrows and bow on the table, but placed her sword on the floor next to the other bed, realizing Link's reason for it being close at hand.

Link managed as far as removing his tunic and chain mail before falling back onto the bed, into the wonderful feeling of being able to sleep on something soft once again. He had heard that sometimes, after sleeping on the hard ground for so long, people grew unable to sleep in beds. He had never had that problem, at least.

It would also be the first time in a while that he didn't have to sleep in his clothes. It wasn't like trying to sleep in full plate mail, Link knew, but lay or turn just wrong and chain mail would chafe the hell out of you.

He glanced toward Zelda, who had shucked her clothes in a similar fashion, and he had glanced over just in time to see her cover herself up with the white blankets, still wearing a dark blue breast band, and she lay her head back on the pillow, moaning in the pleasure of such an action.

Link shook his head with a smile as he removed his undershirt. She hadn't done badly thus far, for a princess. That was likely the hardest part of the trip overall, unless they had to cross another desert in Mystara with the same conditions at the Gerudo Desert, though he fervently hoped not.

Link shucked his boots and pants and crawled into the blankets, and was confirmed in his assumption that soft beds and good food after a long hard march was better than sex. He was already drifting off when something poked him in the chest.

He opened his eyes to see Midna standing on the bed next to him. "Now, we need to talk about that 'pet' comment earlier."

"Oh, geez," Link turned over, putting his back to her, "It was just to make sure you stayed fed on the trip. It was in your best interest."

Midna leaned over him, putting her face right next to his. "I know that. Just wanted to make sure you realized that, and weren't getting ideas."

"Good. Can I go to sleep now?"

"No. You still owe me that song."

Link groaned. Somehow, he had known she wouldn't forget it. "Wonder how much the owner wants for enough water to drown a rat," he muttered.

"Throw in enough to drown you, too," Zelda said over her shoulder, "Both of you shut up."

Link and Midna both snickered. "Later, then," Midna said, laying down on the bed, snuggling herself into Link's side as he lay back onto his back.

"If we live through this," Link said with yawn.

* * *

Link woke when Midna poked him in the ribs again. With a massive yawn, he sat up, stretching his arms. Looking about, he saw that Zelda was fitting her belt and sword about her waste, her tunic and armor already in place. "Wake up, Link," Midna said, "We let you sleep so Zelda could bathe in peace. Yours is there on the table."

There was a large bowl that held maybe a quart of steaming water.

"Okay," Zelda said as she lifted her quiver onto her shoulder and reached for her bow, "I'll go down for some breakfast while you tidy yourself up. We've got about a half-hour before we need to get to the ship."

"I'm stickin' with you," Midna said, diving into Zelda's shadow, "Try and slip me something while we're there."

Zelda disappeared out the door. Link sighed. _Okay, let's get rid of the grit,_ Link thought, getting up and heading for the bowl of water. There was a rag available, so Link made quick work of himself, washing away the worst of what still clung to him, thinking as he did so that he needed some time in the future to was his clothes. No doubt someone in the world would complain about the smell.

He dressed and gathered his weapon and shield before descending into the main room. He spotted Zelda seated at a table near the door and threaded his way through the rapidly filling room to sit down across from her. The owner arrived shortly later, placing a generous helping of bread and a bowl of porridge.

Link ate quickly, wishing he didn't have to, gods, the bread was even still warm!

They reached the docks as the _Angel Marie_ was readying to depart, the final lines being cast off and men working to unfurl the sails. Link and Zelda arrived at a run, dashing onto the ship before the plank was drawn up, and nearly crashed into the captain.

"Didn't think ye'd make it," he said, lighting a cigar on a match.

"We're quite capable of taking care of ourselves," Link said.

"Right," the captain said, turning to gesture to two people standing nearby, a woman standing in the shadow of the main mast, her arms clutched around a package wrapped in brown cloth, most likely her possession, and a man leaning on the ship's railing, just out of the way of the sailors readying the ship to make way.

"These are our other passengers," the captain said, "The woman is just a traveler, but the man is a swordsman, and I suggest you stay out of his way."

_Like I'd be dumb enough to pick a fight with a guy I've never seen before,_ Link decided not to say out loud.

"Other than them, just stay out of my mens' way so they can do their jobs," the captain said, striding off to find someone to curse at and order about.

The man wore dark brown leather armor, his arms bare, and grey pants with black boots, a longsword at his left hip and a small shield on his left arm. It was more of a buckler, a shield small enough that it could be used, but not so big it would get in the way of his hand. He was staring off to the open sea, not paying much attention to anything on the ship.

The woman seemed to be trying to watch everything at once, clutching the package in her arms tightly. She was wearing a brown tunic and pants, with a dagger strapped to her left leg. She was a traveler at least, ready to defend herself, but no warrior.

Zelda turned to look toward the rapidly receding dock. Within a few hours, it would be out of sight completely. "I feel like we're leaving everything behind," she said.

"No choice in the matter," Link said, "In a way, this is where this really gets started."

He leaned on the railing next to her, watching the receding land.

_He's right,_ Zelda thought, _Everything up to this point was just to reach Mystara. When we arrive, we'll just be getting started._

"You don't seem too upset to be leaving everything you know behind," Zelda said.

"Mixed feelings," Link said, "I like Hyrule, and I know every living thing there is depending on me, but when I'm not starving to death or trekking through desert wastes, I love an adventure."

Zelda turned back to the fading land in the distance. "Goodbye, my precious Hyrule," she said softly, "I swear, I will return one day."

* * *

"Look what I've got for you!"

Khall looked up to see Zero enter his study. He was smiling, as usual, and seemed to have added a black sword with a blue pommel gem to his repertoire since last time Khall had seen him.

Zero gestured, and two men entered the chamber behind him, carrying a massive object covered in a white tarp. The two men leaned it against the wall, then with another gesture from Zero, pulled the tarp from it, revealing the broken Twilight Mirror, about one third of the mirror missing at the top.

Zero then handed Khall a smaller bundle, which the wizard unwrapped, revealing about half of the missing pieces. "Excellent," Khall said, taking the piece and seating it at the top of the mirror, smiling as the glass fused, the pieces becoming one once more.

Only one piece remained now, and that piece was in possession of the three themselves. "You've done very well, Zero," Khall said, turning to the man, "My faith in you is well founded. Now, what about the ring?"

"The princess keeps it on her person," Zero said, "It's unlikely I'd be able to retrieve it without severely damaging her, if not killing her entirely."

"Unfortunate," Khall said, thinking for a moment, then, "Where are they now?"

"Just boarded a ship bound for the eastern border," Zero said, "I made use of the travel spell you provided to beat them back."

He tossed a small red gemstone to Khall, the blood ruby that had contained the travel spell. "How goes the war?" Zero asked.

Khall pocketed the gem. "There is no war yet. Our troops are nearly assembled, and we'll be ready to begin the attack soon, but I want Link and Zelda in place before we move. In the meantime, we need to retrieve the ring and the last piece of the mirror."

"Well, if they make it to Mystara, I'll be all to happy to oblige," Zero said.

Khall turned to him. "What do you mean, 'if they make it?'"

A sinister smile spread across Zero's face. Khall stepped toward him, "Zero, what have you done?"

"Just a small gift," Zero said, "I'm sure they'll be most entertained, if they survive."

Khall raised one hand and clenched it into a fist. Zero cried out in pain and fell to his knees as the invisible magic clenched about his heart. If Khall squeezed any harder, it would explode. "If they die," Khall said, relaxing his grip, "I'll give you over to Shaklator. She will not be as forgiving as I am. Now get out of my sight."

Zero glared at the wizard as he backed out the door, his hatred and loathing undisguised on his face.

* * *

Meronia huddled in the dark night upon the ship's deck, slowly opening the folds of cloth around the package she carried. There was no one around to see, so one look couldn't hurt.

She opened the cloth, revealing the small gold sphere with four red gems embedded in its surface around the circumference.

It belonged to her. No one could ever take it away. Everyone wanted it, envied her. They were all thieves! All of them!

Maybe someone in Mystara could help her hide it... No, it was a mistake to even be on this ship. No matter who she asked, they would all try to take it away! No one could be trusted! No one!

It could end. It and she could finally both be safe.

All she had to do was say the name.

_Say it!_


	11. Chapter 10

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 10: The Demon Lord**

It was six days after the _Angel Marie_ had left port. Zelda was still confined to her bed, a pail handy in case her last meal decided to make another spirited attempt at fleeing her stomach. Link had adapted to the swaying motion of the ship much more easily, only queasy for the first day.

Midna had remained in Link's shadow most of the time, usually only emerging long enough to eat.

Link leaned on the railing on the port side now, letting the morning sun warm him. He had left his chain mail, tunic, and shield in the cabin, but he kept the Master Sword with him, just in case some fool did decide to try something.

The other two passengers made themselves scarce for the most part. The swordsman was sometimes seen dozing on the deck in the afternoon sun, else he was in his cabin, and the woman seemed to wander about the ship, as though looking for something, but never speaking to anyone.

The ship was making steady progress, however, and the captain assured him that they would reach the coast of Mystara in another three days, providing the wind stayed fair. Link was pleased to note that they were eating well while on board, and he'd managed to put on some of the weight he'd lost in the desert. One more belt notch and he'd be back to normal.

Zelda wasn't faring so well, what with vomiting back up most of what she ate. She was keeping enough down to survive, though, and would feel better once back on land. Some people, it seemed, just weren't built for seafaring. The captain had assured Link that most people would have their sea legs after but a day or two, but some never could get it down.

Link yawned. And no small yawn, would it be compared to others. This was an elephant's yawn, brought about by sheer boredom.

"Oh, look," came Midna's voice from near him, "The monotony is taking its toll. Not much for a pair of stoic adventurers like us to do on a ship, is there?"

"When exactly did you become stoic?" Link returned with a chuckle.

"When I said so," she said.

Link yawned again. Yes, he was bored. His feet were getting itchy, and he longed to be back on dry land once more, back to traveling. Back to actually doing something. Nothing ever changed here, it seemed. Water in every direction, as far as the eye could see. If it weren't for the sun, he wouldn't be sure they were even heading the right way.

Yet he was excited at the same time. He was going to a new land, that neither he nor any he knew had seen before. He wondered what the people there would be like, how the cities would be, and what kind of monsters he'd get to see.

Was he really so bored that he was eager for something to be out to kill him once more? Maybe.

Well, he didn't want something to try and kill him right _now_. When he was ready for it, though, he wouldn't mind.

Deciding he might as well try to sleep the day away, he made his way back to their cabin, a small room with two cots on either side and barely enough space between them to stand. Upon entering, he found Zelda sitting upright on hers for the first time in days, and she looked decidedly less green than the day before. "Feeling better?" he asked as he entered.

"Not really," she said, "But there's something more important. Link, I sense a dark power on the ship."

"What?" he said, glancing at the triforce symbol on his hand. It was still glowing faintly, but not reacting the way it had when Ganondorf was near. "What is it?"

Zelda shook her head, trying to focus on what she felt, rather than how her stomach felt. "It's very faint, but I caught wind of it as it moved by our door. It's something different from anything I've ever felt before. It's weak, but it's evil on a scale we've never seen before," she looked up at him, "I'll need to get close to it again to be sure. I can't locate it from here."

"You stay here," Link said, turning for the door, "And I'll search the ship."

"You won't find it," Zelda said, rising to her feet, swaying a moment, then steadying, "You don't know what to look for, or how to locate its energy. Here, let me hold on to your arm."

She slipped her left arm around his right, leaning heavily upon him, the green tint returning to her face for a moment, then fading again. "I'll be fine," she said, "Fresh air might even help me. Let's go up to the deck."

Link led her onto the deck, and over to the railing on the port side. Zelda leaned on it for a moment, her eyes glazing over as she tried to grasp for the invisible source of the dark energy. Link's gaze drifted over to the swordsman on the opposite side of the ship, dozing in the sun.

"What about him?" Link asked.

Zelda glanced over, then shook her head. "No, not him."

Link noticed the color of her face was much closer to normal now. The fresh air did seem to be helping her. She shut her eyes, taking deep, even breaths. Link watched her. She didn't seem to be working any magic, or at least, not of the sort he was getting used to seeing.

She nearly backhanded him in the face when she spun and raised one hand to point. "There!"

Link turned to where she was pointing. It was the other passenger. The woman, still clutching her cloth-wrapped package close to her. The woman saw her point, and she turned to run. Zelda started to run after her, but Link grabbed her shoulder. "Easy. We're on a ship. Unless she plans to jump overboard, there's nowhere for her to go."

He calmly walked in the direction the woman had run, pausing only briefly to make sure the Master Sword was clear in its scabbard. Approaching the rear of the ship, the sailors apparently oblivious to the woman, Link saw her dart down below. "She's running right into a corner now," he said to Zelda as they descended downward.

They moved methodically through the lower decks, making absolutely sure the woman hadn't ducked into one of the rooms to the side, until at last, deep within the bilges, they cornered her against a large pile of crates containing whatever cargo the ship had stored this far down.

"Get away!" she said, her back pressed against the boxes, evidently ready to try and climb over them if they came closer, "It's mine I tell you! I won't let you take it! You dirty, filthy thieves! That's all you are! Thieves!"

Link stopped when they were about six feet from her. "Calm down, miss," Link said, "I don't even know what you're talking about."

Zelda shook her head. "This woman isn't the source of the dark energy. It's that package she's carrying."

"What's in the cloth, miss?" Link asked, trying to be as non-threatening as he could.

She clutched hit closer to herself. "Get back! It's mine! You can't have it! I won't let you take it! The voice... It knows! It knows! It's telling me to say the name! Say the name and it will kill you for trying to take it! Get back!"

"Voice?" Link said, turning to look at Zelda.

"Oh, dear," Zelda said sadly, "It sounds like she's got a sentient artifact. Remember what I told you about Black Razor? About false promises and the like? I think we've got something similar here."

"So," Midna's voice whispered in his ear, "It's on the verge of driving her mad, but she won't give it up?"

"On the verge?" Link said sarcastically as he looked her over. Her clothing was filthy and torn, bruises all along her arms and hands, and the dark circles under her eyes showed she likely hadn't slept in weeks, and her hair was a tangled mess of dirt and brown, wildly flying every direction.

"We aren't trying to hurt you," Zelda said softly, "We want to help. Tell us what's wrong, so we know what we can do?"

"Wrong?!" the woman shrieked, "Nothing's wrong! Nothing but you thieves! You're all thieves! You're all plotting behind my back! You all want to take it! I won't let you! You can't have it! Come any closer and I'll say the name and we'll all die!"

"We'll all die?" Link said, "I thought you said it would only kill us."

"What are you doing?" Midna whispered in his ear, but he shushed her.

"You think I'm a fool?" the woman said, "You think me mad? I know what it is I hold in my hands! I know what is contained within! I have a soul sphere here, and contained within it is the immortal spirit of a demon created during the ancient war! I know his promises are false, but I won't give up the sphere! It's mine! I found it! Not you! Get back or I'll say the name!"

"Demon?" Zelda said, hissing through her teeth, "Could it be...?"

Link turned to her. "I thought you said the demon that nearly destroyed the world was banished to another dimension!"

"To the gap between dimensions," Zelda said, "From which it is nearly impossible to escape. I suppose it's not impossible that the legend was distorted, if it were accurate to begin with. A soul sphere could have also been the solution..."

"Some solution," Link muttered, "Now what do we do? If she releases it, we're all likely dead, if it is as powerful as the legend says." He realized he was gripping the hilt of the Master Sword with his left hand over his shoulder. He slowly release his grip and lowered his arm, trying not to startle her. He could hardly cross the distance between them and cut her down before she could say a single word.

"I'm sure we can be reasonable," Zelda said to the woman, "My name is Zelda, and this is my friend, Link. We're not going to try to take anything from you. Who are you?"

The woman hissed through her teeth, her eyes darting back and forth between Link and Zelda. "Meronia," she said at last, "My name is Meronia."

"Meronia," Zelda said, "That's a lovely name. Can you tell me how you came to possess a soul sphere?"

Meronia tensed for a moment, as though searching Zelda's words for a trap. "Stumbled across it on the road. Half buried, it was. Someone left it behind, I found it, now it's mine!"

"How did you find out it was a soul sphere?" Zelda asked.

"Took it to a magician in the next city southward," she said, "Had to kill him afterwards. He tried to take it from me. Slipped my knife between his ribs and gave a good twist, and he was no further trouble. Wizards bleed the same as any other man! Swore I wouldn't let him or anyone else take it! Get back!"

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Midna whispered to Link, "Should I fry her?"

"Could you do it without sinking the ship?" Link whispered back, "Let's get her back on deck before we try something so drastic."

"Listen to me," Zelda continued to Meronia, "That sphere you hold is very dangerous. The voice it contains cannot be trusted. It hopes to drive you mad, and thus make you release the monster within without realizing it."

"You think I don't know that?!" Meronia shouted, "It's always there, in my head, all day! All night! I'm never alone! It even comes to me in my dreams! I've seen the monster within this sphere in my dreams! Eight feet tall, teeth like knives, claws that can cut through the heaviest armor, and dark power only creatures of nightmares possess! I'm never alone! Never..."

She shuddered, hunching around the object in her hands. "Never alone. Can only keep him out of my dreams. If I don't sleep, I don't have dreams. He can't come to me, torture me at night, threaten me to release him lest I want the same in life when he does escape. Never alone..." Her voice had fallen to a whisper, tears rolling down her cheeks unchecked.

Zelda put one hand on Link's shoulder, pulling him close to whisper into his ear, "We need to get that sphere away from her. I think I can help her, but not while she's like this. We've got to get it without her saying this name, however. It's likely a command word to release the demon within."

"Oh, give me a hard one next time," Link said with a sigh.

"Move over to the side," Zelda said, "She might be more reasonable if she doesn't feel cornered."

_And give her a straight shot back onto the deck,_ Link thought, _Oh, well, not like she really has anywhere to run that we can't find her right now._

Link stepped to the side, leaning against the inner hull of the ship, though he didn't take his eyes from Meronia. "Now, Meronia," Zelda said, "I want to try to help you. That demon is unhealthy for you in the worst way. Will you let me help you?"

Meronia hissed through her teeth, holding the package closer to herself again, and clearly eyed the open route toward the upper decks.

"Meronia, listen to me," Zelda said softly, "You can beat the voice. It is what has convinced you that you must not give up the sphere. If you simply put it down, the voice will no longer be able to reach you. You'll be free."

"Free?" A hint of hope emerged in Meronia's voice. "No," she said, "Never free. Never escape. Never alone!"

"Meronia," Zelda said, a small bit of force entering her voice, "Put the sphere on the floor. I won't touch it. Just put it down."

Meronia seemed to hesitate. No doubt the voice of the sphere was attempting to persuade her once more to say the name. "Meronia," Zelda said, her voice growing into a commanding tone, "Put the sphere on the floor."

Meronia looked at Zelda, then at the package in her hands. She was shaking. _Keep going,_ Link silently urged Zelda, _If you can override the voice for her, we might have a chance at this._

"Meronia," Zelda said, "Put it down. _Now._"

What happened next was not quite the result they were hoping for. Meronia shrieked, and bolted toward the stairs. With a curse, Link and Zelda were both after her as she fled upwards through the ship. Nearly colliding with the captain on the way up, Link heard him shout after them, "What the 'ell do you think ye're doin'?!"

They were right behind Meronia as she fled to the deck, into the open air, but scarcely had she crossed the threshold into the sunlight than she collided with the swordsman, who turned her momentum against her and pulled her over his shoulder and down onto the deck, an planted his foot in her chest.

He looked toward Link and Zelda as they ascended. "What exactly is going on?" he demanded.

Before they could answer, Meronia shreiked, "Erocht! Immortal Lord Erocht!"

The cloth in her hands ignited into flames, causing the swordsman to leap back, grabbing for his sword. Meronia cried out triumphantly as she leaped to her feet, then shreiked in fear and pains as the flames leaped form the cloth onto her clothing and flesh.

It seemed like everyone on the deck was shouting, sailors running all about, one coming with a bucket of water. He doused it over Meronia, but the flames only leaped higher, wrapped themselves around her body like a living creature, hungry for human flesh. Meronia's hair went up, burning away in an instant, and her cries of agony echoed across the sea.

The cloth in her hands crumbled to ash, revealing a small gold sphere, about the size of a human fist, with four red gems imbedded evenly into its circumference. The gems were glowing brightly, and as Link watched he could see cracks spreading along its golden surface.

The captain appeared behind him, demanding to know "what the 'ell is goin' on?!"

Link shouldered him back, "I don't know what's coming out of this, but it's going to be very bad! Keep your men back!"

With a sudden snap, the soul sphere exploded outward, a dark purple light appearing from within, floating in the air as Meronia's screams at last died away and she collapsed to the deck, the flames leaping from her charred body to the light, wrapping about it and seeming to enter the sphere.

Maniacal laughter filled the air, and the dark light began to expand, and take on a semi-human shape. Two legs appeared, and two arms, a head, but it expanded until it was nearly eight feet tall, and then the flesh began to form, dark brown and looking like uncured leather.

Then, with a blast of heat, the transformation was complete, revealing a bipedal beast with claws of steel upon its fingers, a wide mouth set with rows of pointed teeth protruding past its lips, a nose far too small, almost resembling a pig's, and two eyes, glowing red beneath the creased brow.

It was also wearing two massive metal plates upon it's shoulders that descended over it's blue clothing, gaurding its chest and back with but the smallest game in between them, and on its right arm was a massive blade, attached to the gauntlet it wore, nearly six feet in length and clearly sharp on all edges.

Sailors edged away from the beast, some even diving overboard, Link heard the captain quickly making tracks. Link pulled the Master Sword from its scabbard, then heard a second sword drawn, and saw the unknown swordsmen step up beside him.

Link nodded to him, and he returned the gesture. The beast before them took a deep breath of air, its laughter having died to a chuckle. "Freedom at last," it said, it's voice far to cracked to be described as gravelly, "Ten thousand years I've waited. Now, this world will once more know the power of Erocht, the immortal demon lord!"

Link whispered to Zelda to stay out of the way. She nodded stepping away, her mind quickly running over the spells she knew, hoping she'd have one that was effective.

Erocht turned to face Link and the swordsman. "You would fight me? How quaint. I'm still weak from my imprisonment, and I think your souls would be the perfect meal to begin restoring my power!"

_If he's weak,_ Link thought, _Then we just might have a chance!_

"Circle around him," the swordsman whispered to Link, "I'll go for the front."

Link nodded, and they stepped opposite directions, Link circling to the right, and the swordsman to the left. "You ready, Midna?" Link whispered.

"Say when and I'll blow him to pieces," came her reply.

Erocht slammed the massive blade into the deck, dragging it in a wide circle through the wood, sending splinters flying and leaving a nearly inch deep cut in a semi-circle around him. "Come on, then!"

The swordsman charged, with a high swing, aiming for the demon's neck, but Erocht's left hand came up, the sword deflecting off the metal gauntlet the demon wore, and nearly sending him sprawling. Erocht swung his massive blade high, then downward in a vertical slice. The swordsman spun to the side, the blade slamming down into the wooden deck, then he did something Link had never seen before. The swordsman lashed out with his right leg, slamming his foot into the demon's knee with a resounding crack, and causing the demon to fall to his knee.

Link ran at Erocht from behind, intending to cleave the beast's head off, and swung horizontally at the neck. With the crack of bones breaking, Erocht's head bend backwards, the Master Sword barely missing the neck, now flat, as the demon's head gazed at him from it's upside down position. "I see you!" Erocht said in a mocking tone.

Link and the swordsman both stepped back as Erocht rose to his feet once more, the broken knee snapping back into place with a loud pop, and his head resuming its proper position with a series of loud cracks. "That ain't right," the swordsman said.

"No one near him," Link said, "Blast him, Midna!"

"Right!" she said as she leaped from Link's shadow, causing new cries of terror from the sailors.

Midna's red, magical hand extended form her mask, a large ball of black energy forming within it. "Take..." she said, drawing her hands close together in front of her as the red hand drew back, the ball of energy growing larger and large. "...this!" she finished pushing her hands forward, the red hand hurling the globe of energy toward Erochht.

The ball struck him in the chest, black electricity discharging all over his body, but he did not react in any manner Link had expected. He simply stood there as the dark energy discharged itself. Erocht laughed aloud, "You fools! Do you not even realize that a demon's energies and shadow magics are nearly identical! You only make me stronger with such foolish tactics!"

"Oh, damn," Midna and Link said simultaneously.

The swordsman attacked again, this time coming from the demon's right, ducking beneath the massive swing of the blade and countering a low swing, aiming below the plates that guarded the demon's chest. He connected, but the tough skin of the demon prevented a good slice, and as he leaped back, could see he had barely broken the flesh, and only a thin trail of black blood appeared in the blue clothing.

Link attacked from the demon's left side, the metal gauntlet coming up to block his swing, but Link adjusted his swing, aiming higher anc connected above the gauntlet's end, slicing the demon's hand from his arm. Link leaped back, the massive blade missing him by inches on the counter attack. The demon's left arm was spurting black blood across the deck, and the hand law there, twitching.

"Impressive move," Erocht said, "I shall have to be more careful from now on."

He reached down and picked up his severed hand with his right, and pressed the severed wrist against the point on his left arm. A second later, he released his grip and flexed the fingers of his restored left hand. Link glanced at the wound on his stomach, and sure enough, it was already healed.

_Damn,_ he thought, _How do you fight something that heals itself as fast as you injure it?_

He answered himself almost immediately._ The head or the heart_._ Either one can kill almost instantly._

"_Hein zimaon tal ilan!_" came Zelda's voice, echoing and all about them.

_She's trying magic,_ Link thought, _Maybe that will have some effect._

"_Pyre Bolt!_" Zelda finished, a bolt of lightning arcing from her hands to the demon, striking him centered in the chest, and sending him flying back into the base of one of the two masts, a massive crack forming in the mast upon impact, and amidst screams of terror and fleeing of the sailors, the mast fell sideways, crashing down onto the port side of the ship, the upper half snapping off and falling into the water, dragging the sails upon it with it.

Erocht was climbing to his feet, shaking his head. "Utterly pathetic," he said, "What's become of magicians in the last ten millennia? Pyre Bolt is such an easy spell, too."

He smiled at Zelda, his vicious teeth showing all too well, "Let me show you how it's done! _Hein zimaon tal ilan!_"

Zelda stepped back, her back to the starboard railing, her eyes wide. "Damn!" Link shouted as he dove for her.

"_Pyre Bolt!_" Erocht shouted, lashing his left hand out.

Link crashed into Zelda, bowling her over as the streak of lightning blasted into the planking where she had been standing, tearing a four foot gap in the starboard hull, and continuing into the water, sending up a hundred foot wall of water, streaking away from the ship at incredible speed.

"Are you alright?" Link asked.

"Fine," Zelda said as she stood up, glancing down at the massive hole in the deck. The bottom rip in the hull was still a few feet above the water level, but the ship wouldn't be able to ride out a storm in this condition.

The captain appeared a short distance away to shake his fist at the combatants. "Stop blowin' pieces off my ship!"

Erocht smiled at Zelda. "And let that be a lesson to you, young sorceress."

"Dammit," Link muttered, "How do we fight this thing?"

"Link, I've got an idea," Zelda said, "Buy just enough time for me to get my bow from our cabin. Light Arrows should do the trick!"

"Would you mind if he's dead by the time you get back?" Link said, gripping the Master Sword tightly as he moved closer to the demon.

Zelda ran for the stairs leading below deck. The swordsman had attacked once more, this time his blade scraping along the length of the massive blade on Erocht's arm, preventing him from getting close enough to strike.

While Erocht's back was turned, Link attacked, aiming for the gap between the shoulder plates, and successfully striking a cut nearly the full length of the plating before Erocht spun and back handed him with his left, the metal gauntlet causing Link to see stars and nearly breaking his jaw.

Link massaged his jaw with his free hand as he stood up. "That's it," he said, "I'm gonna mount your head on a spear!"

He charged again, his sword connecting with the massive blade brought to defensive once more. "Young one," Erocht said, "There is a difference between courage and foolishness."

Erocht shoved him back, then swung his blade wide, Link taking a step back as the tip cut a thin line through his shirt, but not breaking the skin. "Shit!" Link said, stepping back further.

Midna hovered along the side of the ship, hating every second of this, mainly because her power was utterly useless against this creature. Then Zelda appeared at her side, the bow in her hand. _Of course!_ Midna realized, _A being of darkness has no resistance against the arrows of light!_

Link's back was to the outer wall of the captain's cabin. Erocht closing in, the other swordsman too far away, he had nowhere left to go. Erocht raised his blade high, "Now, it ends!"

A streak of yellow light collided with Erocht's side, the demon crying out in pain for the first time, yellow streams of electricity discharging across his body as he fell to his knees. A second struck him in the shoulder, with another scream of pain, he arched his back howling his agony into the sky.

Link didn't hesitate. He lunged forward, stabbing the Master Sword upward under the shoulder plates, toward the left side of the beasts chest. Erocht cried out a third time, though no arrow of light struck him this time, and Link gave the sword a savage twist. Erocht's scream fell short as black blood burbled upward out his mouth. Link put his foot against the demon, and shoved him back off the sword.

Erocht fell to the deck, his black blood pouring from the wound across his clothing and pooling on the deck. The red light in his eyes flickered, then faded away. A puff of smoke burst form his body, and when it cleared, there was nothing left but the pool of blood and a pile of white ash.

Link leaned on his sword, catching his breath. "Thank the gods," he whispered, staring at the pile of ash that had been the demon lord.

Midna appeared at his side. "Are you alright, Link? You're not injured, are you?"

Link shook his head. "I'm fine. He actually didn't touch me, except for that shot across the mouth he gave me."

Zelda walked over holding her bow in her left hand, but before she could speak, the captain inserted himself between them. "All right, now ye just tell me what the 'ell 'appened 'ere!"

"Your other passenger," Zelda said, "Meronia, had a soul sphere in her possession. It contained that demon we just killed."

The captain shook his head, muttering about how he hated taking on passengers. Then he pointed to Midna, "And what in the 'ell is that?"

Midna growled at him, but Link held on to her. "This is the pet I told you about. Very rare creature, very valuable," he said, Midna's growl growing louder, but he turned her toward him and said softly so only she could hear, "And very important to me."

That calmed her down a bit. The captain was the one who was growling now. "And who's goin' to pay for all these damages?" he said, gesturing to the broken mast and the hole ripped in the starboard side.

"The way I see it," the other swordsman, stepping to them, "It's your fault for not doing a check on that woman. Any idiot could tell she wasn't right in the head. And if you'd bothered to ask this young lady here," he gestured to Zelda, "She could have probably told you what was happening before we even left the port. In case you didn't notice, she's a sorceress, and a talented one at that."

He smiled at her, and she blushed at the smile and the compliment, but remained silent.

"He's right," Link said, "We've just saved the lives of you and your crew at the risk of our own. Call handing the damages off to you as the settlement of the debt."

The captain looked from one face to the other, his confidence failing. He turned to stalk away, and they could hear him cursing fluidly for a full minute without repeating himself before finally shouting orders to get the deck swabbed and get the ship back on course. They were already too far out to bother turning around.

"You're good," the swordsman said to Link, "It was an honor to fight at your side."

"Likewise," Link said, shaking his hand, "My name is Link, and this is my sister, Zelda."

The swordsman took Zelda's hand and lay a kiss on her knuckled. "Pleasure to meet you both," he said as he released her, "My name is Alexander Ragefaust, but you can call me Alex."

He turned to look at Midna, who had seated herself on Link's right shoulder, "And this remarkable creature, is she your familiar?"

"Familiar?" Link asked.

The confusion must have been evident on their faces. "I'm from Mystara," Alex said, "There, it's not unusual for a magician to keep a familiar, or an animal partner, I should say, to assist them in day-to-day practices and spells, though some prefer more intelligent creatures such as imps for these things. So this is not your familiar?"

"Well," Link said, "I never really thought about it that way, but I guess so."

"I've also never met a swordsman with a familiar either, only magicians," Alex continued, "How did you come by it?"

"Long story," Link said, "I'll tell you later."

"Right, I'll be expecting it," Alex said, then turned to walk away.

"Familiar?" Midna asked, leaning against the side of his head.

"You got a problem with that?" Link asked.

"Better than being called a pet, at least."

"So, Zelda," Link said, turning to her, "Do you want to go back to your bed?"

"Actually, I'm feeling much better now," Zelda said, slipping her bow over her shoulder, "For the first time in a while, I'm hungry."

Indeed, she looked much better. The distraction had evidently done her a great deal of good. "Let's see what we can get to eat, then," Link said.

As they went below deck, toward the galley, Midna asked Link, "Are you still bored?"

"If this is the type of thing that comes from it," Link said, "I hearby swear that I will never be bored again."

"Good boy," Midna said, patting him on the head.


	12. Chapter 11

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 11: Arrival**

"Okay," Link said as they made their way from the docks of the port town Garin to the main district, "We're in Mystara. Where do we start?"

They made their way down the paved streets with no real direction in mind, keeping eyes open for taverns, excellent places to pick up information and rumors, and shops, particularly cartographers.

"First, we need a map to determine where exactly we are," Zelda said, "Then we need to find out where this citadel of Khall's is, and hunt him down."

"That doppleganger said it was in the western mountains," Link reminded her, "Probably a long way from here."

Link noticed that as they walk, people moved to give them room, many nodding their heads or even bowing slightly as they passed. _Must not hate foreigners, I guess,_ Link thought.

One thing he did notice was that all the people here had rounded ears, unlike the pointed ones common in Hyrule. Of course, many of the surrounding nation's people had rounded ears, so it was not impossible, he guessed. He became mildly conscious of the points of his own ears, however, and felt it made him a bit too easy to spot.

Suddenly, he saw it, and nudged Zelda with his elbow, "One map shop, on the right."

They made their way to the door, stepping inside. It was well lit inside, if a bit dusty. Four tables were arranged about the walls inside, some small maps spread out for display upon them, which a few customers were milling about, evidently perusing the maps on display.

The owner was a portly man in his mid thirties, seated behind a bar at the far end, the shelves behind him stuff nearly to bursting with rolled maps in seemingly no particular order.

As they entered the shop, the other customers glanced in their direction, then one pair immediately started whispering to each other. _No doubt about the ears,_ Link thought as he led Zelda to the owner.

"Excuse me," he said to get the owner's attention, who spun his chair about and stood up to greet them.

"Aye, m'lord," he said, "'Ow can I 'elp ye?"

"We need a map of Mystara," Link said.

"O' Mystara?" the man said, turning to his the shelves. He looked down one line, then took one, "Easy enuff!" he said, turning back around and unrolling the map upon the bar.

Link and Zelda leaned forward to examine it, and were disappointed to find it only showed the country's provices, rather unevenly distributed and marked with the names in the middle of the black spaces, and a few areas showing mountains and rivers.

"I was hoping for one with a bit more detail," Link said, "One with roads and such marked to aid in travel. This one only shows the provinces and rivers."

"Provinces?" the man said, puzzled for a moment, then chuckled, "M'lord, ye must be confused. Mystara don't be a country. She be the continent."

"What?" Link, Zelda, and Midna all said at once.

"Aye," the man said, rolling up the map, turning to slip it back onto the shelves, scanning through the maps once more before selecting another, and unrolled it onto the counter. This one was a bit more detailed, with lakes and the main roads, though no side roads were marked, and many of the smaller villages scattered around the cities were marked in as well.

"Ye must not be from aroun' 'ere," the owner said, and Link noticed more whispering among the other customers, one departing out the door. The owner pointed to the north easternmost province on the map, to a city on the coast, "Ye be here, in the port city of Garin, which is located within the kingdom of Tyr. Tyr's capitol city, where our queen resides, be here," he said, pointing to a city in the same area of the map, "To the west be the kingdom of Witos-Neiki, and to the south be the kingdom of Metallicana.

"To our southwest," the owner continued, moving his finger along the map, "be the kingdom of Nagil, and at the far southern end of Mystara be the kingdom of Darimar, where the central republic of all our governments resides."

"Central republic?" Zelda asked, "You mean all the kingdoms gather and vote on serious issues?"

"Not exactly, mistress," the owner said, "Better way of describing it be to say that all our leaders, our rulers meet to discuss what be best for the whole, and make their decisions, while the meetings is mediated by a neutral party, usually a judge."

"What's a judge?" Link asked.

"They be part of a law enforcement agency outside all the governments, with jurisdiction anywhere and everywhere. They can sentence a guy to death on the spot, and no one can stop 'em! They can even judge one of the rulers and have them replaced, if they deem it necessary."

"Sounds like the judges are the real rulers here," Zelda said to Link.

"Nay, my lady," the owner said, "Judges be recruited only by other judges, and it never be one who wants to be a judge to begin with. They be offered a chance to turn it down, but no one who desires the office ever gets it. The best ones for a job are the ones who don't want it."

_I suppose I know how that feels,_ Link thought, _I never wanted to be a hero, and look at me now._

"Okay, thank you for filling us in," Zelda said.

"My pleasure, my lady," the owner replied.

"Now, would you happen to have any idea where Khall's citadel is located?"

The whispering of the customers stopped, and the owner suddenly looked nervous. "What you be wantin' with..._ him_, my lady?" he asked at last.

Realizing that Khall was clearly not the best liked of men around, Link leaned down on the counter, looking straight into the owner's eyes. "We intend to kill him."

Some of the customers gasped, and one departed quickly out the door. The owner was sweating. "Well," he said, "Not gonna fault you for your intentions, but that not be the type of man you want to get messed up with. People who go lookin' for him just disappear! No one knows exactly where his citadel be, anyway, because anyone who could have found it is never seen again anyway."

"Look," Link said, keeping his tone even, "Khall has taken something very important from us. He is either going to return it, or I'm going to take his head. I've fought a wizard far worse than him in the past."

"Whatever you say," the owner said, sitting down heavily on his stool, "But I can't help but doubt you. You see, Khall be a member of the Four Lords of Chaos! Even if you do find him and by some miracle kill him, there's still three more! And that's not counting any servants and underlings they have! You don't want to get mixed up with that lot!"

"Four Lords of Chaos, huh?" Link said, turning to Zelda, "Looks like we have four graves to dig now."

"Link, we might be able to bargain with them," Zelda said, "We don't have to kill them all. I still have the ring they want."

"And the way this guy's reacting, and even their name doesn't tell you that we're not dealing with nice people?" Link asked, "I get the feeling that someone is going to die, and I'd rather it be them than us."

Link turned back to the owner. "Listen, I know you don't want our deaths on your conscience, but I promise we can take care of ourselves. If you don't give us some idea of where to look for the citadel, we're just going to have to comb the entire mountain range."

The owner sat in silence for a moment. "All right," he said finally, "I imagine it's somewhere in the mountains on the west side of Whitos-Neiki. That's where all the fighting is taking place."

"Fighting?" Zelda asked, "What fighting?"

"On the western borders of Whitos-Neiki, the forces of the four lords is occasionally attacking, then pulling out, as though probing for weaknesses in the defence. By the time the main army gets organized and mobilized to fight, the enemy has already pulled out, disappearing into the mountains. That's all that they let the common people know about it."

"How much for the map?" Link asked.

The owner looked at the map still spread along the counter. "Three coppers."

Link stopped with his hand in his money purse. "Coppers? You use metal currency here?"

"Yes," the owner said, looking up at him, "Why?"

Link sighed, and dumped what money he had left, one blue rupee, seven green, and two purple on the counter. "Can you accept this, or point us to an exchange agent?"

The owner picked up one of the green rupees, the small gem about the size of his thumbnail. "This be money?"

Link sighed and rolled his eyes. "So much for even an exchange, I guess," he said, "We'll have to find something to earn a little as we go."

He scraped the rupees off the counter and back into his purse. "Thanks for your help," Link said as he and Zelda turned to walk for the door.

"Aye," the owner said as he rolled up the map, "Good luck. You'll be needin' it."

The other customers hastily stepped away from them as they walked to the door. Link thought that if he grunted and stepped toward them, they might faint.

Scarcely had they stepped into through the door and into the sun that four armored men carrying spears appeared before them. A fifth, with no spear but a different design to his armor, evidently an officer, stepped toward them. "Sir, madam," he said, "I'm going to have to ask you to accompany me down the watch house."

"What are you? The police?" Link asked, "We haven't done anything!"

"We've had two anonymous reports that you are looking for Khall, and are foreigners who presume to appear like our ruling class," the officer said, "This is not yet an arrest, but it will be if you do not cooperate."

Link looked at Zelda and his own clothes. They were filthy, unwashed, and his beard was growing wildly, he needed to remember shave at the next chance he got, and Zelda's hair was bound in a tight shoulder-length braid, whereas most rulers of the feminine sex were essentially under the impression that the bigger their hair, the higher ranked they were.

Besides, who would have reported...? _Those two bastards who slipped out of the shop!_ Link realized.

"Listen," Link said, "We are foreigners, yes, but our business is our own. I've very little desire to become involved in the local legal system. Let us be on our way and you'll never see us again."

The four spearmen stepped in closer, blocking any chance of escape. "I will ask politely one more time," the officer said, "Please accompany us down to the watch house. We will ask you some questions, and if there is nothing amiss, you will be on your way. If you refuse, I will be forced to arrest you, in which case you _will_ become involved in our legal system. If you're lucky, you might even see a judge."

Link was slowly reaching for the hilt of his sword, but Zelda's hand caught his. "Let's not make our first act here one of injuring the local law enforcement," she said, "I know you'd win, but we'd not exactly be welcome anywhere, would we? Especially considering how closely knit these kingdoms are."

Link sighed. "All right," he said, "We'll come quietly. For now."

"A wise decision," the officer said, then gestured to the western street, "This way, if you please."

* * *

Two hours later, they were still waiting. Link and Zelda sat in an interrogation room, about ten square feet in size, the walls all stone, and a single wooden table before them, upon which their weapons had been orderly laid out, and they were seated in high backed wooden chairs, and a single guard stood at the door across from them, keeping a close eye, though they had yet to make one threatening move.

"What the hell are they doing?" Link asked, "Wasting their own time is one thing, wasting ours is quite another."

"I imagine they've gone to get someone of higher authority to question us," Zelda said, "That's rarely the task of street officers alone."

"By the time we get out of here, we might as well just stay in this town for the night," Link said, "I wanted to be on the road by now, and if we cant' afford food, I might have been able to get a deer or maybe some rabbits."

"Where is Midna?" Zelda whispered, leaning closer, "I haven't seen her since we got off the ship."

"In my shadow again," Link replied, "I think she fell asleep."

The door suddenly opened, the officer who had brought them in stepped in. Behind him was a young woman in a loose fitting purple robe. At least, that's what it seamed like at first. The torso of the outfit fell about halfway down her cleavage, exposing just enough to grab attention, but not so much as to be obcene, and was held in place by two shoulder straps, and was sleeveless.

The lower half of the outfit fell to about her knees, and seemed to be a slit skirt, with the right side open, exposing her leg all the way to the hip. It was secured in place by a red sash about her waist. He blonde hair was cut at shoulder length, and seemed to be brushed back to keep her long bangs out of her eyes.

She also had pointed ears, just like them.

"Here they are," the officer said, "Foreigners disguised as elves, walking about town armed such as they were, and announcing their plans to find and join Khall."

"Now wait a minute!" Link said, rising to his feet, "I never said that! I said we were going to kill him!"

Before he could continue, the woman raised one hand, for him to be silent. "If you will wait one moment," she said, her voice soft and smooth, "I will listen to your side of the story. I never make decisions on incomplete information. First, I want to see the weapons you had with you."

The officer nodded and stepped to the table, picking up Zelda's bow. "Looks like a shortbow with gold engravings and decorations. Maybe has some evil enchantment."

Zelda's brow furrowed. Link noticed even she didn't enjoy that kind of ridiculous thinking. The woman was the one to correct him, however. "Many weapons carry enchantments, and that does not automatically make them evil. It is the will of the user that decides between good or evil uses."

Link sat back down, noticing a small smile spreading across Zelda's face. This woman was not superstitious or stupid. He rather liked that fact himself.

The officer evidently didn't like being told such a thing though. "Maybe," he huffed, laying the bow down, then pulling one of the arrows from Zelda's quiver, "Strange designs all over these arrows, and it looks like gold for the head. Very unusual. Also likely enchanted."

"What are these?" the woman asked, gesturing to the arrow.

"Arrows of light," Zelda said, "They are a gift from our goddesses. Creatures of darkness, or even evil men cannot abide their power, and are especially vulnerable to their magic."

The woman nodded, a small smile starting to appear on her face. The officer replaced the arrow in the quiver, then picked up Zelda's rapier. "A light sword," he said, pulling it from its sheath, "Evidently designed for thrusting attacks. I've seen a few in my life, but not many. They're very rare."

"Not so rare where we're from," Zelda said, "That one is mine, by the way."

The woman nodded. The officer replaced the rapier in the sheath, laying it down, and reached for the Master Sword. "A broadsword," he said, taking the hilt and attempting to draw it, but to no avail. He grunted as he strained with all his strength, yet could not draw the blade. "Rusted into its scabbard," he said, laying it down at last.

"It may be enchanted so that only the proper owner my use it," the woman said, then gestured to Link, "Would you draw it for us?"

Link picked up the sword, then pulled it easily from the scabbard, its unique metallic ring filling the small room. The woman nodded, and Link replaced it, and lay it back on the table. "Seems I was correct," the woman said, reaching for it. She picked it up and gave a light tug on the hilt.

She had expected it to remain fast, but it pulled out once more, easily. "What?"

She replaced the blade in the scabbard and turned to them. "What is this sword? Why did it do that?"

"It is called the Master Sword," Zelda said, "It is one of the most powerful weapons of our kingdom. Only those pure of heart may draw it, whether from its scabbard, or the sacred alter where it is placed in times of peace."

She turned to look at Link with a smile. "I think we can trust her."

Link nodded. The woman lay the Master Sword back on the table. "Leave me with them," she said.

The guard at the door stepped out. "You, too," the woman said, gesturing to the officer.

He growled under his breath, but stepped out, closing the door behind him.

"Okay," the woman said, "First of all, my name is Sheila Anthress. Who are you?"

"I am the Princess Zelda Daphnes Hyrule," Zelda said, silencing Link's protests by raising one hand, "This is Link, the wielder of the Master Sword and hero of Hyrule."

"A moment ago," Sheila said, "You said you could trust me after I drew that sword. Is it really a way to gauge trust?"

"As I said, the Master Sword can only be drawn by one pure of heart," Zelda said, "It's not perfectly accurate, as one could consider a psychotic zealot pure at heart, even with beliefs that are not healthy or correct. You seem quite reasonable, besides, and that is why I believe we can trust you."

Link listened intently. Even he had not known about that trait of the sword. So he was pure of heart? He'd never really considered himself that, but okay.

Sheila nodded, considering what they said. She then changed track. "Hyrule is across the sea to the east, yes? What are you doing here?"

"The wizard, Khall, has imprisoned my people through the use of a dark magic we have no knowledge of how to counter," Zelda said, "He has also left bread crumbs, if you will, to lead us over here after him. We have an item he wants, according to the servant of his that we caught snooping around my castle. I had planned to bargain with him, the item for the counter-spell, but it seems he is a truly villainous man, judging by reactions around here."

"So what do you intend to do about it now?" Sheila asked, her voice calm and level.

Link leaned forward. "Force the spell out of him and kill him. The world would be better off without him, it seems."

Sheila shut her eyes, her elbows resting on the table, and her hands together before her face. She thought for a long moment. "One more question," she said, "Why disguise yourselves as elves?"

"What do you mean?" Zelda asked, "We wear no disguises."

"Your ears, like mine," Sheila said, "Elves are marked by pointed ears, but any real elf could spot you a mile away. Your auras do not match."

Link sighed. "Okay, pretend you're talking to someone who knows practically nothing about magic, like me. What are you talking about?"

Sheila nodded. "Elves are descended from the original royal lines of the High Ancients, and we are beings who possess natural magic to some degree. We are the considered the ruling caste of Mystara, though only Maylow, the king of Whitos-Neiki is the only true elvish ruler.

"Let's see... How to put this in layman's terms... An elf's innate magic allows them to sense the aura of beings around them, and notice differences in the spectru, let's say in color for simplicity. In my mind's eye, other elves possess a white aura, whilst humans possess a blue aura. You two cannot sense such things?"

"Well, I can't," Link said.

Zelda nodded. "I do possess some sensory abilities, similar to what you've described, but different. I can sense dark energies around an object or person, and dark intentions such as a planned murder. To a lesser extent, I can also read a person's emotions, regardless of how they try to disguise them. My abilities do not come naturally, however. I had to study and exercise them for some time to reach my current level of ability."

Sheila looked up at them. "I see. So, you truly are not elves, at least not of our kind."

"We are of a race called Hylians," Zelda said, "An old legend says we were blessed with pointed ears to hear messages from the gods."

Sheila raised an eyebrow. "Really? And do you hear these messages?"

"Not a word," Link said with a chuckle, "I swear, asking the gods for advice is like talking to a _wall_."

Sheila smiled slightly. "I see. If you don't mind my asking, what is the average life span of your race?"

"About a hundred years. Why?"

Sheila nodded. "That alone should confirm you as one of the races of humans, as that is the correct life span. As for why, how old do you think I am?"

Link sighed. Games, now? "Hell, I'd say mid to late twenties?"

"Actually, I'm almost three hundred."

If Link had been drinking something, he'd have spit it on the table. "Say what?"

Sheila was giggling now. "Elves have extended lives, compared to humans. We live about a thousand years.

"Anyway, this brings me to my next point. Other than your ears, you show every sign of being human, yet your aura is still the wrong color. You two possess an aura of gold, something I have never encountered before. There is also a black aura hovering near you, though I can't quite figure out where."

Link chuckled. "Come on out, Midna, she knows you're here."

Midna emerged from Link's shadow, floating upward, then seating herself on the edge of the table. Sheila stared at her for a moment. "I see. What is it?"

"'_It_' is a she," Midna said, "And she is the princess of the Twilight Realm."

"The Twilight Realm," Sheila said, "The shadow world that lies parallel to our own."

"Oh, good," Midna said, "That saves a lot of explaining. Anyway, I'm with Link and Zelda here, because one of Khall's servants has stolen a piece of the Twilight Mirror, and without all the pieces, I cannot get home."

"And," Zelda said, "I believe I know the reason for our miscolored auras."

She placed her right hand on the table, palm down, so the faintly glowing triforce could be seen. Link took the hint and lay his left down so Sheila could see his. She stared at them for a moment. "I've seen that symbol before, in one of the ancient texts. It is the mark of one of the ancient powers left upon the world by the gods, correct?"

"Yes," Zelda said, "Though we know very little of its use. It is something we've had since we could remember called the Triforce. There is a third piece, in the hands of a wizard named Ganondorf, a villain who has tried to take Hyrule from her rightful rulers many times. He is far more skilled in its use, and thus makes him a very dangerous man."

Sheila sat for another moment, considering. "Okay," she said, "Let's say I believe what you've told me thus far. Do you know what spell it was that imprisoned your people?"

"All the evidence seems to point toward a spell described in a history of the ancient forbidden magics known as 'The Silencing,'" Zelda said, "All of our people have been turned to stone, along with every animal and plant in the country."

"And would I be correct in guessing it was your...Triforces, you called them?" Sheila said, "They protected you from the effect?"

Zelda nodded, and Sheila turned to Midna. "And you? How did you escape the effect?"

"Sheer dumb luck," Link said.

Midna glared at him, then turned back to Sheila, "I figured that the spell itself had be discharged through the ground, and the fact that I as hovering at the time, as I often do," she floated upward to prove her point, "It missed me because I was not in contact with anything else at that time."

"That seems logical," Sheila said, "Okay. I believe you. However, I believe it is fortunate that I was the one present to question you here, for you may not have to confront Khall at all."

"What do you mean?" Link asked.

"In Tyr, the capital city of this kingdom, is one of the churches of my order," Sheila said, "I haven't told you everything. I am the High Elder of all elves, and a talented sorceress besides. My rank is not one that could be considered ruling, but it does command a great deal of respect. The church I speak of is more of a school for magicians like myself, and contains a massive library of texts on magic, including some that detail the casting of many of the ancient forbidden magics, though they are locked away, intended never to be used. It is also where the only known copy of the counter-spell for the Silencing is stored."

"Are you serious?" Link said, unable to keep the excitement from his voice, "It's right there, one city away?"

"Yes," Sheila said, "It will take some convincing of the priests to let me have it, but I'm sure I can bully them into it. Can you use magic other than your sensory abilities, princess?"

Zelda nodded. "I'm fairly skilled. I'm nowhere near as powerful as a career wizard, but I'm a fast learner."

"Wonderful," Sheila said, "It shouldn't take long to teach you the spell, and then you can be on your way."

"Wait a minute," Link said, "Won't Khall just try something else? We've got something he wants. He's going to have to be dealt with sooner or later. I'd prefer sooner, myself."

"I wouldn't suggest fighting him unless you plan to take on all four of the Lords of Chaos," Sheila said, "They occasionally attack Whitos-Neiki, but have never taken it, but all attempts to take their mountain citadel have failed utterly. Survivors from such attacks speak of the walking dead attacking in waves, the very earth and air rending their comrades apart, and shadows that cannot be struck, yet kill as efficiently as any man."

"Part of the problem, I imagine, is the large attack forces," Link said, "They're too easy to see coming. But three or four men, maybe even less, could sneak in and possibly succeed."

Midna chuckled and turned to Sheila. "The difficult he does immediately. The impossible, just give him a minute," she said.

"Our first duty is to our people, Link," Zelda said, "Let us get the counter-spell and free them, then we can send additional aid to the people here to defeat the Lords of Chaos. You can be among them if you wish."

"Listen to your princess," Sheila said, "She understands well. We have held out well enough against the Lords of Chaos for nearly three years now. We can wait the few more weeks for you to save your people."

She stood up. "Now, if you will take your equipment, I will see to it that the guards understand you are free to go. Go find an inn and rest up, we'll meet at the west gate of the city in the morning to depart."

"Hate to do this," Link said, "But our money seems to be no good here. We can't pay for an inn."

"No problem," Sheila said, producing a small purse from the front of her outfit, then fished out two silver coins which she handed to Link, "That should cover three beds, baths, laundry, and meals, with some left over."

She turned to leave, then glanced back, "I would really appreciate the laundry and baths."

"So would I," Link said, standing up, "Let's go."

They gathered up their equipment, Midna hid in Link's shadow once more, and departed the watch house. Now, with a plan of action, it seemed the end was already in sight.

* * *

Khall unrolled the small message that had come attached to the pigeon's leg. He smiled as he read the contents.

He turned to face the dark elf, Mur'neth, across from him. "They have arrived. I guess Zero gets to live after all."

Mur'neth smiled. "So, what's our next move? The last piece of the mirror and the ring, right?"

Khall held the small message to a candle's flame, letting it go up in ash. "No, but it seems they've come in contact with the High Elder, and she's offered them the counter-spell to the Silencing. That would cut things short, which I would not prefer. I want you to go to Tyr, and keep them from getting the spell. Destroy it, disrupt it, whatever it takes. I trust your judgement. Just make absolutely sure that you don't hurt them."

"And after that?"

"Follow them and keep me informed of their movements," Khall said, "Don't let them know you are there, however. Don't forget that Mandrag Ganon is somewhere on this continent. They may lead us right to him. We only need two of the three alive, and at this point, I would prefer he be the dead one. He's far more dangerous at this moment than they. If you locate him, you are free to use whatever methods you desire to finish him off."

"As you wish," Mur'neth said, bowing at the waist, then turning and departing.

Khall opened the large tome before him, to a page with a large illustration of the Twilight Mirror, and in it's center was the triple triangle of the Triforce. "Three points of balance," Khall said to himself, "While they are all in place within the world, the gateway cannot be opened. With but one gone, however, the balance is overthrown, and the seal can be opened. But, with less that two in place, there is not enough power in the world to draw such a being in."

It was a very fine-balanced scheme. The slightest mishap could ruin it all. It was a plan ten years in the making, and Khall was not about to let Zero loose again with that ridiculous ego behind those incredible powers, and risk him ruining everything.


	13. Chapter 12

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 12: Shadows**

That night, Link, Zelda, and Midna truly rested in comfort for the first time in weeks. The inn they found made good meals and enough water was provided for real bathing, instead of the cloth-baths they had last time, and Link spent an extra copper to get himself a folding razor to get rid of the uneven ugly beard he was sporting. He thought it was absolutely amazing. Some boys could grow beards that were perfectly even would fall to their waist or knees given enough time by their sixteenth birthday. His always made him look like a feral, rabid beast.

Maybe, he thought upon reflection, that wasn't too far from the truth.

Their clothing was also cleaned for them, and Link smiled when he saw the stains on his tunic were gone, and it shone bright green once more. After gathering their gear and eating a hearty breakfast, they made their way to the western gate of the city, and sat in the shade of the buildings across the street from it as they waited.

"It's hard to believe," Zelda remarked, watching the guards at the gate as they questioned people moving in or out, sometimes stopping a wagon for a brief inspection of its contents, "We've already come so far, and we may be on our way back by the end of the day."

Link nodded, not looking at her. He was running over ideas to try and convince her to wait until Khall and the others were dealt with before returning, but he could find no logical argument. Hyrule could provide little enough even were it restored, because it was still trying to get back on its own feet. The explosives, however, could be traded as weapons, and Link himself could return if he felt it necessary.

And he wasn't about to send Zelda back on her own. She showed promise as a traveler, never complaining about the difficult march he had led her on, but she wasn't experienced enough to let her go, especially crossing that desert again, by herself.

Khall had a piece of the Twilight Mirror as well. Without that, Midna could never return home, and the fact it had a habit of corrupting those with it in their possession was a matter to itself. What would it do to a man like Khall? Would he be able to resist its power?

And there was still the matter of Ganondorf. Would he make himself known soon? Or had he disappeared for good? A sudden thought struck Link. _Wait, that shop owner had said there were four Lords of Chaos. Could Ganondorf be one of them?_

His thoughts were interrupted by the clatter of hooves on the street and a two-horse coach came to a stop before them, the driver seated at the front taking a moment to light his pipe with a match. A door in the side opened, and the blonde head of Sheila leaned out. "Good morning! Climb in and we'll be off!"

Link and Zelda rose to their feet, walking toward the coach. "Well," Zelda said, "I wasn't expecting this. Maybe horses, but not a coach."

She stepped up into the coach, it swayed slightly as her weight moved about. Link gripped the side of the door and stepped up. It wasn't a big coach, just a maximum of for occupants, but the seats were padded and the windows on either side had curtains that could be drawn for privacy.

Link sat down next to Zelda, across from Sheila, slipping the baldric with his sword off and leaning it against the seat, next to his leg. Zelda had already done the same with her bow and quiver, and had arranged her belt so her sword would not be uncomfortable.

Sheila shut the door, and the driver ordered a "Giddy-yap!" and the cart began moving with a lurch. Link turned slightly sideways, so his knees didn't press against Sheila's in the narrow confines.

As soon as the door was closed, however, Midna leaped from his shadow and seated herself squarely in the empty space beside Sheila, settling onto the cushion with unfeigned pleasure.

"I hope you don't mind," Sheila said, responding to Zelda's earlier comment about the horses, "I'm essentially expected to travel in this manner, though I'd prefer riding myself. I trust you rested well last night?"

"Very well," Link said, "Everything you requested is taken care of as well."

Sheila smiled at him. "And my assumption was right. You do look a sight better washed and clean-shaven."

"That's not saying he looks terribly good that way, either," Midna said.

"I have a question for you," Link said, ignoring Midna, "You said the Lords of Chaos occasionally skirmish with Whitos-Neiki. How long have they been doing so?"

"Close to ten years, I believe," Sheila said, "They appeared and announced they would conquer the world, and proclaimed themselves the Lords of Chaos, and then pretty much just send small forces from the mountains while they sit up there and watch."

"Who in the right mind announces they are going to conquer the world?" Link said, "Anyone with sense would just attack, for the element of surprise, at least on the first invasion."

"That and ruling the entire world is nearly impossible," Zelda said, "Ruling one kingdom would be difficult. With the entire world under one ruler, one would have far too much territory to govern at once, thus causing the need for governors of each country, and minor lords under them for each city. Two, three, or even four countries under one ruler is feasible, but not world. It is just too much ground to cover, and a rebellion could build up and attack before one even realized it."

"You understand much, princess," Sheila said, "More so than many foolish nobles. Whatever the delusion these people have, they gave us warning, and the other kingdoms are supplying Whitos-Neiki for its defense with both food and troops."

"And announcing such an intention gives the other kingdoms a chance to unite against the common enemy," Link said, "Especially if they are as closely knit as Mystara's lands. But you said all the attempts to take their citadel have failed. I'm trying to figure out what you said the survivors spoke of. The undead attackers must be zombies and skeletons and the like. I've seen plenty of them before."

"You have?" Sheila asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah," Midna said, "You go around plundering ancient temples and holy grounds, and even a few crypts with magic around like we have and you're bound to see a few."

"It sounds like the sheer numbers are the only problem," Link said, "Alone, zombies are hardly a threat. They're slow, stupid, and if all else fails, you can outrun them at a brisk walk. Skeletons are faster, and the fact that they do not even have the flesh holding them together makes them easier to hack apart, but most keep getting up unless they are either blasted into unusable pieces, or the source of the magic animating them is destroyed.

"What I'm more worried about is the earth and air rending men apart that you mentioned," Link continued, "Sounds like magic to me. Are all the Lords of Chaos magicians?"

Sheila nodded, "At least three of them are for certain. Other than Khall, whom speaks for them but we have never actually seen him fight, the survivors spoke of a tall man who wears dark robes, the undead came at his call. We believe him to be a necromancer, practicing the forbidden magic of that dark art. The other one we know of is a woman, one survivor who had his unit torn apart by lightning said he sighted her amidst the storm that had struck them, at its center.

"The fourth, unfortunately, no one has seen, but it is believed he leads the shadows."

Zelda leaned forward, "I'm curious about that. How can shadows kill?"

"There are rumors that it is a new, dark magic that brings them to life, the few survivors describing them as being black as night even in daylight, striking from impossible locations, and disappearing without a trace," Sheila said.

"You don't sound like you believe that," Midna said.

"I am far more educated on the ancient war than most," Sheila said, "There were special soldiers back then, who operated as spies and assassins, and were trained to attack from the shadows and disappear just as quickly. It is said they trained their senses of smell and hearing so well that they could find their target in a pitch black room by his smell and heartbeat. They were called ninja."

"And that's what you think these shadows are?" Link asked, "Ninja?"

"I believe that someone has emulated their ways," Sheila said, "Because the ninja of old were a very select group, and were completely wiped out by the end of the war, with no one to pass on their training."

Link leaned back with a sigh. "They are also the ones who likely patrol the passes leading to the citadel, I would assume. They'd then inform the higher ups that someone was coming without the advancing groups even knowing they were spotted."

"If I may ask," Sheila said, "Why the interest in the lords and their defenses?"

"Because I'm still convinced they should be dealt with sooner rather than later," Link said, "I had been thinking a smaller group sneaking in would work better than a massive force, but these ninja sound like they're a hell of a lot better at it than I am, and would spot me coming regardless of how well I conceal myself."

"Link, don't be foolish," Zelda said, "There is no advantage to getting ourselves killed before we can really do anything."

"Attack from the air," Midna said, interrupting Zelda from going further.

All three of them turned to stare at her. "Excuse me?" Sheila asked.

"The mountain pass is impossible, correct? Attack from above, then," Midna said, "Get some flying beasts trained as mounts, maybe gryphons or wyverns, and drop explosives on the place, or have a magician ride up and blast the hell out of it."

They sat in silence for a moment. "Well," Sheila said, massaging her temple, "I admit none have thought of that before. But that has its own disadvantages as well. What's to stop the lords from shooting the riders out of the air with their magic?"

Link was nodding, "I get it. A distraction. Have ground forces draw the enemy out while the flyers approach the citadel from behind. It would cost many lives in the infantry, but it is far more likely to work than climbing up the passes."

Sheila sighed. "This is why I'm glad I'm not in charge of the military. I wouldn't be able to knowingly send thousands of men to their deaths like that."

Zelda reached across and took her hand. "That is the burden of rulers," she said, "We must sometimes make decisions that we hate, because any other route would be far worse. I know."

She did indeed know. Her surrender to Zant had felt like she was betraying her people, like she may as well gouge out her own heart, because it would have been less painful, but it was the only way to save them.

The conversation drifted away from the Lords of Chaos and to more pleasant areas. Sheila told them of the city of Tyr, with one of the largest markets in Mystara, if one couldn't find what they sought there, then it likely didn't exist. She told them of the palace, six stories with over eight hundred rooms altogether, which Zelda thought was rather overdoing it, and of the church they sought, with its great opulent library and the main hall which could seat six hundred people comfortably, and well as the great lecture halls where up and coming magicians were trained.

Just after noon they arrived in the city. Link, Zelda and Midna stared out the coach windows at the streets, all remarkably clean, the city alive as people moved about the streets in number like blood in veins. They rode pas the marketplace, where in the brief glance, Link saw vegetable merchants, bakers, jewelers, butchers, weapons dealers, and all other imaginable kinds of business men peddling their wares.

He heard a sniff beside him and turned to see Zelda wipe tears from her eyes. This was what Hyrule had been like, the way it was supposed to be. _Okay,_ he decided, _We'll go back to Hyrule first, if only to save her this kind of pain._

* * *

Mur'neth leaned against a stone wall in the shadow of a fruit vendor in the market. He absently took a bite from an apple the vendor wouldn't miss as he watched the two-horse coach pass by. As he licked the juice from his lips, another dark elf materialized next to him from the shadow of an alley. "They are here, my lord." 

"So I see," Mur'neth said, "Time to get to work. Get the others and head to the church. Wait outside the walls at the back end for me. Make sure you're not seen, but don't kill anyone that will be missed."

"As you wish, my lord," the dark elf said, then stepped back into the alley and was gone without a sound.

With a run, Mur'neth charged the wall across from him, managing four steps straight up it before leaping back to the opposite side of the alley, his fingers catching the second-floor windowsill. He pulled himself up onto it in a crouching position, then leaped back to the other side of the alley, landing on the roof.

He checked the people moving about below him. No one had noticed his ascent. He turned in the direction of the church and ran. With a running leap, he jumped the gap between houses, then another to cross a street. So long as he was quiet, no one ever looked up. Stupid humans.

In a short time he approaching the massive cathedral, and dropped into a dark alley two streets away. Moving in the shadows of the alley, and darting quickly across the next street, he checked once more than no one had seen, then moved close to the outer wall of the cathedral. Looking up toward the main road, he saw the coach approaching the main gate into the courtyard.

With a running jump, Mur'neth heaved himself at the wall, his fingers catching the top edge. He pulled himself upward and onto the wall, then crouched down behind the crenelation as a guard with his back turned rounded the corner toward the main gate. Once the guard was a fair way away, Mur'neth picked himself up and dropped into the courtyard just as the coach cleared the gate and rolled to a stop before the main doors.

* * *

"Lady Anthress! It is good to see you once again!" 

Sheila was the first out of the coach, helped down by a hand from one of the men who greeted them. Link got a good look as he stepped down, Midna already back in his shadow. The one who helped her down looked to be human, in his later years judging by the greying hair and deep lines that marred his face. The other was an elf, also seeming to be in his later years, though behind the snow white beard, Link found it hard to distinguish wrinkles or lines. They were both dressed in flowing white robes.

Sheila gestured to them. "This is High Priest Geoff," she said pointing to the man, "And Archmage Riven," she gestured to the elf.

Link turned to the coach at a sound, and caught Zelda as she tripped over her quiver, its strap tangled about her legs as she tried to pick it up and exit the coach at once. Link held her in one arm as he reached down to untangle the strap. Once she was in order once again, he turned back to the men, adjusting his baldric to be more comfortable.

"This is Link and Zelda from the kingdom of Hyrule across the sea," Sheila said to the men, "They've come seeking the counter-spell for the Silencing."

"The Silencing?" Riven repeated, "There is someone in this day and age who can cast that spell?"

"They tell me that Khall of the Lords of Chaos is behind such villainy," she replied, "Such a thing is not impossible."

"I suppose not," Riven said, "But the only copy of the counter-spell is in the spellbook of Darius, the last of the High Ancients. We cannot hand such a valuable tome over to them out of hand. It would do them little good anyway, as it is written in the ancient language and cannot be read."

_Oh, great,_ Link thought, _She hadn't mentioned that part._

"It can still be translated," Sheila said, "You know this. In doing so, we will also create a copy that they may take while we keep the tome. I intend to be sure that Zelda can cast it before she departs in any case."

"Oh," Geoff said with a smile, "The young lady is a sorceress! Wonderful! I've never met a foreign magician before. Tell me, do you know any spells we do not? I'd be happy to take them down so we may add them to the curriculum..."

Riven interrupted him with a loud cough. He then turned back to Sheila, "My lady, the type of translation you are suggesting is very dangerous. If you were to lapse in your concentration for even one moment, the spell would go awry, and possibly even destroy the very book. We cannot take such a risk."

Sheila's tone turned from friendly to harsh. "You know I can handle the translation spell! You're just getting pissy now because you've failed your last three attempts at its casting! That is part of the reason I am High Elder and you are not!"

"Your rank matters not within these walls, my lady," Riven said, "I say the book stays in the vault, and my word is final!"

Zelda stepped forward. "My lord."

Riven, Geoff, and Sheila turned to her. Zelda took a deep breath. "My lord, I am the princess of Hyrule. My people have been sealed in stone by the dark magics of the Silencing, and I have come seeking aid in their release. I understand the value of the ancient texts, as an intruder in my castle destroyed many valuable tomes that cannot be replaced. I know you have no reason to help me, but the spell is the reason we have come, and it is the only chance we have. If you will not help me, then please help my people."

She blinked, trying to clear her vision as it began to blur with tears. "I only want to help my people. I have come far, but that is irrelevant. If you will accept a trade for the spell, I will do anything you ask. If you want me to beg, I shall. Please tell me what you would accept as payment for the readable spell."

She wiped her eyes on her sleeve, looking up at the archmage, who seemed unaffected anything she said. Sheila turned to Riven with a scowl, while Geoff was busy blowing his nose into his sleeve.

Link stepped up behind Zelda and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. She acknowledged it with a small smile.

Riven stared at her for several minutes in silence. "You truly care for your people," he said at last, "That alone speaks volumes for you. However!" he added, letting the word hang in the air for a moment, "The tome in which the spell resides is truly irreplaceable. There is a magic spell to translate texts into other languages, and can be used to translate this volume into the modern language. The spell is extremely difficult to perform, however, and a single lapse of concentration can lose the spell, or even destroy the original. You ask us to take such a risk?"

"If you will not allow the spell," Zelda said, "Then perhaps you would permit a more traditional translation?"

Riven considered it for a moment. "That could take months," he said, "Are you willing to devote that amount of time to this?"

"What kind of question is that?" Link said before she could respond, "That spell is the reason we're here! We've gone through a desert and across the sea to get here, we've fought a doppleganger, a sandman, and a demon from the time of the ancients! Whether we're willing to keep going sounds like a pretty stupid thing to ask about."

The achmage's face was turning red and he was clenching his teeth, apparently ready to shout Link out of the courtyard. Sheila spoke before he could. "Riven, please," she said, catching his attention, "Would you really condemn their home to the same fate Darimar suffered ten thousand years ago?"

Geoff tugged on Riven's sleeve. "My friend, their cause is worthy enough. And I believe in Sheila's abilities. And it's not like we'd be handing over one of the forbidden magics."

Riven glanced at Geoff, then growled. "Fine. I'll yield to this. But if the spell fails and the tome does not survive, it will be on both of your heads."

Sheila suddenly hugged Riven. "Oh, thank you, Riven! You're such a big softie!"

Riven endured her embrace for a second, then shoved her away. "Enough of that! You know where the vault is. But those two," he pointed at Link and Zelda, "may not enter it. I'll go to prepare the circle. And this is the last favor you will ever get from me, Sheila Anthress."

He turned to enter the cathedral, and could be overheard muttering, "I swear, if her father wasn't a judge, she'd never have gotten into this school..."

The door shut behind him.

Sheila turned to Link and Zelda with a smile, "You'll have to forgive him. He's still a bit bitter. You see, he was next in line for the position of High Elder, but he failed test of the required spell mastery. What made him so bitter was that I was actually his student here for nearly one hundred fifteen years."

"He is actually very proud of you," Geoff said, "Teachers love to see their students surpass them, though many have a hard time admitting it."

"Come on inside," Sheila gestured, "You have to see this place."

Once inside the doors, the main hall was overpowering. It was certainly a church, with massive numbers of pews on either side of a narrow aisle up the center, red carpeting underfoot, and a raised platform for a priest to perform his sermons. This could certainly house eight hundred people, and them some if they didn't mind standing.

The ceiling was almost fifty feet up, topped with a skylight of stained glass depicting what Link assumed to be the gods worshipped. Among them he spied the golden bodies of the three goddesses of Hyrule, yet they seemed dwarfed by the number of others. His eyes lingered on one, a goddess depicted in red body armor, with hair the color of fire, and her eyes completely black.

"Is that the woman from your dream?" Midna whispered in his ear.

That was where he had seen her. She was the one who had accused him in his dream of Hyrule's fate being his fault. Had the nightmare been a message from a god? Maybe these pointed ears weren't just for show...

"Are you coming, Link?" Zelda asked.

She and Sheila were waiting by one of the side doors on the left side. He hurried after them. Once out of the main hall, it began to look more like a school than a church. Sheila showed them one of the lecture halls, which was at that moment in session, as an aged man lectured nearly two hundred students on the difference between Invocation and Evocation magics, something far out of Link's depth. Sheila also pointed out where the dorms were, with nearly a thousand rooms, most housing two students. Link hadn't realized just how large this place was from the ouside. He asked how big it really was, and Sheila asked if he'd like it in yards or miles.

Nearly a third of the city was land for this building. It must have taken several fortunes to build, and decades to complete.

Sheila opened one door, and Link found himself in a library like he'd never seen before. _My entire house would fit in here!_ he thought.

Bookshelves lined the walls of the room, filled to the brim, and went clear to the nearly twenty foot high roof, rolling ladders placed alongside many of them. Every direction Link turned he saw books. The room had to be at least a hundred yards wide in any direction, and not just the walls, but the floor was filled with fifteen foot tall bookshelves, scarcely enough room to walk between them, all stuffed nearly to the bursting point with books of all sizes.

"Holy goddesses," Link said, "How do you find anything in here?"

Sheila gestured to the markings on the end of one bookcase. "They are all organized properly, and at the far end down there is the catalogue, though it may take hours just to find what you want in there."

She stopped and gestured to the shelves. "You two, er, three can look around if you want. I have to go into the vault to get Darius' spellbook. Riven didn't want you to go in, so..."

"That's alright," Zelda said, "We'll wait for you here."

She walked away through the shelves. Midna popped out of Link's shadow. "I wonder if they have anything on curses laid by the Triforce here."

Link remembered. Her curse that trapped her in the body of an imp was created by Ganondorf. Perhaps a solution could be found here. A way that Zelda or he could use their Triforce to free her. More likely Zelda, he decided, because he wanted as little to do with the thing as possible.

"I'm getting tired of hiding in your shadow anyway," she said, "While we're here, I guess I can just pass myself off as your... 'familiar' I think he called it."

"Whatever you want," Link said, his eyes roaming across the books in a nearby shelf.

_Exorcism for_ _Beginners, Demons of the Lower Planes, 101 Easy Home Remedies for Demonic Possession, Demons Who Are About to Eat You and Their Banishment, Demons Who Have Already Begun to Eat You and Their Banishment._

_Must be in the demonology section,_ Link thought, _Demonology? That even a word?_

(And just so you readers know, yes it is, and yes I did look it up, and no, I did not believe it was beforehand.)

Sheila returned a few minutes later, carrying a book about six inches tall and four wide, though it was about four thick as well. It was bound in a plain brown leather cover. "Here it is," she said.

"Not quite what I expected," Link said, "I thought wizards' spellbooks were supposed to be huge and brightly colored."

"Most often they used simple designs like this," Sheila said, "Many have quite a few more pages than they were originally bound with.

"May I see it?" Zelda asked.

Sheila handed it to her, and she opened it, flipping through the pages. Link and Midna crowded around her shoulders to see. It was written in a language Link had never seen before. "How exactly does this translation spell work?" he asked.

Sheila took the book. "Basically, it invokes the power of the god of knowledge and reprints the translated text onto the medium of choice. This is something I need to ask you about, Link. The easiest medium that I can be sure you will not lose would be your sword."

The three of them stared at her for a moment. "What?" Link finally asked, "How is my sword going to help?"

"I want to reprint the spell onto its blade," Sheila said, "It will not interfere with the enchantments already in place on the sword, and then as a final guarantee, if the counter-spell is ever needed by your people again, it will be available."

"Of course," Zelda said, "The Master Sword has been around since before Hyrule even existed. It would be the perfect way to protect such a valuable spell for the future, just in case."

Geoff appeared at the library entrance. "Lady Sheila. We are ready."

She nodded. "We'll be there in just a moment," she said, then turned back to them, "Shall we get this show on the road?"

* * *

She led them to a garden on the roof of the cathedral. It was well kept, with mainly grass and small trees, though Link saw a few areas that looked like vegetable gardens. At the center of the garden was a large metal plate, engraved with a five pointed star nearly ten feet across. In the center of the star, between the criss-crossing lines that made it up was a pedestal about waist-high. 

Riven met them there. He reminded Sheila once more of the difficulty of the spell she was about to attempt. She lay the spellbook down on the pedestal and directed Link to lay the Master Sword next to it. She then told them all to wait outside the edge of the star on the plate.

She took her place before the pedestal, but turned to face Link, Zelda, and Midna. "Pay attention. The spell I am about to attempt is extremely difficult and taxing. I cannot allow my concentration to lapse during the casting, so I must ask you to avoid any action that may distract me. Do not speak to me, and if you must speak amongst yourselves, whisper. If something happens that ruins the spell, we may not get a second try. I have done this in the past, so I know I can succeed."

She nodded to them once, then turned away to face the pedestal. She lifted her arms to the side, about shoulder level. The book on the pedestal before her opened itself, flipping through to a page about two thirds of the way through. "_Ein ilinan sael cal fanil,_" she said, her voice seeming to be all around them at once and echoing, the way Link had come to know meant magic, "_Sanatil kalas ibid nan. In the name of Ahriman, the god of knowledge, I beseech thee to bestow upon me thy knowledge._"

The star on the plate was beginning to glow with a blue light, growing brighter as she recited more of the spell. Link realized that the blade of the Master Sword was also glowing with the same light. "_Show me the bridge to the past, open the doors to the ancient knowledge long forgotten._"

The light was glowing brighter, and as Link watched, he realized that the letters within the book were floating off the page, glowing red in the air as they began to circle around the pedestal. Beads of sweat were appearing on Sheila's forehead and running down her cheeks.

Zelda nudged him with her elbow. "We've got a problem," she whispered, "We aren't alone up here."

He turned toward Riven, who was looking in their direction. Riven indicated with his head to something behind him.

_I knew this was too easy,_ Link thought.

Then it happened. Three figures leaped from seemingly nowhere toward them. Link slid his shield down on his arm and slammed it across the face of the first one within reach. He turned to the second to see a long, curved blade swinging toward him. He raised his shield quickly, the blade scraping off it to the side, and Link reached out with a left-handed punch to the stomach, the figure doubling over as the wind was knocked from him.

_These are the shadows,_ Link thought, _The ninja!_

The figures were dressed in almost black leather armor, with long black sleeves covering their arms, and black pants and boots, and had even painted their faces black. As he saw the first one getting back up, however, a third one was tossed into the air as a black bolt of lightning seared across his chest.

Link turned to see if Sheila had lost the spell, but she held her stance, the glow maintained. She was ignoring what was happening as best she could. The ninja he had smashed the face of was on his feet, and pulled two daggers from his belt. Or Link thought they were daggers. He had never seen one with, instead of a hilt, a metal handle with a ring just below where it was held.

Before the ninja reached Link, however, a yellow streak slammed into his chest, bowling him over and sending him flying a good ten feet. _Where'd the other one go?_ Link thought, spinning about, and saw, not the third one, but a fourth running toward Sheila from the other side of the magic circle.

Link ran as the ninja drew a curved sword, a unique metallic ring, not the same as the Master Sword, but unlike any other sword Link had ever heard, filled the air. The ninja ran for Sheila, aiming a wide swing high at her, intending to cleave her head completely off. Link dove, crashing into her and dragging her to the ground as the ninja's sword whipped past over their heads.

"The spell!" Sheila cried as they hit the ground.

The red letters spun through the air like a tornado, rising higher and higher, then slammed into each other at a single point, turning into a white globe of light that slammed downward into the open tome, then fired itself straight up into the air, high into the sky, then split into five small lights that flew opposite directions over the horizons.

Link was back on his feet, but the ninja threw something at the ground, and the air filled with blinding smoke. Link coughed on it, swinging his shield about wildly, attempting to find the ninja, but struck nothing but air.

He paused to catch his breath, but the smoke was already clearing.

The ninja were gone. Zelda held her bow ready, an arrow notched, while Midna was searching around the trees further out from the circle. Riven had red bloodstains on his white robe, holding a bloody knife in his hand.

"Who the hell were they?" Link asked.

Sheila took his offered hand and climbed to his feet. "I imagine our ninja. Not shadows after all."

Link glanced at Riven. "It's not mine," the archmage said, "I didn't have time to use my magic."

"In that case, it looks like they bleed the same as any other man," Link said.

Midna came near him. "They're gone, not a trace. Not even a trail of blood from the one Riven stabbed."

"What about the spell?" Zelda asked, "What happened?"

They looked at the tome, its pages shredded and charred, the book destroyed beyond repair. All the spells within were lost. "The spell was disrupted," Sheila said, "Though Link saved my life, the tome is beyond use."

"I was afraid this would happen," Riven said, "Now we've lost the spellbook of the last ancient wizard."

Midna floated up to him. "It's not Sheila's fault or Link's! It would have been fine if those men hadn't shown up!"

"I did not suggest otherwise," Riven said.

"I don't get it," Zelda said, shouldering her bow, "Did they attack just to disrupt the spell?"

"Khall must know we're here already," Link said, "I'd think he doesn't want us leaving so soon, especially while we still have the ring he's after."

"So, what now?" Zelda asked, "The spell is lost? Hyrule is lost?"

Sheila turned to her. "Not necessarily. You saw the spell fly into the sky and split into five parts, right?"

They each nodded. "In the time of the ancients," Sheila explained, "The average magician was far more powerful than any who exist today. Inexperienced mages often lose control of their spells, and the disrupted spell can run wild. A precaution was put into place by the archmages back then. Five magic seeking altars were built in five locations of power across Mystara. These altars absorb magic that has gone out of control, dividing it into five parts to reduce the power, then absorb it safely into the altars. It was a protection for the land from her own magicians, essentially. Therefore, our translated spell will have one of each of its five pieces imprinted on each altar."

"It can be retrieved?" Zelda asked.

Sheila nodded. "There is but one option. Travel to each altar and transfer the spell from the altar to the blade of the Master Sword. Once all five are together, the spell will be complete."

"Don't forget," Riven said, "The temples were built over ten thousand years ago. They fell into disrepair long ago and are little more than ruins now. The altars surely still remain, we've seen the evidence, but getting to them may prove difficult, especially if something undesirable has made the ruins its home in the time since."

Link picked up the Master Sword, its blade still clean, and slid it into its scabbard. "There will also be traps waiting," Sheila said, "The altars were not left undefended, and I imagine many of the mechanical traps are still functional."

"So," Link said, "What you're saying is that these temples have become common dungeons."

"I suppose," Riven said, "Though I'd hardly call them the same as the common adventure fodder tombs and such make for."

"Where are they?" Zelda asked.

"One in each kingdom," Sheila said, "Tyr's is about a day's ride from here.

"Okay then," Link said, "We'll need to get some supplies. Food, new blankets, maps, the works."

Riven stared at him a moment. "You truly intend to go?"

Link slipped his shield to his back, adjusting it for a comfortable fit. "Hey," he said, "It's not an adventure without a little dungeon crawling, right Midna?"

"Absolutely," Midna said, "Just like the good old days."

"We'll need good horses, then," Zelda said, "And we should probably get maps of each kingdom separately, so we can get the ones with the most detail."

Sheila stepped toward the trio, already making their plans. "I'll go too, then."

They turned to her. "This is partially my fault," she said, "And unless Zelda has been hiding something from me, you'll need me to retrieve the pieces of the spell from the altars."

"What about your position as High Elder?" Link asked, "Aren't there duties you are needed for?"

"Nothing that can't be delegated to others," Sheila said, glancing at Riven.

Link smiled and slapped her shoulder. "Alright, then. Welcome to the team. As the first part, you can pay for the supplies we need, since none of us have any money."

They made their way back to the town to begin purchasing their supplies, planning for a departure early the next morning. The food was the easiest to find, and after a little digging, they found a map of the kingdom of Tyr, very detailed and marking even small hills and ponds.

As the sun began to set and twilight began to fall over the city, Link stopped to watch it a moment. Midna came to his side. "What's the matter, Link?"

"Just thinking," he said, "It feels like this is where we're really getting started. Everything up until now has just been practice."

"Why do you say that?"

Link remembered the goddess in red depicted in the stained glass skylight, and her appearance in his nightmares, blaming him for the fate of Hyrule.

"Call it a hunch," he said, "But I think something really big is about to happen. Something like we've never seen before. And this Khall is going to be at the center of it."


	14. Chapter 13

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 13: Shark Attack**

Mur'neth watched the four depart from Tyr the next morning, upon three horses with the imp seated upon Link's shoulder. He was well pleased with yesterday's operation, though one of his men had been wounded pretty badly.

Link was good. If he'd been even a millisecond slower, Mur'neth would have had the High Elder's head. Oh, well. Time enough for that later. They had a trip all across Mystara now. Mur'neth released the pigeon in his hands, watching it fly up into the sky, then toward the west. Khall would shortly know that he had been successful.

Though he had been told to leave them alone, Mur'neth still wondered how they would be able to retrieve the missing fragment of the Twilight Mirror. If he understood what he had seen earlier, that imp was able to magically store objects such as their supplies, though she had warned them not to try to overload her. She undoubtably carried the piece of the mirror the same way. If she were to die, it would likely be lost, along with whatever else she carried.

_But I like a challenge,_ Mur'neth thought, _Have to find some way to get her to bring it out willingly._

And then there was still the ring. He could see the slim silver chain around Zelda's neck, descending down the inside of her tunic. That had to be where it was. Another difficult retrieval, especially since she was needed alive.

One of the three had to be dead, Khall had said, but he had insisted that Mandrag Ganon be the one. Likely the hardest of the lot to kill, but he was also likely the most dangerous if he realized what they were up to. Fortunately, his hatred of Link knew no bounds, so the odds of them allying against them were virtually nothing.

Mur'neth scratched an itch on his neck, and hopped to the ground from the branch upon which he had been sitting. Besides, he knew Ganon, had met him personally. He wasn't the type to play hero. He was a hateful bastard, through and through. He'd be distracted with trying to rebuild his conquest of the world and the Lords could strike and bring him down.

Of course, why was he laying low at the moment then? Khall had examined the Master Sword some time ago, and found that its power was likely one of the few things that could cause lasting injury on the dark wizard. But it had been a year since his defeat at the hands of Link, and would no doubt have recovered by now.

As the four disappeared behind a distant grassy hill, Mur'neth felt a bit of respect for Link. That young man had accomplished what he had failed so utterly to do twenty years ago. _Twenty years,_ the dark elf thought, _A blink of an eye for an elf, but it feels like a different life._ _Well, I've had twenty years to improve, and this time, Ganon's head will be mine. Just lead me to him, my young friend._

He signaled the others with a gesture of his arm, and the four of them began their silent trailing of Link and his friends.

* * *

The only road to the ruins they sought was naught but a dusty wagon track used by the small number of farms in the area for getting goods to town. Every so often they passed one of these farms and received friendly waves from the farmers tending their crops.

"So what do you know about this temple we're heading to?" Link asked Sheila, riding on his right side, with Zelda on his left.

"Well, it was built close to the coast more than ten millennia ago," she said, "These temples all predate even the ancient war. I believe that other than the altar itself, this temple was also dedicated to Amphitre, the goddess of the sea. In any case, the face of the world is not quite the same as it was so long ago, and the land the temple was built upon has sunk quite a bit. During a high tide, the lower levels of the temple are all flooded."

"And let me guess," Midna said, "The altar is at the very bottom, isn't it?"

"Yes," Sheila said, "We'll only have a few hours to find a way down, and then back out before the rooms flood."

"You haven't been down yourself?" Zelda asked.

"No, and the records I've read are from some time ago," Sheila said, "Passages may have collapsed or others been washed open in that time. We might have to go back for an excavation team to dig it out."

"Let's hope not," Link said, "Traveling to each of these things is going to take long enough as it is."

"Just yesterday you were excited about this," Midna said, "Where'd that enthusiasm go?"

"I remembered that there's an evil wizard arranging all this," Link said, "I'll relax when he's dead."

The sun was about two thirds of the way across the sky by the time they arrived at the temple, and they arrived at just the moment to see the water level rising across the temple. It looked like a ragged stone building with but a single floor above the water level once the tide was in. It was still in remarkable condition, considering time and the constant flowing in and out of sea water. The roof seemed to be stable, though large cracks were visible at some points around the walls.

"I'm amazed it's in such good condition," Zelda said, "I was expecting a few barely standing walls."

Link checked the sun. "I don't want to go crawling around in there after dark, so we'd best wait for the first low tide tomorrow morning to get started."

"Why not go check out the top floor now?" Midna said, "Looks like the water isn't too deep around it."

About twenty feet of water separated the temple from dry land, but it did seem very shallow. Most of the temple was under the land it was built on, evidently, with windows and doors on the east side that allowed the water in.

Indeed, the deepest stretch of water to reach the upper entrance to the temple was about six feet deep and four wide, which the horses were able to cross. Dismounting on the stone walkway outside the door, itself with only an inch of water across it, Link examined the front door. "This is new," he said, "It doesn't fit the door evenly, but look here," he pointed to the bottom of the door, with a gap suspended about an inch above the water, "This was done because of the water, to prevent it from rotting the wood. Somebody has moved in."

He pulled the Master Sword from its sheath and pushed the door in. The first room was evidently a greeting hall, with stone benches to either side of the entrance, and a hall leading straight forward. Evidently there had been another door at the hall at one point, though all that remained were rusted hinges on the left side.

Link signaled the others to follow him, and stay quiet. He led them down the hall, stepping slowly to avoid sloshing the water at his feet too loudly. The hall sloped upward just a bit, getting them out of the water a moment later before it opened up.

It was a larger room, its original use long deteriorated by time and the new occupants. On either side of the large room, stairwells leading down could be seen, though water rose nearly to the top of them. Across the room, pallets lay spread out upon the floor at irregular intervals, and large blackened areas upon the stone showed where fires had been burned.

To Link's particular surprise were the inhabitants. They walked upon two legs, like men, had two arms, yet their skin was scaled and ranged in color from a light blue to a dark, and even a pale green on one. Their heads were elongated with their mouths set back some ways from their nose, and all had rows of razor sharp teeth. Sharp fins also ran along their backs and forearms, and Link wouldn't have been surprised it they had webbed feet.

They hadn't been seen, so Link motioned to the others to retreat quietly up the hall. Once back in the greeting hall, he turned to Sheila. "What were those?"

"I believe they are sahaugin," Sheila said, "Shark men. I suppose that with the temple the way it is, it's not a surprise they've made it their home."

"Are they dangerous?" Zelda asked.

Sheila glanced at her. "I should think that would be obvious. Of course they're dangerous!"

"You've got no idea."

They all turned toward the voice to find more of the shark men coming in the main entrance of the temple, one particularly big pale blue crossing its arms as six more leveled spears toward them. "What are you doing here, air-breathers?"

Link made a small adjustment to his stance, leaning his weight forward on his toes, ready to leap, but it wasn't unnoticed. One of the shark men pushed its spear close to Zelda's neck. "Easy, there, greenie! Put the sword away and your lady friend here might just live through this."

"Better do what he says, Link," Midna said, "They're too close to try magic against, and I get the feeling that's not an empty threat."

With a curse, Link slowly slid the Master Sword back into the scabbard. "Good man," the large blue said.

The other moved its spear a bit further away from Zelda's throat, and she visibly deflated. She had been holding her breath. The large blue signaled the others, and they marched the four back up the hall and into the open room. The shark men waiting cheered when they saw the others enter, some of them whispering to each other and licking their chops. Link didn't like that last gesture.

The six with spears fanned out in a circle around the four of them, and the large blue stepped a bit closer. "Okay, back to square one. What are you air-breathers doing here?"

Link suddenly snickered. "My name is Dinklemus Littlelog. We've come in search of the Holy Groundhog."

Zelda and Sheila both snorted, clapping their hands over their mouths. "Link," Midna whispered through a giggle, "Now is a really bad time."

Link wrapped one arm around her. "And this is my cousin, Sooyama Monkeyspank."

"You are _so_ dead," Midna whispered.

The blue chuckled. "So, we got a comedian."

He drew a long scimitar from his belt and leveled the point at Link. "I'll ask nicely one more time," he said, "What are you doing here?"

Link's smile disappeared. "We came to find something in the lower levels. We have no business with you."

"Oh, is that all?" the blue said, "Just came to rob the place we call home because you warm-bloods won't accept us anywhere else? Is that it?"

"I don't understand," Sheila said, "Your people attack ours. You hunt our sailors for food!"

The blue lowered his sword and glanced toward her. "Some do. We don't. Human flesh tastes like crap anyway. Too dry and way too much hair."

"Eh, some of us could go for a bite every now and then, Hammer," one of the others around them said.

Link was rapidly counting the number of them. There were at least thirty in the room, and no telling how many in the flooded levels. "Look," he said, "We need to see the altar when the tide goes out, okay? That's all. We'll be on our way and you can have the place."

The big blue, the one the other had called Hammer, raised his sword, holding it inches from Link's chest. "And then you come back with the military, right? Oust us that way!"

"Are you always this thick, or is today just special?" Link asked, "We don't have _time_ to care what happens to you! Just let us get what we are looking for and we'll leave in peace!"

Hammer smiled. He turned to the other sahaugin. "Who here thinks I should let 'em go? Anyone?"

They all responding by booing and making thumb's down gestures. Hammer turned back to Link, putting his sword up once more. "And besides! I'm in charge here, air-breather, not you! You'd best speak with respect when you address me!"

"You point that sword at me one more time," Link said, "and I'll fillet you, fin-head."

All the sahaugin around them turned from booing to "Oooooh"-ing. One of them raised its hand. "Fight!" it said, "The air-breather can take the right of single combat! If he wins, he and his friends go free!"

Hammer glanced in the dark blue's direction with a growl. Link smiled. "That sounds like it might work. What does it entail?"

Hammer turned back to him. "You would have to fight a warrior of my choosing, one on one, bare handed. You win, and you can go free."

"And what if he loses?" Midna asked.

A dark smile appeared on Hammer's face. "Then you four are gonna be sleeping with us!"

"Deal," Link said, "Now get your fighter up here so I can beat him into the floor."

"Hey, Sledge!" Hammer called, "Get up here!"

Link shucked his shield and baldric, handing them to Zelda to hold. Sheila stepped closer to him. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this," she said.

"Relax," Midna said, "Link's a champion sumo-wrestler back in Hyrule!"

"Yes," Zelda said, "Just trust us. I have faith in him."

Sheila sighed. "I suppose."

Link turned back to see a shark man larger than the rest step forward. His skin was a pale red, he was nearly eight feet tall, and his arms were as big around as Link's torso.

"I'm suddenly not feeling so comfortable, either," Midna said.

"Okay," Hammer said, "Sledge knows the rules for this kind of fight, but I'll go over them for your sake, air-breather. The first to be knocked to the ground for a count of ten seconds loses. You also lose if you are knocked unconscious, if you beg for mercy, or if you cry. Attacking the eyes or vulnerables will result in instant disqualification. Use of weapons will also result in disqualification. Other than that, anything goes!"

Link looked over Sledge once more. The beast seemed to be a wall of solid muscle. He was starting to regret this. He held out one hand to shake. "Here's to a fair fight?"

Sledge glared down at him. "I must break you."

_Oh, damn,_ Link thought.

"Ready?" Hammer said as he and the other guards, as well as Midna, Zelda, and Sheila stepped back, giving them room, "Begin!"

Sledge raised both hands high in the air and brought them down with a massive two fisted swing. Link leaped backwards, the enormous shark man's fists slamming into the floor with incredible force. Link was forced back another step as the shark man lunged forward with a backhand swing of his right.

Hammer pulled a pale-green sahaugin with an unusually long neck to the side. "Get your crossbow," he whispered, "I don't trust that air-breather. If it starts to look like he's going to win, kill him."

The green nodded and darted to the edge of the room.

Link rebounded off his second backwards dodged and lunged forward, wrapping his fists together and swinging upward, slamming them into Sledge's face, knocking it to the side. Sledge staggered one step to the side, then slammed his left arm into Link's stomach, sending him sliding back across the floor gasping for air.

Link looked up as the heavy footsteps running toward him drew close, then dove forward, rolling across the floor between the massive shark man's legs. Once back to a crouched position, Link planted his hands on the floor and lashed out directly behind himself with both legs, slamming a double kick into Sledge's back, causing the massive beast to issue a grunt of pain and stagger forward.

"I thought he was a swordsman," Sheila said, "Where did he learn to fight like this?"

"He's a fighter, period," Midna said, "Any warrior worth his salt can make the most of any situation."

Link was on his feet again. Sledge spun with a right backhand swing, catching Link full across the face and sending him sprawling.

"And now I'm worried again," Midna said.

Link leaped back to his feet, and massaged his jaw with one hand. Okay, this wasn't working. One other option for taking down a foe like that.

He ran at Sledge. The enormous creature planted his feet and spread his arms. At the last second, Link dropped, Sledge's arms whooshing through the air above him as Link slid on his back between the beast's legs. Link leaped up and spun about, jumping onto Sledge's back and clamped his left arm around the beast's nine inch neck, gripping his left wrist with his right hand and pulled with every bit of strength he had.

Sledge reached up, trying to grab Link and dislodge him, but his enormous arms wouldn't quite reach. Link didn't stop pulling. The massive sahaugin fell to his knees, now trying to squeeze his large fingers between Link's arm and his neck to pull it free.

Hammer gestured to the green sahaugin on the sidelines.

Sledge's red face was now starting to turn green. He fell forward onto his hands and knees. "Give up?" Link asked, "Just nod and I'll let go!"

Sledge nodded. Link released his grip and slid off the sahaugin's back, backing away. The beast took massive gulps of air.

"I don't get it," Midna said, "How did that work when they have gills instead of lungs?"

"How would they breath out of water, then?" Zelda asked, "They likely have both gills and lungs and use one or the other as needed."

"You okay?" Link asked the sahaugin.

Sledge rose to his feet. He faced Link. "You win," he said.

Zelda's ears pricked at the sound of a nearby click. "Link, watch out!"

"What?" Link spun to see a green sahaugin with a loaded crossbow leveled at him.

"Yer dead!" the green said, and pulled the trigger.

And the crossbow exploded in his hands as black lightning lanced across it. "What in the hell?" Hammer shouted, turning in the direction it had come from.

"Thanks, Midna," Link called out.

"What?" Hammer said, "You mean to tell me that little cat thing can use magic?"

"That's what it looks like, doesn't it?" Link said.

"Bullshit!" hammer shouted, "Kill 'em, guys!"

The eight sahaugin with spears once more leveled them at Link, this time charging to run him through. Link dodged sideways, snagging one spear on the way past and wrenching it from its owner's hands, then spun and slammed the haft down on the head of a second, knocking him to the floor.

"Such language," Midna said, "You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

She let loose a second bolt at one of the spearmen, who quickly dropped his weapon and ran as the streak of lightning chased him across the floor. Zelda had drawn her sword and held one of the spearmen at bay.

What surprised Link was the sight of Sledge snatching up two of them on the way by and slamming their heads together. The burly sahaugin nodded to him, and Link smiled at this unexpected ally.

Link swung the spear haft again, catching another across the neck as he lunged. _Try not to kill 'em,_ he thought, _Except for that jerk._

The wooden haft broke across the back of that one's head, and Link discarded the splintered wood. Then he noticed the green who had had the crossbow crawling past him, trying to reach one of the flooded passages to the lower levels. "He can't see me, I'm invisible," the green quietly prayed as he attempted to slip past.

Link reached down and snatched the sahaugin by his unusually long and thin neck. "Hey," Link said, bringing the green's face up next to his own, "You look good enough to eat."

"Uh..." the green said, "Why, thank you. Sir."

Link grabbed the back of the green's pants with his other hand. "Of course," he said, "The best part of eel is the sauce!"

He spun and hurled the lightweight beast through the air to slam into the wall above the stairwell, then fall into it with a large splash.

He turned back to the fight to see Hammer with his sword drawn running for him. "I'll kill you, you bastard!" Hammer shouted, leaping upward and swinging forward as he fell.

"Oh my gods!" Midna shouted, rushing toward them, knowing she would be too slow.

With a loud smack of flesh against metal, Hammer landed on the ground to find his blade caught between Link's palms, stopped inches from his face.

"Damn," Hammer said, "You are good!"

_I can't believe that worked,_ Link thought, _I think I'm gonna throw up._

Hammer leaped back, jerking his sword from Link's grasp. Link ran for him. Hammer swung the blade with Link well out of reach, a purple light emerging from the sword and lancing through the air, striking Link in the chest and sending him flying backwards. He felt himself collide with something, then was sliding across the floor.

All the fighting had ceased. There had been no deaths, though six sahaugin lay unconscious, either from Link or Sledge. Now, everyone still conscious was staring at Hammer and Link. Link heard someone whisper about the sword Hammer had found at the bottom of the temple. "A magic sword, huh?" Link muttered as he pushed himself up, "Didn't expect that."

As he sat up, Link stopped when he heard a groan of pain behind him. He turned, and saw Midna laying on the floor. She was what he had collided with and then had landed on her. _No,_ he thought, _With my weight..._

"Link," she said, then suddenly gasped for breath, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"It's not your fault," Link said, "Don't worry, you'll be all right..."

"Ah, how sweet," Hammer said, "One more shot ought to finish you both off!"

He lifted his blade to swing again, but Link was already on his feet and running toward him. Before Hammer could complete the swing, Link's fist slammed into his face with astounding force and a scream, "Shut your friggen' mouth!"

Hammer fell to the floor on his back, his sword slipping from his grasp and skittering across the floor. He looked up to see Zelda toss Link the Master Sword. He pulled it from the scabbard, tossing it and the baldric to the floor. "You scum," Link said through his teeth, "I've done what you asked. I've done what I can to spare the lives of both you and your people. Now you've gone and injured one of my friends. By doing so, you just made a final date with destiny. I'm gonna make fish patties out of you!"

"Oh, damn," Hammer said as Link raised the sword to strike it home.

"Enough! This will cease!"

Link halted his swing and turned toward the voice. A new sahaugin emerged dripping from one of the stairwells. It sounded female, its skin a dull gray, and once out of the water, stooped and leaned heavily on a staff made from carved fish bones. "There has been no death yet," she said, "Let us end this before there is."

She turned to glare at Hammer. "He has won the challenge of single combat. He and his companions will be allowed to leave."

Link walked back to Midna, Zelda and Sheila already on their knees by her side. "Midna," he said, crouching down next to her, "I'm sorry."

"I don't believe this," she said, "I survive the wrath of Ganondorf, and someone bumping into me breaks ribs. I think I need to work out more."

Link grimaced. "You nut."

"Do you know any healing magics?" Sheila asked, looking up at Zelda.

"No," Zelda said, "Such an art has been long lost to Hyrule."

"Okay, then, give me a little room," Sheila said, gesturing them to back up.

As the two of them moved back, Sheila held her hands over Midna, palms down. "_Ast kalen amo min. Spirits of life and death, I beseech thee to bestow renewed vigor upon this damaged one._"

A golden glow appeared in her hands as she spoke, falling across Midna, and it already seemed her breathing was easier. With a sudden flash of light and the word "_Risuren!_" the spell was complete, and the glow faded.

Midna sat up, but suddenly winced, clutching her ribs. "Ow. I thought that was a healing spell."

"Easy," Sheila said, "It's power is limited. I knit the broken bones, but it will still take time before they fully heal."

"Healing magics are a dangerous thing," the stooped gray sahaugin said, "They leech from the caster if not used carefully."

"It's all right," Sheila said, "I'll be fine, so long as I don't have to cast it again today."

Link glanced at Hammer, the pale blue sahaugin was glaring at him, but he then disappeared down the stairwell with a splash.

"Now, landwalkers," the gray one said, "Why have you come to this place?"

"We are seeking an altar in the lower levels that has a piece of a disrupted spell we must recover," Zelda said.

"I see," gray said, "The altar left by the High Ancients to guard the land against inept mages. You will not be able to reach it until low tide. And then it would be best if you had a guide."

"I will take them," Sledge said, "I've been there before."

"Thanks," Link said.

Midna hovered slowly into the air next to him. She managed to give him a smile to say she was okay. The gray continued, "Part of the level the altar is located on is always flooded, however. An aquatic beast has made its home there. If it finds you, you will have a hard time getting to the altar."

"What form of beast is it?" Link asked.

"Tis a giant squid," the gray said, "A kraken. They are rare enough in the world, and ones of this size are almost unheard of."

"It is why I've been there before," Sledge said, "I had gotten it into my head to try and slay the beast. Didn't turn out so well."

"Most often, a kraken will shun sentient beings such as you or us," the gray said, "But this one has become extremely territorial."

"It can't leave the water, though," Link said, then turned to Zelda, "What do you think a lightning bolt will do to it?"

She smiled slightly. "I guess we'll just have to find out. Would you prefer steamed or broiled?"

"Oh, gods," Midna said, "Now you're starting to think like Link."

"You may rest here until low tide," the gray said, "You have shown your worth to us, and we will be no more of a danger to you. Though it would be best if you avoid Hammer. His distrust of humans runs far deeper than any of the rest of us."

"I think we'll take you up on that offer," Link said, "And Hammer might just want to watch out for me."


	15. Chapter 14

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

I don't like the way this chapter turned out. It's required to get things into position, but I still don't like it. It was dull to write and I imagine will be dull to read. The only parts I like are the dialogue between the Lords of Chaos, and the last couple of paragraphs. I'm going through my notes and changing things to make the other dungeons more interesting. This is just grumbling on my part and doesn't really mean anything.

**Chapter 14: Descent**

Link yawned. Midna glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "Bored again?"

"Oh, no," Link said, "Swore I never would be. I just hate waiting. Feel like I should be doing something, you know."

He leaned against the stone wall at one side of the massive room, where he could see the water down the stairwell. It had only been about ten minutes since the fighting stopped, so they had a ways to go yet.

Midna sat just a short distance from him, nursing her sore ribs. "That's the definition of bored, isn't it?"

The sahaugin seemed friendly enough now. The old, grayed one had turned out to be their shaman, both their spiritual leader and their one practitioner of what minor magics she could. Her word carried great weight to them. Hammer had yet to show himself again, and it wasn't likely he'd try something again with Sledge in between him and the "air-breathers."

Link had first taken Sledge as the stereotypical big, dumb brute, but he was already showing himself to actually be one of the better educated sahaugin. When he spoke, it was in much better syntax than most of the others, excluding Hammer and the shaman, and now when Link glanced in his direction, he was treating Sheila and Zelda to a few verses of poetry he had written. It wasn't very good poetry, Link admitted, but at least he tried.

_How did they even get into that situation?_ Link thought.

The shaman appeared over him, and then turned her scaley gaze to Midna. "I have some medicine that will help ease your pain," she said, "Unfortunately, it will also dull your senses a bit."

Midna waved one hand. "No thanks, then," she said, "I don't like getting around creatures the size of buildings at my peak, let alone drunk."

"Now that I think about it," Link said, "It might be better if you stay up here."

Midna glared at him. "What?"

Link sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened, but it wouldn't be terribly smart to drag you into a fight like that."

"What? Are you tossing me aside then?" Midna asked, "It's not smart to toss aside your most powerful asset. We may need the Fused Shadow to defeat the beast!"

"Personally," the shaman said, glancing between them, "I would not think it smart to fight the kraken at all."

"I'm not planning to pick a fight with it," Link said, "But in this situation, it's always best to expect the worst case scenario. If it gets in the way, we'll either have to disable it or put it down permanently. I think having Zelda or Sheila discharge a bolt of lightning into the water will be enough to at least temporarily paralyze it."

"You may be right," the shaman said, "Sledge is the only one to attempt to fight the beast and live to tell about it, though. You may want to ask him what he knows before you go. In case of a worst case scenario. In the mean time, shall I prepare the medicine, or not?"

"Yes," Link said as Midna said "No," at the same time.

Link sighed. "Midna, please," he said, "I hate seeing you like this."

She gritted her teeth and growled. "Fine. I'll take a little of it. But not enough to knock me out, understand?"

"Very well," the shaman said, turning to walk away from them, leaning heavily on her staff, "I shall have it in a few minutes."

"Thank you," Link said.

Midna "hmph"ed.

Link looked up to see Zelda and Sheila walking toward them. "How's our big friend's poetry?" he asked.

Zelda sat down to lean against the perpendicular wall a short ways from him. "Absolutely horrid," she said, "But I didn't tell him that. It's sweet that he tries, but he needs some outside education on modern poetry. Badly."

Sheila sat down on the other side of Midna from Link. "It's incredible. All the reports of sahaugin I've ever read report them as violent flesh eaters who attack humans on sight. These here seem almost... well... human!"

Link chuckled. "Well, Hammer did say he didn't like the taste. Too much hair or something like that."

"I've actually been thinking," Zelda said, "Do you think it's possible that the sahaugin are related to the zora?"

"Zora?" Sheila said.

"Essentially, they're fish people that live in Hyrule," Link said, "They don't bear such a resemblance to sharks, though. In fact, they look more human than fish to me. I suppose a distant relation isn't impossible. The zora are freshwater dwellers, while sahaugin seem to be saltwater. Different branches of evolution from a common ancestor, likely."

"That seems to be the most feasible idea," Zelda said, "On to a more important matter. How are we going to deal with the monster down below?"

"Oh, Link's already figured out that you're going to do all the work," Midna said, "Strike it with lightning, and boom! Out like a lamp."

"Not quite like that," Link said, "First of all, we're not going to go down there looking to fight it. If we can slip past without it noticing, or caring, we do so. Otherwise, we're going to have to resort to drastic measures. Every creature, regardless of size, has a weakness. Which reminds me. Hey, Sledge!"

The burly red sahaugin turned toward them. "Can you come here for a second?" Link asked.

Sledge walked toward them, lowering himself into a cross-legged sitting position. "You want to know about the kraken?"

Link nodded. "Anything you remember may help."

"I remember plenty," Sledge said, "You don't forget a near-death experience like that. First of all, do you know what a normal squid is like?"

"Never had a chance to personally see one," Link said, "Isn't it somewhat like an octopus, with the tentacles and such?"

"Close enough, I suppose," Sledge said, "However, a squid is different in several ways. First of all, squids have ten tentacles, not eight, and two of them are considerably longer than the rest. Each tentacle bears several rows of suckers as well, and unlike an octopus' suckers, the squid's bear teeth similar to leeches. And while an octopus has no bones whatsoever, a squid's body is supported by a stiff internal shell, with one eye situated on each side of the head. On the bottom, within the center of the tentacles is a beak, comparable, I guess, to a bird of prey. It is extremely sharp and can rend flesh easily."

"How big is this thing, exactly?" Sheila asked.

Sledge thought a moment. "I never saw much of it above the surface, and I wasn't stupid enough to get in the water with it to find out, but I would estimate from the size of the tentacles, about one hundred twenty feet from the end of the longest tentacles to the tip of the head."

Link was pondering tactics as he listened. "With that size, it would have to make those eyes it has gigantic. Easy shots for a bow or a magic spell, right?"

"You're thinking about blinding it," Midna said.

"Yes," Link said, "That and whether squid tastes better steamed or grilled."

"Would you settle for boiled?" Zelda asked, "We could try a bit of magic to heat the water it's in and flash fry it."

"Now that's a good idea," Sheila said, "We'll just have to get within sight of the water, or we won't be able to cast."

"And then you will be within reach of the tentacles," Sledge said, "No plan to fight it is without risk."

"That reminds me," Link said, "How exactly did you plan to kill it when you fought it?"

If the sahaugin could have blushed, he likely would have then. "I was young and foolish. I figured that if I could get close enough to stick my spear in it, it would die."

"Ah, the 'If it bleeds, I can kill it' tactic," Link said.

The shaman appeared, holding a small mug in her free hand. She held it out for Midna. "Here. Don't worry. It doesn't taste as bad as it smells."

_I would hope not, considering it smells like goat fart,_ Link thought as Midna took the mug.

Midna wrinkled her nose, then took a tentative sip of the brew, swallowing quickly. "You know," she said, "It doesn't taste as bad as it smells. That doesn't mean it tastes good, though."

"Drink," the shaman said, "You will feel better."

She turned to walk away from them once more. Link turned back to Sledge. "How much longer until low tide?"

"Shouldn't be more than a few minutes," Sledge said, "Once the water begins to recede, it goes fairly quickly. It comes back in just as fast, though."

"Now I really regret giving that armor back to the zora prince," Link said.

At that moment, Link saw Hammer emerge from the far stairwell, dripping water. The pale blue sahaugin gestured to two others, who moved over toward him. One was the long-necked green that had nearly shot Link earlier, and the other was a dark blue whom looked like he had been one of the spear-wielding guards from earlier. The three had a whispered discussion, then all disappeared down the stairwell.

"We'd best keep an eye on that one," Link said, "He's trouble."

"Hammer cares for us," Sledge said, "He doesn't trust humans because of what happened in the past."

"What did happen exactly?" Zelda asked.

Sledge looked at her, taking a deep breath. It looked as if he were trying to decide if it were his place to say. "His father, Mallet, was our leader years back, when I was still young. Mallet believed we could find peace with the humans if we could just talk to them. Knowing the humans would panic if a large number of us approached a town, mainly due to the actions of the deep dwellers, we captured a few fishermen one day and brought them to our old home, before we found this temple.

"The fishermen were not harmed, were fed and kept warm. The situation was explained to them, and they seemed most agreeable about our ideas. They were released to carry word to the nearby town about what we wanted. We thought we might even be able to walk into town and conduct trading within a few days.

"The fishermen returned the next day, and with them was an elvish wizard, and about fifty soldiers. I won't go into the details, but we lost a great number that day, and were driven from our home. Mallet himself was among the dead. Hammer has never forgiven the humans."

He looked up at them from where he had been staring at the floor. "I hope that you will not betray our trust."

Link nodded. "Don't worry. Zelda, Midna, and I aren't even from this land. We're from across the sea, and have quite a few races coexisting, including the zora, who may even be distant relations of yours. I'm not about to judge someone based solely on their race."

"While I'm not exactly from Hyrule," Midna said, "I do agree with Link here."

Sheila smiled at him. "Well, I'm also the High Elder of the elves. Once I go back to work, I can see what I can do for you all, if I like. I can't instantly make everyone accept you, but I think I can get you permitted into towns for trading and such."

Sledge was nodding. "That would be wonderful. I thank you, my lady."

"Hey," Zelda said, "That water's going down."

Link looked down the stairwell. The water was receding at about an inch every two to three seconds. He stood up, shouldering his baldric and shield as the others got to their feet. "Right, let's go meet the kraken."

He turned to Midna, who had floated upwards, ready to go as well. "Is there any way I can talk you into waiting here?"

Midna floated up further so she could look him in the eyes. "You promise, completely and utterly, that you will come back alive."

"Didn't I already make that promise?" Link asked, "All right. I promise. I, and everyone else, am going to come back safely."

Midna sighed, then floated back to the floor, sitting down. "All right. But I warn you, Link: If it turns out you break this promise, I'll make sure to find some way to bring you back to life just so I can kill you."

"Shall we go?" Sledge asked.

The four of them descended the slick stairs, moving towards the lower levels.

* * *

Three of the Lords of Chaos sat on horseback atop a cliff near the eastern edge of the mountains where they could see the battle. Khall leaned on the horn of his saddle, watching with interest as wave upon wave of skeletons and zombies advanced upon the outer wall of Whitos-Neiki only to be repeled with arrows of fire and even magic spells.

"Awful waste of troops," the third figure, a woman, said.

"We're not trying to take it," Khall said, "Not yet, anyway. We're just reminding them we're here."

Tharkus watched the battle with what amounted to boredom. "And besides," he said, "Undead soldiers are easily replaced. I could have the castle by nightfall if I wanted."

The outer wall of the city was nearly twenty feet high, and there were even ballista mounted in defense at several points along the wall. It was a rather interesting sight when one of the massive rounds crashed through a dozen or so zombies and knocked skeletons to pieces on the spot.

"How wonderful for you," the woman said, "And what would become of the survivors of your undead army?"

"There are no survivors," Tharkus said without looking at her.

To outside viewers, she was an elf, but that idea could be immediately contradicted that she had a chocolate brown color to her skin. Elves were all fair, and dark elves had skin black as coal. Her hair was allowed to grow past her shoulders about halfway down her back, and was snow white in color. She wore a blue tunic and pants, and a form-fit breastplate that followed the curves of her lithe body perfectly.

At her right hip, she wore a sword in a plain blue scabbard. The blade itself was a rather dull gray that did not shine in light, and carried a dark red gem set into the pommel. The sword did not look like much, or even well crafted, but those who underestimated it paid the price, for within the sword resided Nui, an ancient elemental of lightning who served this woman, Kilishandra, as its master.

"I received a message from Mur'neth earlier," Khall said, "He successfully disrupted the translation spell the high elder attempted to cast on Darius' counter-spell. It caused the translated spell to be absorbed by the altars. Our friends have now gone to retrieve it."

"They're going to be traveling all over Mystara, then," Tharkus said, "More than enough time to get the last pieces into place. We should be ready before they even reach the second."

"Let's not rush things," Khall said, "Let them get three before we make our first move. Mur'neth is following them, and will keep us informed of their movements. Besides, I think I have a new use for Zero."

"You intend to turn that maniac loose again?" Tharkus asked.

"No," Khall said, "He will be kept on a very short leash. But he may give us a way to keep Link and his friends busy until we need them. It will just take a bit of extra baiting to get the judges involved as well."

"All this deception," Kilishandra said, "It wasn't like this under Mandrag Ganon. Then, the goal was always clear and within sight."

Tharkus glared at her from the corner of his eye. "Do not forget where your loyalties now lie."

Kilishandra once more became uncomfortably aware of the blue fingernail on her right index finger. Tharkus continued, "Mandrag Ganon sought to bring the entire world under his rule. No one knows what would become of the world once that occurred. If we are to succeed in our plan to establish the Sorcerers' Kingdom, then he must die."

"I know," Kilishandra said, "You don't have to remind me."

"Mur'neth has my permission to use whatever means necessary to kill Ganon when he finds him," Khall said, "As much as he has improved in the twenty years since they last fought, he may have a chance."

"And Mur'neth is no fool," Tharkus said, "He won't force a fight until he has every advantage. He might even convince Link to help him."

"He won't," Kilishandra said, "The code of the ninja may be no more, but Mur'neth still prefers single combat in such a conflict. He wants to prove himself the strongest warrior alive. Until he slays Ganon, he will always feel that he's only second best."

"What he feels is irrelevant," Khall said, "All that matters is that he gets the job done so that Shaklator may be summoned into this world to purge civilization from the face of the planet. From those ashes, we shall build our empire. Call off the undead, Tharkus. They've had enough for one day."

Tharkus nodded, and the zombies and skeletons upon the plain before the city simply collapse where they stood. A few more arrows fired hesitantly into the corpses before the commander upon the wall called a cease-fire.

"The next stage of events will be determined once we know which direction Link and his friends go after retrieving the part of the spell from the altar in Tyr," Khall said, "We don't want to tip our hand too soon. We've spent ten years preparing for this moment. One mistake could bring it all crashing down. When we do move, we'll press south, though Whitos-Neiki and Metallicana to take Darimar. We can send Kilishandra's army to take Nigel at the same time."

"And what of Tyr?" Kilishandra asked.

"Tyr's military is considerably weaker than any of the others," Tharkus said, "They're no threat to even us individually, let alone our armies."

"They will be dealt with," Khall said, "But there is no point in the time being used there when we still have preparations to make for Shaklator's arrival. Now, let us go back to the citadel. We have work to do."

The three of them turned to walk their horses back up the pass.

* * *

The lower levels of the temple all seemed the same. Damp and cold. Water dripped from the ceiling and ran down the walls, pooling around their feet as they walked. Sledge led them through intersections, long halls, down more stairs, and pointed out traps that had either been disabled by himself or others, and traps that had long since rusted beyond any use. When he led them around an open trap door with rusty metal spikes in the bottom, Link decided there was no such thing as originality in traps.

There had once been poisoned darts that would shoot from the wall when a pressure plate was stepped on, and one room that would have thrown sharpened metal disks from the wall at about neck level. Sledge explained that when that one had accidently been set off, all that had actually come out was a wave of orange dust. The disks had rusted completely away.

It took about fifteen minutes to get down three levels, and Sledge informed them that they only had two to go. Link's eyes kept darting to side passages and shadows, constantly expecting Hammer to try something with those two he had pulled aside earlier.

The ease with which they made their descent into the temple was somewhat unnerving for Link. Most of the temples he had explored in Hyrule had still been heavily trapped, and in the case of the water temple at the bottom of the lake, he'd had to get all the damn mechanisms working again before he could proceed, and wear they had been damaged beyond use, he'd had to find a suitable workaround, usually by means of explosives.

It seemed they reached the bottom level all too quickly. At the bottom of the final flight of stairs, the hall opened into a wide chamber, a center bridge about four feet wide crossing a massive expanse of water through the chamber. To each side of the bridge was about fifty yards of open, undisturbed water, and from the dark color, it was clearly very deep.

At the far end of the bridge was the altar they sought. It was carved in the image of a woman with elf ears with a long strip of flowing silk as her only clothing. Amphitre, goddess of the sea. A faint red glow could be seen across the distance to it.

"That's what we're here for?" Link asked.

Sheila nodded. "The spell fragment will be engraved upon that altar."

"The problem," Sledge said, "is getting across to it without alerting the kraken. You see, most aquatic beasts cannot see above the water well, if they can at all. The kraken, however, attacks anything it sees crossing the bridge. It must have incredible sight, or something else alerts it."

"Vibrations from a person's footsteps as they cross the bridge, perhaps," Zelda said.

"Possibly," Sledge said, "The bridge is stone, but it is only about six inches thick and sits directly in the water."

"How close to that thing do you need to be to get the spell piece?" Link asked Sheila.

"Within arm's length, I'm afraid," she said.

Link thought for a moment. "Is there any chance," Link turned to Sledge, "That it went out with the tide? To hunt or something?"

"I suppose it's possible," Sledge said, "I'm not too familiar on its habits."

"Okay," Link said, "Here's what we're going to do. I'm going across that bridge, and I want you two to be ready to blast the accursed thing with whatever spell you can get off quickly if it attacks. If I get across without it attacking, I'll come back then and get Sheila, and we'll cross together, same idea. We may be able to get the spell without seeing this thing after all. That work for you?"

"Seems like you're risking yourself unnecessarily to me," Zelda said, "Perhaps we should just boil the water and kill the beast now."

"That is a definite possibility," Link said, "But in its death throes from such an action, the beast may bring the entire temple down, if it's truly as large as Sledge claims."

"Oh, yes," Zelda said, visibly deflated.

"You've got to think further ahead than that, princess," Link said, "Our lives now depend on avoiding shortsightedness."

"Okay," Sheila said, "Can we get on with this, though? This place is giving me the creeps."

Link nodded, and stepped onto the bridge. Zelda and Sheila took positions slightly to either side of it, ready to unleash their magic should the beast attack, while Sledge stood behind them to be out of their way.

Link stepped slowly on the bridge, trying to keep his footsteps soft. He slowly pulled the Master Sword from its sheath. He kept his eyes to the darkness of the water, trying to make out any movement in the murky depths.

He reached the halfway point with no difficulty, where he paused for a moment to scan the water more carefully. Still nothing. He stepped forward again, sighing with relief.

Almost too fast to see, a massive tentacle shot from the water, wrapped itself around his waste, and amidst the screams of the three behind him and his own, drug him off the bridge and under the water.


	16. Chapter 15

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

Now I feel like I'm back on track. This is becoming less of something set after Twilight Princess, and more of something set around it with the development of the connection between the Lords of Chaos and Ganondorf. Everything will come together and make sense by the end of it, though Ganondorf himself won't be appearing in the main plot until we get a ways further into it yet. I'm actually looking over my notes and feeling a little silly since he's going to get so more attention than even Link for a while.

As an interesting note, I really did a heavy amount of research on squids and krakens prior to introducing it, as you can see from the previous chapter and this one, though mine is considerably bigger than any ever found. The largest kraken ever found measured 65 feet, just over half the size of my monster. I must have checked a dozen references, though, and couldn't find a single one that would tell me the location of a squid's brain. I should have checked Wikipedia, I'm sure, but I like how it turned out, even if it does turn out to be illogical.

**Chapter 15: Aquatic Tentacled Behemoth: The Kraken**

Link couldn't breathe. The tentacle wrapped about his waste was dragging him through the water. It had been so fast, the whiplash as it first grabbed him had nearly jerked his sword from his hand. Now, with what strength he could muster to swing through the dragging water, he hacked desperately at the appendage that held him.

The kraken's hide was thick and tough, but the sword cut it with relative ease. If only he could use his full strength in the swing, unimpeded by the water, he'd have cleaved through it with but two strokes.

It was rapidly growing dark. The kraken had to have pulled him down fifty feet or more, as the ringing in his ears told him. He could see the other nine tendrils of the beast around him, moving seemingly erratically around him. He looked down for but a moment, and wished he hadn't.

At the center point among all the massive tendrils, a large beak, large enough to swallow him whole, was visible. And it was rapidly getting closer.

His lungs screaming for air, Link slammed his sword into the tentacle that held him once more, then gripped the hilt with both hands and started a desperate saw-blade motion, cutting into the beast's flesh, hoping to get through in time.

With a sudden wrench, he felt the tentacle's grip upon him loosen. He pulled the sword from the tentacle, more than halfway cut through, and pushed himself free, and started swimming upward.

_Not going to make it,_ he thought, _Too deep!_

The faint light at the surface of the water was growing dim. Link's strokes were growing weaker, and the tentacles all around him were lashing about, searching for him. He suddenly felt one wrap around his shoulders, just beneath his arms. He swung the sword, but didn't even have enough force to complete the swing.

His vision was going dark.

Then he felt air upon his face. He coughed, vomiting up a large amount of water, and took deep breaths of the precious life-giving air. He could feel wet stone beneath his hands, and suddenly realized he had somehow kept his grip on the sword through all the events.

His vision was returning rapidly, and looked up to see Zelda and Sheila looking down at him. They were talking, but he couldn't hear them. He coughed again, more water pouring from his mouth onto the floor, and a large hand slapped against his back, forcing it all up.

He looked up at his side to see Sledge, the large sahaugin dripping wet, kneeling at his side. Link finally felt his strength returning as he gasped for air. "Thanks," he managed to the gigantic shark-man.

"We've got a problem, Link!" Zelda said.

Link turned to look behind him in time to see at least six of the massive tentacles break the surface of the water, wrap themselves around the stone bridge, and pull, breaking it apart and dragging it under.

He pushed himself to his feet as the tentacles rose above the surface again, waving toward them, searching. "Fry it!" Link said.

Sheila stepped in front of him. "Let me try this first!"

She held her hands before her chest, palms facing each other about six inches apart. "_Bourash na bourash_," she said, her voice echoing around them, a purple globe forming in her hands, "_Dark thunder of Balmor_," streaks of electricity shot across the surface of the globe, then she hurled it forward, "_Pyre Storm!_"

The globe exploded into at least six bolts of lightning, streaking through the air toward the waving tentacles, though the way they were waving about made them difficult to count, and could easily be one or two more.

Most of the bolts struck home, the tentacles hit stiffening and pointing straight up as electricity discharged through them into the beast's main body and into the water.

As fast as it started, it ended. Sheila stepped back, the massive tentacles slipping quietly into the water.

The ripples in the water died away. "Did that do it?" Link asked no one in particular, stepping closer to the edge of the water.

He gazed into the dark water, able to make out nothing in the murky depths. Then a loud screech echoed through the chamber, sending ripples across the surface of the water.

"I think she just made it angry," Sledge said.

Link took one step back from the water, then it erupted before him, two massive tentacles with enlarged ends appearing before him and slapping into either side of the narrow hall, sending cracks shooting out from the points of impact.

Numerous smaller tentacles appeared, reaching out of the water and rapidly moving toward them. Link swung his blade, lopping off the end of one that drew too near, and it rapidly pulled back into the water. To his right, he saw Sledge with one of the tentacles in his hands, fighting it off and his feet sliding back on the stone floor at the appendage attempted to force its way from his grip to wrap about him.

Zelda and Sheila were both behind him, thankfully. That kept them clear. Link lopped off the end of another tentacle that drew too close for comfort. "Link!" Zelda shouted above the crashing of the tentacles against the stone, "We have to retreat! We can't fight this thing!"

She was right. Link took another step back, glancing at Sledge, who seemed to be trying to tie a knot in the tentacle. "We got to make a break for it! Go!"

With a nod, Sledge stomped on the tentacle, then released his grip and turned to run. Link lopped off the tip of the thing as it swung toward him, and turned to run. Zelda and Sheila were ahead of them, and Link was close to Sledge. Suddenly, one of the two massive tentacles with the enlarged end appeared at his side and slammed him into the wall to his right.

Stars filled Link's vison, but he felt something wrap around his ankle, and the stone floor was rapidly sliding beneath him as he was pulled back toward the water, sparks flying as the Master Sword scraped along the stone.

Link flipped onto his back, raising the sword to cut himself loose, but the tentacle suddenly jerked upward, lifting him into the air, and then suddenly released him, and he was sailing upward through the air above the water. He looked down and saw the massive body of the beast break the surface of the water. "Holy shee-it!" he said as he started to fall toward the massive creature that nearly filled the pool.

Its flesh was a dull gray color, mottled with numerous scars of previous battles, though wether they were with ships, warriors, or other creatures of the depths was difficult to tell. On either side of its impossibly huge body were seated two gigantic eyes, each one easily ten feet across.

Link was falling rapidly, unable to halt or adjust his descent, and the massive beast turned itself, the top end disappearing beneath the water, the bottom side rising up, and within the center of tentacles appeared that gigantic beak, opening wide.

Death can be a funny thing. Most often, a person will not actually realize they are going to die until they are bleeding out and their vision fading. When Link saw that maw open, he realized that he was going to die. He'd braved undead, possessed monsters, and even a wizard of nigh-unlimited power only to fall to a beast that was in the end no more than an animal.

It was actually embarrassing, he realized as he fell. A dragon would maybe have been a decent death, but not this thing.

As he realized this, a bolt of lightning streaked from the side of his vison, crashing into the beast's body from the side. With a screech of pain, the massive beast turned, and Link landed with a loud squishing noise on the gray flesh next to the beak, much larger than himself. _Get out of here!_ he screamed at himself, pushing himself to his feet and running away from the lethal beak.

The monster was turning beneath him, his makeshift platform increasing in angle, then he was over the edge, between the bases of two tentacles, and onto the top of the creature's head. Or the side, as one of the massive eyes appeared ahead of his feet, which turned toward him as he drew close.

Not hesitating, Link reversed his grip on the Master Sword and leaped, the blade downward and stabbed it into the center of the massive eye. Fluid spurted up around the blade, and the eye seemed to deflate beneath his feet, rapidly caving in as the innards poured out under his weight and the beast screeched in pain and fury.

The tentacles lashed about him, one sailing over his head by inches as he pulled himself up and leaped from the hallow socket, and ran across the beast's flesh as it rolled rapidly, the destroyed eye vanishing under the water. The beast didn't stop, and a moment later the other eye appeared before him, rolling rapidly withing reach. He leaped again and was slapped out of the air by a large tentacle that sent him flying backward, landing with a splash in the water.

_Shit, so close!_ Link thought, but he did not sit for long, turning to swim immediately for the relative safety of the hall where Zelda, Sheila, and Sledge were visible, waving for him to come quickly. Swimming was hard enough one handed, holding the sword with his other, and it was doubly difficult with the massive waves created by the kraken's thrashing about.

Zelda was already intoning a spell as he swam toward them. He hadn't heard her voice with the fighting, but could see the red globe of light held directly before her. "_Hellion!_" she shouted, the globe suddenly streaking past above him.

He clutched reached the stone ledge and Sledge grabbed his tunic and pulled him up next to them. Link turned to see the Kraken's flesh afire as it shrieked in agony. It dove beneath the surface, the flames disappearing as the water suddenly steamed up, the motion sending waves of water across their feet and up into the hall.

The motion finally died away, and a deafening silence filled the room.

"Is that it?" Sheila asked, "Is it gone?"

As if in answer, a loud screech filled the room once more, sending ripples across the surface of the water.

"Damn," Link said, "That's it. We're going to have to put this thing down for good!"

"And how exactly do you plan to do that?" Sheila asked, "It's taken repeated hits from our magic!"

"I blinded one eye," Link said, "If we can get the other, then it will be unable to defend itself! Then you two use your fire magics to boil it alive!"

Sheila looked at Zelda, "A double shot of Hellion should be enough to flash fry it."

"Just wait until I'm out of the water," Link said.

"I'll go in, too," Sledge said, "I'll be able to get you out quickly."

"All right," Link said, turning toward the loud splash as tentacles appeared above the surface of the water once more, "Let's do this!"

He ran toward the water, the tentacles lashing out at him. He spun past one, lopping off the end of one, then a chunk off another already missing the tip.

Sledge started after him, but was stopped at a voice calling his name. He turned up the hall to see a spear flying his way. He caught it as it came near. Hammer stood a bit further up the hall, and nodded once. Sledge nodded back, then turned to run after Link.

Link caught another tentacle with his blade as the surface of the water broke, the massive bulk of the beast rising into sight once more. A massive tentacle with an enlarged end rose into the air, then swung straight down toward him. Link leaped sideways as the mighty appendage slammed into the stone where he had been a second ago.

Sledge appeared, slamming the spearhead down into the large flattened end of the tentacle. "Grab onto me!"

Link reached out and snatched Sledge's arm as the tentacle rose into the air, swinging them upward. At the height of the swing, Link and Sledge loosed their grip, Sledge jerking the spear from the tentacle and they fell toward the great beast.

It was rolling again onto its side. The one good eye appeared, locating them in the air, the tentacles striking upward. Link lopped a chunk off one as it drew near, trying not to swing as such to alter his course too much. A second came. Link swung and missed, then it slammed sideways into him. He fell away to the side, cursing loudly.

He fell into the water with a splash, then kicked for the surface. Taking a breath of air, he turned to the kraken to see Sledge standing on its remaining eye, the spear driven nearly halfway up the haft into the orb, its fluid spewing across the red sahaugin. The kraken was beginning to roll again. It was no doubt already blind, but Sledge kept his grip on the spear haft, the planted one foot on the end and shoved down.

The spear haft disappeared into the kraken's eye beneath Sledge's webbed foot.

The tentacles suddenly lashed out, spasming wildly through the water. Sledge leaped from the massive beast toward Link. Link reached up and sheathed the Master Sword just before the red sahaugin crashed into Link and started carrying him though the water at an incredible speed. They were already back to the narrow hall and climbing onto the stone.

Link turned back to the kraken, which was sending up great waves as its tentacles thrashed about at random. Zelda and Sheila stepped forward to do their work, but Link held up one hand. "Wait just a moment," he said.

It actually took several minutes, but the thrashing began to slow and then finally stopped altogether. The kraken had rolled onto what Link imagined was its back and lay completely still, floating in the water. "It's dead," Link said, then turned to smile at Sledge, "You killed the kraken!"

"I did, didn't I?" Sledge said, gazing at the massive, lifeless body, "I almost don't believe it."

Zelda stared at the massive body. "It's a shame that such a rare beast had to be destroyed."

"Oh, we don't mind," Hammer said, stepping forward, "That thing will feed us for months. We'll have a hard time eating it all before it rots."

Link turned to him, as did the other three. Hammer stared straight at Link for a long moment, then held out one hand. Link tentatively took it, and felt the sahaugin's firm, if somewhat slimy, grip. "You're an incredible fighter," Hammer said, "I should know. I've got the bruises to prove it."

"You weren't bad yourself," Link said, "Does this mean you trust me now?"

Hammer released his hand. "Somewhat," he said, "Great fighters are respected among our people. You've earned mine. It doesn't mean I like you, though."

Hammer turned to Sledge. "And this makes you a hero, my friend," he said, "The shaman will want to hear of your victory, as will everyone else."

Sledge turned to look at Link. "It wouldn't be possible without them. They're greater heroes than I. I just finished the job they started."

"And he's modest, too," Link said, "You did great, here. I suggest you take this bit of glory, and hope you never need to do so again."

"What do you mean by that?" Hammer asked.

Link spread his arms. "I only want to get back to a peaceful life and end all this fighting. I'm not doing all this because I want too."

"Anyway," Sheila said, "Now we need to get across to the altar so I can transfer the spell onto the blade of the sword, preferably before the tide begins to rise. Shall we?"

* * *

"Boy, you didn't pull any punches this time, did you?" Tharkus said with a smile.

The three Lords of Chaos stood at the entrance of a containment cell deep in their citadel, which to all appearances was an empty stone room about six feet deep and wide. Against the far wall, his wrists and ankles bound by chains, was Zero, who glared at them darkly.

"He took the soul sphere that contained the demon lord, Erocht, and made sure it would cross paths with Link and his friends," Khall said, "I clearly made a mistake in trusting him. It would have been better to go myself."

"Erocht?" Kilishandra said, "Wasn't that demon one of the early ones developed as weapons during the war? The ones that were too difficult to control?"

"Precisely," Khall said, "I did some digging and found that Link was able to slay the beast with the help of the Princess Zelda. Zero is most fortunate he did, or he wouldn't have gotten off this easy."

"You'd think," Tharkus said, "Considering he's Shaklator's chosen one, he'd show a bit more common sense. All that ability wasted because of his own stupidity. Sad sight, isn't it?"

"It wasn't a complete loss," Khall said, "He retrieved the Twilight Mirror and one of the missing pieces. Now, we just need the final piece and the key, both of which are in the possession of Link and his companions. It's just a matter of retrieval. You might be surprised to find what else he brought back."

Khall picked up a sword from where it leaned against the wall. "I trust you recognize this blade, Tharkus?"

The necromancer took the sword form him, his eyes running up the red designs upon the scabbard, stopping at the blue gem set into the pommel. "This is Black Razor," he said, "Incredible! I thought it lost during the ancient war!"

"It seems it was in the possession of the Hylian royal family the entire time," Khall said, "It was locked in the vault beneath the castle. It means two things. We now have a weapon that can match the Master Sword blow for blow, and we have a contingency."

"What is this 'Master Sword' capable of?" Kilishandra asked.

"It is a weapon designed to battle evil," Khall said, "Only those pure of heart may wield it. Ordinary, decent folk simply aren't able to draw it, and a being with an evil heart would likely lose his arm, should he attempt to grasp it. It has many hidden powers as well, which I do not know of. That is why it is fortunate we have found Black Razor. It is the Master Sword's polar opposite in every respect, and its equal in power."

"Such a shame we'd have to rely on Zero to wield it," Tharkus said, "Otherwise we could get rid of him right now and it wouldn't make a difference."

"Keep right on talking about me like I'm not here," Zero remarked, sneering at them, "I don't mind at all."

Khall smiled slightly. "You would do well to learn respect, Zero," Khall said, "Shaklator may have chosen you as her messenger, but she has given me the tools to control you. If I so desire, you'll rot here in this warded cell. Or maybe I should just freeze you solid to silence you. What do you think?"

Khall walked toward him. Zero didn't meet his eye, so Khall gripped the man's chin in one hand and forced him to look into his eyes. "I'm going to get it into your head somehow," Khall said, "I am in charge here, and when I'm not around, Tharkus is."

"I thought the lot of you worked for Ganondorf," Zero said, "All a bunch of bootlickers riding his coattails to power."

He smiled. Then Khall backhanded him across the jaw. "Those days are over," Khall said, "Mandrag Ganon proved to be too weak and cowardly to do what needed to be done. Now, he is an obstacle, and will be removed. Don't make an obstacle of yourself, Zero, or I'll remove you as well, regardless of who looks favorably upon you."

Zero's tongue moved across his lips, licking away the blood from the impact of Khall's fist. "Someday," he said, "I am going to kill you, Khall."

"Then I suggest you save your threats for when 'someday' becomes 'today,'" Khall said, "And make sure to tell me what you want carved on your tombstone ahead of time."

Zero chuckled. Khall turned to the other two. "It's going to take some work, but I imagine I can get him under control within the next two weeks," he said, "By then, we should know which direction Link and his friends are headed, and will know the direction our moves need to go."

"And what happens when we find Mandrag Ganon, if Mur'neth fails to kill him?" Kilishandra asked.

"We'll just have to see what happens," Khall said, "Link may remove him for us. In the extremely unlikely event that Mandrag Ganon and Link ally against us, we'll act accordingly, and deal with him ourselves. Such an event is nearly impossible, however. Mandrag Ganon's hatred of Link runs deep. Far deeper than even your own for Reaper, Kilishandra."

The brown-skinned elf glared at him. "Reaper died for what he did to me," she said, "It was because of Ganon that I achieved that revenge. I still think we should try to get him to join with us once more."

"Such an act is not possible," Tharkus said, "His goals are too different from our own. He seeks to rule the world with power and enslavement. He will never allow our goal to come to be. He is our enemy now, and there can be no changing that." His gaze was dark as he turned to her, "If you are the one to find him, you will be expected to finish him off as any of the rest of us would."

Kilishandra turned to the door. "I know that. I also know that I'm the only one who possibly can stand up to him in straight combat."

She opened the door and slammed it behind her. "That woman is dangerous," Khall said, "I still don't think we can trust her."

"I have her under control," Tharkus said, "She doesn't dare betray us. Besides, she truly desires the Sorcerers' Kingdom to become reality. She is ready to kill anyone who attempts to stop us, even if it is her adoptive father."

"When the fighting begins," Khall said, "we'll send her to Nigel. Get her out from under our feet until we are ready to take Darimar."

Tharkus raised one eyebrow. "Khall, are you afraid of her?"

"Of course I'm afraid of her!" Khall said, "You would be, too, if you were smart. She has a natural talent for magic like I've never seen. She learns spells in record time, and in many she is able to cast them far faster than anyone else, cutting some of the more difficult spells' casting time in half!"

"The ritual of devotion has seen to it that she cannot betray us," Tharkus said, "Not and live, anyway. She may let her heart rule her more than she should, but she is not stupid enough to let it kill her."

"Yes, you are right about that," Khall said, "Come, I'm getting hungry. Let's go see what is on the menu today."

* * *

Kilishandra climbed up to the highest level of the citadel, where she could stand on the balcony overlooking the pass down the mountains toward Whitos-Neiki. The sun was gone over the mountains behind the citadel, bathing it in a red light that almost made it look like the towers were coated in blood.

_Why did that bastard have to bring up Reaper?_ she thought, silently cursing Khall.

She had been but a child when she met Reaper, one of the most twisted individuals she had ever seen. She remembered it well, how he had attacked the village, the winged monstrosities that composed his army, how they had butchered the people, the men, women and children. The mountains of bodies and rivers of blood, and the burning of the village.

Reaper himself had killed Kilishandra's mother as she watched, a gruesome and painful death that was forever burned into her memory, the way he had cut open her stomach and dragged out her intestines, like a great red rope, causing as much pain as possible before he finally cut out her heart and it stopped beating in his hand.

Had her mother seen it? Had she seen her own heart held before her stop beating, or had she been so out of her mind in pain that nothing made sense anymore? And why had Reaper done it? Could someone simply so cruel exist? Or was there some other reason?

Kilishandra had been fifteen at the time. She aged like an elf, sure enough, and had appeared to humans like a child of about eight at the time. She had fled the village, convinced the monsters that followed Reaper would catch her any moment.

She had spent the night in the woods, curled up in a bed of moss against the trunk of a tree, having cried herself to sleep. The next morning, she had seen him passing by on the road just outside the fringe of the forest. She had thought he was a dark elf at first, with his intensely dark skin, but when she had run crying to him and grabbed his cloak, begging him to help her, she realized he was human.

She told him everything that had happened while he stared down at her in what may have been incredulity or surprise. She fell to her knees in the dust when she tried to tell him what Reaper had done to her mother, but couldn't get the words out.

Then he was on his knee next to her, wiping her tears on his cloak, and said nothing. He simply smiled at her and offered his hand to her. When she took it, he lifted her up into the crook of one arm. She had put her arms around his neck and spent the most of the rest of the day crying into his shoulder.

It had been one hundred forty-one years since that day.

Ganon had taught her everything she knew about magic at that time, and when they caught up to Reaper, she had killed him with her own hands. She had been sorely tempted to butcher him just as he had done to her mother, but in the end gave him a swift death, far better than he had deserved.

She had thought with Reaper's death, their journey would at last be over. But in the hunt, they had made many enemies, most of whom now lay dead, and some who still roamed the land. She remembered the final conflict between Ganon and Emperor Gerrador, an epic conflict that had leveled an entire city block and filled the sky with gold and black fire. With Gerrador dead, she had thought the journey would truly be over, the entire world under their rule.

Then Ganon had simply disappeared, saying something about his power being fractured and he had to find the other pieces and take them back. That was ten years ago. The Lords of Chaos had formed in that time, and now Ganon was an obstacle to their goal. The Sorcerers' Kingdom would prevent any other like her from being born. She had to see it through, even if it meant killing Ganon himself.

"Please," she whispered into the deepening night, "Let Mur'neth kill you. Don't make me fight you. Please..."

* * *

Link picked the Master Sword up from the altar. Just above the hilt on the blade, a series of red runes had been etched into the blade. They were not large, but covered about a sixth of the blade, and were duplicated on both sides. "That's it?" he asked.

"That's it," Sheila said, "These letters describe the procedure for beginning the spell. The actual spell instructions will be in the other parts."

"Why did it duplicate on both sides of the blade?" Zelda asked.

"Mainly an aesthetic choice on my part," Sheila said, "Once it's finished, I imagine it would look considerably better if it were even."

Link sheathed the blade. "Okay, guess I'm going to have to go apologize to Midna for getting into a fight down here. Where should we head next?"

"Well," Sheila said, "We can go either to the west, to Whitos-Neiki, or south to Nigel. They are about the same distance."

"I was thinking about that," Zelda said, "Why not go west, then we can go south and circle back east and then north? Once the spell is complete, we'll be quite near the coast already and ready to go home."

"Sounds good to me," Link said, "Hopefully we won't have as much trouble with the rest as with this one. Come on, let's get out of here. That damn squid stinks already."

At least fifty sahaugin were crawling all over the corpse of the kraken, cutting it into slabs to be carried to their storage, wherever it may be. They had set up a crude wooden bridge across the water and around the kraken to ease passage. Link doubted it could hold the weight of more than five people.

As they crossed, Sledge stopped them when they were nearly across. "Leaving already? You must stay for the feast tonight! There will be more than enough to go around!"

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Link said, glancing back at the girls, "What do you two think?"

"I'm for it," Zelda said.

"I've never cared much for seafood, but I suppose we might as well," Sheila said.

"Excellent!" Sledge said, "Why don't you go wait in the main hall? The tide will start to rise soon, and you don't want to get caught down here."

"My thinking exactly," Link said as the sahaugin stepped aside to allow them passage.

They made their way back up the stone passages, most finally nearly dry, without the monotonous dripping water and small streams running down, though the stone was still damp. Link doubted it would ever be truly dry.

When they emerged up the final stairwell, Link saw Midna, sitting exactly where they had left her.

"I heard the fighting," she said before he could speak.

Link sighed. "You did, huh?"

"Yes, also felt the earthquakes from it," she replied, "Enough to wake the dead."

Link knelt down in front of her. "I'm sorry. I know I said we'd avoid a fight if we could, but we never really had a chance-"

Midna held up one hand, quieting him. "You promised me you'd come back safe, Link. That's all I needed. I trust you, and you kept the promise."

Sheila leaned closer to Zelda to whisper to her, "That's a very deep rooted friendship, isn't it?"

"You have no idea," Zelda whispered back to her.

"Now," Midna said, "Stop being rude. Introduce me to your twin brother that you somehow managed to keep hidden all this time."

"What?" Link said, then glanced at the mug at her side which had contained the painkiller the shaman had mixed for her. It had been nearly completely drained. "You're drunk," he said, "That medicine dulls senses, all right."

"I'm not (hic) drunk," Midna said, "I'm just waiting for you to stop being so rude. And why are you both talking at the same time?"

The group stayed in the sahaugin's home that night and feasted on more squid than they'd ever hoped to have. There was fried, steamed, and broiled, as well as squid sushi, though only Midna attempted to eat that. Link decided, once the meal was over, he never wanted to see another squid as long as he lived.


	17. Chapter 16

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

To give credit, the Aurilites mentioned in this chapter are based off the priests of the same name in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons and Dragons, though I think I've pushed them a bit to the exteme.

**Chapter 16: Dark Weather**

Mur'neth watched the travelers from a small grove of trees about a quarter mile from the road. The three riders and the creature with them were making good time. When they had departed from the temple at first light, he had nearly been caught off guard and was hard pressed to catch up. Even at an easy trot, a person on foot had a damn hard time catching up, especially when it was vital he was not seen.

And at the same time, he had to stay far enough back that the High Elder could not sense him.

What made it doubly difficult was that dark elves were extinct in this world, or at least were supposed to be. The even a commoner seeing him was out of the question. They were the easiest to fool, of course. When the group passed through a small village on the way to the west, it was child's play to avoid the sight and knowledge of the peasants living there.

After all, he wasn't a Shadow Blade, the highest rank of the dark elven ninja, for nothing.

While he trailed directly behind the group, he had the three with him spread out, one on their far right, the other two to their far left. They had chosen the most direct road to Whitos-Neiki, and at their current pace would arrive in three days. He had sent another message to Khall to say as much.

He wished he could get close enough to hear what they were talking about, though. They seemed to be having quite an animated conversation. About something important, like their next destination, though, they may simply be discussing where to stop for the night. Probably have to find shelter somewhere, the way the dark clouds were building overhead. It was going to rain, and soon.

Mur'neth pulled a biscuit from his pack and took one bite, then regretted it as he nearly chipped his teeth. Traveling rations seemed to consist of two types. The dry and the dryer, with the latter able to be used as deadly weapons if you hit someone over the head with them. And gods damn, because of the need for secrecy, he couldn't make a fire, which meant no coffee.

Once, he had considered chewing the beans like tobacco, but after chewing one experimentally, decided it tasted like shit.

When this was over, he was going to want something other than coffee, though. Some decent wine, a huge meal with tons of red, juicy meat, and women. Oh yes, some women would be quite nice right now. And not just some sluts ready to hop into his bed to try and earn favor, either. Dancers would be what he'd want. He remembered that one belly-dancer he'd seen when he was young. That had probably been what sparked his slightly voyeur-ish tastes. Oh, it didn't stop his enjoyment of getting a pretty young thing into his bed, but it was so much better after a good show.

_And now your mind's wandering and you're falling behind,_ he chided himself, moving after the group with a slightly quickened pace to make up the lost ground.

After only a moment, they came back into view and Mur'neth hid himself just over the rise of a small hill. His gaze settled on the princess from across the sea. _That's one I wouldn't mind getting to dance for me,_ he thought.

From what his ninja had told him, one of the sahaugin, a big red one, had seen them off, and perhaps even tried to accompany them, but was convinced to stay behind. Such a creature likely wouldn't live long where they were headed now, anyway, with its cold-blooded nature.

* * *

"Then I grabbed the chain and planted my weight in those god-awful heavy boots," Link was saying as they rode, "and the thing fell right over, crushing a column as it did so. While the wind was knocked from it, I hit that glowing gem on its forehead with my sword, trying to shatter it. That gem was a fair bit tougher than I expected, though, and it got back onto its feet and trying to roast me alive with its fire breath."

Sheila was listening intently as Link told the tale, and Midna and Zelda occasionally joined in to fill in the gaps in his experience. Link carefully skirted around the bits about his transformation, though, not seeing the point in telling her. He likely wasn't going to need the transformation again, anyway.

Link finished up the part of the tale he was telling with the details of how the Goron patriarch was freed from the Twilit curse and returned to his normal form.

"It's still an incredible notion to think about," Sheila said, "If the Twilight Realm and your country were overlapping, it wouldn't have been long until the entire world fell under it's shadow. There's no telling what could have happened after that."

"What exactly do you mean?" Midna asked, "It's not so terrible a concept, to me at least. The sun in this world irritates my eyes."

"Not to mention it nearly killed you when you first entered it," Link said, poking her in the back as she sat in front of him.

"It's nothing to do with that," Sheila said, "When the gods created reality, they made the worlds separate for a reason. If the Twilight Realm was allowed to spread further across the world, then I can think that two things may have possibly happened.

"In the best case scenario, the two worlds would co-mingle and, for better or worse, become one and life would continue in one fashion or another."

Sheila turned her head toward them so she could watch their expressions. "But the more likely outcome would be that once the two worlds completely merged, neither one would survive it."

"That does make sense," Zelda said, "The worlds are obviously intended to be separate, so combining them would upset the very fabric of reality."

"And then they may not be the only worlds affected," Sheila continued, "There are many, many other worlds. Were two, or even one, to go out of balance, there could be untold effects on others as well. It could be that if our two worlds had completed the merging, all of reality would have collapsed upon itself, regardless of the outcome upon our two worlds."

"You hear that?" Midna said, nudging her elbow into Link's ribs, "You're even more of a hero than we thought."

"Just did what had to be done," Link said, "Anyone else could have done it. I just happened to have the means to stay safe in the Twilight Realm instead of becoming a spirit." He rubbed the back of his left hand with his right.

"That's just it, Link," Sheila said, "There aren't many who could have done as you have, even if they were protected from the effects of the shadow world. It's in human nature, elves too, to respond to any situation with a 'fight or flight' reflex. When faced with creatures such as you have faced, and I've now seen it as well, the typical reaction for most to choose 'flight.'"

She gave him a smile. "You seem to be geared toward 'fight,' regardless of what you are up against, though."

"That is what we call courage, I believe," Zelda said.

"No, that's what we call stupidity," Midna said.

"Whichever gets the job done," Link replied.

"Well, the point is," Sheila said before they could continue, "that most anyone matched up with a creature like the kraken would have likely lost control of their bladder and panicked, and when tossed around like you were, would have gone into a state of shock. They would have given up."

"Giving up isn't my style," Link said, "Once I start something, I'm going to finish it."

"Maybe you should get a tattoo," Midna said.

All three of them stared at her. "What?" Link said.

"I don't know," Midna said, "Something like 'Never say die' across your chest or something."

"Might have trouble finding room next to the 'I'm with that thing, whatever it is' tattoo with the arrow pointing to the fuzzy imp," Link said.

"And the 'I'm with stupid' across your forehead with the arrow pointing at your brain," Midna snapped.

Zelda pulled her horse alongside Sheila's. "What is Whitos-Neiki like?"

"Whitos-Neiki is situated further north than Tyr, in the northwester area, and its northern reaches are year-round snow," Sheila said, "It has a stronger military than Tyr, and King Maylow is the only elvish ruler in Mystara. What makes Whitos-Neiki strong is its mining industry. There are numerous veins of iron in the northern reaches, most of which is shipped to Metallicana for crafting into tools or weapons. It is also the home, relatively speaking, of the only unsanctioned religion on the continent."

"But we saw an image of quite a few gods back in the Cathedral in Tyr," Zelda said, "Do they worship one not approved there?"

"It's not that," Sheila said, "You see, they worship Auril, the goddess of ice. Auril is certainly a goddess and is one of the many with representations at the cathedral, but they take that worship to an extreme that is not acceptable. Aurilites, the worshipers of Auril, believe that as the goddess of ice, fire and heat are abominations and must be extinguished to embrace the truth of cold. They would extinguish every fire they saw, and even deny the heat to properly cook food, let alone save someone from freezing to death."

"Oh, goody," Link said, "Nothing like religious fanatics. They're more dangerous than any real villains, mainly because they believe they're doing the right thing."

"Precisely," Sheila said, "They aren't seen to often outside of the extreme northern areas, and many would be shot on sight. They're the only ones wearing no sleeves and shorts in snow."

"So, where's our temple in all this?" Link asked.

Sheila shook her head with a smile. "In the frozen wastes nearly at the northern edge of the world. Well within the Aurilites' territory."

Link couldn't help but chuckle. "Okay, we're going to be dealing with them, then. We're going to have to stop somewhere to buy warm clothing before we go north. Is there any possible chance the Aurilites will let us through?"

"If we meet a reasonable one, I see no reason why not," Sheila said, "But most of them are somewhat less than reasonable. I suppose such extreme cold eventually has quite an effect on one's sanity."

Midna leaned her head back against Link's stomach with a sigh. "What is it?" he asked.

"Just thinking," she said low enough the others couldn't hear, "This doesn't feel the same, you know? I liked it more when it was just you and me."

"I know," Link said, "I guess we've just gotten used to traveling as a pair. We won't be able to retrieve the spell without Sheila, though, and we certainly can't leave Zelda behind."

"That's not the point," Midna said, "I got used to having you to myself. And now, my magic seems to prove useless more than it helps. Sheila looks like a much better magician than either Zelda or me."

"Sheila can't turn into a giant monster of mass destruction," Link said.

"Oh, that makes me feel better," Midna said.

"This isn't about your worth," Link said, "Or theirs. I wouldn't care if you were truly helpless, which you most certainly are not. I value your company, and that's all that matters."

_Gods, every time I try to find some reason to be able to wrench my heart away from you, you turn into a nice guy!_ Midna thought, _Stop being so damned agreeable and give me some reason not to love you, you jerk!_

She tilted her head back slightly to see his face. He was watching the road again, but when she moved, he glanced down and smiled at her.

_Okay, that's it, get a cup,_ Midna thought, _I'm about to melt._

But even now, weeks later, she still couldn't shake the image from her mind of the way he had kissed Ilia in the field. _He can kiss her, but not me, huh? _she thought, _What does that milksop have that I don't, anyway? I mean, besides less facial hair._

It was all because of this wretched curse! If it had lifted when Ganondorf had been defeated, she wouldn't be having this trouble! Of course, she would have immediately had to have returned to her duties as the ruler of the Twilight Realm as well. You can't pick an choose the things you want out of life. The price of her extended time with Link was extended time as this wretched, ugly, cursed _imp!_

A drop of water slapped into her face. A second later, more began to fall, and it began to rain in earnest, turning into a full downpour within a few seconds. "Oh, great," Link said, "I'd hoped it would hold off until we found somewhere to stop."

"We're going to get soaked through," Zelda said, "And it won't do the horses much better. Is there anything nearby we can use for shelter?"

They had left the last town behind over an hour ago and the road had been empty for the entire way since. It was open green plains to either side as far as the eye could see.

"We'll just have to keep going for now," Link said, "Maybe something will show up."

As if in answer, when they reached the top of the next hill, a gray, dilapidated manor with boarded windows appeared ahead of them. "That'll do," all four of them said in union.

The manor was an old two-story. The walls were constructed of an ugly gray brick, and the windows were all boarded up, and judging by the overgrown land, no one had lived there for some time. There was an acceptable stable on the east side, though some of the stalls no longer had roofs. They stabled their horses and unpacked some of the grain they had brought with them to feed them, then the four walked around to the main door on the south side.

The finish of the door had long since gone, and now it was an ugly, splintered, brown double-door portal into an uglier manor. The knocker still held onto the door, carved with the face of a lion. Just in case someone might still be living there, however unlikely, Link grabbed it and gave a few sharp raps. Nothing happened, so he pushed on the door. It gave and opened inward, swinging with a loud, hideous creak.

Link leaned in, glancing around the dark hall. "Avon calling," he called out, his voice echoing through the building.

He stepped inside, the other three following. It was a narrow hall leading for some distance away, with one door immediatly on their right, a second a bit further down on their left, and a third at the far end of the hall. The floor was covered with what might have once been carpet or a rug, but was now an unidentifiable brown mess that tore apart as they stepped upon it.

The air was stale, like the air inside one of one of the temples in Hyrule that hadn't been entered for hundreds of years until Link and Midna had. It was as if there had been no circulation until they had opened the door.

Link opened the door on the right hand side. A large room with what appeared to be a collapsed table in the center was visible through it. It was too dark to see all the way to the far end, but it seemed to be a dining room that would seat at least fifty. Link noticed an ornamental suit of armor on the right side next to a boarded window. It was rusted and missing the helmet.

"Ain't been anyone here for quite a while," Link said, "You know anything about this place, Sheila?"

"Afraid not," she said, "This place is big enough that it would take a fairly rich family to build and maintain, and apparently there hasn't been anyone for longer than I care to think about."

"I'm amazed its still standing," Midna said.

Link shut the door. "Let's see if there's someplace we might lay down and get some rest."

The door to the left opened to what had once been a kitchen. When he saw the bones scattered about, Link was quite glad that whatever meat had been attached to them was long gone, either by scavengers or rodents, or the smell would have likely knocked them out. It was bad as it was when he opened the door and they were hit with a smell of rotting meat that never quite fades away combined with animal feces.

Link had immediately pulled the door shut, and the smell had faded a few seconds later. As old as the wood was, it had been well cut, almost sealing air-flow between rooms off completely. They moved to the far door and opened it to find another hallway, running perpendicular to the one they were in, one door immediately across from them as they entered, down to the right there was one door on the far side and a flight of stairs descending to the basement, and to the left there was one more door on the far side of the hall, and the hall rounded a corner further down.

Link opened the door immediately in front of them. It opened into a fairly large room, the floor was marble instead of being covered by the rotting carpet of the halls, and there were a few collapsed pieces of furniture that may have once been chairs scattered about, and a couch that was only missed the legs on one end, though the back was broken in half, one part still attached to the couch, the rest on the floor behind it. There was also a fireplace against the far wall, with even a picture frame mounted above it, though Link couldn't make out the picture, if there still was one, in the dark.

"This might do," he said, kneeling down in front of the fireplace. There weren't any ashes in the bottom, so it could be used immediately. "We can use some of that broken furniture to start a fire and dry out our clothes."

Sheila was wringing water from her hair and it splashed down onto the floor, forming a small puddle. "Sounds like a plan to me."

Zelda was still keeping her hair in a tight braid, so it wasn't nearly as wet as Sheila's, though she twisted it tightly in her hands to wring water from it. Link walked to one of the piles of rotted wood and picked up an armful to dump in the fireplace. _It's not going to smell the best when it burns, but it'll burn,_ he thought.

He dumped the wood onto the grating in the fireplace and dusted the bits left on his arms away, then reached for his knife and the flint he kept in a pouch at his belt. Striking the blade against the flint generated a spark, and a moment later, he had an adequate fire burning, spreading warmth and light across the room.

"Didn't look like she was too nice," Midna said.

"Who?" Link asked, then looked up.

The light of the fire was lighting up the picture above the fireplace to some extent. It was a portrait of a woman. She was beautiful, really, in a luxurious gown with padded shoulders. Her face was perfect, without a single blemish or wrinkle, but her expression was set in a frown, her eyebrows drifting together as though in disapproval or anger.

And her eyes...

It had to be the painting. Link had seen portraits down before in a specific style that made it seem the eyes were watching you, and possibly even followed you across the room. This one seemed to be in that style. Perhaps she was an overbearing lady who wanted to make her servants feel she was always watching them, so they wouldn't slack off.

In short, it was the kind of portrait that gave you nightmares.

"I'm not going to be able to sleep with that thing there," Midna said.

"Well, that's easy enough to fix," Link said.

He reached up above the fireplace and slipped his fingers behind the portrait's frame and lifted it upward. It came down easily, and Link sat it against the wall, the picture facing toward the wall so it could not be seen. "There," he said, "Easy enough."

Thunder cracked overhead. "Sounds like this is going to be a full storm," Link said, "Glad we found this place, then."

Midna had pulled the blankets from her invisible storage and laid them across the floor. There were enough extras to be rolled up and used as pillows.

"Don't you think we should check the rest of the rooms before we settle in?" Zelda asked.

"Not really a point," Link said, "Didn't you notice the way that carpet was tearing apart under our feet in the hall? Right there would have been the evidence of anyone else in here. I didn't see any other doors around the place, either. We're alone."

Sheila sat down on one of the blankets, wrapping another around her, shivering. Her clothes of office may have been practical for traveling, but they were quite thin, and she was already likely wetter than the others.

Link pulled off his tunic and lay it on the tile before the fire, then removed his chain mail and lay it next to it. His undershirt was still mostly dry, other than the sleeves. He put the Master Sword and his shield on the floor next to his blanket, within easy reach.

Zelda followed suite, shucking her tunic and mail, laying them before the fire to dry out, and placing her sword and bow within easy reach.

Thunder cracked overhead once more. "It's going to be a long night," Link said, "Who wants first watch?"

"I'll take it," Sheila said, "I'm not going to sleep for some time yet anyway."

"Okay," Link said, "Wake me for middle watch, then."

Zelda lay down, wrapping herself in one blanket as she lay her head on another. "I suppose I'm last watch then. That's fine."

Link always volunteered for the middle watch of the night, mainly because it was the most difficult because one's sleep was broken into two segments, rather than one whole. Midna usually stood the watch with him, both to help keep him awake, and because she had grown so used to being next to him as they slept that she had great difficulty getting to sleep in strange areas without him next to her.

As Link lay down now, for some reason he couldn't help but think about the portrait again. It was just that style that made the eyes seem to follow one about. There was no other explanation. It was still creepy, the feeling of the eyes on you as you looked at it. Of course, it couldn't literally follow you, it was just a painting.

_Better think about something else or you'll give yourself nightmares,_ Link thought.

Midna practically burrowed into his side, seeking warmth. _She has the worst experience out of all of us in rain,_ he thought, _She can't shed wet clothing._

He heard water dripping to the floor and turned to look toward it to see Sheila's bare back, her blouse twisted in her hands before her as she wrung water from it. He turned back with a yawn. _Well, she'd be a sight better than any nightmare,_ he thought, smiling to himself.

Sheila pulled her blouse back on, considerably less damp than it had bee earlier. She had about four hours now before her turn to sleep. She moved a bit closer to the fire to help dry herself out, noting the steam rising from Link and Zelda's tunics.

_I don't remember this house being on any maps,_ she thought, _Though that wouldn't be too unusual, if it were some lord's private manor. It's been abandoned for quite a long time, though. I wonder how long exactly? And what circumstances caused it to be abandoned._

She glanced over at Link. His breathing was deep and even. He was asleep already. So was Zelda. _They can sleep anywhere, can't they?_ she thought.

She sighed, regretting already volunteering for first watch. Maybe she should have taken last watch this time.

Wait... What was that?

Sheila looked up, straining her ears again. There! It sounded like a metallic clanking. Sheila stood up and tiptoed to the door. She opened it and looked up and down the hall. Nothing, but now she was positive she was hearing it. She opened the door across from her, back to the first hall. No, it wasn't coming from that direction, she realized, shutting it. It was coming from her left side.

She looked down the hall, straining her eyes in the dark, but could make out nothing. The clanking was growing louder now. It was getting closer. Then she saw it, a movement coming up the stairs. It was a man, eight feet tall, and clanking with every step. As he turned toward her, she realized he was in full body armor, carrying a massive battle axe in his right hand.

She slammed the door, stepping back in the room. "Link! Zelda! Wake up! We're not alone here!"

Link was on his feet immediately, the Master Sword practically flying from its scabbard. Zelda was a bit slower, but snatched up her bow and quiver and was on her feet. Midna seemed to appear from nowhere and hovered just behind Link's shoulder.

"What is it?" Link asked, "What did you see?"

"There's someone here," Sheila said, "He was in full armor, coming up from the basement. Listen!"

They were silent, and did listen, but the clanking had stopped. "He must be standing out there," Sheila said, "I heard him coming some time before he appeared, and he can't have gone anywhere."

Link was at the door. He slowly pulled it open, leaning around the corner to the left, so he could see down the hall to the basement. "I don't see anyone."

"What?" Sheila said, "He has to be standing right..."

She leaned out the door behind him. The hall was empty. The armored man was gone. "I don't get it," Sheila said, "He was right there! Maybe he went back down the basement..."

"I'll go check it out," Link said, stepping into the hall, "You three wait here."

He disappeared down the hall. "Are you sure you saw it?" Zelda asked.

"Positive," Sheila said, "He was eight feet tall and had a battle axe as large as my torso in his hand. I can even identify the armor. It looked like the design used by the Tyr army about fifty years ago, complete with a sentinel helmet and flared shoulders."

"Maybe you shouldn't take first watch," Midna said.

Link returned before she could retort. "There's nothing down there," Link said, "The basement entrance is completely blocked off. It looks like if someone tampered with it, it would cave in."

"That doesn't make sense!" Sheila said, "There where did it come from? And where did it go?"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out," Link said, "I don't think you're hallucinating, you haven't missed that much sleep. So, I'm guessing there might be-"

"Link!" Midna said, interrupting him.

"What?" he asked as he turned to her, then stopped short.

The portrait, which he distinctly remembered putting its face tot he wall when he set it down, was facing toward them, the eyes of the woman seeming to watch them.

Thunder cracked overhead, louder than ever.

* * *

"It doesn't make sense," Mur'neth muttered, examining his map.

"What is the matter, my lord?" the ninja next to him asked. He had come to report that the river up ahead was swelling and likely couldn't be crossed while the storm was raging to find Mur'neth standing in the weather, examining a map he carried with him. The map itself was on a piece of oiled leather, preventing the rain from damaging it, though making it a bit bulky compared to paper maps.

"You know what this, right?" Mur'neth asked the ninja, waving the map at him.

"It is one of the maps made by our scouts," the ninja said, "What is the problem?"

"This map is the most accurate and up to date map of this country in existence," Mur'neth said, "The only way something could exist and not be on this map would be because it was added in the past six months. Follow me so far?"

The ninja nodded. Mur'neth pointed to the manor before them. "That house cannot be as old as it appears," he said, "It is not on this map! Someone is setting a trap! Someone we know nothing about! This could ruin everything!"


	18. Chapter 17

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 17: Wraith**

Link grabbed the frame of the picture and quickly turned it about, facing the wall once more. This was ridiculous. First Sheila sees a man in full armor who disappears into thin air, then a picture turns itself about.

"I vote we get out of this house, now," Sheila said.

"Oh, yes," Link said, turning to face her, "Back into the rain so we can all get sick. That would be a great move, especially since the rain is getting louder by the second, which means the storm is getting worse. We're stuck here for the night, girls, no ifs ands or buts."

"Link's right," Midna said, "It would be foolhardy to dash out into the night, especially when no one else has seen this knight of yours, Sheila."

"You don't think I'm lying, do you?" Sheila asked.

"Of course not," Link said, "But I do think you're tired. We'll just throw a bit more wood on the fire, and you can take last watch instead."

"You just intend to go back to sleep?"

"Of course not," Link said as he stooped to scoop up his chain mail, then slipped it on over his head, "I'm going to do a check of the rest of the house nice and quick. I suppose it was a bit foolish not to. You can wait here. I'll be back in a few minutes."

He picked up the Master Sword as Midna came closer to him. "Let me come along, Link, just to be safe."

"All right," Link said, acknowledging her, "You two stay, we'll be back in a few minutes."

Link pulled the only door to the room open and stepped out into the hall, pulling it shut behind him as Midna followed close.

Sheila stared at the door for a moment after he had gone. She turned to Zelda, who was settling into a cross-legged sitting position with her bow and quiver close to her side. "You believe me, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Zelda said, "I suppose it's only natural for a house this old to be haunted, despite what a cliche it is."

"Haunted," Sheila repeated, "You think that was a ghost I saw?"

"What else could vanish so suddenly?" Zelda asked, "You know, I don't think we've told you, but ghosts are actually not an unusual sight in Hyrule. The graveyard behind Kakariko village, and some of the roads in some areas are unsafe at night because of them."

Sheila stared at her for a moment. "You're telling me you live in that kind of place?"

"It's not so bad, really," Zelda said, "You just give the ghosts their space and they'll leave you alone. You also don't want to wander into any large tombs or such where mass burials occurred after one of the bloody conflicts Hyrule has seen. No telling what's wandering around down there now."

Sheila shuddered. "Enough, enough! As if I'm not going to have nightmares enough!"

Zelda couldn't help but smile. They had an undead army in the western mountains, and she was squeamish about such things. _I suppose it is a good thing she's not in control of the military,_ Zelda thought.

Thunder suddenly cracked overhead, drowning out the rain and making them both jump.

"Hey, Zelda," Sheila said, lifting one hand to point at something, "Link turned that back around, didn't he?"

Zelda turned to the portrait where Sheila pointed. She distinctly remembered Link turning the face toward the wall. The image of the woman now stared at them, unmoving and emotionless, her eyes seeming to watch their movements in the flickering light of the fire.

"This is ridiculous," Zelda said, standing up and walking to it, "If this keeps up, I'm going to toss it in the fire."

"Don't touch it!" Sheila cried out.

Zelda realized the eyes in the portrait were different from before. She realized that they _were_ moving, following her movements across the room. The portrait _was_ watching them!

The door behind them suddenly flew off its hinges, wood splinters flying through the air as the door crashed to the floor, and the massive figure stopped down to fit through the opening.

It was a man in full body armor, nearly eight feet tall, his armor creaking loudly as he moved, orange rust stains decorating the metal in a pockmark pattern. But what drew their attention more was the gigantic battle axe in his hand, stained red with fresh, dripping blood.

Zelda grabbed for her bow, and Sheila was already chanting, her voice echoing about them, "_Bourash na bourash_," but before she could finish, and before Zelda could nock an arrow, the armored figure was upon them.

* * *

Link and Midna had gone to the right from the den they had set camp in, around the corner at the far end to find a flight of stairs going up and a doorway leading further back into the house. Deciding to explore the first floor first, Link opened the door and stepped into an enormous hall. The floor was coated in nearly an inch-think layer of dust, but seemed to be made of marble. Link's eyes were adjusting to the dark rapidly, though he could not see to the other end of the room. It must have occupied the entire back half of the first floor.

What may have once been great tapestries hung in rotted pieces on the walls, and on the left side, the occasional flash of lightning was visible through the gaps between the boards across the windows. When the light flashed, it lit up the room to some extend, also revealing along both walls the for ornamental suits of armor that still stood, through heavily rusted.

"Looks like a dance hall or something," Link said, "Rich person's house, all right."

"You think this place may be haunted, Link?" Midna asked.

"What brought that on?" Link said, glancing at her.

"Just answer the question!" Midna said.

Link sighed, and started walking toward the far end of the room. "What I think," he said, then stopped, "Wait... Do you hear that?"

Midna strained her ears. She couldn't make out anything over the rain and occasional crash of thunder. "I don't hear-"

Link shushed her. His left hand slid upward, grasping the hilt of the Master Sword. Midna floated down to about his waste level, getting closer to him, watching the shadows around the room.

"_Boo!_" Link suddenly shouted, spinning on her.

Midna's heart felt like it exploded as she leaped away from him, and his laughter was suddenly echoing around the hall. She was panting, trying to get her heart to stop beating a thousand times a second. "Gods _damn_ you!" she said, "Are you trying to give me a heart attack? This is _so_ not the time!"

"Sorry," Link said, his laughter dimming to a chuckle, "But you've got to admit, I got you good."

"You're not going to need to worry about a monster killing you," Midna muttered, "because _I'm_ going to."

"Come on," Link said, "I won't do it again. Let's go..."

He was interrupted by a loud creaking, a noise that sounded like metal grinding on metal. His hand was instantly on his sword as he and Midna spun toward the direction it came from. With a loud clank, one of the rusted suits of armor stepped off its mount, the helmet turning toward them with a viciously loud shriek of grinding metal. It leveled the large halberd it held in one hand toward them, gripping it higher up with its other.

With similar shrieks of grinding metal, the suit on the opposite side of the room did the same, hefting a rusted war-hammer as it clanked toward them. Link pulled the Master Sword from the scabbard, its unique metallic ring filling the room, only to be drowned by more shrieking metal. Link looked over his shoulder to see the other two suits step off their mounts, one lifting a massive greatsword as long as Link was tall, the other a long pike, their feet crashing down with loud clanks as they moved toward the pair in the center of the room.

"What are they?" Link asked, "Ghosts?"

"No," Midna said, "I'd be able to see some necroplasmic traces on them at least if they were. I see nothing at all!"

"I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse," Link said as the rusted armors drew closer.

The halberd wielding suit swung the bladed head toward them, Link leaping sideways as it crashed into the floor. He lunged forward, bringing the Master Sword toward his foe, crashing it into the suit of armor at its neck, sending the helmet flying through the air as the sword cleaved through the rusted metal easily.

Link almost started to laugh as the helmet clattered hollowly across the floor, but the headless suit of armor lifted its weapon, turning back toward him, swinging wide horizontally at his torso. Link dropped straight down, one leg going either direction as the weapon whistled over his head. He swung upward, the Master Sword cutting into the armor's crotch and cutting straight up through the rusted metal with a hideous shrieking, into a semicircle cutting out the right side about halfway up the torso.

The armor didn't even feel it, raising the halberd high into the air, and Link realized he couldn't stand up, and became aware of intense pain in his lower area. He flopped onto his back, pulling his legs forward to where they belonged and rolled sideways, the halberd crashing into the floor but an inch from his head. He stopped as the war-hammer crashed into the floor on the other side of him, sending chips of tile flying into the air.

The hammer then fell to the floor as a bolt of black lightning struck across the chest of the second armor, sending it flying backward into the wall, and flying to pieces on impact, the small individual pieces of the armor crashing to the floor.

Link leaped to his feet spinning with a wide horizontal swing as he did so, cutting through the waste of the first armor, the metal shrieking loudly as the Master Sword cleaved through. The Link spun completely about, sending the heel of his foot into the armor's chest, sending the severed breastplate flying through the air away from him to crash to the floor a few feet away.

The other two armors were drawing close, and then Link felt a sharp pain in his shin. The legs of the first armor were still standing, and one had just kicked him! "Get lost!" Link said, ramming his knee into the crotch of the armor, which split the initial cut apart and the two legs fell to either side with loud crashes.

"I got these two," Midna said, appearing at his side. She sent twin lightning bolts of darkness streaking into the other suits, sending them crashing into the far wall, flying to pieces upon impact.

They stood there a moment, watching the pieces on the floor, almost expecting them to pull themselves together. "Okay," Link said a moment later, "Decision made. We're getting the hell out of this house."

"No argument here," Midna said, "Let's go get the others."

They turned and made their way quickly through the door they had come and back to the den where they had made camp. "What in the hell?" Link demanded when he saw the door ripped from its hinges laying on the floor in the room.

There was no sign of Zelda or Sheila. The blankets still lay across the floor, but the fire had died away to a few glowing embers. "Where did they go?" Link asked, "I told them to stay here!"

"Link, we have a problem!" Midna said, pointing toward the portrait that still leaned against the wall.

Link turned to see the image of the cold woman was once again facing them, but this time, her eyes were alight with a red glow, and a sinister smile upon her face. Thunder crashed overhead, and the room filled with wicked, feminine laughter.

"Laugh it up, bitch," Link said, pointing his sword toward the portrait, "If those two are hurt in any way when I find them, then by the time I'm done with you, you _will_ be a ghost!"

The laughter died away, and the glow in the portrait's eyes grew brighter. "I may be persuaded to release them," a woman's voice said, seeming to come from everywhere around them at once, "Come find us. There is a hidden passage on the second floor that leads down to the basement by a back way. We're down here, waiting. Hurry, because if you're still in this house at dawn, none of you will ever be leaving!"

"Come on," Link said, turning to the door, Midna quickly moving after him.

"Oh, and do mind the pets," the voice called after them, "They haven't been fed yet this evening."

Link headed straight for the stairs. "Link, are you sure you want to be rushing like this?" Midna asked, "We're walking into a trap."

"I know that," Link said as he stepped upward, moving toward the second floor, "But I think I know what we're up against. Some kind of magician using her magic to animate those suits of armor. I don't know what her game is, but I'm about to mount her head on the wall where that portrait used to hang."

They emerged on the second floor in a fairly wide, wooden floored room nearly thirty feet long and ten wide. At the far end, they saw her. The woman from the portrait, standing in a long, flowing dress, though her skin was far paler than the image in the portrait. She raised one hand and beckoned for them to follow, then disappeared around a corner up ahead.

"I really don't like this," Midna said.

Link started forward again. "Neither do I, but we've got no choice."

A loud crashing up ahead startled them. A second later, an enormous monster appeared, coming around the corner toward them. It seemed to be a dog, with mangy black fur, but it was nearly the size of a horse, with blood red eyes that could be seen glowing in the dark, and yellowed, sharp teeth. It growled menacingly when it caught sight of them.

"I think we should-" Midna started, but then it charged them.

Its feet pounded across the wooden floor, sending dust flying into the air, the growl turning into a loud, almost constant roar. "Buddy," Link said, shaking his head, "You picked the wrong day."

Link spun sideways just before the beast reached him, bringing the Master Sword down as he did so, and the beast dropped to the floor, its head rolling a few feet away from its neck, black blood pooling from the body on the floor.

Without even glancing at it, Link started walking again. Midna stared at the body for just a second, then hurried to catch up with him. They reached the corner, turning right, to see the woman again. She was smiling at them. She gestured to an empty candle bracket on the wall about halfway up the hall. Then she stepped back and vanished into the wall.

"What is she?" Link muttered, "She's not a ghost. I'm sure of that."

"What does she want us to do?" Midna asked.

Link reached up and gripped the candle bracket and game a pull. Sure enough, it gave easily with a click, and the wall where the woman had vanished slid open, revealing stairs descending into blackness. "This is almost too easy," Link said, "I wonder what's making her so confident?"

They descended the stairs, which seemed to be inside one of the walls to the side of the dance hall below, and descended even further down. The wooden walls gave way to carved stone. The house had been built on a thick stone foundation, and the basement seemed to be cut directly into it.

They reached the bottom in a room about twenty feet by twenty feet in size, where a single brazier in the center of the dirt floor lit the room. At the far end, Link saw faces. Zelda and Sheila were tied to the far wall! No, they weren't tied, that looked more like webbing.

Link stepped into the room, Midna close behind. "Zelda? Sheila? Are you all right?"

"Oh, they're not quite conscious," said the voice of the woman, "You see, my pets' venom isn't strong enough to kill a human, but it can render them immobile for a time."

"Link, look closer," Midna said.

It really was webbing that held the two to the wall, and crawling about on it were dozens, no, hundreds of tiny spiders, so no bigger than a pinhead, some as large as a human thumb. "Being spiders, they prefer their prey alive, anyway," the voice said, "But they won't begin to feast until I give them permission."

Link's anger was rising. "Where are you? What do you want from us?"

"I'm... quite closer than you think," the voice said, "As for what I want... I want to leave this place. This house has been cursed for several millennia now, to appear on the night of the dead, All Hallow's Eve, only to vanish at dawn the next morn. And I cannot leave without help, and any caught within it when it vanishes become as trapped as I am."

Link was scanning the shadows around the edge of the room, trying to locate her. "Then why do you do this? If you want help, all you had to do was ask."

"I'm not so sure you'd be willing to grant the help I need," the voice said, "You see, I'm not exactly human anymore."

It was so fast, Link didn't even have time to swing. A ghastly skull appearing before his face, a red glow deep within its eye sockets, then it was suddenly gone. Then, at the far end of the room, standing between Zelda and Sheila's unconscious forms, was a creature like he had never seen. It would have appeared to be a Stalfos, one of the undead creatures he had seen all to often before, but it was so much else. Scraps of half-rotten meat clung to its bones, shreds of cloth strung about it, and an altogether greater presence than any undead warrior had ever had.

"Look upon me," the creature said in the woman's voice, "Look upon what I have become. I was once a mighty sorceress, destined to one day be an archmage. I never understood why some of my ancestors' magic was denied me, why it should never be allowed to be used once more. Magic exists to be used, does it not? What is the use of having power, of having ability, and not making use of it? I could have ruled the world if I could just get my hands of one of the ancients' spell books to master the magic within. I could learn the ancient powers of the world, such as the Harrowing, and even Venom.

"But my colleagues were jealous of my ability," she said, turning to look at Sheila's unconscious form, "They denied me access to the vaults where the ancient magics were stored. I managed to sneak out a tome of knowledge on the lost art of necromancy. I hoped to use it to convince them I could control such power, that I deserved the knowledge that they denied me."

She turned back to Link, the expressionless skull that was her face somehow carrying contempt for the other magicians of the time. "Don't you agree?" she asked, "I sense the mighty power within you, human. I also sense the power within your friend here," she gestured to Zelda, "If that power which is your right was denied to you, do you not think it your duty to take it, so that you may use it as you see fit, as the gods intended?"

"First of all," Link said, "I don't have the slightest clue how to use this power I'm supposed to possess. Second, I don't intend to find out. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The only ones who should possess such power are those that have the will not to use it."

"Oh, you're just like them," the creature said, "A coward. Afraid to grasp what the gods have given you, because it might turn you into a monster. Here's the real truth: All the power in this world exists for a reason. Though you may not know it yet, the power you possess will be forced into play in the future. If you refuse to use it, then far more people than just you will die.

"Yessssss..." the creature continued, "That is, of course, provided you get out of here alive."

Link held his sword at the ready, gesturing silently to Midna to be ready. "And just what are you planning?"

"You see," the creature said, "As I said, I desire to leave this place. However, due to an accident in my attempted necromancy involving rushing into an advanced spell on my part, the opening of a dimensional rift on the spell's part, and an irate demon who did not appreciate winding up here, I have been cursed to this form. The form of a wraith. I cannot leave until I recover mortal flesh."

A tingle ran up Link's spine. He did not like the way she was eyeing him. "Don't even try it," Link said, "You'll be taking my flesh over my dead body. No, wait. That didn't come out right..."

"At least you grasp the concept," the wraith said, "But if you refuse to grant me your flesh, I'll take it from one of your friends here," she gestured to Zelda and Sheila, "It won't be all bad. You won't die. You'll become as I am now, and you'll be able to leave after you take the mortal flesh of some other being."

"Link, don't listen to her," Midna said, "We can take her. If we kill her, we can save them."

"If you attack me," the wraith said, "I'll unleash my spiders upon them. There's no way you will be able to save them in time."

_Damn,_ Link thought, _I'm backed into a corner. Either I live and they die, or they live and I die. I can't save everyone..._

"Attack the instant the webs are cut," a voice whispered in Link's ear, "Don't acknowledge me or you'll give us away. You'll have about ten seconds, no more."

"Well?" the wraith asked, "What is your decision?"

Link spotted it. Movement in the shadows along the edge of the room. The gleam of knives in the dim light, slicing into the webs.

He leaped.

Midna's startled cry. The two girls tumbling into the arms of the two ninja. The shriek of fury from the wraith.

"You can't escape me so easily!" the wraith shrieked as Link flew through the air toward her, his sword gripped tightly in both hands, swinging toward her.

Green light expanded from the skeletal figure of the wraith, filling Link's vision. The light arced toward him, wrapping itself about his body, and then the world seemed to dissolve around him.

The wraith vanished. Link expected to reach the floor any second now, but he seemed to keep falling. And falling. And falling. He turned about. He could see nothing but green light, filled with a kind of watery motion all about. "What happened?" he asked, his voice echoing around him.

He turned toward sudden laughter to see the face of the wraith, now the image of a giant skull nearly the size of a building, with massive flames burning in its eyes rushing toward him. The mouth came open, revealing the empty blackness within.

"Now, die!" the wraith shrieked.

Link swung his blade with as much leverage as he could muster, striking the upper row of teeth of the skull, and sending himself spinning sideways through space, away from that gigantic open mouth. The skull flew past, stopping to turn some small distance away.

It turned toward him once more. Where the blade had struck, three teeth were missing, and some form of thick green ichor was oozing from broken bone of the skull. It rushed him again, the mouth opening wider.

Link realized his left hand was burning. He looked down to see the Triforce emblem glowing as bright as he had ever seen. _Great,_ he thought, _Now how do I use it to save myself?_

The wraith suddenly stopped, shrieking in pain.

"I can't be!" Link couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Standing in the open mouth of the skull, his feet on the teeth of the lower jaw, his hands gripping the other, was the black armored, dark skinned warrior who had very nearly conquered Hyrule only a year before.

"Ganondorf!" Link said, gripping his sword tighter. The Triforce was reacting to the presence of the other man, not the wraith.

But Ganondorf was ignoring him. "You keep your claws away from him," Ganondorf said, "He is mine! I shall be the one to take his life, no other! You were foolish to draw him into the spiritual plain, for here I can find him in but an instant! Now, you die!"

Ganondorf roared, the Triforce on the back of his right hand glowing almost blindingly bright, he stretched his arms and legs further, and with a shriek of agony, the wraith's jaw snapped, breaking away from the skull. Ganondorf floated back from it as a red glow appeared within the blackness that had once been within its mouth.

The shriek began to grow louder as cracks appeared on the skull, red light emerging from within, the fires in the eye sockets dying away. With a sudden crash, the skull exploded, shards of bone flying every direction, a pulsating red light appearing in the center of where it had once been, single streams of light appearing across its surface, then it began to shrank and disappeared, the shriek dying away with it.

Ganondorf turned to Link, who raised his sword, ready for another fight. With a sneer, Ganondorf floated closer to him, then suddenly stopped, clutching his forehead with one hand. "Damn... Still too weak for this... Can't stay here much longer..." he said, then raised his gaze to Link, "I'll get you another time, hero. See you soon."

Ganondorf turned transparent, then faded from view. Link stared at where he had been for a moment. "What was that about?"

Rather than receiving an answer, though, he suddenly felt as though he was falling again.

* * *

Link opened his eyes, warm sunlight beating down on his face. Three concerned faces hovered over him. "What happened?" he asked.

"When you attacked the wraith, some kind of green light hit you both," Midna said, "Next thing I know, black skinned elves are carrying Sheila and Zelda out of the basement, and you are nowhere to be found. A moment later, you reappear, unconscious. One of the elves carried you out."

"We only woke up shortly before you did," Zelda said, "The house disappeared once the sun came up. Midna told us what happened. Are you okay?"

Link sat up. They were sitting on a blanket spread across the grass. Nearby, there were the bare remnants that would say a building had once stood in some location thousands of years ago, with a spread of stone foundation where the walls had been, and lighter plant life than the rest of the area.

"I'm fine," Link said, "I... fought the wraith on the spiritual plain, I guess."

Sheila looked thoughtful. "Such a creature would be considerably more powerful in such a place. How did you win?"

"I didn't," Link said, almost not believing his own words, "I was saved... by Ganondorf."

Zelda and Midna glared at him. "I suggest you tell us exactly what happened," Zelda said.

"Wait," Link said, "What happened to the ninja? The black skinned elves?"

"They disappeared almost as soon as they could put everyone down once we got out," Midna said, "I tried to see if I could find a trail, but found nothing. They are very good at that, it seems."

_First they disrupt the spell,_ Link thought, _Now they save our lives. Why do I feel like we are the only ones who don't know what's going on?_

"They are called Dra'thul, or dark elves," Sheila said, "I had thought they were extinct, but it seems they are the ninja whom are allied with the Lords of Chaos."

"And they've probably been following us since we left Tyr," Link said, "Just perfect. Well, let's get going. I'll tell you what happened with the wraith as we walk."

"I'm all for stopping early tonight," Midna said, "Didn't get much sleep last night."

* * *

Mur'neth sighed. He lay on his stomach just over the top of a nearby hill, watching the group from a safe distance. Espionage may have been his forte, but he was getting tired of this. And now that he had been forced to step in to save them from the wraith, they would know that they were being followed.

One of the other ninja appeared at his side. "Here, my lord," he said, holding something out to him.

Mur'neth took it. It was a ring with a silver band, and a purple gem set into it. Lifting it to the light, Mur'neth could see the red runes etched into the inside of the band.

"You made the switch?" Mur'neth asked.

"Yes, my lord," the ninja said, "The princess now carries the false ring we had made earlier."

"Perfect. Now, we just need the last fragment of the Twilight Mirror. Unfortunately, it's going to be much harder to get. In the mean time, get a runner to take this back to Khall. I don't trust tying it to a messenger pidgeon."

"As you wish, my lord," the ninja said, taking the ring and disappearing into the hills.


	19. Chapter 18

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

I wanted to do something a little different for this chapter, take a break from the main plot for a minute, you know? Though there is a bit of development of it. Back on track with chapter 19. And no, Link will not likely be using his new fighting techniques often, since most of his opponents don't stand and fight with him anyway.

**Chapter 18: The Man Who Kicks Low**

The Whitos-Neika school of swordsmanship was one of the most respected in the land, nearly as revered as the magician's school in Tyr, and producing many of the greatest soldiers Mystara had ever seen.

But now, a single warrior was not only decimating the best students, but the master instructors as well.

Sixteen of the best students the school had lay at the edge of the sparring mat, each one nursing the pain of a broken leg, and four defeated instructors watched on as Cletus Harringer stepped to the white line on the mat, his longsword and shield ready.

His opponent readied a bastard sword with an extended hilt as he forsook a full sized shield for a six-inch buckler on his left arm. It would allow him to defend himself, yet keep his left hand free to get a two-handed grip on his sword.

Cletus swung wide from the left, his opponent easily parrying the strike with his blade as he stepped back. Cletus quickly pulled himself back. He had watched his students and his friends fight and fall, and knew the tactic by which this man won his confrontations.

His opponent stepped closer, keeping his sword ready to parry, not to strike. Cletus lashed out with a quick doubl-strike, one from the side, and once it was blocked, immediately swung again from above. His opponent turned his sword horizontal, catching the strike, and suddenly lashed out with his right foot.

Cletus felt the incredible impact on his left leg, nearly taking his feet from under him. He stepped back, his leg throbbing. His opponent did not let up, however, and spun to the left, moving closer at the same time, his right foot crashing into Cletus' leg, this time punctuated with a clearly audible crack throughout the room.

Cletus fell to his knee, the pain making him unable to stand.

"Broken already, huh?" his opponent asked, "I expected more from the master swordsman of Whitos-Neiki."

Cletus looked up at his opponent, who sheathed his sword in the hip holster, then turned to walk away toward the door. "A cheap trick like that can't win forever," Cletus said, gritting his teeth against the pain in his leg, "You're going to find someone who can beat it, and you. What will you do then?"

Alexander Ragefaust turned to look at Cletus. "Then I will have found the challenge I seek," he said, and turned to walk away.

He stepped through the door into the street. People in the city went about their business. No one had yet realized what had transpired within the building. Soon, everyone would know, and someone would likely try to avenge their honor or something. It wasn't that he was afraid, but it was such a pain in the ass to fight every loser out for revenge.

_Besides, I think I know whom I am looking for now,_ Alex thought as he walked through the city toward the main gate, _That swordsman I met on the ship coming to Mystara. He is a very skilled fighter. He is the one I want. I'm sure of it!_

* * *

"Okay," Midna said, "Let's see if I've got this right. Ganondorf saved you, only to talk about how he would kill you?"

"That's what he said," Link said, "Can't really understand it myself."

The sun was sinking low in the sky, and they had already put many miles between the ruins of the cursed house and themselves. Link kept turning to look over his shoulder as he rode, trying to spot the stalkers he now knew were following them, but never spotted a sign.

"Ganondorf is your old enemy, correct?" Sheila said, "It sounds to me like he really wants to have a showdown with you."

"And every other man who's been able to use the Master Sword," Zelda said, "Ganondorf is over four thousand years old at this point. He's threatened Hyrule numerous times, yet always been driven back by the green-clad hero, the legends say."

"Green-clad hero?" Sheila said, glancing at Link's tunic and hat, "I think that may just be it."

Midna looked over at her. "He thinks Link has no fashion taste?" she asked, and Link lightly slapped the back of her head as she sat in front of his saddle.

"Hear me out," Sheila said, "The heroes of Hyrule, though the ages, all wore a similar green tunic, correct? What if Ganondorf has taken his recurring losses as a sign of weakness in himself? It's not that he desires to rule Hyrule at the main point, so much as he wants to beat his old enemy, to prove himself the mightier. Even to the point he will step in and save his foe from death at the hands of another."

"In short, the guy's developed an inferiority complex," Midna said.

"But how did he get there so quickly?" Link asked, "He mentioned something about a 'spiritual plane,' whatever that is, and that he could locate me instantly there."

"The spiritual plane could be considered a shadow world connected to our own," Sheila said, "It is essentially the passage that a mortal soul takes to reach whatever afterlife it deserves. Powerful magicians are able to release their spirit from their body by means of Astral Projection, and sometimes journey there. It is within the spiritual plane that they are able to speak with beings long since dead, sometimes for even long forgotten information."

"How did that wraith pull me into it, then?" Link asked.

"Pulling one's physical body into the spiritual plane can be quite dangerous," Sheila said, "I believe that is what the wraith did to itself, while extending its spirit out to entangle you. While in the spiritual realm, such a creature becomes extremely dangerous, far more so than in reality, where its powers are limited primarily to illusion, and distant control over some physical objects."

"Well," Link said, "That explanes a few things. One more, though. Ganondorf can likely do that Astral Projection thing with little trouble, but how did he find me? He said he could find me in an instant."

"Um, Link," Midna said, tapping her fist on the back of Link's left hand, "Hello."

Link glanced at the Triforce emblum on the back of his hand. "Of course," he muttered, "He has one too, and could likely find me from miles away anyway."

"Well, don't dwell on it," Zelda said, "At least not yet. It seems we're approaching civilization once more."

Up ahead, grass-roofed huts of a small town just inside the border of Whitos-Neiki appeared.

"We should be able to buy warmer clothing and some food supplies there," Sheila said, "Then we can go directly north to find the temple."

"Oh, joy," Link said, "More rock-hard biscuits and jerky."

* * *

To say that Judge Ralthas was furious would be an understatement. He had come the moment one of the priests appeared in his office, saying that the prisoner had breached the wards to find what, to all appearances, was the man's corpse in the cell.

Less than thirty seconds after he had seen it, however, life began to crawl back into him. Ganondorf had shaken his head, trying to clear it of the dizziness he had felt, rising slowly to his feet in the cell, to find Ralthas gazing into the cell through the eye-slit in the heavy door. "Enjoy your trip?" Ralthas asked.

"Not exactly," Ganondorf said, "Got a splitting headache now, and I think I'm going to puke."

"Well, I suggest you don't try it again," Ralthas said, "I'm going to have the priests reinforce the wards, and they'll likely burn you to a crisp if you attempt Astral Projection again. I said you're staying here until you rot, and that's what you are going to do."

Ganondorf chuckled. "Your wards won't hold me forever, judge. My strength is growing daily. And my old friend, whom I much desire to be the one to greet when he arrives, is coming closer."

"And who would that be?"

Ganondorf smiled inwardly. He knew what he would have to do to get Link to come to him, and this fool would help! "His name is Link," Ganondorf said, "We're dear old friends, and he won't tolerate me being in this cell. You best watch out, because he'll kill anyone who tries to keep him from me."

Well, it wasn't exactly a lie, but he left out the part about the reason being that Link would be trying to kill him.

"The foreigners who came in by Garin," Ralthas whispered to himself, then slid the slit on the door closed, turning to the pair of priests who stood in the dark hall behind him. "Gather the judges. I want to know exactly who and what this 'Link' is, where he is, who he's spoken to, and who he's traveling with!"

The priests bowed, then turned and marched up the dark hallway. Ralthas glanced back at the cell entrance, debating with himself as to whether he dared ask more questions of the wizard. Deciding to see what could be found about Link first, he turned and marched back up the dark hall, toward the upper levels of the castle.

* * *

"This looks good," Link said, running the fur of a heavy jacket through his fingers.

The town wasn't much, but a local hunter made a business of trapping and selling furs, usually to merchant caravans as they came through. It had taken a few inquiries, but they had at last found his shack at the north edge of town, and once they had explained what they wanted, he had led them to the basement, where the furs were stored until they were to be shipped. There were at least fifty fur jackets ready to go, as well as uncut, cured leather piled in corners and awaiting use.

The hunter checked the jacket Link was examining. "Yes, I believe it's your size as well. You'll have to wear your sword's baldric over it, but I imagine you'd want to anyway. And look here," he opened the jacket, gesturing to the inner lining, "Lined with leather to help keep dry. If you plan on going very far into the winterlands, this is probably the one you'd want."

"It's probably the more expensive kind, too," Midna whispered in Link's ear from his shadow.

"Do you have this design in their sizes?" Link asked, gesturing to Zelda and Sheila not far from them.

"Not on hand," the hunter said, "This is a design for hunters and such, who are likely to spend a great deal of time away from civilization, which is usually not a profession for women. Most of the furs I catch wind up as fancy dinner jackets for rich nobles. I could have a pair of them ready by morning, however."

"That will be fine," Link said, "Is there a decent inn in this town?"

"Only one in town is Barnes' place," the hunter said, "He's fairly good price, too."

"How much for our jackets?" Sheila asked him, reaching for the purse at her belt.

"I think twelve coppers ought to cover the labor and supplies," the hunter said.

"Wow, that's a good price," Sheila said as she opened her purse, and neither Link, Zelda, or Midna were happy about what she said next. "Oh, no."

The purse had not been heavy, mostly a few coins of gold that could be broken into smaller currency. There was a large tear in the bottom of the bag, and was completely empty. Link fished into his pocket, finding the silver coin left over from the first night they had stayed in Garin, handing it over to the hunter. "This enough?"

"Aye," the hunter said, pocketing the coin, "I take it a cutpurse got you. Tell Barnes I sent you and I'll be up with your change later tonight to pay for your stay. Name's Jeremy."

"Thank you," Link said. In a small community like this town, everyone knew everyone else, and most folk were trustworthy.

He escorted them back to the door, then gave them directions to the inn near the eastern side of town.

"I'm sorry," Sheila said as they walked, "I should have noticed sooner."

"Don't worry about it," Link said, "I imagine it caught something when those ninja were carrying us from the basement of that house. Or they took it."

"Is there any chance of getting someone to send some money?" Zelda asked.

"Not likely," Sheila said, "My funds are far from unlimited, and it would be nearly impossible to get a messenger to someone who would send money, and I doubt you would want to wait around long enough for the money to get back to us."

"We're just going to have to earn some as we go," Link said, "It's not like I haven't done part-time jobs to keep from starving while on the road before."

"Hey, Link," Midna whispered to him, "I recognize that man up ahead."

Link looked up toward the man. There weren't many people living in this town, though the ones that did could be actively moving around the streets. The man Midna indicated was not moving, however. He was standing in the center of the road, staring at them. Link spied the sword with the over-long hilt at his left hip, and the buckler strapped to his left forearm.

"It's Alex," Link said, then turned to Sheila, "He was on the ship with us to come to Mystara. I wonder what he's doing here."

"Link," Alex said, "I was hoping to run into you."

"Good to see you," Link said, stepping toward him, "You disappeared once we docked, and I had no idea-"

"Fight me, Link," Alex said, drawing his sword from the scabbard.

Link stopped. "What? What's this about?"

Alex lifted his sword into a defensive posture. "I want to fight you. That's what this is about."

Link noticed that the people had stopped moving around about them and now stood, watching. "I'm not going to fight you without a reason!" Link said, "What is wrong with you?"

"You want a reason?" Alex said, "Your father is a pig and your mother is whore. Now you have a reason."

Link spread his arms. "Well, I wouldn't know. Never met my parents. I was abandoned when I was too young to remember."

Alex took a step toward him. "Link, I intend to fight you, whether you agree or not. There is no one in this land capable of challenging me. I remember how good you are. I want to test my mettle against yours!"

"Oh, is that it?" Link said with a sigh, then reached up and pulled the Master Sword from its scabbard, its unique metallic ring filling the air.

"Link, you don't have to do this," Zelda said, "There's no reason to fight him!"

"I'm with Zelda on this one," Sheila said, "He just shows up and demands a fight? I think he's crazy."

"It's just a bit of sparring," Link said, "Not like it's a duel. Okay, Alex. Five minutes, blade flats only. That's it!"

Sheila sighed, then stepped back to stand beside Zelda. "Men," she muttered.

"I hope you don't have a complaint, too, Midna?" Link whispered.

"Just kick his ass and get it over with," Midna whispered back.

Link situated his shield comfortably on his right arm, then took his stance, leaning his weight onto his toes. "Okay, Alex! Come and get me!"

Alex leaped forward, gripping his sword with both hands, swinging down at Link. Link quickly pulled his sword up to block, and lashed out toward Alex's face with his shield. Alex leaned back, the metal face of the shield missing by inches. He turned his lean into a full spin, releasing his left hand from his sword and swinging a fist toward Link's stomach.

Link stepped to the side, catching Alex's arm under his right, and spun, using the man's momentum against him, tossing him into the dirt. Alex was on his feet quickly, taking his sword into a defensive stance, inching toward Link in half-steps.

Link swung high, planning to knock him across the head with the flat of his blade. Alex's sword came up, turning the blow and then...

Link staggered back, incredible pain shooting up through his left calf. _That was... so fast!_ he thought, his mind replaying the movement in slow motion. Alex had blocked the blow of his sword, then turned and lashed out with his right foot in an incredibly fast and devastatingly powerful low kick.

"Just like he did to the demon on board the ship," Zelda said.

"What?" Sheila said, turning her head, "Demon? On the ship?"

_The swordsman charged, with a high swing, aiming for the demon's neck, but Erocht's left hand came up, the sword deflecting off the metal gauntlet the demon wore, and nearly sending him sprawling. Erocht swung his massive blade high, then downward in a vertical slice. The swordsman spun to the side, the blade slamming down into the wooden deck, then he did something Link had never seen before. The swordsman lashed out with his right leg, slamming his foot into the demon's knee with a resounding crack, and causing the demon to fall to his knee._

"He has added leg techniques to standard swordsmanship," Zelda said, "In a typical sword fight, your primary worry is your opponent's sword and possibly his shield, which can be used as a bashing weapon. Most fighters would never expect a move like that, and someone trained to fight primarily with his arms would be unable to defend or dodge such a move."

"And where does this leave Link?" Sheila demanded.

Zelda looked at her. "With the speed and power of that low kick, if Link cannot adapt to it and at least evade it, then he is going to lose, and possibly even get one of his legs broken."

The throbbing in Link's leg was easing off. "You are serious about this," he said, pulling his hat from his head, then tossed it to Sheila, "Here, hold this."

Alex was waiting in his defensive stance. "Be careful, Link," Midna whispered to him, "You can't take too many hits like that and stay standing."

Link ran at him, swinging wide from the left. Alex's sword came up to guard, and Link was swinging his shield from the right toward Alex's head. Alex ducked, the shield sailing over his head, then slammed his right foot into Link's left leg once again.

Link grit his teeth, staggering back a step and falling to one knee.

"No," Zelda said, taking a half step toward them, "That's exactly what he wants!"

But it was too late. Alex spun to the right, his left leg coming up and slamming into Link's head. Link fell sideways, stars filling his vision. He could taste dirt, and he heard someone calling his name, but it was too far away to hear over the incredible ringing in his ears.

* * *

Link woke in a soft bed indoors, a damp cloth on his forehead.

He was in a three bed room in the inn, apparently. He opened his eyes to see Midna sitting on the bed next to him. "How are you feeling?" she asked when he started to sit up.

Link leaned back into the pillow. His clothes had been removed and were laid across a night stand next to him where a single candle burned. The window at the far end of the room showed it was well past dusk. "That depends," he said, answering her, "How back do they think it is?"

"Sheila thinks you might have a concussion," Midna said, "But it's not something bad enough to warrant the use of her healing magics."

Link smiled and chuckled weakly. "If it is, I'm not impressed. I've had worse hangovers than this."

"It's just that you have a thick skull, then," she said, smiling at him, "But we already knew that."

"Where are Zelda and Sheila?"

"Down in the tavern, eating," Midna said, "Said they'd bring us some stew. How does your leg feel?"

The pain had actually eased off considerably, though Link imagined that if he looked, he wouldn't like the bruises. "Ready for a rematch," Link said, "I know how to beat that kick of his."

Midna stood up, incredulous. "You just got your ass handed to you and your head nearly knocked off, and you want to fight him again? I think he did knock something loose in your head!"

"Calm down," Link said, "He's a good swordsman, but his secret is that kick. If I can match him there, I can win. Simple enough."

Midna stared at him for a long moment. "Match him?" she asked, "And how do you plan to do that? You haven't trained yourself to fight like that! There's no way you can match the power of his kick!"

"I don't intend to trade blow for blow," Link said, "I know how to do it, though. In the morning, I'm going to find him."

Midna stared at him. He had cracked. He was completely nuts! "One thing," she said, "Would 'Died Because I'm A Dumbass' work for the epitaph on your tombstone?"

* * *

Alex shoulder his traveling pack, ready to leave town in the direction of the rising sun. This had been a waste of time. Link was good with a sword, but nowhere near good enough to give him a decent challenge. He'd fallen to the same tactic so many others had.

Maybe he'd head over to Nigel, and if no decent opponent could be found, then down to Darimar. If that failed, the only ones left to challenge would be the Lords of Chaos.

"Hey, Alex!" called a voice behind him.

He turned to see Link heading toward him, adjusting his shield, then draw the Master Sword. The girls traveling with him stopped a ways away to watch. "Come on, Alex," Link said, "Let's do this one more time."

Alex turned away. "It's not worth you getting beat again, Link. Let it go."

"Need a reason?" Link asked, "You fight me again or you are a coward. Now you've got a reason."

"He's crazy," Sheila said to Zelda, "I don't see the point in this."

"I imagine it involves primarily male machismo and a large helping of testosterone," Zelda replied.

Alex slid his pack from his shoulder onto the ground. He drew his sword from its scabbard and took two steps toward Link. "Okay, then," he said, "You want another good wholloping, you shall have it."

Alex shifted into his defensive stance, and started taking his half-step approach to Link.

_He's not wasting time,_ Link thought, _Good. Let's do this quick._

"Link won't be foolish enough to attack high again," Zelda said, "That's what allows Alex to get his low kick off. Without the low kick, I believe Link is the better fighter."

"That's what we're about to find out, anyway," Sheila said.

Link swung high, the flat of his blade going for Alex's head once more. Alex lifted his sword to turn the blow, then lashed out his foot again. There was a whoosh of air as Link back stepped quickly, moving out of reach of the kick.

"You were saying?" Sheila asked.

"I see now," Zelda said, "He was making sure he had the timing right. What's he up to?"

Link attacked, swinging high once more. Once more, his blow was turned and Alex swung his right foot. This time went differently. Link spun back and swung out his own leg, striking his right heel into Alex's head, sending the fighter crashing face-first into the dirt.

Someone cheered. People had begun to gather almost as soon as the fight had started, and now they jumped and whooped and hollered.

"What just happened?" Sheila asked.

"Link devised a counter-attack for Alex's low kick," Zelda said, "He was testing with the first back step to make sure he had the timing right. The second time, he back stepped and spun at the same time, catching Alex with a fully extended right roundhouse kick. Remarkable he managed to master such a move in such a short time."

"Why did Alex fall forward, though?" Sheila asked, pointing at the warrior who's face had nearly landed on Link's feet.

"Because Link's kick struck with his heel into the back of Alex's head," Zelda said, "The force of the kick essentially hit him from behind."

Alex was pushing himself to his feet. "Still conscious, eh?" Link said, "Want some more, or do you give up?"

Alex wiped a small trail of blood from his lip on the back of his fist. "I'm not done yet. Remarkable you managed to come up with that so quickly. You might be the opponent I've been hunting all this time after all."

Without waiting for a reply, Alex lunged at him, swinging his sword wide. Link turned it away with his shield, back stepping and swinging the flat of his blade into Alex's right side. It hit hard, knocking a gasp from Alex, who then lashed out with his left foot in a low kick. Link back stepped again, out of its reach, but Alex kept his momentum up and made for a right kick. Link spun back once more.

_You won't get me with that twice!_ Alex though, ducking his head down as Link's foot passed over his head.

Then, Link's foot stopped in mid-air, rose up about six inches, and slammed down, heel-first onto Alex's head, knocking him face-down in the dirt once more. The crowd of people whooped and yelled and jumped about.

"Incredible," Zelda said, sounding incredulous herself, "In less than a second, Link turned the roundhouse kick into a heel kick!"

Link was kneeling down by Alex. He was unconscious this time. Link checked through his hair. He was going to have a couple of nasty bumps where the kicks had landed, but he would live.

"Are you done with your machismo sword fight now?" Midna whispered to him from his shadow.

"Well, I'm going to have to thank him when he wakes up," Link said, "He's taught me a few techniques most swordsman never use, and made me all that much a better fighter for it."

* * *

"I'm the one who should be thanking you, Link," Alex said as they stood near the edge of town, the sun halfway down the horizon, edging its way toward dusk. Alex was smiling. "My sole thought was to find someone who could challenge me, give me a decent fight. I was never looking for someone to actually beat me."

He held out his hand toward Link. "After losing to you, and seeing how you are, I think I need to do some work on myself before I work on my fighting any more."

Link took his hand, gripping it firmly and gave him one shake. "You're an excellent fighter," Link said, "That's never a doubt. But it looks like you were obsessed with the fight, rather than the reason for the fighting. You were letting your life pass you by in your hunt for a fight. I don't fight because I want to. I fight to protect the people I care about. And I don't allow the fighting to deprive me of the fun in life. Think upon that."

"I shall," Alex said, "I'm going home to Metallicana, to see my parents and sister. If you go by that way, stop by to see us. They'd love to meet you. And Link," he added, nodding firmly, "If you plan to go up against the Lords of Chaos, give me a call and I'll be right there next to you."

"I'll remember that," Link said, "See you next time."

Alex nodded, then turned to walk away to the south. Link and the others watched him go.

"He's a pretty decent guy," Link said.

"Shall we go pick up out jackets and get back to our job?" Zelda asked.

"Yes, I got distracted, didn't I?" Link asked with a smile, "Back to the plundering of ancient holy grounds, then."


	20. Chapter 19

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 19: The First Warning**

It was a three day travel from the village to the southern edge of the Winterlands. They had left the horses behind, as once they entered, there would not be enough vegetation to feed them, especially once they reached their destination.

Standing at they edge as they unpacked their jackets and donned them, it didn't look to back. The grass slowly faded into the snow, which was no more than an inch thick, but only a short distance away, the snow became unbroken except for the occasional rise of rock and evergreen trees spread at irregular intervals.

"With winter getting closer, it will be getting very cold at night here," Sheila said, "And it won't be much warmer during the day."

Link was doing up the buttons on the front of his jacket, already feeling the effect of the increased insulation. "How far in is the temple?"

Sheila unrolled a map, scanning it over. "About three days, if we don't get tied down by a blizzard or some other event. You see here," she held the map where the others could see, gesturing to a small area enclosed by the northern mountain range, "This vale is where we need to go. The temple is at the bottom on the east side. Unfortunately, the only entrance we can take on foot lies on the west side, and is a bit out of the way. We'd best expect to spend the night in the vale once we reach it."

"Other than the Aurilites," Zelda said, "what should we be watching out for up here?"

"There may be some giants," Sheila said, rolling the map back up, "But they are very rare, and we're not likely to see one, let alone a group."

"Should be able to see them early enough to give them plenty of room," Midna said.

Link loosened the strap of his baldric to allow for his increased girth as he settling it over his shoulder. "How large are these giants, exactly?"

"About twenty feet, maybe a thousand pounds," Sheila said, "Not something you'd fight toe-to-toe, Link. They don't spend much time around their own kind, due to the massive amount of food it takes to feed one, let alone more."

"What else?"

"Well," Sheila buttoned her jacket as she spoke, "There are probably a few wolf packs roaming about, and then you never know, there may be a dragon somewhere up there. If we do spy one, I'd suggest keeping a wide berth."

They started walking, the snow crunching softly under their feet. "What are the chances of actually encountering a dragon?" Link asked.

"I'd say slim to nothing," Sheila said, "Even less than the chance of seeing a giant. Dragons are nearly extinct, to say nothing of the greats."

Zelda glanced at her, "Greats?"

"Oh, it's most likely just myth," Sheila said, "Something about dragons nearly four times the size of anything seen in modern times, and far more intelligent than even humans and elves. The myths also say they had a fascination with treasure, hoarding great stockpiles of gold, gems, and even weapons and armors. Personally, I find it hard to believe something could be so intelligent and yet be so fascinated with shiny objects."

That caused some chuckles among them, and they walked on, the snow growing deeper by the mile. By midday, the snow was calf deep and they could feel themselves moving uphill. They stopped just after midday for a brief rest and meal that Link swore the bread was drier and harder than any he'd had before. They started walking again afterward, the trees growing thicker and thicker as they moved, until they were in a veritably white forest.

The sun was sinking low, and Link knew it would be foolish to try and travel at night, as cold as it would soon be. But sitting down in the snow would not be suitable for the night, so they pushed on further, and nearly walked off the edge of a cliff.

The line of trees ended suddenly, and not even past the furthest reaching branches the ground dropped suddenly almost straight down, into a deep ravine. The walls of dark stone and intermittent snow ended in solid white at the bottom, and the dark blue-black of an iced over river winding through the bottom of the ravine.

"Did we get off course?" Link asked.

Sheila had pulled out her map and unrolled it. "Not by much," she said, "If we follow the cliff edge west, we should be able to turn back north in about half a mile, I think. From there it's a rather narrow pass, but its our most direct route to the vale."

They started west, staying close to the edge of the cliff, but the sun was sinking rapidly. Link decided they needed to find somewhere to camp immediately. Then, almost like a miracle, they came upon it.

It was essentially a mound of dirt. In the south side was a hold large enough for even someone of Link's size to crawl into, and the inside was shorn up with wooden braces and the roof and walls covered in hides to help keep the heat in. It was likely a hunter's precaution to hole up against heavy weather.

"We'll spend the night here," Link said as Zelda settled next to him and Sheila drug herself in through the small opening, "I guess we're all going to get nice and familiar with each other."

There wasn't room to stand in the small dwelling, and barely enough elbow room to remove their weapons and lay them aside. They managed to removed their jackets and lay them across the floor for a bit of padding, and Midna produced a blanket to cover themselves, and the closeness they now shared would be enough to keep them warm through the night.

"Okay," Link said once they were settled in, "Now, this pass we're going to tomorrow, you know anything about it?"

"Not much," Sheila said, "I've never been this far north myself. It passes along the western edge of the ravine and up into the mountains."

"Well, that's not much to go on," Midna said, "But I guess we've gone on less before, right Link?"

"I suppose," he said, then stopped. He tilted his head slightly. "Hey, anyone else hear that?"

"Hear what?" Sheila asked, but Link shushed her.

"It's getting closer," Link said.

"What is going on?" Sheila whispered to Zelda.

"Link's senses of smell, sight, and hearing are a sight better than ours," Zelda whispered back, "Just let him be."

Link could hear it, like a distant thump, moving with a steady pace, and drawing closer. "It's not far," Link said, "I need to see what this is. Midna, come with me, will you?"

"Coming," she said as he lay down to crawl out the hole. A moment later, they were both gone.

"Oh, damn!" Sheila said, "He didn't take his jacket or sword!" She reached for the blade, ready to chase after him.

"He'll be fine," Zelda said.

Outside, Link had Midna shift him into his wolf form, and now pounded through the snow at speed as she sat astride his back toward the sound that unnerved him. It was still moving, whatever it was, and now much more frequently. If it had been footsteps, he would have judged it to be a group of at least three, maybe four. They didn't have to go far before Midna patted him on the shoulders and said, "I hear it now, too."

The ground beneath his feet began to shake with each thump, and as it drew closer yet, snow fell from the branches of the trees in the vibrations. He began to pick out voices in the distance, and suddenly stopped, nearly throwing Midna over his head, and walked slowly to the edge of the ravine.

In the bottom, at the edges of the iced river, was a camp. At least forty men and women, all of them dressed in white clothing, cut nearly sleeveless and their leggings cut so short they were practically non-existant. _They must be the Aurilites,_ Link thought.

They had evidently not been camped long, as many were still unpacking foodstuffs and some sharpened weapons such as swords and axes on rocks. Those that were asleep had simply lie down in the snow. A few were even bathing in the icy water of the river after having cut a hole in the ice across the surface.

And the loud thumping had not stopped, and was still drawing closer. Then, around the far rock edge of the far side of the ravine, emerged a sight like Link had never imagined. It was a man who stood taller than the trees, the ground shaking with each step he took. He was wearing animal furs, stitched together to create a vest large enough to cover his torso, with a fur loincloth hanging from a belt that looked to be iron, and in his right hand he carried a stone-head axe the size of a caravan wagon. An enormous white beard covered much of his face, but his blue eyes were scanning the area, missing not a single detail.

And after him came six more like him, though not exactly the same in size or build, they were all gigantic and dressed in crudely fashioned fur vests and loincloths and armed with either stone axes, or some carrying tree trunks as clubs, and one had a steel war-hammer large enough to crush a house with a single swing.

Link had misjudged the timing of their footsteps at a distance, for one step took upwards of thirty seconds to complete for them, though they covered enormous distances with each. Moving as a group and out of time, Link had judged them by the same amount of time it took for a human to take each step. _Hell,_ he thought, _One giant I might be able to handle, if I catch him by surprise and attack from a ledge to reach his neck, but seven... No way. I'm not that stupid._

The Aurilites had not reacted to the giants' presence, as though they expected them. Wait, there was one person moving toward them. He wasn't dressed as the rest of the Aurilites, though. He wore a dark blue tunic and pants and had a heavy white cloak draped about his shoulders. He pushed the white hood back, revealing his head of blonde hair, and then raised one arm in the air. "Hail King Drakkus of the Frost Wolf clan," he called out, "I have come to ask a boon."

He spoke loudly, apparently to make sure his voice carried far enough to reach the giants' ears twenty feet up. With the enhanced hearing of his wolf state, Link could hear him quite easily.

The giants came to a halt a distance away from the Aurilites' camp, the giant with the war-hammer stepping forward past the rest. "Speak quickly, little wizard," the giant, Drakkus, said, "I've no patience for small people's games."

The giant seemed to speak easily, yet his voice echoed around them, truly a perfect match for his stature. "I propose a trade," the wizard said, "My services to help clear the winterlands of the last of the great wyrms, in exchange for your people's aid in the coming conflict."

"You would take us from out mountain homes," Drakkus said, "to the warmer climes to wage war for you. My people have grown adapted to the cold reaches of the north. The heat of the south may prove too much for many of them to bear. I find your trade inadequate, in any case. The only great wyrm that still lives is Roxim, and we have a truce with him. He wishes to live out his final centuries in peace, and we wish for him to stay away from us. Such is the agreement, and I see no reason to betray it."

"Think of the power you might possess by allying yourself with me," the wizard said, "I can grant a payment of your choice, then, if you prefer another deal."

"Do not attempt to appeal to my greed, little one," Drakkus said, "for you will find no help there. I and my people are satisfied with our lives here. We want for little, and are content to stay out of the affairs of the small people. If you have no offer that I see as worthy, than I bid you leave now, and stop wasting my time."

"I am known as Khall Drinoar," the wizard said, "Leader of the Four Lords of Chaos. My final offer is a warning. If you do not stand with us, then you may find yourself on the wrong end of our swords when the horn blows."

_Khall!_ Link thought, glaring down at the man, _The bastard is here!_

"Easy, Link," Midna whispered, "There's no way we could get him with those giants and all those priests down there. The Aurilites seem to be with Khall."

"I care not who you are, small one," Drakkus said, "I know your desires lay to the south, not here. I know the followers of Auril have aligned themselves with you. Do not be surprised. I have my loyal followers and spies, and they need not be giants to follow me. Therefore, I offer a warning to you. Do whatever you want to the small kingdoms south of here, but if your army takes one step inside the winterlands, the Frost Wolf clan will fall upon you with the full force of the mountains themselves. I can pull one hundred of my people together quickly, and in the time it would take your army to reach us, I could gather three times that amount. And that does not count the reinforcements that would arrive before the battle truly gets underway. Leave my lands now, little wizard, and return only if you seek assistance in your suicide."

"So be it," Khall said as the giants turned and began their slow march back out of the ravine to whence they came, "But if you are not with us, then you are against us. Your time will come, Drakkus. And it will not be by my hand, either."

He was speaking more softly, so Link could barely make out his words, and Link was sure the giants couldn't hear him. The giants disappeared around the end of the ravine, heading back to the north, their heavy footsteps growing more distant. Khall turned back toward the camp of Aurilites, then stopped to glance over his shoulder to where the giants had been. Then he looked up, straight at Link, and smiled.

_The bastard knows I'm here!_ Link thought, backing away from the edge of the cliff quickly.

"Link, we need to go," Midna said, "Now."

"A bit late for that, I'm afraid," said a voice behind them.

Link whirled about to find Khall standing no more than six feet from them. _How did he?!_

"Calm down," Khall said, "I'm not looking for a fight. Not yet, anyway."

Link bared his teeth with a rising growl. His muscles were like coiled springs, ready to leap upon Khall and tear his throat out. "I suggest you calm down," Khall said, "Otherwise I will be forced to calm you down. I only want to talk."

"And what would you want to talk about?" Midna asked, "How you used forbidden magic on the people of Hyrule? Link wants you dead, and I can honestly say I agree."

"I want to talk about removing that spell," Khall said, "About making a deal. We have a common enemy."

Link hesitated, his growl fading somewhat. Khall smiled. "You know the one of whom I speak. Mandrag Ganon, or as you know him, Ganondorf Dragmire. He earned the name 'Mandrag' in his conquest of the world two decades ago. You needn't stretch your brain thinking, I'm sure it's not in your history books. Nor are many of the men and women who stood up to him in that time.

"Do you know what 'Mandrag' means?" he continued, "It is a word from the tongue of the ancients. It roughly means 'man-demon.' It was a name well earned in his violent practices those years ago. I am sorry I was forced to use the forbidden Silencing on Hyrule, but I needed you over here, and I knew that with the country in its current condition, there was no way I could get both you and the princess to come."

Link had stopped growling. He twitched his head, signaling Midna. With a sigh, she produced the red crystal, and with a focus of her energy, Link reverted to his human form. "What you did is unforgivable," Link said, "I'm listening, but you better answer some questions I have quickly, lest I decide to strangle you anyway. What is it you want?"

"What I want," Khall said, "What we all want is the death of Ganon."

"How do you know him?" Link asked, "Why do you want him dead?"

"I met him when I was a child," Khall said, "Exactly one hundred and forty-one years ago. I was actually his apprentice for a time."

"But you're human," Link said, "You can't have possibly lived that long!"

"An ancient magic that produces nearly elvish longevity in humans," Khall said, "I swore that I would live at least until Ganon was dead."

"What about the attacks you've launched on the Mystaran kingdom of Whitos-Neiki?" Link asked, "Not exactly the best way to make yourself look like the good guy, especially with an undead army."

"I can't control some of the other Lords of Chaos like I can our followers," Khall said, "Tharkus the necromancer is nearly as powerful as I am. In a fight, he would have a very real chance of defeating me. The undead army is his, not mine. As for the attacks, there was the hope that it would draw Ganon into the open. When all four of us are together, we would be too much for him to handle."

Link thought about this a moment. "What about that guy, Zero, you sent to Hyrule?" Link asked, "He said something about Shaklator wanting to see me perform or some such, and he tried to kill use in the desert."

"Zero is, shall we say, a necessary evil," Khall said, "He is a follower of Shaklator, a near forgotten goddess of times past. It is said she was the first, the mother of the gods, and the greatest of them all. Zero is, to put it gently, insane. He believes himself to be Shaklator's chosen one, destined to wreak havoc across the face of the world. I let him live only because, while he is a fool, he is certainly a powerful one. He is likely the only one, other than yourself, who could possibly stand up to Ganon in single combat. Therefore, he is a contingency."

"Let him live?" Link said, "You make it sound like he's more capable than you are."

"In fair combat, he is," Khall said, "But a well-placed spell can keep any wild beast under control. I placed a curse upon him long ago, and hold his life in my hands. With but a thought, I can cause his heart to explode. That keeps him under control."

"What does this deal of yours involve, then?" Link asked, "You want my help against Ganondorf, and in exchange, you remove the spell from the people of Hyrule?"

"Exactly," Khall said, "I regret forcing this upon you like this, but we have no other choice. The main problem is that we do not know where Ganon is. I would suggest you continue on your way collecting your fragments of the counter-spell, allowing a few of my men to go with you. When Ganon is located, I will bring the others and we will come down on him full force. I'll even throw in the offer of that if you collect all the fragments of your spell before he is located, you may go on your way, no strings attached."

Midna nudged Link's shoulder. "I don't like this guy. It seems to perfect."

Link nodded. "Let me think about this, Khall. I don't trust you, and you haven't given me a real reason to. I'm going to talk to the others about this first."

"I wouldn't expect you to agree instantly," Khall said, "I will be here for the next few days, so stop by here again to let me know. If you still haven't made a decision in that time, I will provide you with the means to contact me at a later date."

"Come on," Link said, gesturing to Midna to follow him, "If you follow us, Khall, I will kill you."

They turned and disappeared between the trees back toward the shelter.

Mur'neth appeared from the shadows of the nearby branches behind Khall. "You think he'll buy it?"

"I'm not sure," Khall said, "He's a smart one. Doesn't trust easily. A lot like you."

"He truly cares for his friends, though," Mur'neth said, "We could take a hostage."

"I'd rather have him help us willingly," Khall said, "Then it's more likely we can get the fragment of the Twilight Mirror from them. Without violence and torture, that is."

"That reminds me," Mur'neth said, "Was that the right ring?"

"Yes," Khall said, "But it's useless without the completed mirror. Stay on their trail. When they find Ganon, kill him if you can. That's the top priority at the moment, for without one holder of a Triforce dead, the ring and mirror are useless even if it is complete."

* * *

Link had convinced Midna to keep Khall's offer a secret from the others for the moment, to let him think it over a bit. When they returned, he told them of the Aurilites and Khall's attempt to recruit the giants. After Sheila's initial shock at the idea of seven giants in one place together and the understanding of their numbers, it would have been terrifying if they had allied with the Lords of Chaos, and an assurence on her part that the Aurilites allying with the Lords wouldn't cause much trouble, as any of their priests and magicians could match them in ability, they managed to settle in for the night. 

Link had to admit, it wasn't quite so bad, snuggled against two beautiful women with Midna laying practically on top of him.

The following morning, they set out once more, moving westward, then more north along the cliff side.

Snow was falling lightly when they had set out, and was growing heavier as time went on. When the edge of the ravine finally gave way to allow northern passage, they saw what the pass Sheila had indicated was. Scarcely wide enough for one person, they had to move single-file up the pass, a sheer rock face on their left, and nothing but open air on their right.

The snow was gradually getting heavier, and wind was starting to build. "We're going to have to find someplace to stop," Link said, "We're going to be in for some bad weather in just a minute."

"We can't climb this pass if it gets much worse than this," Zelda said, "We'll have to go back."

They had already climbed a good two hundred yards up the pass. "What about that spell of yours that calms the weather?" Midna asked.

Zelda shook her head. "The panic caused in the after effect since no one would know what was happening would do far more damage than us losing a day. We'll have to go back."

Link was looking ahead through the whirling snow. There was an odd shadow just a short ways ahead. "What if there was shelter just ahead?" he asked above the climbing wind.

They forced their way forward just a bit further, and the odd shadow Link had seen turned out to be the entrance to a cave. They staggered in, nearly collapsing a few feet from the entrance, just out of range of the whirling snow that flew inside.

"Am I good or what?" Link asked with a smile.

"Sheer dumb luck," Midna said, "Now we'll have to wait out the storm here, I guess."

"But, such a massive cave," Sheila said, "And it looks like it was hallowed out, not natural."

The entrance to the cave was nearly fifteen feet high and ten across, the ceiling well over their heads, and the floor of the cave was utterly smooth. There was no way it could possibly be natural.

"Excuse me," said a rumbling voice behind them, "But you seem to have stumbled into my home without even knocking."

They turned as one, beholding the sight of an enormous dragon, nearly filling the cavern behind them, his folded wingtips scant inches from scraping the ceiling, his claws as long as swords, and his snout as long as a man was tall, and as he spoke, revealed teeth capable of rending through steel body armor with ease. "And I don't like unexpected guests."


	21. Chapter 20

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

Longest gap in updates yet. No worries, though. Playing an FF4 hack with ZSNES called "Terra+Celes" which changes most of the main characters and involves a yuri romance. Yes, I'm a perverted man.

**Chapter 20: The Future**

The groups of four eyed the entrance of the cave, debating silently whether they preferred the blizzard or the dragon.

The hulking brute filled the cave before them, the tips of its folded wings nearly scraping the roof of the cavern fifteen feet up. Its bulk filled the cavern side to side, and its jaws were large enough to easily swallow a human whole. And the teeth that were visible were each about half the size of a sword, and likely just as sharp. The six-inch claws on its feet dug into the stone beneath them like mud.

The dragon sat on its haunches, somewhat shaped like an oversized scaley dog, its six-foot tail lay out behind it, occasionally swishing across the rock floor. Its scales, while they may have once been silver, were now a dark gray, tarnished with age and weather across its back, and a pale yellow across its stomach and the bottom of its neck and jaw.

"Well?" it asked again in a low voice that resonated through the rock beneath their feet, "What are you doing in my home?"

Link was slowly reaching for his sword. "I suggest you put that hand down," the dragon said, "Away from the sword."

Link put his hand back down. He tried to gather his thoughts, how best to deal with this.

"You're on borrowed time as it is if you've come after me or my horde," the dragon said, "I get so sick of bloody adventurers showing to try and take the fortune I've amassed through my life, or wannabe heroes intending to carve a reputation out of my hide. I live in a cave at the arse end of the world for gods' sake! Tell me why you're here, the truth, mind you, and maybe I won't throw you off the cliff."

Link glanced at the others. Zelda had taken a step back, closer to the entrance, and Sheila was looking at him, as though expecting him to do something. Midna had dove into Link's shadow and disappeared. The dragon leaned down, its red eyes focusing on Link with two streams of smoke curling from its nostrils. "Well?" it demanded, "You look like you're in charge, human. Yes, those elf ears don't fool me. You still smell like a human. Are you or someone else going to answer me, or have you all been stricken mute when you realized I was here?"

Link took a deep breath, and managed to find his voice. "We're not here for you," he said, "We're trying to find an ancient temple in a vale about a day north of here. The snow and wind started to rise, and we took refuge here."

The dragon raised its head, watching them with its red eyes moving from one to the other and back. "At least you're not lying," it said at last, "Now tell me about that sword, and why I sense such a familiar energy radiating from it."

"Familiar?" Zelda asked, "The Master Sword is a sacred weapon from Hyrule! How could you recognize its energy?"

The dragon laughed, the bass rumblings deep within its throat causing the floor to shake beneath their feet. "'Master Sword?' Is that what it's called now? They don't name weapons like they used to, do they? The last time I felt that energy, the sword was called Silver Fang. I would never mistake another weapon for it, either. That sword is one of a kind. I suppose in the end, it doesn't matter what the sword is called. How did it come into your possession?"

Zelda shook her head with a sigh. "It predates all our histories and legends. We don't know how it came to Hyrule."

"Ah! Then you've got no proof I'm wrong!" the dragon said, "I knew I wasn't getting senile yet! Twenty thousand years isn't enough to impair my memory!"

"Twenty thou . . . " Sheila said with a gasp, "But that would mean that you saw . . . "

The dragon centered its gaze on her. "Saw what? Out with it, girl. I've seen quite a bit, so you'll need to be more specific."

"The ancient war," Sheila said, "The fall of the ancient civilization."

"Well, if you can call that mass congregation of humans in large cities that level forests and kill nature civilization, then yes," the dragon said, "A bunch of wizards threw temper tantrums regarding who should be in charge, and the humans and elves started killing each other. Didn't pay much attention after that until a necromancer paid me a visit, intent on making an 'undead dragon' as his steed. He didn't live long after he said that," it added thoughtfully.

"Anyway," it said, "Back to the matter at hand. What to do with the four of you. I don't believe you've been lying to me, and you soft skins would certainly have a hard time staying alive in that weather. I'll tell you what," it leaned down so that its massive snout was about even with Link's face, "I'm not completely heartless. If you're on your best behavior, I'll let you stay here until the weather lets up. The moment it does, though, you're out the door. You cause any problems and you're out the door, but with a nice shove that sends you over the cliff. Got it?"

"Got it," Link said, "No trouble here."

"All right," the dragon said, raising its hind end into a standing position, then somehow managed to turn itself around and was walking further back into the cave. Link and the others watched it go for a moment, then it called back to them, "Well, are you coming? Or would you rather sit in the cold wind by the entrance?"

"Sheila," Link said, turning to look at her, "What is going on? I've seen a dragon before, and it couldn't even _talk_."

"Modern dragons can't," she said, "In the time of the ancients, the great wyrms were more populous than they are now. They were highly intelligent, but for the most part stayed out of the affairs of man. They were supposed to have gone extinct."

Link motioned for them to follow him as he started into the cavern after the dragon. "Seems a lot of things that are supposed to be extinct are showing up lately."

"Link, we could be very well in the company of the last of the great dragons," Sheila said, "Did you notice how tarnished his scales were? He also claims to be more than twenty thousand years old. When he dies, it will likely be the end of the species. The end of the mighty creatures that ruled this world before the gods created men."

"Everything has to end sometime," Link said as they stepped into a wider room deep in the cave.

The dragon had moved to the far side of the chamber, which was in itself at least fifty feet wide in any direction, and running through the center to their left and right was a massive stone table carved directly out of the rock and was nearly fifteen feet tall. It would have been ideal for a dragon the size of their unexpected host, and could have seated at least ten of them comfortably.

On the walls of the chamber, at six foot intervals, were hung massive tapestries depicting scenes of history, some Link could recognize, others were new to him. There were at least twenty of them on either side of the cavern, all of them at least ten feet long, clearly visible in the light.

Hanging from the roof at the center of the chamber was a rope basket, containing a glowing white orb about a foot across that lit the chamber almost like daylight. It was a sun stone, just a rock enchanted to give off light. Such an enchanted object would glow in the dark, but it must be placing in the sun for several hours every few days to regain its light.

Across the far wall, above where the dragon lay on a gigantic pile of cloths, blankets, and cushions, hung a massive red drape, featuring the image of a dragon's head facing toward the viewer with two swords crossed underneath its neck, the blades passing either ear, all of it stitched into the red fabric in gold.

"This is incredible," Zelda whispered, her gaze fixed on the tapestries to their right, then she pointed to one, "Look, Link! That one depicts the legend of Hyrule's creation!"

The tapestry she indicated held a picture of the three golden goddesses in the sky, their power giving life to their land. Din's red light shaping the land, Nayru's blue light giving it life, and Farore using the green light to create the nature of law, and by such an acting creating the difference between good and evil.

Link's eyes moved to the image to the left of that one, depicting an image on the sea of several ships fleeing into torrential waters as lightning appeared over their heads and the land behind them erupted in flames. The ships were crewed by men in dark cloaks, some of them even depicted with glowing red eyes.

The next was an image of a single man, dressed in blue, flowing robes, a massive tome clutched in one hand, his other gripping a stout oak staff as he stood upon a cliff, chaos all about him. Storm clouds the color of steel and spitting lightning over his head, fire creeping up the cliff-face in the foreground beneath him, and filling the background of the image behind him was a seemingly endless army of mixed images. There were humans, strange bipedal beasts resembling wolves, swarms of zombies and skeletons, and even monsters of rock filling the ranks that were moving toward him.

The man himself was not smiling in the image, but nor was he frowning. His face, creased at the brow, showed grim determination. His robes were stained with blood, but Link was sure that very little, if any, was his own. "Who is that?" he asked Sheila, pointing to the image.

"That is Darius," Sheila said, "He was the hero of the ancient war who fought the usurpers at every turn. He was a mighty wizard and created many of the ancient magics, though most of them were defensive or reparative spells. He was the one who created the counter-spell that we are trying to recover. He was also the only of the ancient wizards to survive the war, other than some of the apprentices of the usurpers that fled across the sea to the east once their masters were slain by their own creation. No one knows what happened to them."

Link looked back at the image of the fleeing ships. _I bet I can guess,_ he thought.

"What happened to Darius after the war?" Zelda asked.

"He helped with the rebuilding effort of the lands, but when he was offered leadership over them all, he turned it down," Sheila said, "He said that if he were to accept such an office, he would become exactly what he and his fallen comrades had fought to prevent; he would have become the wizard ruling class. He helped guide the countries to get back on their feet individually, then settled to a life in Tyr, where he built the cathedral used to this day as a school for all the magicians in our kingdoms. About eighty years later, when he was well over three hundred years old, he finally died. In his final will, he bequeathed his personal spell book to the school, then he asked to be cremated and have the ashes scattered to a strong east wind from a high cliff in the western mountains, so that he may become a part of all of Mystara."

There was a thud behind them, and they all jumped as the dragon's voice appeared directly over their heads. "It was not from a cliff in the mountains. His ashes were scattered from high in the sky by a dragon who was not just an ally, but a dear friend."

Link turned his head to see the dragon staring at the picture of the ancient wizard. "Darius was so much more than other men," the dragon said, a hint of regret in his voice, "He was more than willing to die for what he believed in. The fact that he kept his sanity in spite of all his friends and family dying around him speaks for itself. That he managed to avoid his heart turning to stone from such events is even more incredible. When the usurpers unleashed their mightiest creation, the demon with hair of fire, a voice of thunder, and god-like power, it killed them first, and nearly all of their followers that did not escape. Darius had nothing left to lose at that point, and was intent on killing the beast, even if it meant killing himself in the process.

"And yet still he lived. The beast was cast through a gateway into the gap between dimensions, a realm of emptiness so vast, no mortal mind can comprehend it, and not even the gods could escape it. What is not known by most mortals is that at that moment, the three golden goddesses appeared and forged a lock for the gateway to assure that it could never be opened again, even from this side."

The dragon indicated a tapestry to the left of the image of Darius. It depicted a black circle on a stone pedestal, thin rays of light projecting through the air into a black obsidian wall, creating a circle of green light upon it, and in the center of the circle of light was the triple triangle Link knew so well.

"Link," Midna said, appearing at his shoulder, "That's the Twilight Mirror!"

The dragon turned so suddenly that they jumped, and Midna hid behind Link. "You know of it? How so?"

"It is a gateway," Zelda said, "It is located in a safe location in the desert near Hyrule. It is the only connection between Hyrule and the Twilight Realm."

"So that's where it ended up," the dragon said, "I was curious after all these years . . . What about the key? Do you have it?"

"What key?" Midna asked, "I just use a little of my magic when I'm near it, and it opens."

"So you don't know," the dragon said, turning away, "Never mind then. The key is probably lost, anyway."

"Wait a second," Link said, "You know something about the mirror that we don't, don't you? How was it used to banish this demon to the gap between dimensions? I thought it only opened to the Twilight Realm."

The dragon settled himself onto the blankets and cushions, turning his head toward them. "Come on, sit down. I don't completely understand it myself, but I'll tell you what I know."

They seated themselves on the floor on provided pillows while the dragon wallowed himself deeper into his pile. "First of all, you must understand that ours is not the only world in existence. The Twilight Realm is one of the others, for example. But you must understand that there are nigh-infinite worlds, all lined up parallel to one another in reality, like the strings of a harp."

"Sheila's told us this already," Link said.

"If I may continue without the interruptions?" the dragon said, and Link held up his hands in accedence, "The worlds could be said to be aligned in a vertical manner. Most of them are very similar to one another, but if you go downward through the worlds far enough, you'll eventually wind up in the worlds that very much resemble the image of Hell, right down to magma lakes. These lower worlds are where demons originate. Similarly, if you go higher through them, you'll eventually find the worlds that resemble the concept of heaven. But no, the gods don't live there. They live in their own private world, disconnected from the reality that defines these worlds.

"Now, I'm sure you're wondering how I know this to be true," the dragon continued, "The fact of the matter is, I was friends with Darius long before the war. He mastered one of the more complex travel spells that literally allowed him to travel from world to world. I was with him at that time. I saw most of them myself. Darius told me he was looking for something in this traveling, but he himself was not sure what it was. He said he'd know it when he saw it. When we finally made our way back to this world, to our homes, he had found what he'd sought.

"It was a mirror that allowed passage to other worlds relatively easily. You see, the travel spell that allowed passage sapped massive amounts of energy from the caster, and he would have to rest for nearly a week to recover. The mirror itself was controlled by a key that he kept on his person at all times. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but it must have been quite small. The key would allow the determination of the destination of the gateway the mirror would open.

"Darius wanted to see as much of the gods' creations as he could. He wanted to learn absolutely everything there was to know. That was the reason for the mirror. Little did he know that he would end up using it as a weapon to save this world from utter destruction."

Link's gaze had drifted back to the tapestry of Darius. At this distance, he thought he could see something he'd missed before. A vague shape to the clouds, almost looking like the image of a woman's face with two darker areas in place of her eyes.

"I think I get it," Zelda said, "After he cast the demon into the gap between dimensions, he locked the mirror to the Twilight Realm and destroyed the key, right?"

"Oh, no no no," the dragon said, "The mirror and key were both in possession of the magic academy at the time of his death. I believe it was determined that the best thing to do would be to drop both of them to the bottom of the sea and be done with them. Unfortunately, the ship taken out never returned. And now that the mirror has turned up in Hyrule, I imagine someone decided to take it for themselves. If the key is lost, however, the mirror cannot be tuned, and thus cannot be used to free the demon. Besides, the second lock, forged by the goddesses, would also have to be broken."

"Wait a minute," Link said, turning back to him, "Is the second lock the Triforce?"

The dragon looked at him for a moment. "I believe so," he said, "It think it went something like 'So long as the three remain intact, all will be well, but should one fall in this land, the gateway shall be open."

Link was on his feet, holding his head with both hands. "Oh, that son of a _bitch!_ I knew he was trying to play me!"

"What is wrong, Link?" Zelda asked, looking up at him.

Link shook his head, then swore again. He turned back to Zelda. "When I spoke to Khall yesterday, he offered me a deal. The complete counter-spell to the Silencing if I would help him kill Ganondorf. I didn't tell you two about it because I wanted to think about it myself for a while. I get it now. The Triforce was left as a mark of where the three goddesses left the world, right? Essentially, it was a piece of their power left behind by accident.

"What if it wasn't an accident, though?" he asked as he knelt down to look his three companions in the eyes, "If it was the locking mechanism that held this demon in thrall? It would certainly explain the legend of the Hero of Time, and why the Triforce was locked away at that time in a nigh-impossible to reach location. The ancient sages who built the locking mechanism to contain it must have known its true purpose. But once in the possession of humans, it loses its power as a lock unless all three parts are in living hosts!

"Now," Link stood up, turning away from them and started pacing, "Why kill Ganondorf when they surely know where we are, and are likely easier targets? Because he's the most dangerous of the three of us, that's why."

"But you beat him, didn't you?" Sheila asked.

Link gestured to his sword. "The Master Sword evened things out. Ganondorf can't abide its touch, let alone getting it rammed through his gut. If we were to fight barehanded, I know I'd lose. So, they must want Ganondorf dead because he poses the greatest threat to their plans, or at least they believe he does."

"Link, listen to yourself a moment," Midna said, "You're implying that they want to release this demon that nearly destroyed the world! No one could be that crazy!"

"You heard what he said!" Link said, pointing an accusatory finger at her, "He wants Ganondorf dead! What else could they be after?"

"In any case," Midna said, "I still have one piece of the Twilight Mirror. It's useless without being complete, and the rest is safely back in the desert. They would also need this 'key,' whatever it is. What they are after is impossible!"

Link put one hand on his chin, thinking quickly. "But that Zero made a point of taking the fragment of the mirror hidden beneath Ordon. Shit, now I wish there was some way to get back to the desert to check the mirror, without costing too much time."

He turned to the dragon, his eyes clearly showing what he was thinking.

"Don't even think about it," the dragon said, "Maybe when I was younger, but I doubt I could get all the way across the ocean in one go now, and there's nowhere to stop in between to rest. Besides, your friend here says she possesses one piece of the mirror, yes? So long as you can keep that from them, the mirror is useless, even if they do have the key."

"He is right about that, Link," Zelda said, "It would do no good to rush back now. If they do have the mirror, we would then have to come back here anyway to get it back."

She sighed softly. "It seems you were correct in your first assumption, however. Khall and the others will have to be dealt with sooner or later, and its looking more and more like sooner."

"Well," the dragon said, "At least you may have some help. This group wants your Ganondorf dead, correct? That means you have a common foe. 'And enemy's enemy is my friend,' and all that."

Link sat down with a sigh. "I suppose so, but I doubt Ganondorf would be so receptive. I'll keep that in mind, but if I see Khall again, I'm going to slice him wide open, with or without help."

"In any case," the dragon said, "The blizzard seems to be getting worse. I can hear it from here. If it doesn't ease up, you four may be spending the night here. I'm about to go out and see what I can find to eat. I may have to go some ways to find something that hasn't taken shelter from the blizzard, so I may be a while."

With one front leg, he gestured to a back passage at the fare left-hand side of the room. "That passage over there leads to the rest of the caves of my home. This here is the greeting hall. You'll find an area set aside for a latrine, as well as my modest library. In the far back is the treasure room where I store the more valuable items I've collected over the millennia. I'm not going to warn you out, for if you intend to explore, that won't stop you, but should you desire to look about in there, don't touch anything. Some items are quite dangerous and others I don't know exactly what they do. You might find a useful magic ring that turns you invisible, or you might find one that turns you into a frog."

The dragon stood up, shedding pillows and cushions as he did so. "It's your own damn fault if you don't listen to this advice. If you can wait until I get back, I'll bring some fresh meat for a meal. Any problems with beef?"

After multiple no-es, he disappeared down the passage to the front entrance.

Link lay back on his pillow, staring up at the ceiling. Imagine that, a hospitable dragon. He'd never given his name, but he must be the 'Roxim' that the giant mentioned.

"So much is happening so fast," Sheila said, leaning her head on her hands, "If the Lords of Chaos are trying to release that ancient demon, it explains why they've never attacked Whitos-Neiki in force. They were biding their time until everything was in place."

"They don't have everything in place yet," Zelda said, "We still have a fragment of the mirror. Question is, who do we warn about what they are planning?"

"King Erenon of Darimar," Sheila said, "Darimar has the largest standing army of any of the kingdoms, and this knowledge will be all the evidence he needs to launch an attack on the Lords' citadel."

"I thought no one could take the pass to reach the citadel?" Link asked.

"We'll just have to cross that hurdle when we get there," Sheila said, "In any case, this doesn't change our plan yet. We'll get the fragment of the spell here, then get Metallicana's on our way through to Darimar. After that . . . "

"After that, we deal with Khall and his friends," Link said, "Provided I don't see him again before we reach Darimar. How far to the vale from here?"

"If the weather is better in the morning and we leave early, we can reach it by tomorrow evening," Sheila said.

Midna settled down on the floor next to Link. "What if that dragon just went to get Khall? What if he's going to betray us?"

"I think we can trust him," Link said, "He's done nothing to warrant mistrust yet. Besides, if he brings Khall back, that will save me the trouble of finding the bastard."

Link suddenly yawned. "Well, nothing better to do right now," he said, "I'm gonna take a nap."

No sooner had he said those words than his eyes were shut and he was out.

* * *

Link woke to the feeling of grass underneath him. He could feel the soft needles sticking into his arms and legs. With a groan, he pushed himself upward, yawning hugely as the sun warmed his face. He scratched himself, noting the sun was sinking low on the horizon, silhouetting the great bridge above Lake Hylia.

_Wait, what am I doing here?_ he thought, standing up, _I'm going to be late for the feast! Got to get back home! Where'd Epona get to . . . _

He turned look about, his foot catching on something next to him, sending him rolling forward onto the ground, getting a mouthful of grass in the process. He pushed himself up and looked down to see what had got him.

And he nearly screamed.

It was a corpse, lying in a pool of its own blood, its entrails trailing from the savage wounds across the gut and chest. One arm and both legs were torn away from the body, lying a scant foot away. The head was nowhere in sight.

Link backed up a step, and felt his heel strike something. He looked down to see another body, this one's limbs broken askew at impossible angles, shattered ribs visible around its caved in chest.

Beyond it lay another. And another, and another, and as Link looked about him, he could see bodies, all brutally mutilated everywhere, the grass stained red beneath them

_Gods, what happened here?_

He stopped and glanced at another. _Oh, gods, no!_

Ilia's dead eyes stared up at him. He recognized her in spite of her crushed jaw and missing arms. Link fell to his knees, his mouth half open, his breath coming in short gasps, his hands hovering inches from her body, as though afraid to touch her. His hands were shaking violently, and he felt the hot tears running down his cheeks unchecked.

He threw back his head and let out a howl of agony, sounding more like his wolfen counterpart than himself, and the echo came back to him as though mocking the pain in his heart, his heart feeling like it was ready to explode, and if it would, it would be a blessing.

He finally ran out of breath and turned from Ilia's mangled corpse, unable to look at it any longer. The first thing to come to his vision was yet another corpse, this time of someone he felt he knew, but had never seen before.

The woman he saw had pale blue skin, and she was dressed in a knee length black skirt, a black blouse and cloak, the hood laying back loosely behind her head, her face too narrow, her smooth skin perfect, but her eyes empty and staring. A massive hole, nearly six inches across, was punched clean through her chest, her blood mingling with that of so many others.

Link couldn't breathe. He couldn't even scream. He lay over, putting his arms around her shoulders, burying his face in her neck, and he wept silently.

A hand touched his shoulder. "You can prevent this."

Link looked up.

A woman stood over him. She was nearly seven feet tall, her hair was red as fire, and she wore fully body armor as dark red as blood. Massive spikes nearly a foot long protruded from the shoulder plates, three on each, and one about three inches long extended from each of her elbows and knees.

Looking into her eyes was like gazing into dark caves. They were completely black in color, with no irises or whites, yet one could see the near infinite knowledge within them. She knelt down next to Link. "You are dreaming now, Link. This is but one of many possible futures. This one will occur if you take the counter-spell and leave Mystara without defeating the Lords of Chaos. Their villainous conquest will eventually come to your home. At that time you will be unable to stop them. No one will be safe. No one."

She lifted one hand and pointed to another corpse Link had not seen. It was Ganondorf. His body was not mangled in the manner the others were. He lay on his back, staring upward, a gaping hole in the left side of his chest, his broken ribs clearly visible through the red bloody meat, his heart missing, as though it had been ripped from his chest.

The woman then pointed to another. This body could hardly be called such, as all for limbs were missing and the torso was so mangled it was difficult to tell whether it had been a man or a woman. Then the head suddenly rolled to the side, and the empty eyes of the Princess Zelda stared toward him.

"You have the power to prevent this," the woman said, "You simply do not know how to use it. If you fight Khall as you are now, you will lose."

She took his left hand in hers, rubbing her fingers across the gold symbol on the back of his hand. "I can teach you, Link, as you dream. I can grant you the power of the gods to use as you will. I can make you a god among men, capable of ruling this world. With the kind of power I can grant you, no one will be able to stop you."

Link jerked his hand away from her. He looked down at Midna's face, his heart ready to die at any moment. He then stood up and glared at the woman. "I don't want power!" he said, nearly shouting in her face, "I want my life back! I want the killing to stop and to be rid of this thing in my hand! It's caused me nothing but grief! And I want to be free of wretched, cursed sword!"

Link jerked the Master Sword from the scabbard and with a mighty heave, hurled it through the air away from him. It landed point down in the dirt some distance away, standing upright in the failing light.

"The mark of the gods is upon you, Link," the woman said, rising to her feet, her dark gaze upon him, "That is not something that is so easy to escape. The power is yours whether you like it or not. It is your choice as for how to use it. If you do not desire power for yourself, what about for these others?"

She waved her hand to indicate the corpses. "Against the coming threat, they are defenseless," she said, "It is your choice to stand up and defend them, or to flee your destiny."

Link was breathing heavily. He slowed himself down to try and catch his breath. "I never wanted any of this," he whispered.

"It is said that those most suited to bear great responsibility are those who don't want it," the woman said, "I am presenting myself to you as an ally, Link. Think upon it. I shall return to you another time, with another image of a possible future. Don't reject my offer to aid you out of hand. You are not facing a simple megalomaniac this time, nor are you fighting for just your country. The fate of the world rides on how these events play out. I trust you will make the right decision."

The landscape around them began to fade as Link began to wake up.


	22. Chapter 21

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 21: Weathering the Storm**

"Are you all right, Link?" Midna asked as he sat up.

Link felt short of breath and he was drenched in a cold sweat. He looked about. Midna was the only other in the vast cavern with him. "Where are the others?"

"They went to examine the dragon's library," Midna said, "He isn't back yet. It's nearly sunset."

Link ran his hand across his forehead, wiping the sweat away as best he could. "Blizzard hasn't let up yet, I suppose."

"No," Midna said, "It's only getting worse. You okay? Another nightmare?"

"Something like that," Link said, unable to banish the image of the people of Hyrule, Ilia, and Midna lying on the ground, brutally murdered. "I think it was the same woman I saw the last time I was having nightmares. She spoke directly to me this time. She said it was an image of what was to come if I do not fight Khall." He lifted his left hand, looking at the golden symbol on his skin, glowing softly. "She offered to teach me how to use this."

Midna took his hand with both of hers, her hands less than a third the size of his, and stroked the fingers of one across the glowing symbol. She sighed softly. "What did you say?"

Link wasn't looking at her. Instead, he was looking at the tapestry on the wall of the three golden goddesses involved in the creation of Hyrule. "I told her I didn't want it."

Link turned his gaze to the tapestry of Darius, with the face watching him through the clouds. _Now that's a real hero,_ Link thought, _People needed him and he stepped forward. Even when he lost his family and friends, he fought on._

Link turned to Midna, who looked up at him hopefully. He managed a smile and pulled his hand from hers and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. _If it weren't for you, I'd have given up long ago,_ he thought.

His memories drifted to the moment a year ago, when Ganondorf had appeared mounted on the jet black stallion, and crushed the mask she wore in his hand. Link had thought her dead at that moment. He had only one thought from that moment: To kill Ganondorf.

After that, it wouldn't have mattered. He could have died and it wouldn't have mattered. In the brief time he had thought Midna to be dead, he had felt like it wasn't worth living. His only thought was to take Ganondorf with him to Hell.

Then, when he had seen her welding the mask back together, everything was wonderful again. So long as she was safe, he could bear any hardship. So long as she was at his side, he could go anywhere, do anything. It was she that made him the hero as others saw him.

In a way, he dreaded the day when they would finally lift her curse, because that would be the day they were forced to say goodbye. That would be the day that the adventures finally came to an end.

"I think it's best that you turned her down," Midna said, "We've managed well enough until now without the Triforce's power."

"She said she'd be back," Link said, laying back on the cushions with a sigh, "With the image of another possible future, she promised."

"What was the image she showed you?" Midna asked.

The gruesome images of the slaughtered people flew across Link's mind. "I'd rather not talk about it," he said, "Everyone was dead. Everyone."

Midna didn't answer immediately, allowing the silence of the room to crawl over them. "I told her that I wanted it all to end," Link said at last, "That I just wanted my life back. Away from the responsibilities that the Triforce and Master Sword force upon me. I sounded like a coward."

"No," Midna said, turning toward him, "There is nothing cowardly about wanting to have a peaceful life. The real cowards are the villains who flee from such a life and live off the fear and pain of others. You do not take up the sword out of a desire to cause violence and pain, Link. You take it up because you feel you must. So that you can protect those who cannot protect themselves."

Link leaned up on one elbow, looking toward her. A single tear fell from her eye, rolling across the fur on her face. "You are the bravest man I know, Link," she said, "I know that what you fight for, what we both fight for, is a day when we can put down our weapons, whether swords or magic, and live it peace. When villains like Ganondorf and Khall cannot cause harm to anyone. We fight for a day when no one ever has to live in fear again."

"Midna..." Link whispered.

Midna wiped her eye with the back of one hand. "Do not ever call yourself a coward again, Link. It is Khall and his followers that are the cowards. It is they and those like them that force you to take up the sword for the sake of others than yourself.

"You bear a terrible burden, Link. You fight to protect those who cannot protect themselves, so that they don't have to fight. So that they are not forced to live through the true horrors of violence and killing. Even if you don't realize it, you bear the burden for them. Even if our enemies did not actively seek you out, I know you would step forward to protect the people of Hyrule and even the world if needed. Your burden is far heavier than any that royalty must bear, and I would know."

She turned away from him, sitting down on a red pillow. "And I'm being quite selfish, Link. I'm enjoying every minute of this."

Link pushed himself up into a sitting position, but before he could speak, she continued, "You see, Link, I've come to love this world of light, and I enjoy every minute I spend with you and the others. Though I sometimes like to pretend otherwise, I am still the Twilight Princess, and must eventually return to take up the responsibilities that come with the title. When that day comes, we will have to say goodbye, and will likely never see each other again."

"Now that's foolishness!" Link said suddenly, startling her, "We'll still have the Twilight Mirror! We can just use it to visit one another!"

Midna shook her head. "And if it truly is what Khall would use to release his demon? What about after that? What if another comes to use it in the same manner? It may be better off destroyed."

Link grabbed one corner of the pillow she sat upon and turned it about so she was facing him. "Look me in the eyes, Midna," he said.

She looked up, into those deep blue pools. The depth of Link's eyes showed wisdom and experience far beyond his years, and were a mixing of contrasted elements. While she saw the same kindness she always saw when he looked at her, she could also see within them evidence of his wild, untamable spirit. The true spirit of a wolf. He said he wanted to live peacefully in Ordon with his friends and essentially what amounted to his family, but Midna wasn't so sure. His was the kind of spirit that would eventually grow restless. While he would not seek danger or violence just for its own sake, but she knew that the way he leaped to the ready when danger appeared, and the gleam in his eye she saw whenever they explored one of the ancient temples of Hyrule together showed that he thirsted for adventure.

She had seen the same gleam in his eye when Sheila had first told them about how they would be able to recover the pieces of the spell from the altars in the ancient temples.

"Link," she said, barely above a whisper, "I'm still being selfish. I wish it could be like this forever, always on a new adventure together."

Link smiled with a soft chuckle. "That doesn't sound too bad," he said, "So long as it's you, I wouldn't turn it down."

His smile was warm and friendly.

"Link, listen," Midna said, mustering all the courage she could, "I l-"

At that moment, a loud thump came from the entrance of the cave, accompanied by the sound of claws raking across stone and the flapping of leathery wings. A moment later, the dragon appeared in the central room with them, and dropped the carcass of a large cow onto the stone floor. "Meal's on," he said, looking quite pleased with himself.

"What was it you were trying to tell me?" Link asked Midna as he got to his feet.

Midna's courage failed her. "Nothing important," she said.

Link shrugged. "If you say so, then," he said, and walked over to the dragon's prize.

It was a large heifer, probably about a year old. Still young enough to give some tender, tasty meat. It was remarkable that the creature seemed relatively unharmed save a broken neck.

"Butcher it however you like," the dragon said, "I'll take what's left when you're done. I know you humans don't like some bits of it."

"No way even the four of us could eat most of this anyway," Link said.

Zelda and Sheila appeared at the back passage. Link waved at them. "How you like your meat? Heat plus cow, or something more complicated?"

"If you don't mind," the dragon said, "I'd rather not get blood on the floor in here. Go to the back, first passage on the right, there are some buckets."

"We'll get a few," Zelda said, gesturing for Sheila to follow her back.

Link had Midna get the rope they'd packed from her spatial storage and with the dragon's help, hung the heifer by its hind feet from the table, the dragon sitting on the other side with the rope around one leg to keep it in the air. The table was nearly seven feet high, so the cow hung down from the edge with about a foot to spare between its head and the floor.

When Zelda and Sheila returned with buckets, Link placed one under the beast and pulled out his knife to slice its neck open. The blood was draining well into the bucket quickly. Butchering a carcass was always a messy affair, but to do so without draining the blood was many times worse.

"You've done this before," the dragon said as Link wiped his knife on the carcass' hair.

"Grew up on a farm," Link said, "Butchering livestock was always a part of it."

"I trust you kids all stayed out of trouble while I was gone," the dragon said, eyeing the girls in particular.

"We were taking a look around your library," Sheila said, "Remarkably well organized, I must say."

"Wish I could say the same for my treasury," the dragon said, "For some time I didn't have the time to put anything where it belonged, and now its just a general mish-mash of gems, jewelry, coins, and weapons."

That piqued Link's interest, remembering some of the remarkable items he had seen in the vault beneath Hyrule castle. "What sort of weapons?"

The dragon chuckled. "The kind of weapons that put fear into the bloody gods themselves. I've got the Axe of the Unyielding, an enchanted weapon that augments its wielder's strength with its own power, and can fell a giant with a single swing. Ordinary humans on the receiving end would likely be blasted to pieces. Say, would you like to trade that sword of yours?"

"No," Zelda said before Link could respond, "I'm sorry, but the Master Sword is a relic of our ancestors and a valuable tool of our people."

"I understand," the dragon said, "Wouldn't be much point of adding it to the collection without its twin anyway."

"Twin?!" Link, Zelda, and Midna all said at once.

"Oh, yes, you wouldn't know, would you?" the dragon said, "Silver Fang is one of a pair, forged together. The weapons, when wielded in tandem by two individuals can unleash enough magical force to level cities. At the same time, they are made to balance one another and prevent such cataclysmic power from being unleashed."

"You mean if the swords work together, they can unleash destructive power to rival even the Harrowing?" Sheila asked.

"Precisely," the dragon said, "Think of it as a non-magician's version of the spell. But you see, Silver Fang's twin was known as Black Razor, and could only be wielded by the truly villainous, thus making such an alliance quite impossible."

"Black Razor..." Zelda said, "That means that the weapon we had in the vault the whole time..."

"You have Black Razor too?" the dragon said, unable to keep the excitement from his voice, "Oh, now I must make a trade! Name your price for the swords!"

Zelda was shaking her head. "I'm sorry, but we can't give the Master Sword up! Black Razor was placed in our vault for safe keeping."

"I'm rather interested," Link said, "Why would a dragon hoard such treasures in the first place? If I understand correctly, they wouldn't be much use to you."

"Why would a human art collector collect so many portraits and pictures?" the dragon asked, "Same concept."

"What exactly do you know about these swords?" Zelda asked, "We know nothing of the Master Sword's origin, let alone Black Razor's."

"It happened a very long time ago," the dragon said, "Even before the great war began. A master blacksmith named Cromwell worked with the wizards of old, developing tools like the world had never seen. His greatest and final creation was a pair of swords called Silver Fang and Black Razor. They were twinned, destined to be paired together, yet at the same time be complete opposites. Both blades were even mildly sentient. They couldn't speak, but they could whisper ideas to their wielder. Silver Fang was granted to a master swordsman who served as a knight to the rulers of the time. Black Razor, for lack of one suited to wield it, was left in the wizards' possession. Later, it was discovered on the person of the leader of the usurpers, who sought to take rulership for the magician caste. It may have even been the sword's whispers to him that drove him to believe they deserved to rule this world.

"In a wizard's duel against Darius, though, the wizard lost, and both he and the sword were swallowed by the earth, and the blade was believed to be lost forever. How it turned up in Hyrule, I guess we'll never know."

"Wait," Link said, looking at the Master Sword, "This one is supposed to be sentient? It's never spoken to me."

"Have you stopped to listen?" the dragon asked, "Silver Fang does not attempt to force its ideas upon its wielder like Black Razor does. Did you ever have a sensation, like a prickling at the base of your skull, and an idea of what to do that may have even seemed to be your own idea would appear in your mind?"

"Now that you mention it," Link said, thinking back to the temples in Hyrule, sometimes involving an elaborate puzzle or trap, and he had almost thought he felt a guiding hand helping him through it.

"That's what I thought," the dragon said, "Hey, you mind watching that bucket?"

Link looked over to see the pail nearly overflowing with red liquid. He rushed over to swap it for a second, empty one. At the dragon's directing, he carried the full one to the entrance of the cave to dump it into the ravine.

"Perhaps we can make another deal, then," the dragon said when he returned, "You're headed to the temple in the Vale of Shadows, right?"

"I guess," Link said, "Didn't know the vale had a name."

"Oh, it's something that got started recently," the dragon said, "The vale has never been a very welcoming place. In addition to the holy temple dedicated to Tempos, the god of battle, it's a burial ground. Recently, things have begun coming out of those crypts. I understand restless souls often will linger after death, but these things were dead for some time before they started moving again."

Link waved one hand dismissively. "Eh, you see one zombie, you've seen them all."

Sheila glanced over at him. "And what about what has awakened them, then?"

"Our necromancer working with Khall?" Midna asked.

"Now that is very likely," Sheila said, "The undead that guard the mountain pass and have been the attacking force on Whitos-Neiki. The supply of bodies may be coming from these burial grounds."

I see what you're getting at," Link said, tapping his cheek in thought, "The undead themselves aren't important. If said necromancer is physically in the vale, and we manage to take him down, the undead will collapse on the spot and it will be a serious blow to Khall's forces."

"Perhaps even a blow that recruiting the Aurilites won't be able to balance," Zelda said.

"Then there are still the giants," Link said, "If they stick with their current decision, they won't be a worry, but if they join Khall..."

"The giants?" the dragon said with a chuckle, "Those broadarses are too comfortable where they are. They've lived in this climate so long, they're adapted to it too well, anyway. If they went south, they'd likely die from heatstroke."

"I think they might still be trouble, though," Link said, looking up at the dragon, "I think Khall wants to kill you."

"Does he now? Are you sure it's me he's after?"

"He was offering to kill the dragon, 'Roxim,' in exchange for the aid of the giants," Link said, "You are Roxim, are you not?"

"That's what humans know me as, anyway," the dragon said, "Afraid I don't tend to go by my true name often. Besides, I doubt it's even pronounceable in the common tongue."

"Khall may come fore you anyway," Link said, "I've no doubt he's a powerful wizard. Something to be wary of."

Roxim barked a laugh that caused the floor to rumble. "Didn't you hear me earlier when I told you about the necromancer planning to turn me into the first undead dragon ever? We dragons are creatures of magic, and are highly resistant to the spells created by human wizards. I've fought wizards before. I've been struck by lightning, set on fire, and even frozen solid once, and yet I'm still here."

"Not to mention the wizards of old are far more powerful than any today," Sheila said, "Darius was the greatest of the lot, I believe."

"No," Roxim said, his voice softening, "There was one other who was more powerful than Darius. I can't remember his name, but he was one of the higher ups of the usurpers. He was also a necromancer, I believe. Amazing how many of those the usurpers had, right? But he wasn't just satisfied with reanimating corpses, oh no. He had developed a method of taking a small sample of tissue, either blood or skin from someone, then growing it into massive undead beasts. Flesh golems, they were called."

"What's a golem?" Link asked.

"One of the lost arts," Sheila said, "Some wizards would essentially create creatures out of stone, wood, or other materials as bodyguards or servants. Such creatures were not very intelligent, and thus were usually given a single task and left to it. If something else needed a regular worker to attend to, it would be easier to create another golem than change the programming of one to a different task."

"Yes," Roxim said, "Such creatures were fairly common in the old world. But golems of flesh were closer to an abomination than anything else. The creatures were even more brainless than other golems, and if left on their own were remarkably bloodthirsty. They were of no use as anything other than killing machines. Add to the fact that they could regenerate from injuries, and you've got a fearsome opponent indeed. The only way to kill one was to literally vaporize it. Even blasting it into tiny pieces wouldn't be enough, as the pieces would reattach themselves to one another and then rebuild themselves."

"So what happened to this necromancer?" Zelda asked.

"He was among those that were killed when their great demon was released," Roxim said, "He probably had a hand in its creation. Fitting end, I suppose, killed by his own creation."

"What about the undead in the vale?" Midna asked, "Have you seen anyone suspicious in the mountains lately?"

"You mean besides you lot?" Roxim chuckled, "No, but I don't pay too much attention to humans wandering about on foot. Besides, not everything I saw moving around in the vale was just a zombie or skeleton. Do you know what specters are?"

"Would that be like the poes in Hyrule?" Link asked, looking at Zelda.

"If they are essentially ghosts, I imagine so," Zelda said.

"Put it this way," Roxim said, "I couldn't see them, but I knew they were there. They say that lower beasts, like dogs can see them. Intelligent creatures can't mainly because they believe that if they can't see it and touch it, it can't be real. And besides them, I think I saw wraith moving around down there."

"Well, that's something we've dealt with before, anyway," Link said, "Just have to watch out for it."

"Okay, now listen to me very carefully," Roxim said, "I know nothing I say is going to keep you from going, but that vale has become a dangerous place lately. It wasn't friendly to begin with. There is something unholy underneath that place. A presence that seems to cover the valley. The temple you're after has likely fallen to this presence as well. With zombies and specters on the surface, I don't have any idea what you'll see underneath it."

Link stood up to change the buckets under the cow once more. It was just about ready to start butchering. "We'll be careful," Link said, "Once we get underground, we'll be in my territory."

"That's right," Midna said, "Link is a first class dungeon crawler."

"That so?" Roxim said, his interest piqued, "Well then, I'll make you an offer, Link. If you find any valuables down there, could you bring them by me? I think I have something that would be useful to you when you get ready to fight Khall, and might be willing to make a trade."

* * *

Tharkus stood on the edge of the cliff at the south end of the Vale of Shadows, watching the aimless wanderings of at least fifteen undead creatures in the basin. He pulled his purple cloak tighter about himself. The wind and snow were beating upon him mercilessly, and he longed to be back at the citadel. 

Crunching footsteps in the snow behind him were drawing closer. Khall appeared at his side, his white cloak making him nearly invisible in the blizzard. "Did he take the bait?" Tharkus asked once Khall came up beside him.

"No," Khall said, "He's a very smart person. He doesn't trust easily. Even if he did accept the offer, I'm sure he'd have kept looking over his shoulder at us. Mur'neth informs me that he listened in on their conversation with the dragon. Link and his friends know why we wish Ganon dead now. They will not aid us."

Tharkus shrugged. "Oh, well. Not like he's really needed, anyway. Either one of us could defeat Ganon, and that's not even counting Kilishandra. What do you, if Mur'neth fails, we send her after him first?"

"I think you have some other reason for wanting her after him," Khall said, "Perhaps you are just a sadist."

"Of course I am," Tharkus said, "One can hardly be of my profession and not be at least a bit of one."

"And this valley?" Khall asked, "Have you figured out what's causing the unrest among the dead?"

Tharkus frowned. "This is the result of an ancient spell of protection. The undead moving about down there are guardians. They are searching for something. That can only mean one thing: Someone has disturbed the tombs and taken what doesn't belong to them."

"Will it endanger Link and Zelda?"

"Most likely," Tharkus said, "No way to fix it without finding what was stolen anyway, unless you want to re-kill every walking corpse in the vale."

"No," Khall said, "If they come in and find the corpses all blasted apart, Link will become more suspicious than he is. He knows why we don't dare kill him, but let's not let him think we're going to step in and save him whenever it gets a bit rough."

"As you wish," Tharkus said, "Now, I'm going back tot he citadel. Need to see if Zivlyn has recovered from her trip yet."

"Let's make her the last one we bring here," Khall said, "Ganon still has many who are loyal to him. We've managed to keep them in the dark for a decade; the last thing we need is to make them suspicious now."

"I'm no fool, Khall," Tharkus said, "We couldn't hope to match them all at once. I do agree, though. Zivlyn shall be the last. How soon should I loose her upon Link and his friends?"

"Wait until they reach Metallicana," Khall said, "She'll keep them busy while we move on Whitos-Neiki. The judges should handle the rest."

* * *

Link butchered enough of the heifer to feed himself and the others, leaving the rest to Roxim, who quickly demonstrated that a dragon's stomach can digest nearly anything as he crunched bones loudly enough to echo through the cavern. 

Sheila lost her appetite during the display.


	23. Chapter 22

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 22: The Vale of Shadows**

The following morning, Midna woke to find Link standing at the entrance to Roxim's cavern, watching the sunrise as its light peeked between the distant mountain peaks on the far side of the ravine. The sky was clear other than a few puffy white clouds, and a weak breeze was wafting into the cave. Midna was amazed that she'd gotten any sleep that night, with the way Roxim was snoring, causing the floor to rumble beneath them.

After waking Zelda and Sheila, who began gathering their clothing and jackets, and Zelda's weapons, Midna hovered to the front of the cave, stopping by Link, who leaned against one side of the entrance, already wearing his fur jacket against the cool air, and the Master Sword and his shield leaned against the rock wall just behind him.

"You sleep okay?" he asked as she drew near, without turning to face her.

"Fine for what it's worth," she said, "Our host isn't exactly the quietest sleeper."

"Got that right," Link said.

He wasn't really paying attention to her, Midna realized. His mind was elsewhere. "Something wrong, Link?"

"Just thinking," Link said, scratching an itch on his neck, "Wondering how best to go about this. Khall gave away what they were up to when we met up with him yesterday. Should we avoid him on the way back out, or should we try to get rid of him? He seems to be the one in charge, and lopping off the head of the serpent may kill it entirely."

"I'm sorry, Link," Midna said, "But I don't think we know enough about him to try fighting him yet. He said he was even Ganondorf's apprentice for a time. That alone would make him dangerous. And it's like Roxim said, it may be wise to try and gain Ganondorf's help first."

Link turned toward her, and she flinched at the hardness of his eyes. "You would seek an alliance with him after what he did to you? What he's still doing to you?"

The hard gaze of his eyes was too much, and Midna turned away with a sigh. "The only thing I intend to do with Ganondorf," Link said, "is make sure he lives long enough for us to stop Khall and the others. Being part of this elaborate lock of the gods doesn't mean he has to be healthy to do so."

Link slammed his fist against the rock wall with a dull thump. "These damn gods, anyway," he said, "Is this some sort of game to them? Toying with human lives, handing out trinkets of power to people who don't want them, and watching the ensuing chaos? Am I going to have to kill a god before I'm allowed respite?"

"One step at a time, Link," Zelda's voice came from behind them.

Midna turned to see her and Sheila and Zelda approaching, now fully clothed and Zelda geared up. Roxim plodded along just behind them. "Our first worry is for our people," Zelda said to Link, "We'll inform the proper individuals of what is occurring, and when we've recovered our spell, we'll devote our full efforts to removing our enemies."

"It's about a day to the vale from here on foot," Roxim said, "You all be careful. And remember my offer."

"If we find something shiny in the temple, we'll let you have a look at it," Link said, "I promise."

They made their way out onto the ledge outside the cave entrance and started working their way northward along the edge of the ravine. It was about sixty feet along the narrow ledge before the edge of the ravine arced back to the right, a steep wall rising to the right to force them into a narrow pass.

Roxim leaned out of the cave, watching them go, and once they were out of sight up the pass, he sat back, thinking. "Wonder if I should go ahead and dig that thing out now? Nah, breakfast first," he decided, and leaped out of the cave, spreading his wings as he dove in the ravine, swerving upward just before striking the ground at incredible speed, sending waves of snow flying into the air with the force of wind created, and climbed back up, heading southward.

The pass Link and the others were forced to follow was nearly waste deep in snow. Link walked ahead of the others, forcing his way through it, using his arms to push snow aside, creating a path for Zelda and Sheila to follow. He had no doubt he'd have an easier time as a wolf, but he couldn't run off without them.

At the end of the first day, they'd covered barely a third of the distance Link had been hoping for. Taking shelter under a shallow outcropping of rock, they huddled together for warmth under several blankets, once more eating dried meat for a meal. Thankfully, their water flasks, protected by Midna's magical storage, were not frozen.

The second day a light snow began to fall, though it was nothing compared to the blizzard before. They were able to walk downhill for some time, and between two large climbs, Link managed to find an animal trail that had been used since the day before, so the snow had already been somewhat cleared. They made better time, even though they went around one uprising instead of climbing straight over. By the end of the day, they could see from the heights of their travels the upper edges of the walls surrounding the vale. At this distance, it looked like little more than a large hole in the mountains, snow covering all its edges.

Along its far side there was what could be called a small forest, the snow-covered branches of evergreen trees jutting up from the seemingly barren landscape. There were also trees on this side, but they were scattered and far between.

As the sun was sinking, Link was feeling more and more the need to locate shelter for the night. There were no rocky alcoves in sight, or even an area shielded from the wind. Just sitting down in the snow wouldn't do at all. In a fit of genius, though, he stopped by a particularly large pine tree, its lowest branches jutting right down into the snow. Link lifted up one branch, the blanket of white shaking loose from the needles as he did so, and smiled.

Underneath the branches was just enough room for a person his size to sit upright, and wide enough to hold them all, provided they didn't mind getting a bit familiar with one another. And it was dry, the low branches reaching nearly to the ground and keeping the snow out.

Link also took that night to judge how his companions were taking the trip. Midna seemed to be holding up the best, though this should be expected, since she had been traveling with him much longer than the others, but she also did not have to work as hard to get through the snow, since she could float above it.

Zelda was no longer getting blisters on her feet, and she was showing more energy than she had back in Hyrule and the desert. She had been by no means out of shape to begin with, but now she was putting on some muscle, allowing her to walk further each day than she could back then. She never complained about the trek, but Link could tell that the constant up and down climbs through the mountain passes and working through the snow, as well as just the cold were taking it out of her.

Sheila, on the other hand, was clearly more used to riding than walking while traveling. By the end of the day, she had been leaning on Zelda's shoulder to keep moving. Link felt somewhat guilty that he, the strongest of them, hadn't given her his shoulder, but he had been forcing a path through the snow. She was also developing a slight sniffle. It would be really disastrous if any of them got a fever out here.

What they both needed was a good hot meal and a night in a real bed.

Link made a mental note to keep an eye out for valuables in the temple for more than just Roxim. With no money, they would have to trade one for enough to feed themselves for a while. If there was nothing, Link would have to start hunting.

And once they were out of these mountains, they could likely sell the fur jackets for a little something. Money wasn't so impossible, it was just finding the means to earn some.

The following morning, they finally arrived at the vale just before noon, or at least the small pass leading down into it. The vale was more like a gigantic gully from the view up top, only about fifty feet wide, running west to east for nearly about three miles, either side being a sheer rock wall rising up nearly sixty feet.

The snow was considerably deeper on the northern side, rising nearly seven feet against the rock wall, while by the southern end it was barely above ankle deep, so the group made their way into the vale, following the southern side. Link's aching legs nearly cheered at not having to force their way through snow anymore.

"How far in is this temple?" Link asked Sheila, who was walking on his left side, with Zelda on his right.

"It is at the far eastern side," Sheila said, "If I remember correctly, its actually mostly underground, with the entrance directly into the rock wall."

"What kind of god is it dedicated to?" Zelda asked, "Other than temples to the god of suffering, most of them are gaudy and want everyone to see. Even the temple back in Tyr was at one point."

"I believe this one is dedicated to Tempos, the god of battle," Sheila said.

"If he thrives on conflict, he can't be all that decent a god," Link said, motioning the girls to follow him around a near hidden gully in the snow to avoid sprained ankles.

"He's not simply about fighting and killing," Sheila said, "Tempos teaches his followers to show courage and honor on the battlefield, and respect their allies and enemies. To die courageously in battle fighting their enemies is the greatest honor for a follower of Tempos, for should that happen, they will have only been bested by a greater warrior than themselves, and are instantly taken to his kingdom in the heavens. In contrast, dying from a wound in the back is the worst that can happen to them, for it marks them forever as a coward. Tempos is actually a rather popular god to follow for the majority of Mystara's armed forces."

"For obvious reasons," Midna whispered to Link as she sat on his right shoulder.

"Tempos' symbol is the wolf, standing tall behind a pair of crossed battle axes," Sheila said.

Midna nudged her elbow into the side of Link's head. "Sounds like this might be one for you."

"Are you kidding?" Link said, "If it weren't for this thing in my hand, I'd be agnostic. Don't want anything to do with gods, wolf or not."

They were about three hundred yards into the valley, a small stone wall about three feet high rose on their left, and the cliff on their right hung out over their heads a small bit. Midna nudged Link again. "Look over there."

To their right, in the rock wall, was a cave opening. "We're not far enough in to be at the temple yet," Sheila said, "That's not it."

Link leaned in, looking around inside. The cave was only one room, and seemed about twenty yards wide in any direction. There were several animal pelts lying about on the floor, from a grey wolf-skin to a large white bear-skin, and numerous animals in between. At the far end was what may have once been a small lean-to shelter, barely large enough for one person. Now, all it was was one upright stick, a loose animal pelt hanging from it, and a pile of broken wood.

"Who builds a lean-to inside?" Link muttered to himself, stepping into the cave.

He nearly fell on his face as all traction under his feet vanished. The floor was covered in an inch thick layer of ice!

Link steadied himself, regaining his balance, then let out the breath he had been holding. "Wait here," he said to Zelda and Sheila, stepping carefully toward the lean-to.

When he reached it, Link noticed the stick holding up the animal pelt was metal, and jammed directly into the ice. That's how it was still standing. The broken wood that had made up the rest of it was broken, but it was not terribly old. It was far from rotting yet. This had happened just a few days before. Likely before the blizzard.

"Maybe a hunter used this as a shelter," Link said, glancing at the pelts, "Big mistake to leave just as the blizzard was starting."

As he stood up from his kneeling position, something amidst the wood glinted, catching his eye. "Hello," he said to it, digging it out.

It was a large, ornate key about six inches in length. About halfway down its length, it split into two sets of prongs, facing either direction. Link had never seen a key before with more than one set of prongs, but this one evidently operated a lock with two distinct sets of tumblers, which would no doubt be a nightmare to try and pick.

On the back end of the key was a square grip, and a symbol embedded in either side of its surface. It seemed to be some kind of canine footprint. _A wolf print?_ Link thought as he examined it.

"Anything interesting?" Zelda called to him across the cave.

"Got a key of some kind," Link called back, "Give me a second to get back over there."

Link managed to get back across the icy floor of the cave to the entrance, where he showed the key to them. He asked if it could be connected to the temple, but Sheila examined the symbol, shaking her head. "Every time I've seen something connected to Tempos, the symbol was the wolf with crossed axes, even on keys, though that seems quite a waste of time."

"To you, maybe," Link said, slipping the key inside his belt, and making sure it wouldn't come loose as he walked, "But every one of the temples I've seen in Hyrule had the most important area locked off with a special ornate lock and key."

"So we're lucky we found this one," Midna said, "We might need it."

Link's ears tingled.

"No harm in taking it with us," Zelda said, "If it's no use, we can just toss it away once we're finished here."

Link shushed her, straining his ears for what he was sure he heard.

Sheila started to speak, then stopped when she remembered how he had heard the giants moving about days ago.

"Over there!" Link said, turning back toward the entrance to the vale.

They all turned to look.

Rushing toward them at incredible speed was a flying wave of snow, a bulge moving under the whiteness, throwing loose snow to its sides and straight up like a miniature blizzard as it rushed toward them like a great mole.

"What kind of creature could do that?" Zelda asked.

"I don't think it's a creature at all," Link said, drawing his sword, Midna quickly jumping off his shoulder to clear his shield, "Get behind me, all of you."

"No, you get behind me," Sheila said, stepping in front of him, facing the rapidly approaching wave.

"What are you-" Link started, then stopped when he saw her cup her hands together, then draw them apart so that only her fingertips still touched, a blue glow building within the gap.

"_Nak nobe soho mailie,_" she said, her voice echoing about them, the blue glow glowing brighter by the second, "_Holy spirit_ _become our shield and protect us!_"

The wave was nearly upon them. Sheila thrust her hands forward, spreading them so that they were flat toward the wave, with only her thumbs and first fingers still touching. "_Striker!_" she finished.

The light in her hands expanded rapidly, turning into a globe of blue light that surrounded the group on all sides, ripples riding across it from Sheila's hands just as the wave reached them. The snow was everywhere, flying all around them, but none of it passing within the light. It poured around them and over them like water, flying past, but the way Sheila stepped back with a grunt as she maintained the barrier, it must have been an incredible impact.

When the snow finally stopped flowing past, Sheila allowed the barrier to dissipate, leaning forward with her hands on her knees to catch her breath. "What was that?" Zelda asked.

"Damn!" Link suddenly cursed, "Roxim mentioned it! Presences that he could feel but not see!"

"Are you talking about a ghost?" Midna asked.

Before Link could say anything else, snow suddenly flew upward around them, creating a spiral of white all about them, the wind going straight up and nearly tearing Link's hat from his head had he not snapped his hand down on it. Looking up, Link could see the spirals of white gathering into one point, a white globe rapidly forming in the air. _It's going to try and crush us!_ Link thought.

"Midna!" he said, turning to her, "Change me now!"

She needed no second urging, the dark crystal appearing in her hand and the red glow from within quickly growing bright as she poured her power into it. Link quickly sheathed his sword before his hands could no longer hold it, and went into the familiar feeling of his bones and organs changing locations and shapes. When his knees changed direction and he fell onto all fours, he heard Sheila remark, "What in the gods' names?!" but it was too late to stop now.

As was always the last part, he felt his jaw change shape and elongate ast the bones of his nose and face did the same, shaping into a snout while his teeth elongated and grew sharp. The sudden flash of his heightened hearing and smell revealed to him a world invisible to humans.

Ignoring the chaos around him, Link shut his eyes, taking hold of these great senses once more. _Don't try to see the ghosts,_ Link thought, _Rely instead on your hearing and smell to locate them. It is the only way to find them. Then strike directly for the vulnerable point._

One couldn't technically "kill" a ghost, but there was one solid point on them that could be struck. They had what amounted to the equivalent of a living heart in their chest, and was solid in spite of being invisible, and if torn out, they would dissipate, at least for a time, until they managed to pull themselves back together.

The smell was there. The odd smell that accompanied ghosts that smelled like a strange mixture of the scent vanilla and the pungent stench of rot was present. Link kept his eyes shut, pricking his ears, listening.

And there it was. The dull, near non-existent thump of the necroplasmic heart. Link leaped with a snarl, flying through the swirling snow, his jaws snapping onto the solid, bitter tasting, invisible heart. He drug it to the ground, jerking his head rapidly from side to side, his snarls audible over the roaring wind. Link jerked his head hard to the left and with a familiar snap, the ghost's heart came loose from the invisible necro-flesh, and in a flash of blue light, both were gone.

With cries of "Run!" the girls charged past him, and the enormous ball of snow, nearly four feet in diameter, slammed down into the ground with a thud, spreading itself out across the ground as it fell apart.

Link turned from it back to the girls to see Sheila staring at him quite intently. "Incredible," she whispered, "I didn't even realize transforming into an animal was possible! How did you do it? You can turn back, right?"

Link gestured with his head toward the far end of the vale, and turned to walk away. "We'll explain later," Midna said to Sheila, "It's a long story."

Midna plopped herself down on Link's back, causing him to glance back with a soft growl, like usual, but he kept moving. Zelda moved up beside them, matching Link's pace. Sheila shook her head, wiped her nose, and moved to catch up.

Two more ghosts they encountered, but both were taken down swiftly by Link before they could start a problem like the first. As the sun began to sink behind the peaks in the direction of the vale's entrance, they were nearly two thirds of the way across the vale. Link decided that wandering this place at night was likely not a good idea, so cast about for someplace to stay. He spied another cave on the right side, and angled toward it.

At the entrance, Link gave Midna the signal to turn him back. Once he was back on two feet, adjusting his jacket and baldric, he had to stave of Sheila demanding an explanation, promising one once they found a place to rest for the night.

He ducked into the cave, the others following close behind. He heard and odd sound further in, like a rattling of loose objects. In fact, it sounded like bones clacking together, like Link had heard before when forced to walk through piles of them in the depths of Hyrule's temples.

The cave itself was dark, and Link paused a moment to allow his eyes to adjust to the dim light, but he drew the Master Sword, holding it ready as he walked with his right hand on the wall, as a just-in-case to avoid getting lost if this turned out to be more than just another cave.

The narrow tunnel suddenly opened up into a perfectly square room, two torches burning on either side of a wooden door on the far side. On the left an right side of the room stood rows of upright sarcophagi, some standing open and revealing their emptyness. Standing between them and the door was a human skeleton, a rusted breastplate draped across its shoulders, and a massive greatsword clutched in its bony fingers.

"Who goes there?" it spoke, its voice like wind through the crack in a door, whistling and wheezing and its jaw clacking as it spok, "Living I sense. The living are not welcome here. Begone from this place!"

Zelda gripped Link's shoulder. "I sense no evil, Link. It's just an undead husk. Someone is using it to speak."

"Why are the living not welcome here?" Link asked.

"This is... a place for the dead," the skeleton said, "It has been so for seven thousand years. It is how it will always be. Leave this place at once."

"We can't leave until we find the altar dedicated to Tempos," Link said, "If you would just let us get to it, we will depart in peace."

"I know the altar you speak of," the skeleton said, "It is deep within the great tomb. I cannot allow you to enter. If you attempt to force entry, I will be forced to summon the guardians and kill you."

"Link," Midna whispered in his ear, "I think someone is trying to play us. Remember the necromancer with Khall? I think he's trying to fool us."

"Are you connected to the four Lords of Chaos?" Link asked, "Don't lie to me, now."

The skeleton hesitated a moment. "I do not know of whom you speak," the skeleton said, "I am a guardian of this crypt. My concerns lie within this vale, not without. Begone and take your life with you, living."

"I told you, we're not leaving until we see the altar," Link said, then reached to his belt, pulling out the key he had found earlier, "And while we're at it, you can tell me what this is for. I found it in an abandoned campsite near the vale's entrance."

"The key!" the skeleton said, "The key was stolen less than a fortnight ago. Return it now and leave this place, living."

The skeleton held out one bony hand, palm up, waiting for the key.

"Oh, is it that important?" Link said, "I'll give it to you if you let us see the altar."

"That cannot be done," the skeleton said, "The living may not enter. This is your last chance, give me the key or you will die here."

Link glanced over his shoulder. Midna nodded, Zelda reached for the rapier at her hip, and Sheila sighed softly.

Link stuck the key back in his belt as he turned back to the skeleton. "Come and take it, then, because we're not leaving without what we seek."

"I am sorry that you are so stubborn, living," the skeleton said, "May you rest in more peace than we have."

The sarcophagi on either side of the room burst open and six creatures, shreds of cloth that may have once been clothing wrapped around their brown, dried flesh emerged and staggered toward the four. The skeleton was moving rapidly, the massive sword in its bony grip rising up. Link moved to the left, at the same time he spun to the right, swinging high and cleaved the head from one of the walking corpses.

Link turned to face the skeleton to see another corpse lunger for him, its arms outstretched and its fingers grasping for him. Gripping the Master Sword with both hands, he moved it low and swung upward, cleaving through the rotted flesh of the creature from its right hip to its left armpit, the pieces collapsing to the floor. The skeleton moved and swung horizontally at him, the massive blade ripping through the air. Link stepped back, its tip whistling past him with inches to spare. Link moved forward, but a pair of arms suddenly appeared from behind him, slipping under his armpits and lifting upward, pinning his arms to the side.. Link slammed his head back, and was shocked to feel himself hit the short neck of the headless corpse. The skeleton was bringing its blade about for another swing, aiming low to attempt to cleave him in half. Link stuck his right foot between the legs of the corpse holding him.

The swing came. Link jerked his leg forward, dragging the corpse's foot out from underneath it, sending them both toppling onto the floor. The corpse kept its grip on him. The damn thing was ungodly strong. He could see Zelda backing away from three of the corpses, her rapier proving even less effective than the Master Sword. Midna struck one with a bolt of black lightning, but the thing didn't even seem to feel it. Sheila was backed into a corner by two more, no weapon and without enough time to use a spell.

With a roar and surge of effort, Link pulled his arms forward, breaking free of the corpse's grip by tearing its arms completely off. Link rolled to the side as the skeleton swung at him, its blade striking through the corpse underneath him and into the floor. Link was rising with an upward swing, striking the skeleton's spine just under the ribs. The bone snapped easily, and the creature toppled to the floor in two pieces, his ribs flying everywhere on impact.

Link charged across the room toward Sheila, and with a single swing cleaved both corpses in half, toppling to the floor in pieces. He turned to Zelda and saw her shove her attacker back with a kick to its gut. "Burn 'em!" Link shouted, "Midna, Sheila, back in the hallway!

They moved to comply. Link elbowed the one sneaking up behind him in the face, moving quickly, stepping aside as one of the ones in pieces on the floor snatched at his ankle on the way past. Midna and Sheila were already behind Zelda, and out of her way.

"_Serif teah mxtecotal_," Zelda's voice echoed about them as Link quickly moved to get behind her as she faced the corpses shambling towards them, "_I beseech thee, ancient spirits of fire, come forth and honor thy blood pact of old._"

A red glowing orb appeared in Zelda's hands, growing brighter and brighter. Link moved quickly and landed a right handed punch in the face of one corpse drawing too close for comfort, causing it to stagger back. "_Hellion!_" Zelda said, casting the red orb forward.

It struck the closest corpse in the chest, and the entire room ignited in fire. Link stepped back, raising his hand to shield his face from the incredible heat. With moans of pain, the walking corpses fell to their knees, rapidly blacking and small chunks falling from their bodies that quickly disappeared in the intense heat.

Zelda relaxed her grip on the spell, and the main body of flames vanished as the last of the corpses flopped onto the floor, each covered in their own burning death.

The entire fight had lasted for just over a minute.

Link turned to Sheila. "What did he mean that the altar's at the bottom of the 'Great Tomb?'"

"I don't know," Sheila said, "Clearly something has happened here that is not recorded. We're just going to have to force our way in and find out what."

"This isn't the right one, though," Link said, moving to the wooden door at the far side.

He opened it and looked through. It was a dead end room, full of empty upright coffins lined up against the walls.

"Come on," he said, heading back for the cave entrance, "We're not spending the night in this place. We're finding the temple now."

It was still calm outside, and they set off quickly for the eastern end of the vale. Fortunately, they discovered it wasn't far. Just as the last rays of light were disappearing behind the western peaks, they came to a another cave, this one opening almost immediately into a large room, the floors and walls constructed of sandstone and perfectly smooth.

Link walked inside slowly, sword drawn, the others just behind him. "This definitely isn't natural," he said, "No sandstone around here."

The room was about ten feet wide and twelve long, with a heavy stone door at the far end. The door was rather plain, but for the large design of a canine paw print carved into its surface. Just below the heel, a circle with two small holes was visible.

"This has to be the entrance to the temple," Sheila said, "Are you sure you want to go in tonight?"

"I'm not going to get any sleep in this place," Link said, "Are you?"

After a chorus of noes, Link nodded, "All right then. Let's just get it over with."

"How do we get it open?" Midna said, eyeing the door."

Link knelt down to examine the circular cut with the pair of holes. He chuckled and pulled the key from his belt. "Here's how," he said, inserting it into the holes and giving it a twist.

With a shower of dust from around its edges, the door moved upwards with the sound of stone grinding on stone. It took several minutes to open itself completely. Inside was a dim, short hallway, and visible a short distance in was a room with a pale green glow visible from either side around the corners.

"Ready, girls?" Link asked as he drew his sword, then stepped into the hallway, "Let's see what's down here."


	24. Chapter 23

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 23: The Wolf's Den**

Link edged his way forward in the dark hallway, his blade before him, ready if any more of the undead monsters they had seen should appear. The passage widened just ahead, and an unsteady, flickering green glow was visible around either corner, and a raised pedestal stood in view just past the opening.

Link gestured for the girls to stop, and leaned slowly out of the hall into the room, quickly checking in all directions. "Huh . . . What do you know," he muttered, "Green torches."

About eight feet in either direction of the passage, the walls were lined with small braziers mounted just above head level and each burned with flickering green flames about six inches over their edges. The pale green light they cast over the rest of the room gave it an eerie feeling as Link stepped out.

A stone pedestal about waist high was set into the floor about four feet past the door, an open book laying atop it. There were passages leading away from the room on both the left and right walls, and at the fair end, at the top of a short row of six stairs was another massive stone door, decorated with the engraving of the wolf's paw print.

The center of the room was dominated by a massive pool of some unknown liquid, eight feet across, the green light seeming to make it glow in the dark. "I think we're safe for the moment," Link said over his shoulder, "Come on up."

The three entered the room behind him as he slid the Master Sword home in its scabbard. "Fire's still burning," Sheila said as they entered and sighted the torches.

"That means that _something_ is down here, keeping them lit," Link said, moving closer to the book on the pedestal to get a better look.

Zelda had her bow in her hands, an arrow knocked and ready. Swords and Midna's shadow magic might not work against the walking corpses, but an Arrow of Light would likely do the trick. "Link, look," Midna said, drawing his attention away from the book.

He looked into the pool of liquid where she indicated. Rising up through the gooey liquid was a skeletal hand, rising just a few inches above the surface. The thick ooze clung between its boney fingers like tar. Looking closer, Link could see several more, either fingers or feet, and in one location a human skull was visible, its empty eye sockets filled with the ooze, giving the image of a person's eyes being squeezed from their sockets as a thick, bloody ooze.

"Oh, gods," Sheila said, covering her mouth with one hand as she looked at the pool, fighting down her rebellious stomach.

"You okay, Sheila?" Link asked without turning toward her.

"Give me a minute," she said, then took a moment to store her previously eaten lunch in the corner of the room.

"You must all have stomachs of steel," she said somewhat shakily as she moved back toward them.

Link turned a page of the book. "Some people just handle things better than others," Link said, "And no matter what, you go through what we have, and you get used to seeing certain things. You didn't have much trouble with the blood when I was butchering that cow the other day."

"Blood is one thing," Sheila said, "But this . . . "

"I know," Link said, "Besides, I've got something worse right here. This book . . . The pages are made from human skin."

"Oh, gods . . . "

The pages were made from human skin indeed, which even seemed to have been properly dried and stretched like an animal pelt before being cut to fit. "I can't read this language," Link said, "But I'm pretty sure it's written in blood."

Sheila swallowed heavily when she saw the pages. "That's an old dialect of our modern language," she said, her voice shaking, "It's like a steppingstone between the ancient tongue and our own."

"Can you read it?" Midna asked.

Sheila swallowed again, and nodded, stepping closer to better see the text in the dim light. She examined the open page for a moment, then turned to the next. "It seems to be the holy scripture of Tempos, though I can't see how a follower of that faith would create something like this. Along with the glory of battle and preaching of bravery, they emphasize a very important respect for the dead," she turned another page, "And the passages regarding such a respect seem to be missing from this, along with the passages praising mercy for surrendering enemies."

"So this," Link said, pointing to the pool of thick liquid filled with skeletal fragments, "is likely the result of someone following an incomplete version of the faith?"

"Or is this perhaps the original faith we're dealing with?" Zelda asked, "This temple dates back beyond most accurate records, correct? What if the worship of Tempos has changed in that time?"

"That's a definite possibility," Sheila said, "But I can't imagine it would have changed so drastically. IF this was a burial ground for followers of Tempos . . . "

Link had moved to the passage on the left. Glancing down it, he saw it only went a short distance away, then turned around a corner going further in. "Let's leave theology for later, shall we?" he said, moving around the pool of ooze to the massive stone door at the far end, "I imagine this is the way to go."

As the others circled around the pool to join him, he leaned close to the door, seeking a mechanism. Beneath the bottom edge of the massive wolf print, he found two locking mechanisms. The key he had would not fit either of them. "And if I know dungeons," he muttered as he stood back up, "there will be one key down each of the passages here, and both will be trapped and guarded."

He started toward the passage to the left of the way they entered, gesturing to the girls to follow, "Unless you want to wait for me here."

The passage turned to the right only a short ways in, and about ten feet later opened into another large room. A single brazier hung from the ceiling, a spider web of iron chains beneath it and tacked to the wall to keep it aloft. The room was a dead end, and circular, with seven foot sarcophagi lined upright around the walls. There had to be at least twenty of them. In the center of the room, shining in the green light of the brazier, was the key on a small dais, in plain sight.

"Could someone make a more obvious trap?" Midna said, leaning on Link's shoulder.

"I suppose someone could paint a trap door bright green with red letters on it that read 'Step here for a spiked pit,'" Link said with a chuckle.

"So how do we get the key, then?" Sheila asked.

"The obvious way would be to swap it for something of equal weight," Zelda said, "I imagine it's sitting on a pressure plate."

"What about the other key?" Sheila suggested.

"Might need it again further down," Link said, "I don't think I have anything else that would be the proper weight. Of course, there's always one other solution. Set it off, and since we know it's a trap, and what's likely to happen," he gestured to the sarcophagi around the room, "we can be prepared for it."

"And then we smash 'em up," Midna said, "Easy plan to remember."

"Any objections?" Link asked, glancing at them, "All right then. You three wait here, just outside the room. This won't take long."

Link drew his sword, and marched swiftly to the dais at the center of the room, keeping his eyes on the coffins. He leaned down and snatched the key with his free hand, and with a rumble, the lids of the sarcophagi opened. Link raised his sword to fight off the explosions of dust that fell from the open sarcophagi and piled on the floor.

Link looked around him. There was nothing but white dust left from original dead bodies as their bones crumbled to pieces. "You've got to be kidding me," Link said, shaking his head as he glanced from one pile of dust to the other.

Midna laughed out loud. "I guess it didn't hold up!" she said, "Even bodies only last so long, I guess."

"That doesn't make sense, though," Sheila said, "The undead we encountered earlier would have to be just as old, if not older than these would be, and yet they were remarkably well preserved."

"Damn," Link said suddenly, "That's because this wasn't the trap. Run, now!"

No sooner had he said this than the floor suddenly gave way beneath him. Link leaped off the falling stones amidst the screams of the others over the crashing of the collapse. He was flying through the air toward the hallway, and sudden despair as they started moving higher and higher in his vision, then his fingers caught stone, the key skittering from his grasp across the stone. He had a grip on the edge with his right hand, the Master Sword still occupying his left. Zelda and Sheila were moving, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him up.

Link quickly slid the Master Sword into the scabbard and got his left hand on the stone to help them pull him up. A moment later, he was safely back in the stone hall with them. They took a moment to catch their breath before anything else.

"That was different," Midna said at last, "A decoy to get you off guard, followed by the real trap."

Link leaned over to see over the edge of the new pit. Sure enough, there were sharpened metal spikes at the bottom, though they were also quite rusty by now. He shook his head and picked up the key, thankful he had been able to toss it into the passage instead of dropping it down the pit. "This is only going to get worse as we get further in," he said, "I don't think we'll need to be on guard for any more of this kind of traps, however. If it failed once, I doubt anyone would imagine it would work again."

"But if there's not an immediate reaction to something, we should move anyway," Zelda said, "Just to be safe."

"Exactly," Link said, "Now, let's go. It's probably a long way down, so let's stop sitting around."

They made their way back to the entrance hall, skirted around the pool to the stone door. Link inserted the key into one of the locks and gave it a turn. There was no click or reaction. "Must take both at once," he said, pocketing the key.

They moved to the other passage, which ran straight for a distance, then turned left toward another room. This one was different, opening considerably wider than the last, and in each wall on the side, and at the far end, sarcophagi were set into proper alcoves in the walls, lying flat in their niches. But there had to be at least sixty of them all together, and the thought of that many undead creeping to life at once chilled Link's bones.

In the center of the room was one massive sarcophagus, set directly into the floor, its lid decorated with the familiar wolf print. Four braziers, burning with the green flame, were spaced around it in a square.

Keeping their eyes on the wall niches, the four moved toward the center sarcophagus. "This is another obvious one," Link said as they walked, "But I'm starting to wonder why there haven't been more undead already. It would have been better to find some kind of physical resistance."

"You think someone's watching us," Midna said, "Getting ready for an ambush, maybe."

"Exactly," Link said, "There's an active presence here, that we already know."

He examined the sarcophagus, finding a small niche on one side, intended to be used to lift the heavy lid. Link drew his knife and ran the tip of the blade along the crack between the lid and side inside the niche. "What is he doing?" Sheila whispered.

"Checking for a trap, I'm sure," Zelda said.

"Ah ha!" Link said triumphantly, removing his knife and reaching two fingers into the niche, then holding up a thin sliver that glinted in the torchlight, "One poisoned needle, set off when one attempts to lift the lid."

Link tossed it into the far corner of the room, then put away his knife and gripped the lid with both hands and gave a heave. The lid toppled onto the floor with a resounding crash. Laying in the open sarcophagus was a dried corpse, its arms crossed across its chest, the handle of a key sticking out just past its grip.

"Whoever determined this layout must have been confident in their traps," Link said, gently pulling the key free, "This is certainly a pathetic job of hiding the keys."

"Something's wrong with that body," Sheila said, fighting to keep her stomach from rebelling once more.

"What do you mean?" Midna asked, "Looks dead to me."

"But think of the others that had crumbled to dust," Sheila said, "All these must have been here thousands upon thousands of years, and those had likely decayed naturally. This one still looks . . . "

"Juicy?" Link finished when she hesitated.

"Now that you mention it, though," Zelda said, "The ones that attacked us in the other crypt seemed to be remarkably well preserved, right?"

"Looks to me like this boy has had too much sun," Midna said, "His meat's all here, but he's dried out."

"Seemed to me like that skeleton in the other crypt was rather fragile," Link said, "Maybe something was done to these bodies to make better, long-lasting zombies?"

"Can we please put the lid back on before it decides to get up or something?" Sheila asked, turning away from the body.

Link shrugged and heaved the heavy lid back on top of the sarcophagus, settling it into place. "Wouldn't really do any good if he did decide to get up," he said as he worked, "Zombies are slow and stupid, but getting punched by one is like getting kissed by a battering ram. I should know. They're ungodly strong, and the ones we've seen here seem unusually tough, too. Usually severing the head will kill them, yet that one just kept coming, remember?"

"In any case, that lid would be no trouble for it," Midna summarized.

"Can we get on with this?" Sheila asked, gesturing to the passage back, "I'm already missing fresh air."

They returned to the entrance hall, this time Link inserted both keys they found in the locks and gave them a simultaneous twist. With a rumble, dust shot from the top and edges of the door, and the massive stone began to slide to the right with a grating rumble. Link pocketed both keys, then dusted off the shoulders of his tunic, his hair, and shook out his hat as they waited.

When the door was about halfway open, Link gestured for them to follow him as he drew his sword and stepped through the gap. It was directly into another open room, this one about eight feet across and deep, two large braziers with the green flames set on either side, and visible stairs leading down at the far side. The symbol of the wolf's paw print seemed was directly in the floor, and was made with obsidian fit directly into the brown stone used in the floor itself. The symbol itself was six feet long and five feet wide, covering most of the floor.

"Sheila," Link asked over the grating of the door, still moving, "Are you absolutely positive that is not Tempos' symbol?"

"Yes," she said, "His symbol has not changed since olden times. This is not a symbol I recognize."

The rumbling of the door ceased as the massive stone finally completed its movement. Link suddenly gestured for the girls to be silent, then moved slowly toward the stairs at the far end of the room. A moment later, what he heard was audible to them as well. A distant echoing, like the sound of bones being rattled together. And it was getting closer.

Just a moment later, the source of the sound emerged up the stairs. A bleached white skeleton, about a head shorter than Link, appeared, scraps of cloth dangling from its shoulders and through its ribs. It wore a circlet about its head, the black paw print seated upon it at its forehead. It stopped just past the stairs and clearly looked from one of them to the next.

"You've come well to come this far," it said, its voice whispering and jaw clacking, "But this place is not meant for the living. You must turn back now, or forfeit your lives."

A pair of skeletons appeared up the stairs behind it, both wearing rusted scraps of armor and carrying battle axes.

"That voice," Link said, "You're the same one who spoke to us through that other skeleton earlier, aren't you?"

"Indeed," the skeleton said, spreading its hands, "Now you see me as I truly am. I am a Bone Dancer, bound to protect this tomb and the vale outside from the living. You may not disturb it further. Leave now."

"What is your name?" Link asked.

That evidently caught the skeletal being off guard. "My name? Well . . . It's been so long since . . . My name is Myrikul. Yes, I believe that was my name . . . "

"My name is Link," Link said, "You seem fairly reasonable, Myrikul. Now that we're introduced, may we speak on even terms for a moment?"

"You do not look the type to be a diplomat," Myrikul said.

"I am not," Link said, "I am a warrior to my core. But I have a respect for life, and even your kind, provided you don't attack me first. Sometimes words work better than a sword for getting my point across."

Myrikul tapped a bony finger against his jaw, the clacking echoing in the small room. "Speak, then, living. My master grants permission to listen to you, though I promise nothing."

_Oh, crap, this isn't the guy in charge here anyway,_ Link thought.

"We've come here seeking a fragment of a spell needed to save our homeland," Link said, "I don't understand how it works, but it has ended up being absorbed by the altar to Tempos within this temple. That is the reason we have come. If you will allow us to retrieve the spell, we will leave peacefully."

"I'm afraid that is not permissible," Myrikul said, "The altar of which you speak lies in the lowest level. It cannot be moved, and I dare allow you no further in. For seven thousand years, this place has not been meant for the living, and for seven thousand years, no living has set foot within this tomb, until you. The last one did not make it past the entrance, though she did find the key. The one you now carry."

_The key I found at the abandoned campsite,_ Link thought.

"Return the keys you have," Myrikul said, "and leave. That is the only way you will escape with your lives."

"Our home is in peril," Link said, "No one will survive if we do not get to that altar. You would condemn millions of innocent people to death? Or are you hiding something down here? This is supposed to be a temple dedicated to Tempos, the god of battle, yet everywhere I look it seems to be a crypt."

"Do not create evils where they do not exist merely to justify yourself!" Myrikul said, "Your people have my sympathy, but my duty cannot be denied."

"Neither can mine," Link said.

"Then this outcome was inevitable before we even began to speak," Myrikul said, snapping his fingers, causing the two armored skeletons to move toward them, "Ready yourselves and show no mercy, for you shall receive none."

"Everyone take note, please," Link said, "I _did_ try to be reasonable."

"Link, we've got a bigger problem back here!" Midna said.

Link looked over his shoulder. The entrance to the room was filled with the staggering monstrosities that no doubt had previously been residents of the caskets in the other room. They all seemed to be the dried flesh beasts that they had encountered in the previous crypt.

"The undead on this level obey me, Link," Myrikul said, "There are too many for your sorceress' magic to save you this time. You should have left when you had the chance."

"Well then, you're the one I have to kill, Myrikul," Link said, leaping forward.

The two skeletons hefted their battle axes, raising them to strike him down. Link spun sideways, catching the spine of one of the skeletons with the Master sword, sending it crashing to the floor with an explosion of ribs. Sheila's voice was echoing around them, but Link wasn't paying attention to the words. The second skeleton's axe crashed into the floor where Link had been standing, sending chips of the obsidian paw print flying into the air. With a backhand swing, Link cleaved its spine in two, sending it to a similar fate as the first. Even then, he saw the bones of the first scraping across the floor, trying to pull themselves together.

Link glanced back to see Sheila blocking the passage into the room with the same shield she had used to protect them earlier. The walking corpses pounded their fists on it, sending ripples through the surface of the transparent blue sphere. Sheila's arms were shaking with each impact, and beads of sweat were already poring down her forehead. Midna had wound up trapped inside the sphere with her, but Zelda was in the chamber with him, her bow leveled toward Myrikul, a golden tipped Arrow of Light nocked on the string.

_Got to hurry!_ Link thought, running at Myrikul.

The arrow loosed, like a streak of gold lightning through the air. Myrikul literally flew to pieces before Link's eyes, his ribs spreading, arms moving outward, and his head and shoulders going upward. The bolt of light flew through the new opening in his skeletal body to strike the roof over the stairs behind him, chunks of rock flying out from the impact, a large chunk falling down the stairs with a loud crash.

Myrikul's bones reshaped into their former positions. Link was at him, swinging his blade downward. Before his eyes, the bones once again disjointed, spreading apart to allow passage for the blade completely through him without even touching him. The Master Sword chipped into the stone floor between Myrikul's legs. Link lifted it, swinging upward, Myricul's femur detaching from his pelvis to allow the blade passage. Link immediatly swung again, aiming for the spine like the past skeleton, but the vertebrea parted in an instant, and he hit nothing but air. The next thing Link saw was a bony palm heading straight for his face which struck him directly in the chin, sending him sprawling on the floor.

He landed with his head nearly on Zelda's feet, who was nocking another arrow and leveled her bow at Myrikul, drawing back the string. "Now, living," Myrikul said, "Understand the true power of a Bone Dancer!"

Myrikul went to pieces. His skeletal body shattered into individual bones and fragments, and began to spin about, growing faster and faster, until he had the very image of a skull on top a tornado. Link realized that those bones were spinning about at such a rate that they would tear someone to pieces.

"Link!" Midna shouted, "Sheila can't hold out much longer!"

Looking over, Link saw that Sheila was on her knees, one hand still held up to maintain the barrier, but she was shaking badly as the corpses continued to pound on the barrier. She was about to collapse entirely.

Link could feel the wind off the spinning bones as Myrikul drew closer. "Zelda! Aim up!" he said.

She raised her aim and loosed the arrow, transforming it into a streak of gold electricity upon release. It arced through the air, almost in slow motion as Link watched. The streak struck Myrikul's skull, the gold electricity wrapping around it and white light poured out his eye sockets. A shriek of pain filled the room, and then Myrikul really went to pieces. The spinning whirlwind of bone exploded, and the bones flew in every direction, too fast for the eye to follow, and stone chips were flying through the air.

Then it grew quiet. Link looked about and saw that Myrikul's bones had literally imbedded themselves in the stone walls and the floor. One rib stuck from the stone only six inches from Link's head. He quickly got to his feet. Zelda wasn't hurt. Sheila was on the floor, breathing and sweating heavily, Midna checking out in the entrance hall. Link could see from where he was that the corpses had collapsed where they stood.

"Thank gods no one was hurt," he said.

Myrikul's skull lay in the center of the room where it had fallen. The top half of the skull was blown open, revealing the empty insides.

Link moved to Sheila, kneeling down next to her. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She managed a nod. Link patted her shoulder. "Okay. We're not going any further until you're ready. Even if it means we do have to spend the night in this wretched vale."

"Where, then?" Midna asked, "Back to that empty crypt?"

"I'd rather not have my back to a wall like that," Link said, "We'll stay right here."

Sheila turned to look up at him, her face show incredulity. "You can't be serious!" she panted.

"No, it makes sense," Zelda said, "Myrikul said he was in charge of this level of the tomb. With him gone, it should be fairly safe. And we'll have a watch, naturally, to make sure nothing tries to sneak up on us."

Sheila turned to the corpses lined up in the entrance hall around the pool of ooze.

"There is no way I'm going to be able to sleep here," she said.

"Don't worry," Link said, "I'll do something about those."


	25. Chapter 24

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 24: Link's Dark Side**

In spite of her claim, Sheila did sleep that night. She woke some time later to see that Zelda was also asleep, and Midna was sitting across the room from them, her back against the wall.

"What time is it?" Sheila asked.

"About two hours past midnight," Midna said, "You feeling better?"

"A lot," Sheila said, sitting up, "Where's Link?"

Midna gestured toward the entrance. "Just outside. Said he wanted some fresh air, and I imagine he needed the bushes as well, provided he can find some."

Sheila glanced up the tunnel and saw that Link had been true to his word. The bodies were gone from view, though she thought she could make out a few extra, fleshy limbs sticking up from the goo in the pool in the next room.

"I think it's time someone gave me an explanation," she said, "How exactly did Link turn into a wolf? That's not something I studied back at the acadamy."

Midna sighed. "If you insist, there were some bits we left out when we told you about the previous events that engulfed our kingdoms. We told you that Link was protected from becoming a spirit when he entered the twilight by his Triforce. What we didn't tell you was that when he did, his body transformed into a form reflecting his inner spirit."

Midna produced the small gem she carried at all times, that allowed her to transform Link. "At first, he had no control over the transformation. When he entered the twilight, he would change, and he had to visit one of the spirits of light in Hyrule to return to normal. Then, when we encountered Zant, he cursed Link. This gem was buried in Link's flesh, and nothing could return him to his human form."

Midna's gaze drifted to the roof of the room, and she sighed deeply. "That was when Zant also cast me into this world for the first time. Before, I had used Link's shadow like a safety line. Twili cannot survive in the light, and I had existed half in and half out of the shadows to survive before. Link was trapped in his wolfen form and I was rapidly dying. I bid him run as fast as he could for the castle, to Zelda," she glanced at the princess' sleeping form, "I had only hoped to get there in time to tell her what was happening, so that she could help him, before my life was extinguished.

"What Zelda did when we arrived, I still don't understand exactly. She gave me her heart. She saved my life and at the same time, allowed me to become tolerant to the light of this world, but not before telling us of the Master Sword, the weapon that would be able to break the curse upon Link."

Sheila was hanging on every word, glancing at Zelda where she lay. "I hated her for it," Midna said, "I hated her for a good long time. After I helped Link find the sword, and the curse was broken, the gem reappeared. We kept it, because with its power, I could transform Link to either shape whenever he wished. It worked out in the end, and I finally got my revenge on Zant. We even managed to restore Zelda's heart to her body, saving her life.

"I've come to love this world," Midna said with a smile, "I love it and the people here. I love the stars in particular. They are something you'd never see in the Twilight Realm. In a way, I've come to dread when we finally do find a way to lift my curse, because it would mean that I have to return home, and never come back here again."

"I don't see it that way," Sheila said, "What's to stop you from returning? You can exist in the light, now, so you can come back any time you wish."

"And suppose Ganon himself or some other uses one of my people again, like he did Zant?" Midna asked, "It would be best to cut off the worlds entirely, I believe, and destroy the Twilight Mirror."

"And what would that accomplish?" Sheila ventured, "Zant's attack on Hyrule began before the Twilight Mirror was put back together, yes? He could not have opened it from that side, even had it been in one piece. Destroying the mirror would accomplish nothing but prevent you from returning. Or is that what you intend anyway?"

Midna looked at her, but did not speak.

"You care for Link, don't you?" Sheila asked.

Midna stared at her for a long moment before finally turning away and saying, "So much it hurts."

"And you are afraid of him knowing your feelings," Sheila said, "at least to some extent, because you are afraid that when you are returned to your true form, you will be forced to separate."

"I don't belong in this world anyway," Midna said, "It's not like it matters in the end."

"Don't be so sure about that," Sheila said, "Your people came to Hyrule from the west, and while it took them some time to build up their power, they intended to conquer Hyrule and possibly the world through the power of their magic, correct?"

Midna suddenly grasped what she was implying. "The tapestry with the fleeing wizards going to sea... Do you mean they could be my people's ancestors?"

"Not to make guarantees," Sheila said, "But it is a very real possibility. And that would mean that your people, the Twili, and the human race of this world, were originally one and the same."

"I was fairly sure about that already," Midna said, "But you must understand that most of my people barely resemble humans. And you realize," she put one hand on her chest, "this is not the real me. I probably resemble a human more than any other member of my race, but that does not make it so. And as a princess, I have a duty to my people first. Love is not a necessity for royalty. All that matters is blood and competence. If you're as highly ranked as you claim, you should understand this."

Sheila smiled slightly, and shook her head. "High Elder is an elected position, though it lasts a lifetime. Without it, I would have no true rank. My father is a judge, you see, and as such holds no real position in any kingdom, yet is respected in all."

"And your mother?"

"My mother," Sheila hesitated, deliberating over the best choice of words, "My mother died when I was very young. Before that, she was a seamstress. My father never told me of his parents, but he was chosen as a judge at a very young age, and I don't know just where our family was before then."

"I thought you said elves were the ruling class of Mystara," Mida said, "Where are all the others, then?"

"Few and far between," Sheila said, "In truth, we are a dying race. Our longevity makes us complacent, and I see it even in my father. A thousand years to live is the potential to father a great many children, yet he has no desire for more than me. And with my mother dead, that means that one new life in place of two aging. We've been depopulated due to lack of ambition and little desire for change."

"You don't seem so complacent to me," Midna said, "You leaped at the chance to help us, and even put that archmage in his place to do so."

Sheila chuckled. "I do have a bit more ambition than most elves. I achieved the highest marks for destructive magic the academy had seen in millennia, and received considerable praise for my level of concentration. I can maintain a defensive spell as I speak to someone, for example, dividing my attention. I cannot afford to be interrupted during the casting, though.

"To be perfectly honest," she said, lowering her voice and leaning forward slightly, "If or rather when we come across this Ganondorf fellow, I kind of want to test myself against him."

Midna smile, then chuckled and nodded. "You're an idiot," she said.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Sheila asked, her smile vanishing.

"Listen," Midna said, her tone dark and her face grim, "I am a wielder of Shadow Magic, as you know. I possess the same power my ancestors possessed, and you have not seen what I am truly capable of. I killed Zant with but a thought and a fraction of my power. And at my full strength, I was no match for Ganondorf. He is more powerful than you can imagine, and it was only quick thinking on my part combined with a lot of luck that saved my life. Ganon is a villain and would not hesitate to kill you."

"I find it hard to believe that anyone can be so utterly evil as you claim," Sheila said, "Everyone has to have some good in them. It's part of the balance that makes up the world itself."

"You want to know just what this man is capable of?" Midna asked, "Sit an listen, then, and I will tell you exactly what he is capable of."

* * *

_One year ago, in the throne room of Hyrule Castle..._

"Then know that it shall never come to be!" boomed a massive voice within the hall. Link felt as though his eardrums were about to burst.

The three turned, and in the very air before them, fire burst into life. Flames floating on nothing grew, swirling in a mesmerizing spiral, finally coalescing into a fifteen foot image of a face. The face of Ganondorf.

Link's sword was in his hand in a flash. "Dammit," he said, "What does it take to make you stay down?"

The great mouth moved, laughter echoing through the hall. "You truly do not know what you are up against, do you?" the face said, laughing again, "Yes, you do not even know what that in your hand truly is, or what it stands for! You've just stumbled forward blindly, believing you were the chosen of some deity and their blessing gave you the power needed to smite evil from this world!"

Ganondorf's voice was practically dripping with sarcasm, "And now here you stand. Evil is before you. No one can come to help you now. What are you going to do?"

"Well, for starters," Link said, gripping the Master Sword tight enough to turn his knuckles white, "I'm going to kill the windy jerk, then I'm going to go take a nap."

_No,_ Midna thought, terror gripping her heart, _This has gone too far. He's too strong for you, Link! He'll kill you!_

The three Fused Shadows in her possession appeared as she summoned her power. _I know what I have to do now. I won't allow anyone else to die. I won't allow it!_

Link saw it coming. He knew why she had summoned the Fused Shadows. Realizing instantly what Midna planned to do, he leaped for her. Screaming for her to stop, he tried to reach her, tried to disrupt her concentration, so that the spell would fail. He was only a few feet away. He should have reached her.

His feet had left the floor. He was flying through the air. Everything seemed to be moving in slow-motion. He saw her turn to him. He saw her smile. A sad, lonely smile that made Link feel as though his heart would tear itself from his chest in sorrow. Then his body broke apart.

His arms shattered into small black squares, spiraling upward into the air. His shoulders and chest were the next to go, then he was blinded as his head shattered into pieces.

Midna turned to face the massive head of Ganon. She felt a single tear roll down her cheek. "Goodbye, Link," she whispered, "I love you."

The three pieces of the Fused Shadow slammed into her, forming into the gigantic mask with the fourth part, her own mask, the great energy of the near unstoppable power of her ancestors flowing into her. Her body screamed in agony as her flesh dissolved into pure energy and began to expand. Her great spider-like limbs spread and grew in size, nearly filling the massive chamber.

With a scream of hatred, she descended on the specter head of Ganondorf, seeing through the illusion, and aiming for its heart, the villainous man standing shortly behind it. Her massive limbs slammed into him as he made no more to dodge, and carried him through the floor, stone and dust falling around them as they feel down, through the next floor, level after level before landing with a shocking impact on the ground floor.

Ganondorf was loose from her grasp, and running up the length of one of her massive arms, blood trickling from a dozen cuts on his face and arms from the flying stone chips, yet the wounds closing even as she watched. He was healing at an impossible rate. Raising one massive fist, she struck him from the side, sending him flying through the air and crashing into the stone wall with bone-crushing force, fragments of stone falling around him. A second later, he dislodged from the point of impact, falling toward the floor. Even as he fell, his voice became audible, echoing all around them, accompanied by a golden glow filling his eyes.

"_You who are mindless, come forth from the planes of Abbadon,_" he intoned, his cape billowing behind him and red flames swirling all about his body, "_Let the fires of Gehenna burn everything to ash!_"

Midna lashed out with one massive arm, planning to knock him into the wall once more. "_Exodus!_" Ganon finished with a scream, and before his feet touched the floor was flying back toward her, the flames around him igniting in a massive red flame, turning him into a flying streak of human fire. Midna tried to raise her arms, but her size slowed her, and he was moving at incredible speed, striking into her body just below the Fused Shadow mask, and with blinding pain was burning through her body and then streaking out her backside. The fiery pain blinded her, and she was aware of falling, but the impact of the floor came at only as only a dull thump.

She felt the cold stone beneath her, and realized that she had reverted. The four pieces of the Fused Shadow lay in pieces around her. Her head felt too light without her mask and dizziness washed over her as she pushed herself up.

A massive metal booted foot slammed into the floor in front of her. She looked up to see Ganon, still holding the sheathed sword in one hand, smile down at her. "What's the matter? Giving up already?" he mocked her.

"I still have one trick left," Midna said, summoning the power from deep within herself, "You will never touch Link again."

A dim purple glow grew around the edges of the pieces of the Fused Shadow, and around Midna herself. It then began to glow brighter as sparks of black lightning danced from one piece to another, and across the stone floor.

"Oh, so that's it!" Ganondorf said, "You intend to kill us both! Well, let me tell you something about this mighty power your ancestors have passed on to you."

He knelt down on one knee, resting his free hand on his upright knee as he leaned down close to her. "Your ancestors were servants to a power much mightier than their own. That power was destroyed by a single man, and your kind fled like cowards. I do not yet have the power that man wielded, but I am well on my way, and once I take the Triforce of Courage from Link's fresh corpse, I will surpass him. You are already but a speck to me."

The glow was growing brighter by the second, and the sparks of lightning larger. "Shut up and die," Midna growled.

Ganondorf rose to his feet. "Allow me to demonstrate," he said, the air around him suddenly growing heavy, his cape billowing out behind him, and the gold glow reappearing in his eyes.

The sheer weight of the air pressing down on Midna made it hard to breath, and the glow around her flickered. She had to maintain her concentration.

"_Ist talon ba nu meel,_" Ganondorf intoned, the words echoing and each one seeming to slam into Midna with convulsive force, "_Spirits of Earth and Air, I beseech thee to honor thy blood pact of old and fulfill thy duty to me!_"

Ganondorf was raising his arms to his sides as he spoke, and chips of stone were being ripped from the floor and flying about him faster and faster, leaving him standing in a crater in the stone floor. He turned his gaze down to Midna, the golden glow in his eyes over his scowl giving him the image one would expect from a demon. "Behold, Twilight Princess," he whispered through his teeth, "This is true power."

Midna's concentration collapsed, the glow and sparks dying. Then Ganondorf said that fatal word. "_Megadesh!_" he shouted, a shockwave of force flying out from him, the floor flying into the air in fragments and the walls themselves being ripped outward, the roof flying upward, and a white, blinding light everywhere.

Midna's self-preservation instincts took hold, and she grabbed for the nearest Twilight Portal with her mind, a short distance from the entrance of the castle town. Her body shattered into small black blocks and was away from the castle, leaving behind Ganon, and the Fused Shadow, that had been the one hope she had to stop him, and the thought beating upon her mind was that she had failed utterly, and Link was going to die.

* * *

_Present Day..._

"But Link did beat him, of course," Sheila said when Midna fell silent.

"Yes," Midna said softly, "Link thought I was dead and his hatred of Ganondorf gave him the strength to defeat him."

"It wasn't hatred," Sheila said, "Link values your friendship, Midna, even if he doesn't return your feelings for him. Mankind thrives on two primary feelings. These feelings are hope, which can give a man the strength to fight even in the bleakest situation, and pain, which can push a man far past his normal limits. It was pain Link felt at losing you that gave him the strength to prevail."

Midna gave her a dark glare. "You listen to me. I know Link much better than you. Link's pain is kept far from the surface. He doesn't allow it to show. Do you realize how much agony he is in over what has happened to the people of Hyrule? For one moment and one moment only, he allowed that pain to surface, the very night the event occurred. Haven't you wondered why he seems so easygoing, so free-spirited?"

Midna was on her feet without waiting for an answer. "Link has two sides to his personality. The only side you have truly seen is his kind, easy-going side. Within him is a darker side. A side that truly hates his foes, that will show no mercy to anyone who gets in his way, and will kill without hesitation. When that side of Link comes to the surface, he has all the appearance of something out of a nightmare. I wouldn't put it past him to be able to slaughter an entire village of people without batting an eye if they stood in his way. He becomes wild and uncontrollable..."

"Like a wolf?" Sheila interjected.

Midna paused to take a breath, then sighed. "Yes. Like a wolf. There was one time, a ways back, when one of the children of Ordon that we had found, Colin, was snatched from very streets by one of the creatures serving Ganondorf. Link gave chase into a neighboring area of the plains of Hyrule, where there was a war-party of nearly thirty of them.

"Link killed them all," Midna said, "and then threw their leader off the great Hyrule bridge. Everywhere you looked, there was nothing but blood. Link hadn't even bothered with clean kills. Most of them were bleeding to death in agony, unable to get onto their feet or tend to each other. Link put Colin on his horse and went back toward Kakariko. He stopped on moment to look back at the dying creatures, and then moved on. No mercy, no pity. That is Link's darker side."

"But he saved the boy," Sheila said softly, her voice barely audible, "That alone shows he does not become a mad beast. I do not believe he would ever harm you, either, Midna. Or Zelda. If I got in his way like that, I may not be so lucky."

Silence fell over them, and they both sat, watching the silent green flames in the braziers. "Please," Midna said after several minutes, "Don't tell him how I feel. Or about this conversation."

"I won't," Sheila said, "Promise. But you have to tell him how you feel sooner or later, before it truly is too late for you."

"I'll think about it," Midna said.

Midna lay back on the stone floor, staring up at the empty blackness that was the ceiling. "Change of subject," she said, "But do you have someone you care for, waiting somewhere?"

"No," Sheila said with a smile, "I haven't met the right guy yet, I guess. Though there was this one boy I knew back at the academy..."

"Oh, do tell," Midna said, rolling onto her side to see Sheila, who had leaned back against the wall, her hands wrapped around her knees.

"It was a long time ago," Sheila said, "I was young and didn't have a bit of sense in my head. He was a typical jock, I guess, though he was training to be a wizard. He was in incredible shape, rock hard muscles everywhere. Gods, you could iron a shirt on his stomach! And hung like a horse, too, gods I remember the time we went for a walk outside the city. I packed a picnic lunch, though it didn't get eaten, mainly because when we reached a small secluded area, my dress got tangled in the stirrups and I nearly fell off my horse. He caught me, but in the event he got a big face full of..."

She trailed off when she saw Link standing in the entrance to the chamber.

With a complete, no-nonsense, straight face, he said, "I love you."

Sheila felt her face growing hot. A smile spread across Link's face and he collapsed to his knees, holding his sides and shaking with near-silent laughter. Midna started chuckling and lay her head back, putting one hand over her mouth to try to stay quiet and not wake Zelda. "Are you really so sure that was an accident?" Link managed to ask, "Your dress just happens to get tangled in a stirrup, and you 'accidently' make a sandwich out of his face with those," he made no secret of where his eyes were going, "rather generous slices of bread?"

"Oh, come on," Sheila said, her face growing hotter as she crossed her arms over her chest, "They're not that big."

"They're not that small either," Link said, his grin reaching nearly to his ears, "I suppose that's an easy way to let a guy know you're interested, huh?"

"Are you trying to suggest something, Link?" Sheila shot back, "That you're interested?"

"Oh, well that depends," Link said, feigning deep thought, "Is mister muscles about to jump out of the shadows and beat me down?"

Sheila chuckled. "He's dead, Link. This was about two hundred fifty years ago. I was about fifty years old, still quite young for an elf, and he was human. Now, are you suggesting or not?"

Link shrugged. "I was just having some fun with you. You feeling better?"

"Well, I was," she replied, "Right up until the evil man here started toying with my emotions."

And then she sneezed. "Damn," she muttered as she wiped her nose on the back of her hand, "I think I'm catching something."

Link kneeled down next to her, putting the back of his hand against her forehead. "No fever yet," he said, "Need to get you down to somewhere warmer before this gets bad."

"I'm sorry," she said, "Of course I'd be the one to get sick."

"Don't worry about it," Link said, "Getting out of these mountains will be easier than getting in, unless there's another blizzard. Cross your fingers. We'll get you a warm bed at the first inn we see, and I know a great recipe for a soup that'll knock a cold right out of you."

Midna 'pfft'ed. "If you can find all the ingredients."

Link glanced at her over his shoulder. "Oh, the pumpkin and the goat cheese will be easy. It's finding the right kind of fish I'm worried about. I don't think those smelly things can be found anywhere outside Zora's Domain. Maybe we can find a substitute."

"Hey, Link," Midna said, pointing past him.

"What?" he asked, turning back to see Sheila looking a bit green around the gills, "Oh, don't do that. It's actually really good."

Sheila took a deep breath, shaking the thoughts of the bizarre stew from her mind. "You really are a strong man, Link," she said, "It takes a truly strong heart to put on a smile no matter the situation."

"Okay," Link said, checking her forehead again, "No, can't be delirious from fever. What brought this on?"

Midna was shaking her head behind Link's back. Sheila sighed. "After what happened to your people, and the situation we are now in, surrounded by spirits and undead monsters, and here you are joking around with us. You are a very strong man. I never truly realized it until now."

"There are two things I believe in more than anything else," Link said, "The first is that no matter how grim things seem, if you lose your sense of humor, you've lost that last spark of hope keeping you alive."

"And the second?"

"It's not really related to your question," he said, "but it's the more important belief. Promises are made to be kept. I've never broken a promise I've made in my life, and I don't intend to start any time soon."

As he said that, he glanced back at Midna and winked. That gesture alone warmed her heart.

"Now," he said, "We've got a big day tomorrow. Need to plunder this ancient holy place, regardless of how downgraded its become. Monsters to kill and gods to offend. You better get some sleep, Miss High Elder. And no dreaming about muscular he-men unless they really are hung like horses."

He settled down with his back against the wall where he could see both passages leading into the chamber they occupied. Sheila watched him as Midna settled next to him, leaning against his side as he absent-mindedly put one arm around her.

She couldn't help but smile as she lay down. "Wake me for last watch," she said, "You do need some sleep."

Link nodded.

Seeing those two together, one couldn't help but see it. Even if Link only thought of Midna as a friend, his feelings for her were visible to a watching eye. Perhaps it would take breaking her curse for him to realize it. There also was the thought that he wouldn't really enjoy kissing a girl with more facial hair than him.

Sheila was positive she had read something about the Triforce somewhere at the academy, long ago. She hadn't paid it much mind then, but she realized now that it could contain the knowledge necessary to break a curse laid with its power.

That's it. She would devote herself to finding a method to break the curse, once they had assembled the counter spell and the Lords of Chaos were out of the way. They would still be around, because it was obvious Link intended to help deal with them.

She looked over at Link where he sat. _I fear,_ she thought, _that I will see your dark side before these events draw to a close._

* * *

Mur'neth shivered in the cold. He was just outside the temple entrance, in the cold, silently cursing Link for setting camp so close to the entrance. He daren't move inside or the elf would be able to sense his presence. He wrapped his cloak more tightly about himself, the white cloth making him nearly invisible in the snow, but all he wanted at this moment was warmth.

It was a bit foolish, perhaps, that he hadn't been paying more attention. Someone found him by tripping over him. Literally. Mur'neth spun toward the foot that had stuck his backside. A man wearing a vest with no sleeves and short pants was backing away rapidly, his voice rising to a shout, "Hey! Sir-"

He was cut off as Mur'neth's hurled kunei buried itself in his throat. With a great spurt of blood from the vulnerable artery, the man fell to his knees, choking on his own blood as it boiled up through his mouth and nose, and finally collapsed.

The man wasn't alone, so Mur'neth knew he would have to act quickly. He drew his sword and set to work, hacking the body to pieces. He would scatter the bloody scraps about, then move to a new location to hide, and hopefully the man's companions would think a spook of the valley got him.

_You'd better find Ganon soon, Link_, Mur'neth thought as he worked, _I'm getting tired of this kind of thing._


	26. Chapter 25

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

Okay, show of hands, who thought I was dead?

Thought so.

I could go into a long-winded explanation about real life, my new job, my classes, and various other things, but I'm sure you're not interested. Needless to say, my life is back in order, and I can start devoting time to frivolities like fanfiction again.

This chapter also directly quotes Kresselack from Icewind Dale, and one of the coolest villainous lines in the game.

**Chapter 25: Promises of Power**

Dark storm clouds rolled across the sky, the minutes punctuated by streaks of lightning among the clouds, and loud claps of thunder that echoed through the city. The rain was only a light drizzle, and Link hardly noticed it as he walked the streets of the castle town, gazing upon the destruction.

The buildings were in disrepair, even those built with stone walls were collapsing in upon themselves as their supports rotted and gave way to the inevitable beating of time. Littering the streets were small piles of rubble of oddly shaped stones, and as Link bent to examine one, he discovered that it was the wreckage of a stone statue, the pieces shaping out limbs and a head, but the face was far too worn by weather to distinguish features other than it had been human.

He entered the city square, gazing across the piles of rubble amongst the collapsing buildings and around the center fountain, its centerpiece lying sideways across the edge of the water. Link could see himself in the water still in the fountain, the ripples of raindrops causing his image to waver and distort.

"This is an image of the future," came the deep woman's voice he remembered, "This is what will occur should you fail to defeat Khall and save your people."

Link turned around to see her, standing just a few feet away, water running off her blood-red body armor, her hair plastered down to her neck with wetness, and her dark eyes centered on him.

"Why show me this?" Link asked, gesturing to the piles of rubble that used to be the citizens of Hyrule, "I could have guessed, and this sight isn't nearly so terrible as the first."

"I'm not trying to horrify you, Link," she said, "I am trying to convince you to allow me to train you in the use of the power you possess. With it at your call, your foes would fall like wheat before you, and you would be able to prevent this."

"Not interested," Link said, turning his back to her, "I had a talk with a very dear friend, and I've made my decision. I don't want this power you offer. If I knew how, I would get rid of the Triforce itself. It's brought me nothing but problems anyway."

"So if you had a chance, you would cast aside the one thing that allowed you to save your people in the past. Suppose you hadn't had it when the Twilight fell across Hyrule. You would have become a spirit like all the others. Where would you be now?"

Link slowly turned to face her. She hadn't moved, but her face had become hard, her eyes narrowed as she watched him. He said nothing, knowing that there was no response that wouldn't support her argument. "What if you hadn't had it when the spell doomed your people?" she asked, "You would be standing back in your village, along with all the others, and you would remain there for all eternity. Would you truly cast it aside knowing that it is the only thing that has kept you alive, allowed you to save those that you care for?"

Link opened his mouth to retort, but stopped himself, and merely sighed as he crossed his arms across his chest. "I thought so," the woman said, "This is your destiny, Link. You were chosen by the gods to wield this power. It is yours by right, and you could use it how you wished. No enemy of this world would be able to stand against you. You could rule this world if you desired so. You could literally control the people's minds if you wished. Think of it. Anything you wanted could be yours in but a moment. Power, riches, women. All you need do is command it."

"I don't want to rule the world," Link said, "I don't want riches. All I want is to live in peace."

A smile suddenly spread across the woman's face. "You are afraid."

"Afraid?" Link asked with a grimace, "I've never run from a fight before. What would I possibly be afraid if I accept the power you're offering?"

"You fear the power itself. You are afraid of what you will become if you accept it," she said, gesturing with one hand to the fountain behind him, "I know your fear better than you think. Look into the water and see, even if you do not know your own fear."

Link turned and glanced at the water in the fountain. "I just see myself."

The woman gripped his shoulder with one hand, causing his heart to nearly jump from his chest. He hadn't heard her move, and in that armor she should make quite a racket. With her free hand, she pointed toward the water. "Look closer," she said.

Trying to get his heart under control, Link looked again at his own face amongst the ripples of the rain. A flash of lightning arced overhead, framing his image in the water, turning it into a dark silhouette for but a second. Then another face was staring back up at him. It was a familiar face, the dark brown skin and sharp edged eyes gazing at him above the vicious sneer upon the square jaw.

Link leaped back, shoving the woman off him, seeing his own hand as he did so, the dark flesh even darker in the dim light, with black metal plates of armor fitting together above his wrists and running the length of his arm. He glanced down, seeing more of the black metal fitted to his body, and the white glow of the scar upon his abdomen visible even through the dark metal. "Or perhaps it is not a fear of what you will become," the woman said.

He looked up, and the woman was gone, replaced with himself. The green clad image of himself, sword drawn and shield up, facing him. "Perhaps what you truly fear," the image of himself said in the woman's voice, "is retribution!"

The false image ran at him, incredibly fast, and plunged the sword into his stomach up to the hilt, straight through the dark metal plate and into the glowing scar.

Through the stab of pain, Link felt the power boiling up from within himself. Electricity crackled around his right hand as he lifted it up, a ball of golden light building, shining over the area, shadows dancing amongst the rubbles and ruin of buildings.

Link felt the power building in his hand and within himself. He swung his arm forward, his face contorted in rage, intending to blast this pathetic nothing before him into oblivion. He stopped.

The person before him was no longer a false image of himself, but Ilia gripping the blade within him. The power died away, unspent, and she smiled at him in a way that more resembled baring fangs than anything else, and pulled the sword from his stomach with a jerk that sent a wave of pain through his body.

Link fell to one knee, his left hand on the stone to keep himself from collapsing completely, and he saw the dripping red blood of his wound mixing with the water in the cracks between the stones of the street. Red began to fill the edges of his vision, and the stones before him began to blur as his strength fled his body with the blood.

"You are afraid that if you take what you desire, an enemy will come for you, as you came for Ganon," Ilia said in the woman's husky voice, "You fear it will be someone you once cared for."

_It's not Ilia,_ he told himself, trying to call the power back with sheer willpower, _It's not her! Don't let her get the best of you! If you force her off, you can be rid of her for good! Get rid of her!_

He felt the energy flowing from within himself once more. Gold electricity crackled around his right hand, and the very air around him grew sharp, small fragments of stone being torn from the ground around him and cast straight up. A wave of golden light flooded up around his body, the stone beneath him dropping as it was suddenly cratered.

He lifted his gaze, the Ilia that was not Ilia moving back a step. With a shriek of rage, Link thrust his hand forward, the gold lightning arcing from his palm through the air and striking her in the chest. With a cry of pain, she flew backward as the explosive force of the magic created a blinding white light that filled Link's vision, Ilia's form the only vision he could see as she flew backward through the air, her body flying apart in chunks that shrank and vanished into the light, her head the last thing to vanish, and Ilia's terrified features were the last thing Link saw as she was literally vaporized.

The great light died away at last and Link found himself looking up at a dark ceiling. He sat up quickly, startling Zelda, who was on last watch, and lifted his hands before his face. His flesh was once again the fair color he should be, and his green tunic was a truly comforting sight, along with no visible scar upon his stomach.

"You have taken the first step," the woman's voice echoed in his ears, "I shall return again."

That wasn't right. He shouldn't hear her if he was awake.

Not if she was truly a dream . . .

"Are you okay?" Zelda asked a second time.

He turned his head to see her. The green light of the braziers gave her face an eerie tone and an unhealthy looking color.

"Fine," he managed, "I'm fine. Just a bad dream."

But he was thinking, _Taken the first step? The hell does that mean?_

* * *

It was nearly dawn at the time Link awoke, so he and Zelda woke the others a short time later and after a breakfast of dried beef and bread hard enough to cave in a skull if so used so, they at last descended to the next level.

Link led the way, trying to put the dream out of his mind as he stepped into the next chamber, the others close behind him. About fifteen feet down, the passage leveled out and opened to either side. The chamber was quite large, running about twenty feet wide and considerably more in distance. On either side of the room, about four feet out from the wall and arranged at six foot intervals were massive stone columns nearly three feet across, and upon each was mounted a small brazier burning with the green flame.

Link walked with his sword drawn, his eyes watching the columns and checking each of the blind spots around them as they passed for movement. His eyes also drifted across the floor itself, the pattern of uneven cut stones created a web of lines across it, and he made sure to move slowly, testing each step before putting his weight down, just in case one turned out to be a pressure plate to trigger a trap.

When they were less than a third of the way across the massive hall, Link signaled the girls to stop when he saw a change in the floor. The weave of stones vanished into what appeared to be one massive stone, a darker shade than all the surrounding stones. Then there was a design in the stone itself, inlaid with onyx, of a timber wolf sitting on its haunches, its head turned as though glancing over its shoulder, and before its feet were two battle axes, their hafts crossed with the heads to either side of the wolf.

"That is the holy symbol of Tempos," Sheila said, then knelt down, running her fingers along the edge of the massive slab, "It looks like a different type of stone was used for this symbol."

"Most of the temple seems to be constructed of granite," Zelda said, "It's mainly a guess, but I think this slab is diorite. See how it is darker than the surrounding stone? Diorite is sometimes called 'Black Granite,' but it's really more of a dark gray."

"I didn't know you were a mason, princess," Link said, moving forward enough to see around the next pair of columns, finding nothing waiting for them.

"I learned considerably more than I cared too while hiring masons for the castle," she said.

"You seem preoccupied," Midna said to him, "or at least more-so than usual for dungeon crawling."

Link glanced back the way they had come, glancing into the dancing shadows in the green light. "As much as they wanted to stop us on the first level, we should have encountered something else by now. Some kind of guard or booby trap. Hell, I'd settle for a sign that said 'no soliciting.'"

He had started walking again as he said this, and no sooner had he finished than he heard a click that echoed through the room, and a hiss through the air, followed by a gasp from Sheila. He turned quickly, seeing that she had stepped onto the right-hand battle axe of the image, and it had sunken into the floor. Her skirt was pinned to her right leg by a small dart, scarcely an inch long, sticking out of her thigh.

"Oh, gods," was all she managed to say, then Link grabbed her arm and pulled her off the slab and back onto the floor he knew was safe.

"Sit down," he said, releasing his grip and sheathing his sword, reaching for his belt with his free hand.

She did so, and Link was kneeling next to her. He pulled the dart from her leg and tossed it aside, then grabbed the hem of her skirt and pulled it upward. "Hey, wait a second!" she said, pushing his hand back.

"Something that size wouldn't be bothered with if it wasn't poisoned," Link said, "If we don't get the poison out, you're probably going to die. Get your hand out of the way before I knock you out to save you."

With a groan of frustration, Sheila let him pull her skirt up until the small red spot that was the wound in her thigh. "Too small," he muttered as he pulled his knife from his belt.

"Hold on a second!" Sheila said, but the blade was already biting into the flesh of her leg as Link made a shallow cut over the puncture, causing her to hiss through her teeth.

Link dropped the knife on the floor and leaned down, putting his mouth over the cut and sucking her blood from her, the bitterness of the poison clear in the taste. A second later, he lifted his head to spit the mouthful onto the floor before returning to the wound for a second draw.

Zelda and Midna watched in silence as he worked.

The third time, the bitter taste was considerably lessened, the salty taste of blood overpowering it, but he tried a fourth and fifth time to make sure he was getting pure blood before he sat up and wiped his mouth. "I think you're going to be okay," he said, "Let's refrain from this in the future, yes?"

He picked up his knife, wiping the blade on his jacket before returning it to his belt as Sheila straightened her skirt.

"What possessed you," Link said as he offered her his hand to help her up, "to step directly on the symbol?"

Sheila took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. "I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't think . . . "

"That's right, you didn't," Link said, interrupting her, "From now on, you two walk single file behind me. Watch my feet, only step where I step. Got it?"

Zelda nodded, and Sheila whispered, "Right."

In such a manner they traversed the massive chamber, the far end opening into a staircase spiraling downward to the left. The stairs spiraled down about thirty feet, quite a distance, before opening back into another chamber facing the direction they had come from. This one was perfectly square, about twenty feet in any direction, and judging by the height of the roof, the floor of the previous chamber upstairs was less than five feet thick. Stone columns were placed on either extreme side of the room at two foot intervals to support this relatively weak design. This room seemed to lack any of the torches that had been present

"Kind of interesting," Link said as he glanced about the room, pausing a moment to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness, "The entrance was built out of sandstone, but so far the inside seems to be constructed of granite. Strange."

"Why's that?" Midna asked.

"Sandstone is more brittle than granite," Link said, "I suppose it makes more sense to use a stronger stone inside to hold up the massive weight this place would have, but then why not just use granite to construct the entire place?"

"Perhaps," Zelda interjected, "The idea was that if someone tried to force the door open, the entrance would likely collapse upon them."

"That's a thought," Link said, moving into the room as they followed behind them, "Perhaps it's even rigged to collapse if one were to shove on the correct brick with so much force."

"So it could be closed off quickly!" Sheila said, "But would it be to keep someone out, or keep something in?"

A sudden light flared at the far end of the room, causing Link to lift one hand to shield his eyes as two braziers on either side of a passage at the far end leaped into life, casting their green light across the room, seated just inside two columns carved to resemble massive skeletal legs on either side of the door. A skeletal figure stood between them, centered in the door, its bony arms crossed across its empty rib cage. "To keep you living out, of course," it said, its voice whispering like Myrikul's, yet of a deeper tone as it spoke, its skeletal jaw clacking as it moved, "You did well to destroy Myrikul, I must say. A bone dancer is no mean opponent. I'm curious at the weapon you used, though. I've never seen anything like it, and I lived quite some time before I took up residence here."

"If you've been down here, how could you have seen the fight?" Link asked.

"I scry and I spy," the skeleton said, "I was a powerful magician in my time. Not as powerful as Darius or one of those others that lived before I did, but certainly better than either of those with you."

Sheila huffed. "You do realize that I am the most powerful magician in Mystara, right?"

"Is that so?" the skeleton asked, "Boy, things have really gone down the crap chute in the past seven millennia, haven't they? Is there even anyone still capable of casting the Harrowing?"

"That magic is forbidden," Sheila said, "No one is permitted to learn it. It's destructive power is far too great."

"So humanity is willfully restricting itself from knowledge. That is a road to self destruction. Maybe the undeath I exist in here isn't so bad. It took me some five hundred years of my life to gain the power I possessed, and yet two spells I sought to master eluded me. The Harrowing and Venom."

"I remember reading of those both," Link said, "You would seek to master so evil a spell as Venom?"

"Venom is certainly a dark magic," the skeleton said, "But in the end, it is the wielder who determines whether to turn its power to good or evil. Venom delivers quite a painful death to a single person, but can it be compared to others, such as the Fingernail of the Accused, which can be used to turn even the closest of friends into enemies? And the Harrowing, of course, the magic of ultimate destruction, capable of obliterating an entire city. Or it can be used to wipe out an army of marauders. So do not judge me merely for my pursuit of knowledge, lest you also wish to believe your hero, Darius, was just as villainous. Do you know that he was the one who created the Harrowing to begin with? He was the first to unleash its destructive power."

"He was also the first to realize its power was far too terrible to use," Sheila said.

"Can we stop the philosophical debate?" Link said, "What is your name, specter?"

"It doesn't really matter," the skeleton said, "but you may call me Auberon. I suppose you're going to try to reason your way past me as you did Myrikul, correct? Don't bother. I'm here to stop you, and if you don't turn back, you will die. Easy enough, yes? My powers waned after my death, due to my concentration being harder to maintain, but I'm still more powerful than either of those girls, and can handle you."

"Tell me one thing before we see just how powerful you are," Link said, "Why are you trying so hard to stop us? You know we can't turn back, and have no interest in anything but the altar in the basement."

"This place used to be a temple dedicated to Tempos, true," Auberon said, "But it was converted into a tomb seven millennia ago. The undead you have fought, and beings like Myrikul and myself are here as guardians, to protect its sanctity."

"Whose tomb is it?" Link asked, "Who is buried here?"

"You've seen his symbol," Auberon said, "The paw print. Buried in this tomb is the barbarian conqueror, King Draston, also known simply as the Wolf Lord."

"Wait, the Wolf Lord?" Sheila said, "I remember now! He came out of the north lands, through these mountains from the arctic lands! He nearly brought all of Mystara under his rule, but then suddenly disappeared! It was from the wreckage of his empire that our modern republic was built!"

Link glanced at her. "I thought Darius was the one who set that up?"

"Darius helped rebuild the kingdoms," Sheila said, "And he certainly nudged them in the proper direction, but after Darius' death, things started to go downhill. The kingdoms worked together in peace for several thousand years, but the rulers began to distrust one another. A few minor border skirmishes, and just before what looked like a full fledged war, it was this Draston that actually united the kingdoms. He came from the arctic lands to the north, seemingly out of nowhere, and smashed the feeble resistance the divided lands could mount, bringing all but Darimar, at the far south, under his power. He would have had it, sooner or later, but almost seemed like he had very little interest in taking it, and then he disappeared, leaving his army without a commander, and Darimar managed to force them out, but no trace of Draston was found after that."

"If the history lesson is quite complete," Auberon said, annoyance creeping into his voice, "You living had best turn and leave now, or fight me."

Zelda unslung her bow, pulling an arrow from her quiver. "I'm going to want to hear more about this later," she said to Sheila.

"Midna," Link said as he slid his shield down his arm, "We know your magic doesn't work on undead terribly well, so try to keep yourself out of the way, all right?"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," she muttered, but didn't argue.

"They're all yours," Auberon said.

Link hesitated. "Wait, who are you talking to?"

With a shower of dust, one of the massive skeletal legs Link had thought was an oddly carved column lifted from the floor, taking a massive step toward them, the floor shaking as it crashed down, the second lifting into the air, showering the floor with dust as it did so. Link and the others all looked up to see a skeletal giant, twenty feet tall, its skull nearly scraping the roof glaring down at them. Rotted leather clung around its ribs in the shape of a massive tunic, and a massive rusty hammer clutched in one bony hand.

"Godesses almighty," Link whispered, taking a step back.

He heard Zelda's bowstring pull taut, and the familiar golden streak of an Arrow of Light shot overhead, striking perfectly into the massive skull of the creature. Chips of bone broke off and rained down, clattering to the floor, but the beast itself did not even flinch as its massive foot crashed down, closing the distance to them with incredible speed. The gigantic hammer went up.

"Scatter!" Link shouted, running forward, toward the massive bony foot before him.

Zelda and Sheila dodged to either side, running for the ends of the room, and Midna dove into Link's shadow, the safest place in the room. Link ran toward the foot nearest him. _If I can break one of those bones,_ he thought, _it'll have to come down!_

With a leap toward its right leg, which was nearest, Link swung hard as he flew through the air, striking it hard in the ankle. The Master Sword cleaved into the bone, bringing Link a spark of hope, but then the sword jerked itself from Link's hand as he fell. He landed on the floor, looking up at the Master Sword, lodged into the giant's bone, and it had barely cut a quarter of the way through the bone. It was also the thicker bone of the two in the lower leg, causing further problems.

"_Bourash na bourash,_" Sheila's voice echoed through the chamber, "_Dark thunder of Balmor..._"

Link turned to the passage where Auberon had been standing. The skeletal magician was gone. The massive right foot of the giant was rising up. Link ran for safety near one of the sides of the room before it came smashing down, attempting to crush him.

"_Pyre Storm!_" Sheila finished, several streaks of lightning arcing from her hands into the giant's rib cage. The electricity sliced into the bone, causing three of the massive ribs, two from the right side and one from the left, to fall loose and land on the floor with earth shaking force. The giant didn't seem to notice as it moved toward Link.

"You got anything better than that?" Link called to Sheila.

"If you want me to cave the entire place in, sure!" she called back

Link saw the hammer going up. He darted forward again as the rusty steel slammed into the stone floor behind him, cratering it effectively. _Not enough room for Midna to transform. It's got to have a weakness,_ he thought, _everything's got a weakness!_

He looked up at it, hoping for some visual clue, but seeing nothing but rotted leather and bones. It turned its head down toward him, following his movement, and then he saw it by the light of Zelda's arrow as it slammed into the back of the massive skull.. Around the bones of its neck was an iron collar. "Is that holding it together?" he muttered, "If it originally died by a broken neck... Have to try."

He raced toward its right leg again, leaping up and snagging the hilt of the Master Sword on the way past, jerking it out of the small groove it had cut. "Midna!" he said before he had even hit the ground, "I need you to lift me again!"

"Are you sure?" her voice whispered in his ears, "It'll be very hard to move you quickly and accurately at the same time."

"No need to be gentle," he said as he rolled forward on the floor to avoid another hammer smash, "Just get me on that thing's shoulders!"

"Up you go!" she said, and Link felt his feet leave the floor and he rocketed upward.

He nearly shot too far, coming withing a hair's breadth of the roof before falling downward again and landing unceremoniously on the giant's left collarbone, his legs to either side of it. He grit his teeth and groaned at the landing as his vision blurred for a moment.

"Sorry," Midna said.

Link pulled himself toward the giant's neck. The iron collar was within reach, and was nearly brown with rust. "The Master Sword ought to cut right through that," he said, then swung the blade, striking it into the metal with all the strength his sitting position would allow.

The sword rebounded with a loud clang, but a groove two inches deep appeared in the metal. The giant's shoulder shifted as it lifted its left hand toward him. Its sheer size caused its movements to be slow, but it was moving all too fast for his liking. Link slammed his blade into the metal collar again and again, the groove growing deeper with each strike.

The arm was out straight before the giant's ribs, the elbow bending the great hand back toward him. "Come on, you son of bitch," Link said, striking again with all the strength he could muster, "_Come on!_"

The next blow shattered the collar, and with a loud crack, the massive skull fell forward, rolling off the bony shoulders and falling to the floor, shattering into thousands of fragments on impact. The arm that reached for Link fell to the giant's side.

"You did it, Link!" Midna said.

Link stood up on the collar bone, which was nearly a foot wide in itself, looking down. "Oh, crap. This is gonna be bad," he said.

The giant's knees gave way, and Link's stomach shot into his throat as weightlessness overtook him, the femurs breaking from the giant's hip sockets when the knees smashed into the floor, the vertebrae of the spine flying in every direction as the torso collapsed nearly straight down upon itself, then the ribs smashing into the floor and launching upward, like great white trees flying all around him.

Link leaped from his perch, hitting the ground with a roll, moving to get as far away from the raining bones as possible.

The shaking and crashing of the bones at last died away. Link looked up to see the bones of various shapes scattered all around the chamber. "Zelda? Sheila? Where are you?"

Zelda appeared from behind a column at the far side of the room and Sheila emerged from the entrance to the chamber. They'd both had the sense to take cover when it had begun to fall.

"Absolutely incredible," Sheila said, gazing at the massive pile of bones, the rusted hammer near one side of the chamber.

"It was at that," Link said, shouldering his shield and resting the tip of his sword on the floor.

"I meant you," Sheila said.

Link glanced at her, then the pile of bones. He then shrugged. "I've fought bigger."

"Oh, you're too modest," Midna said sarcastically so only he could hear.

"How did they get something so big down here?" Zelda asked, "The passage wasn't nearly large enough."

"Possibly the method of construction," Link said, "The roof of this chamber is the floor of the one above. If this thing was brought down before it was constructed, that would be explained."

They moved to the far end of the room, finding another spiral stairway leading down, once again pointing them in the opposite direction so that the rooms were constructed on top of each other.

Upon entering the room, Link spotted Auberon standing in the center of the chamber, in the center of an onyx symbol of the paw print in the center of the room, which was the same size as the previous one, but the walls were lined with more of the green burning torches than any previous, allowing a very clear view of the welcoming committee.

Skeletons, zombies, and a few things that seemed to be in between filled the room. There had to be at least forty of them altogether, in a semi-circle around Auberon who stood apart from him, his arms crossed across his rib cage.

"You are very good, living," he said, "A regular gods damned hero. Are you proud of your achievement? Will you gloat about this over your drink at the next tavern you visit? You just destroyed the only undead giant in the world. Must be pretty damn proud of yourself."

"Your giant was in our way," Link said, "I removed it. Just like I'll remove you."

Both sides moved to attack, but stopped at a sudden voice that boomed through the room. "_Enough!_ This has gone far enough. Auberon, let them pass. I'll not have any more guardians slain this day."

"As you wish, my lord," the skeletal magician said, and the crowd of undead parted, revealing a well lit hall on the other side, leading to the next chamber, then gestured to Link and the others, "Come with me. My lord will see you."

He turned and walked down the hall. Link followed, Zelda and Sheila close behind, though they all kept a wary eye on the undead as they passed. The hall opened into a relatively small room, only about ten feet wide in any direction. The black paw print was marked into the floor, and the symbol Tempos decorated the far wall, with the wolf in onyx, the axes in emerald, and the wolf's eyes sparkled in the light as diamonds. Along the wolf's snout, Link could see several red letters, somewhat out of place and clearly not of the original design.

Beneath it was a waist high sarcophagus, and standing next to it was a human man of stocky build, silver hair, and wearing battle scarred body armor with visible chips out of the edges of the breastplate and grooves in all the plates on his arms and legs.

But his eyes, a deep blue, and hard as rock were what attracted Link's attention. Link could see that this was a man who cared little for mercy or fighting fair. "You did well to come as far as you did, adventurers," the man said in a deep, gravelly voice, "My guardians aren't exactly known for being welcoming."

"So there is someone alive down here after all," Link said.

The man ignored the remark, glancing at the Master Sword, his eyes taking in the red lettering etched into the blade just past the hilt. "An interesting weapon," he said, "Designed for the sole purpose of smiting evil wherever it may be."

He looked at Zelda and Sheila, then turned his hard blue eyes to meet Link's. "Well, adventurers, if it is evil that you seek, then you need look no further, for evil you have found."


	27. Chapter 26

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

Okay, classes are out of the way for the summer, finals all done, so I'm hoping to get back to this a bit more. I'm not planning on every-other-day updates like I did at first, but at least once a week. I'm also replaying TP to refresh my memory of some events and details. I'd forgotten how big Midna actually was. I thought she was smaller than that... Anyway, I'm up and running again, enjoy the story.

**Chapter 26: Priestess of the Ice Goddess**

Tharkus entered his laboratory, growling under his breath about no respect for decent hours. He had been up until past midnight making final preparations on his latest creation, and now to be woken before dawn because Khall was calling for him, and by that damned amateur sorcerer, Karadiv, of all people. Could that man even speak without shouting?

The chamber was dark, but he preferred it that way, so he could see if any of his works were beginning to glow in the dark, which, depending on what he was after, could be good or bad. He picked up a shallow bowl from a shelf and set in on the table in the center of the room, then unlocked and disarmed his trunk near the back of the chamber, removing an object about eight inches across and wrapped in a purple cloth.

He gently moved the cloth as he crossed back to the table and sat the object in the shallow bowl, which was perfectly sized for it. He then pulled the cloth away, revealing the clear crystal globe he had long used for scrying and divination. Tossing the cloth aside, he waved one hand above the glow, muttering, "_Ast no phini tael, spirits of air, show me that which I seek._"

A white spark of light appeared in the center of the globe, growing brighter by the second, forcing Tharkus to shield his eyes for a moment as they adjusted. The light began to expand, filling the clear globe, turning it into a ball of white light, and then from the center a picture began to form and expand. It was unclear and blurry, but that was how it always was at first. In a moment, the image began to solidify and the blonde hair and white cloak that Khall wore appeared, facing away from where Tharkus was viewing him.

"You called for me?" Tharkus asked.

Khall's head turned, facing him, though Tharkus knew Khall could not see him. "Is Zivlyn ready?"

Not even a hello. Well, Tharkus would let that one slide. "I haven't spoken to her myself, but the servants are threatening to stop feeding her unless I put her in chains. I'd say she's quite recovered."

"How soon could you get her up here?" Khall asked.

"You're not planning to turn her loose on Link, are you?"

Khall shook his head. "I'm not that foolish. The giants are massing in the northern canyon, along with their barbarian allies. I imagine they're going to try and force the Aurilites and myself from the mountains. I'm going to turn the Aurilites over to Zivlyn and let them make a preemptive strike. I'll need her here within the day or evening at the latest."

Tharkus rubbed his chin, mulling it over. Letting Zivlyn attack the giants would help slake her, at least for a time. "Set up a travel beacon and I'll have her there by noon. She'll be fed and armed."

"One thing," Khall said, his voice brooking no argument, "Don't tell Kilishandra. She doesn't know Zivlyn is even here. I made sure of that. If she gets intrusive, tell her to ready her forces, because after Whitos-Neiki falls, she will be sent to Metallicana."

"And you'll handle Tyr while I remove Nigel," Tharkus said, "Then we'll converge on Darimar with all our forces."

"There's been a change of plans in that regard," Khall said, "You know my apprentice, Karadiv?"

"What about him?" Tharkus asked, while imagining several slow, torturous deaths the man would suffer if he lived through the coming war. Quite a pleasant train of thought, actually.

"It seems he's finally got that beast of his, the hydra, trained," Khall said, "We're going to let him attack Darimar while Kilishandra deals with Metallicana. We'll send the Aurilites and part of the first army with him. Even he should be able to handle the city then."

A grim smile crossed Tharkus' face. "And if Ganon turns out to be there?"

"Then I'll have one less apprentice, won't I?" Khall said, "Get Zivlyn ready. I'll expect you to be as anally punctual as usual, got that?"

"Of course. I'll call you later," Tharkus said, then waved one hand over the globe, causing it to go dark.

He crossed his arms and stood there for a moment, deep in thought. "Khall, Mur'neth and Zivlyn all in the Winterlands, keeping an eye on our friends, and now attacking the giants in their own home," he muttered to himself, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were insane, Khall. You're hiding something from me. What are you up to?"

* * *

"Well, you're the most forthright villain I've ever met," Link said, "Who are you?" 

The small group stood in the burial chamber in the lowest level of the temple, the closed sarcophagus before the image of Tempos upon the wall, and the graying old warrior standing before them in his battered body armor.

"You haven't figured it out yet?" the warrior said, his stony blue eyes upon them, "I am Draston. This is where I lay buried."

He gestured to the sarcophagus, mounted on a stone ledge rising about four feet from the center of the floor. Upon its lid was a carved relief of an armored warrior in full breastplate, interlocking plates on his arms and legs, iron boots, and a large sentinel helmet, the front swooping forward in a sharp beak. Clutched in the image's hands was a massive great sword, the pommel on the image's chest, the blade nearly six inches wide and extending a foot past the depiction's feet. "My body is contained within this," the warrior, Draston, continued, "What you see before you is a manifestation of my spirit. Only in this chamber, where my body lies, is my will strong enough to create such an image. Should I venture past the entrance to this room, I would fade as I distanced myself from my link to the living world. Oh, it would seem your elf friend has a question."

Draston smiled when Link glanced back to Sheila. "Yes," he said, "Those pointed ears might fool common folk, but you'll have a hard time fooling real elves, or other higher beings."

"I'm honestly getting tired of everyone bring it up," Link said, "If you want to ask something before we get down to business, Sheila, go ahead."

She nodded. "Thank you, Link," Sheila said, then stepped up beside him, "You truly are Draston, the barbarian warlord that marched from the arctic lands and brought nearly all of Mystara under your rule with an army of nearly impossible size. I want to know what happened. What isn't in the history books. You simply disappeared. Now we find your grave here. What happened?"

"That tale would take some telling," Draston said, then motioned to Auberon, the skeletal mage, standing somewhat to the side, "Go rally what's left of my guardians and prepare to greet our other guest. I have business to conduct with these three."

"As you wish," Auberon said with a slight bow, then disappeared down the passage they had entered through.

"Before I answer her question," Draston said, turning his rock-hard eyes back to Link and the others, "you will answer one of mine. What are you seeking here? Is it me? My treasure? Are you simply here to exterminate my undead servants out of some misguided sense of justice you possess? I recall you mentioning something about the altar down here several times."

"We're after that," Link said, pointing at the nose of the wolf on Tempos' symbol, the red letters standing out in the flickering green light of the torches lining the walls of the chamber, "It is the fragment of the spell we need to recover. Here is another part of it," he said, indicating the red letters just past the hilt of the Master Sword, etched into its blade, "Your guardians attempted to stop us, and we removed them."

"So that's all," Draston said, moving behind the sarcophagus and leaning both elbows on it, "Very well. Here is how this will happen, adventurer. I will allow you to take the spell fragment, and will answer any questions you may have, if they lie within my knowledge. But, you have come into my home uninvited and slain my guardians in your passing. Before you take what you seek, I require a boon as repayment for such trespasses."

Link's temper flared. "If your guardians had just allowed us passage, we would not have had to kill any of them! We don't owe you anything!"

"If that is how you feel, then I doubt I could stop you from taking the fragment, but," Draston said, a sinister smile crossing his face, "I could stop you from leaving. You are in this chamber because I allowed it. The hall behind you can be shut off in an instant. When it does so, passages open on either side of the previous room, both of which lead to enormous, hideously designed and trapped mazes. The mazes do not lead anywhere, and are intended solely to slow down and kill would-be tomb raiders. In any case, I can close the hall behind you, and you'll be able to spend the rest of your lives here with me as you starve to death."

"One of us could just blast it open," Sheila said, nodding at Zelda, who also nodded.

"And risk collapsing the entire complex upon yourselves?" Draston asked, "You young people are so foolish."

He turned back to Link. "I see what you're thinking," Draston said, looking into Link's eyes, "I see in your eyes a wild, untamable spirit, like a feral beast. You're trying to decide whether to trust your defiance of me, or reason, and listen. Perhaps, before you make a decision about whether or not to grant me the boon, you will hear what it is?"

"Fine," Link said at last, "But I warn you, I'm not going to kill anyone for you."

"Violence need not even enter the equation," Draston said, "Shortly after you arrived, other presences entered the vale. Three of whom my guardians have identified as dark elves. They seem to be following you."

"The ninja," Zelda said.

"Khall's men," Link said, "What do you want with them?"

"Actually, nothing," Draston said, "It is the other two, that arrived shortly after the dark elves. They are both followers of Auril, the goddess of ice. You know of whom I speak? Good. One of them has been here before. She was the one who stole the key to the main entrance of my tomb that you now carry upon your person. The other was new, but one of the dark elves killed him. The priestess of Auril yet lives, however. She once stood at the entrance of my tomb and gazed within, but my guardians denied her entry. Now that you have slain most of them, they will not likely be able to stop her again."

"Get to the point," Link said.

"Look around you," Draston said, indicating the green burning torches that ringed the walls of the small room, and the two burning braziers on either side of the sarcophagus, "As you can see here, and have seen on the upper levels, my tomb would be an abomination to a follower of Auril, who seeks to extinguish all flames in the world and cover all the lands in snow and ice. You have created this situation, adventurer, and I expect you to rectify it. I do not wish to spend eternity in a cold, lightless hell. Drive the priestess from my tomb, and ensure she never returns. I do not care how you accomplish this, whether with diplomacy or force, but if you fail me or refuse, you will not have what you came here seeking. What say you?"

Link kept his gaze on Draston. The spirit's face was betraying no emotion, making it difficult to read whether this was true or not. "What do you think, girls?" he asked the others without turning.

"What he says about the followers of Auril is true," Sheila said, "If my guess is correct, he is bound to the halls of this temple for all eternity. Perhaps the fires that light it are the last small comfort he has."

"Zelda?" Link prompted.

She took a deep breath, trying to gather her thoughts before answering. "I see no harm in it. If the priestess is already in the vale, as he says, it's not like we'll have to go days out of our way to find her."

"Midna?"

"Do we really have a choice?" she whispered to him.

Link sighed and nodded, then turned back to Draston. "All right, specter. It's a deal. Where is she?"

Draston leaned his head back, his gaze drifting to the ceiling of the room. "She is making her way through the first level of my tomb as we speak. She seems to be intent on checking that there is no danger before extinguishing the fires. She has just now started down the stairs to the second level."

That sent a chill down Link's spine. He realized that they had been located just as easily on their way in. He turned toward the hall, stepping past Zelda and Sheila. "We'll be back in a minute. Come on, girls."

Without a word, they fell into step behind him, and Link noted the clattering of Auberon's skeletal feet moving behind them, and confirmed it with a glance over his shoulder. Once they reached the stairway leading up, the undead wizard stopped and crossed his arms across his rib-cage. "I wish you luck, living," he said, "Auril's servants are not known for being reasonable. I think you'll find that the only outcome will be violence."

"We'll see about that," Link said as he stepped upward.

Past the remains of the skeletal giant and up the second spiral stairway led them back to the massive hall of the second level, in its dim light. There were three braziers, situated at even intervals, hanging on networks of chains from the roof that cast the pale glow over the hall and the columns on either side.

In the far distance, a single figure was walking toward them, her head constantly moving as she checked shadows, and her step light to be wary of traps. She had to have seen them already, and was nearly halfway across the chamber.

Link raised his right hand and waved at her, calling out, "Hello there!"

His voice echoed off the walls, and the woman seemed to ignore him.

"Is she deaf?" Midna asked.

They were still walking toward the woman, and she hadn't stopped. Link held up his hand, telling Zelda and Sheila to wait a moment while he continued forward. He heard Zelda slide and arrow from her quiver and nock it on the string. _Taking no chances,_ he thought, _You're learning fast, princess._

At this rate, he and the priestess were going to meet up on the holy symbol of Tempos that Link knew to be trapped. He pondered the thought of telling her, but when he saw the war hammer in her right hand, he decided to hold it off a moment.

He could hardly believe the rest of what he saw. She was just a girl, no more than fifteen at best. Her hair was cut short around her ears, and her sleeveless tunic fit tight across her barely developed breasts, but the muscle in her arms was not to be denied as she carried the massive war hammer with the ease of experience.

When she spoke, her voice made her sound even younger. "I see your weapon, stranger. I'm looking for a murderer. Are you he? Or one of those with you?" she said, tilting her head to see around him as Sheila and Zelda about ten feet behind him.

She stopped walking at the far edge of the darker stone of the holy symbol of Tempos, and Link stayed his steps at the edge, leaving a gap of about fifteen feet between them, as well as the poison dart trap Sheila had inadvertently discovered earlier. He wondered how many other pressure plate traps lay within the symbol itself, or around it.

"I prefer to know who I'm accused of killing before I respond," Link said, "I've killed people, but they were all trying to kill me."

She lifted her arm, pointing at him with the war hammer. "I accuse you of the murder of a priest of Auril, and my father! He came with me to this vale to help me do the work of Auril in this place of darkness I had discovered, and he was cut down before we even came inside."

"You really were here before," Link said, "That campsite I found was yours! Well, I can assure you that I haven't killed any follower of Auril, here or elsewhere. The only things I've fought since arriving were walking dead."

He suddenly stopped, recalling what Draston had said, "Wait... Did you see anyone else out in the vale before coming inside here?"

The girl bared her teeth. "What... Are there more of your band out there? Waiting for some help to finish this job with me?"

Link shook his head. "No, we're being followed! Servants of Khall and the Lords of Chaos. The spirit entombed here said that one of them killed a man entering the vale. That must have been your father..."

"Spirit?" the girl said, a smile coming across her face, "I think you've taken too many blows to the head. Seeing spirits now? Next you'll be hearing hamsters speak."

"That reminds me," Link said, ignoring the insult, "As a priestess of the goddess of ice, you're here to extinguish all the fires within this tomb, aren't you?"

"Of course," she said, then spread her arms to either side, turning on the spot to emphasize the room about them, "I shall sanctify this ancient temple, and turn it into an acceptable sight for my mistress. Darkness and the glorious chill shall come to these halls, and the wills of the God of Battle and the Goddess of Ice shall be as one in this place."

She had turned completely about and her gaze came to Link once more. "And whether or not you killed my father, if you attempt to stop me in this act, you will be defying the will of a goddess."

"She may have a point there, especially if Auril is personally interested in this place, though that seems unlikely," Sheila whispered to Zelda, leaning closer so the princess could hear, "Deities are not beings to be trifled with. They trifle back. Even if no one finds this girl's body, the Aurilites will likely attack us on sight wherever we go."

Zelda nodded. "The Aurilites have joined with our enemies in any case. We'd make enemies of them and the goddess sooner or later."

"Ignoring that obvious threat to my person for a moment," Link said, "The spirit here does not wish for the flames to be extinguished. He said that he does not want to spend eternity in the cold and dark. Tell me something else you might accept instead of that, and if it is within my power, I'll make a trade."

"Pah! Spirit again," she said, waving her free hand dismissively, "Even if it does exist, it is dead! What would it care for light or dark, heat or cold? It cannot feel such things!"

"You may be right about that, but this spirit does care," Link said, "It also has something I need to save countless lives. If you do not accept my offer and leave this place, you will be getting in my way. I'm trying to be reasonable here. I don't want to have to kill you."

She did not respond immediately. Her smile had long vanished, her eyes growing narrow as she pulled her war hammer up in front of her, the end of the long haft moving into her left hand as her right tightened its grip around the haft just under the heavy head. "You threaten a child of Auril?" she hissed, "Recant those words now, fool, and I might spare your life."

"You misunderstand," Link said, waving one hand to try and dissuade her, "I'm not threatening you. I'm trying to save your life. Please, just turn around and walk away right now."

The war hammer suddenly began to glow, blue light from it overpowering the green hue of the dim braziers near the ceiling. "_Mother of ice, grant thy child thy strength this day,_" the girl said, the glow rapidly growing brighter by the second.

Her voice had not taken the echo that accompanied the casting of a magic spell, but the effect on her war hammer was clearly trying to prove otherwise. She lifted the hammer above her head.

"Link, watch out!" Sheila shouted.

He dove to the side as the girl swung the hammer forward, a blue streak of light arcing from the head of the hammer, striking with the speed of a lightning bolt, and a sheet of ice rapidly spread across the floor wear he had been standing. He rolled as he struck the stone floor, feeling a stone block sink under the weight of his shoulder and the whistle of a dart zip just over his head as he rolled onto his knees, reaching for his sword.

"Why does everybody on this damn continent want to kill me?" he muttered.

"You sure you haven't been doing something to deserve it?" Midna whispered to him.

A long familiar chant filled the air, echoing Sheila's voice around the chamber, and a bolt of lightning streaked from her fingers toward the Aurilite priestess. The priestess' hand came up, holding the war hammer before her, the bolt of lightning striking it dead-on, and electricity seemed to fly around the priestess in a globe, discharging harmlessly behind her.

"No way," Sheila said.

The priestess swung her hammer high, then brought it crashing downward into the floor, cracks spreading through the surrounding stone on the impact, which ignited the hammer, haft and all, in blue fire. Hefting it into the air, the girl ran for Link, now on his feet.

A grating of stone sounded as she ran, another stone plate sinking into the floor and with a loud scrape, two metal discs launched from either wall with shocking speed, crashing into each other just behind her as she ran, and flying to pieces in a shower of sparks and shrieking metal.

The hammer came down, Link stepping sideways around her, the hammer crashing into the floor, sending cracks out from the impact and stone chips flying into the air.

Link stepped back quickly as she lifted the hammer, then Midna suddenly appeared in front of him. "Got her!" she said, then three bolts of black lightning fired, one from each hand and one from the ethereal hand sprouting from her mask.

The hammer was up, the black electricity discharging around her the same way the standard was. Growling, Midna exerted herself, the green markings on her arms and legs beginning to glow, and the force of the lightning redoubled, and the priestess' arms started shaking holding up her war hammer and her feet sliding backwards across the stone floor.

The priestess turned her hammer sideways, and the black lightning ceased to discharge harmlessly and latched onto the weapon, the blue flames leaping higher as they battled the shadow magic. With a sudden sideways wrench, the priestess sent the bolts into the wall, and as stone flew from the impact, Midna quickly ceased her attack before she brought the roof down.

"Gods damn it," she said, "What am I doing wrong?!"

Link shoved her aside as the priestess hefted her hammer and ran for them again. He saw Zelda steadying her bow at the priestess' back at the far end. _If I don't end this, she will,_ he thought, _There might still be a chance to save this girl..._

She was nearly upon him, the hammer high and her voice rising in a victorious cry.

Link stepped to the left and spun to his right, his right leg raising up as he completed his circuit and he felt the impact of his heel against the priestess' skull, and she fell past him, face down on the floor, the loud metal clank of her hammer hitting the stone and the blue fire dying away as she lost consciousness.

Link got his foot back on the floor and took a moment to exhale the breath he had been holding and refill his lungs. He waved his shield at Zelda who was relaxing her bowstring. He turned to make sure the girl was all right.

He stopped at the sight of blood running across the floor, channeling into the cracks between the stones of the floor, and white bone chips with the priestess' flesh and hair still attached lay around her. Protruding from the back of the priestess' skull was a bloody metal spike, surrounded by the blood, bone, and brain matter.

The loud metal clank had been the trap going off as her face had hit the pressure plate.

"What happened?" Zelda asked.

Link turned to see that she and Sheila were right behind him, looking at the corpse.

"I tried to knock her out," Link said, "I didn't mean to kill her."

"Well," Midna said, casting only the smallest glance at the body, "Looks dead to me. Have to be a one in a million chance that sort of trap would be there and she'd land on it like that."

"I don't understand the purpose of such a trap," Sheila said, "A single spike? Stepped on, it would hardly kill."

"It's meant to dissuade," Link said, "One steps on the pressure plate and the spike goes through their foot. Without help, the victim would likely die trying to walk out anyway."

Link sheathed the Master Sword with a sigh. "Plenty good at ending lives, but now I can't even save one," he muttered, then said louder, "Come on. Let's go get what we came for."

They followed him back down the passage and down the stairs, back to the rooms of the bottom level. The undead had cleared out of the entrance chamber, and the passages on either side, leading to the pointless mazes Draston had mentioned, were open. They walked back down the hall to Draston's burial chamber, where the specter awaited them, a large smile on his face. Auberon was nowhere in sight.

"The deed has been accomplished," the spirit said as they entered, "How matters little to me, though I am quite aware she is dead."

"She was just a girl," Link said, "A child. You knew that."

"Of course I did," Draston said, "Would it have affected the outcome in any way had I told you?"

Link growled under his breath. "Hope you won't take any offense," he said, "But I'd like to get what we came for and be gone. I'd rather not have much to do with you."

"So be it," Draston said, "Though your companion voiced interest in my history, and I will oblige if she still wishes."

He gestured to the red lettering on the altar behind him. "Cast your spell, elf, and then we'll move on to other matters."

Sheila stepped around the sarcophagus and to the image of the wolf upon the wall. She turned back toward them. "Link, hold the sword out like I showed you last time."

Link drew the Master Sword, its unique ring filling the room, then held it before himself, placing the blade-tip in his right hand, the flat of the blade against his palm, his left hand gripping the hilt. The red lettering already etched into the blade glinted in the green light of the fires, looking very much like letters of blood.

"_Hear me, wandering soul who art lost and alone,_" Sheila said, raising her right hand to the left side of her face, two fingers up and about an inch from her cheek, a pale green glow appearing at the tips of her nails, "_By the power of the all-knowing Ahriman, god of knowledge, I summon thee to return to thy rightful place._"

This spell seemed unusual to Link. Normally, when one of them cast a spell, their voice echoed in a manner that exhibited sheer power and force. While Sheila's voice did echo with the casting of this spell, the tone was gentle and inviting. If one were to say that battle spells demanded the power they produced, this one kindly asked "Please?"

The green glow at her fingertips expanded and disappeared, the red letters on the snout of the wolf in the image changing from red to dark green with small lights moving through their surface. Then they simply vanished.

Link looked down at the blade in his hands to see the glowing green letters appear on the blade, extending the script already present, now running about a third of the length of the blade. The green glow died away and the letters assumed their red color, dark as blood. Link turned the blade over and, sure enough, they were there too.

"And it is done," Sheila said, lowering her hand.

Link slid the blade home into its sheath.

"Two down, three to go," Midna said.

"South next," Link said, "We'll grab the next one on the way to Darimar."

Zelda nodded. "I can't wait to get somewhere warm again."

"Now," Sheila said, walking around the sarcophagus to stand next to Link, "Didn't you promise me your history, Draston?"

The spirit nodded. "I will keep my word. But first, I desire a word with him," he said, pointing at Link, "Alone."

"That's ridiculous," Midna said, "Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of us, right, Link?"

Link didn't answer, but met Draston's eye. They held each other's gaze for a long moment. "Go wait down the hall," Link said suddenly, "I'll hear what he has to say."

"That's a good man," Draston said, "You heard him. Shoo."

"Call if you need us," Zelda said, squeezing Link's arm.

"I will," Link said.

Zelda and Sheila turned to walk down the hall. Midna lingered. "Are you sure about this, Link?"

"He's a ghost," Link said, "What could he possibly do to me?"

Shaking her head, Midna sighed, then floated down the hall after the others.

"Now," Draston said once she was out of earshot, "Do you have any idea why I want to speak with you?"

"Not a clue," Link said.

"There it is," Draston said, a smile creeping over his face, "I saw it in your eyes when you first entered, and I see it now. You possess a wild, untamable spirit, like that of a wolf. Like my own."

"I am nothing like you," Link said, nearly spitting as he did, "I can see it in this place and you. You're a murderer, and don't feel the slightest regret about it."

Draston lifted one finger. "Don't pretend you've never killed in cold blood."

"Everyone I've ever killed was trying to kill me," Link said.

"The what is the difference if you kill a few in single combat over your life, or if you kill hundreds on the battlefield?" Draston asked, "This is not a debate of ethics in any case. We are of the same spirit, you and I, though we applied it differently."

Draston gestured to Link, "You seem to think yourself a hero. A do-gooder, out to right the wrongs of the world and kill evil wherever it rears its ugly head. Am I wrong?"

"Dead wrong," Link nearly laughed as he spoke, "All I want is to put an end to all this so I can get on with my life."

"But you will not ignore it," Draston said, "Once this evil, whatever it may be, is put to an end, what about the next? Will you ignore it so you can go back to your peaceful life? I thought not," he continued when Link didn't answer, "You are a wolf among sheep, those that would meekly submit to the rule of a tyrant should he seem impossible to stop. You, on the other hand would find a way to stop him, rather than wait for one to be presented. You desire to live your life as you see fit, and anyone who interferes with that is infringing on your gods given right, are they not?"

Link crossed his arms. "Close enough. Is this going somewhere?"

"You want to live your life in peace with your family and friends, and you take up the sword to preserve that peace," Draston said, "The price for eternal peace is eternal vigilance. There are always those who would disrupt the peace. You know this. Myself included in that number."

Draston tapped his own chest, "I took up the sword in pursuit of my desires out of my life. Power, wealth, and women. I was intent on ruling this world simply because that's what I wanted out of life. Anyone who stood in my way was infringing on my gods given right. That is how we are the same, you and I. We do not submit to anyone or anything. We are untamable."

"If we lived in the same time, I doubt we'd have gotten along," Link said.

"No, and that's perfectly natural," Draston said with a smile, "We'd have likely been mortal enemies, in fact. Two untamable spirits of opposing beliefs. We would have been the embodiment of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. But fortunately, my time is long past. I have paid for my sins already, as your friends will find out in a moment. Meanwhile, your sins mount. Death after death you cause in pursuit of peace. How many will it take, Link? How many bodies must lie in your wake before it is finally over?"

"As many as it takes," Link said, "I respect my enemies, but I won't allow them to harm innocent people, myself included."

"Innocent?" Draston chuckled, "Is anyone truly innocent? Blood stains your hands and you wish to claim innocence? Far from it. The only ones who can possibly claim innocence are children too young to understand events as they occur. No, you and I are both far from innocent."

"You have the mark of destiny upon you."

Link couldn't stop his gaze from drifting to the Triforce symbol on his left hand.

"No, not that," Draston said, "Something much more subtle. I learned much after death, and can see what mortals cannot. The mark of destiny is upon you, and you cannot escape it. What you can effect, however, is whether it leads you to the goal someone else has chosen, quietly like a whipped dog, or whether it has to drag you every inch of the way, fighting tooth and nail the whole time.

"Regardless of what some would have you think, destiny is not absolute," Draston continued, "It is affected by the choices we make in our lives. When the final day of judgement comes for us, we are given a final choice before our fate is cemented, and that final choice is the absolute control over our destiny that we possess. Should a man spoken of in a prophecy to smite down a great evil appear and follow it to its conclusion, his final decision may be whether to kill it or not, thus altering the course of future history and preventing the prophecy from coming true. Or he may claim the villain's throne himself and become an even more terrible tyrant than the previous evil. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"That I control my fate," Link said, "No one else."

"Exactly," Draston said, "Never lose your wildness, Link. Never lose that untamable part of yourself, and should someone attempt to take control of your destiny, you must fight them every step of the way. Had I remembered that, my fate would have been very different than it is."

The spirit turned away from him, toward the sarcophagus. "Open my sarcophagus, Link. There is something there for you."

"I don't need anything of yours," Link said.

"See what it is first, then decide," Draston said.

With a sigh, Link stepped up to the sarcophagus and slipped his fingers under the edge of the lid. With a grunt, he heaved it upward and slid it to the side.

"Around my neck," Draston said.

In the sarcophagus, the body was extremely decomposed, little more remaining that rusted metal of the armor he was buried in and the dusty bones of the skeleton. Link reached to the neck and felt about, his fingers finding a necklace of some kind. He jerked it, trying to part the chain, but instead broke the skeleton's neck.

It was a chain necklace without the slightest hint of rust or decay. The emblem that would hang on one's chest was the same symbol he had seen throughout the tomb. A wolf's paw print in black oblivion set into brown stone.

"Take it as a reminder," Draston said, "A reminder of what I have said. It may save your life."

"All right," Link said, slipping it into his belt. He intended to wash it before he would dare wearing it.

"Now," Draston said, "Go call your friends back in. We'll get the other bit of business out of the way, and you can be on your way."


	28. Chapter 27

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 27: The Tale of the Wolf Lord**

Zelda and Sheila's footsteps echoed about the small room as they re-entered from the hall. Midna emerged and moved to Link's side as he still stood facing the spirit of the dead warlord, Draston. "What was that about?" she asked.

"I'll tell you later," Link said, patting her shoulder with one hand.

"Now, elf," Draston said, turning his rock-hard blue eyes to Sheila, "What exactly is it you desire to know of me?"

"Well," Sheila said, tapping her chin with one finger as she collected her memories of the history she had read years before, "You came out of these very mountains nearly seven thousand years ago at the head of a massive army, and nearly conquered all five of the kingdoms of Mystara. But before Darimar fell, you simply disappeared. Out of the wreckage you left behind, the judges were formed, and eventually the five kingdoms were brought together as a republic. I'm curious as to what exactly happened, and why you attacked Mystara in the first place."

Draston glanced from her to Zelda, then to Link and Midna. He shook his head with a sigh. "Fine. You'd all best be seated. This is a long tale in the telling."

He waited for them to seat themselves comfortably upon the floor before settling his gaze on Link. "You'd best listen well," he said, though speaking to them all, Link felt the words were meant for him, "I'm not going to tell this more than once, and my words may be more important than you now realize."

"Tell your tale then," Link said, "We need to leave before sunset, though."

"It won't take that long," Draston said, seating his ethereal form atop his sarcophagus, "The first thing you must know is that I am not from Mystara, or even these mountains. I was born in the far northern lands, beyond this natural boundary.

"I grew up there, on the frozen tundra, where every day was a fight just to avoid freezing or starving. And if you could avoid being killed by the elements, the other barbarian clans would be all too happy to put you in your grave. Fewer people means less competition and more food.

"I was born a member of the Wolf clan, though that was not where I earned my title of the 'Wolf Lord.' We worshiped Tempos, the god of war, and our lives were built about becoming mighty warriors, whether with sword or axe or fist. Men or women, it did not matter, either can be mighty warriors with proper training.

"At the age of ten, the children are exiled from the clan for three days and nights. They receive no aid, no food, and no shelter. If they can survive on the tundra for that period of time, they are welcomed back, fed back to strength, and then personally trained by one of the adults to become a fighter. I was perhaps the strongest of my generation, needing the least care when I returned home after my test. I had fashioned a crude spear out of a sharp rock and a stick, and had managed to slay one of the deadly polar bears on my second day. When they sent the search party for me on the fourth day, I was found with plenty of meat and an uncured hide to protect myself somewhat from the cold.

"Once back, I was taken under the tutelage of Drasus, the greatest warrior of my clan. He taught me the exercises to strengthen my body to the necessary level to wield his weapon, the greatsword. Nearly as large as a man is tall, and heavy enough to break stones. Wielded properly, it can cleave a man in two with a single swing," Draston ran his fingers along the image carved into the lid of the sarcophagus and the massive stone sword held by his visage.

"He also taught me the use of the longbow, a tool rarely used by my people, the shortbow being so much lighter and more wieldy, but not possessing nearly the same range. Why battle an enemy up close and risk injury or death when you can kill him while far out of his reach? My bow could not even be drawn by most of the other trainees. I could kill a frost boar at nearly three times the range of any of the others.

"In my fifteenth year, while out hunting, I was attacked by a rare creature up north. A wolf, the symbol of my clan. It was upon me before I even realized it was there, half starved and rabid. It leaped upon me from behind and knocked me to the ice. I managed to get turned around and keep it from tearing my throat out, but as I was holding onto its jaws, I could not grab for my knife."

Draston ran a finger over a white line down one side of his face, then another next to it, and then a third on the other side. "These scars are from where it managed to nick me with its teeth and claws. My shoulders and arms were quickly badly cut up as well. I shouted for help, but it seemed no one was within hearing. Realizing I would tire long before the wolf, I made a desperate attempt to save myself."

He gestured with his hands, holding one above the other, one palm up and the other down. "I took its jaws in a grip like so, and ripped with all my strength. I tore its lower jaw from the socket, spilling its hot blood over my face. From there it was a simple matter to break its neck.

"What followed later is not terribly important. I was fixed up by the healer, and the tale spread that I had killed a wolf with my bare hands. Money means little to my people, but such deeds were of great import.

"In my twenty-first year, war came to the tundra. Not one of the border skirmishes with a neighboring clan, but full fledged bloody war with the Frost Wyrm clan," Draston paused a moment, his gaze drifting over them one by one, then raising to the ceiling, his vision filling with the memories, "I will never forget that first battle I fought in. The endless shower of blood, the screams of the wounded and dying, and the sound of crunching bones beneath my blade as I tore men to pieces. When it was over, it took a long moment for me to realize it, standing there, soaked in my enemies' blood, corpses all around, the snow dyed red as far as I could see.

"Drasus had led us to victory that day, but it was just the first of many battles to come. We fought the Frost Wyrm clan back into their territory and took their land. We captured their leaders and took their people. I did not understand at first, but it came out that Drasus was intending to merge our two clans, thus eliminating fighting between us."

"How could that work?" Zelda asked before he continued, "If the two clans hated one another so much, they'd keep hating and fighting regardless of what name they went by."

Draston smiled slightly. "Oh, none of the clans really hated one another. It was just survival. Too many people, not enough food to go around. Merging the Frost Wyrm clan with our own helped recuperate out losses in the war and expand us outward, giving us considerably more hunting ground. From there, we decided to move on the other clans. Drasus decided that the time the clans ceased to fight one another was long overdue. All the clans would become one, and then we would move against the food rich areas elsewhere to support our larger numbers.

"We attacked the Bear clan next and made excellent progress, taking their land and forcing them to retreat further and further from us. It was at a battle scant leagues from their last village that the unbelievable occurred. In the battle, I was not far from Drasus, both of us killing far more foes than any other on the field. The attack that felled Drasus came from behind, scoring across his back and cutting him wide open even as he spun to kill his attacker with his massive sword.

"When the battle was over, I found Drasus, barely alive. He commented that everyone who saw his body would think him a coward, taking a wound in the back. But what he told me next was what would mark me for years to come. First, he told me that he had known the foe was coming behind him, but he had not been fast enough. His age had caught up with him, and his sword grown heavier with each passing year, and he had been unable to turn and strike his foe quickly enough. Next, he told me of his grand vision."

Draston closed his eyes, leaning his head back slightly. "He told me that he truly desired an end to the fighting, so that children may grow up without wondering if this was the day their parents would not come home because they had been killed in some battle or skirmish. He wanted to see a truly peaceful world, and the only way to do so would be to bring the entire world under one ruler."

Draston opened his eyes, his gaze centering on Link. "The only way for the people to live in peace with each other is for them all to be the same people. Humans, elves, dark elves, whatever, they must all be brought under a single flag and have exactly the same rights and importance."

"Are you talking about socialism?" Zelda asked, "Such a society would only hinder progress and stagnate as it chokes on its own beliefs. It would reward the lazy and stupid just as much as the ambitious and wise."

"No," Draston said, waving a hand to dismiss the idea, "I had to work every day of my life for what I'd earned, and I wouldn't abide a fat, lazy oaf to have the same as I. What I mean is that the differences in the races would have to become secondary to their membership in mankind. I've seen it among the people of my time as well. Elves held in high regard simply because their ears are pointed instead of round, and yet the Dra'thul, the dark elves, while technically the same race, were regarded with fear or looked down upon simply because of their skin color. Even darker skinned humans are somewhat looked down upon, often captured and sold as slaves."

"Things have changed since your time," Sheila said, "Skin color is no longer a factor in a person's value. All are treated as equals under the law."

"And the Dra'thul?" Draston pressed.

"Until recently," she said, "they had been believed to be extinct. But now we have seen some who work for our enemy, and who follow us even now, probably to keep an eye on our progress. We had thought them wiped out in the great war, before even your time, but you say you saw some?"

"I'll come to that in a moment," Draston said, "After Drasus died, I took his place as the mightiest warrior of our clan. I led the war from then on. Drasus wanted to see a world of peace under one strong ruler. I intended to create just that. It was with the best intentions that I continued the war, believing the end justified the means. It took ten years of my life to unite all the clans under my rule, finally giving me an army nearly ten thousand strong."

"Ten thousand?" Link asked somewhat incredulously, "It would be nigh-impossible to feed such a force. How could you keep them together?"

A smile crept across Draston's face. "Part of military strategy is managing your force and their food supply. By moving in small groups, some distance apart, each fending for itself in hunting, food was not so difficult a problem. But getting them all through these mountains, with the giants and other dangers as well as some simply getting lost, I lost at least a thousand men.

"It was quite a strange feeling for them, and myself, to come out of the mountains into a land that was green instead of white, and it was impossible to freeze to death, even at the coldest part of night with no clothes. But it seemed to grow insufferably hot during the day. We began our attacks on the northernmost kingdom, Whitos-Neiki in the evenings. It took nearly a year to capture all the surrounding emplacements and finally siege the castle. I realized immediately that a direct attack with the manner my men were accustomed to fighting would be like trying to break a large rock with a slab of raw meat. We'd get plenty of our blood on it, but wouldn't make much real progress.

"So instead, we set up camp around the city, cutting off all supply trains and locking them in. We sat there for months and starved them out. It's a relatively bloodless way to conduct war, but the damage done to the people of the city when they at last surrendered was far worse than killing their warriors. It took years to get the city back on its feet and producing well enough to feed itself and partially feed my men. Fortunately, supply trains from hunters back home were coming in regularly, so that aided us considerably as well.

"I suppose the best benefit of the whole affair was that I was able to build myself a different image than the conquering, greedy tyrant most would have taken me for had I stormed the walls and taken the city by force."

"What is a warlord without his soldiers?" Link commented.

"Precisely," Draston said, "Loyal volunteers fight much harder than fear driven draftees in any case. It was this city that also named me the Wolf Lord, and it was where I at last chose my symbol, the paw print of the mighty timber wolf. The name was partially at the beckoning of my men who had been with me even before I took command of the army when Drasus died, saying I fought even more savagely in battle than the half-starved beast that had attacked me in my teenage years, and at the same time I was as fiercely protective of my subjects as the head of a pack," he paused as he shrugged, "Perhaps not so much as they believed, but I made sure the wounded were tended and those too far gone were mercifully put down. I tried to make sure everyone was fed and healers were provided with their herbs and supplies."

"Doesn't sound like you're as evil as you claimed," Sheila said, "If you're telling the truth, that is."

"Why should I lie, seven millennia after my death?" Draston said, "It would make little difference."

"What did you do next?" Sheila asked.

"Once Whitos-Neiki was capable of supporting itself again, I turned more of my attentions to the borders, wondering why there had been to repercussions or even messengers from the other kingdoms to stay off or possibly to try to allay fears that I was coming," he continued, "I'm not sure if it was because of that or simply sheer dumb luck, but I caught a spy sneaking into my tent in the dead of night. He was going through my maps, probably trying to find some manner of clue to my plans," he stopped to chuckle, "Joke was on him, I suppose. While I could read a map and the lay of the land well enough, I did not know how to read or write back then. And after I learned later, I wasn't stupid enough to ever write something so important down.

"The spy himself was a dark elf from Nigel, just to the south. That coal black skin of theirs makes them prime subjects for sneaking about in the dark, I suppose. And with the hood he was wearing, it hid that snow white hair that would stand out like a torch. Realizing he was discovered, he tried to make an escape, but I called out, and no matter how good a sneaksman he was, he couldn't escape an entire camp of alert soldiers, especially once enough torches were lit to light it up bright as day.

"He was caught and brought to me. The first thing he said was that I might as well just kill him because he would never betray his kingdom's secrets. I had met a few elves among the people of Whitos-Neiki, and some of them had been quite angry when I told them their rights granted to them for simply being elves were no more and they were the same as any human to me. I had never seen a dark elf before. I couldn't really see much difference other than the skin and hair color. All elves I've seen are fair skinned and most of them blonde."

He paused to smile at Sheila. "A perfect stereotype you make, don't you?"

Sheila adjusted her sitting position to be a bit more comfortable. "There's a bit more to me than you realize, but go on. What did you do to the Dra'thul?"

Draston smiled. "I told him that regardless of whether he gave up secrets or not, I would take his kingdom, and bring the same changes to it as I did to Whitos-Neiki. The differences in races would vanish, and discrimination would be at an end, and his kind would be no more important than any human.

"And did he do? He started crying!" Draston said, almost as if he couldn't believe his own words, "He was blubbering like an old woman! When I finally got him able to speak coherently again, he said that he didn't believe me. His people would go on being only slightly more valuable than dirt, the bottom of society. When I asked him to clarify, he told me about how the dark elves were treated. With fear and scorn, most of them wondered if they would starve from one day to the next, and the best they could hope for was to be inducted as a spy for the military. At least then they were fully clothed and fed. He said it had been that way for as long as he could remember, and for as long as history recorded. Were the dark elves treated in such a manner in the time of your ancient war, elf?"

"I... don't know," Sheila said after a moment's hesitation, "There are records of dark elf ninja, who functioned as spies and assassins, but nothing mentioned of such discrimination against them."

Draston 'hmphed.' "I suppose such things may have developed over time. But, in a way, I felt a strange kinship with this dark elf. Two people who grew up having to fight just to live out the day in a harsh environment, I suppose. But I then told him that I would move on Nigel next, and he would see for himself that I spoke true, and that his people would be welcomed into my clan with open arms. Then I released him and told him to do what he would with that information.

"I gathered my generals and made plans to march south. Taking a cue from the spy, I sent out some of my own. Warriors small enough to pass amongst the smaller people of the regions without attracting attention, telling them only to gather what information they could about the reactions to my army's movements. To my surprise, when they came back, they reported that the most anyone had noticed was that Whitos-Neiki had fallen to some uneducated barbaric horde due to their own foolish notions and weaknesses, and gone right on squabbling with one another over insubstantial matters such as exact lays of country borders and other such nonsense.

"Had they united against me, they would have likely been able to force my army back and keep their sovereignty. But their rulers were foolish and bickered amongst themselves rather than see the threat I posed. Nigel fell even easier than I expected. The spy I had released had apparently told the others of his kind what I intended, and he came to me within a day's march of the city to tell me to hold my forces out of sight of the city walls until sundown, then come to main gate.

"They introduced me to a new form of warfare. The warfare of subterfuge. When I arrived with a detachment of men after dark, the gate was wide open. Inside, two dark elf spies had taken the gatehouse and opened it for my forces. They told me that more were waiting near several prominent officials, just waiting for the signal to put them down.

"I told them to hold off at least until my men were in the palace. We needed to get our hands on the country's rulers ourselves, but I was intrigued by the dark elves' manner. This was a means of war that meant far fewer deaths than open combat or even forced starvation, and far less time rebuilding afterward. Many of my men might have thought it cowardly at first, but events that soon followed would change that opinion.

"We ended up having to fight our way into the palace, the alarm waking more and more people, but we were on many of the soldiers before they had time to arm themselves properly. The dark elves also joined the fight alongside us, proving their mettle to my men and me. In spite of being caught off guard, the Nigel army fought long and hard to protect their kingdom, in spite of my main army now pouring in the city gates from every direction.

Draston's voice turned to contempt. "Imagine after fighting such hardy and brave warriors that I find Nigel's king, cowering in a room beneath the palace, a sniveling wretch begging for his life after throwing thousands of other lives to their doom while he hid behind them."

"You killed him," Link said.

"No, he wasn't worth it," Draston said, "I did something far worse. I threw him to the people. I stripped him of his rank and title and all his wealth, and cast him out as a beggar. He was found dead about a week later. Not from any violence or disease, but starvation. He was so soft, so used to his wealth that he could not even feed himself.

"In any case, I received a bit of a mixed reception from the people of Nigel. To the dark elves, I had come as a liberator. To the soft noble class I was a greedy, conquering tyrant. And to the middle, working class, I was a little of both, seeing as we had killed many fathers and sons and brothers in taking the city. I ensured that all those brave warriors who died on our blades received a proper burial to whatever god they worshiped, and used the seized wealth of the nobles to compensate the families until they could get back on their feet. Most would hate me regardless, but it did much to ease the tension of the people.

"As I promised, the dark elves were welcomed not just into the army, but into the clans as equals. I ordered the word spread that any other dark elf who suffered under such discrimination as I had seen in Nigel would also be welcomed regardless of where they were from. In less than a month, dark elf refugees from the other kingdoms began to make their way into Nigel, some half starved, some whole and strong, but all eager to begin when I said they would have to work for their share of riches and food, just like any other under my rule. There were nearly a thousand dark elves under my command at that time.

"The healthier dark elves had been spies for Nigel or the other kingdoms, so I decided to turn them loose on their former oppressors. I sent many of them back under orders to give word immediately if any form of military action against me was taken. In the meantime, I gathered information on where to go next as I consolidated Nigel into my growing empire. Tyr seemed the most logical, due to the fact if I went further south, it would leave my flanks exposed to it.

"Tyr also had something else I had never seen before. Wizards. I was unsure how to approach that difficulty. Some people claimed that a wizard was just as vulnerable to an arrow in the throat as any other man, while others would say that such attacks would bounce right off an invisible shield around the wizard, and that swords and axes would have even less effect.

"And wizards would no doubt participate in the city's defense. In the end, I decided to make use of the dark elf spies again. I sent a small group that had not been sent elsewhere to assess the city's defenses and inform the others inside the city that we needed to find a way to quickly get our forces in, perhaps the way we did with Nigel, or at least eliminate the wizards to make the attack safer.

"When they came back, they had another man with them. He was Auberon, a just-graduated wizard whom all his instructors had claimed he showed amazing potential. I was not sure what that meant, but he offered to deal with the wizards, if I would allow him full access to the forbidden library in the academy once it was complete, so he could study the more difficult and forbidden magics.

"I admit, watching a pair of wizards fight it out is quite a show. In the end, we took the city as he kept the wizards busy. But while I was there, the first sign came to me, though I did not think much of it. When I took my bow to take down a sniper atop a building, I had difficulty drawing the bowstring. I later thought about it and realized I must have been neglecting my exercises during the years spent in preparation for invasions.

"Consolidating Tyr took longer than I had hoped. Many of the dark elves wished to study magic at the academy, but many of the surviving instructors refused to teach them, and the more experienced and powerful wizards had been killed in the battle."

"That's what started the decline of magical ability!" Sheila said suddenly, getting the attention of the others, "Learning the more powerful spells on your own is extremely difficult, due to an inability to see examples of the spell as it is cast, and thus, without wizards capable of demonstrating the more difficult spells, most would either give up or think it not worth the time."

"So that's it," Link said, turning back to Draston, "You and your conquest caused the downfall of magic."

"Perhaps so," Draston said, "I did not think about it at the time. But it took nearly a decade to get the people of Tyr and kingdom itself standing on their own feet once more and ready to move on Metallicana. They were ready for us when we arrived. Their army met us in the field outside the city, and for the first time since our conquest began, my people were able to fight as they had been trained to all their lives.

"It was in this battle that the other signs came to me. The first was my sword. I had to strain to lift it high, and I lacked the might to cleave through a man clean. When I drew my bow to take down an enemy officer at distance, my vision blurred as I tried to aim. We won the battle, but my weaknesses struck me to my very core. In horror, I realized I was falling to the same unseen foe that had truly claimed Drasus. I was growing old. The conquest had taken too long, and I would not live to see the world united under one strong ruler. There were still lands across the sea that I had yet to touch or even see.

"In desperation, as Metallicana was brought to heel, I searched every ancient holy text I could find, realizing that if I could not see the world united in this life, I would have to see it as Drasus would, in the afterlife. At last, my search unearthed the ancient holy text of Tempos, the god of war, the text written in human blood upon pages of flesh. The same text that you saw at the entrance to this temple. The text detailed sacred burial rites for His most loyal followers. As preparations were made to invade Darimar, I sent workers to the ruins of this temple in these mountains to prepare it for me to have a place in the afterlife.

"It was the first time I did not lead my men into combat. I stayed behind and secretly squandered my amassed fortune to rebuild this temple and ready it. The siege of Darimar went on for years, and at last the temple was ready for me. I came here under the pretense of investigating, along with Auberon and a few others. Auberon prepared the magic needed for what would be done.

"I slaughtered the workers so they would become the guardians of this tomb, and my most loyal subjects were allowed to keep their free will upon reawakening. Auberon gave his life willingly, believing it would give him literally all the time in the world to study his magics, only to later discover the weakness undeath would cause in him.

"With everything else in place, it was finally time. I sacrificed myself to Tempos, believing I would receive a place forever at His side," Draston chuckled slightly, "Little did I realize my actions would actually bind me to these halls for all time. And there is your story, elf."

Silence fell over the room but for the crackle of the green flames.

"You betrayed your men and fled from everything you had led them to believe," Link said, no trace of emotion crossing his voice, "Then you murdered innocent workers out of your own fear death."

He turned his gaze up to Draston, a hint of contempt entering his tone. "I'd say you got exactly what you deserved."

"Link, isn't that a little harsh?" Midna asked.

"I have had seven millennia to think about my actions," Draston said, his gaze falling to the floor, "I see the wisdom in your words. Perhaps . . . " he paused a moment, his gaze rising to meet Link's eyes once more, "Perhaps destiny offers us all a final judgement. A choice or test. My test was fear of death, and I failed. I allowed the fear to tame my spirit that had taken me so far. I never ruled my people. I led them, and would allow no one to control me or them. I allowed my own fear to control me."

Link knew Draston was speaking to him, attempting to reinforce what he had said earlier. _"Never lose your wildness, Link. Never lose that untamable part of yourself, and should someone attempt to take control of your destiny, you must fight them every step of the way. Had I remembered that, my fate would have been very different than it is."_

"I am curious, though," Draston said, "You said your modern republic was built from the wreckage of my empire. What happened to my army? How did your republic form?"

"Without your leadership," Sheila said, "your army crumbled. Darimar withstood the siege and forced them back. They retook the kingdoms one-by-one and finally drove the barbarian horde back into the mountains. I suppose," she added, suddenly realizing, "the dark elves all went with them. That may be why none were seen for so long and now they are suddenly reappearing.

"Anyway," she continued, "The king of Darimar decided then and there that one way or another, the kingdoms of Mystara had to work together, to prevent another such invader from taking them one by one. Each kingdom would maintain its independence, but before any truly drastic decisions, the leaders of all five kingdoms would have to meet to discuss such things.

"This in itself would not prevent the occasional corrupt ruler who may pretend a friendly face then invade to conquer, so precautions were taken by forming the Judges. They would wield absolute power to dethrone any noble or ruler if they deem it necessary, as well as acting as a form of law enforcement with no set jurisdiction, and would mediate the meetings between the rulers of the kingdoms."

"Sounds like the judges are the real rulers to me," Draston said.

"Not exactly," Sheila said, "No judge alive ever wanted to be one. They are carefully selected by the other judges and offered the position. Judges are selected on the belief that the best wielders of power are those who don't want it."

Link couldn't help but glance down at the Triforce symbol on his hand. _I wonder if that's the reason she's trying to force it on me . . . _he thought.

"Perhaps," Draston said, "In any case, the deal is complete now. There is nothing more that we can do for one another."

"Thank you for the telling," Sheila said as she and the others rose to their feet.

"Let's get going," Link said, turning for the hall to go out.

Their footsteps echoed as they moved away. Zelda, the last one out, stopped at the doorway to glance back at Draston. "Do you regret abandoning your followers?" she asked.

Sheila, Link, and Midna turned to see Draston grow suspicious. "What do you mean?"

"You have come to realize over time that your actions were wrong," Zelda said, her voice soft, "I do not believe redemption is impossible for anyone, regardless of the crime. They way you spoke, it seems you have repented for your crime. What binds you to this place is not the manner of your death, but your crimes. When you have repented and been forgiven, perhaps you will yet be welcomed to your god's side."

Draston laughed. "Me? Forgiven? For abandoning a warrior people when they needed a strong leader the most, when death in battle is the most glorious manner of passing and I seek out death by my own hand? None that I abandoned would ever forgive me."

"They are long dead, and the dead rarely hold grudges for what happened in the mortal life for so long," Zelda said, "I think what you really need is to forgive yourself."

Draston opened his mouth to reply, but a second later, all that emerged was a sigh. "Go," he whispered, closing his eyes and shaking his head, "Just go."

She turned away and walked with the others from the chamber.

* * *

A short time later, they emerged into the sunlight outside the temple. It was just past noon. "Well," Link said as they walked through the snow back toward the entrance of the vale, "That turned out to be quite the little adventure in itself."

"We've learned so much," Sheila said, "I need to buy a journal at the next opportunity and write Draston's tale down before I forget any of it."

"Will it have a happy ending?" Midna asked, "With Draston at last being able to move onto the afterlife?"

"I'll just have to come back in a few years and see," Sheila said.

A sudden explosion behind them caused all four of them to spin about. Stones and dust were falling from the roof of the temple entrance. Beyond the falling rubble, the skeletal figure of Auberon was visible. He raised one hand to wave farewell as rocks piled up in the entrance, preventing any future entry without an excavation team.

"Or we may never know," Link said as the rumbling ceased.

They started walking again, making good time in the shallow side of the valley, the massive drift of snow still piled up on the north side.

As the sun sank behind the high rock walls, they left the vale and entered the narrow pass that could be followed south back to Roxim's cave and then out of the mountains. No sooner had they entered the pass than Link signaled the others to be silent.

The sound of voices was clearly audible to the north.

"I don't care, Zivlyn, these three are not to be harmed until _I_ say so."

It was Khall's voice!

Link motioned the others to stay put and crept quietly up the pass. No more than ten feet from the entrance of the vale, it opened into a wide valley. Link peeked around the corner just enough to see the same camp of Aurilites he'd seen further down the mountain. Khall stood somewhat at the edge, arguing with a strange woman who didn't seem to be a worshiper of Auril.

She was taller than Khall, and her hair was cut short around her ears like a boy's. She was wearing warm pants and a heavy tunic, but both had numerous tears and slashes through the fabric, exposing the flesh beneath. Her hair also seemed to by dyed green, and she was wearing what must have been the ugliest shade of lipstick Link had ever seen, a dark blue.

"Then why are you even bothering telling me about them?" she demanded of Khall.

"Because, you barbaric bitch, there is a small chance you will see them somewhere in the mountains," Khall said, "I know you would kill them if I didn't mention this. If you even scratch the Hylians or the Twili, I will kill you myself."

"And the elf with them?"

"Leave her alone as well," Khall said, "But if you manage to capture her, _alive and unharmed_, I will want to question her. When I am finished, you may have her."

_Nice to see you've got our best interests at heart,_ Link said.

"You do what I tell you," Khall continued, "and I promise that within a very short time, you may kill Link and the Hylian princess yourself."

"And the Twili?" the girl asked.

"Sorry," Khall said, "But she is mine. Some of Mur'neth's ninja will be following you. If you go against my orders in any way, they have orders to kill you."

_So, our ninja leader has a name,_ Link thought.

A sudden shout from the camp turned Khall and the girl's attention from each other. The ground suddenly began to tremble beneath Link and more shouts were coming from the camp.

"Giants! Giants!" came the scream.

A massive boulder suddenly fell from the sky into the middle of the camp, crushing some of the people as they began to scatter. Link realized there was a pattern to the rumbling beneath him, and it wasn't steady. More boulders fell from the sky into the camp. Khall and the girl had both disappeared.

The giants must be on a ridge higher up, hurling the boulders and stamping their feet to cause the shaking. But why the shaking?

Suddenly the pattern ceased and a fainter rumble could be felt, this one quite steady, though fainter.

Link looked up. It looked like white clouds were billowing over the sides of the valley and pouring down the sides.

"Shit," he said, then leaped to his feet, running to the others, "Run! Run!"

"What's going on?" Midna asked as he snatched Zelda and Sheila's arms to drag them into a run.

"Don't talk!" Link said, "Run!"

The four of them barreled down the pass as the screams of the Aurilites were heard behind them. Midna cast a glance back to see the pass nearly filled with snow rushing after them.

The rumble of the avalanche grew louder by the second, and Link suddenly felt himself lifted from the ground and spun about as the snow rushed over them. He was turned about and looked up the pass just in time to see the rock before it struck him in the head and he knew no more.

* * *

Link couldn't feel his legs. His hands and arms were numb. He tried to force his eyes open, finding himself laying face-down in snow.

He could hear snow crunching nearby. Someone was moving. Was it one of the girls? He fought to lift his head, and a massive throb of pain shot through it, blurring his vision.

He could make out a large form standing over him, massive and covered in white hair.

His head fell back down as the pain knocked him out.


	29. Chapter 28

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

**Chapter 28: Back Up the Pass**

Link slowly lifted his head. The pain was at last easing up. He must have been out for hours. He found himself lying on a stone floor, his sword next to him, just within reach. Trying to sit up caused a wave of dizziness, so he forced himself to lay still and take several deep breaths until his head cleared.

Then he was aware of two voices, speaking to one another, echoing through the cavern. "If you think a man-eating, psychotic slave witch is bad, wait till you see the creature that ate her! That's what we had to deal with."

"Wait, don't tell me. It was big, purple, and had about a hundred eyes. Am I close?"

"Not even. It looked like a minotaur, but was made out of rock like a golem, and spat flame among other goodies."

"I think your memory is finally starting to go, Roxim. Your age is catching up with you. That's what happens when you're older than dirt."

Roxim! Link picked himself up, trying to get a bearing on his surroundings. Yes, he was back in the old dragon's cavern, in the main room under that sun orb suspended from the roof. He had been laying on the floor, his head propped on a small pillow. He stood up, noticing his chain mail was out of place and pinching him in several places. He pulled on it for a quick adjustment within his belt as he reached down to pick up the Master Sword. His shield was nowhere in sight, probably lost for good in the avalanche.

A loud crash suddenly echoed from the back room, followed by the second voice, "Hey! You mind watching where you're throwing that crap? You nearly took my head off!"

"I'd be doing the world a favor," Roxim's voice said.

A third, female, voice spoke up, "You shouldn't be throwing valuables around like that anyway."

That was Midna's voice! Link slipped the baldric of the sword over his shoulder as he made his way to the back chamber. It was about a ten foot passage to the back room, where he heard Roxim responding irritably as he entered, "It's mine, isn't it? I can throw it around if I want!"

What was in the chamber stopped Link in his tracks. Piles of gold and jewels ten feet high, stacks of ornamental weapons with hilts of solid gold and valuable gems embedded in the blades, and countless odds and ends like rings and necklaces lay through the chamber, which must have been thirty feet wide and who knows how deep, as Link couldn't see past all the gold.

Link could see Roxim over the tops of the piles, and decided to thread his way between the piles to reach them. A few gold coins tinkled to the floor as his tunic brushed against the piles, but this was unnoticed as the third occupant, a massive being nearly fifteen feet tall and covered in thick, wooly white hair, picked up a large tower shield which would easily have been taller than Link, though now it was bent at nearly a ninety degree angle from the impact it had suffered against the cave wall, and held it out for Roxim to see. "You won't have valuables much longer if you keep this up anyway."

Roxim turned away from the stacks of weapons he was searching through to examine the shield. "Bah! Shoddy work is what it is!" he said, turning back to the stacks of weapons, sifting through them and tossing several more out of the way, "Why, in my day, you could roll a knight down the side of a mountain and bounce him off two or three cliffs without even scratching his surface, much less bending or denting it!"

"In your day the gods were still in diapers," the yeti creature said, dropping the ruined shield out of the way.

Link nearly leaped out of his skin when Midna suddenly appeared behind his left shoulder, gripping it gently with one hand. "How are feeling?"

Link managed not to shout, at least. "Well, so long as pains don't start shooting through my left arm now, I think I'm fine. How long was I out?"

"About twelve hours, altogether," she said, "I woke barely an hour ago."

Roxim and the yeti glanced back at them. "Well, well, he lives!" Roxim said, "You're going to want to take it easy, Link. You had a concussion. I had your girlfriend there put some special salve I'd been saving on your forehead, and the lump's at least gone down a fair bit."

"Link," Midna said, holding out one had to indicate the yeti, "This is Gaor. He's the one that found us after the avalanche."

The massive yeti grinned, and saluted with a hand the size of a human's torso. "How you doin'?"

"Thanks for the save," Link said, then turned to Midna, "Where are Zelda and Sheila?"

"They weren't with us when Gaor found us," Midna said with a sigh, "I woke up back here, and Roxim went out to fly over the pass to see if he could find them."

As she spoke, Link felt a terrible weight growing in his chest. He realized they could have been buried by the avalanche and already dead by the time Gaor had found himself and Midna. "And?" he prompted.

"Well," Roxim said before Midna could go on, "For starters, the pass is completely blocked by snow and rock. It seems the Aurilites were gathering in real numbers and the giants didn't like that. The surviving Aurilites have moved westerly, into a valley that even has a direct route out of the mountains onto the tundra to the north. They've got a small part of the camp set up like a prison."

"Prison..." Link said, "They probably have them, then..."

"Now, I didn't attempt a rescue because the giants are fairly close by, and I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate me starting quite a few fires and causing more avalanches," Roxim said, "I'm sure you intend to go rescue your friends, right?"

"Of course," Link said.

Roxim tossed a few more items aside from the pile he was searching. "Then you're going to have to get back up that blocked pass, as well as pass through the giants' encampment to reach the Aurilite camp. I've got something here..." he paused as he sifted through more of the pile, "...somewhere... that will help with the pass. As for the giants, though, you'll be on your own, as well as with the Aurilites."

"Can you tell me a bit more about them?" Link asked, "Numbers and such?"

"At the giants' encampment, there is maybe twenty giants, and forty humans. They all look like northern barbarians to me," Roxim said, "Not easy opponents. I doubt you'd be able to fight your way through. As for the Aurilites, maybe thirty or so."

"Did you see a wizard with them?" Link asked, "He'd be wearing a white cloak, blonde hair."

"No," Roxim said, "There was one woman who stood out, though. Green hair. Hard to miss. I doubt she was a worshiper of Auril."

Link checked his belt, pleased to find his dagger was still there. "If she's alive, Khall likely is, too," he leaned back against a pile of gold, crossing his arms, "I suppose I've reached that point that if I don't see a body, I don't believe them dead."

"Good policy, actually," Roxim said, then, "Ah! Here it is!"

He turned about, holding a small object between two claws, holding it out for Link.

It looked like a horn from some kind of creature, hallowed out to make a sound when one blew into the narrow end, with a strap attacked at both ends so it could be worn around one's neck. In actual size, it was only about six inches in length, and the large end was scarcely three across. It had been bleached white, and a metal band situated at the large end with gold letters written across its surface.

Link took the horn, rolling it over in his hands. "So, I blow this and the cavalry comes to the rescue?" he asked.

"This is a very rare device," Roxim said, "You are holding in your hands one of the precious few Sunscorch Horns. When one blows into the horn, a blast of sunlight and heat comes out the opening, capable of blinding your foes, utterly destroying undead, and melting snow."

"Oh, I get it now," Link said, "I use this, then we swim up the pass!"

Roxim snorted. "Can we do this without the sarcasm, please?"

"Sorry," Link said, "Anything else?"

"There's also a bit of a shockwave when you use it, but it has very short reach," Roxim said, "You might be able to stun nearby foes with it. And lastly, it requires six hours in sunlight between each use to recharge its magic."

Link fitted the strap over his neck which allowed the horn to hang against his chest. "Thanks, Roxim."

"Now keep in mind," the dragon said, "I'm not giving this to you. I am _lending_ it to you, so you can rescue your friends. I might have traded it to you had you brought back something valuable from the temple, but you did not."

Gaor shoved Roxim's shoulder with one hand, nearly causing the dragon to stumble. "Oh, knock it off, man. You're gonna go help 'em anyway."

"Shut up!" Roxim hissed at the yeti. Roxim then took a deep, calming breath. "Now," he said, "I'll hang around fairly close to you, but not so close the giants start hurling rocks at me. If you get into trouble, give me some kind of signal, and I'll swoop in and pull you out."

"A signal?" Link asked, turning to Midna.

"I can throw some magic into the sky," Midna said, "It'll look like black lightning bolts."

"All right," Roxim said, "Black lightning into the sky and I'll lift you out. As payment for this, if you happen across any valuables the Aurilites possess, I get first pick. Deal?"

"That's fine," Link said, "All I care about is getting Zelda and Sheila out."

"Okay then," Roxim said, "Let's get this underway. Will you be staying here, Gaor?"

"Yeah, but I tell you what," the yeti said, "Run and get me cow before you get started, and I'll have some chili waiting when you get back."

* * *

Roxim had departed from the cave entrance into the sky while Link and Midna had skirted the narrow ledge just outside to get back into the pass leading north. The snow was deep and rapidly getting deeper, and after less than half an hour of walking, it shot up suddenly, forming an impassable wall blocking the pass.

"I hope they're all right," Link said as he gazed at the massive pile of snow.

"We know at least one of them is," Midna said, "And it won't do any good to sit here worrying."

Link picked up the horn hanging against his chest. "Yeah, but it still doesn't feel right. If it were me this happened to, I'd deal with it and move on. But it's not the same with Zelda and Sheila. Zelda's not an adventurer. She's a leader. Not to put her down or anything, but she belongs in command, not out here with us doing the dirty work. And Sheila, she has nothing to do with this other than we need her help to recover this spell, and she's a kind person."

"You're feeling guilty?" Midna said, "What happened wasn't your fault."

Link sighed. "I know, but to be honest, I feel more guilty about the fact I miss the days when it was just you and me."

Midna felt her heart beat just a little bit faster. "I mean," Link said, "We knew what we were getting into, and we knew how to take care of each other. Hell, if it were just you and me, we'd have said to hell with finding the spell, and marched right up to Khall's citadel in the mountains, kicked down the front door, and beat the reversal spell out of him. But now we're involved in something much bigger than Hyrule."

"You're thinking about Ganondorf now," Midna said.

"I would like nothing better than to get that bastard's black heart on a pike," Link said, "But the way things seem to be now, we need to keep him alive, at least until we're positive Khall's scheme is defeated. But there's no guarantee Ganondorf will be willing to listen to the state of things, and how we may just have a common enemy."

Midna backed away from Link a bit. "You can't be thinking of working with that monster! Not after what he's done to us all!" her voice dropped to a whisper, "Not after what he did to me..."

"No, we'll likely have to find a way to keep him under control, though," Link said, "Probably have to beat him within an inch of his life, and just keep him there until things are over. Anyway, this is getting ahead of ourselves."

He lifted the Sunscorch horn. "Let's see if this thing can open up the pass or not."

Midna moved a bit further behind him. Link touched the horn to his lips and blew into it. What followed next was nearly to fast to see. A blindingly bright flash of yellow light emerged from the open end of the horn, and Link found himself flying backward through the air, crashing into Midna and landing on his butt in steaming hot water flowing back down the pass. "Holy son of a what the hell?!" he said as he clutched the horn, staring at it, then looked up the pass.

Midna clutched at his shoulder as they both looked up the pass, now completely open and steaming water running nearly ankle deep down the pass. They both looked back at the horn, then turned to each other.

Then they both started laughing, a low chuckle at first, then louder and more uproarious as Link got to his feet and started slogging up the pass with Midna just behind him.

"I like that thing," Midna said.

"I am so not giving it back," Link said with a smile.

* * *

Zelda woke to find herself lying in a soft bed. She looked up to realize it was her own bed, in the castle at the center of Hyrule. The sun peeked through the window, filling the room with a soft, golden glow of morning.

She lay her head back in the pillow. Even the soft sheets against her bare skin felt familiar. No doubt her lady in waiting would be along soon to wake her up and begin the day. With a yawn, she turned to her side to see something that shouldn't be there. On her night stand was a small jewelry box, about six inches long, the type specially meant for a necklace, laying upon an envelope, still sealed with red wax.

Zelda reached across to the box, taking the envelope and box. She opened the box, its hinges quite new and springy. Within was a silver chain, ornamented with a gold pendant shaped in the image of the royal family's symbol, the three sacred golden triangles.

_Well, that's not too bad,_ she thought, _It certainly fits._

Slipping one finger under the fold of the envelope, she broke the wax seal and pulled a single card from within. Opening the card, she found a neatly written, but unsigned message. "For our beautiful princess," the message said, "A wedding gift to commemorate this joyous occasion. May our kingdom thrive for millennia to come."

Wedding gift? Now, wait just one minute! That wasn't right! She wasn't married, and certainly wasn't planning on it anytime soon! She'd have to marry eventually, she knew, but she hadn't yet!

Such were her thoughts on the matter that she didn't even notice the arm that reached across her beneath the blankets until it softly rubbed its hand across her stomach, and a very male sigh came from behind her. The hand slid slowly up her stomach, causing her skin to tingle from the touch.

She was absolutely rigid as it slowly went higher and higher, then suddenly cupped her breast and gave a soft squeeze. She managed to force her head to turn, looking over her shoulder at the freshly woken, dark skinned face, his square chin ringed with a sharp beard, his nose narrow and sharp ended, and the round ears that were different from everyone else in Hyrule. He smiled at her, that familiar sinister expression causing her heart to leap.

She screamed, and leaped from the bed to smack her head against the iron bars of the cage and cause her leg to scream in fiery pain. Wait, cage?

Yes, she was in a cage. A large one, admittedly, but still a cage. Nearly ten feet wide and fifteen long, and at least eight tall. Evidently for holding cattle, and judging by the smell, that wasn't too bad a guess. Looking out between the bars, she could see she was about three feet off the ground as well. A cattle transport cart.

She was fully clothed, and her hands shackled together. It must have been a dream, she decided. Yes, just a dream. There was no way she would marry _him_, let alone allow him into her bed.

But wait... What was it she had read when she was a child? Something about how in times of trouble, Hyrule's princess could see the future in her dreams?

Now that really was getting rediculous! She'd never had such dreams before, even when Hyrule was at its worst a year ago! There was no reason she'd start having such dreams now!

_That_ was not the future! That was a nightmare, plain and simple! If it was a possible future, she sure as _hell_ would not allow it to happen!

The thought couldn't help but force itself into her mind, though, that she had to be so unlucky that while everyone else got sex dreams, she got morning-after dreams.

She looked out between the bars to see people moving about. Men and women of varying ages, all dressed in similar outfits, tight fitting cloth with no sleeves and short legs instead of pants. Many were carrying weapons such as maces, morning stars, and a few war hammers. _Must be more Aurilites,_ she thought, _I must have blacked out during the avalanche, and they found me._

She realized that Sheila was slumped against the bars a short distance from her. Her hands were similarly shackled together, and she still seemed to be unconscious.

Zelda started to move toward her, but stopped when her left leg screamed in agony. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she stopped, then leaned down to run her hands down her leg. Stopping when she felt give beneath her skin along with a redoubling of the pain, she realized that her leg was broken, about a third of the way down from her knee. Her pants were not bloody, so it hadn't ripped through her skin, but that was small comfort at this point. Riding in an avalanche was going on her list of things to never do again.

With her wrists shackled together, she could not move her hands properly to cast magic, and Sheila's were similarly bound, so there was no means of escape there. She wondered for a moment if Sheila could manage that healing magic she possessed to fix her leg, but decided it was unlikely.

She would have to set the bone, though, and get some kind of splint soon. Sighing in frustration, she reached up to scratch an itch on her head, to find that her hair was a matted, tangled mess, full of dirt and, thanks to this cage, cow dung. Fortunately, it was long since dry, but it was still revolting. Some of her hair had come loose from the tail she had been keeping it in, and she imagined she must be quite a sight. She-beast of the north.

Glancing over at Sheila again, she decided the elf didn't look much better, though. The skirt she was wearing was torn and utterly ruined, and the fur jacket she was wearing over her traveling gown was positively filthy and torn in several places.

_Why am I thinking about clothes at a time like this?_ she thought, _I should be more worried about getting out of this alive. And getting a bath. Gods, I want a bath._

Sheila's eyes fluttered. The elf was starting to regain consciousness.

"Are you okay?" Zelda asked.

"Other than a splitting headache," Sheila muttered, "I feel like it's the morning after graduation all over again. Where are we?"

"I think we're in an Aurilite camp," Zelda said, "They must have found us after the avalanche."

Sheila looked down at the shackles on her wrists. "So much for that, then. Have you seen Link and Midna?"

"I've seen what's in this cage and not much else," Zelda said, "And my left leg's broken."

"Damn," Sheila muttered and shifted onto her hands and knees to crawl over to Zelda, "Show me where."

"Right here," Zelda said, indicating the spot she had found the give.

Sheila's fingers tapped and prodded around the spot, trying to ascertain the exact location of the break, causing Zelda to hiss through her teeth. "It needs to be set," Sheila said, "If my hands were free, I could mend it..."

"We'll just have to set it now and worry about it later," Zelda said.

"Right," Sheila said, then reached around Zelda's head, pulling what was left of the tail of her hair over her shoulder, "Bite down on this."

Zelda took the tail of her hair and tried to wipe off some of the filth, without much success, before sighing and clamping her teeth on the thick twists of hair.

Sheila managed to get one of her hands on each side of Zelda's leg, in spite of the shackles, so she could brace the leg with one and shove with the other. "Ready?"

Zelda was gripping the iron bar above her head with both hands tightly, and she nodded. Sheila pushed. Zelda groaned through the mouthful of hair as her leg screamed in agony. Sheila didn't let up, but shifted her weight so her shoulder was above her arm and she could get more force into the push.

With a sudden snap, loud enough to be heard by everyone nearby, the bone popped back into its proper place and Zelda's groan died away, turning into tired breathing. In spite of the cold, she was covered in sweat, her face red with exhaustion.

She spat out the tail of hair as Sheila tore one of the loose ends of her ruined skirt free, then tied it around the break in Zelda's leg as a makeshift hold for it until she could mend it or they could make a proper splint.

"Well, well," said a voice outside the cage.

They turned to see a girl watching them. She was unusually tall for a girl, and her hair was dyed a dark green, and cut short around her ears. Unlike the Aurilites, she was wearing thick, warm pants and a heavy tunic, though both seemed to bear numerous knife slashes that exposed her skin underneath at several points.

"Well well welly well well," she said, "Awake at last, I see."

They both stared at her a moment, then Sheila remarked, "That has got to be the ugliest shade of lipstick I've ever seen."

The girl's lips were are dark blue, standing out in contrast to the rest of her face. She smiled and laughed at the comment. "Aren't you more concerned about what's going to happen to you?"

"Anything will be fine so long as you don't try to make me wear that crap," Sheila said.

"Link's rubbing off on you," Zelda said.

"You think so?" Sheila asked.

"Oh, you're a fiery one," the girl said, stepping closer to the cage and licking her lips, "Khall better hurry up and get back here, or I don't know how long I'll be able to hold off. He won't let me have the princess, but oh, you're going to be so much better than I imagined."

"Now wait just a minute," Sheila said, backing up just a bit, "I'm not into that sort of thing, you see. Um... I'm straight!"

The girl's face was nearly touching the bars of the cage, looking up at her. "Oh, that's not a problem for me, and it won't matter long anyway. Khall promised I can have Link when everything's finished. I've always wanted a chance to make a big heroic man get on his knees and beg for it."

Zelda leaned closer to Sheila's ear and whispered, "I get it now. She's a sadist."

"Translation: sicko," Sheila whispered back.

"And then there's the fact that I don't know what Khall wants with you, oh pretty princess," the girl said, "but if he's willing to let me have Link once everything is done, just maybe I'll get a chance at you, too."

"Nightmares," Sheila whispered.

"I've had those already," Zelda replied.

"By the way," the girl said, "my name is Zivlyn, Khall's favorite enforcer. I specialize in getting rid of unwanted pests. I make examples of them that none ever forget. I hope... you two will not become such pests."

Zelda and Sheila hesitated a moment before Zelda managed to ask, "What kind of examples?"

"Adding blood to the mix really heightens the experience," Zivlyn said, grinning wide like a beast about to devour its prey, "especially when it's in great big spurts! Unfortunately, it rarely lasts long, so I've reigned myself in from such practices considerably, so that I can even use the same person more than once, but every so often I just like to cut loose, you know? When Khall wants someone 'out of the picture,' it's a wonderful chance to enjoy!"

She watched them for a long moment, then licked her lips in anticipation again before turning to walk away into another part of the camp. Zelda and Sheila watched her go. "I'm lost," Sheila said, watching Zivlyn's receding back, "Does she want to have sex with us or kill us?"

"I'm worried it might be a little of both," Zelda said, "We need to get out of here."

"I'm for that. How?"

"First, we need to get these shackles off so we can use our magic, and if we can, I need to find my bow and the arrows. They were probably lost in the avalanche, though. And I can't run on this leg, so you'll have to help me."

"I can mend it," Sheila said, "But it would still take weeks to fully recover."

"So long as I can run on it, it'll be fine," Zelda said, "First thing's first, though. We need to get these shackles off."

"What about Link and Midna?"

"I've no doubt that they are on their way here now, if they are able," Zelda said, "But I'd rather not wait around to see what that psycho is going to do first."


	30. Chapter 29

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

Long time gap after I just promised more regular updates. A combination of real life, computer difficulties, and mild writer's block all attributed to it. I didn't plan this part out well enough, and couldn't seem to find the right way to portray exactly what I was thinking of for this chapter. Eventually, I just told myself to get it overwith so I could get on to other things. In the end, I am pleased about the little discussion between Link and Midna, but I generally dislike the rest of this chapter. One thing's for certain: I need to hurry up and get out of the mountains so I can get on to the really good things coming up later, including Ganondorf.

And I realize now, during the proofreading, that I perhaps made a certain aspect here a bit too unlcear, but I like the way it turned out and don't want to change the wording, so I'll just say here that when this chapter mentions a 'skeletal figure,' it means that undead warrior who teaches Link the special attacks in the Twilight Princess game. It was sort of a last minute addition to this chapter, but I realized that I could do quite a lot with it in chapters to come.

I also couldn't think of a decent name for the chapter as a whole. Bleh. Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. Next one shouldn't take so long.

**Chapter 29: What is a Hero?**

The giants' camp consisted primarily of three things: food, drink, and fighting. It took massive amounts of meat and wine to satisfy the gullets of the enormous creatures, while the human members of the camp would start fist fights or even kill one another over what was less than a mouthful to the great brutes.

The giant king, Drakkus, seated himself at the far northern end of the camp on a natural rock formation in the side of a high cliff that bore an odd resemblance to a throne fitted for one his size, his massive steel war-hammer propped against the side of his seat, watching his men, giant and human alike, as they celebrated their victory over the Aurilites the previous day. The wizard would think twice before coming into the mountains again.

He watched as they feasted and fought, smiling to himself as he bit into a whole beef, crunching the bones between his teeth and drank from a stone goblet large enough for a human to bathe in. It was a good day for all.

It came as somewhat of a surprise when a voice called up to him from the ground, informing him that there was a foreign warrior seeking an audience with him. He looked down to see one of his barbarian soldiers, wrapped in animal pelts against the cold, his battle axe at the ready in one hand, looking up at him.

"Who is he?" Drakkus asked.

"He did not give his name, my lord," the barbarian called upward, "He looks somewhat like an elf, but he is far to stocky."

"Must be one of those bastard cross-breeds," Drakkus muttered, though the rumble of his voice was still quite audible, "Fine. Bring him to me."

"He has weapons, sir," the barbarian said, "Shall we disarm him?"

Drakkus leaned forward and twisted his beard, wringing out the spilled wine, drenching the barbarian in a wave of the red liquid, then leaned back again with a smile as the human choked and sputtered. "No point in doing so. He could hardly harm me, and only a truly foolish small one would pick a fight with twenty men."

The barbarian gave a fist-to-heart salute, then turned and walked away as Drakkus lifted his goblet once more to drink and undo the work wringing his beard out had done.

The camp itself was erratically spaced cooking fires and an odd tent or two as men and women feasted and drank in a victory celebration, while about twenty giants lounged around the edges of the valley, less energetic than their smaller allies. The camp spread through a large bowl valley that was itself about half a day's march northeast of the vale where Link and the others had found Draston's tomb, the passes to reach it from that direction nearly impassable for a human. While humans had to fight their way through narrow passes between the mountains and shimmy along narrow ledges to navigate the mountains, the giants could simply step over or around most such obstacles, and could easily climb otherwise impassable areas.

The shouting and cheering of the camp seemed to die away when the messenger returned with two scouts, between thema lone man walking silently forward. Perhaps it was the way the man carried himself, calm and confidant, even was the large numbers of barbarians turned from their fires and food to watch him, or perhaps it was the incredibly fine swordhe wore over his shoulder with the ease of an experience warrior, or perhaps it was because he was wearing bright green. He obviously didn't understand much about camouflage in snow. Even the giants slowed their feasting to watch him as he moved through the camp

His escort brought him to a stop before Drakkus, who looked down at him, and shook his head. He didn't look any different than the other small peoples. "It takes courage to walk into a camp of giants alone," Drakkus said, leaning forward, his hands on his knees to balance his great girth, "Or stupidity. What do you seek of me, little one?"

"Only passage," the man called up to him, "Yesterday your people caused an avalanche upon a camp of followers of Auril. I believe I understand your reasons for doing so, but my companions and I were caught in the avalanche as welland separated. I have reason to believe the surviving Aurilites have my companions. I intend to rescue them."

"You have reason to believe," Drakkus repeated, "What reason?"

"I have a friend," the man called up, "The dragon, Roxim, flew over their camp and spied an area that looks ready to hold prisoners. He did not land, nor does he accompany me now, as he does not wish to violate his truce with your people to allow him to live out his remaining years in peace."

"I see now," Drakkus said, scratching his beard with one hand, "And you intend to take your friends from the Aurilites by yourself?"

"Yes."

"Do you know who these Auril worshippers serve?" Drakkus asked, "Other than the goddess of ice, that is?"

The man nodded. "They serve the wizard, Khall, who has attacked my homeland and brought me here in pursuit. I will have his head as well before this is all over."

Drakkus smiled slightly. "Then it seems we have a common enemy. Tell me your name, warrior."

"My name is-"

He was interrupted by a sudden outburst from the side, as one of the barbarians apparently decided to try and steal his companion's mug of wine, and the other suddenly drew his axe and put it in the first's skull. He wrenched it free, then shoved the body back onto the snow, which immediately began to grow dark red beneath his split head as the blood spread. The second swung his axe through the air, flicking the blood from the blade before resuming his seat and turning back toward Link and Drakkus.

Link shook himself, then turned back to Drakkus. "My name is Link. I'm from the country of Hyrule, far to the east."

"Link..." the giant mused, "So be it then. You will be permitted passage through my realms, as will any who travel with you. This does not mean that I trust you, however. We will be watching you. If you give me any reason to believe you would endanger any of my followers, human or otherwise, and you will not live to see your homeland again."

He gestured one massive hand to the barbarians on either side of Link. "Take him to the northwestern pass and let him go."

They saluted with their right fists to their hearts, and the one on Link's left motioned for him to follow. The feasting and drinking quickly resumed as the trio entered the pass at the north-eastern corner of the valley. The pass leading away was rocky, and ascended rapidly upwards. It was no easy trek, by any means.

"Follow this pass for three leagues," one of the barbarians said as they halted just at the entrance and Link walked further in, "It leads directly to your goal, but it is a difficult climb. Our scouts could make it by dawn, but unless you've got wings on your feet, it will probably take you two days."

"Just let me worry about that," Link said without looking back.

He stepped up the path, taking almost no time to be sure of his footing on the rocks as he began to climb the upward slope.

The barbarians watched his progress for a few moments before turning to head back to their camp.

"I can't believe they let us through so easy," Midna remarked to Link.

The path went nearly vertical a short ways up and Link was forced to grasp rocks with his hands to continue his climb. "They're a warrior group," Link said, not bothering to look for the disembodied voice that spoke to him, "Likely comparable to the northern tribes that Draston spoke of. The type to value strength and skill above all else. The strongest warrior is therefore their leader."

A stone he grasped came loose from the wall, and Link quickly adjusted his grip to keep from falling as it clattered downward. "Damn," he muttered as he reached for the next handhold to continue his ascent, then turned back to the topic, "The problem with such a society is that the leader has to constantly be on guard. If someone manages to kill him, rather than be a murderer, they take his place. Thus the crown can easily slip from the grasp of one tyrant to another. There's no place for a decent man among that lot."

"You're being awfully pessimistic," Midna said, "More so than usual, anyway. What happens if a strong, decent man does win their crown?"

"He will likely do good, at least for a time," Link said, "But in the end, he'll fall to treachery."

"What if you were to find yourself a leader of such a group?"

Link climbed on in silence for a moment before responding. "I don't know. I don't want to lead people. I don't want to be a ruler. I don't think I'd be able to handle the pressure."

"I seem to recall you never hesitating to step up before," Midna said, "Such as at the castle, when you took charge of things and directed Rusl and the others to draw Ganondorf's troops off so that we could reach the keep."

"I just did what had to be done," Link said, "Same as when I took the Master Sword. I didn't want it. I just needed it."

"And what about when Zant cast me into the light?" Midna asked, her tone growing dark, "Did you just do what had to be done then?"

Link stopped his ascent. "Don't ask that of me," he said softly, "You know that has nothing to do with what I'm saying."

"Then you'd better speak more clearly," Midna said, "I'm must not be getting your point."

With a sigh, Link started climbing again. "You know the stories that got around after I defeated Ganondorf. The way people think of me, the way they look at me, it all changed. I used to be just a farmer with a little practice with a sword. And yet people began to look at me like I was something else. They looked at me with awe, and respect like I'd never known. And they also looked at me with fear."

"I think," Midna began, then stopped, and Link climbed several more feet before she continued, "I think I understand what you mean. You've done things they've only heard stories about. You accomplished the things that legends are made of. That is what they see in you: A larger-than-life living legend. An oddity in their lives. Legends are meant to be spoken of, remembered, but never lived."

"I could live with strangers thinking that of me," Link said, "I could care less. But when I returned to Orden after it was over, it was Ilia that made me realize the whole of it."

He climbed in silence for another moment. "The fear in her eyes broke my heart," Link said, "She knew it was me, she knew I would never harm her or any other in Orden, but the stories of what I'd done had already reached the village. She was afraid of me. She did her best to hide it, of course, but I could see it. It took nearly six months to finally get her to stop looking at me that way, to finally start to truly trust me again.

"And here I am," he growled as he paused a moment to adjust his belt before continuing to climb, "doing it all over again. Probably the only thing I had going for me was that she never saw me when I was at my worst. But Colin did.

"Do you remember?" he asked, "When I killed those creatures and threw their leader off the Great Hylian Bridge? Colin would have known I was there to save him, but when I first made to cut him free, he flinched away. I can't forget the way he looked at me that day. Maybe everyone is right to be afraid of me. I seem to have this dark side that surfaces whenever I am angered. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, I kill everything that comes within reach. What if it happens in the future and I cut down a friend without realizing it? What happens if I lose myself just a short time from now as I fight through the Aurilites and kill Zelda or Sheila before I realize it's them?"

"Link, you're not a berserker," Midna said, "There is a large difference between blind rage and righteous fury. I've only ever seen you with the latter. And besides, I've seen you at your worst, and I'm not afraid of you."

Link smiled a bit at the small comfort she was attempting to offer. "Thanks. But there are still the people who look at me in awe, like I'm something truly spectacular, and they should be lucky to breathe the same air as me. If only they knew the truth. I'm not the invincibly courageous hero they believe, as you well know. They compare me to these legends of men and women who sacrificed their lives for the sake of people they didn't know, nor ever would. I wouldn't be able to do that."

"Becoming a martyr doesn't make one courageous, I believe," Midna said, "In fact, I would say it was the act of a coward, lacking the strength of will and character to find a way to save everyone they can, including themselves. Death is an escape from having to fight for anything further in the future. If their sacrifice fails, they are essentially dumping theirfight onto the shoulders of others. Only a coward would calmly accept death."

"_You can never surrender yourself to the cause,"_ the warrior had said, Link remembered, _"Death is an escape from the responsibility you accept when you pick up your sword. No one accomplishes anything by dying for his cause. When you pick up your sword and face your enemy, you must accept that it may not end until one of you is buried in the ground. This does not mean that killing is the only option. A true warrior will only kill when he has no other choice. Know the heart of your enemy, and you will know whether or not he is truly your enemy."_

"Midna," he said.

"Yes?"

"Thanks for listening to me," Link said, "I hate that you're always the one I end up venting on."

"I don't mind," she said, "You do the same for me. I know you're not what the stories that got around make you out to be. Maybe when this is over, you should write a book about what really happened."

"Really?" he asked, "What would the title be?"

"One Thousand Acts of Awe Inspiring Courage and Two Thousand Acts of Ass Saving Cowardice."

"That's a good title," he said, "Though I think it will soon be one-thousand-one acts of awe inspiring courage, if things work out."

"You've got a plan now?"

"It'll depend on how things look when we get there, but I'll need your help. If we can draw them all to one general area, we could likely get them all quickly. The main thing is how to gather them up without being found out. I doubt these ice-worshiping freaks willhave any fires going, which will be all the better for us. Worse at the same time I suppose, since they won't be night-blind, but it promises they won't have a bonfire that lights the place up like daylight."

"We need to get there by sundown, then," Midna said, "That's only about five hours off."

Link suddenly found himself gripping a ledge as the near vertical pass suddenly leveled out an nearly a ninety degree angle. He pulled himself up, sitting down on the level ground for a moment to rest. "We'll travel faster if I go on four feet now."

* * *

"Okay, how do you suggest we get the shackles off?" Sheila asked as soon as the Aurilite guard was out of earshot. 

He had delivered a bowl of ice cold, dry chicken, and a small bit of bread, as well as a bit of water for the pair as they waited in their makeshift prison.

"That's the problem," Zelda said, looking down at the bindings on her wrists, "I haven't got a clue. We've got no means of breaking them, and without our magic, I doubt we could open them silently."

She picked up a piece of the chicken and took a bite, chewing for a moment, then glanced at the bone beneath the meat, a distant memory rising up. "You know, I remember a time when a thief escaped his cell in the prison, back in Hyrule. There was no sign of breaking out, and he hadn't gotten the keys. He didn't get far, about half a block away from the castle before someone noticed he was missing. After he was caught, investigating his cell and pockets showed that he'd fashioned a lockpick out of rat bones."

"Clever," Sheila said.

Zelda reached for the bowl of chicken again and located what may have been a wing, and began stripping the meat from the bones, depositing it back into the bowl as she went.

Sheila realized what she was up to. "Are you serious?"

"I'm no thief," Zelda said as she worked, "but the lock on a pair of shackles can't be nearly as complex as a cell door. If we get the right size splinter of bone, I might be able to jimmy yours open, then you can do mine. Or failing that, with your hands free, you'd at least be able to clear us a path to make a run for it."

"We'd best wait until after dark," Sheila said, "At least with the cover of night, we'd have a better chance."

"And hopefully, we won't run into the psycho on the way," Zelda said, stripping the last of the meat she could from the bones, then began twisting pieces off the wing at the joints.

In a moment, she'd torn the joints apart and had obtained several small splinters of bone, including the wingtip, which might be able to accomplish her goal. "How long until sundown?" she asked.

Sheila glanced out through the bars. "About five hours. It may get dark sooner with the way those black clouds are building up. Looks like a storm."

"That gives us time for both of us to get a bit of sleep before we get started," Zelda said, "I'd rather have one of us awake with that freak wandering around here."

"That woman said they were waiting for Khall," Sheila said, "If he arrives before sundown, I doubt we'll be able to escape."

"We're just going to have to hope for the best," Zelda said, "Why don't you sleep first? I'm not eager to get back to that dream I had earlier."

* * *

The sun slowly descended behind the western peaks, bathing them red with its light, like a portent of the violence to come that night. It was not even completely dark when the first call was heard. 

Zivlyn arrived at the sight, on the western side of the camp with two Aurilites flanking her to find three of them standing around a corpse in the snow.

"Aw, someone have a party and I wasn't invited?" she asked.

"He was found like this," one Aurilite said, pointing his mace at the mangled body, "The bite marks resemble those of a wolf, rare in these parts."

"And what's so important about that?" Zivlyn asked, "You said rare, not impossible. An animal killed him, big deal."

"Look at him!" the Aurilite said, "His throat has been torn out! That is all! If this were an animal, it would have fed on his body! This was a killing, pure and simple!"

Zivlyn threw her hands up in the air started spinning around, "Oh, no! The animals have started their uprising! They'll kill us all! We must submit to our new canine overlords if we are to survive!"

"What I believe he means," one of the other Aurilites said, "is that this was likely a trained attack animal."

Zivlyn stopped spinning about "Oh, I see. That would mean that the trainer is out here somewhere. He could be intending to kill more of us," she clapped her hands together, "Oh, I hope we get him alive! I could have some fun at last!"

"My lady," one of the Aurlites behind her said, "May I suggest we start a search?"

"Of course," she said, "He's probably looking to rescue the prisoners. I'll go check on them. Get everyone you need and search the valley and the nearby passes."

Zivlyn was a sadist, perverse, and probably half-insane, but she was no fool. She had camped the surviving Aurilites in this location because there were only two ways in our out, and those were the narrow passes at the western and southeastern areas. The northern side of the area was a sheer drop nearly four thousand feet to the icy tundra below. The southeastern pass was wide enough for the wagon they had brought in to hold the prisoners.

It was easily defendable.

With shouted orders, she soon had the entire camp moving, and was on her way to the wagon being used to hold the prisoners. She walked up tot he bars in time to hear the click and see the elf's hands come free. "And just what do you think you're doing?" she demanded, pulling a dagger from some concealed location her body.

"So much for sneaking out," Sheila said, her wrists now free, and lifted one hand toward Zivlyn outside the cage.

Before she could utter a single word of enchantment, there was an explosion near the western side of camp. Zivlyn turned as the ground beneath her feet shook. There had been no light from the explosion, no fire involved. A dull thud drew her attention to the ground next to her. A severed arm had landed next to her. More thuds could be heard as the body parts of the Aurilites searching for the intruder landed around them.

"What was that?" Zelda whispered to Sheila.

"Wasn't me," she said.

The sun was down. Darkness all around them, and in the distance, an unusual metallic ring was heard as a weapon unlike any other was drawn from its scabbard.

Lightning flashed through the sky with a resounding crashing spilling brief light across the valley. A single man, sword drawn, stood in the center of the enormous black scorch mark on the ground. The remaining Aurilites saw him as well. They readied hammers and maces, flails and clubs, moving toward him.

"Kill him!" Zivlyn screamed, lightning flashing again just after she spoke, and the remaining followers of Auril charged him en masse.

Heavy raindrops began to fall, turning into a full storm in seconds. The eerie lack of wind that usually accompanied such sudden storms. The sudden flashes of lightning had rendered Zivlyn night-blind. She couldn't see what happened when the Aurilites reached the man, and a clash of steel was immediately followed by a scream.

She was suddenly blown off her feet by an explosion behind her, and she heard the whistle of the iron bars spinning through the air as a spell whispered under the sound of the rain blew the cage apart.

"I missed her," Sheila said, "Damn."

Zivlyn swung her legs upward, flipping onto her hands and over to land on her feet, drawing another dagger from some hidden location on her body as she turned to face the pair as they jumped to the ground from the wreckage of the cage.

Zelda's hands were still bound, but Sheila was into her next casting, one arm held upright in front of herself, the other horizontal, both hands with her index finger and thumb extended straight out as a yellow light began to build between her hands. "_Infernus santio dracmeel,_" she said, her voice echoing in the standard of spellcasting, "_Ancient spirits of fire, come forth and-_"

She was interupted as Zivlyn leaped forward suddenly and slammed the hilt of her right hand dagger into Sheila's throat, causing her to stagger back and clutch at her throat as she choked and wheezed. Zivlyn stood up straight, smiling down at her. "Oh, that was good. And you are foolish. Magic is no good against an agile opponent at this range."

She was suddenly knocked sideways as Zelda slammed both fists into the side of her head with all her strength. Zivlyn staggered a step, then twisted around nearly too fast to follow, and Zelda saw her left leg come up, and the next thing she knew was seeing Zivlyn's heel spinning toward her face, and then her vision was filled with stars. They didn't stay long, and she realized Zivlyn was standing over her, grinning down at her. She didn't even remember falling.

"Oh, if only Khall wasn't so strict about your treatment," Zivlyn said, then licked her lips, "I could do it right here. Gods, beating up pretty girls gets me so hot. But then," she looked up in the direction of clashing steel and screams that pierced the night, "a certain strong man would work, too."

Lightning flashed again, and in the brief illumination, Zelda saw the hideous work Link was doing.

The Master Sword in his left hand, his dagger in his right, he was cutting the Aurilites like grass. The lightning flashed again, perfectly illuminating him as his right arm slashed to the left, the dagger held in reverse position, and the Aurilite's head tilted back in a silent scream as a gout of blood filled the air before him.

More than half the Aurilites were already dead. Link was well aware he possessed senses higher than most humans, leftovers from the time he spent as a wolf. He was just as night-blind from the lightning as the men he fought now, but he could hear them all around him, he could hear their feet on the ground as they moved, hear their rapid breathing, and he could smell their fear.

No mercy. No pity.

"_Once you have committed yourself to the fight, there is no room for mercy," the skeletal figure spoke, "When lives are on the line, you cannot hesitate, or yours will be lost. There is no room for flair or showmanship in a battle. Only efficiency. The winner of a battle will be the most efficient killer, no exceptions."_

That was what Link was now. Efficient.

The Aurilites weren't fighting now. They were trying to flee, and tripping over the bodies of their slain. Link had moved among them like a whirlwind of death, and now struck them down as they tried to flee. The line had been drawn. They were allies of his enemy and would only come back to haunt him later should he allow any to survive.

Lightning flashed again, and Link spotted Zivlyn, standing over Zelda and Sheila, and she saw him. With a backhand blow that cleaved the head off the last of the Aurilites, he ran for her.

With a flick of her wrist, Zivlyn tossed one of her daggers in the air, caught it by the tip of the blade, then hurled it toward him. Link swung the Master Sword past his face, knocking the whizzing blade aside without slowing himself.

"_It doesn't matter whether your enemy is man, woman, adult, or child," the skeletal figure said, "If they take or attempt to take the life of someone who has done no wrong, they sacrifice the right to their own. If they ally themselves knowingly with one who has done so, then they are just as guilty as he is."_

"Not yet," Zivlyn said with a smile as he drew closer, then reached into a pocket in her tunic and pulled out a small object about three inches in length and only about a centimeter in diameter.

She pulled the cork from one end with her teeth and dropped it to the ground. "Enjoy the parting gift," she said to Zelda and Sheila, then turned and ran, disappearing into the night with incredible efficiancy.

"Are you all right?"

Sheila looked up toward the voice, realizing Link was standing over them. She nearly recoiled in shock. Standing there in the dim light, she could see the blood dripping from the blades he carried, mingling with the rainwater still pelting down, and the massive red stains across his tunic. Blood even clung to his face and hair, refusing to be beaten off by the icy rain. He was the very image of a nightmare.

And his eyes, hard as stone and a gaze sharp as spears.

Sheila watched as he used his dagger as a lever to break Zelda's shackles open.

"Roxim won't see the signal to pick us up," Midna said, her voice coming from seemingly out of nowhere, "We'll have to wait until morning."

"We're not waiting here," Link said, "Come on. I'd rather stay in the pass than here. Besides, we need to get out of the rain."

_He killed them all,_ Sheila thought, _In less time than it takes to imagine, he killed them all._

"Link, before she ran, that woman dropped something on the ground here," Zelda said.

"What was it?" he asked, turning on the spot to look for it.

A sudden crash of lightning directly overhead cast light over the eight foot hulk that stood behind him, flashing across its massive barrel chest, and arms as large around as a human torso. As the light vanished, the two red orbs set into its disproportionately small head remained visible in the night, and a guttural growl was audible over the wind.

"Crap," was all Link managed to say before the massive arms lunged for him.


	31. Chapter 30

The Silent Kingdom

By: Freedan the Eternal

Okay guys, I'm done jerking you around. I keep trying to set schedules for myself to write this thing, and keep failing to meet them, either due to life, or due to my having recently acquired an X-Box 360, and there are so many awesome games I'm trying to catch up on, and I'm not the type to feel guilty about playing a game instead of writing. So, my schedule is officially this: Whenever I get around to it. I may update frequently sometimes, and others will likely be long gaps, but unless I outright say it (and I'm not likely to) this thing will be finished eventually!

As for a comment about the actual story, I'd like to point out that the end of this chapter was originally how I intended for chapter 31 to open, so if it feels like it was tacked on after everything else, that's because it was, both to extend the length of this chapter just a bit, as well as get it out of the way.

**Chapter 30: Birthright**

It is amazing how the smallest of things can be the most dangerous. Zivlyn had not known what was in the vial when Tharkus handed it to her, prior to magicking her away to Khall. He had simply said, "When Link arrives, pull the stopper, drop it, and get far away."

The vial itself was filled with what appeared to be some sort of brown ooze, and in addition to the cork stopper, there was a sort of black tar around the edge to glue the stopper in. When she pulled it, it nearly felt like she pulled her teeth out as she bit down on the cork to pull it free.

Almost immediatly, the smell wafted into her nostrils that caused her stomach to leap into her throat. It was mix of hideous scents of rotting meat, blood, and human waste. She had never been one to weaken at the smell of blood. It excited her, but in this hideous mixture, her last meal felt like it was taking up aerobic dancing.

The brown ooze began to literally crawl from the vial, and she quickly dropped it to the snow before any of the vile substance could touch her hand. She turned to look over her shoulder at the elf and the hylian. "Enjoy the parting gift," she said, then quickly ran for the nearest pass, to be clear of whatever was coming out of the vial.

As Link and Midna rushed to their friends, they didn't notice the brown ooze that now flowed from the vial over the snow, expanding by the second, rising up in the darkness, two red orbs appearing near its top as it rose higher and higher, to protrusions breaking off its sides, the ends shaping into hands and fingers, the arms filling out and seeming to grow far beyond imagination, and a large division splitting down the center of its base, rounding and shaping into legs, and the glowing red orbs centered themselves in the disproportionately small head the formed atop the shoulders nearly four feet wide.

"Link, before she ran, that woman dropped something on the ground here," Zelda said.

"What was it?" he asked, turning on the spot to look for it.

A sudden crash of lightning directly overhead cast light over the eight foot hulk that stood behind him, flashing across its massive barrel chest, and arms as large around as a human torso. As the light vanished, the two red orbs set into its disproportionately small head remained visible in the night, and a guttural growl was audible over the wind.

"Crap," Link said, leaping backward as the massive hands suddenly lunged for him.

He felt his heel strike and heard her cry, and suddenly the sky was all he could see, and it was blotted out by the massive arms that shot just past his face as he fell across Sheila, knocking her back to the ground as she had tried to gain her feet, and found himself lying across her stomach. He glanced over to see her still holding one hand to her throat where the other woman had struck her to interrupt her casting.

"Hi," he said with a small smile.

With a roar of anger, the great beast clenched both its fist high in the air and swung them both downward, a loud whooshing sound audible as they raced downward at incredible speed. Link lashed out with the Master Sword in an upward swing. He felt the connection, brief as it was, and the beast's arms flashed by, falling short of striking them, followed by a dull thud just to Link's right. The beast's hands, severed just above the wrists, lay in the snow.

Link pushed himself to his feet, spinning to the side as the beast swung at him with its blunted arm and swung forward, his blade cutting into the side of the creature's stomach, cutting clean through the brown flesh and ripping through its backside. If the creature hadn't been wider than the blade was long, Link would have just cut it in half. Before he could turn back to it, however, the beast struck him across the back with its right elbow, sending him flying through the air to land face first in the snow nearly ten feet away. He pushed himself up on his hands, looking over his shoulder as the beast turned to face him. The slash in its stomach was narrowing as he watched, sealing itself shut in seconds. The ends of its severed wrist seemed to turn to a thick, oozing liquid which lengthened its arms and then formed into fingers and solidified.

"The hell is this thing?" Link asked himself as he pushed himself up.

His back was hurting from where the creature had stuck him, but he regained his feet, and had managed to hold onto his sword and knife. Lightning flashed, and in its light, Link could see Sheila helping a limping Zelda put some distance between themselves and the creature. Smart girls. But where was Midna?

The rain was getting heavier, turning the snow beneath their feet into a dangerously slippery slush that offered poor footing. The beast's eyes glowed red in the dark night, and it ran for him, its heavy feet shaking the ground beneath him.

Link let his mind drift into his training, both what he had learned from others and had taught himself. _When fighting an opponent larger and stronger than oneself, _he thought, _use their size against them. Their mass is greater than your own, and your speed is your advantage. They won't be able to change direction quickly enough to keep up._

The beast ran blindly toward him, its arms outstretched, ready to tear him apart. At the last second, Link fell to one knee and spun under the beast's arms, sliding between its legs and slashed upward with the Master Sword, rising up behind the beast, the blade cleaving into the creature's groin, cutting through its flesh with ease to rip out of its right shoulder, the two halves of the beast collapsing forward, sliding through the slushy snow for several feet as their momentum carried them forward.

"_Very good, Link. But unfortunately, not good enough._"

Link caught his breath and looked about. The voice had seemed to come from everywhere around him, and nowhere at the same time, like someone speaking in the voice of magic to cast their spell, yet that was certainly no incantation.

As he searched about, he caught movement in the corner of his eye. The two halves of the great beast were melting, liquefying as he watched and slopping together and rising upward, reforming into the beast's shape. "What's it take to make you stay down?" he asked as the head reappeared and the red eyes lit up once more.

The creature responded with an inarticulate roar as it lunged for him once more. Link dove to his left, rolling over his shoulders, causing him to travel in a circle around the creature's back. The moment one foot hit the ground, he shot upward, cutting deep into the creature's back with his sword as he did so, then reversed his stroke the instant it ripped out the top of the beast's shoulders, cleaving back through its neck, sending the head rolling through the snow.

Frustration washed through him as the head liquefied, the brown ooze resulting crawling across the ground back toward the creature, which swung a massive fist at him, forcing him back to avoid the blow even as its head reformed on its shoulders.

"Link," Midna's voice whispered to him, "On the count of three, I want you to hit the dirt."

Understanding what she was about, Link nodded, then cut off the fist that came toward him this time, knowing it would simply reform itself again.

"One..."

The beast clenched both hands into a massive double fist, swinging the enormous form sideways as Link stepped back, the loud whoosh of air nearly pulling him over sideways as it missed by inches.

"Two..."

The beast swung its fists back again, and once more Link backed away from the bone crushing blow. The beast raised its hands skyward for a massive sledgehammer blow.

"Three!"

Link moved the only way he could think of. He dove headfirst between the creature's legs, landing on his elbows and knees, and didn't stop, getting quickly to his feet and spinning as he put distance between himself and the beast.

The creature was lit up in red light, as was much of the valley. Midna was floating in the air no more than four feet from it, thousands upon thousands of tendrils of red light connecting her mask to the creature, some of which had wrapped themselves around its arms, legs, waist and neck, while others punched right into its flesh at thousands of different points. Midna held both hands out before her, palms toward the beast, her fingers half clenched like claws. Her visible eye was narrow, and her teeth were clenched tightly, visible behind her curled lips.

"_Such anger in that one. Very good. But what makes her so angry, I wonder? Is she angry for herself, or for another...?_"

That voice again. Link couldn't let it distract him. As he watched, Midna clenched her hands into small fists. As she did so, the tendrils of red light wrapped around the creature visibly tightened, squeezing the flesh of the beast in what must have been an agonizing way. Then, suddenly, Midna moved both her hands in front of her chest, releasing her fists back into the claw-like rigid way, palms held out from her, then swung them to either side in a vicious tearing motion.

The creature exploded. _No, that's not it,_ Link thought, _She tore it apart._

Thousands upon thousands of red tendrils exerted their force on the creature, and ripped it apart from the inside out, thousands of tiny bits of brown flesh flying outward, pattering into the snow, the sound lost amidst the rain.

"Link?" Midna appeared out of the darkness before him, "Are you alright?"

Her voice was almost too soft to hear over the rain. The rage he had seen on her face but a moment ago was gone. She looked almost...sad.

"I'm fine," Link said, but cast his eyes to the ground, dreading what he thought was going to happen.

Lightning flashed suddenly, the crack of thunder directly overhead, but it confirmed Link's fears. He could see thousands of small brown lines of ooze, all crawling toward one point.

"Shit!" he growled.

"Absolutely," Midna agreed.

"Where are the others?" he asked.

"Near the southern end of the valley," Midna said, "There's no way out over there, but it got them out of the way. Sheila can't talk very well at the moment, so can't use her magic, and Zelda has a broken leg."

_That's why she was limping,_ Link thought.

"This thing only seems to have eyes for you, Link," Midna said

"_You can't win with brute force alone,_" said the unknown voice.

"Then how do we beat it?" Link demanded.

"How am I supposed to know?" Midna asked.

He turned to look at her. "You didn't hear it? That voice just now?"

Midna's look of concern returned. "What voice? Are you hearing something in the wind?"

The voice chuckled. "_She can't hear me, Link. She has no need. I am here for you, to help you become what you were always meant to be. It is time for the second step._"

The brown mass of the beast began to build a short distance from them once more, rising up from the ground, the darkness of the night making it look like a sinister black shape rising from a grave.

_I know you for what you are,_ Link thought, knowing his silent words would find their target, _You are the woman who has been coming to me in my dreams. You are trying to force me to accept the Triforce I possess, regardless of what I want._

"_It is your destiny, Link,_" the voice said, "_This power is your birthright, the one thing that no one can deny you. To reject it is to reject yourself. I understand your fear to take the power, Link._"

The mound of flesh that seemed intent on his life once more shaped itself into a humanoid shape.

_I don't fear it!_ Link thought, _I don't want it! I never did! And I never will._

"_You fear that it will corrupt your heart, as it did Ganon's. You fear that you will become just as terrible as he. Or, if you do not, you fear that those you care about will not see it._"

He could suddenly see their faces. All the people of Orden. Rusl, Bo, even Colin and the other children. It was as though he was standing in the village, and they were all watching him.

He looked down at himself. He was still himself, not transformed as in the previous dream. He was wearing his chainmail and green tunic, but had no sword or shield, not even a belt knife. A glow caught his eye, and he turned the back of his left hand upward, and could see it there, the mark he'd carried for as long as he could remember. The three triangles, where the bottom left had always been a darker shade than the others. It could have passed for a tattoo to an unwary eye.

Now it was brightly lit. All three triangles glowed gold, and small yellow sparks leaped from them across his flesh. He lifted his gaze to the people, his friends for as long as he could remember.

They wouldn't meet his eyes. Some looked past him, others unable to manage even that, looking away to the side or down. The children hid their faces in their mothers' skirts.

Link sighed, turning away from them. Without them, their trust, their love, what did he have?

His reflection in the water of the stream caught his eye, and as he took a few steps closer to the water's edge, he could see it at last. Why they would not meet his eye. Even in daylight, his eyes were glowing like the gold of the triangles on his hand.

He didn't even look human anymore.

Footsteps in the grass behind him caused him to turn back. Ilia stopped her approach a few feet away from him. Her expression was hesitant and uncertain. Suddenly, the image of her body crumbling away like dust flashed through his mind.

Would he be doomed to bring about that end for her? If he tried to hold on to the life he'd once had, would he bring about its destruction instead?

"_It is said that love cuts through all castes_," said the voice in his head, "_But also that one accepts their love just as they are, without reservations. They do not make demands of their love. They do not make foolish promises.._"

"Promise me, Link," Ilia's voice echoed around him as he found himself standing in ankle deep water, Ilia standing before him, with one hand on Epona's mane as she spoke, "Promise me that you won't do anything out of your league."

"'_Out of your league?' And interesting choice of words,_" the voice said, "_She tries to warn you off doing anything remotely dangerous, and yet leaves herself a safety net just in case you prove more capable than she thinks. What exactly is out of your league, Link? What do you think?_"

Without waiting for an answer, Link suddenly felt himself landed back in reality, in the rain and lightning.

"_Why don't we find out?_" the voice asked.

The red glow of the beast's eyes appeared once more in its small head. It seemed that while it had felt like at least ten minutes in the dream, no more than a few seconds had passed here. And yet, as the beast moved forward, reaching toward him, he could feel something different.

He could no long hear the rain, and Midna's cry to get out of the way was barely audible. Lightning flashed, the thunder nothing more than a dull thump on his senses. A strange warmth had filled his body throughout, and when he opened his eyes, a new sight filled them. He could see the creature clearly in the night, and the individual rain droplets as they splashed off its body, each one taking several seconds to hover in the air before finally beginning to run down the beast's body. The creature's movements had slowed to a crawl toward him. Everything was going so slow.

_Or perhaps I'm moving so much faster..._ he thought.

When the creature's foot touched down in the snowy slush at last, the crack of what was left of the snow, the slopping sound of half-melting fluid, and the crunch on the ground beneath it, all were separate and clearly audible. And the smell. It had increased ten-fold, and yet the virile odor, capable of sending a person's stomach heaving, was no more offensive, it was simply more _there_.

Link realized that his senses had been heightened to a state far beyond anything he had ever experienced even as a wolf, and he also knew that it was at least partly his doing.

The Triforce on his hand was glowing gold, the lower left triangle brighter than the others, though they were glowing as well. He could feel her there, the source of the voice in his head, of his dreams, who had argued for him to accept this. Her hand was there, guiding him in using the power he had always possessed, yet never drawn out. She had used the visions to make him unsure of himself and his desires, and used the moment his will faltered to guide him toward her desires for him.

And yet now, as he watched the previously fearsome, now sluggish creature move toward him so slowly it may have been a snail, he realized that he didn't feel any different. He was not dominated by a will to enslave humanity, or kill innocent people for no reason. He didn't know why those descriptions came up, but to the contrary of them anyway, he still felt like himself. And, surprisingly, he felt _good_.

The beast's leading hand had come within reach. Link reached out with his right hand and jammed his knife into its wrist up to the hilt. Using it as a brace, he lifted himself upward over its arm, suspending himself over it, feet straight up in the air.

Like a crackle of energy through the air, the rain suddenly resumed full force, and clearly audible, and the beast reached for him with its other hand. Link realized that the Triforce was no longer feeding his senses, but was now sending all of its energy to his muscles, enhancing his strength beyond the normal human limits that suddenly seemed so feeble.

"_Now,_" said the voice in his head, "_Show your power! Unleash your anger!_"

The creature's other hand came up as a fist, swinging sideways toward his chest. Almost without thinking, he bent at the waste, his feet coming down and landing squarely on the swinging forearm as he released his grip on his knife and shot his upper body upward, twisting through the are, his hips staying nearly motionless as his feet rode the swinging arm past and his torso rolled the other direction through the air, turning over as he sank lower, and rammed the Master Sword into the beast's armpit nearly three quarters of the way up the blade and quickly placing his other hand on the hilt to secure his grip as his feet left the beast's forearm and swung about, all his weight hanging on the sword as he swung around its shoulder and behind it, the blade twisting under his mass and cutting a semi-circular gouge as the hilt was drug from beneath the creature's arm toward its back, stopping where its shoulder blade would have been, had it any, and Link's swing went upward.

The beast was moving fast, but it could not keep up with him. As its other hand came upward over its head, Link twisted his grip on his sword hilt to turn himself sideways, the massive fist passing his chest with centimeters to spare, and Link reached up with his right hand to snatch his knife from its wrist on the way past even as he released his grip on the hilt of the Master Sword to turn over in the air and come straight down on the beast's shoulders and ram the knife up to the hilt in the top of its head.

This caused an unexpected reaction. As the small blade punctured the flesh of its head, the beasts roar of fury suddenly became a screech of pain. Not waiting to see the effect, Link pulled the knife out and somersaulted backward off its shoulders, snatching the hilt of the Master Sword on the way past and dragging it upward with his turn, cutting upward through the beast's shoulder and through it's head, splitting it in twain.

Link felt his feet hit the ground as his blade ripped itself free through the creature's soft skull, and now he was certain, the way the beast was howling, that his weapons had to have had an effect when they directly struck its head.

He felt the warmth from the Triforce's power begin to fade from his body.

"_No! Don't let go now! You are so close! You've barely scratched the surface of your potential!_" the voice screamed at him.

"Shut up," he said, "I'm doing this my way."

The creature's wounds were closing like before, but Link could see that it was working more slowly now, the oozing flesh of the creature wasn't melding as effortlessly as before. It turned slowly to face him, lurching a step toward him as it did so. His attacks had undoubtedly had an effect on the monstrous creature.

A red light appeared in the darkness beyond the creature, magic building as Midna rushed to hit it while it was stunned, a ball of red electricity growing in one hand, lighting her features as she drew close.

Like a pinch in the back of his skull, Link knew what would happen next. He started to cry out, to warn her away.

The beast's right hand came up, backhanding her with a fist larger than she was, the magic dying instantly as she was hurtled backward through the air.

A frenzied roar of sheer rage filled the night, drowning out the rain, and Link realized it was himself. The warmth of the Triforce's power returned, this time burning hot, flooding his body with power and rage. He was running at the beast, his sword and knife forgotten in the snow as his rage took him like it never had before. Golden sparks raced across his flesh with alarming speed and frequency as the Triforce on his hand kept glowing brighter and brighter.

Link's anger had always been cold before. He had never screamed, swore, or raged like many men. When angered, he would speak with a cold tone of voice, and was considerably more dangerous than any screaming mad person, because it would not overpower his thoughts or common sense.

Now he had exploded in a fit of white-hot rage, and was baying for blood.

The creature swung its fist in a useless attempt to fight him off. Link swung the back of his left hand into its wrist, and the arm was blown apart in a blast of golden electricity nearly up to the shoulder. Link swung his right hand, palm open, into the creature's stomach, and with another burst of golden electricity, blasted a nearly two foot wide circle of flesh from its gut.

The creature dropped to its knees with a groan, unable to keep its feet. Link stepped back as it made a half-hearted swing for him with its remaining arm.

"_Finish it,_" said the voice in his head, "_Let this worthless beast feel your rage! Punish it for harming your most trusted friend and ally!_"

For the first time since she had come to him in his dreams, Link fully agreed with her.

He could feel her invisible hand, helping to direct his power, the heat of the energy building to nearly scalding as he felt it pooling toward one location on his body. He turned the palm of his left hand upward as streaks of golden electricity appeared, circling about just above his flesh, growing larger and larger, forming into a golden globe of energy with sparks shooting across its surface, growing ever larger. When the globe was nearly a foot across in diameter, Link turned his palm toward the creature, fighting to regain its feet and heal its wounds, but managing little more than getting off one knee and brown ooze dripping from its arm stump and the hole in its gut.

All it took was a release of effort on his part. The globe of light shot from Link's hand directly into the creature's chest and sent the massive beast flying backward and shattering apart. Chunks of its flesh, as large as human heads and as small as coins flew in every direction, all breaking into smaller and smaller chunks as he watched until they crumbled so small as to be invisible. In mere seconds, there was no trace of the creature left.

The energy Link had felt seemed to vanish as quickly as it had come. He could no longer hold on to his rage as he fell to his knees, his heart beating so fast he thought it would burst. Every bit of him ached.

"_The teachings I now pass unto you are extremely strenuous on the human body,_" the voice whispered to him, "_I know this. You will have a few weeks to recover before the next lesson. If we continue too soon, it would likely kill you. Farewell for now, Link._"

"Strenuous?" Link asked sarcastically as he forced himself to his feet, "I feel like I was run over parade of knights in full armor."

He forced himself forward through the rain, looking for anything he could find. He had to know that she was okay before he could stop. She was powerful, but he knew that her body was frail.

"Midna?" he called over the rain, "Where are you?"

"Link?" came her voice.

He saw her shape in the darkness coming toward him. As she drew closer, he saw a large crack running down the center of her mask. To imagine something could strike hard enough to damage the Fused Shadow with brute power. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She floated closed. "Just a few bruises and a headache. My mask took the worst of it. Are you-"

The rest of her question was lost as Link collapsed forward onto the ground, exhaustion bringing him down.

* * *

"The cycle of destruction has begun once more."

Link opened his eyes, not knowing what to expect this time. All about him was empty white space, no matter where he looked.

"History repeats, though mortals choose not to see."

He turned toward the voice, expecting to once more see the red-haired woman with the dark eyes. That was not the sight that greeted him.

The woman he saw was the image of perfection, her body perfectly shaped, her face unmarred by wrinkles or scars, her flesh perfectly smooth and toned. Her flesh was a golden hue, as was her hair, but her eyes glowed a dark green, and even though she stood before him unclothed and unarmed, she exuded an aura of power like none he had ever encountered before.

Link realized he was seeing one of the three golden goddesses in his dream.

"The power that is thy birthright," She said, "Another seeks it for their own. From them, thou must protect it. Death and blood be not new to thy world, but eight millennia hath past since the opportunity to end the cycle hath last presented itself. Destiny be the anchor by which thy foe will trap thee. Should thou falter in thy step, something more precious than thy life will be taken from thee, and hope shall be destroyed."

Her voice glided like silk across one's ears, yet was deep and husky at the same time. It simply radiated power, like the rest of Her presence. She commanded respect without effort.

"I don't understand," Link said, "What do you speak of? Is this some kind of prophecy?"

"Not if thou dost not wish it," the golden goddess said, "Thy aversion to prophecy and fate is thy strength. If thou accepts thy fate as decreed, thy world shall fall and suffer, another eight millennia at least before it may be saved once again. Hatred brought about the downfall of an entire civilization, and may do so once again. Look upon one who once thought as thou do, and see the fate of thyself in her footsteps, should thou allow hatred to consume thee..."

The goddess gestured behind Herself, and an image began to form. It rippled like water at first, spreading through the empty white space until it surrounded them and began to solidify. Through the ripples, Link saw what looked like small stones, and as the ripples faded, these turned into gravestones. They were in a cemetery. The goddess gestured to three fresh graves, one of which a young woman was on her knees before, leaning her forehead against the stone as she silently wept, tears rolling down her cheeks unabated to land on the stone base of the grave.

Link moved closer. She was about the same age as himself, with red hair set into a single braid that fell just past her shoulders. She was wearing a shirt of chain mail and a set of brown trousers, a long sword hitched to the right side of her belt. A shortbow and quiver of arrows lay next to her on the ground within reach. Her features looked somehow familiar...

A shadow fell over her. Without looking up, she asked in a half-choked voice, "What do you want, Darius?"

Link looked up. Darius, the wizard hero who had stopped the demon created by the usurpers in the war eight thousand years ago, stood over the young woman. He looked nothing like Link expected a mighty wizard to. One expects a wizard to have a long, unkept beard and hair, a staff or a wand of some kind, dress in robes and so on. Darius was clean shaven, with short black hair that stood stiffly up into a flat top, and was wearing a shirt of chain mail under a blue tunic, across which was a baldric running from his left shoulder to his right hip with at least eight knives upon it, and at his belt he wore a bastard sword at his left hip, and immediately behind it a long dagger, nearly long enough to be a short sword, and at his right hip a battle axe, and over his shoulders was draped a long, blue cloak, fastened by a iron clasp around his neck.

"I wanted to see how you were doing," Darius said, his voice low-pitched and with a hint of a gravelly crack.

The woman looked up at him, her lip curled in a sneer. "No, you wanted to see how _this_ was doing," she said, shaking her sword with one hand, "Or was it _this_?" she added, holding up her left hand to the mark could be clearly seen.

The Triforce symbol lay on the back of her hand, identical to Link's own. This girl carried the Triforce of Courage. He looked more closely at the sword, and realized the hilt design was unmistakable. That was the Master Sword!

"It is never easy to lose friends," Darius said, "I should know. But it is no reason to turn on the living."

"This was your fault!" she said, leaping to her feet, "If you'd gotten there sooner, Patrick, Alex, Kirith would still be alive!"

"I couldn't be everywhere at once," Darius said, "I had to prioritize. As such, your friends' sacrifice bought me the time I needed to save thousands more. I am truly sorry about their loss, but this is the dark side of war. Sacrifices must be made to work for a better ending. This war is far from over."

The woman picked up her bow and quiver, shouldering them as she walked past him. He turned to face her as she moved away. "Don't give in to hate," he said, "Hatred only brings suffering and more hatred, and more wars. If we fight and kill in hatred, we become no better than the villains we fight against."

She stopped walking. Without turning or looking at him, she asked, "And what would you have me do? Holding onto hate gives me the strength to keep going and avenge my friends. What should I hold on to if not hate?"

"Hope," Darius said, "The memories of your friends. The knowledge that we suffer so that others must not."

The woman turned to face him. "Do you think this is a fairy tale, Darius? Hope? Memories? You listen to me, now, O wise wizard. This is no fairy tale. This is real life. There are no heroes or villains. There are only those who are willing to do what must be done to win, and those who are not. The ones we fight are very willing to do whatever must be done. Are you?

"I know I am," she continued without waiting for his answer, "This is no fairy tale. There is no such thing as a happy ending."

"There can be, if we fight for it!" Darius said, "If not for us, than for those that live on after we die. War is not about us, girl, it is about the world and all her people."

"Well, unfortunately, I don't give a shit about them," the woman said, "I'm going to kill every one of those bastards who took my friends from me, and if you get in my way, I'll kill you, too."

"Don't threaten me unless you intend to follow through," Darius said.

The woman 'hmphed,' then turned and walked away.

Darius lifted his right hand, looking at the numerous scars across it and his wrist, including the scars of the shackles he wore all through his childhood as a slave. "Very soon, Silver Fang will no longer accept her," he said, turning his hand over, revealing the three triangles on the back, the lower right darker than the rest, revealing the Triforce of Wisdom, "I just hope another worthy can be found in time."

The image faded from sight much more quickly than it had appeared, and Link found himself alone with the golden goddess again.

"That girl," Link said, "Who was she?"

"She was the first," the goddess said.

"The first what?" Link asked, "The first with the Master Sword? The first with the Triforce of Courage? What?"

"She was the first," the goddess said, "Thou art the second."

"The second?" Link said, "That can't be right. There were others before me. That I know."

"Thy time here draws short," the goddess said, "It is time for thou to wake."

"Wait! I have questions!"

"Thou must find the answers elsewhere. My time here is spent, and I shall not be able to return. Remember my words: Do not give in to hate, and never give up hope. That is the key to thy victory."

The white space and the golden goddess faded into blackness, and Link knew he was waking up.


	32. Chapter 31

Oh, look! Is that some actual development of the main plot? I can't believe it!**  
**

**Chapter 31: Memories of the Past**

A knock at the door lifted Judge Ralthas' attention from the journal open on the desk before him. He quickly closed the thin book and slid it to the side, arranging the official looking papers and maps across his desk to make it look adequately cluttered, as though he had been hard at work the entire time.

His office was on the southern side of the main keep of the castle, which was itself seated in the center of the city of Asgar, capital of the kingdom of Darimar. The office itself was relatively small, about fifteen square feet, and felt smaller yet with the inclusion of his desk, nearly six feet in length and three feet wide in the center of the room. It was made of good, solid oak, more for practicality and staying power than anything else. Years of use had dulled its finish, yet it was still sturdy and good for many years yet.

Seated at the desk facing the door, on his right hand was a large bookcase filled nearly to bursting mainly with history texts, and a few compilations of legends that he was familiar with. In his line of work, he had learned that it often saved trouble if one believed in possibilities, no matter how improbable, until evidence was presented to prove them wrong, rather than the other way around.

To his left was another large bookcase, this one stuffed even more than the other, but this one was filled with handwritten notes, files, and journals, mostly from his predecessors at this post, but several of his own as well, and the topmost shelves filled with maps of the five kingdoms and their surrounding terrain.

Behind him was a small cot, ready should he pull an all nighter, though he rarely actually used it, as his home was but a short walk the small house just outside the castle walls in the city. Next to the bed, however, was a small chest where he kept some of his personal belongings, and a small number of the magical trinkets he had collected through the years, either gifted to him by others or found himself, and a few that he had bought fairly. They had a variety of uses and purposes, though the two he used the most were kept close to his person at all times. His sword, named the Hammer of Justice, leaned against the side of his desk in its sheath, close at hand.

It was a special weapon that was gifted to him by his wife when he had become a judge, manufactured by the archmage at the time, and had it been for anyone else from anyone else, it would likely have cost a fortune in its manufacture. It was ever keen, never losing its razor sharp edge, and also possessed a powerful enchantment that enabled him to throw a bolt of lightning from the blade into a target of his choosing. It earned the name 'Hammer' when it was compared to the war-hammer the ancient god of thunder was said to carry, and it stuck.

The other item he kept on his person at all times, on a leather band around his neck, usually with the gem hidden under his shirt. It was a small, perfectly clear gemstone that when activated created short-lived golems of the exact likeness of whatever being it was aimed at. The golems perfectly equaled the originals in abilities and strength, but would crumble to dust after only ten minutes. He had also been warned when it was presented to him that it had a limited number of charges, and the exact count remaining was unknown. He had used it sparingly, and it had not failed him yet, but he always knew that the next time he tried, it may fail.

Ralthas himself was a fairly large man, just over six feet tall, and while in excellent shape for his age, he was somewhat thin, though this may have been because he had not been eating well for the past week. His golden hair, normally kept well groomed and tied in a shoulder length tail, was now loose and tangled, and his beard, normally kept strictly trimmed, was starting to go wild with its newfound freedom.

He was not wearing his symbol of office, settling for only a white undershirt and brown trousers at the moment, but he was well aware that nearly anyone in Darimar, and even the other four kingdoms would know him by sight.

He turned his attention down to the map of the mountains on the western border of Whitos-Neiki, calling to the door, "Enter."

The door opened with a loud creek and the sound of footsteps entering the room, but Ralthas kept his eyes on the map. The passes were fairly well charted, but no scouts had gone far up them and returned. There were several black X's at the possible locations of the citadel where the ones calling themselves the Lords of Chaos dwelled. Ralthas still wondered how they could have built something like that without anyone noticing the massive amount of lumber and stone needed being moved up there. Perhaps it had come from the western lands, past the mountains, but it seemed unlikely, as reports indicated nothing there but seemingly endless desert, though some included sightings of large and vicious beasts like nothing seen anywhere else in the world.

"Sir," said the young man who entered, "The information you requested about the foreigners has been returned."

Ralthas finally looked up at him. "Give it to me, top to bottom."

The young man shifted nervously on his feet, then found his voice. "They arrived on a trade ship called the _Angel Marie_. It seems they are from a country across the sea to the east called Hyrule."

Hyrule. That name jabbed into Ralthas' mind. He knew it, but he couldn't place where from.

"There are three in the party," the man continued, "The first is a young man, about six feet three inches tall, estimated about two hundred to two hundred twenty pounds, brown hair and blue eyes. He is a swordsman of some sort and seems to be the leader of the party.

"The second is a woman, about five feet six inches, estimated one hundred twenty to one hundred forty-five pounds, brown hair and blue eyes. She was armed with a short bow and arrows, in addition to a small sword."

"What are their estimated ages?" Ralthas interrupted, "We need something to tell our men so they know what to look for."

"That varies from viewpoint, sir," the young man said, "You see, to all appearances, these people seem to be elves, though they are too tall, and the man in particular is too large across the shoulders and chest. In addition, a report from the guard in Garin says that they claim to be human. So, if they are human, age is estimated for both of them to be early to mid twenties. If they are elves, they could be anywhere from one to six centuries old."

"It's not impossible for an elf to be tall or unusually large in the torso," Ralthas said, leaning back in his seat, "After all, look at me. If it weren't for my ears, most humans wouldn't know I was an elf. Back to the point, what happened when they arrived?"

"The report says that they went to a cartographer to find a map of Mystara, but lacked any of the local currency. Shortly later, they were placed under arrest for questioning. From there, they were released into the custody of High Elder Sheila Anthress. They departed with her the following morning to go to Tyr."

"Sheila..." Ralthas whispered, though it was more of a growl of frustration through his teeth than anything else.

"There they contacted Archmage Riven Dagonel and High Priest Geoff Randal. We were unable to find any information of what was actually discussed between them, but it is believed that the shooting lights in the sky that night were the result of a failed casting of an ancient magic, possibly even a forbidden. The High Elder was seen departing with the three the next afternoon, heading to the ruins of an temple dedicated to the god of the sea. From there, they headed west, into Whitos-Neiki, and then into the northern mountains."

"They're going after the altars," Ralthas said to himself, "The spell was failed and the altars absorbed it to prevent it from going awry, exactly like they are supposed to. It must have been a translation spell, and the actual words of whatever they attempted to translate would be on the altars."

He tapped his chin with one finger as he thought. "Something must have happened to their homeland. I've no doubt they convinced Miss Anthress to help with some sort of story, be it true or not. She must have attempted the translation spell. If I remember correctly, not even Riven is able to complete one of those, and she failed anyway."

He turned back to the young man. "What about the third member of their group? I believe we skipped that one."

The young man fidgeted again. "Well, sir, she was first believed to be a magician's familiar, but after more information was gathered, this was dismissed. She is like no other familiar ever seen, and far too intelligent. She is also able to hide in the man's shadow at will, becoming completely invisible when she does so. She is about one foot four inches tall, and estimated to weigh twenty to thirty pounds. She has black and grey fur, and red eyes. She also has green markings along her arms and one leg that are reported to glow slightly in the dark."

"I think that's plenty to go on," Ralthas said, "Where are they now?"

"They have not yet come out of the mountains," the young man said, "They have been in there for about four days now. Soon the passes will begin to snow in, as winter is quite bad up there, and comes much sooner than here."

It was nearly four weeks until winter in Darimar, but it was much further south.

"If the passes snow in, they likely won't survive the winter," Ralthas said to himself, "If it comes to it, we may have to send in a rescue team. I think we can give them another day or two first, though. They need to be brought in for questioning."

"Sir..." the young man began again.

Ralthas suddenly slammed his fist down on his desk, nearly causing the young man to leap out of his boots. "Stop calling me 'sir!'" he barked, "I am not a sir! I work for a living, and I am not a knight! If you must address me in such a manner, you will use my title!"

The young man sputtered a moment before managing to find the word he was hunting for. "Judge! Judge!" he said, then paused a moment to collect himself, "Judge, if you wish for that kind of timing, we must send the messengers back to our people in Whitos-Neiki today."

"Yes," Ralthas said, knowing that was true, "Come back in an hour. I'll have the orders written up by then. You're dismissed."

"Thank you si- Judge," the young man said, then turned and walked out the door, shutting it behind himself.

Ralthas sat there for a moment, digesting the information he had been given. Hyrule... Why did that name ring a bell? He knew it was a landlocked country in the eastern continent, but what would drive them here, obviously looking for something? And Sheila Anthress... Why did she have to get involved with it? She had always been too soft hearted, he thought bitterly. Of course, that was what people wanted in the High Elder. A compassionate, caring individual. It was fortunate, therefore, that the High Elder was more of a public figurehead than position of real power, though she was greatly respected and her advice heeded. For her sake, Ralthas hoped these people proved to be trustworthy.

With a sigh, he reached down to the drawer near the floor on the right hand side of his desk. From within, he took a small glass and a flask of whiskey. Removing the lid, he poured himself a glass, and downed it in a quick shot.

"Maria," he said, pulling the thin, green covered journal back to the center of his desk, then opened the back cover, where a small portrait of a young woman was pasted to the inside. It was incredibly good work, with the detail and small size.

"I'm tired, honey," Ralthas said to the picture, "I'm so very old and tired."

His eyes drifted to the last page, opposite the portrait, where the last words of his departed wife were written in her elegant handwriting. "For me, and for our child, promise me you won't ever give up. It seems we won't have our happy ending, so I'd like her to have one. That is why you became a judge, isn't it? To make the world happy for others?"

She had written that after she had taken sick while she was pregnant with their first child. The doctors feared she wouldn't make it, and the child would die with her. In the end, she had died during childbirth, though the child had survived.

Ralthas had redoubled his efforts as a judge from that day forth, punishing the guilty and trying to make the world a better place, one person at a time. Now, he looked back, and realized things weren't much better now than they had been back then. In fact, they were worse. These 'Lords of Chaos,' as they called themselves, were exactly the kind of villains one thought to only exist in stories and legends. People who took what they wanted without thought of the harm it would do to others. Ralthas had realized that they were exactly the kind of villains the judges had been created to fight, and yet he couldn't figure out how.

His career, and his life, were nearly over, he knew. He was nine hundred eight years old. Another forty years or so and he probably wouldn't be able to even lift his sword. He had fought tooth and nail to keep himself in the shape he was now as he aged, but his old and battered body wouldn't hold up much longer no matter how he tried.

People said that elves have a different perception of time than humans, that days and weeks would meld together and they may not notice months or even years go by. This may have been true when Ralthas was younger, but after he became a judge, all that changed. He watched generations upon generations of Darimar's royalty grow old and die, and he watched friends that he worked closely with do the same. And now, as his own life began the downhill slide toward the final rest, he felt every day clawing at him, time spent that he could not get back.

He had wanted his daughter to have a happy, peaceful life, and that was why he devoted so much of his to his job as a judge, and now he realized just how little he had spent with her. He barely knew her.

He allowed himself a brief moment of weakness, a moment where he wished desperately that he could go back to the time he accepted the position as a judge, and refuse, instead keeping his old profession of a jeweler. He had been one damn fine jeweler, and he would have been able to spend every evening with Maria and their daughter, and perhaps that would have been better than everything he had done in these past centuries as a judge.

He didn't even know if his daughter was still alive.

He sighed once more. "I'm so very tired," he said to the portrait.

* * *

Khall surveyed the scene before him. The Aurilites, once numerous, now were just corpses and blood piled near the western entrance to the valley. Most of them were dead of slashing wounds, though some were beheaded, and others' flesh was blackened from an obvious magical attack. 

The morning sun glowed red as it ascended over the eastern peaks, as if it was drenched in the night's blood itself.

The rain the previous night had nearly melted the snow completely away, turning the floor of the valley into a muddy mess with a few small piles of slush and ice scattered about.

"How did he destroy the creature?" Khall asked without turning to look at Zivlyn, standing about a yard behind him.

"I don't know," she said, "It looked like magic, but he spoke no incantation. His eyes glowed gold in the night and golden lightning shot from his body, and the golem flew to pieces at just a touch from his hand."

"A flesh golem," Mur'neth, standing about three yards to Khall's left side, remarked, "As long as this took to set up, I didn't think Tharkus would be so stupid as to loose one of those on Link."

Khall nodded absently. It had taken a decade to get things in place for what was now about to unfold all to quickly. He had identified Link and Zelda as the bearers of the Triforce shortly after his arrival, both of them but children at the time. The army was moved into the mountains and the construction of the citadel had begun at that time. Slowly but surely, they had swelled their ranks and built their forces. The citadel in the western mountains was itself rather small, but beneath it was a network of tunnels where their men lived. The network was the size of a small city, and even self supporting with those strange vegetables they had discovered that grow in pitch black conditions better than light and an underground lake filled with eyeless, nutritious fish.

And the fact that they had kept it all hidden from Minerva, who now sat on Ganon's old throne, ruling in his absence. She could not be allowed to discover them, as her loyalty to the man-demon was unwavering, and she was far too powerful for even the combined might of himself, Tharkus, and Kilishandra to defeat. She had nearly killed them all, Ganon included, when she was no more than ten years old. As she grew older, she had only grown stronger. Magic flowed through her veins like blood, and even Kilishandra's natural aptitude paled in comparison to Minerva's.

That had managed to defeat her then only because she had been a child, and was vulnerable to a child's natural fears. At that age, Minerva had been deathly afraid of the dark, and Ganon had devised a way to exploit that, and her fear had rendered her helpless. Rather than kill her, though, Ganon had taken her under his wing, and a more loyal follower he could never have hoped to find.

Khall shook himself free of the memories. This was no time to get nostalgic. Ganon was now their enemy, because he knew that the wizard would never allow them to accomplish what they intended. Had Khall tried to explain to Minerva what must be done, she would have killed him on the spot. If he could manuever Link into killing Ganon, however, then once he killed Link, he could tell Minerva that Ganon was lost, and they had avenged him.

A decade it had taken to create the capability to release Shaklator from the gap between dimensions back into this world, and now there were but two chances. The first was the Twilight Mirror. If that failed, there was a contingency, but it all depended on Link, who still had to be alive at that time. If Link died to soon, it was likely that everything would be ruined. He couldn't allow that. Too much was at stake.

Khall turned to the others. "All right, here's what's going to happen. Zivlyn, you're going to take over trailing Link and his friends. You are not to touch them until I catch up to you. If any of them are harmed before I get there, I will put your head on my desk. Understood?"

"Yes, Khall," she saw with a nod of her head, unusually sedate for once.

"What about me and my ninja?" Mur'neth asked.

"You're coming with me back to the citadel," Khall said, "I'm going to go have a nice long chat with Tharkus about the flesh golem. You are going to choose two of your ninja to accompany you. You're going to pay a visit to Hyrule. You're also going to give me eight of your ninja to accompany me as I join Zivlyn."

Mur'neth already didn't like where this was going. "Turn over eight of my men to you? There's only a few hundred of us! If you get them killed-"

"That's not the plan," Khall said, "I will mainly need them as scouts. I can handle Link and his friends myself. You should be more worried about what you're doing. You're going to find Link's village, Orden, and look for a certain girl. She will be petrified, but I'll tell you what to look for later. You're going to bring her back to us as a bargaining tool."

"A hostage," Mur'neth said, then spat on the ground, "Not even I would sink that low. This wasn't part of the plan-"

"I'm altering the plan to meet the new circumstances," Khall said, "Link has learned how to use his Triforce somewhere along the line. That makes him a formidable foe, even if he is inexperienced with its use. I always like to have contingencies. Don't you worry, Mur'neth. You'll get your fight to the death with Ganondorf. But our immediate concern is getting Link under control. You can now consider yourself on a need-to-know basis regarding the plan, Mur'neth. Go call your ninja in. I'll need them close by so the travel spell will get us all to the citadel."

Mur'neth growled under his breath, then saw Zivlyn with a vicious half smile cast his direction. He turned and marched toward the southeastern pass into the valley. "This deal's getting worse all the time," he muttered to himself, "First they make Kili take the nail, now he's going to drag a girl who has nothing to with this into it..."

Khall watched him go and heaved a sigh when the dark elf was out of hearing range. "Zivlyn," he said, "If that elf even looks like he's going to betray us, he's yours."

"Oh, thank you," she replied, then turned to watch Mur'neth's receded back and licked her lips in anticipation.

"Now," Khall said, turning his gaze to the muddy ground beneath his feet, "I'm not sure what Tharkus was talking about. I don't think a bit of that damn thing survived... Wait, there it is!"

Even as he had spoken, he had seen it, a thin worm-like bit of brown flesh, nearly the same color as the mud, squirming across the ground in front of him. Reaching inside his tunic, Khall retrieved a small glass vial. He removed the cork stopper and bent down, holding the vial so the brown mass crawled into it, then replaced the stopper. There was no need for that tar sealant, as this bit wasn't going to grow until Tharkus got it feeding again.

He held the vial close to his eyes, watching the writhing brown mass through the glass. "If this works like he thinks," Khall muttered to himself, "They're in for one hell of a surprise."

* * *

Link sat up suddenly, reaching for his sword, only to discover it wasn't by his side where it belonged. His hand contacted only soft cushions and a light fur blanket. 

"Link?"

He turned toward the voice to see Midna seated a short ways from him. His eyes instantly fell on the large crack running down the front of her mask, starting at the top, just to the side of the right horn and running a haphazard diagonal across it, to the bottom edge of the swoop that covered her left eye.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She smiled. "That's supposed to be my question. You just collapsed out there after you tore that thing apart. What did you do?"

Link lifted his left hand up, his gaze falling to it. His hand was shaking, and he felt his heart thudding against his ribs. "I don't know. It was the Triforce, I know that, but I don't know how I did it..."

"Link-" Midna started.

"I heard a voice," Link said, interrupting her, "The voice of that woman, the same woman who came to me in my dreams. She was there, guiding me..."

Midna swallowed, and said nothing. Link's eyes lifted to meet her own. "Midna," he said quietly, "Am I going crazy?"

She shook her head slowly. "I don't think so," she said, "Link, with these dreams and such, you're under more pressure than any of us right now. There's too much we don't know about, and I certainly believe you can be forgiven for a little ambivalence every now and then."

_It sounds like this being, whatever she is,_ Midna thought, _has a personal stake in this. It's more than it seems like on the surface, I'm sure. There must be powers in play that we don't know about, just like..._

She could remember it like yesterday, when Zant had approached her, wielding some previously unseen power and defeating the mightiest warriors her kingdom had to offer like they were nothing. The day he had cursed her with the sickening form she was now trapped in. She had known he was after something else then, that a great deal more than just her kingdom was at stake. She just hadn't known what or why. She hadn't known about Ganondorf.

"She showed me a vision," Link said, not noticing her drifting off, "She showed me what will happen if I accept the Triforce's power. No one will accept me. I will lose my humanity."

"Now that is not true," Midna said, confidant in that, "You are a good, honest, and kind human being. That is humanity, regardless of anything else."

"What do you know of it?" Link suddenly snapped, his voice rising to a shout, echoing around the cavern, "You're not even human! I'm going to lose the very thing that makes me human, and you want to talk about honesty and kindness!"

He may as well have slapped her across the face, she certainly felt as though he had.

Link sighed, lowering his gaze. "I'm sorry," he said softly, "I didn't mean that."

"I understand," Midna said, "We've all been under a lot of stress lately. I'd rather you take it out on me that let it eat away at you."

Link looked up, looking around himself. It seemed they were back in Roxim's cavern. His makeshift bed of cushions was tucked away in a corner at the back wall and right side of the cavern. The dragon must have kept good to his word, as he doubted the girls could have carried him all the way back, especially the way Zelda had been limping that night. His tunic, armor, and shirt had been removed, and other than some bruises, he seemed little worse for wear.

"Link," Midna said, "I need to ask you something."

"Yeah?" he said, laying his head down on the cushions.

"Why do you put up with me?"

He turned his head to look at her and almost had to keep himself from laughing. "What kind of question is that?"

"I'm serious, Link," she said, scooting closer to him, "I treated you like dirt when we first met, and the entire time we searched for the Fused Shadow, and yet you never spoke harshly to me, you never complained, and then, when I was cast into the light the first time, you nearly killed yourself to save me. And you've never spoken of the way I treated you ever since, either. Just now was the first time you ever lost your temper with me, and I think it was because I said something foolish, as I have no idea what you're going through right now. Why do you put up with me?"

Link sat up, scratching absently at the week's growth of beard that had just decided to start itching and make itself known. "Because we're friends. Isn't that enough?"

_Not for me, it isn't_, Midna thought, but didn't dare voice the thought.

She turned away from him, quickly wiping her eye so he wouldn't see the tear that threatened to reveal everything. But he saw it anyway.

_Oh, gods, her too,_ he thought, _I thought it was just me..._

Link remembered when they had first met. Yes, he had rather disliked her at first, but she had grown on him over time. Her lack of experience with the world, he had shown her things she had never imagined before, that didn't even exist in the Twilight Realm, the only land she had known.

No matter how she had tried, she had been unable to hide for fascination about the stars in particular. In the eternal twilight of her land, her people never saw the glittering strands woven into the cloak of the goddess of night. He had shown her the constellations and how they moved as the seasons changed, and which stars one could always use to find the directions of the compass, regardless of the time of night. She had devoured the knowledge like a hungry child, eager to learn as much as she could.

When Zant cast her into the light, Link had run for all he was worth that night, yes nearly running himself to death to save her. Why? He hadn't thought about it when he did it, he just did. Afterwards, she had started being truthful with him at last about what she sought. He didn't hesitate or ask her why, he simply helped her as best he could, because he had wanted to.

Link had thought himself in love before, with different girls at different points in his life, some of whom no longer lived anywhere near Orden, though he hoped not because of him. He remembered quite vividly when Bo caught him in bed with Ilia when they were both seventeen, five years before the events that would lead him to meet Midna began, and the way Rusl had spoken in his defense as Bo pretty much made it impossible for him to see Ilia ever again.

"Come on, Bo," Rusl had said, "They're seventeen year old kids doing what seventeen year old kids do. You keep them from ever seeing each other, they'll run off together and you'll never see either of them again."

Bo had eased up a little after that.

Ilia and he had promised themselves to wait until after they were married before trying again. Of course, they never told this to anyone else.

He had thought he loved her, and yet...

He didn't understand why he did what he did for Midna, he had simply felt it the right thing to do. He didn't owe her anything, and yet he would be willing to do nearly anything she asked, if he was able. He knew that. He'd be willing to trade his life if it would save hers, that he knew, but he'd do that for any of his friends. One would always be more comfortable amongst friends, he knew, yet Midna's mere presence had a strange calming effect him that no other, even Ilia, offered. It just felt right whenever she was at his side.

When he thought about his time with Ilia, he realized that she was important to him, but not in the same way. He was very _fond_ of Ilia, he realized, but it was not love. Not like in the stories, not like in the songs, not like he felt for Midna.

_I love her,_ he realized, as though the mere possibility had been completely invisible to him before just now.

He turned to her, where she sat on the cushions nest to him. Her back was to him, and seemed to be deep in thought. She suddenly gave a shuddering sigh.

_And she loves me,_ he thought, _I saw it before, I just didn't put it together.__And yet..._

And yet he could not lend voice to his feelings. She had not lent voice to her feelings, and he suddenly wondered why. Did she fear rejection? Possibly. But now that Link was thinking about it, he saw other reasons.

They were from different worlds, worlds not intended to mix. The light of this world had even been lethal for her until that day that changed everything for both of them, when Zelda had bonded her heart with Midna's, lending her soul to the Twilight Princess to preserve her life in the world of light.

They were not of the same species. Humans and Twili were different races, and Link did not know if they were even compatable enough to bear children together, and if they could, would they be acceptable half-bloods, or deformed, pitiable creatures whose very existence was a torment?

But the thought that stopped him the hardest was that they were different castes. Midna was a princess, and as such, her first duty was to her people. She would be expected to marry another of noble birth to produce a suitable heir. Regardless of anything else, this was something that would never accept him. He was a peasant, no ifs ands or buts, and would be deemed unworthy to wed someone like her. He had refused knighthood when Zelda had offered it after the defeat of Ganondorf, saying he did not want the responsibility of the title.

Was that it, perhaps? He could face down monsters of all shapes and sizes, evil wizards who could kill him with a wave of their hand and a few words, probably even the denizens of hell itself, and he was afraid of responsibility? Of power?

Of power...

Link made his decision.

_For you, Midna,_ he thought, _I will accept the power of the Triforce that is offered to me so that I may break the curse upon you. That's one last thing I can do for you, before we are forced to go our separate ways. Whatever happens after that, I'll just have to deal with it when it happens._

* * *

"Looks like he's having a nice nap," a female voice said. 

"Well, wake his ass up so we can get going. I'm hungry," replied a male.

"Both of you be quiet," said a second male, "Just because he's in chains doesn't mean he's not dangerous."

"Oh, come on, what's more dangerous than me?" asked the first male.

"You mean besides a five year old girl with a stick?" asked the female.

"Keep this up and your chatter should be enough to wake him," said the second male.

"I'm already awake, you stupid shits," Zero said, lifting his head so that he could see them. Bangs of his silver hair fell down across his eyes, but he could still see well enough to identify the three that stood before him, though he knew their voices all too well for his liking.

Two men and a woman, if they could be called that. Their flesh was red as blood, with coal black hair contrasting it even in the dark of his cell. The one that stood immediately before him, the second male who had spoken, was known as Zantris. He wore now shirt, but dark gray trousers and black boots. Zantris was nearly eight feet tall, barrel chested, and massively built. It wouldn't have looked odd for him to lift a grown bull over his head, and he likely could, too. His hair was sharp and stood on end, looking very much like rows of sharp black teeth along his head. A large white scar, running from his left shoulder nearly to his right hip, stood starkly out against his red skin. Zero couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt whenever he saw it. He had been trying to cleave Zantris in half when that happened. A pity he'd fallen short.

The second male was considerably smaller than Zantris. He was known as Drakkus. Just over six feet tall, he looked considerably more human, in both size and dress. At the moment he was wearing only a white undershirt, trousers, and a brown pair of boots. His wings were folded along his shoulders, giving the image of a cape with no back, falling down his sides to points just above the floor. His hair was slicked back, almost in a flat top that fell off the back of his head about halfway down his neck. He also had a scar caused by a near miss on Zero's part, a white line that ran from the left side of his mouth back across his cheek to just under his left ear.

Zero couldn't remember the proper names, but Drakkus and Zantris were essentially different breeds of creatures from the same place, some lower plane that fit this world's idea of Hell.

The female was the same type of creature as Drakkus, and held her wings draped across her shoulders in a similar manner. She possibly looked the idea of a demon more than Drakkus, with black leather trousers and jacket, though a white undershirt could be seen through its open neck. She also wore long lace boots with three inch heels. They looked painful to walk in, and probably were, but Zero knew all to well that the heels were solid steel, and deadly weapons. Her name was Issau, and she was the only one of the three Zero hadn't made an attempt to kill yet.

"Zero," Zantris said, "Take a guess. Why do you think we're here?"

"You've got nothing better to do than piss me off?"

"Shaklator sent us," Issau said, crossing her arms, her tone dark, "She has been watching you, and you seem to be getting out of control."

"You see, Zero," Zantris said, "Khall Dragnir made a deal with Shaklator. Thus far he has held up his end of the bargain. The time that this is really going to count is fast approaching. You were placed under his command to help further this end. Khall was granted the power to end your life in an instant to keep you under control. Unfortunately, it seems this is not enough. You're not the type to fear your own death, and you have no loved ones for us to hold hostage, so this leaves us in a quandary."

He leaned closer and lowered his voice. "What can we do to put fear into you?"

"Lean just a little closer," Zero whispered, "so I can break your neck."

"Right," Drakkus said, stepping forward and reaching for his belt buckle, "It's obvious only shock therapy will have any effect, so-"

Issau grabbed his belt buckle before he could open it. "Just once, keep your pants on."

"You're no fun."

"Zero," Zantris said, ignoring them, "We're not going to forget about you and go away. We've been sent here to keep you in line, and we're not going to do your job for you. From now on, we'll be looking over your shoulder, though no other will know of our presence. You will follow Khall Dragnir's orders to the letter. If you betray him or us, then we will make sure that your death does not come from an unexpected source. Is that clear?"

"You'll be the first one I kill," Zero said, "Then the clown and then the she-bitch."

"Keep boasting," Zantris said as he stepped back, "That's one of the more likable traits that human soul has given you. I'd hoped giving you one would curb your bloodlust, but if anything, it's only made it worse. You'd better get it under control. You want a fight to the death with this human, Link, but you won't be getting it until Shaklator says so. You've got the warning. What happens next is up to you."

Almost as one, the three turned and stepped into the shadows around the edge of the room. Zero knew that they were no longer physically present, but was sure they were still watching.

"You'll die before you realize what I'm up to," he said, smiling to himself, "The only question is, will it be before or after I mount Link's head on a pike, right next to Khall, Kilishandra, and Ganon."


	33. Chapter 32

This chapter is a perfect example of one of those things that is intended to be fairly short, maybe five or six paragraphs, but once you start writing it, it snowballs out of control with new ideas that just have to be put in. If this keeps up, this thing could easily shoot over a hundred chapters, and I'm starting to realize that it very much could, though I wouldn't bet money on it just yet.

As a bit of a warning, this chapter tries to analyze and expand a few bits of the Twilight Princess game's storyline, and deviates from the plot in one minor bit that's more cosmetic than anything else. Actually, I think it makes the later events of the game make a bit more sense.

**Chapter 32: Zelda's Vision**

It had been incredible to see, Zelda thought, when Link unleashed the power of the Triforce to defeat the beast that the strange woman had unleashed. She had seen Ganondorf do impressive things with the piece that he possessed, but now that she thought about it, he had also used more standard magic spells that required vocalization and incantation. Link had unleashed a devastating power without uttering a single word.

She sat now in Roxim's library, absently looking down the rows of books on a shelf at the back end. The dragon's private library wasn't nearly as large as others she had seen, but it was surprisingly neat, with shelves lining all the walls, the entrance only just large enough for the dragon to enter. Every inch of the walls were covered by the shelves, and packed to bursting with books of various ages. The space in the center of the room, however, was barely large enough for the dragon to turn around in. There was more than enough room, however, for herself and Sheila to bring cushions from the main cavern to sit on as they perused the books, waiting for Link to wake up.

Roxim had seen the lights given off by Link when he destroyed the beast, and had been circling about above, getting quite irritated and cold from the rain. To get them back to his cave, she and Sheila had ridden on his back while he carried Link in his claws. One may have thought riding any airborne beast without straps and harnesses to hold oneself on its back would be a constant danger of falling, but they found, to their relief, that as he turned in the air, centrifugal force pushed them harder against his back, as opposed to trying to throw them off.

She and Sheila had both diagnosed Link with nothing more than sheer exhaustion, so they took off his wet clothing and armor, covered him up and intended to wait it out. Midna would not move from his side, so they left them there as Roxim went out to find something to feed everyone. Gaor, the yeti who had been waiting there for their return had taken one look at the state Sheila and Zelda were in, and had gone out to retrieve water for them to bathe, saying that "Old Scale Butt" could heat it for them when he returned. They hadn't really gotten a chance to protest, but considering the state of their clothing and hair, and what else after being in that filthy animal wagon for so long, they both realized that a bath was very soon in order regardless, if only to spare their friends' noses, let alone their own dignity.

Gaor seemed like a decent fellow, even if he did have a somewhat grating sense of humor. The way he and Roxim needled each other, they were obviously very good friends. Though neither of them would admit it.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Sheila suddenly sneezed, loud and hard, and wiped her nose on the back of her hand. "Damn," she muttered, "I prayed I wasn't getting sick."

"Are you all right?" Zelda asked.

"I don't have a fever," Sheila said, "Not yet anyway. That's something I really don't need if we're going to leave in the next day or so."

Zelda noticed that the sneeze had dislodged a small pendant from the front of Sheila's blouse. It looked like a blue gemstone on nothing more than a black thread around her neck. The gem itself was cut to have eight sides, the thread fit through a small hole bored in one end, and from here, Zelda guessed the gem was about an inch long and less than a third of an inch wide in the middle.

"You didn't seem the type to wear much jewelry," Zelda said, "Wouldn't do for the road anyway. What is it?"

"Oh, this?" Sheila said, looking down and picking up the gem between her thumb and finger, "This isn't necessarily jewelry. It's called a gloscan crystal. In the modern language, 'gloscan' roughly translates into 'life.' Think of it like an aid to healing magics, though only as a last resort."

"How do you mean?"

"You see, a gloscan crystal is something that is, how to say it, _grown_ for a specific person. It is attuned to that person's soul and very life force. The shape the crystal takes differs from person to person, as each one is unique as each person in the world is. An ordinary person would have little use for one, but in the hands of healers and magicians, they can be very useful."

Sheila turned the gem over in her fingers, gazing at it as she spoke. "Through the crystal, one can channel their life energy into a variety of useful applications. It can be used to enhance the power of spells being cast, either for healing or destruction, or one can give it directly to another person, extending their life for long enough for the healer to do her work when the patient would otherwise be lost. However, this isn't without a price."

She turned her gaze to Zelda sitting next to her. "You see, when you use life energy through the crystal for any purpose, it is gone permanently. Each use shortens the user's life by how much energy they use, be it days, months, years, or even just minutes or hours. Unchecked use can drastically reduce one's lifespan.

"It is also said, though I don't remember anyone ever finding out, that one could use the crystal to give their life entirely to another, possibly even bringing them back from the dead."

She sighed, looking at the crystal in her hand again. Zelda had listened carefully, and remarked, "Sounds like something you'd really have to think about before using."

"You'd need a good reason all right," Sheila said, "There's one other bit to it. A magic spell developed specifically for used with the crystal. It essentially causes the caster to discharge all their remaining life energy in an explosive burst, and the more energy they still possess, the younger they are, the bigger the resulting explosion, and the more destructive it is."

"When would something like that even be used?" Zelda asked, "It's suicide."

"This is more legend than positive history," Sheila said, "But the only time the spell has been used was during the ancient war when one of Darius' allies, a healer and magician of no small power himself, sacrificed his life to destroy the first of the flesh golems created by the usurpers. Darius didn't think the one-for-one trade was anywhere near worth it, so he created the mightiest of the now forbidden magics to destroy the golems without having to sacrifice a glascon crystal user each time."

"The Harrowing," Zelda said.

"Yes," Sheila replied, "The ultimate of destructive magics that can decimate armies in a single stroke, or raze an entire city to the ground in seconds. It is very fortunate that there is no one alive today who can cast it, and the words of the incantation have long been erased from all memory, or the Lords of Chaos would likely have it as well."

_What's to guarantee they don't?_ Zelda thought, but her thoughts drifted to another, much more familiar wizard, but then chided herself. _If Ganondorf had been able to use the Harrowing, he would simply have wiped the castle and city away without batting an eye. What possible reason could he have had to drag it out the way he did? Unless . . . _

Unless he had wanted a fight. Everything he had done had only succeeded in drawing out Link, the messenger of his defeat. He had even had Zant curse Link, thus forcing him to find the Master Sword to save himself, which in turn only made Link more dangerous to Ganondorf's plan, as he then carried the one weapon that could cause lasting harm to the villain.

But wait . . . Why could it cause serious harm to Ganondorf when he could shrug off even Arrows of Light in but a few seconds? The Ballad of the Hero of Time said that the hero had used the arrows to break through the dark energies surrounding the wizard and it had caused the wizard intense and blinding pain, during which the hero struck the fatal, or at least near fatal, blows with the Master Sword.

She had used her bit of sensory magic to search the ravine for dark energies after Link had pushed him in, and felt none, but suddenly she understood why. The dark energies she had felt before were coming from that Twili, Zant. She had not been in Ganondorf's presence before she bonded her soul to Midna's to save the Twilight Princess' life. During the final battle, she had not been paying attention to his energies, but now that she thought back, she was quite certain that he was not giving off the kind of energies that self-serving, evil people did. His was different from anything she had ever felt before then or since.

Sheila had used colors as examples of the auras people possess by their race, and that she and Link were different because they were golden. So, if Zelda thought of the energies given off by someone as selfless, courageous, and kind as Link as white, while the dark aura Zant exuded as black, with the various people of Hyrule and with differing attitudes and goals falling in between in varying shades of gray, then Ganondorf was still something else entirely. Thinking in terms of white through gray to black, Ganondorf kept coming up _red_.

It wasn't so simple as conquest. Ganondorf had gone to Hyrule looking to start a fight. He had even sent the moblins to Orden to kidnap the children for no apparent reason. Link had said that he had just found them in Kakariko and the girl, Ilia, in the castle town. Why kidnap them only to let them go?

To draw Link out. Ganondorf had known where Link was, no doubt finding him by the Triforce, and could easily have killed him while he was ill-equipped to fight the wizard, and yet the invasion of Hyrule by the mutated Twili, under Zant's control, had gone on. There had not even been a counterattack when Link and Midna began forcing the twilight back and collecting the weapons that would allow them to take the fight to Zant. Not until the twilight had been forced back completely, when Zant had laid the curse upon Link that trapped him as a wolf and cast Midna into the light, nearly killing her.

After they had come to her and she told them about the Master Sword and saved Midna, a barrier had appeared around the castle, preventing all entry. If Ganondorf had wanted to stop them there, why had he waited until after they departed? Had he put it up before then, which he easily could have done, they would not have gotten in and Midna would have soon been dead, and Ganondorf or even Zant could have killed Link at their leisure.

The pieces were starting to come together. Ganondorf had wanted to fight Link at his best. That was the reason for this elaborate scheme. It had been training for Link, all for a grudge match between Ganondorf the evil wizard who sought to dominate the world, and Link, the hero of Hyrule, latest in the line of heroes who stepped up whenever the wizard reared his ugly head.

Either Ganondorf was stark raving mad, or something had developed in all his failed attempts to dominate Hyrule. Perhaps he felt that it would not be truly a victory until he at last defeated Hyrule's hero and greatest warrior in single combat.

"Zelda, what are you doing?"

Zelda turned to look at Sheila, who was up on one knee as she moved back slightly.

"I'm not doing-" Zelda started, then saw what was drawing the elf's attention. The Triforce of Wisdom, on the back of her right hand, was glowing brightly.

"Your eyes!" Sheila said.

Zelda didn't need another clue to know they were glowing golden, just like Link's had when he had used the power of the Triforce last night. "But I'm not doing anything!" Zelda said, more to herself than Sheila.

"Put it out!" Sheila said, getting to her feet.

Sparks of electricity shot across Zelda's arms and hands. "I don't know how!" she said, "What's happening to-"

She was cut short as her vision suddenly filled with gold and she felt a painful wrench in her chest, and the cave was no more.

* * *

Beneath the castle of Darimar, in the dungeon cell he still occupied only because he chose to, Ganondorf sat with his back against the wall, the Triforce of Power glowing brightly, illuminating his normally dark cell, and sparks of golden electricity shooting across his body every few seconds. His right hand covered his face, two fingers against his forehead just over his eyes, which were shut tight as he concentrated. A smile spread over his face.

"Found you," he said.

* * *

Zelda opened her eyes to find herself in one of the last places she expected. She was in her bedroom, back in the castle. It looked just like she remembered before the castle had been destroyed. The large window on the outside wall, the fireplace across from her bed, the closet past the foot of the bed with the finest gowns one had ever seen.

But someone was in the room. Midna and the wolf that was Link. And a third person, though it looked more like a body. She gasped sharply as she realized that the body face down on the floor was herself, wrapped in the black cloak she had taken to wearing in mourning for her lost kingdom.

"Princess," Midna said, looking at her own hands, then toward the body, "You gave me everything you had to give, though I did not want it . . . "

Zelda watched, unable to speak, as the Twili and the wolf worked together to lift her body onto the bed. If it had been any other time, she might have laughed at seeing it, so comical it was. The two then departed together, pausing a moment at the door to look back. Then they were gone.

Zelda walked to the bed, looking down at the body she knew to be her own. As she watched, she realized that it was in fact not a body. It was extremely faint, but she was still breathing.

_Of course,_ she thought, _I'm alive now, aren't I?_

Heavy boot steps thudded up the stairs outside the door, accompanied by the clank of armor. She stepped back from the bed as the door swung open and Ganondorf himself stepped into the room, his black armor seeming to suck the light from the room. His left hand clutched the sword he carried just below the hilt, the blade wrapped in brown leather and secured with a cord. Not a proper sheathe, but good enough for him, though a bit of the white glow of the blade escaped from either end of the wrapping.

"They can't have possibly gotten in, my lord," said a voice behind Ganondorf, "There's no way a wolf that size would have gotten past the guards in the city."

Ganondorf turned to the voice, ignoring Zelda where she stood. "They were here, which is exactly where I wanted them to be. Now Link must go for the Master Sword to release himself. The Twilight Princess will be dead in a few hours, if she isn't already."

He turned back to the room, and the other stepped around his massive figure into view. It was Zant in his black robes with the green Twili designs, and that hideous mask he always seemed to wear. "My lord, I'm unsure about this decision to come here yourself," he said, "From what you've told me, you'll be vulnerable once he has the Master Sword. Could you please tell me what it is you are planning?"

Ganondorf ignored him, crossing the room swiftly to the bed, leaning down to pull the dark cloak away from the body's face. "Oh, no," he whispered, "You stupid girl. What have you done?"

Zant leaned around him to see. "If she is dead, that is one less obstacle. I don't know why you didn't allow me to kill her to begin with."

Ganondorf elbowed him back, growling. "If I'd wanted her dead, I'd have told you to kill her to begin with. This isn't what was supposed to happen."

He put a finger under her jaw, checking for a pulse, then leaned down and lay his ear against her breast, listening. Zelda took a step back, one hand rising to cover her left breast, her face growing hot as she growled under her breath.

"She's alive," Ganondorf said, standing up, "though just barely."

He scratched his beard as he thought. "If I had to guess, I'd say she no longer has her soul. She must have given it up," he snapped his fingers, "to the Twili! With a soul of a creature of light, it would alter the Twili's body to be able to withstand the light of this world. If the Twili possesses it long enough, the effect could be permanent."

"Let me go retrieve her," Zant said, "If you want to save her, I'll drag Midna back here and force it out of her."

"No," Ganondorf said, "Let's leave them alone for just a moment. If I move Zelda to the Sacred Realm for the moment, there will be no danger of her body starving, and I want to see how this plays out. I think I've got an idea for a bit of a trick when they do get back here.

"Besides," he added, turning to Zant, "You're no match for Link in this world. All he'd have to do is shatter your mask and the light would have you, just as it nearly had your friend. You're going back to the Twilight Realm. There you will await further orders. In the meantime, I'll erect a barrier around the castle to keep Link out until I'm ready for him. And him for me."

"As you wish, my lord," Zant said.

The room was growing dark. Zelda thought her vision was failing, but she realized the image of the past was fading. Someone was showing her this, and had apparently decided she had seen enough.

Lights began to appear in the darkness. Like a great many white speckles, stars filled the dark. Zelda found herself floating in empty space. No matter where she looked, more stars were visible, and in some areas red and blue clouds were visible. "Where am I now?" she asked no one in particular.

A bass chuckle echoed around her. "Who's there?" she asked, turning about, trying to locate the source.

Suddenly, the familiar visage of Ganondorf came into view, just a few feet away from her. "You remember me, don't you?" he said with a smile, "I'd be hurt if you didn't."

He was there, just a short distance away from her, and Zelda realized for the first time just how large a man he was. He had to be seven feet tall, or close enough, and was massively built. The fact that he wore not a stitch of clothing only compounded his massive build. Zelda knew that Link was in incredible shape, and had seen the evidence herself. Ganondorf trumped him in nearly every possible area, from his height to his sheer size and weight. His presence simply radiated raw power.

His beard was cut in a perfectly square fashion, giving him the very image of the square jaw often used to describe manly looking men, and as he smiled at her, he revealed canines nearly long enough to be called fangs.

"I remember more of you than I'd ever want to," Zelda said, unable to keep anger from her voice, "I know what's happening. You're using the Triforce to send me this vision, aren't you?"

"That's one thing I like about you," Ganondorf said, floating a bit closer, "You're much more perceptive than your ancestor. You know, if she'd just kept her nose out it, I'd have died before I gained entry to the Sacred Realm and the Triforce? I couldn't draw the Master Sword and gain entry on my own. But she was still better than that fool, the Hero of Time as he was called, who blindly followed her into it."

Zelda folded her arms across her chest, about to retort, when she realized her arms felt nothing but flesh. She had not clothing on either. She quickly spun about, putting her back to Ganondorf as she covered herself and tried to hold on to her dignity. "She had the best of intentions," she managed to say, though it didn't sound nearly as angry as she had wanted.

"You do realize," Ganondorf whispered, leaning close to her ear, "the greatest disasters in the history of this world all spawned because of idiots with the best of intentions. Has Sheila told you the truth about the usurpers of old? The fact that it was their great hero, Darius, who allowed them to gain the power they had? Who even aided them in doing so? Of course he had to end the war. He started it, after all. The same thing happened to your ancestor, the daughter of the last king of Hyrule."

"Pity they didn't kill you when they had the chance," Zelda said.

Ganondorf chuckled in her ear. "Neither did you."

"Midna told me that Link has been having visions," she said, changing the subject, "Are you sending them to him, too?"

"The way you say that, she must have asked you to not tell Link she told you, hmm?" When Zelda didn't answer, he continued, "No. That's not I. Besides . . . "

Zelda suddenly found one of his arms across the front of her shoulders, the other across her stomach and pulling her back against his rock hard chest, his beard scratching at her neck. "...I wouldn't really want to get this close to him."

"Hmph."

"Is that all you have to say?"

"Nothing I say will make a difference," she said, "If you can pull me here against my will, I doubt I can stop you regardless. Just know that if you follow through on this, I'll make certain we kill you this time."

"You judge me so harshly," Ganondorf said, kissing her neck gently, "You think I went to all this trouble just to rape you? I will tell you something about me that you might not realize. Two things, actually. First I don't take women against their will. Second, I pride myself on never having to pay to play. The only ones left are women who are quite willing, and possibly even very eager to share my bed."

"And you haven't grown tired of it after four thousand years of it?" Zelda asked.

"No more than I've grown tired of life," Ganondorf said, "I admit, I've taken thousands of women, possibly even tens of thousands, and yet there is one visage that haunts my dreams, and that I cannot have."

He blew gently in her ear, then whispered so softly it could barely be heard, "The Princess Zelda."

Zelda chuckled. "The joke is on you. There have been hundreds of Zeldas in the Hylian royal bloodline. I'm not the _one_ you're dreaming of."

"That is true," Ganondorf said, "She is long since dead. I did not desire her while she lived. In fact, I would have strung her up by her own entrails if I got the chance. And yet, they say there is a thin line between love and hate. She locked me away in the Sacred Realm with the aid of the _Hero_ of Time. And yet, as I sat there, plotting my revenge and how I was going to butcher her entire bloodline, I started to think about the fact that she had shown a small bit of mercy by leaving me my life, something I would never have shown any enemy, and gradually, over time, I think my outlook on things began to change."

"That's the difference," Zelda said with sudden realization, "That's why the old legends describe you as a monster practically exuding evil with each breath, and yet your behavior seemed so strange this time in comparison. You were deliberately trying to get Link to fight you."

"Guilty as charged," Ganondorf said.

"But why?" Zelda asked, "Why such an elaborate scheme to draw out a single person? It must have taken months, years to orchestrate such a thing."

"Link wasn't my only goal," Ganondorf said, "Hyrule was there, but it was secondary to stamping its hero's brains into the rug. Much as your resemblance to your ancestor, both in looks and ideals, is uncanny, Link bears a frightening resemblance to the man who aided the sages in my defeat four millennia ago. I've come to understand that he is not a blood descendant of the Hero of Time, in spite of his looks and abilities, however. In fact, I'm fairly certain that none of the men who stepped up to battle me even had children. They simply left the Master Sword there, in Hyrule, and left to chase adventure elsewhere, never returning to Hyrule.

"Yours is the first to attempt to go back to his life before the battle began, and it seems he wasn't terribly successful."

"What do you expect?" Zelda asked, "Real heroes are practically nonexistent in this day and age. They are meant to be spoken of, to have tales told and songs sung about them, not to be real people that you might see walking through town. People can't comprehend it, accept the fact that the _hero_ is a _person_ just like they are."

"Not just like they are," Ganondorf said, "The average person lives out his or her life not wanting to fully experience it. They find a stable job to earn a living and spend their life at it, teaching their children to do the same. Imagination and the sense of adventure is stifled. That is the sort of thing that happens to _other_ people, not to them. They think joining the army and standing around on guard duty is an adventure. Of course, they all turn into cowards the moment actual war comes."

"That is not true!" Zelda said, suddenly trying to push away from his embrace, but he held her fast, "The soldiers of Hyrule defended me when your minions stormed the city!"

"The few worthwhile ones were the only ones to die, then," Ganondorf said, "They did their duty, and died for you and the kingdom. But how many fled, unwilling to put their lives on the line when it really mattered?"

"And your point?" Zelda asked, a sharp edge in her voice as her anger rose.

"My point," he said, "is that the common people are little better than cattle. They simply accept their fate and become one of the faceless masses that populate the world, waiting to be told what to believe. Now, you see, I am different. So is Link, and the other 'heroes' throughout history. And, I hope, so are you. We don't wait to be told what to do. We see what we must do, what must be done, and we do it. We see something we want, and we take it, and woe to those who dare stand in our way."

Zelda laughed. She laughed loudly and with great gusto. "You're even more of an idiot than I thought! Link and I are nothing like you. I can't believe you'd even think of comparing him to yourself! He is the most courageous, selfless, and kindhearted person I've ever met!"

"And yet he so vehemently rejects the power he possesses," Ganondorf said, "Oh, yes, I'm aware that he fights the very power within him, that has been within him since his birth. If you must consider me evil, than think of the good such power could do in his hands, yet he fights it every step of the way. Why? Because he hates what he is. He hates being a hero, of having the odd looks given to him for exactly the reasons you stated. He wants so desperately to be _normal_. To fit in. He's as selfish as I am, in his own way.

"But at the same time, he steps up to fight for what he believes in. The Hero of Time told me once that he believed every person in this world, regardless of their race, skin color, or even past deeds, they all had a right to simply be alive. To live. That was why he fought me.

"Now what of your hero? Why does he fight? I don't know his reasons, but he fights even more fiercely than the Hero of Time, or any of the others who have challenged me through the ages. He is willing to go further, to sacrifice more of himself for his beliefs than any other I've ever met, excluding my daughter, of course."

"Daughter?" Zelda whispered, almost unable to believe her ears.

"I'll tell you about her another time," Ganondorf said, "But think about this: If everyone in the world fought for what they believed in like Link, don't you think it would be a very different place? A place without the liars, the cowards, the bureaucracies, and so forth."

"Hmph," Zelda said, "Such a world will never exist. Even I'm not such a foolish idealist to believe one can simply stamp out the roots of evil that seem ingrained in many people's very nature."

"It's not just in their nature, but all mankind's," Ganondorf said, "At the very core of human nature are the two reasons that men wage wars, fight over meaningless trivialities, and are capable of killing even their own brother, should they deem it necessary. Those two reasons are hatred and ignorance.

"Even I must admit that it is my hatred of the Hero of Time that drives me to conquer Hyrule and destroy its hero. I have little interest in the country itself anymore, except as a means to find the hero."

"But why?" Zelda said, "After four thousand years, such an old grudge must seem hollow, especially since the object of your revenge is forever beyond your reach."

"You don't live as long as I have without developing a great deal of patience," Ganondorf said, "And besides, Link is far more skilled, and powerful, than the Hero of Time ever was. He bested me once, therefore I must destroy him to prove that I am the mightier. I am the most powerful man alive, and I won't have anyone infer otherwise."

"So that's it, then?" Zelda said, "You just want to prove that you're the strongest? That no one in the world can beat you? That is the reason you engineer wars and cost the lives of perfectly good men and women?"

"The history of Hyrule, and the world, is written in blood," Ganondorf said, "The strong are meant to prevail over the weak, and that is why one must always work to become stronger, so that when one stronger does emerge to challenge you, you will be ready for them. One weak link can bring down the mightiest of empires, after centuries of prosperity.

"The original Princess Zelda, who allowed me to gain the power of the Triforce, was the weak Link in Hyrule's chain. If not for her precious hero's power over time itself, the kingdom would have been ground to dust beneath my boot heel, as the first stage of my global domination."

"That would have been your downfall," Zelda said, "One man can't rule the world. It's impossible to manage all the territories and resources needed for such an empire. Even a strong ruler, spread too thin, will fall."

"Of course one man can't do it," Ganondorf said, "You're exactly right in that regard. That's why the world must be divided into territories with each one managed by a strong, but loyal, governor. The ruler of the world must have allies who are trustworthy.

"Which brings me at last to the main reason I have sought you out, Zelda Daphnes Hyrule," he continued, "At the risk of sounding cliche, I have sought you out to make you the offer of a lifetime. Hear me out before you say no.

"You would stay the ruler of Hyrule. It would be yours to do with as you see fit, as it is now, and I would not interfere. Should trouble arise, you would even have me to come and protect it and your people. You wouldn't have to count on the 'legendary hero' to come to your rescue.

"I could also teach you the most powerful magics known to man, including the forbidden magics of old and several I have created myself, and I can teach you how to use your Triforce, all this turning you into one of the most powerful sorceresses to ever live."

She could feel his beard scratch her neck as he leaned next to her ear and whispered, almost inaudibly, "I can even make you immortal, like myself. You could be forever young, and always guide your kingdom in the time to come, ensuring that no weak link in your bloodline causes the fall of your kingdom."

It was a tempting offer, she realized. She could understand the appeal that might have swayed another of weaker will than herself. The thought of being one of the most powerful magicians in the world, of being able to protect her people herself regardless of the danger, was dangerously tempting.

"All you have to do," Ganondorf whispered, "is swear absolute loyalty to me, and stay out of the way while I kill your precious hero."

That cinched it. Zelda spun in his arms, turning to face him and forcefully wrenched her legs up and shoved away from him with both hands and feet, breaking out of his grasp.

"Do you think I'm a fool?" she demanded, "I'm not going to betray a friend, even if it will guarantee my people's safety. You say we fight for what we believe in. This is what I believe in. If I turn on one person, what's to stop me from turning on another, and then another, until I become just like you?

"You don't know what Link fights for, you say? I'll tell you then. You're right. He's abominably selfish. He fights only for what _he_ cares for, what _he_ wants to protect. Only for his friends, and that gives him a strength greater than you or any other bastard who fights only for himself. He doesn't care about the common people as a whole, that is true, but protecting his friends from monsters like you helps them indirectly."

She clenched her hand into a fist, feeling her nails biting into her palm as she spoke. "You're afraid of him! That is why you try to turn me against him! We've beaten you before, and we can do it again! We'll find that wizard, Khall, as well, and beat the restoration spell out of him if we have to! Hyrule has survived on its own this long, and it will live on past this crisis!"

"Khall?" Ganondorf said suddenly, "What in the hell is he doing here? I left him with the others back in Eristar! Dammit, I told them not to move until I returned!"

"What, you didn't know about them?" Zelda said, "They are the reason every living thing in Hyrule has been turned to stone! They are the reason we came to Mystara in the first place!"

Ganondorf wasn't listening. "Damn," he muttered to himself, "If he's here, then at least Mur'neth and Tharkus have to be as well . . . Tharkus," he spat the name with a sudden venom, "He has something to do with this, I'm sure. The question is, did they bring Minerva? If she's here, they can't be up to anything I wouldn't approve. But if she isn't . . . "

Ganondorf suddenly turned back to Zelda and smiled. "I think your options just narrowed quite a bit, princess. If Khall targeted Hyrule with the Silencing, I can guarantee it was to maneuver you and your friends to exactly where he wanted you. You may have confidence in your hero, but I can promise you, Khall is extremely dangerous by himself. He's a powerful wizard, and ruthlessly methodical. If you thought my scheme was elaborate, it was nothing compared to some of the things I've seen him come up with. Link _might_ be able to beat him, but I promise he has no chance against Tharkus. He is even more meticulous and methodical than Khall. He never gets into a fight until he's absolutely certain he can win. Even I would think twice before getting into a direct fight with him.

"And as for Kilishandra," Ganondorf grimaced, "She's the best with a sword I've ever seen, and she's nearly as powerful a magician as I am. If your precious hero goes up against her, there won't be enough left of him to fill a match box. And I should know, since I taught her everything she knows.

"And as for Minerva," he added with a chuckle, "If she is here, you might as well kiss your kingdom goodbye. That woman could easily kill me if she'd a mind to. But her loyalty to me is such that I would never question it."

"Your gloating is getting old," Zelda said, "Any other warnings for me?"

"What's this? Is the princess growing teeth, or is she just pretending to?"

"You want teeth," Zelda growled, sparks of electricity arcing across her fist, "I'll show you teeth."

She spread her arms straight out to her sides, palms open, fingers splayed out. "_Ast olathe ulut ah dael,_" she intoned, electricity arcing across her hands and fingers as she gathered the energy for the most powerful spell in her arsenal, "_I summon the power of the mighty spirits of the sky, lend me thy anger and unleash thy wrath!_"

The electricity across her fingers rapidly expanded, shaping into twin globes of churning, sparking masses of energy in her palms, growing larger by the second. She suddenly pulled her hands down in front of herself, slamming the two globes together, causing them to merge into a single ball of lightning, its shape twisting and sparking wildly as the energy fought to be free of the confining form which she held it, as it grew larger by the second. The weakness of this spell was that it required nearly a full two minutes from the first words to the actual casting, and intense concentration to shape the energy into the form required. If Ganondorf lunged for her, she wouldn't finish. But he did not move. In fact, he was smiling at her.

"_Storm of Vengeance!_" Zelda finished, her voice rising far beyond the echo caused by normal vocalization to a level that caused a repeating echo for several seconds even in the empty space they occupied.

The echo was the least of what they payed their attention, however, as the ball of electricity turned into no less than thirty bolts of lightning streaked from the globe in her hands, and maintained themselves, created a constant stream of electricity, capable of leveling a building, into Ganondorf. The bolts twisted and writhed through the air, obscuring her vision of Ganondorf, and in a brief glimpse she saw of him through the storm, she realized that he was holding his right hand out before himself, and the power of the spell was turning away from him before it struck, harmlessly flying off to either side of him into the black space around them.

The spell ended suddenly, the lightning vanishing and Zelda felt she wouldn't be able to stand, had she not been floating in emptiness. She felt as though she'd just run a mile at full speed, and felt herself taking deep breaths to desperately try to recover.

Ganondorf chuckled, now resting his right hand on his hip. "Finished already? I must say I expected more from you," he said, "I suppose it's my turn now, yes?"

_While he's casting,_ she thought, _I might have a chance. If I can break his concentration, it might release me from his grip and get me back to the others._

Ganondorf lifted his right hand again, a spark of gold electricity appearing to connect each of his fingers by their tips. His eyes glowed with a golden light.

_Now!_ she thought, and lunged for him.

"_Daem!_" Ganondorf shouted, the echo of vocalization accompanying the word.

A gold ball of electricity shot from his hand, colliding with her chest, sending her flying backward, electricity running over her body to accompany the surge of pain that washed through her.

_A single word,_ she thought, _He cast a spell with a single word of incantation. That's impossible . . . _

* * *

Zelda opened her eyes to find three concerned faced looking down at her.

"Are you all right?" Link asked.

Zelda realized she was lying on the floor of the library with her head on the cushion she had been sitting on previously, with Link, Midna, and Sheila gathered around her. "How long was I out?" she asked.

"About five minutes," Sheila said, "Your eyes were glowing and sparks were shooting out of your body, and then you just blacked out."

"Ganondorf," Zelda said, turning to Link, "He found me, spoke to me, through the Triforce. I'm sure he knows where we are. He was trying to get me to join him."

"I hope you said what I think you said," Link said.

"I refused, but I also asked him about Khall," she said, "He seemed genuinely surprised to hear that name, though he did recognize it. There is a connection between them, but I don't think they are working with him in their actions."

"At the moment, I don't see anything we can do," Link said, leaning back against the bookcase behind him, "It'll be dark soon, and I don't want to navigate icy passes in the dark. We'll leave first thing in the morning and head south."

"You think he'll come after us?" Midna asked.

"I don't know," Link said, "He's pretty much given away his chance at surprising us, as we'll be expecting him now. If he's going to come to us, it won't be for a while yet. Regardless, I'd prefer to find him first, or at least choose the terrain for a fight."

"He had quite a few other things to say, too," Zelda said, sitting up, "He seemed quite interested in discussing ethics for some reason. And he did tell me a few things about Khall and the others."

Link turned his gaze back to her. The look in his eyes was one she was familiar with. The gentleness usually present in his eyes was gone, and his gaze was rock hard and merciless. "I want you to tell me everything he said," Link said, "word for word if you can remember it. We've got a while until Roxim or Gaor get back, so tell me everything."

She wondered if he was good enough to detect her hiding something if she left the part about her nakedness out.


	34. Chapter 33

See my profile if you're interested in the update on my computer situation.

**Chapter 33: Contingencies**

"Hey, look, they didn't cave the place in!" Roxim said as he slid his great bulk into the cavern.

Link and the others had moved from the dragon's private library out into the main cavern to be a bit more comfortable as Zelda related what she had seen. Her triforce had ceased its glowing, and showed no signs of lighting itself again. Link had listened carefully to what she said, not interrupting her, but the look on his face as he listened was quite dark. It had almost a bewitching nature to it, making Zelda have to force herself to look him in the eye.

When the dragon walked into the chamber, dropping a large mountain caribou on the rock floor with a loud thump, they turned to look at him, and he almost immediately read their faces. "What happened?" he asked.

"We got a visit from an old friend," Link said, "Not in person, but it seems he has found a way to find us, and we haven't a clue where he is. Apparently he's decided to try and turn us against each other."

"Ah," the dragon said, sitting back on his haunches, "So, by 'old friend,' you mean you'd like to mount his head on a pike."

"Close enough," Link said, "We'll be leaving first thing in the morning and heading south."

"Wise," Roxim said, "Winter is nearly upon us and you'll want to be gone before the passes snow in completely. While I was gone, I flew a wide circle to the west and did a bit of scouting for you. High Elder," he turned to Sheila, "It would behoove you to stop in Whitos-Neiki and inform King Maylow that there is a great deal of movement in the western mountain passes. A large number of undead creatures are massing on the country's western border, and the Dra'thul are scattering away from the mountain citadel, dispersing through the passes to exit the mountains."

"Dra'thul?" Sheila said, "You're certain?"

"Trust me," Roxim said, "I recognize the stench of dark elves quite easily. I've had more than my fair share of dealings with them in the past."

"It seems we are dealing with a large number of them," Sheila said.

"Then there is one other question to answer," Roxim said, "Where did they come from? The Dra'thul have been all but extinct since the barbarian hordes were pushed of Mystara."

"That's it," Sheila said, "Just as we were told. The barbarians were not familiar with the discrimination that was common back then, they accepted the dark elves among their number. When the hordes withdrew, the dark elves simply went with them. Could Khall have allied himself with the barbarians of the northlands?"

"Unlikely," Link said as he walked to the dead caribou Roxim had arrived and drew his knife, "Khall was attempting to recruit the giants, and they had human barbarians among their number. I think they would know more about the situation."

"We could simply go north and see if we can locate any Dra'thul ourselves," Zelda said.

Link tied the hind feet of the caribou in what remained of the rope they had used to suspend the heifer nearly a week ago and motioned for Roxim to lift it clear of the floor as he had done before. He used his knife to slit its throat and placed one of the buckets underneath to catch the draining blood. "I'd rather not spare the time," Link said, "From the sound of things, the western borders are about to explode. I agree that we should warn Whitos-Neiki's king, for what little preparation they can make."

He turned to Sheila. "For ten years they've been unsuccessfully attacking Whitos-Neiki from the western mountains, you said?"

"Yes," she said in a low tone, "I hope you're not about to say what I think you are."

"Ten years," Link said, "That's an awfully long time without a decisive blow for either side. They've been prodding and testin the defenses of that kingdom for ten years, and likely the entire time they were learning the defenses of the other kingdoms through other means. And now, they use an ancient forbidden magic to attack Hyrule, far across the sea and of no immediate importance to them. Then they use the Dra'thul to prevent us from gaining the spell that would free our people. Why?"

Without waiting for a response, he continued, "They've succeeded in drawing two people from Hyrule who bear the kingdom's greatest treasure, as well as its greatest weakness. Then they ensure that we have a long road ahead of us and won't be going back to Hyrule any time soon."

"A trap," Zelda said, "From the very beginning it was a trap!"

"That's right," Link said, crossing his arms over his chest and pacing back and forth in front of them, "Khall and his companions want us here. But for what? We know Ganondorf is here as well, and Khall wants him dead. We figure that the Triforce works as a seal that holds the demon, Shaklator, imprisoned. Should one of us bearing a piece of it die, the seal will likely be broken. And the Twilight Mirror..."

He turned to the tapestries decorating the back walls of the cavern. He quickly found the one he sought. Depicted in the threads, amidst a storm that tore the very earth and rocks into the air, a dark circle was visible, bright green runes all around its edge in a pattern Link did not know, and a figure whose body was created of fire being dragged into it against its will. The forces dragging the creature into the portal twisted its shape beyond anything identifiable, but the flames did hold the general shape of a human torso, arms and head, its fingers of flame clawing into the stone beneath the portal, fighting every inch of the way.

Before this creature stood a single man with silvered hair, his deep purple cloak flying about him, his previously white shirt stained dark red with blood. In his left hand he gripped an enormous battle axe just below the head, the haft resting against the ground at his side, the edges caked with blood, and even through that, blue runes edged into the head shone brightly, glimmerings of their light falling to the ground. Light? No, it was snowflakes, falling from the edge of the blade, the weapon's enchantment causing moisture in the air to freeze around it.

His right hand was held above his head, palm toward the creature and portal, his fingernails glowing gold, and an orb of gold light visible within his grasp.

"I get it," Link said, turning back to the others, "Darius banished Shaklator through the Twilight Mirror. To where, I don't know, but that was his means. How it ended up in Hyrule, I have no idea, but I finally get it."

He stepped toward them, his eyes falling on Zelda. "Zero took my fragment of the Twilight Mirror when he showed up in Orden because they need it to release Shaklator. Unless the sages stopped him, I'm sure the main part of the mirror, in the desert, is gone as well."

"Sages?" Sheila asked.

"The guardian spirits of Hyrule," Zelda said, "We left the larges part of the mirror under their care, taking other fragments with us for safekeeping."

"Who is this Zero, then?" Sheila asked.

"I'm not sure," Link said, "I never saw his face, it was too dark. He also passed right through a wall with no difficulty. He's definitely not human, that I am sure of."

"Before everyone starts panicking and running off in the wrong directions," Roxim interjected, "There is still one question that needs answering: What do Khall and his allies stand to gain by releasing Shaklator? That creature nearly destroyed the world last time she appeared. And that was at the height of the old civilization's power, when their ability in magic and military was far beyond anything present today. I think they might be working toward a false promise from someone or something."

Link turned to the dragon. "There's one way to find out. We keep going as we planned. Khall is having us followed, we know this. Let's turn their caution into our trap. We just need one of them, alive, and we can get at least some answers. The next time they come out in the open, we'll have to be ready for them."

* * *

Mur'neth hated travel spells. He understood that without some form a beacon to target them to, they were highly inaccurate, even for experience wizards. The beacon in the citadel was in the upper courtyard, a pentagram cut directly into the bricks of the floor and the channels filled with silver, as well as small circles between each of the five points of the star. Mur'neth knew it was enchanted for several reasons other than serving as a target point for a travel spell, but it was the way the lines of silver glowed red endlessly that made him nervous around it.

He also hated travel spells because he always felt like he was about to vomit when one was completed, added to the feeling of his flesh burning hot while his insides were freezing cold. And appearing in the center of that star didn't help.

Khall didn't waste any time when they arrived, immediately walking toward the south entrance to the courtyard, calling to Mur'neth over his shoulder, "Put the team I need together and gather up however many you think you need for this excursion to Hyrule.

Mur'neth stepped off the pentagram and paused a moment to settle his thoughts and his stomach. He checked his sword at his hip, making sure it was free in the scabbard, then clicked it home.

The upper courtyard was bleak, stone walls on all sides rising nearly twenty feet straight up, bare except for a few torch brackets, with the top open to the sky. Dark clouds hung overhead, signaling coming rain. There were three entrances to the courtyard. The south end, which led to the areas that made up the sleeping quarters of three of the four lords of Chaos, Khall, Kilishandra, and Tharkus, as well as the two wizards' labs, where they concocted their schemes and Tharkus made his hideous creatures.

The north entrance led to the areas used as general quarters and the passages down into the caverns beneath the massive citadel, where their main forces were quartered. The caverns were vast and mostly natural, with the massive underground lake on the lowest level providing both water and a kind of eyeless fish in quantity to feed their large force. The fish didn't taste that bad, actually. It was the smell that would drive you crazy.

The eastern passage from the courtyard led to the passages that eventually connected to the main gate, which in turn led to the mountain passes used to move about on foot.

It was hell getting anywhere, but the citadel wasn't designed to be comfortably lived in. It was designed to resist attack, slowing attackers with its maze of passages and wrong turns. The five towers, two on either side of the gate on the east side and three on the western side, were intended solely as locations for archers to defend from, excluding the northwestern one, which was where Zero was currently held.

Mur'neth walked toward the north entrance, and was met at the door by a dark elf in full gear. His black leather armor strapped tightly to his flesh, a short sword tucked into the left side of his belt, with sheaths of throwing knives on either side of his belt, on his left shoulder, and just above his right boot. Like all the Dra'thul, his flesh was black as coal and hair white as snow. The entire left half of his face was scarred from fire burns, causing his scowl to be even more menacing than it would have been on its own, which due to his unusual height for an elf of any kind and abnormally square jaw, was quite menacing.

"Master," he said, "I am pleased to see you well."

"Walk with me, Vargus," Mur'neth said as he entered the hall.

The citadel had only sporadic guard postings, mainly due to the ninja and undead in the passes leading up to it, to the point that if an attacker ever actually breached the outer wall, the force would have to be so massive or effective that it would be impossible to hold against. With only one passage into the caverns below, it was intended to fall back there and hold the enemy at the choke point that the entrance made.

This caused the halls of the citadel to be very dreary and empty for much of the time, and Mur'neth intended to make use of the privacy this provided. "Khall is hiding something from us," he said, "He's up to something and he doesn't want me in the loop. Have you noticed Kilishandra or Tharkus acting strangely recently?"

Vargus thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "Nothing that stands out, master. Tharkus tends to keep to himself in his lab, but that is no change from usual. Kilishandra walks among our men, reassuring them that everything is about to come to fruition, that this decade of work has not been wasted."

"Khall is sending me across the sea," Mur'neth said, "To secure a hostage from Hyrule to bargain with the Hylians with, or so he claims."

"You think he just wants you out of the way," Vargus surmised, "How many are going with you?"

"He said however many I need, but I'll take four or five," Mur'neth said, "I'll decide who later. He also wants me to put together a team of about thirty to help him with whatever he's up to."

"Why so many?" Vargus asked, "I thought he knew we work better alone or in small groups."

"That's exactly what I want you to find out," Mur'neth said, "I'll probably be gone for a while. A week or more. I want you with that team, pick who you want to help you, and keep an eye what's going on. If Khall or Tharkus so much as fart in an odd manner, I want to know about it."

"And Kilishandra?"

"I'm going to go talk to her before I leave, and I'll let you know whether she's with us or them. She joined this knowing she'd have to face Ganondorf, but when it comes down to me or Khall, I don't know how she'll go."

"She carries the Fingernail of the Accused," Vargus said, "She may not have a choice."

"I know," Mur'neth said, and sighed, "It could be problematic, but if I must, I'll cut out Ganon's heart myself and bring it to her."

Another ninja, also fully kitted, stepped around the corner in from of them. They stopped and he leaned in close to whisper to them. "I thought I should inform you, master, Khall mentioned something about leaving our brethren under the command of Zivlyn. Is that true?"

"It is, for the moment," Mur'neth said, "Where was he going?"

"To Tharkus' laboratory," the ninja said.

"Should we send someone to eavesdrop on their conversation?" Vargus asked.

Mur'neth considered it for a moment. "No," he said, "That place is too dangerous when it's empty. I'd prefer to do it myself, if anyone does, but let's not take unnecessary risks for now."

"As you wish," Vargus said, and waved his hand, dismissing the other ninja, who vanished around the corner into the shadows."

"While I'm gone, you'll be in command," Mur'neth said as they resumed their walk, "Do what Khall asks, within reason. Don't send our people off on an obvious suicide mission and such. If you feel it necessary to listen in on their conversations in the future, do so at your own discretion, but don't get yourself killed, Vargus."

He leaned a little close to the other. "And spread the word, carefully, to pack up. If things take a turn for the worse, get everyone you can out, quietly. I'm trusting your judgement here, and if I am not back before you must evacuate, don't worry about me. I'll catch up later."

"It will be as you wish."

"Go gather up some volunteers to go on this little trip with me," Mur'neth said, stopping at the next intersection of the passage, "I'll come pick the ones going with me from there after I talk to Kili."

"As you command," Vargus said, turning and walking down the opposite passage.

Mur'neth watched him go, then turned down the other passage, taking a deep breath to steel himself for this meeting. Kili was friendly enough on most days, but since they had arrived here, she'd become a bit of a recluse, and her temper had gotten considerably shorter. He was also sure that Khall and Tharkus' contingency to insure her loyalty, the blue fingernail, had something to do with it.

She kept her room on the first floor by the west wall of the citadel, close to the passage leading to the underground labyrinth in the mountain itself. From outside, it looked like any other room, a stout oak door in the stone wall, a lit torch in the bracket next to it, casting light in the windowless stone passage.

Mur'neth drew a dagger from his left side, its sheath invisible beneath the black leather of his armor. A casual observer would be hard pressed to see where it had come from. He rapped the hilt on the thick wooden door twice.

"It's open!" barked a voice from within.

Mur'neth returned the dagger and pushed the door open. It was dark in the room, but three candles burned on the wooden table near the center of the room. Seated just across it was the sorceress Kilishandra, the shoulder plate of her armor in one hand, a whetstone in the other as she sharpened the three spikes protruding upward from it to a deadly cutting edge.

"Oh, you," she said, turning her eyes back to her work, pausing a moment to test a spike's edge on her thumb, "Back so soon?"

Her sword, in its black leather sheath lay on the table before her, along with the rest of the pieces of her armor. The breastplate, form-fitted to her body, was alone worth a fortune. It had taken a smith nearly a year to get it so precise a fit to her shape, and in addition it, along with the rest, was made with a relatively new technique for heating and shaping the steel. It was twice as thin of standard steel, and less than a third of the weight, but was somehow even stronger than standard steel. The legs of the armor were made from eight interlocking plates each, leaving very little flesh exposed when worn, and almost as form-fitting as the breastplate. Her right arm used the spiked shoulder-plate and two plates that fit around her bicep. From the elbow down, her arm was exposed, but she preferred this to allow freer movement in her elbow and wrist. Besides, it was her left side she kept turned toward her enemy.

Twelve interlocking plates made up the covering of her left arm, four on the inside of her arm, the other eight along the outside, and topped off with a heavy gauntlet with clawed fingers and spiked knuckles. She didn't carry a shield because that arm of her armor was designed to serve the same purpose, and was much more flexible. She had a particularly nasty tactic of catching an opponent's sword inside her elbow and snapping the blade in two with the plates.

And she was a sorceress who rivaled even Ganon himself in sheer power. If someone she didn't know and/or didn't consider a friend managed to stand before her without trembling, they were either very brave or very stupid.

"I wanted to ask you something," he said, stopping at the side of the table, "It's about Khall and Tharkus."

"What about them?" she asked without looking up from the whetstone.

"Have they been acting strange to what you've seen?" he asked, leaning his hands on the table.

She stopped the whetstone, smirking slightly. "Tharkus? Acting strange?" she looked at him, her voice practically oozing sarcasm, "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Okay, bad example," he said, "But what about Khall? Listen, he knows I'm not some sworn for life follower that can be ordered off on a suicide mission without thinking twice about it. He knows that if I think something is funny, I'll be gone, along with all my ninja, before he knows that I think something is funny. And yet he refused to explain exactly why he wants me to do what he's asking."

Kilishandra lay the shoulder plate down on the table and picked up the gauntlet, putting the whetstone to work on the knuckles. "Maybe that's exactly why he won't tell you. He's cautious about you changing sides."

"And what about you?" Mur'neth asked, "He wants me to go to Hyrule and bring back a girl. Some girl named Ilia. But she'll be a statue just like everyone else in that country. What the hell good is that going to do?"

The whetstone scraped the knuckle she was working on twice before stopping. "Maybe she's someone important."

"She's a peasant," Mur'neth said, "A member of a farming community that is barely within Hyrule's sovereignty. There's something Khall isn't telling me, and I want to know what it is. Do you know?" he added the last question as he leaned closer to her."

With a sigh, Kilishandra lay the gauntlet and whetstone down on the table. "No," she said, putting her elbows on the table and leaning her chin on her hands. Leaning into the candlelight, more was cast on her features. The odd contrast of her cinnamon brown skin and the pointed ears of an elf, a combination Mur'neth had seen nowhere else in his life.

Elves were either fair, or their skin was black as charcoal in the Dra'thul, the dark elves. Her striking red hair caused an even sharper contrast, as no elf of any kind had hair such a shade. She was a half-blood. He knew it, so did everyone else. Dra'thul were not well trusted by the other races in their homelands, and a half-blood daughter of a human like her would have had an even worse time. He understood that she had been veritably tortured throughout her childhood until Ganon found her. After that, well, people certainly respected her, if not out of friendship, then out of fear.

"Why is this bothering you so much?" she asked him.

"If you don't know either," he said, "that means there is something Khall isn't telling either of us. And for some reason, I get the feeling that Tharkus is at the core of it. You remember what Ganon said when he took him in?"

"'That man will betray me one day,'" Kilishandra said, "I remember. And so he has. So have we all. Fath-" she stopped herself, then continued, "Ganon must die for us to live. You know this."

"But if Khall won't give us the details about this small task," Mur'neth said, "then what else, much larger items is he also hiding from us? How can we trust him?"

Kilishandra suddenly grabbed the shoulder-plate from the table and slammed it down, spike first, into the wood, sticking it there with a loud thud, rising as she did so, her voice suddenly a shout. "I have no choice!"

Mur'neth stepped back instinctively as her eyes filled with crackles of lightning and her hair stood out to the sides, sparks shooting from tip to tip of individual hairs. His eyes drifted to her right hand, still gripping the shoulder-plate where it stuck, and the blue nail on her index finger.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she did so, and the sparks stopped, her hair falling back to her shoulders. "I've gone too far to turn back now," she said, sinking back into her seat, "Either Ganon dies to clear our way, or to free me. And I can't turn my back on everyone depending on us back home."

"Kili..." Mur'neth started, but she held up one hand.

"I know you," she said, "I know you were never really a follower of Ganon, but promise me one thing. Even if you must leave us. Just one promise."

"What is it?"

"Kill him," she said, looking up at him, "Kill Ganon so that I won't have too. Please."

She was asking him to do the very thing he had intended to do for twenty years. What would have had her leaping to Ganon's defense against him before this began. And now she was giving her blessing to do so. Somehow, it made him feel empty inside. "Okay," he whispered, "No matter what else happens, he will die by my hand."

"Thank you," she said, "Now you'd best get going."

He turned to the door, opening it and stepping out into the hall. As he pulled it shut, he realized that the empty feeling still pulled at him. He had just received the blessing to accomplish his goal of two decades from the last person who would possibly give it. And yet he felt depressed and... ashamed. Enemy maybe, but Ganon was the only father Kili had ever known. Saying that couldn't have been easy on her.

No, he'd never truly been a servant of the man-demon, no oath of loyalty or anything like that. But he had been a companion, for lack of a better term. He'd been a part of the army that sacked his own homeland and conquered countless others. But he and Kili, they had been friends. He had been with her when she had at last caught up to Reaper, the sadist who had butchered the only home she had known and tortured her mother to death before her very eyes before Ganon found her. It had been Mur'neth who had helped her kill this man, not Ganon.

And it had been Mur'neth that held her as she cried, as years of pent up frustration and rage were finally released, and as she came to grips with the dread realization that every righteous avenger must face once their task is accomplished. That even with the one responsible dead and never capable of repeating his horrific deed, it still would not bring her mother or any of the others she had known back.

Mur'neth wasn't one to fall for such romantic notions that the tale weavers use, such as predestined, or "true" love, but he did know he cared for the half-blood. Now, as he walked down the dark halls of the citadel, he was beginning to wonder about those tale weavers and bards, if they really did understand something he had not. He'd never cared about anyone like he cared about Kilishandra. He knew he'd die for her, if it came to that. Fighting for a king and kingdom? Mur'neth couldn't truly bring himself to such loyalty that he would die for it. Fighting for Kilishandra, now that was a cause he could swear his undying loyalty.

"Ganon will die by my hand," he vowed, "There is no 'die trying' option. I will cut out his heart and free her from the spell which binds her."

* * *

Tharkus leaned close to the crystal ball seated in his lab, its inner light casting a pale glow across benches and tables filled with alchemical equipment, beakers, tubes, and piles upon piles of books.

He glanced from the ball to an open tome next to it, running his finger down the page until he found the place he wanted, read the few lines, then turned back to the ball. "Interesting," he muttered to himself, "We might not need to find Ganon after all..."

The door at the front of the laboratory opened and Khall stepped into the room. "Tharkus?"

"Over here," the necromancer said, "Close the door. You'll want to see this."

"What is it?" Khall asked, stepping behind Tharkus and glancing over his shoulder at the tome.

"This here," Tharkus said, "Is a diary left by that old wizard, Darius, before he disappeared. It was a study of the very seal he created to seal Shaklator in the gap between dimensions."

"And?"

"Look for yourself," Tharkus said, gesturing to the crystal ball.

Within the ball spun a rather simple design. A pentagram, a five pointed star within a circle. The circle was rotating clockwise, while the star was spinning counterclockwise within it. And within the lines of the star was an image of the triple golden triangle, the Triforce, which was the key to the lock. One of the three triangles, the bottom left one, was rotating in place while the other two were still.

"What's going on with it?"

"The seal is reacting," Tharkus said, "and the symbol of the Triforce is beginning to fade. It seems that when our young friend used the Triforce of Courage to defeat the flesh golem, it caused a reaction. One of the three locks is released."

"I don't get it," Khall said, "Ganon used his Triforce countless times. Why isn't his unlocked, then?"

"That's why I have Darius' journal here," Tharkus said, "I'm trying to figure it out. It seems that the seal was not permanent. Every time one of the Triforce pieces is used, it drains a little energy from the seal. The lock being released may have been caused by Link's total immersion in the power he is capable of wielding. This was not using the Triforce to increase the power of a normal magic spell, as Ganon does, this was complete unleashing of the Triforce of Courage's potential. It may have drained so much energy from the seal that only the other two pieces still hold sway."

"I see," Khall said, "But what caused Link to lose control like that?"

"Did he really lose control?" Tharkus asked, "Or did we finally force him to use everything he had?"

"So where does this leave us?"

"I'm still working on that," Tharkus said, "But I am considering something. If we can release one more lock, and set up the Twilight Mirror as it needs to be used, Shaklator may be able to force her way through. She is no weak power. It took three locks to hold her. She may just smash right through only one."

"Then we should get the mirror as soon as possible," Khall said, "They're heading back south. Most likely course they'll take will be to cut through the forest south of Whitos-Neiki. The temple dedicated to the god of nature within the forest is where the next fragment of the restoration spell lies. I'm already planning an ambush for them there."

"And how do you plan to get the mirror out of the Twili?"

"I've given Zivlyn specific instructions," Khall said, "and you'll be going along to ensure they are carried out. Kilishandra and I will will be busy at that time, as you know.."

"Yes, yes, I know," Tharkus said, "You didn't answer my question, how exactly do you intend to extract the mirror shard from the Twili?"

"We won't have to," Khall said, "That Twili cares for Link a great deal. The ninja listening in on them have deduced that much. We merely have to restrain her, and let her watch Zivlyn have her way with Link, promising to stop it once she gives up the mirror. It won't take long."

"Restrain her, then attack her feelings, rather than her body..." Tharkus muttered, "You're becoming a man after my own heart, Khall. Shadow magic isn't the easiest thing to stop. But it doesn't work as well in daylight. I've seen her efforts during the day, and it is still nothing compared to the potential of the magic at night. Perhaps something as simple as a magic net infused with concentrated sunlight. It won't harm her, as she seems immune to sunlight for some reason, but it should dispel any shadow magic she attempts to use.

"What about Mur'neth?" Tharkus added, "Where will he be during all this?"

"Out of our hair," Khall said, "I'm sending him via a travel spell to Hyrule to secure a hostage."

"A hostage?"

"Someone Link cares about," Khall said, "Should be a good bargaining chip if worse comes to worse."

"More contingencies?"

"You can never have too many backup plans," Khall said.

"And I believe you have one for me?" Tharkus asked, holding out his hand.

Khall produced the vial containing the last scrap of the flesh golem Link had destroyed. "Very good," Tharkus said, watching the brown goo vibrate feebly within the vial.

"What good is this, anyway?" Khall asked, "Can't you just make another?"

"Yes," Tharkus said, uncorking the vial and dumping the brown goo into a larger beaker, "But this one was destroyed with the power of the Triforce Link had unleashed. Magic of all kinds leaves residue, and if you know what to look for, it is very easy to spot. With proper skill and time, you may be able to create creatures and weapons or armor that are completely immune to one or several kinds.

"I'm hoping I can glean enough information on the power of the Triforce from this that I can create a golem immune to the Triforce's power, and have a nasty surprise in store for Ganon when we do find him."

"Don't take too long," Khall said, walking toward the door at the front of the lab, "We'll need that net to hold the Twili as well."

He left. Tharkus retrieved another vial from somewhere on the table. It was filled to the brim with red blood. He uncorked it and dumped it into the beaker with the scrap of the flesh golem, which eagerly sucked it up, almost doubling its size in seconds as it did so before stilling once again.

"The net is easy," Tharkus said, "A mere cantrip. It will be ready, don't you fear."

He walked to the door and turned the lock. With a loud click, the deadbolt slid into place. He then turned and walked to the back of the lab, past all the tables to the bare back wall. With an easy push on the right spot, and the wall opened, the hidden door sliding back. He'd requisitioned this room without even Khall's knowledge. The room was about ten feet across and deep, small enough it hadn't been noticed in the building plans since.

Within the room were five large glass jars, each about three feet diameter and eight feet tall. They were filled with a clear fluid created to help growth of living tissue. Floating in the fluid of each was an almost human shape of creatures never before seen on this earth.

While they vaguely resembled humans, the similarities stopped at the number and placement of limbs. The torso was T shaped to an extreme, the creature's waist less than an inch across, and the chest was so thin it was practically flat, and the black flesh seemed to move and flow more like a cloak than skin. Out of each shoulder protruded a six in long bone with a sharp tip, perfectly designed for stabbing, and the tip would then expand sharp barbs that did more damage coming out than they did going in. The forearms were less than an inch thing and seemed to be pure bone, and about an inch below the elbow the arm suddenly shaped into a curved blade of steel. Tharkus had toyed with the idea of reversing the elbow and pointing the blade inward, like a mantis, but this made some movements he wanted them to be capable of difficult, so the elbow was the same as a human's, with blade pointed toward the bottom of the arm.

Its legs more closely resembled a human's, though the flesh was still the flowing black that made up the torso, and the feet terminated in bone gargoyle shapes with raking sharp claws. The head was plain bone, curving across the face and top of the skull, with flat sides. It had no ears, mouth or nose. No need for them. Dominating much of the face was a single eye, the size of a human fist. It could see as well in the dark as daylight, and saw heat radiating off the bodies of its soon to be victims, allowing it to even locate them through thin walls and underwater.

Tharkus smiled slightly as he ran a hand across the glass jar containing one of the hideous creatures. The common conception of necromancy was a wizard who animated corpses, zombies and skeletons, to do his bidding. This was true, and while they did have their uses, he had always known that flesh golems were the only way to truly embrace the power the art offered. These latest golems were the culmination of a lifetime of work and experimentation.

They were faster and stronger than any he had ever created before, and more deadly than any beast born of magic had ever been. And best of all, he had found a way to remove from them the inherent bloodlust of flesh golems. Flesh golems were not living creatures. They had no blood, no organs, no skeleton. Their very existence was a defilement of nature that caused them unending pain. That pain drove them into frenzies and forced them to try to kill every living thing within sight.

Tharkus had once thought that a way to remove this pain would be to give them what they did not have. A soul. He had first attempted to copy a human soul into such a creature, and while it had succeeded in making the creature intelligent, it had not stopped the pain, and if anything, made matters worse. However, he had found success in transferring a human soul and its existing consciousness into the golem form. That experiment had been dangerous, and he wouldn't have had the opportunity to try again had he failed.

But these... They were truly perfect. Each with a soul, generated uniquely through the art of necromancy, the power over life and death, and a finely honed and crafted consciousness. Cold, calculating, and without remorse, the perfect killing machines. He could give them an objective, and they would carry it out with single minded ruthlessness that would cause even bloody tyrants to quake in their boots, while he turned his attention elsewhere.

All that remained now was their final training, which Mur'neth and his ninja would provide when they reached Hyrule.

Tharkus smiled. Khall liked to have plenty of options. Plenty of contingencies. Well, so did Tharkus. If these five golems met his expectations, he would soon begin growing an army of them. They would be the fist he would use to achieve the truly ideal world. A world of silent beings and silent skies, without war, hunger, discrimination, or disease.

All that was needed was to eradicate every last bit of intelligent life on this gods damned planet. And a certain wizard with the power of a golden goddess was the only one who could possibly hope to stop it. Well, he'd have a nice surprise for him, too, before long.


	35. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34: The Man Who Loved Zelda**

Six days had passed since Link and the others had left Roxim's cave. As the three of them, Midna out of sight, walked a dusty road with the morning sun on their left side, the castle city of Whitos-Neiki was visible in the distance.

Getting out of the mountains and snow was a relief in itself, and the cool autumn breeze was still a fair sight warmer than what they had been in.

Money wasn't going to be a problem when they got there, for the night before they left, Roxim had pulled Link aside and given him a fat purse positively stuffed with gold coins. "If they ask where you got it," the dragon had said, "tell them you stole it from me. I do have an image to maintain."

As they came closer to the city, the realization of what it had been going through became apparent. On the western side, there was not a bit of plant life, bare earth ran from the wall out at least a hundred yards. The land itself bore a faint red tint, as though all the blood spilt on it had dyed the land permanently. Several bonfires at were visible in the area where piles of corpses were burning. It was one way to keep the dead that way when a necromancer was around.

They were planning to stay in Whitos-Neiki overnight, with hot meals, beds, and baths for the first time in weeks. Not counting that one that yeti had helped provide of course.

Sheila intended to speak to King Maylow while they were in town, though she doubted he would act on their suspicions regarding the Lords of Chaos. Their best hope was King Ridgar in Darimar for that.

The north gate grew closer, and Link remembered how much he hated Hyrule Castle Town during the busy days as hundreds of people headed both direction through the gate with carts, on foot or horseback told all too well that this was a heavily populated and busy city.

It wasn't that he hated people, just large crowds of them.

* * *

Within the city, one particular individual happened to be walking near the north gate at that time. A young man in his mid-twenties, with short blonde hair, clean shaven, and handsome. His name was Arthur Ribald, and was the son of a modestly rich merchant, though he lacked the interest in business that his father possessed.

He wore a white silk shirt and over it a deep blue vest the same color as his eyes, with matching breeches. While not heavily muscled, he was stocky and in excellent shape.

He was also one of the worst womanizers to grace the face of the earth.

As he walked the street, smiling with his perfectly even, white teeth, he nodded to the women he knew, some of them returning the smile, others bursting into giggling fits. It had taken him years to learn how to guarantee such an effect on them, and it wasn't just his good looks or smile.

Arthur was fully confident that he could seduce any woman he set his sight on. Not only that, he could make them at least think they loved him, to the point they thought sleeping with him was their idea. His record from meeting one to getting into her bed was three days. He was hoping to break that record by having his next on the second night.

He wasn't particularly interested in women who approached him first. They were too easy. It was all a game to him, and he relished a challenge.

When he wasn't working his charms on a woman, he tended to wander near the gates of the city, to see who was coming into the city, to see if any new potentials would spark his interest.

As he neared the gate, he spotted a group that sparked his interest.

A group of three individuals, one man and two women, all elves apparently. That made no difference to Arthur. They had all the right parts in the right places, even if their ears were funny shaped.

The man was a rugged individual with brown hair, burly arms, and a wild week's growth of beard. His green tunic was stained with large amounts of some dark colored liquid. The sword hilt peeking over his left shoulder gave dark hints as to what it may be, and the way he moved, he knew how to use it. Arthur made a point of noticing the signs, in event of jealous boyfriends who might know how to handle themselves. Arthur also noted the chain mail peeking out of the tunic's sleeves and around the bottom. He was definitely a fighter.

Arthur knew the first woman with him. The blonde was Sheila Anthress, the High Elder. That put her off limits. He knew better than to get involved with a woman in the public eye. In fact, that put an edge of warning on the other woman as well, since they were clearly traveling together.

But the other woman, the brunette, he just couldn't take his eyes off. Perfectly, unmarred features, not even a single wrinkle, and even through the dust of the road upon her, he could see that she carried herself with a grace not seen in common folk. She held her head high, walked quickly and kept her back straight. Her mere presence commanded authority. That alone identified her as one of the hardest types to seduce.

She was also wearing chain mail under a blue tunic. A small sword hung at her hip, but she seemed to be a bit uncomfortable with it. She wasn't used to using it. The bow and quiver over her shoulders, however, she seemed more comfortable with.

Not about to pass this opportunity up, he fell into step with the group about half a street behind them, intending to find out where they would going and where they would stay.

* * *

"This one looks good," Link said, pointing to an inn to the side of the street.

The Sword and Stars inn, it was called, was a modest establishment. The sign above the door promised clean beds, no vermin, alcohol, and breakfast.

"I could get us rooms at the castle, you know," Sheila said as they entered.

"I'd rather not," Link said, "I'm pretty sure we're still being followed. I'd rather stay somewhere unobtrusive, so that just maybe we'll lose them."

"I doubt it," Midna whispered in his ear.

The main floor of the inn was also the tavern and dining room, a bar covering the back wall, and from the smell, the kitchen was behind him. Stairs going up were at the far right side. Ornamental swords, shields, spears and other weapons hung from the walls, while suits of armor stood in the corner. The floor was carpeted with a soft carpet, a deep purple in color. Tables of varying sizes were spaced intermittently throughout the room, some of them occupied by men and women, apparently there for the midday meal or some already into their drinks.

It took a lot of guts for someone to carpet the floor of a bar, Link admitted.

Link gestured for them to follow him as he walked to the bar.

The bartender was a portly balding man, what little hair he had left was gray and in a ring around his head, his face almost looking like leather, but he smiled as they approached. "Greetings, my friends. Looking for a meal or lodgings? I have both available if you desire."

"Two rooms for one night," Link said, putting one hand on the counter, "Can you get us hot baths as well?"

"Aye," the bartender said, "I'll put you up in the rooms on opposite sides on the far end of the second floor."

"That will be fine," Link said, glancing at the man sitting on a stool next to where he stood. He had been eyeing them since they entered, but now he noticed he was mainly watching Zelda and Sheila.

When the bartender turned his back to get the room keys from a strongbox behind him, the man suddenly spoke, leaning toward Sheila. "Hey, you look familiar," he said, his breath heavy with alcohol.

"You say that to every pretty girl, Charlie," the bartender said without looking.

Ignoring the bartender, Charlie smiled at her. "Hey, if I said you had a nice body, would you hold it against me?"

"From your breath," Sheila said, "I wouldn't believe you were sober enough to say such a bad line with a straight face."

"Crap, she's on to me!" Charlie said to no one, "Change tactics!" He took a deep breath.

"Yarrrrrgh!" he said, quite a bit louder than necessary, "I be the love pirate and I'm here for yer booty!"

The bartender slapped him over the head. "Stop harassing my customers, Charlie.

"Don't mind him," he said, placing two keys on the counter, "He's harmless. That'll be twenty coppers."

"Can you change this?" Link asked, laying down one gold coin.

The bartender picked up the coin, eyed, then bit down on the edge, eyed it again, then nodded. "I'll have it for you tonight."

Link picked up the keys, then turned to Zelda and Sheila. "Okay, what first?"

"I need to go to the castle to speak with King Maylow," Sheila said, "I'd like you to come with me, Link, to corroborate what I'm going to tell him."

"What about Zelda?" he asked.

Sheila leaned closer to him and lowered her voice. "Did you notice when we came in the gate? Someone is following us. Has been since we entered the city."

"There's actually more than one," Link said, "I don't think they're ninja, though. They're good at staying out of sight. These are someone else."

"Then how about you two go to the castle," Zelda said, "I'll take Midna with me and wander about a bit and we'll see who they follow, or if they split up to follow us all."

"I don't like letting you go off by yourself," Link said, "If something should happen…"

"I'm quite capable of handling myself," Zelda said, "Plus I'll have Midna with me. And I'm sure that if someone attacks me, the city guard will intervene. And if I go somewhere open and public, like a market, that isn't likely to happen anyway."

"All right," Link said, giving in, "If you're sure."

Zelda held out her hand and smiled. "I'll need some of that money, of course. Wouldn't do to be wondering around a market without any."

"She just wants to go shopping," Midna whispered to him.

Link took four of the gold coins from the purse and handed them to her, careful not to let anyone watching see what they were. Wouldn't do to broadcast their wealth, and it would likely be more than she could spend anyway.

"Okay," Link said, "You heard her, Midna."

"Yeah, yeah…"

Like a whisper of wind, Midna slipped from his shadow to Zelda's. Anyone watching would have seen only a brief whip of shadow along the floor, and may not even realize they'd seen anything unusual.

"See you in a few hours, then?" Zelda asked.

* * *

Arthur waited until they left the inn before moving from the table he'd discreetly taken near the door. This was just too perfect, he felt as he saw the High Elder and the man head off toward the castle together while the brunette asked the bartender for directions to the market square.

Traveling groups always made it difficult to extract one from their number to get alone, but now they had done it for him. After she was outside, he followed, keeping a discreet distance until they reached the market square.

An open space about a hundred yards across and fifty wide, the square was filled with market stalls of all kind, from food to pottery, clothing and jewelry and every kind of possible knickknacks imaginable. And with a blacksmith shop at one end, it was the kind of place where, if you couldn't find what you were after, it probably didn't exist. And it was crowded.

A crowd made it easy to slip up on someone unnoticed, to get beside a woman and begin your work.

Arthur silently thanked the god of seduction, just in case such a deity existed.

The woman walked down a row of the stalls, glancing at what was available in each, obviously not hunting anything in particular. Arthur stayed about six steps behind her in the crowd.

She stopped at a stall with jewelry laid out for viewing and leaned in for a closer look. It was fake, obviously. One doesn't sell diamonds in a place where it would be easy to snatch one and disappear into the crowd. Perhaps the jeweler made fakes for show here and took orders while the real ones were kept safe in his shop elsewhere.

It was time to move. The first step of seduction was to show his wealth very casually. Money didn't impress all women, but it was always worth the first shot.

"Excuse me," he said to the jeweler as he stepped up beside the woman, then pointed at what seemed to be a diamond ring with a platinum band, "Would it be possible to get this one engraved and mounted with something worth about fifty gold crowns?"

"Of course, sir," the jeweler said, "I can have it ready by tomorrow, if you'd like to come by my shop at the west wall?"

Arthur glanced at the woman. She had turned slightly toward him and raised an eyebrow at the amount. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said as if noticing her for the first time, "Did I interrupt you?"

"No, I was just looking," she said.

"Sir?" asked the jeweler.

Ignoring him, Arthur leaned just a bit closer to the woman and lowered his voice conspiratorially, "You know, I think I recognize this guy now. He cuts his diamonds with glass. I happen to know a much more reliable shop in another part of town. Would you mind coming with me? I'd like to get a woman's opinion on something."

All part of the plan. Feign interest in what she thinks and a free willed woman will walk right into it nearly every time. Then, it's time for…

"Oh, look at me," he said, pretending to be embarrassed, "I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Arthur."

"I'm Zelda," she replied, "Let's go see this shop."

Hook, line, and sinker! Act a bit absent minded, and you further lower their defenses. That one always works.

* * *

"Can't believe how easily they let us in here," Link said, sitting back in the cushions of a soft couch.

The waiting room was basic for royalty, he guessed. Two couches, one armchair and a low table, a window overlooking the courtyard, a bookcase filled with books that had likely never been read on the opposite wall, and a single door at one end, with two alert guards likely standing right outside.

"Forgetting who you're with?" Sheila asked, seated at the other end of the couch from him, "I may be more of a figurehead than anything, but I'm a well-respected one."

"So what's this King Maylow like?"

"Well," Sheila said, considering her words, "I guess you could describe him as a very kind man. His people love him. He's the only elvish ruler in Mystara, and about two and a half centuries old."

The door suddenly opened and a man stepped through. "And he's here," Sheila finished.

Maylow was also tall for an elf, Link saw as he rose to his feet, if Sheila was anything to go by, considering the top of her head barely cleared his shoulders, whereas Maylow was roughly the same height as Link.

He was dressed in an extravagant white vest with gold lacing over a blue shirt, wore dark blue breeches and a red cape with a hemline that barely cleared the floor. A sword hung at his hip in a scabbard covered in gilded designs.

He looked them over once, his eyes locked on Sheila and a grin crossed his face. "Sheila!" he said, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around her, picking her up off the floor in a hug. She returned the hug, though not quite as enthusiastically.

Once he returned her to the floor, he turned to Link and asked her, "Who is your friend?"

"This is Link," she said, making a bit of an effort to straighten her hair, "I've been traveling with him for the past few weeks."

Maylow held out one hand and Link shook it. The king's grip was firm and strong, Link noted. An honest man, too, if it was to be believed. "Family name?" the king asked.

"Don't have one, sire," Link said, "I was and orphan and don't know who my parents are."

"Sorry to hear that," the king said, noting the dark stains on Link's tunic, "You okay?"

Link followed his gaze. "Oh, that," he said, "It's not mine. Almost a week old."

"That'll be hard to get out," the king said, "Wasn't someone you'd get in trouble over, was it?"

"Considering he saved my life," Sheila said before Link could reply, "I don't think that matters one way or another."

"Ah, I see! Now," Maylow lowered himself into the armchain and pulled a handkerchief from inside his vest, "what was so pressing that you had to see me as soon as possible, Sheila?"

"We think the Lords of Chaos are getting ready for a big press," Sheila said as she and Link settled onto the couch, "Since I met Link here a few weeks ago, they've been much more active than before."

Maylow used the handkerchief to mop his face over a few times. When he pulled it away, Link realized that he was wiping off a large amount of makeup. The area he had wiped had lost the fair tone similar to Sheila's and revealed a darker skin tone of a light brown. "What exactly have you seen?"

"For starters, they have Dra'thul, ninja, and they have been tracking my movements since I left Tyr," Sheila said, "Then we saw one of the lords, Khall is the one, trying to get the giants in the mountains to join them."

"Did they?"

"No, the giant king refuse him, but the worshippers of Auril did join him," Sheila continued, "But I doubt they'll be any use. The giants caused an avalanche that wiped out most of them, and Link dealt with the rest I saw."

"That's whose blood that is," Maylow said, nodding to Link, "Well done, I say."

He turned the handkerchief over and used the other side to wipe the pasty makeup off his neck. He noticed Link watching. "My court advisors are convinced that people wouldn't react well to an elf without light skin," he explained, "I look too much like a Dra'thul, they say. I doubt there's anyone who doesn't know, though. It's no secret that I'm at least a quarter human, and that's probably at least partially from one of those desert nomads that are sometimes seen."

"Gerudo?" Link asked, "Is that what they're called?"

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

"There used to be a people of the desert in the land I come from," Link said, "But they've been extinct for some time now. They were all dark skinned as well."

"Maybe some relation somewhere then," Maylow said, "Anyway, Sheila. What exactly would you have me do about the Lords of Chaos? Our defenses are as strong as ever, there are sentries watching for any sign of movement in lands between here and the mountains, and we have messengers ready to go to Nigel and Tyr at a moment's notice to request aid."

"When they attack, you won't have time to call for such aid," Link said.

"What makes you say that?" Maylow asked, his expression darkening.

"Ten years," Link said, leaning forward as he spoke, "That's a long time for anyone to pointlessly throw forces against defenses they can't break. Even animals learn not to stick their face where it hurts. They've been testing your defenses this whole time while their real focus was elsewhere. When they get serious and attack in force, they are going to know exactly how to strike to breech your walls. My suggestion is to send for the aid now. If you are able to hold off the first waves, you might be able to turn it into a siege and try to outlast them. Then the other kingdoms can bring reinforcements in sufficient number to break them and assault their base in the mountains, weakened as it will be."

Maylow sighed. "I understand what you are saying," he said, "but unfortunately, I can't jump to conclusions like that. If I send for aid, I'll get large numbers of men and supplies, but how will I feed them if no attack comes for several more months? Large armies require large amounts of food which my kingdom simply does not have and it would be difficult to ship it fast enough from the other kingdoms. And I will look like a paranoid fool."

He rose to his feet. "If that is all this was about, then I have other things to attend to today. Sheila, next time you're in the city and have a moment, come back and have dinner with my family and myself. My daughter would love to meet you."

He moved to the door and opened it, speaking to a guard outside as he passed. "We're finished here. Escort our guests to the front gate, will you?"

Link sighed and looked at Sheila. "That got us nowhere."

"On the contrary," Sheila said, "He'll tighten the guard and make what preparations he can. Let's head to the market and see if we can catch Zelda there."

* * *

"Arthur, I'm not sure I like the looks of this part of town," Zelda said.

"Don't worry," he replied, "We're nearly there."

It actually was a shortcut to the shop through the poor district of town, and Arthur knew quite well that if they stopped moving they would likely be mugged, but all the thugs and sickly beggars watching them were in fact all a part of the plan. By leading a woman through an uncomfortable area of the town, the sense of danger allows for an increased feeling of closeness. It also allows one to take her hand quite easily to lead her, as he was doing now, and increases trust.

Besides, soon they were back in a better part of town, and it was just a few streets away to the shop he had in mind. It was a jewelry shop that didn't involve booths in the public market. Strictly upper-class customers.

As they entered, he heard her inhale sharply at the jewels on display in the cases. Three glass counters along all but the front wall filled with necklaces, earrings, tiaras, and in the case in the center of the room, securely locked, rings of all sizes, and gems of all shapes and colors.

The proprietor, a clean shaven man dressed in a suit so well pressed it could be used to slice salami stood behind the back counter, noted their presence but otherwise did not react.

"What I'm actually looking for," Arthur said, putting one hand on Zelda's shoulder and leading her to the case by the left side, "is something for my sister. She's getting married in two weeks and I want to give her something special."

He had no sister, of course. A little white lie. Convince the woman you're close with your family and she'll think about what it will be like to meet them. In addition, the touch on her shoulder had not been as casual as he wanted it to seem. It was to help her get comfortable about being close to him and being touched by him.

"Well, for your sister," she said, pointing to a necklace in the jewelry case, "I'd suggest a necklace or a pair of earrings. Getting married, she already has a ring to wear. What is it?"

"What?" Arthur asked, distracted from his thoughts.

"The ring," she said, "Is it gold, silver, platinum, and what kind of gem?"

So that dust of the road wasn't a sign that this woman was lacking in finances, Arthur realized, it was either because she wanted to travel, or because she had some other reason. Either way, his first thought of her as a strong, independent woman had just been confirmed.

"The gem is a diamond, of course," Arthur said, "The band is either silver or platinum. I didn't get a close enough look to tell."

Of course, having done this for years, he understood about jewelry and values as well.

"Then I think a pair of silver earrings might go well with it," Zelda said, moving down the case a short way, "Like these here."

Arthur leaned down to have a closer look. Yes, earrings of silver, about a half-inch chain that allowed them to hang, and they terminated in what looked like small crescent moons. She had an eye for quality.

Of course, even this movement fit into his plan. By leaning down to look at the earrings, it had allowed their faces to get very close together, which was also helping to get her comfortable around him.

Everything was working perfectly.

They did a bit more looking through the cases before he agreed to buy the earrings, however. Only five gold coins, so much cheaper than he was expecting to have to pay, but the deed was done. As he feigned sudden interest in a necklace near the earrings, he handed Zelda his purse and asked her to pay for him.

As she did so, he smiled inwardly. By letting a woman hold your money and letting her pay, you make her imagine what it would be like to be married to you.

When she returned his purse, five coins lighter, and he took the earrings in a small box and tucked it in a pocket on the inside of his vest, he decided it was time to cut things short.

"Well, it's getting late," he said, "I need to get going."

"Already?" Zelda asked, glancing out the front window of the shop, "It's barely past noon."

Always end the first date early. It leaves them wondering and wanting more time with you.

"I have to go meet my father," Arthur said, "He's a got a business lunch with a new client today and he wants me to be there. Will you be in town much longer?"

"Until tomorrow, yes."

Tomorrow! That left no opening for working on her tomorrow! Two days was out, so he had no choice but to shoot for the single day wonder! "I'd like to spend a bit more time with you," he said, "Before you go, that is. Maybe we could meet for dinner tonight?"

"Can I bring a friend?" she asked with a smile.

Wait… Wha-wha-wha-_what_?!

The top three ways to politely refuse a second date:

"I have to work."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not into guys."

"Can I bring a friend?"

Incredible! She was even more difficult to get to than he had thought!

But if you receive a "no" signal, you have to withdraw quickly and gracefully or the situation may deteriorate.

"…deteriorate," Arthur said, clearly flustered, "I mean, uh, no, I just remembered, I promised to have dinner by my sister and future brother-in-law. I'm really sorry I even brought it up."

He quickly excused himself, and started down the street.

"Strange guy," Midna said, "I think he's got a crush on you."

Zelda smiled and said nothing, and started on the way back to he Blade and Stars inn.

But as Arthur walked, he thought about the way that had turned out, and made a quiet vow. No, this would not end this way! He still had a few tricks up his sleeve. Zelda would be his before this day was done!

* * *

"I don't see her anywhere," Link said as he and Sheila scanned the market square.

"What about our guests?"

"One to the right," Link said, "Next to the stand with the fresh fruit. Don't turn and look directly, just out of the corner of your eye. He's the one in the brown cloak. He's got a short-sword tucked underneath it and knows how to use it."

Sheila did as she was told and spotted the man Link was indicating. "How do you do that?"

Link took her hand and started walking, feigning interest in the stalls of merchandise. "When you're traveling a hostile environment where everything alive wants to kill or eat you or both, you learn to notice things that are out of place."

"Why are you worried about the sword, though? A lot of people have swords."

"I'm much less worried about someone who carries it in the open than someone who tries to hide it."

She relented. Link was an interesting case, she had noticed since she met him. He deferred to her judgment in regard to travel roads and listened to her advice on magic and whatever else he knew little of, but when it came to survival in harsh environments and combat, he knew his stuff. You didn't even really want to argue with him over it. He also had a specific tone of voice that he spoke about such things in that really sucked all the desire to argue with it out of you.

They had stopped briefly at the blacksmith so Link could look for a replacement for his lost shield. He had caught on to an idea that, in fact, he couldn't believe someone hadn't come up with sooner. The shield he now wore across his back was a triangle shape, similar to his onld shield, but the bottom side, from the bend from the sides down to the point, was sharpened to a fine edge that, as the smith demonstrated, could cleave through a melon with ease. With adequate force, it could cleave through a man's skull just as easily.

"Another one behind us," Link said, stopping at a stall with jewelry laid out upon it, "Blue cloak, tall. He's been getting closer and closer over the past few minutes, trying to look inconspicuous. Not very good at it, I might add."

Sheila glanced in that direction. Yes, there he was, working his way through the crowd. He obviously wasn't used to moving like this.

Link was actually looking quite close at one piece of jewelry. It was a necklace on a silver chain with a star shaped pendant with tiny emeralds in each of the five points and a single round diamond in the center. "Got a real one of these handy?" Link asked the jeweler.

"As a matter of fact I do," the jeweler said, reaching down and opening a strongbox inside the booth and pulled out a jewelry box about six inches long and an inch wide. He opened it, revealing the necklace Link had indicated.

"Thirty silvers if you want it, sir," the jeweler said.

Link tossed three gold coins to him and took the box. "Keep the change," he said, slipping it inside his shirt.

Sheila glanced back at the blue-cloaked stalker again. He was much closer. "I think he's going to try something, Link."

"Best get somewhere we won't panic the crowd to take him, then," Link said, taking her hand again and leading her to the entrance of an ally alongside the blacksmith.

As soon as they were out of sight of the main crowd, Link pushed Sheila ahead of him and motioned for her to be quiet with a finger to his lips as he stepped into shadow of the back entrance to the blacksmith and crouched low.

Sheila kept walking, understanding perfectly well that she was the bait. Sure enough, the blue-cloaked man took it. He was barely four steps into the ally, just out of the sight of the crowd before Link hit him from behind.

He got one arm around the man's neck and with the other grabbed one of the man's hands, wrenching it around behind his back. "Easy, easy!" the man said, wheezing slightly as Link barely choked him, "I don't want to fight!"

"Good, neither do we," Link said, "Take his sword, Sheila. Then we'll talk."

Sheila reached for the blade she hadn't even seen at the man's hip. She pulled it from the scabbard and took a few steps back.

Link released the man, though he intended to stay on his toes. "Hell of a grip you've got," the man said, massaging the wrist Link had grabbed with his other hand.

"Who are you?" Sheila asked.

The man pulled back the hood of his cloak. "Recognize me now?"

"Richard?" Sheila said, at first incredulous, then a smile came to her face, "Richard, it's you!"

"Not too loud," he said, "I'm not supposed to be here. Come with me. I know a better place we can talk."

"Can we trust him?" Link asked.

Sheila nodded. "If it were anyone else, I wouldn't be sure. But we can trust Richard. I'll explain later."

She returned his sword and he led them from the ally to a tavern a few streets away. Inside it was dark and Link was almost certain the floor was dirt. Or it was so filthy he didn't even want to think about it. Richard led them to a table in a dark corner at one end of the tavern and ordered three ales for them.

Even as they sat down, a minstrel near the bar started plucking at his lute and, to subdued clapping from the patrons, two braziers on a small stage were lit, and emerging from the curtains at the back was a pretty thing wearing a two piece outfit that together might make for a handkerchief.

Oh, it was _that_ kind of tavern. The kind of place working men went to drown their sorrows and dreams and forget the disappointment of their lives, at least for a while.

"Now, Sheila," Richard said as they settled into their seats, "what the hell did you do?"

"I'm afraid I don't have a clue what you mean," Sheila said, and really didn't.

"Who are those men following us around the city?" Link asked, "Do you know them?"

Richard smirked. "They're judges."

"Judges?" Sheila repeated, "But why?"

"That's what I just asked you," Richard said, "What I know about it came from notes I found in Ralthas' office, Sheila."

"Ralthas…" she said, pausing for a moment, then looked up at him, "What did you find?"

"Not much," he said, "Basically notes about foreigners arriving in Tyr, being arrested, whatever reason not specified, then released on the order of the High Elder, followed by a lightshow in the middle of the night from the University of Magic, and the destruction of an ancient, irreplaceable text, then the High Elder going off with them to unspecified locations.

"Next to that, in Ralthas' own hand, was the word 'treason,' marked with a question mark."

"He thinks I'm guilty of treason?" Sheila asked, "That's preposterous! He doesn't know the circumstances!"

"Hence the question mark," Richard said, "It's suspicion, not certainty. Not yet, anyway."

"Anything else?" Link asked.

"Yes," Richard says, "Complete descriptions of you and the other woman, and a small creature with you." He paused to glance Link up and down. "You don't look like two hundred twenty pounds to me."

Link almost laughed. "Maybe they were counting my weapons and chain shirt. Had a shield then, too, for another fifteen pounds."

"Ralthas won't do this, though," Sheila said, "He never acts without either proof positive evidence, or if there is no other choice to save lives."

"Who exactly is Ralthas?" Link asked.

"I guess you could call him the high judge," Sheila said, "He organizes their activities and gives the go-ahead for vital arrests and usually oversees trials. He's also the only judge who has ever arrested a king for treason."

"He can try and execute a man on the spot if he deems it necessary," Richard added, "No other judge can do that."

"Someone would actually give a single man that much power?" Link asked, "That sounds ludicrous."

"But that's reality," Richard said, "And now you've got his attention. I don't think I need to tell you to tread lightly, but I would like to know exactly what is going on."

He turned to Sheila. "I can't help you if I don't know what is happening."

"First," Link said, "I'd like to know exactly who you are. The fact Sheila says I can trust you goes a fair way, but I'd like to know who I'm dealing with."

"All right," Richard said, "My name is Richard Landel Darimar, son of Ridgar, king of Darimar. Mouthful, isn't it?"

"So you're the prince?"

"That's right. I've know Sheila ever since I was a child," he added, glancing at her, "She hasn't aged a day in twenty-five years. It isn't fair, really."

"Link," Sheila said, "I think we need to tell him about Hyrule. If may help him get the judges off our backs if nothing else."

Link considered this for a moment. "All right," he said, "Sit back. This is going to be a long story."

"Should we go check on your other friend first, then?" Richard asked, "I saw her in the market square a few hours ago."

"Did you see the other one with her?" Link asked.

"Other one?"

"Then neither will anyone who tries to cause trouble for her, until it's too late."

* * *

Women are suckers for a fateful reunion.

In the years he'd been perfecting his seduction techniques, Arthur had never encountered a single exception to this. So long as the woman thought they would never see him again, or for at least a great length of time, it never failed. This would be the first time he tried it on the same day he bid her farewell, so he really had to go all out.

He'd picked the man to help him carefully. Nearly seven feet tall, a solid wall of muscle with a shaved head and tattoos of snakes coiled around his arms and torso. And he never wore a shirt. He'd pay the man five gold coins to go into the inn where Zelda was currently seated alone, eating lunch. It was probably more money than the man had ever held in his hands in his life. And all he had to do was break some mugs and intimidate the inn's customers, Zelda included, then Arthur would come in to "save the day" in a staged fight.

Zelda would fall head over heels for him, along with any other woman in the room.

Arthur congratulated himself on his coming victory as he watched the man enter the inn. In a few moments, it would all start.

He glanced in the window at the front and could see Zelda seated alone at a table by the back wall. It was good fare for a public inn, he thought, seeing the roast beef and scalloped potatoes along with bread that was so fresh it was still steaming as she broke the crust. He might have to come eat here in the future.

"The hell do you mean you don't have any?!" Muscles suddenly shouted, jumping up from the barstool where he had seated himself, "What the hell kind of bar doesn't have Bytorian Mead?!"

The stool clattered to the floor and Muscles was drawing the eyes of everyone in the inn, including Zelda, Arthur noted with pleasure. Okay, wait for it…

"The kind that doesn't usually serve the kind of customers who can't afford something better," the bartender said, "Hell, almost anyone can afford better than that cheap junk!"

"But that's what I want!" Muscles roared, "If you don't have any, then go out and get some!"

"Sir," the bartender said, "I have the right to refuse sales to any customer I deem too drunk or stupid to handle more drink. Guess which one you're falling under right now?"

That got laughs from the patrons.

That turned Muscles from fake mad to real mad in a hurry. "Are you insulting me? How about I break you in two, little man?"

Most of the other patrons were hurriedly looking away or finishing their drinks to depart before things got ugly.

Wait, Zelda was moving. Arthur saw her carrying her wine glass, still about half full as she walked toward the bar. What was she doing?

"Do you _want_ me to call the watch?" the bartender asked, "Because they're right down the road."

Muscles leaned down to the bartender and growled into his face. "Why don't you just try?"

Cold wine suddenly splashed across his face, burning his eyes and cooling his temper for a moment at least. Then he turned to see Zelda. She was standing with her arms crossed, empty wine glass in one hand, and a dark look on her face.

"I am trying to enjoy my meal, sir," she said darkly, "and you are upsetting the other customers. Please keep it down."

_What the hell is she doing?_ Arthur thought, praying that Muscles wouldn't listen and she wouldn't screw this up for him. If he listened to her, this ruse would be over.

Fortunately, this only made Muscles angrier. With a scream of profanity, he lifted on hand and backhanded her across the face, sending her backwards onto a table with collapsed under the sudden impact. Zelda hit the floor amidst a pile of broken wood, glass, and uneaten food.

_I didn't tell him to go that far,_ Arthur thought, _but this is perfect! Now I'll look like even more of a hero!_

"Heh," Muscles growled, "serves you right."

"What the hell was that?!" came a voice from inside the inn.

_Crap, what now?_ Arthur thought.

"You gonna fight a helpless woman, you big coward?" Charlie the barfly said, standing up from his seat, "How about you fight me instead?"

Muscles turned, ready to smack down this pest, too, but suddenly stopped short when he realized every other patron in the shop was standing up, dark looks on their faces, and walking slowly toward him. He wasn't stupid.

"Hey, brute," Zelda said, pushing herself up from the floor.

Muscles turned. She stood up tall, her back straight and arms crossed, the red print vivid on the right side of her face. "Where are you going? You haven't gotten my left cheek yet."

"Oh, shit," someone in the inn whispered.

_Oh, shit,_ Arthur thought, _I've got to get in there before he kills her._

And yet, he couldn't lift his feet, his eyes locked on Zelda. Silence filled the inn.

Then muscles turned and walked quickly for the door. "To hell with this place anyway," he said, his voice noticeably shaking, "Ain't got anything decent to drink."

As soon as he was out the door, a cheer erupted from the patrons. Charlie walked up to Zelda, grabbed both her hands and shook them hard. "That was incredible! Can I buy you a drink? Please?"

"Um, sure," she managed as others clapped her on the back, wanted to shake her hands.

"Want to be careful with a line like that," one warned her, "It won't work on someone who means it."

Arthur felt like he'd been kicked in the chest.

Muscles walked by him. "Keep your money," the brute said, "Ain't nothing worth making a woman like that an enemy."

"Yeah, thanks," Arthur managed weakly.

Arthur couldn't understand it. In all these years, he'd never encountered a woman of such strength of character before.

He walked down the road, not paying any attention to where he was going. He didn't care. Everything he'd tried had failed. She would be gone in the morning and he would probably never see her again. Why did this though make him feel so empty inside?

"I set out to make her fall in love with me," he said with realization, "But it is I who have fallen in love with her."

In less than a day he had met the one woman immune to his charms, the one he now desired more than any other, and the one he could never have, all in one person.

He realized that in his wandering he had stumbled back into the bad area of town. What did it matter? It made no difference to the hole he now realized was in his soul, that had been there all along and he had tried to fill with endless passionate affairs, and which had not even been fazed in all that time.

He realized that a dirty man was holding a knife in front of him. "Hand it over, townie! All you got! Now!"

"Just leave me alone!" Arthur suddenly screamed, "I'm a broken, worthless waste of a man whose life has no meaning!"

He felt a fist strike into his face and found himself lying on the street. There had been another man with the first. He checked his belt. His money purse was gone. In sudden dread, he checked his vest pocket. The jewelry box with the silver earrings was still there.

He looked up to see the two who attacked him walking off, confidant that they had either not been seen, or didn't care.

"Hey, jerks," he called to them as he pushed himself to his feet.

They turned to look at him. He stood tall and proud, blood running from his split lip down his chin. "Where you going?" he asked with a smile, pointing a thumb at the other side of his face, "You haven't gotten my left cheek yet."

* * *

Link and Sheila had returned to the Blade and Stars shortly later to find Zelda fresh out of a bath. They told her of Richard, who said he would return to Darimar to try and smooth things over with the judges, but they should probably head that way themselves, since anything he said would be taken second-hand anyway.

Midna told Link about what had happened that day. While he was relieved that one of the followers form the city gates was just a harmless man with a crush on Zelda, but he wasn't happy about the way she'd let Zelda handle the brute in the inn on her own.

Zelda reminded him that she was quite capable of taking care of herself and did. Though it hurt when she smiled, she wore the bruise on her cheek like a trophy.

The following morning, they set out, clean and refreshed, with the decision to cut through the forest to the south to the next temple on their plan, then go to Darimar through Nigel, just to the south. Link's tunic had been cleaned, but was still stained with the blood, though not nearly as dark as before and the green showing through it, but it was still evident of a stain, though someone might mistake it for red wine now. He was also clean shaven once again.

As they walked toward the southern gate through the streets, however, Zelda stopped them when she spotted something in an ally. As they walked closer, she identified it. "Oh, gods, it's Arthur."

Arthur was bruised, bloody, and out cold. Someone had really worked him over. Zelda knelt down next to him. Placing two fingers against his throat to check for a pulse. He was still alive. At her touch he flinched and his eyes fluttered open.

"Zelda?" he asked, his vision still blurry.

"It's me," she said gently.

Arthur suddenly pushed himself up. He was filthy, his clothes were torn, and to be seen like this by her. He felt as though his spirit was at last completely broken.

"Zelda," he said, "I need to confess something to you."

He took a deep breath. "I'm a despicable man. I'm a rich merchant's son, never worked a day in my life, and a disgusting womanizer. Since I first saw you come into the city, I only had one thought. To get you into my bed. I can't ask you to forgive me, but I must ask you something else."

He turned to face her, his desperation clear on his face. "How can I become a man worthy of you?"

"This is rich," Midna whispered to Link, who shushed her. The state his own heart was in at the moment told him all he needed about what this man must be feeling like to say what he was.

People in the street were staring as they walked past, whispering to each other a about the dirty man in the torn, filthy clothing.

"Nevermind," Arthur suddenly said, turning to leave.

"This is the first time you've been truly honest with me since we first met," Zelda said, stopping him.

He turned back to her. He couldn't believe his ears. She had seen through his act from the first moment, in the market square! She truly was an incredible woman.

Now, she looked him over. The tears in his shirt and vest, red bloodstains of his own blood on the sleeves and his pants. Scabs and dried blood clinging to his face and lips, his hair in disarray and filled with any sort of parasites as he lay in the ally overnight.

"You're closer to being that man now than you ever were before," Zelda said with a smile.

And the tears came unbidden to Arthur's eyes. He hadn't cried since he was a little boy, but now he couldn't stop himself. He collapsed to his knees.

Zelda knelt down next to him. She pulled a handkerchief from somewhere in her tunic and wiped his eyes. "Come now, what would people think to see a grown man crying in the street?"

He sniffed and took the handkerchief, wiping his eyes and sniffing at his running nose. "Thank you," he said, standing up and offering it back to her.

"Keep it," she said, "I can always get another."

Arthur checked his vest pocket. Yes, the jewelry box was still there. "Then, I want you to take these, from me," he said, offering it to her.

Zelda opened the box and saw the silver, crescent moon earrings she had helped him pick out for the sister who didn't exist. "Thank you, Arthur."

They parted ways then, Zelda with the others to continue their journey, and Arthur to the top of the wall, where he watched them shrink into the distance as the morning sun warmed his body. It was like the first morning of a brand new life for him.

He smiled, knowing that he would likely never see Zelda again. But he would change his ways. Honesty was first, of course. He would give up his womanizing ways. He'd go speak to his father, to talk about taking a more active role in the family business. He would work hard, and better himself.

She likely wouldn't return, but he was going to everything he could to become a decent, good man who might meet her approval if she did.

And so the princess of Hyrule had changed the life of a single man she hardly knew, in a land far from her own. It was an act that would not be in the history books, or even remembered by anyone but she and him.

But that was all that mattered to either of them.


	36. Chapter 35

Due to reader request, I have created a character reference guide for this story. See my profile for details.

**Chapter 35: The Night Before**

Link sat with his back to the trunk of a large tree just within the fringe of the forest. A mere two day walk to the forest, and Sheila's suggestion that cutting through it, as opposed to taking the road around, would not only save them nearly a week to reach Nigel, but the temple within the forest, dedicated to the god of nature, would be the location of the third part of the restoration spell.

Now they spent their first night in the forest, about twenty feet from the fringe, just out of sight of anyone on the road. Link sat with is back to a tree as Zelda and Sheila lay a short distance in front of him, wrapped in warm blankets, and Midna continued to sleep on his where he had lay when Zelda woke him for his watch.

There was a light breeze, causing the branches to of the trees to rustle, and his eyes kept scanning the lower branches, as though expecting to see something that didn't belong there. Could those ninja leap through the branches with nary a sound, like the forest folk of legend?

He doubted it, but the thought made his skin crawl.

As close as they had been before without his knowledge, he doubted he would see them coming until it was too late. In fact, the only time he clearly saw any of them was when they had attacked them at the University of Magic in Tyr. Then they had vanished as quickly as they had appeared.

He knew they were out there. He just didn't know where.

He tried to stay focused on his task, listening for the smallest sounds that would be a warning, but his thoughts kept drifting. He reached inside his shirt and pulled out the small box that contained the necklace he bought in Whitos-Neiki. He opened it and saw the five pointed star pendant, emeralds in each point and a white diamond in the center.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn't really thought about it when he bought it. He saw the star and remembered that Midna loved watching the stars, back when they were in Hyrule. When they had camped a night at the fishing hole near lake Hylia, they'd been up for hours as he showed her all the constellations he knew. They'd had several days to wait while the canon that would be their transport to the temple built in the sky was repaired.

She couldn't wear it now, though, he knew. The chain was far too long for her small neck and would even likely get tangled in her arms, stubby as they were. The chain was long enough that on a human woman, it would hang about eight inches from her neck, and the pendant would rest between…

Link shook the image from his head. That was hardly what he needed to be thinking about right now. Unbidden, another image took its place. The beautiful woman he had seen in his dream. Tall and slender, with hair like that of the after noon sun, red with an orange-ish tint, like fire. Her face was unusually narrow, but not in an unattractive fashion, and her pale blue flesh caused her red eyes to stand out in stark contrast.

In those eyes, he saw curiosity and trust, and now he realized, longing. Longing for what she knew she could never have.

The dream had been so vivid, he thought, it had felt so real, as he pulled her close, her warm flesh against his, their lips meeting in a passionate embrace, at first she tensed, surprised, but then relaxed and almost melted into his arms…

Link turned to Midna, where she law on his blanket. He understood now why she had not fought back, when they had shared the dream, that night in the desert. She had told him that it was because of his strong will, that she couldn't resist, but now he understood.

And knew that it could not be.

He shut the jewelry box and tucked it back inside his shirt. It simply wouldn't work. Once she had been freed of the curse, she would have to return to her kingdom, to her responsibility as its ruler. Where would that leave him? Maybe her people would accept him as her husband and… their king…

But he wasn't cut out for kingship. He'd grown up on a farm, fully expecting to spend his life herding goats and training in the sword to protect it. When Bo eventually retired from being the mayor, it was likely Link that would take the responsibility.

Yes, responsibility for about forty people, if you counted the new farmsteaders who had moved in since Ganondorf's defeat. That was nothing compared to the thousands, hundred thousands… millions? Link doubted Hyrule had that kind of population, but he hadn't seen much of the Twilight Realm in his brief visit to the palace and surrounding city.

No, he wasn't the kind of person to lead numbers like that. In fact, he was uncomfortable with the group he traveled with now, having Zelda and Sheila's safety depend on him like this. Yes, it was much simpler when it was just he and Midna.

And now this, he turned his left hand to look at the Triforce symbol that glowed faintly in his flesh. He had determined to learn its use so that he could break the curse that hid Midna's true form. That was the one thing left that he could do to help her. And then they would have to say goodbye.

But the woman who seemed so intent on offering its power to him now stayed silent, not appearing in his dreams. He had tried several times to used its power on his own since they left Whitos-Neiki, with no success.

He remembered two things about the time he had used it to defeat that monster in the mountains. The first was rage, so hot and blinding, that he hadn't truly been aware of what he was doing, and the second was some form of pull, as if an invisible hand was connecting him the power the Triforce possessed. He wished he could remember more. Link's temper had a relatively long fuse, compared to most people, but then it had to be, considering the results when he lost it.

Righteous fury and blind rage are two very different thing. That's what the teachings of the sages say. Link liked to think that when he had been angry before, it had always been for the right reasons, such as when the moblins rode through Kakariko and snatched up Colin. That alone had driven Link into a frenzy. While the fighting was going on, Link wasn't thinking of saving the child. All he could think about was reaching their leader and tearing him apart. Was that really "righteous fury?"

That woman was right about one thing, at least. He was afraid to learn to use the Triforce, because he was afraid of what it would do to him and his personality. He could become as terrible as Ganondorf, if not worse.

An odd thought struck his mind. The Hero of Time, the first carrier of the Triforce of Courage, when Ganondorf had stolen the Triforce from the Temple of Time. He had the ability to control time itself, the legends said, traveling forward and back through time, able to slow its passage or even speed it up. Link wondered if he'd been able to rewind time just after being impaled on a sword and then avoid it due to foreknowledge.

Well, what he had used against that bizarre creature in the mountains certainly hadn't been control over time. Never before had he been that angry for any reason. When the beast had struck Midna, he'd just lost it. He'd seen everything through a red haze, and simply reacted without any thought or hesitation.

He'd killed the beast with a power he hadn't even known he'd had.

A movement startled him out of his thoughts and he snatched the Master Sword from where it lay on the ground beside him.

Sheila had rolled over in her sleep, he realized as he leaned back again. Or so he thought. She lifted her head and looked at him, blinking sleep from her eyes. "What time is it?" she asked.

"Just past midnight, I think," Link said, "You can sleep a few more hours before your watch."

She sat up, turning her head to the side, popping her neck. "I don't know," she said, turning to look deeper in the forest, "I wasn't sleeping well to begin with. I feel like something's watching us."

_I know that feeling,_ Link thought, scanning the tree branches again.

"I can't sense any auras, though," Sheila said.

"It's just the heebie jeebies, then," Link said.

Sheila slipped out of the blanket and straightened the skirt of her travel gown, then moved over by Link and sat down next to him, her back to the tree trunk. "Can I ask you something, if it's not too personal?" she asked.

"What?"

"You bought that necklace for Midna, didn't you?"

Link didn't speak for a moment, then responded, "Why do you ask?"

"Curious, mainly," she said, "I don't think it's for Zelda. You don't seem that close to her. You haven't really done anything to suggest you're interested in getting close to me. And I doubt you bought it for yourself."

"I thought I already told you that I love you," Link said with a smile, "Marry me and have my children."

"And I know you well enough now to know you aren't being serious," Sheila said, "Not that it was that hard this time."

"Yes," Link said with a sigh, "I bought it for her. She loves watching the stars, so I thought…"

"That's not all there is to it, though, is it?" Sheila pressed, "You have feelings for her, don't you?"

Link turned to look at her, then glanced over at Midna, before looking back at Sheila. "Are you implying…"

"No!" Sheila interrupted him, "Gods, no. I'm not asking if you're physically attracted to her. If you were right now, then I would start to worry. I'm asking, do you care for her?"

"Well, yes," Link said, "She's a good friend and I trust her…"

"Quit dodging the question and answer me," Sheila said, "Or just tell me to get lost. It'll explain more than what you're doing now. Do you _care _for her?"

Link turned away from her and rested his head against the tree trunk. It was several seconds before he answered. "Yes."

"But there is a reason you haven't told her?"

"Because it won't work," Link said, "There are too many barriers, both personal, between us, and political. Because she's a princess and I'm a peasant. Because I'm human and she's…"

"Not?" Sheila finished when he trailed off.

Link sighed but didn't answer.

"Link, let me tell you something," Sheila said, "Elves, or at least most of us that are left, are an extremely stuffy, stuck up, and all around arrogant race. Many of us believe that we are truly better than the human race because we are so long lived. Now, not all of us are like that, but most are. These ones that believe this are rarely even seen in public anymore, hiding away in their mansions, whether in the cities our out on private estates.

"But, we are all extremely patient in all matters. Do you know why?"

"Because you've got time to spare," Link guessed, "Because you're so long lived."

"Precisely," Sheila said, "and this patience extends to the matters of love and children as well."

Link lifted an eyebrow. Where was she going with this?

"My point being that most elves do not have children until they are nearly eight hundred years old, and then rarely have more than one or two, if any at all," Sheila continued, "Our numbers are slowly but steadily dwindling because of this. My race's patient nature is what is killing us.

"There are maybe a hundred elves left in the world today."

"That's all?" Link asked in genuine surprise.

"That's all," Sheila said, "Now, let me go a bit further to my point. My father is a judge. He is, naturally, an elf, and well off from his family. He had no reason to work in such a trying and actually poor paying job. In fact, he didn't intend to when it was offered to him. But he was eventually convinced to do so."

"Why did he accept it if he didn't want it?" Link asked.

"Anyone who wants to be a judge is immediately disqualified from eligibility," Sheila said, "Considering how much power they wield, it was a precaution in appointing judges to prevent abuse of said power. Current judges seek out those with good hearts who they think would fill the position well and make them the offer. My father has tried to get me to join more than once, but I'm more stubborn than he is. I'm not going to cave in.

"Anyway, my mother was not a rich woman. She was the daughter of a weaver. A peasant."

"Wait," Link said, "If all elves are considered nobility, that means…"

"That's right," Sheila said, "My mother was human. I am a half-blood. Very few people know this, outside of my father, myself, and Geoff and Riven in Tyr. My point here, though, is the fact that my parents loved each other Link, even though one was a noble and one was a peasant, and even though they were of different races. My father was denounced by his own family for marrying her, but that didn't stop them."

Link knew she was comparing her parents to himself and Midna just now. "But elves live so much longer than humans," he said, "How could he stand watching her grow old and die while he did not? You've said you're over three hundred. She must have died a long time ago."

"She didn't grow old, actually," she said, "She died in childbirth. I was only barely saved, I've been told."

"I see," Link said.

"But the point stays the same," Sheila said, "My father didn't dwell on the fact she would die long before him anyway. They treasured the time they had together. Even you have to eventually have to say goodbye, that doesn't mean that parting has to be the sole focus of your relationship. Now, you care for Midna, correct?"

"Yes."

"Does she care for you?"

Link thought about that dream they had shared once more. "Yes."

"Then isn't that all that matters, at least for now?"

"It's not that simple," Link said suddenly, then paused before adding, "There's another."

"Another woman?"

"Yes, back in Hyrule."

"Do you care for her like you do Midna?"

"Well," Link said, "Yes."

He had hesitated for a hair of second before saying "yes."

"You don't sound very sure," Sheila said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Link asked.

"Exactly what it sounds like," Sheila said.

"But it doesn't make sense anyway," Link said.

"What doesn't?"

"Me caring for Midna," he replied, "I mean, yes, we've been through a lot together, and I trust her implicitly for it, but I don't have any idea why I care about her the way I do. I've never seen her real face, I don't know little details about her, like her favorite color, like I do about Ilia. Hell, she's not even that nice a person, the way she taunts and prods at people occasionally, myself included, and yet…"

"And yet you care for her," Sheila finished.

"Yes," he said, "and I don't know why."

"Well, Link," Sheila said, "If you'll listen to the opinion of someone who has never been in love on the scale we're talking about, the way I see it is that if you know why you love someone, it's not real love. You can love things about them, or things they do, but it is those aspects you care about, not the person.

"I know it sounds hopelessly romantic," she added, "But that's what I think of your situation."

"You've given me a lot to think about," Link said.

"Why don't you sleep on it? I can take watch from here. I'm not going to get any more sleep anyway."

"If you're sure," Link said.

"I'm sure," Sheila said, "You look like you need it anyway."

_Do I really look that tired?_ Link thought as he moved to his blanket and wrapped it around himself, careful not to wake Midna as he did so. It only took him a few moments to fall asleep.

Sheila looked up at the branches of the trees swaying in the breeze.

She still felt like she was being watched. Maybe she was just being paranoid, but an ominous foreboding clung about her in the air.

Something was about to happen. Something that would change both the immediate future of Link, Zelda, herself, and Midna, as well as the future of the entire world. She just didn't know it yet.

* * *

"Why do we have to wait? We could just walk up there right now and get 'em!"

Zivlyn was practically dancing in impatience as Tharkus sat on the ground near the edge of the clearing. They were about half a mile away from Link and the others, and knew precisely where they were.

"We are waiting because I said to," Tharkus said, "Remember, we don't want any of them to die just yet. Attacking them now would likely result in casualties on both sides."

The thirty ninja they had with them were nowhere in sight, but Tharkus knew they were all about and some within reasonable distance to keep watch on Link and his friends.

"But you said…" Zivlyn started.

"I am well aware what I said," Tharkus interrupted her, "We need the fragment of that mirror. That is what I said. After we have that, the Twili is useless. And I know exactly what you want with Link. Don't worry. You'll get it."

"Hmph," Zivlyn said, "It's been so long I'm forgetting what it feels like."

Tharkus had the net he'd told Khall he would make. A relatively simple enchantment. When not active, the net would absorb sunlight, and when the spell was triggered, it would radiate it back out ten-fold. It was nearly blinding to look at and would only last about three hours, but it should be enough to restrain the Twili.

There was a river that flowed west to east through the forest, a short distance north of the temple, and a small glade near it that was an ideal ambush location. They just had to make sure Link and his friends arrived there when they were prepared.

* * *

There were three entrances to the passes into the mountains west of Whitos-Neiki.

Now, from all three of these poured a seemingly endless numbers of soldiers loyal to the Lords of Chaos. Where they had found so many men was a mystery, but an undeniable truth. Watching her men move from the passes and form into ranks almost made Kilishandra nostalgic as she stood atop a small rise a short distance out, where all her men outside the passes could see her.

She was no stranger to battle, as many times as she had fought in her father's name, and at his side, but for some reason she was nervous, like the very first time she had gone into battle. Perhaps it was just that she wasn't sure what she would encounter here. She knew her enemies were human, but they were not the same as all those before. They were worlds apart.

And the fact was that she was striking the first blow. That was different.

In her first battle, it had been a counter-offensive, in truth. The barbarians had attack her father's territory, but they had moved the army into position in time to stop more than a few outlying from being taken. She had been about seventy years old that day, still a child by elvish standards.

Wave after wave of barbarian cavalry had charged their position, all to fall to vicious vollies of arrows, so great in number they darkened the sky. In fact, she remembered what Ganon said when he saw the first wave charge.

"What a waste of men," he had said with a smile, then ordered the archers to fire.

When the last wave fell before them, the entire field was swamped with bodies of the soldiers and their horses. So much life cut down in the span of a few minutes. And they had scarcely dented the numbers in the barbarian horde.

And then a single rider had appeared in that field, riding toward them at full gallop. His voice could be heard even at that distance. It was no words, not a battle cry, but a roar of fearless defiance.

Of course, Ganon ordered the archers to fire upon him, and then the most remarkable thing happened. The corpses of the dead barbarians had leaped from the ground, floating into the air about the warrior, shielding him from the arrows, then when the arrows stopped falling, the bodies suddenly flew away from him, and Kilishandra could see clearly now, he wasn't even holding the reigns of his horse, but had a sword in each hand, spread wide to his sides, and his feet were on his saddle as he stood on it in a crouched position, and roared again.

Ganon ordered the archers to hold their fire. Holding his free hand out toward the approaching rider, he said a single word, "_Daem!_" and a streak of golden lightning arced from his fingertips toward the rider.

The rider leaped. The bolt connected, throwing dirt and dust and chunks of the horse into the air, and the concussive force hurled the rider higher, where he flipped over twice in the air, then came down to land perfectly on his feet less than twenty feet from them.

He took a fighting stance, holding his right hand sword above his head, point toward them and the left before him, up in a defensive position. "Okay, wizard," he'd said, smile on his face, "Bring it on. You're nothin' I can't handle!"

Her first thought was that he had to be insane. Ganon was one of the most feared men alive, and for good reason, and this man, little more than a boy really, was challenging him with nothing more than a pair of swords.

By the end of the day, though, they had learned that the warrior's confidence was well founded. Kilishandra had never before imagined that one warrior could cause so much damage. In fact, if it weren't for Ganon, herself, and Khall being there, that warrior could have possibly slaughtered their entire army single-handed. As it was, nearly half their losses were due to that single warrior. They had won the battle and forced the barbarians into retreat, but had been unable to kill that warrior or the barbarian king.

The warrior's strength, Kilishandra now knew, stemmed not only from his extraordinary skill, but from the swords he carried. With a word of command, he caused them to burst into flames, and could create raging infernos by spinning them in his hands, or hurl streaks of fire from them that caused men to burst into flames in an instant.

Magical weapons were much more common there, where she and Khall and the others had come from, than they seemed to be in this land, and she had seen none that rivaled the mightiest she had seen in that previous war. When they had pushed the barbarians back into their homeland, she had seen the terrible power the barbarian king possessed in his last ditch effort to defeat them. Spinning his war-axe above his head, he had conjured mighty tornados that ripped through both armies, hurling men on both sides through the air to their deaths on the rocky terrain.

More men died in those few moments than in all battles against the barbarians to that point put together.

Yes, where she was from, single warriors tended to rise above their compatriots, whether through sheer skill or special weaponry, or both, and they became their army's rock. Their fall meant the death of them all.

In other battles, Kilishandra had met other such men and women. And she was such a warrior now. Maybe that was why she felt nervous, now before the attack on Whitos-Neiki. If the city did possess such a warrior, she would be the only one in her army capable of defeating him. It was her task, not to lead her men against the enemy, but to kill the one man the enemy would rally about due to his skill and strength.

It made her feel very lonely.

* * *

The army was moving out. Zero could feel it, even in his cell. The normally silent halls of the citadel were loud with marching boots, then faded to quiet again.

This was his only chance to move unnoticed. He slipped his hands from the wrist shackles that held them. The lack of any form of bones in his body allowed his hands and wrists to easily slide out. He picked up Black Razor from where it lay near the cell door. He couldn't believe the fools had actually left it right there. Maybe they had expected this, but he doubted they could stop him.

He drew the blade from its sheath, looking at the black blade of the sinister weapon as the voice of the sword whispered in his mind, promising power in exchange for blood of innocents.

"Silence, sword," Zero said to it, "Your promises won't work on me. I'm your master now."

He turned and struck the iron cell door with the blade. It cleaved through the metal easily, turning it red and hot. The two halves of the door collapsed, folding over on themselves like cloth as the iron turned molten.

Zero stepped out into the hall beyond, taking stock of both directions, seeing no one, and turned and ran for the main gate. Turning at intersection and down hallways deliberately designed to be a maze, it took him but a few minutes to reach the upper courtyard, the halfway point. And someone was waiting for him.

It was Zantris, the demon servant of Shaklator, sent to watch him. "Going somewhere?" he asked.

Zero didn't answer, and stopped a few steps away from the glowing pentagram etched into the stone floor of the courtyard.

"I don't remember Khall saying anything about you leaving today," Zantris said.

"I'm done taking orders," Zero said, "From Khall, from you, and…" he paused for effect, "From Shaklator."

"Now you see, Zero," Zantris said, walking closer, stopping on the other side of the pentagram from Zero, "That's where you're wrong. You don't simply defy a goddess. The goddess you would not exist without the aid of, no less."

"When did I say I was defying her?" Zero said, "I am still her faithful servant, but I'm done taking her orders. I'm going to aid her in ways even she cannot see. That is the very reason she gave me free will. Even a mindless golem can follow orders. But only a living thinking entity can reason and invent methods others do not see."

"You actually think you're alive?" Zantris said, "I think you are losing your mind."

Zero spread his arms in a form of confidant shrug. "I'm the dawn of a brand new species."

Zantris stepped toward him. "And that's where you're wro-_gurk!_"

He was cut short as Zero suddenly lunged forward and plunged Black Razor into his stomach. The one step forward had closed the range between them just enough. Zero pulled the sword free, then spun about on the spot and with a single swing cleaved Zantris' head from his shoulders. He stepped aside as the body fell forward, landing in the center of the pentagram, black blood pooling around the torso and neck. The head rolled a short distance away.

"Told you I'd kill you first," Zero said, swinging the sword before him, flicking the blood from the blade onto the stone floor.

Sheathing the blade, he walked toward the exit. Everything was about to really get started, and he wasn't about to miss it.


	37. Chapter 36

**Chapter 36: The Morning of the Day Everything Changed**

The sun rose in the east, bathing the ramparts of the Whitos-Neiki castle and surrounding city with warming light, though a gentle autumn breeze pressed a relaxed chill into the air. It was a day just like any other for the citizens of the city.

Until the alarms on the west wall sounded. Shouts echoing across the rooftops and bells ringing frantically, soldiers pouring from their homes, hastily buckling their weapons and armor, or were already wearing them, having just come off the night watch, now called back to duty.

King Maylow arrived on the western wall, his men saluting as he climbed the stairs to see what was the cause for alarm. He had skipped his makeup, his tan skin darkened further by the his shadow with the sun at his back.

In the distance, growing steadily closer, was an army that poured still from the passes leading into the western mountains as the head of the army marched across the barren, bloodstained field between the mountains and the city wall.

This, however, was no shambling army of undead monsters that had intermittently annoyed the city for the past decade. These were living, breathing men and women. The sound of war-drums could be heard, keeping the men in step as they grew steadily closer.

A lone figure marched ahead of the army, at about a distance of twenty feet from the leading ranks. The breeze suddenly died away as Maylow heard words echoing across the land. He couldn't make out the words, such was the distance, but when the last was spoken, a streak of white lightning leaped from the leading figure to strike the city wall about twenty feet to his right. Stone and mortar were thrown high into the air, along with all the soldiers unfortunate enough to have been standing there, their screams and the crashing of rubble audible to all.

When the dust settled, Maylow could see the gap, about ten feet wide, with rubble around and through it, that was an easy to access opening in the wall. A shout rose from the distant army as more and more of their number joined in, becoming a loud, endless war cry, and the charge began, the first ranks passing and swallowing the leader as they ran toward the city wall.

The wall was already breached, Maylow thought as he ordered his men to take defensive positions behind the breach with pikemen in front, swordsman behind them, and archers on the walls to attack from above.

Though it was not in the manner he had expected, he realized that Sheila and her friend had been right. The magician with them had breached the wall with ease. What could common soldiers do against that kind of power? The best course of action, Maylow knew, would be to evacuate the civilians, just in case things turned for the worse. But that caused two questions in his mind. Evacuate them to where, and just how much worse was it going to get?

* * *

Sheila shuddered slightly. The breeze was cool this morning, biting through her relatively thin clothing even under her cloak. Link now led them along a small animal trail through the forest as it meandered southward. Every so often he would slow and carefully scan their surroundings, as though looking for something, then resume the pace without speaking.

She remembered him being much more talkative when they had first met. Something was bothering him, that was for certain.

Midna had caught it, too. "What are you looking for?" she whispered from his shadow where Zelda and Sheila couldn't hear.

"We're not alone," he replied quietly, "We're being watched by someone just out of sight."

He turned suddenly at a rustling of tree branches, looking up to see a branch swaying just a bit harder than he thought the breeze could cause. Several of the golden brown leaves fluttered from the branch to the ground. Autumn was in full swing here.

Link paused to listen for a moment. "You hear that?" he asked the two women behind him.

They both listened carefully, the Zelda said, "I don't hear anything."

"Exactly," Link said, "Even this time of year, a forest should be filled with sounds of the creatures that live here. But they're all silent. Something isn't right."

They resumed walking. Moving in their wake was a figure that fulfilled Link's secret fear of someone who leaped through the trees in the manner of a squirrel, like the wood-folk of legends. However, this creature had inhabited this forest for longer than any member of their party had been alive.

It slipped from branch to branch with nary a sound, the branches swaying only slightly more under its weight than the breeze stirred them. It was intensely curious about these groups of people in its territory.

* * *

"Fall back! Fall back!" came the shout above the din of the fighting. Bodies of warriors on both sides clotted the breach in the wall of Whitos-Neiki, the fighters climbing over the corpses of their fallen companions to get at their enemies.

Ladders had appeared in from the attackers army and been thrown up to the wall on either side of the breach, sharp metal hooks latching into gaps between the crenulations and the cut stones beneath them, and the men and women of the attacking army poured up them onto the wall to be met with spear, sword, and axe. Bodies were piling up like cut wheat, but the attackers were gaining ground.

Whitos-Neiki possessed a two-fold defense. Should the outer wall fall, a second wall was erected, effectively cutting the city in half, with the castle on the east side, itself contained within a third wall. A breach on the east side would effectively ignore this second wall, but the king and the soldiers could still fall behind it and put up a fight for what remained of the city.

With the civilians evacuated from the western city to the east, King Maylow saw his men losing ground and numbers, and had no choice but to order the tactical retreat. "Fall back!" he called again, as loud as he could, "Flee to the inner wall!"

His soldiers were trained for this event, in any case. They moved back, keeping their weapons and shields toward the enemy, keeping the ranks even as they backed away from the wall, down the streets. Maylow himself was with one of the last groups, about fifteen men, as they retreated through the market square, their enemy close behind them, leaving more dead along the route as they pushed the defenders to have their blows turned by one shield-bearing soldier and to be stabbed by the one to his left.

As they did so, Maylow saw her. She ascended the mountain of bodies filling the wall breach, walking at a deliberate pace as her followers charged past her, careful to give her plenty of room. She stopped briefly atop the mound of death to scan the city from their, carefully taking in everything that was happening. Standing their in the morning light, Maylow could see everything about her, from her dark skin to her fire-red hair, the enormous and complex plating covering her left arm, and a sword in her right hand that seemed to pulse and glow with a life of its own even in the sunlight. Trickles of light seemed to flow over the blade from somewhere within its steel self, and even drip from the tip to the ground, like some mystical kind of blood.

And then she turned and looked directly at him. She saw him, and Maylow was sure she knew who he was. For a brief instant, an image of a great mountain cat, with a deep purple body, and great saber-teeth stood behind her, its growl like the rumble of thunder. It was gone as soon as it had appeared, however, and Maylow couldn't help but wonder if he'd imagined it.

Then she descended the pile of corpses, and resumed her deliberate marching pace, straight in his direction. She was moving at about the same pace as Maylow and his men were retreating, and they would reach the wall well before she caught them.

_She's the one who breached the wall with the bolt of lightning,_ Maylow thought, nearly oblivious to the fighting around him, _If we can kill her, it may break their morale. It may be the only chance we have._

Unfortunately, hundreds of enemy soldiers continued to pour through the breach, moving down the streets in full charge, passing her by and joining the fighting.

_It's not possible,_ Maylow thought as he moved with his men toward the inner wall, _Where could they find so many men? There's nothing on the other side of the western mountains but desert, and these aren't the barbarians from the artic lands. There is no place in the world for this army to come from…_

The woman walking toward them suddenly lifted her left arm, and a single word echoed about them in her voice, "_Daem!_" A streak of lightning shot from her fingertips to connect with the corner of a building rooftop over Maylow's head.

"Move, move!" he shouted to his men, pushing several in the direction of the inner wall as he broke into a run and an eight foot segment of the building's wall, along with hundreds of chips and bricks, fell toward them. Two men were too slow and were crushed beneath the heavy stone as they fled.

Maylow looked back for just a moment, and through the heavy dust that floated slowly down, he could see the woman's figure, coming ever closer.

* * *

Arthur Ragefaust could hear the fighting. He looked up at the wall that divided the city in two from the east side. He was on the "safe" side, at least for the moment. It was dazing, to think that for ten years the city had held against this enemy, and now they had breached the wall and were swarming over the western half in but a few moments.

He could see the defenders coming through the gates in the wall, most of those able to walk under their own power lending their shoulders to the wounded, others carrying children or dragging civilians by the arm, trying to get everyone to safety.

What would she do? Arthur had already made up his mind. He was no warrior, but he would join the defense of the city. He marched to the garrison entrance next to the gate, finding a soldier who seemed to be in charge, issuing orders to the rest. It was chaos as men seemed to be flying every direction, up the wall, through the gate, and the wounded left lying in the street for lack of anything else that could be done at the moment.

Arthur could smell blood, and a lot of it. He nearly stopped when he passed one man lying on his side, screaming in pain with a hand clamped over his gut, where his chain shirt had been cleaved open and his insides threatened to slip between his fingers. Arthur took a deep breath, steeling himself, and approached the commanding officer.

"I want to fight," he said without preamble, "Where can I get a sword?"

The officer turned to him, the look on his face saying he was ready to scream him down, when another voice called to him. "Captain! Shut the gate!"

It was King Maylow, along with about twelve men coming through the gate. "We're the last ones!" the king said, "Shut it now!"

"Close the gate!" the captain shouted into the open doorway behind him.

With a resounding crash that shook the ground beneath them, the portcullis slid down and slammed shut.

"And as for you," the captain said, turning to Arthur, "Don't waste my time. Go to the safe house with the rest of the civilians…"

"I want to fight," Arthur said, "I'm not going to cower in the safe house while everything I know is destroyed."

"Captain," King Maylow said, stopping the man from responding, "Get the archers up on the wall and tell them to concentrate on the red-haired sorceress that's coming this way. She's their leader, I'm sure. If we can kill her, it will be a severe blow to their morale. Go, man!" he added as a shout when the captain hesitated.

The king turned to Arthur. "And you. You want to fight, is it?"

"Yes, your majesty," Arthur said, "I want to defend the city."

"A city is nothing but brick and mortar without people, lad," Maylow said, "I'd rather you defend our people than the city."

"Yes, sir," Arthur said, "I want to defend our people."

"Hey, you!" Maylow turned and shouted into the garrison doorway, "Throw me one of those spare swords."

He caught the sheathed blade just under the hilt when it was tossed out the doorway. He turned and offered it, hilt first, to Arthur. "I hereby dub thee lance constable. Now get up on that wall, soldier."

"Yes, sire!" Arthur said as he took the sword and ran for the wall.

He joined the men ascending the ladder to the top of the wall, buckling the baldric of his new weapon around his waist as he waited a chance to step onto the ladder. Men swarmed up the ladders on either side of the gate like ants, scarcely any space between the feet of one and the head of the next.

When Arthur reached the top of the wall, he received his first sight of the enemy they faced. More men than he could count stood in perfect ranks in the streets facing the wall. Packed shoulder to shoulder across the streets, they looked like an immovable wall of flesh. For some reason their charge had stopped a distance from the wall.

"_Ast kailon nu drige darmin,_" a woman's voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once, echoing in a most unworldly manner, and the sky seemed to darken with the words. A spark of light drew Arthur's gaze and he saw her.

Standing on a rooftop just out of range of the archers was an elf woman with fire red hair, the sorcerer the king mentioned. Her right hand, at her side, clutched a sword whose blade seemed to be made out of some kind of liquid metal as shapes and lines moved along it's blade, and white light dripped from the tip to vanish just before reaching the ground.

Her armor was a design like Arthur had never seen, form-fitted to her body, spikes protruding from her right shoulder-plate, and her left arm covered with so many interlocking plates, he couldn't fathom how they could move together and not lock up. She lifted her left arm toward the sky, the clawed fingers of the heavy gauntlet stretched out as her palm pointed straight up.

Sparks of electricity ran over her body seemingly at random, and Arthur realized she was conjuring magic at that moment. "_Han trea bu zeke!_" she incanted in that otherworldly voice, "_Ancient god of death, unleash ultimate destruction upon my enemies, and open the gates of Hell!_"

The sky _was_ getting darker, Arthur realized. Black clouds materialized in the sky, swirling around a single point, a small funnel visible directly over the head of that woman.

King Maylow appeared at Arthur's side. "Dear gods, it can't be…" he said, trailing off in a whisper.

"Can't be what?" Arthur asked.

Before the king could answer, a single beam of light shot from the woman's hand straight up into the clouds. The color of the clouds suddenly changed from black to a hideous dark violet, and the woman lowered her left arm, pointing her fingers directly toward the wall. The next word she spoke, even in the bizarre echoing voice, was clearly a shout, and the three syllables drug out in a shout that seemed to last forever.

"_Harrowing!_" she shouted.

Beams of white light fired from the violet clouds, striking into the ground, each one covering a six foot diameter and raking across the ground in seemingly random directions. Men caught in the beams scarcely had time to scream before their flesh turned to ash, flaking off into the air, their and weapons turned molten, their bones crumbling to dust, only to vanish into the molten stone that had once been a solid wall and streets beneath them. Hundreds of the beams struck down throughout the city, and traveled in every direction, crisscrossing in an unpredictable pattern, leaving rivers of molten steel and stone in their wake.

The entire eastern half of Whitos-Neiki had just fallen victim to the most powerful of the ancient forbidden magics.

Arthur could do not but watch as the city burned and screams of the dying echoed louder now than before, as the beams of light crossed before him and to either side, leaving him standing on an unstable piece of the wall about three feet in diameter. Blind luck and the shock that had frozen him in place saved him from the spell as the last of the beams vanished. He turned back to look at the army on the other side of the wall. The soldiers threw their arms in the air, cheering their victory, though they had little part in it.

One figure wasn't cheering, however. The sorceress on the rooftop sheathed her sword, and with her unarmored hand, wiped her face as she turned away from the destruction.

Arthur felt something in his chest. A feeling like he'd never felt before. If what he had felt for the woman, Zelda, had been true love, then this was best described as its polar opposite. It was complete and unbridled hatred.

"I'll kill her," he said to himself, "I swear I'll kill her."

"Hey!" a voice called to him. He turned to see King Maylow and about six soldiers standing on a rooftop across the street from him, on the half of the building that had been spared from the beams of light.

One of the soldiers had a rope which he was tying around a small brick. Arthur sheathed his sword, seeing what they intended. "Catch!" the soldier called as he picked up the brick and hurled it, trailing the rope, across the river of molten stone that had once been the street.

Arthur caught the brick and took grip on the rope about a foot up from it. "You'll have to jump," Maylow called to him, "We'll catch you!"

The other five soldiers all took grips on the rope behind the first.

Arthur got what bit of a run he could and jumped from the fragment on the wall, which toppled in the opposite direction the moment his feet left the stone. The rope went taut in his hands and he slammed into the wall of the building across the street, his grip slipping and suddenly he found himself holding onto the brick instead of the rope, his feet hanging just a few inches above the molten rock of the street. He could feel the heat through his boots already.

Then he was rising, sliding up the wall as the soldiers heaved him upward. In a moment, he was safely on the rooftop. As he climbed to his feet, he looked back toward the west city. "Sire," he said, "What was that? You sounded like you recognized it."

"You know that many of the magics created during the ancient war were forbidden from being learned by modern magicians?" Maylow said, "That was one of those forbidden spells. The spell of ultimate destruction, the Harrowing."

"Our numbers have been decimated, sire," one of the soldiers said, "The enemy can't venture into the eastern city while the streets are molten, but we can hardly defend what is left."

"Yes," Maylow said, "Our only choice is to flee."

He turned to them. "We'll go east to Tyr and send runners to the other kingdoms. This enemy is too great for any one of us to fight alone. That sorceress has to die for us to stand a chance even with the remaining four united.

"We'll find a route out of the city and search for any other survivors while time permits," he added, "We need to be gone before they can start sending squads into the east city."

"That's it?" Arthur said, unable to disguise the disbelief in his voice, "You're just going to up and walk away from all this?"

Maylow turned to him. "What would you have me do, child? We can't fight a force like that now. We probably couldn't before. We can't do anything for those who have died right now, but try to prevent more deaths."

Arthur turned back to the west. "You said the sorceress has to die, right?"

"Yes."

"Then go," Arthur said, "Find what survivors you can and go. I'll stay here in the city. I'll kill her."

"You can't fight an army alone, lad," one of the soldiers said.

"I'm not going to. I'm going to lay in wait and ambush her," Arthur said, "She's bound to come over here to look around herself. And when she does, I'll kill her or die trying."

"My money's on die trying," the soldier said.

"What is this about, son?" Maylow said, stepping next to Arthur and speaking low so the soldiers would not hear, "You trying to be a hero or something? There's no future in that line of work, just so you know."

"No, sire," Arthur said, "Until two days ago, my life was empty and meaningless, until I met a certain woman. I did not even know what an empty shell my life was until I met her. She…" he paused to take a breath and consider his words, "She touched me, sire, in a way I never thought possible. I was intent on turning my life around, becoming a good man, worthy of her heart."

Maylow nodded and said nothing. "And now," Arthur said, "In but an instant, all I've known, all that I care about, my family, my friends, all that would mean something to the future of my life and the lives of countless others has been snuffed out. There is nothing left for me now."

"Was this woman in the city?"

"No, sire," Arthur said, "She left the day after we met."

"Then it seems you still have something to live for," Maylow said.

"If I can kill the sorceress," Arthur said, "then it will undoubtedly save millions of others she would slaughter in the same way. Even if I don't get out of the city alive afterward, that will be a worthy meaning for my life."

"So be it, then," Maylow said, "Good luck. You're going to need it. If you make it out alive, make sure to find that woman, understand?"

"Yes, sire."

The king and the soldiers departed, descending the stairs from the rooftop into the building, and onto a narrow street that turned into an alley that had been missed by the beams.

Arthur watched the opposing army, now busying themselves with plundering the western city.

For the second time in just a few days, Arthur's life had radically changed direction. He wasn't trained in the use of a sword, but he knew that if he could catch the sorceress off guard, he could kill her. He had to.

* * *

"Hear that?" Link asked the girls, who paused to listen.

"Sounds like running water," Zelda said, then caught it, "The river!"

"So we're about two thirds of the way through the forest," Sheila said.

The resumed the march down the animal trail. The walk had been easy compared to the march through the mountains, and Link was pleased to note that neither Zelda nor Sheila was tiring yet. They were getting into a decent traveling condition at last. Of course, that was being slightly unfair to them, considering that they both came from backgrounds not really accustomed to traveling on foot. Zelda was also becoming accustomed to the weight of her chain shirt, and the fit, and was no longer getting sores under her arms from it.

_I wonder,_ he thought as they walked, _She's not terribly good with that sword, though she has had a little instruction with it. Maybe we could stop early tonight and I can show her a few things._

"What happened?" Midna asked him, "You're smiling again for some reason."

"Haven't I been?" Link asked.

"No, for the past few days, you've been all brood, brood, brood, angst, brood, etc," she said, "In fact, ever since that night in the mountain pass."

"Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking," he said, "Decided a few things. I'll tell you all about it when we stop tonight."

A shadow flitted through the tree branches up ahead, there and gone in less than a second, the branch it landed on shaking briefly a bit more than the wind rustled it.

"Did you see that?" Midna asked, her tone suddenly serious.

"Yeah," Link said, pulling the Master Sword from its sheath and sliding his shield to its position on his right arm, "Kind of wish I hadn't."

Less than six feet ahead, the path they were on opening into a clearing about fifteen feet across, and the river could be seen flowing west to east about twenty feet in. Link glanced back at Zelda and Sheila, to see they had picked up on what was going on easily. Zelda had her bow ready and an arrow nocked, and they were both scanning the tree branches above them.

"Sheila, you didn't sense anyone?" Link asked.

"No," she said, "I don't know how someone got this close, and I still can't find them."

Maybe it has something to do with line of sight or something, Link imagined, maybe even the elves don't know all there is to know about this sixth sense of theirs. Whoever it was, however, Link was sure they had been trailing them for awhile. The unease he'd felt the previous night, maybe they really had been someone watching them. Someone who was very good at remaining out of sight. Some forest rangers were rumored to be so good that when they didn't want to be seen, they could be standing on your foot and you wouldn't be able to find them. Link had never met one personally, of course. He wondered if they had anything in common with the ninja.

Whoever this was, though, they'd screwed up, and crossed right in front of them in plain sight. Not likely one of those legendary forest rangers, then.

"Let's get into the clearing where they can't drop down on us," Link said.

They moved quickly down the path, keeping their eyes on the trees above them. Once in the clearing, the three of them put their backs together so they could watch in all directions at once. "Midna," Link said, "You can see through shadows better. You seen anything in the branches?"

Midna emerged from Link's shadow, floating upward to just over his head, turning slowly to scan all the edges of the clearing. "No," she said, "Whatever it was, I think its-"

She was cut off suddenly as something white in color shot from the side and slammed into her, sending her flying toward the river to hit the ground and roll to a stop a short about two feet from the bank.

"Midna!" Link shouted, turning to see her struggling in a white net wrapped tightly around her small body.

"Link, what is this?" she shouted, "I can't see!"

Link moved to help her, and stopped. Suddenly they were all around them. In black leather armor and hoods, face masks, curved swords drawn, and all around them. About thirty of them, Link estimated.

Thirty ninja, laying in wait for them, their job made easier because they had been watching the trees.

"Midna," Link said, "Use your magic, blast out of it!"

"I can't!" she said, "Something's blocking me, and I can't see!"

"Damn," Link said, turning back to the ninja.

There was another familiar figure among their number. The woman pushed back the hood of her green cloak, revealing the green hair and hideous blue lipstick he remembered from the brief encounter in the mountains.

"Hello again, handsome," she said, and ran her tongue across her teeth, "Remember me?"

"Zelda, Sheila, we need to get to Midna," Link said in a low voice, "I'm going to charge that side of the circle and make an opening. I want you two right behind me when I do. Put your backs to the river and keep me between you and them and give me support with your bow and magic while I fight. Ready?"

Without waiting for an answer, he shouted, "Go!"

The ninja moved to block them off as they ran. Link swung his right arm up, the sheer weight of his shield breaking through the first ninja's guard and the sharpened bottom edge cutting into his arm, scraping along the bone and up across the ninja's face, cutting through the mask and slicing to clear to the skull in one motion, which sent the dark elf crashing to the ground, his hands held to the flaps of skin hanging loosely from his face as he howled in pain.

Link pulled the shield close as he turned in a complete circle as he ran and lifted his sword arm as he completed his circuit and cleaved the second ninja's head from his shoulders and pushed the body out of the way before it fell as he continued to run toward the river, and toward Midna.

He reached her and skidded to a stop as he spun about and shouted, "Behind me!" to Zelda and Sheila.

As they turned, Zelda loosed an arrow that struck one ninja squarely in the throat, who fell over backwards with a gurgling sound and blood bubbled from his neck.

"Get me loose, get me loose!" Midna was shouting.

One of the ninja was coming into Link's reach. He swung his shield again, but this ninja stepped back just in time, the sharpened edge barely cutting into the leather of the armor on his torso. He moved forward, lifting his sword to strike, and Link swung the shield back to the right, catching the ninja flat across the face with the front of the shield and its full weight, an audible crack was heard and blood poured out the front of the mask as the ninja's nose was shoved back into his brain, and sending him flying to the side.

Before the body even hit the ground, Link turned the strike of the next ninja on his shield and stabbed his sword into the ninja's gut, then pulled upward, the Master Sword cleaving easily through the ninja's armor and ribs and out his shoulder, showering Link in blood.

As he turned for the next, the ninja sudden fell on his face, an arrow protruding from the base of his neck.

That shot had come from the far end of the clearing, where they had come from. Someone was helping them!

Suddenly the world exploded in front of Link, and he felt himself thrown into the air, dirt flying up in front of him, and he landed on his back, his ears ringing and his vision blurry. Link shook himself. Had to get up. Had to.

He forced himself to one knee, shaking his head. He couldn't see or hear anything. Somehow he'd managed to hold onto his sword and shield.

"Fall back!" he heard someone say, "We have what we were after!"

There was someone standing before him. A man. In some kind of purple bath robe. The man leaned down and picked up Midna by the net that held her.

"No," Link growled, "Get away from her…"

The man turned toward Link. "_Get away!_" Link screamed as he leaped forward, swinging his sword with everything he had. The Master Sword cleaved into the man's shoulder, past his arm and nearly to his hip. The man grunted in pain.

Then he smiled, staring Link in the face with the sword in him, cut nearly in half, he smiled.

Then Link realized that there was no blood. The inside of the cut was an ugly brown color, and completely smooth. This man had no blood, no bones, no organs, or anything that kept a person alive. Link watched in morbid fascination as the wound closed around the sword, then up to the man's shoulder.

The man took his free hand, turned it sideways, palm open, and struck Link in the chest once. It felt like a kiss from a battering ram, and Link found himself flying backward through the air to land in the water of the river. It was deeper and faster than Link had thought, and he was swept rapidly downstream as he fought to sheathe his sword and move his shield so his hands would be free to swim.

Managing to do so, he kicked toward the bank, grabbing two handfuls of grass as he pulled himself from the water. There was shouting from upstream. They were still fighting. The was a dull thump, like a distant explosion as Link climbed to his feet and started to run back upstream.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something going down the river. The blonde hair that told him it was Sheila, fighting the current, not making any progress, her head bobbing up and down in the water as she choked.

"Oh, no," Link said to himself, "Don't tell me she can't…!"

He dove back into the water, swimming downstream after the drowning woman.

Swimming with the current, he caught up to her in just a moment, and wrapped his arm around her waist and swam sidestroke toward the bank. She wasn't moving, and his heart was pounding. He pulled them both up onto the bank and laid her on her back.

She wasn't breathing. "Come on," Link said, shaking her chin.

He leaned one ear against her chest. "Oh, no," he muttered.

"Okay," he said to calm himself just a bit, then closed her nose with one hand and leaned down to breathe directly into her mouth.

"Come on!" he said as he pushed at her chest with both hands.

It didn't take much. Sheila choked, coughing up water and rolling onto her side. She coughed again, more water spilling onto the bank.

"You okay?" Link asked.

She nodded weakly. "What happened?"

"We need to get back up river," Link said, rising to his feet and offering her his hand, "Can you walk?"

"I think so," she said as Link pulled her to her feet.

They moved as quickly back up the river as Link dared, but Sheila recovered quickly and soon they were running as fast as she could manage. Link could have easily outdistanced her, but he didn't want to leave her alone with those ninja about.

However, when they reached the clearing, it was as Link had dreaded. Six bodies, all the ninja that they had killed, lay in the clearing. Midna, Zelda, that sadistic woman, and the rest of the ninja all gone.

And that man also gone. What was he? One of the Lords of Chaos? He couldn't have been human.

Link scanned the terrain, looking for any form of trail in the torn ground that he could follow. The ninja, unfortunately, were very good at coving their tracks. There were no trails leading away from the clearing.

"Damn," Link whispered, falling to his knees in the dirt, then he slammed his fist into the dirt with all his strength, and screamed as loud as he could, "_Damn it!_"

It was somewhat ironic, he realized, he had been feeling somewhat at ease and happy for the first time in over a week. Now everything was falling apart.


	38. Chapter 37

Note to self: Never have so many important events occuring simultaneously again. It's a pain to keep track of.

**Chapter 37: The Afternoon of the Day Everything Changed**

They'd walked right into the trap. It had been so easy, Tharkus mused. The group stumbled into the clearing, weapons drawn, their attention on the tree branches above them. Exactly why that was, he wasn't sure, but it made things all the easier.

He gave the signal, and the ninja leaped from their hiding places, some as simple as behind trees or bushes, others appearing from beneath the earth itself, buried by their comrades beneath blankets and dirt and leaves. And the net worked beautifully, latching onto the Twili and binding itself with the force of the magic that empowered it. And the Twili screamed that she was blind. An unexpected side-effect, but worth noting.

Zivlyn just had to announce herself. She'd always had a flair for the dramatic. Then Link moved and started killing the ninja, one by one. He'd killed four of them in just as many seconds. Not bad at all. The princess put an arrow in the throat of another, and an unseen ally of theirs had killed another with an arrow to the base of one's neck.

Rather than waste more time and lives, Tharkus released a small spell from his fingertips to the earth just in front of Link. The concussive force threw sand into the air, and Link as well, to land hard on his back a few feet back.

Then Tharkus had stepped in to retrieve the Twili. As he did so, however, Link found his feet.

"Get away from her," he said, then leaped at the wizard, "_Get away!_"

The sword cleaved into Tharkus' right shoulder, and through his torso, nearly to his hip. He grunted at the stinging sensation the sword's magic left on his body. Then he saw the shock on Link's face at the realization that Tharkus had no blood, bones, or vital innards. The "injury" closed up nearly as fast as it had opened.

Tharkus smiled at Link, then struck him on the chest with his free hand. The boy kept his grip on the sword, wrenching it from Tharkus' body as he flew backward to land in the river and be swept downstream.

He turned to the princess and the elf, too late seeing the globe of light between the elf's hands. "_Pyre Bolt!_" Sheila completed her spell and a red bolt of lightning struck from on hand to strike Tharkus squarely in the chest.

Or at least it would have, had his reflexes in raising his barrier been any slower. The bolt of lightning glanced off the invisible barrier about him to strike a tree at the edge of the clearing, snapping the truck in two and sending it falling away from the clearing.

Tharkus turned his free hand to have his palm up, fingers half-curled, then flicked his wrist upward. The magical energies he controlled responded, without any incantation, and a small explosion similar to the one that tossed Link into the air now tossed Sheila back into the river. She was swept swiftly downstream by the rushing water.

The princess loosed an arrow that struck him in the left side of the chest. He felt little more than the thud as it impacted his flesh. In what seemed a fit of desperation, she drew her sword and charged him. He lifted his free hand to defend himself, and the blade struck his hand, directly between his middle and ring fingers, cutting nearly to the center of his wrist. The cut closed quickly, his flesh holding the blade in place and preventing her from drawing it back out.

Nearly face to face, she whispered to him. "What manner of unholy demon are you?"

"Now, now, that would be telling," Tharkus said, "You warrant no villain's exposition from me. You want to know what I am, figure it out yourself."

He wrenched his arm to the side, twisting his wrist to pull the sword pommel from her hands, then twisted back and struck her on the side of the head with the hilt. Zelda staggered sideways, but managed to keep her feet. She noted that the ninja and the sadistic woman were keeping their distance from the wizard.

He flicked his wrist toward the ground, and the sword dislodged from his hand and stabbed its point into the ground. Zelda turned back toward him, pulling her bow from her shoulders and drawing an Arrow of Light from her quiver as she did so. As she faced him, she nocked the arrow and drew it back, gold light flaring along the length of the shaft as she did so.

"Let's see how you like this one," she said, and loosed the arrow.

It struck him in the right shoulder. With a shout of pain, he dropped Midna from his left hand as his right shoulder exploded. Charred chunks pattered the ground as a six inch diameter hole appeared between his arm and neck, his arm only remaining attacked by a thin strip of flesh. He fell to his knee, gripping his right arm with his left hand.

"Grab her!" Tharkus shouted to the ninja, "Bring her with us! Alive!"

The ninja moved forward. Something else moved faster. It zipped from the upper branches of the trees behind them, shrouded in an orange cloak that had helped blend it in with the autumn leaves. Two foot-long blades of steel flashed in the sunlight, and two ninja it zipped between clutched the arms it had passed by, blood pouring from the slit arteries in their biceps.

It ran by Tharkus, striking him quickly and deliberately with both blades, the first finishing the job of severing his right arm, the second across his throat, nearly decapitating him in the process.

Then it turned to Zelda, the blades tucked away under the cloak, and tackled her in the stomach, lifting her up on one shoulder with ease and darting from the clearing into the forest, moving with incredible swiftness over the uneven and unknown terrain, and at one point leaping across a six foot gorge without missing a step.

Tharkus watched them go, then rose to his feet. His neck sealed up quickly, and his shoulder was beginning to reform. He stooped to pick up his severed arm and held it against his shoulder as the flesh knitted itself back together. Then he pulled the remaining arrow from his chest and tossed it aside.

His robe and shirt were ruined, from when Link cleaved the sword into him. He saw Zivlyn pulling the princess' sword from the ground. "I like this one," she muttered, running her fingers along the blade.

Then he glanced down to see that the Twili remained, and smiled. A near disaster averted by their ally evidently not knowing what she was. "Looks like you're all we have left, little one," he said and reached down to pick her up by the net.

The Twili couldn't see, but she caught onto the movement and snapped her teeth down on his fingers. He barely felt it, and she almost immediately pulled back and spat out the chunk she'd bitten off. "I'm afraid that won't help you," he said.

"Why the hell do you taste like corn?!" she demanded.

"Do I?" he asked, "I didn't know. Let's go," he added to his allies, "We have what we were after. Time for phase two."

"That I will tell you," Tharkus said, "Link is bound to come rescue you. And when he does, he'll be at the mercy of Zivlyn over there. Even I think she's a psychotic, vile creature. But she's the best at what she does. And if by some miracle he gets by her, he'll have to deal with me. You will be able to save him by simply giving up the piece of the Twilight Mirror you possess. In fact, I'll let you go right now if you just hand it over, and the entire thing will be averted."

She couldn't see him right then, but the glare in her visible eye right then looked like it could boil water, so to speak. "Link is going to kill every last one of you."

"I'd have to be able to die before someone can kill me," Tharkus said, "But I look forward to seeing him try."

* * *

The sun had sunk about halfway down the sky before the molten streets of the eastern Whitos-Neiki streets were safe to walk on. The autumn chill helped the cooling, and the warmth could still be felt through your boots, but just as Arthur expected, squads of men began moving from the west city into the east, and combed what remained of the buildings, street by street.

They were looking for survivors, and occasionally a distant scream would be heard, to suddenly cut off.

Arthur had seen the king off, and they'd managed to find ten men, and eight women, and twelve children, all of whom had had their lives and loved ones stripped from them in but a moment. One thing Arthur was glad of was that the way the spell had worked, there were no remains of the victims left, because he doubted his stomach could take it to see the results of death on such a large scale.

The city was simply empty. It was eerie, the way the wind whispered through the remains of the buildings. All the sounds of people going about there lives that he was used to were simply and completely gone.

Now, he crouched in a dark corner that was all that remained of one side of what used to be a tavern he had enjoyed visiting. From here, he could see the gate connecting the two halves of the city. He knew that woman had to come here herself eventually, and he would be ready when she did.

He'd waited until the squad that checked this street had cleared this area before taking up the position, and now he kept his ears tuned for the sound of footsteps of anyone deciding to give the area a second look.

His patience was rewarded as the object of his vengeance came into the eastern city at last, and she came alone. She walked down the street slowly, her gaze drifting over the remains of the buildings on either side of the street. She was the one who had done it. Maybe she was admiring her handiwork.

Arthur rose into a half-crouched position, careful not to make a sound and stay within the shadow of the wall. He had to wait until she was within reach, then strike quickly and soundly. He severely doubted his chances in direct combat with the woman. He settled on the fact that he would pay her back through the medium of premeditated murder.

As she drew closer, he could more clearly see the armor she wore. Her right arm, which was her sword arm, he noted was completely bare except for a leather wristband, but the shoulder was topped with that spiked shoulder-plate. The rest of her was heavily armored, particularly that left arm. Those thick heavy plates had to have the same function as a shield, he thought.

Her breastplate, he realized, was form-fitting. It had to have been specially made for her. Her neck and head were completely exposed above it, though, as the plates only covered up to her collarbones, and she wore no helmet.

That was it. Attack from the right side, go for the neck, and take her head off quickly, or at least slash open the artery in her throat. And the timing had to be perfect. If he struck too soon or late, she would be too far out of reach, and likely be able to fight back. Then he would be dead.

As she drew closer, he realized she was talking to herself. Had the city been and populated and noisy as it usually was, he wouldn't have been able to hear her. But now, in the stillness that had taken over, he could hear it quite well.

"…no one who could have stopped me," she said, then sighed, "Such a waste. Maybe this world isn't ready for beings of real power like myself or Khall. Even father had to use that Triforce to wield power like I have, whatever it is."

She glanced at the building Arthur was in. He ducked out of sight quickly. Apparently she didn't notice him. It was strange. Her tone of voice as she spoke was sad…

"I don't even see why these people have to be wiped out," she said, "They'd hardly be difficult to suppress, and then they could be integrated with ours."

Wait for it. Let her get a little bit closer.

"That was one thing father taught me quite well. People resent oppression, and while they will resent any conqueror, at least for a time, they practically flock to a strong leader who is fair to them. They eventually come around and _want_ to be ruled by such a leader."

Come on, just a little closer…

"This wasteful destruction," she said, stopping and turning her back to Arthur, "Maybe Mur'neth was right. Maybe Khall is up to something he's not telling us. Telling me to do this… It's not like him. And Tharkus is probably at the center of it."

Just a few more steps…

She turned and started walking again. "I can't turn back now, though. I can, however, change the plan. I'll capture Nigel my way. With minimum casualties on both sides. Then I'll find out what Khall is up to. Depending on how that goes…"

She paused and glanced at her hand. "Well, maybe I can get him to see reason."

Now!

Arthur leaped, drawing his sword quickly, and swung as hard as he could at her head. His blade stopped with a clash of steel on steel. It took him a second to grasp the situation. She had spun about and stopped his swing with that armored left arm of hers. How could she move so fast, and wearing all that heavy armor? Arthur had worn armor once. It had felt like he had two great sacks of stones hanging over his shoulders when he tried to move. It didn't even seem to slow this woman down.

With her armored fist up the air, his blade stopped against her wrist, about four inches from her face, she was glaring right at him through bangs of red hair that her spin had caused to drift down in front of her face.

"What do we have here?" she asked, her previous soft tone gone, replaced with a voice of steel, "Some fool trying to play hero?"

She shoved his sword away with a jerk of her arm, and Arthur was forced back several steps. The sword was heavy, too, he realized. He really wasn't in any kind of shape for this.

The woman drew her sword, the pulsating light on its blade drawing his eyes to it immediately, almost mesmerizing the way it danced across the blade and dripped onto the stone beneath their feet to evaporate immediately. Then she set her feet wide, turning so that her left side was more toward him, that armored arm half-bent before her like a shield, her sword held behind her.

"Well, come on, hero," she said, "Don't turn coward on me now."

Gripping his sword with both hands, Arthur ran for her, raising the blade above his head and swinging downward with all his strength. Her arm came up, caught the blade above her own head, then shoved it to the side, sending him stumbling past her. Adding insult to the move, she lifted up one foot and kicked him across the posterior, which turned his stumble into a stagger, and he fell on his face.

"Get up, hero," she said.

"Aren't you going to call for help?" he growled as he pushed himself up.

"For an amateur like you?" she asked, "You insult me."

Arthur spun as he rose, swinging quickly, hoping to catch her off guard. This time her sword came to block the stroke, the impact causing droplets of light to rain off the blade, then her left fist filled his vision, and sudden pain across his face made him retreat quickly. He put one hand to his face to find blood running from his right cheek. The cut wasn't deep.

He saw what had caused it. On the gauntlet over her left hand, between each of her knuckles, protruded a half-inch long blade. Three blades, each of the tips red with blood.

"We both know how this is going to go," she said, "Ready to quit, hero?"

Arthur looked at her, gripped his sword in both hands, and smiled. "Are you kidding? You haven't gotten my left cheek yet!"

She smiled, and laughed. "Okay, you've got some spine. But there's a difference between courage and foolishness, kid."

"If you want you're left cheek cut up so bad," came a voice from the side, "Then why not allow me?"

A man stepped out of a doorway of a relatively unscathed building across the street from where Arthur had been hiding. A black bladed sword clutched in his right hand, his silver hair hanging loosely around his shoulders.

"It can't be…" Arthur whispered, recognizing the face of the man before him, "You're…

"Zero!" the woman said, turning her attention from Arthur fully to the newcomer, "How the hell did you get out of that cell?"

"I was never held there to begin with," Zero said, "And the time has finally come to make my move."

"When Khall hears about this-" the woman started.

"He will do nothing," Zero said, "He can do nothing. You know that power he has to instantly end my life? It doesn't exist. Get it? I was faking it! He had no control over me, ever!"

He waved his free hand at her. "You see, while you 'Lords of Chaos,' as you call yourselves, were off doing your own thing, I have my own goals for this world. Directly from the goddess of destruction herself."

"From Shaklator?"

"That's right," Zero said, "You see, I am, in a way, her son, and in another, I'm not. She brought my mind and soul into existence, but my body was created by another. And while I'm so glad, Kilishandra, that you and Khall are convinced you're going to rule the world, I'm afraid I have other plans."

"And what would those be?" Arthur demanded, raising his sword.

_Ah, how easy a common enemy unites a man with the person he was just trying to kill,_ Kilishandra thought.

Zero smiled, and suddenly slammed his free hand into the wall just behind him. Cracks appeared in the stone, spread quickly, then the wall fell over behind him, crumbling to pieces.

"See that?" Zero asked, "That's just one of the ways I'm superior to the entire pathetic human race."

"My father has that kind of strength," Kilishandra said, "He's quite human."

"Is he?" Zero asked, "I was under the impression most of his powers came quite unnaturally. Eternal youth, rapid healing, immense strength. He might have been human once, but I assure you, he is no longer."

"_Daem!_" Kilishandra suddenly shouted as she lashed out her left hand. A streak of lightning lanced from her fingertips to Zero's chest, throwing him backward, crashing through the back wall of the building he had emerged from. The wall collapsed, burying him beneath it.

Kilishandra felt a stab of pain in her hand, the blue fingernail on her index finger darkening a shade. _No,_ she thought, taking a deep breath, _Can't let my loyalties slip like that. He insulted Ganon, and for a moment I was my old self again._

She calmed herself and the pain vanished, the nail turning lighter blue again.

"But now he's dead," she said out loud.

The bricks stirred, then rolled down the pile and Zero rose from the wreckage. "Not bad," he said, "Caught me napping."

"That's not possible," she said.

"That's the difference between Ganon and myself," Zero said stepping out of the rubble and walking toward her, "I know I'm not human. I'm not trying to be. I am the first of the new dominant species of this world."

"We have a deal with Shaklator!" Kilishandra said, "We release her and allow her revenge on the civilization that imprisoned her, and we are allowed to rebuild on the remains. Are you saying she's been playing us for fools this entire time?"

Zero smiled. "Not all of you."

"Who else knows?!" Kilishandra demanded.

"Everyone knows exactly what they need to, and that includes you," Zero said, "You're not going to get more than that out of me. I would suggest you go question your 'friends' for more information, if you're so desperate to know everything."

_I think this confirms it,_ Kilishandra thought, _Mur'neth was right. Something is going on that we don't know about. Khall is going to have a lot of answering to do when I see him again. But first…_

"I guess that leaves only one option," Kilishandra said, "I'm going to have to beat answers out of you."

"Now that's what I wanted to hear," Zero said with a smile, "Finally, a test of strength and skill against the daughter of the most feared man alive. I hope daddy taught you well."

"I suggest you run," Kilishandra said to Arthur, "You lucked out right now, but if you stick around, you'll get killed in the crossfire. If this guy is even worth a half-effort from me, there isn't going to be much left of this city when we're done."

Arthur was tempted to tell her right where she could stick her suggestion, then thought better of it. "We'll meet again," he said, "And then I will kill you."

He turned and ran for the east gate. If he hurried, he might catch up to the king's party in a day or two. Kilishandra watched him go out of the corner of her eye. He had potential, but the question was if he could realize it in time. He'd probably die before they met again.

Arthur made it out the gate, but had scarcely gone more than twenty feet along the road before another man stood before him. He lifted his sword, ready to defend himself, but the man lifted a pendant he wore from inside his blue cloak and spoke directly into the green stone attached to the silver chain. "This is Judge Anthony. Got one more survivor."

"Thank the gods, a judge!" Arthur said, "Listen, something is happening right now…"

An explosion from the city cut him off.

"Whatever it is, it will have to wait," the judge said, "I'm the only one here, and need to get going. You came out just in time."

A voice spoke from the stone in the judge's pendant. "Anthony, we're closing up shop there. Place the survivor in protective custody and escort him to Darimar immediately. If he's seen the enemy leaders, we'll get some men to make artist's rendering and send them to the other kingdoms."

"Did you see their leaders?" the judge asked Arthur.

"Well, one of them," Arthur said, "A woman…"

"Stop there," the judge said, then spoke into the pendant, "Get those artists ready. I'll let him use my pendant, and we can go straight through to them."

"There was another man who showed up," Arthur said, "He wasn't with them, but he's definitely not on our side either."

"We'll get a description, but I hardly think one man can make that much of a difference," the judge said.

"We'll have the artists in about an hour," the voice from the pendant said, "In the meantime, you'd best get moving."

"Wait," Arthur said, "The king and some other survivors came this way earlier. Did you see them?"

"Maylow no longer has a kingdom, therefore he is no longer a king," the judge said, "But we did find them, and they are being escorted to Darimar. Judge Ralthas wants to question them personally."

He tucked the pendant into his shirt. "Now come on. We need to go."

Another explosion sounded inside the city.

Arthur sheathed his sword and fell into step with the fast walking judge. "What is that pendant, by the way?" Arthur asked, "I've never seen something like that before."

"Instant communication across great distances," the judge said, "Every judge has one, but they're for emergency use only. Otherwise everyone would want one, and they're just too expensive and difficult to mass produce."

* * *

_Aw, just a little too late, it seems,_ said the voice in Link's head.

Link pushed himself up from the floor of the clearing, growling under his breath. "I was wondering when you'd turn up again."

_I can't exactly hold your hand all the time, Link_, said the voice, _Now tell me. What do you plan to do about your friends?_

"I'm going to find them."

_Even if it meant walking directly into a trap?_

"I know it will be a trap. I'll turn it into my trap."

Sheila lay one hand on Link's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he said, then spoke to the voice again, "Where did they take them?"

_Well, that's the catch,_ the voice said, _The Princess Zelda was not abducted by your enemy. She is in no immediate danger. Midna, on the other hand, is being taken to the very location you were seeking: The temple about a mile south of the river. Your enemy knows your movements quite well, Link._

"We need to go," Link said to Sheila, "They'll take her to the temple."

Sheila nodded. "All right. Lead the way."

She knew he was speaking to someone she couldn't see. He had yet to tell her anything about this. After what she had seen since beginning this journey, however, she would accept almost anything at this point.

Link was also very good at taking charge in a situation like this. While he deferred to her judgment on the roads of the land and when speaking to important people, like King Maylow and even Riven and Geoff back in Tyr, she was coming to see him for what he was. Though he did not enjoy the responsibilities of leadership, in times like this when decisions and strong leadership were required, it was like he had been born for the task.

They crossed the river, Link assisting her through the water once more, then moved to another animal track leading roughly south. She now greatly regretted never taking the time to learn to swim. It would be a priority once this was over, that was certain.

"One other thing," Link growled at the voice in his head, "What was that thing that was at the battle? You know what I mean."

_That,_ the voice said, _was the remains of a broken man who has lost all sense of purpose in this world, save one. He has survived since the time of the ancient civilization solely to fulfill that purpose._

"And that is?"

_Revenge. Revenge on every living thing in this world._

As the voice spoke those words, her tone darkened, becoming like a hard stone, hatred practically oozing from the words.

Link filed that observation away for now. Something told him that this goddess who had visited him in his dreams and now spoke directly to him had more of an agenda than she was letting on.

* * *

In his office in the castle of Darimar, Judge Ralthas sat at his desk, adding his signature to forms requisitioning stored supplies of food and medicine, to be ready for when the survivors from other kingdoms began arriving. The forms were already signed by King Rigdar, but the judge's signature would remove any and all room for argument.

A knock at his door made him look up. "Come in," he said.

"Judge Ralthas?" the young man said as he stepped into the room.

It was Prince Richard, Rigdar's son. "Yes, prince?" Ralthas asked, turning his attention back to the forms on his desk, "What do you need?"

"I know you've been keeping tabs on the High Elder and her companions since they arrived in Tyr," the prince said, "I want to talk to you about that."

"That's privileged information," Ralthas said without looking up, "You know it only because you either stole into my office and looked at my notes, which I'm sure you did, or if you spoke directly to the High Elder, which I'm also sure you did."

"Sheila is not a traitor," the prince said, "I don't care what you think. She has done nothing wrong."

"I'm not positive she has," Ralthas said, "That's why she and her friends have not been arrested yet."

"Yet you have judges stalking them," Richard said, "Yes, she told me what they are doing. I assure you, it's hardly a threat to the kingdoms."

"That is for me to decide, prince, not you," Ralthas said, "I don't hold this office for nothing. If anything, you should be more worried about whether or not I decide to arrest you for interfering."

The prince started to retort, but he was interrupted as another man burst into the office suddenly. "Judge Ralthas! The artists taking the Whitos-Neiki survivor's descriptions through the sound stone have finished, and the judge overseeing it wanted you to see this as soon as possible!"

He had a rolled up parchment in his hand. Ralthas took it and unrolled it. Richard heard the judge his with sudden intake of breath. "This man," Ralthas said, "He was the one the survivor saw in Whitos-Neiki? No doubts?"

"Well, he'd have to confirm the picture himself, judge," the man said, "But this was the result from his description."

Ralthas cursed under his breath, rolling up the parchment. "Have copies made and circulated among the judges. Also, post a notice that I need six men to accompany me, and send word for my horse to be readied. I'm leaving tonight."

"Yes, judge!" the man said, taking the parchment back and saluting before dashing out the door.

"What was that?" Richard asked.

Ralthas stood up, picking up his sword from where it leaned against the desk and buckled the belt around his waist. He looked at Richard as he spoke. "I'm going to arrest the High Elder and her companions. Now get out, prince," he said, pulling the sound stone he wore around his neck from his shirt, "I have a few things to take care of before I leave."

As Richard turned to leave, biting back his temper and his tongue, Ralthas added, "If you want to help them now, I suggest you get ready to defend them when their trial begins."

* * *

"Put me down!" Zelda commanded the figure who had carried her some distance from the battle site.

She was dumped rather unceremoniously onto the grass.

"All right," Zelda said, getting to her feet and taking a few steps back from her rescuer, "Who are you?"

"Not someone you know," came a woman's voice from the hood of the cloak. She turned her attention to the way they had come, apparently checking for pursuers.

"That's not what I asked," Zelda said, "Maybe I should ask, why did you help me?"

"That's my job."

"Job?"

"Job: noun. An activity such as a trade or profession that somebody does regularly. The role that somebody or something fulfills. A duty that…"

"All right, all right," Zelda said, cutting the woman off, "That's enough."

"I'm what you would call a forest ranger," the woman said, "My job is to protect this forest from travelers that pass through it, and protect them from it. It's actually somewhat rare that I protect them from each other."

"I need to find the others I was with," Zelda said.

"Don't worry," the ranger said, "They won't get far before I can track them down. I can move much faster than most through the forest."

"Can we go now?"

"Yes, but we'll need to be careful so we don't stumble upon the others who were after you."

"Before we go," Zelda said, "Can you tell me your name a least? Mine is Zelda."

The woman turned back to look at her. She looked up enough that for the first time Zelda saw the face under the orange hood. The coal black skin and snow white hair that Zelda had come to recognize in the ninja during their brief encounters looked out at her. "My name is Silviana."


	39. Chapter 38

**Chapter 38**: **The Sun Sets**

In the Academy of Magic in the castle city of Tyr, life went on as usual, in spite of the events occurring elsewhere.

Archmage Riven was in his office on the third floor, checking through various documents that had arrived that day. Either thesis's from the students in the class he personally taught, Magical Theory, or reports for supplies for the groundskeepers and cafeteria, and so on. He didn't remember devoting two thirds of his life to becoming a wizard so that he could sign papers all evening. What about the opening he'd announced for an office assistant? He checked through his In tray to see if there had been any applications.

In the window behind him, the sun dipped lower, beginning to sink behind the western horizon, turning the sky red as it did so.

At this time, he was yet unaware, as was most of the populace, of the fate of Whitos-Neiki.

There was a knock at the door across from him.

"Come in Geoff," he said without looking up.

High Priest Geoff, both the preacher in the Academy's own church and teacher of the world and theological history classes, entered. "How did you know it was me?"

"Evening mass just finished, correct?" Riven asked, "You smell of rather strong incense. Now, what do you need?"

"There is someone here to see you," Geoff said, "Said it's important."

"Whatever it is, it can wait until after I finish this and have some dinner," Riven said, "Tell him to come back later. Or better yet, tomorrow."

The door suddenly slammed open, forcing Riven to look up from the papers so he could glare at the man who entered. "I'm afraid that postponement is simply not an option."

The man was dressed in plain clothing, though matching red in color with a dark red cloak around his shoulders with a hem that cleared the floor by several inches. A hand-axe was visible on the right hand side of his belt.

"You dare barge into my office, and armed?" Riven asked with a growl as he rose to his feet, "Who do you think you are?"

"Who I am is what I am," the man said, "Judge. By order of Judge Ralthas, Archmage Riven and High Priest Geoff are to be taken into custody and escorted to Darimar."

"For what reason?" Riven demanded.

"To serve as witnesses in the trial of High Elder Sheila Anthress and her foreigner companions," the judge said.

Riven's glare could have pierced iron. "Go," he said softly, yet the threat in his voice was clear, "and don't let the door hit you on the way out."

"Should the witnesses resist," the judge said, and as he spoke, armed soldiers began entering the room behind him, "I am authorized to use force. Make this easy for all of us, mage."

Riven turned to Geoff. The priest shook his head and sighed. "So be it," Riven said, turning back to the judge, "Give me a few minutes to get my affairs in order."

"Thank you for your cooperation," the judge said, signaling the soldiers to move back into the hall.

* * *

He came at her once more. Zero leaped from a pile of rubble into the air, bringing his full weight down with the vicious swing of Black Razor. Kilishandra had no choice but to leap to the side, rolling on the ground as the incredible impact of his inhuman strength cratered the stone street beneath them.

Rolling into a crouched position, she reversed direction, lunging for him. He swung at her as she came, but too high, the sword went over her head in her low dive, and she struck hers home in his stomach on the way past, not stopping, she moved quickly away and rose to her feet, turning to face him.

He was already after her, with a roar as he swung for her head. Kilishandra ducked to the side, the blade whistling past her, cutting about half an inch from a few strands of her hair, and she stepped back behind him. With an upward stroke, she cut deep into his back, from his hip to his shoulder, then struck a second time, cutting downward along his spine.

Zero fell to one knee. Kilishandra lifted her sword high, the light that danced along the blade suddenly intensified, and the blade let out a bestial roar, for a brief instant the image of the great purple bodied cat with saber teeth was visible in the air around Kilishandra, and as she brought the sword down, the creature lunged at Zero.

The impact was staggering. Zero hit the ground with incredible violence, his body caving in the stone nearly a full inch from the sheer force of impact. The wound across his back from the final blow looked considerably more like an animal mauling than a blade strike.

But something was deathly wrong. Something that forced Kilishandra back several steps in surprise.

There was no blood. The blows she had dealt should have showered her in Zero's blood, his insides should have spilled out his backside, and his spine should have been broken in two.

The inside of the wounds was simply smooth and brown in color. And as she watched, the wounds started to close, and Zero began pushing himself up.

No, that wasn't going to do. Kilishandra took several more steps back as she began her chant. "_Ast namor kal drumaan,_" she incanted, still backing away as she did so.

Zero pushed himself up onto one knee. "_Spirits of the air, unleash your fury and bring forth the lightning to strike down,_" Kilishandra continued, stopping to plant her feet and lift her gauntleted left hand, one finger pointed directly at Zero.

Zero got to his feet and turned to face her.

"_Thunderstruck!_" Kilishandra finished, and suddenly a bolt of lightning struck from the sky, hitting the spot where Zero stood squarely, and he vanished in an explosion of dust and stone.

Stone debris rained down around her. Kilishandra didn't relax her guard. The dust settled slowly to the ground.

The ground where the lightning had struck was cratered. There was nothing left in it. "Come on," Kilishandra whispered, "If you were dead, there would at least be chunks."

She scanned the streets and piles of rubble around her.

"I know you're still there," she called, "Show yourself, coward!"

"You mean you're not ready to give up yet?" Zero's voice called out, mocking her, "Have you yet realized what you are up against?"

"I've only seen one other creature that took injuries like you," Kilishandra said, "And it was a flesh golem. I think I'm beginning to put it together. You said Shaklator created your mind and soul, but your body was created elsewhere. Does that mean…?"

She spotted him. To her right as he walked out from behind a wall which was all that remained of one building. "Took you long enough," he said, "And here I thought you were the smart one in your family."

"So what does that make you?" she asked, "Some kind of intelligent undead?"

"I'm quite alive, I assure you," Zero said, "I can feel things, including pleasure and pain, though my threshold for both is far beyond yours. I can think, I can reason. That's what makes me a living being. In everything else, however, I am far superior to anything the mortal races can imagine."

He spread his arms wide and smiled at her. "I'm the first of the new dominant species of this world!"

"Is that so?"

Zero turned. The voice had come from behind him. He couldn't believe his eyes as Kilishandra brought her blade down into his shoulder. _How did she get behind me so fast?!_

In disbelief, he turned his head back to where she had been, just in time to see the second sword come down, directly into his forehead. Two halves of his head drifted apart, giving him an odd fish-eye perception of events, but he still saw her there.

_There's two of her? That's impossible!_

Kilishandra pulled her sword out from his head and the second one pulled hers from his shoulder, and together they struck again from both sides, each cutting deep into his flesh from a shoulder to hip, then again from the opposite shoulder to the opposite hip. Then the first Kilishandra put her left hand up, mere inches from Zero's flesh.

"_Daem!_" she shouted, and Zero was blasted to pieces. Black Razor spiraled through the air, lodging its blade into the wall of a half-collapsed building to Kilishandra's left, and the pieces of Zero's body pattered down across the wreckage before her.

She fell to one knee, leaning on her sword, gasping for breath, as the second Kilishandra suddenly burst into blue flame, her features distorting, then falling apart as her flesh broke apart and rained down on the ground like glass only to vanish entirely on impact. The phantom she had conjured disappeared without a sound.

There was a loud thump in front of her. She looked up to see that everything from Zero's waist down was relatively unharmed, and had fallen to the ground several seconds after the spell.

_I don't know how he does it,_ she thought, _It always saps so much out of me._

Her strength was indeed spent. Conjuring a phantom of herself was one of the last tricks Ganon had taught her before he disappeared. More than once, he had used one to fool someone into thinking they had killed him before striking them decisively. He had even been able to make his use magic, or operate for extended periods of time.

This one she had created for less than a minute, and it had exhausted her. And Zero…

She looked up to what remained of the creature before her. It seemed to be melting. "Did that do it?" she asked herself, "Is he dead?"

She looked further, into the rubble, and realized that she saw movement. Small streams of what looking like brown worms, or more accurately, moving clay, were crawling over the rubble toward the now moving pile before her.

"This is like a bad horror novel," she muttered as she rose to her feet and backed away, still trying to catch her breath.

The brown ooze coalesced into a single form, which then rose up from the ground in a shapeless mass before turning into more recognizable form, with a head, two arms, and finally eyes and ears and other details began to appear.

"That," Zero said as soon as he had a mouth to speak with, "Wasn't. Nice."

His flesh began to change color from the dark brown to his normal, lighter tone. Kilishandra couldn't help but notice that his clothes had been destroyed in his attack, and he did properly form other parts to make himself pass for a human.

With a sudden leap from his standing position, Zero flew upwards into the air, across to the wall where Black Razor was imbedded in the stone and snatched it before coming back to the ground.

_If you can't beat them, scatter them,_ Kilishandra thought. It was a lesson Ganon had taught her for dealing with powerful armies. You had to try to separate their numbers by whatever means. He had taught her to use rockslides or avalanches to seal passes through difficult terrain, or breaking a dam to flood a normally navigable ford, all while the enemy was halfway through it. Separated from the rest of their forces, they could be dealt with one at a time. Maybe something similar would help here.

"Nui," she whispered to her sword, "I need your help."

The dancing light on the sword grew brighter in response.

With a roar, Zero leaped toward her. He didn't reach her. The great purple feline that he had seen the image of but a moment ago appeared again, with a vicious growl, its great saber-teeth glinting red in the evening sun. He didn't slow his charge, knowing it to be but an image created by her weapon.

Or he thought it was, until the saber-teeth pierced his stomach, the great beast's jaws nearly completely encircling his body. Without even time to curse, he felt himself lifted skyward as the great beast launched itself upward.

Great black storm clouds formed in the sky from nowhere, the rumble of thunder loud in the air. And then Zero was struck. As many as six streams of continuous streams lightning struck into his body. Zero struck at the feline that held him in its jaws with Black Razor, but the sword passed through its body with no effect.

Pieces of his body were falling from him now, leaving gaps in his flesh, and the winds were rising, sweeping them through the air. With a scream of frustration, Zero realized what the woman was doing. In moments, his body fell to pieces, all to be swept away by the billowing winds, constantly changing direction, forcing the parts of him farther and farther apart.

Kilishandra watched this from the ground, and at last, as the last of Zero was swept away, the great thunder beast, Nui, faded from view.

A second later, Black Razor hit the ground about ten feet from her with a crash.

"It will be a while before he gets back together again," she said.

She walked to where Black Razor lay in the rubble. The black blade was not even chipped from the impact. She reached for it, then suddenly drew back when an icy chill pervaded her flesh. As a thought, she moved to a nearby wall, all that was left of the building and barely standing on its own, and gave it a push. The stone wall fell, breaking apart around the edges as it did so, but holding its integrity through the center, and landed atop the sword, burying it beneath the rubble.

"Now," she said, turning for the gate back into the western city, "In two days we leave for Nigel. After that, Khall has some answering to do."

* * *

"Link, are you sure you want to rush into this like this?" Sheila asked.

They were moving along the path southward, moving ever closer to the temple where Link hoped, no, _knew_ the wizard and his men had taken Midna.

When he didn't answer, Sheila went on. "Link, it's obviously a trap. They want to lure you there."

"You think I don't know that?" Link snapped, then stopped and turned to face her, "What you have me do? Leave Midna and Zelda in the hands of that monster and that... that... sadistic freak?"

"No, but we might approach the situation with a little more caution," Sheila said, "What do you plan to do? Walk in the front gate and kill everyone who gets in your way?"

"We'll call that Plan B," Link said.

"What's Plan A?"

"Sneak in through a side door and kill everyone that gets in my way."

Sheila sighed.

"Look," Link said, "I'm not asking you to come with me on this. In fact, when we get there, I'd rather you wait somewhere safe while I'm in there."

"So, you intend to fight all of them alone," Sheila said.

"It'd be better that way," Link said, "I'm more used to fighting on my own. Just trust me, when I really get going, it would take one hell of an obstacle to stop me. Why do you think Midna usually stays out of my way when the fighting starts? She knows from experience."

"It's not that I doubt your ability, Link," Sheila said, "It's the fact that wizard-"

A twig snapped nearby. Link shushed her and reached for his sword. As his hand closed around the grip, he heard someone call out. "It's all right, it's Zelda!"

The princess came into view from behind the trees to the right of the path they were on.

"Oh, thank the gods," Sheila said, "They didn't get you."

"Is Midna with you?" Link asked, hope suddenly flaring within him.

"No," Zelda said, "That wizard took her."

And that hope was dashed against the rocks.

"How did you find us?" Sheila asked.

"Well, that's thanks to her," Zelda said, pointing her thumb over her shoulder.

Link looked behind her. A figure appeared. She was dressed for camouflage, her cloak and clothing colors that helped to blend her in with the autumn colors of the forest. And the way she walked was very light-footed. Link, who possessed better than average hearing, along with his other senses, couldn't hear her feet when they reached the ground in her steps. He did note that the way she placed them was a manner that gently pushed all twigs, any fallen dry leaves, or other things that would make noise aside to step down on soft, quiet earth. It was somewhat interesting to watch, started as a true walking step and ending with more of a shuffling slide.

He noted a hip quiver by her right hand, filled with arrows, a long knife, about six inches in length on the left side of her belt, and a longbow she carried in her left hand. Then he noted the other two weapons she carried. They were easy to miss, due to the sheathes being sewn directly into her leggings along the sides of her thighs. The handles of the weapons pointed outward, however, perpendicular to her legs. Elbow blades, he believed they were called, though he had no idea if that was the proper name. The odd design of the handle would allow the blades to be held backward, along the forearm , the tips reaching just past the wielder's elbows, and easily spun about to extend the reach about the same length of a short sword. It was a very rare weapon back in Hyrule, and it was the first set Link had ever seen himself.

As the woman pushed back her hood, Link heard Sheila give sharp gasp when she saw her features. Zelda evidently didn't notice, and went on. "Her name is Silviana," Zelda said, "She says she's a forest ranger. She literally carried me out of the fight."

"Thanks for saving her," Link said, "My name is Link, and this is Sheila."

It was still a somewhat shocking contrast to Link, to see such opposite features on a person. Skin black as coal, and hair white as snow. In fact, his sense was actively trying to tell him that such a combination was impossible, at least, not unless the subject was a very old individual whose hair had turned white in latter years.

Silviana turned to Sheila, her eyes clearly checking the length of the elf's body, then back to Link to do the same. She was not trying to hide that she was sizing them up. "What's with that weird outfit?" she asked him at last, "I've wanted to ask for a while."

"That can wait for later," Link said, "Do you know where the group that attacked us went?"

Silviana looked at him for a moment, saying nothing. "You're going the right way," she then said, "They headed south to the temple of nature."

"Good," Link said, "At least one thing is going right in this mess."

He turned back to the path. "Come on, I want to get there before the sun sets completely."

"Stop! Desist!" Silviana suddenly shouted, and bounded in front of Link, putting her free hand up in front of his face, "Halten sie ihr farfegnugan!"

Link stopped, and for a moment, all he could do was stare. "What the hell did you just say?" he asked.

"I have no idea," Silviana replied, "Anyway, you're not in any condition to fight them right now."

"What do you mean?"

Silviana stepped closer to him, standing on her toes to whisper almost directly into his ear. "You can't draw your sword, can you?"

Link felt as though he'd been struck by lightning. "How did you...?"

"I saw it," she whispered, "You'd have had it drawn before Zelda had even called out to you, but it was fast in the scabbard."

Link couldn't think of anything to say, mainly because she was absolutely correct. When he'd grabbed the sword and pulled, the blade had been fast.

_She knows nothing,_ the voice in his head suddenly stated, _The blade is simply jammed in the sheathe. You can work it out later._

"Think for a moment," Silviana whispered to him, placing her hand against his chest over his heart, "For what reason are you going to the temple? Don't lie, because you'll only be hurting yourself. Why do you walk into known danger?"

That was easy. To kill every one of those bastards who took Midna.

Wait, that was it, Link realized. He was allowing his anger, his hatred to be his guiding force. The Master Sword could see into the hearts of men. It would not allow him to draw it for such a deed as he intended.

No, it wasn't the deed it denied. It was the reason.

_You're fooling yourself, Link. They took her from you. They deserve to be punished._

Link took a deep, calming breath. He had to save Midna. Nothing was more important than that. For a moment, he thought back to what he had been told before, back in Hyrule, by his unlikeliest teacher, and yet his most important one as well.

The skeletal figure who had appeared in near surreal visions, sometimes clad in the form of a golden wolf. The words that mattered the most to Link right now surfaced from the memory with ease, as if he was hearing them spoken at that very moment.

"_The way of the warrior is not about death,_" the skeletal figure said, "_But rather, life. Though a warrior learns to kill, he does so only so that others do not have to. A true warrior fights to defend those who cannot defend themselves. Once steel is drawn, and life hangs in the balance, no mercy may be shown, because the warrior defends his own life as well. If anyone even attempts to take the life of another person for no reason, they forfeit the right to their own. Intent and deed are the same. If a would-be murderer is caught moments before the deed occurs, he is just as guilty as if he had succeeded in the crime. But it is to save the life of the would-be victim that the murderer must be punished, not merely because the crime was committed. That is the best I can explain this lesson, young one. Remember: Hatred is not an emotion that is inherently evil. It is a part of human nature. But hatred must never be a part of the dark work a warrior must do. When one fights with demons, one must look to it that he himself does not become a demon._"

_I think I'm finally starting to understand that,_ Link thought.

He steeled himself. "My one and only reason," he said out loud, "is to save Midna from those people."

He reached up and gripped the hilt of the Master Sword and pulled. It slid easily out of the scabbard with its unique metallic ring.

"That's better," Silviana said.

"What was that about?" Zelda asked Sheila in a low voice.

"You'd have to ask them," Sheila said, "I'm lost."

_Very well,_ the voice in Link's head said, _Have this small victory of yours. It changes nothing of what you must do. You see, the Triforce's power is based off emotions, Link. At this point, you are continuing to hold onto the wrong ones._

"Now," Link said, "We need to get moving."

"Follow me," Silviana said, turning and walking off the animal trail almost directly into the brush, "This trail winds about. I will show you a more direct route."

* * *

In the city of Tyr, the people were ending their daily activities as the sun sank below the western horizon. The judge, along with the Archmage and High Priest, had left the city an hour before by carriage. It would take about four days at the swift pace they traveled to reach Darimar.

Had they left but a short time later, they may have seen the lone rider moving toward the city from the west. One of the watchmen on the wall saw his silhouette against the last rays of the sun and ordered the west gate to be left open a short time longer.

But the rider stopped a ways out, just out of range of bow-shot. When the watchman shielded his eyes against the glare from the sun, he saw the rider dismount. A cold breeze suddenly stirred, causing him to shiver.

The figure in the distance had raised his arms above his head. Was he trying to signal something?

The watchman realized suddenly that it _was_ getting colder. He could see his breath in the air, and he would swear icicles were rapidly appearing from roof awnings.

Then, a strange disembodied voice could be heard. It was distant, yet it seemed to come from all directions. "_Agir nagate tralemi du manteok…_" it said, "_Let the flame of life be extinguished, and the cold embrace of death fall over the living…_"

The watchman shivered. Something was very very wrong. He told one of the others to go sound the alarm. Something was happening. The second watchman never made it to the alarm bell to ring it.

"_Glacieer!_" said the voice on the wind.

The watchman had about three seconds in which he saw the ice form on the wall before him and begin to spread rapidly across the stone before he was frozen solid, and the ice continued to spread, rapidly covering the entire city in a gleaming mirror of death. In but a few moments, the living of the city of Tyr passed quietly from the world.

Khall stood in the field, holding the reigns of his horse for a few moments as he gazed at his grim work. "Oh, queen of Tyr," he said at last, "Rejoice, for your people shall sleep peacefully forever in a beautiful glacier of ice. A far more graceful fate than the rest of the kingdoms of Mystara shall meet."

The sun vanished behind the western horizon. In a single day, two of the five kingdoms had fallen, never to recover.

"The hands are dealt, and the path is set," Khall said, "Now there truly is no going back."


	40. Chapter 39

**Chapter 39: ****The Nightmarish Sadistic Maniac****: Zivlyn**

"That's the place?" Link asked.

He, Sheila, Zelda, and the dark elf ranger named Silviana crouched in the shadows at the edge of the clearing a short distance away from the temple. The moon shone down, nearly full, providing enough light to show that the temple, while it had been previously much larger, was in a terrible state of disrepair. Vines had overgrown the walls, and it seemed the entire western wing had collapsed upon itself.

"That is where you will find your friend," Silviana said.

Silviana had several times left the path she was taking them on, returning a few minutes later to report signs of their quarry had passed through the area, and just before the sun set, she had returned in a change of clothes. She had traded the orange cloak and clothing that allowed blending with the autumn foliage for similar ones of dark gray color to allow her to better blend with the shadows of night.

When Link asked her why she did not simply wear black, she had told him that when a person's eyes were properly adjusted to darkness, a black outfit gave the wearer a sharp edged, clearly identifiable silhouette, while gray tended to blur the edges. Unless someone knew where to look and what they were looking for, such a "blurring" of the silhouette made it very easy for the seeker to miss them.

"There are twenty-four of the ninja left," Silviana said, "in addition to the wizard and the woman with him."

"Twenty-four," Link said, checking to make sure his sword was free in its scabbard, and he breathed a sigh of relief when it slid easily out, "Okay. Zelda, Sheila, I want you to stay here until I get back."

"You really intend to fight them all alone," Sheila said. It wasn't a question, but a statement.

"Link," Zelda said, "I assume you have a plan?"

"I'm still working on that part."

Silviana pulled something from beneath her cloak and handed it to him. When Link unfolded it, he found a dark gray cloak like the one she was wearing. When he turned to her, she smiled. "They may be warriors of the shadows, but they can see in them no better than we can."

Link instantly grasped what she had in mind. "Why don't we just see if I can sneak in there and nick Midna without a fight at all?"

"I wasn't aware you were trained in such maneuvers," Zelda said.

"I can move silently if I wish," Link said as he pulled the cloak over his shoulders and fastened it around his neck. It would make getting to his sword and shield difficult, but if he needed them, the cloak would be worthless anyway. His knife was still within easy reach on his belt, though.

"Leave your boots here," Silviana said, "You wear hard-soled boots that will make too much noise. You're better off bare-foot."

_She doesn't miss a trick, does she?_ Link thought as he sat down to remove his boots, _First the sword, now the boots…_

"Link," Sheila whispered to him as she knelt down close so the others wouldn't hear, "Why are you so readily trusting this woman?"

Link glanced at Sheila, then at Silviana, who was moving away from them now, skirting the edge of the clearing to the right. It was eerie how silently she moved. "I suppose because of her eyes," Link said.

"Her eyes?"

"When she looked me in the eye earlier, and told me something I needed desperately to hear, I saw something in hers," he said, "It was like, and almost child-like curiosity combined with wisdom beyond anything I've seen in one as young as her."

"Link," Sheila said, "She could very well be older than your great-grandfather."

Link looked at her out of the corner of his eye, then almost laughed. "Right," he said, "I keep forgetting. You're old enough to be my great-grandmother."

"A fair bit older than that," Sheila said, "But my point is, she's a Dra'thul. A dark elf. They are supposed to be extinct! Now, you're going to fight twenty-four of them on the advice of another, and there's likely hundreds more working with our enemy! Sorry, but that just doesn't sit well with me."

"And?" Link asked, "There are evil humans just as sure as there are good ones, so I wouldn't think a good dark elf is so hard to imagine."

"Link, in the ancient war, their entire race joined the evil wizards who tried to enslave mankind!"

"What Link is trying to say," Zelda said before he could respond, "is that for Hylians, like ourselves, it feels preposterous to judge someone by their race alone. Our country thrives because of the friendly relationship of the four races that make up our population. Well, three races, now that the Sheikah have died out.

"It sounds to me," she continued, "like the events of history created some bad blood with the Dra'thul, and may have caused the people of this land to fall to racism, even if they do not realize it. It's exactly the same how you yourself have said that nearly all elves are high-class nobles.

"Hyrule's people are brought closer together and thrive off the very diversity that seems to drive a wedge between races in Mystara."

Feeling outnumbered, Sheila put up her hands. "All right, sorry. If you both think we can trust her, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, at least."

Link sat his boots aside and got back on his feet, moving closer to the edge of the clearing. "Now, how to get it," he said to himself.

Silviana appeared from their left, as though she had appeared from thin air. "The main entrance is heavily guarded, with twelve of them watching," she said, "It is at the south end. The east gate has only three on watch, but it is a narrow doorway. Impossible to enter without being seen. However, there is a door in the ruins of the west side. It is half covered by wreckage, but the door itself is wooden and nearly rotted through. You can enter easily from there."

"How did you find those numbers without getting seen?" Link asked, almost not believing his ears.

"I seem to be better than them," she said matter-of-factly.

"Do you know where Midna is?" Link asked.

"I did not venture inside," she said.

"Damn. All right then, twelve and three make fifteen accounted for," Link said, "That likely means nine more somewhere inside, plus the wizard."

"That's another thing," Sheila said, "How exactly are you planning on killing him, if it comes to it? Don't forget, he recovered from physical injuries like they were nothing, and he was able to deflect my magic spell without uttering a spell himself, something I've never even heard of before."

"He's got to have a weakness," Link said, "Everything has a weakness. If all else fails," he added with a chuckle, "I'll just kick him in the jewels and run like hell."

"My arrow of light seemed to have some effect on him," Zelda suggested.

"How many do you have left?" Link asked.

Zelda checked her quiver. "Three."

"Hold on to them for yourselves, then," Link said, "Silviana, you stay here with them. I want you all to leave in a hurry if something shows up you don't think you can handle."

"We will vanish like smoke in the wind," Silviana said.

"Be careful, Link," Sheila said.

"I will," Link said, then started moving, running as quickly as he could in a half-crouch across the open clearing toward the north side of the temple.

"And remember, Link," Silviana's voice followed him, and he could barely hear, "There is a difference between hatred and justice."

"And just what's that supposed to mean?" Link whispered to himself as he reached the wall, and moved along it to the right, toward the west side.

As he checked around the corner, seeing no movement among the rubble and moving around toward it, the voice in his head returned once more. _It means nothing,_ it said, _Justice is hatred. Hatred of crime and evil. If a man murders an innocent person, and he is killed by someone who cared for that person, how is it different than if he were arrested, tried, and hanged? He is still hated and he is still dead._

"Ah, thought you'd turn up again soon," Link whispered as he moved into the western wing of the temple.

Rock walls still stood, and most of the rubble was overgrown with ivy and grass, giving it an almost surreal look of unnatural walls rising right out of the natural floor of the clearing. Link noticed the dried nature of the grass and ivy beneath his feet as they poked and prodded into his bare skin. You don't really notice how much you depend on good footwear until it is gone.

_You possess the element of surprise now, Link,_ the voice said, _If you listen to me, and strike quickly and soundly, you can have most of them dead before they even realize you are here._

Link found the door in the wall of the main temple Silviana had mentioned. The was a pile of large bricks and rocks blocking it about halfway up. Evidently that was a recent collapse. Like she had said though, the door was rotted through, and with a swift kick to what was visible above the rubble, Link broke it apart and slipped in the opening.

Link moved quickly to his left, up against the wall. It was very dark inside the temple, and though a small beam of moonlight shone in through the opening he had made, Link had to wait several moments for his eyes to adjust, and then he could only just barely make out the edge of the wall at a corner up ahead.

Link pulled the cloak tighter about himself so it wouldn't make noise as he moved and slipped down the hall, stopping at the corner. He leaned around the corner just enough to see, and spotted torchlight in the distance. He quickly pulled back and checked his vision. He hadn't been night-blinded.

The orange glow came into view, coming closer to where he was. "I think I heard it down this way," a voice said.

"I'll check this room here," said a second, "Go ahead and check the hall up ahead."

"Call if you find something," said the first.

"Right."

The orange glow came closer. Link could hear only one set of footsteps approaching. For some reason, he couldn't understand why the ninja were operating like typical guards. Why even the torch?

The footsteps drew closer. Link freed his arms from the cloak and inched back from the corner a bit. He decided to get some answers from this one.

As the footsteps approached the corner, just as the ninja stepped past the corner, Link struck, holding his hand flat and striking the edge into the ninja's throat. Any cry of pain was stifled by the blow, then before he could recover, Link reached out with both hands and grabbed both sides of the ninja's head and drug him around the corner and down, slamming him down on his chest before putting one knee on the ninja's back and his knife at the ninja's throat.

"Quiet now," Link said, using his empty hand to toss the torched down the hall toward the opening he had entered through.

"Are you all right?" called the other ninja from around the corner.

"Calm him down," Link whispered.

"Y…yeah!" the ninja under Link called, "Tripped over some rubble that looks like it fell from the roof. I'm fine."

"That might have been the noise you heard a minute ago," the other said.

"Maybe."

"Well, come on back when you're done nursing your stubbed toe. I won't be far."

The other's footsteps moved away.

"Kind of surprised you didn't put up more of a fight," Link said to the ninja beneath him.

"I'm not stupid when someone's holding a knife at my throat," the ninja said.

"Then you won't mind answering a few questions for me," Link said, "Where is Midna?"

"What?"

"The Twili!"

"Oh. In the main hall, with the altar," the ninja said.

_These are the actions of a coward!_ the voice in Link's head told him. He ignored it.

"How many guards between here and there?" Link asked.

"Myself and my partner, and four others," the ninja said, "Tharkus and Zivlyn are in the main hall with the Twili."

"Are they the wizard and the sadist?"

"That's them."

"Now, if I wanted to get into the main hall unseen, what would be the best route?"

"Are you going to kill them?" the ninja asked.

"If it comes to it," Link said, "Got a problem with that?"

"Quite the opposite," the ninja said, "We were getting ready to leave them here. Our master, Mur'neth, ordered a few days ago that the ninja scatter and leave the Lords of Chaos. If you don't mind, I'd rather not die for them right at the last minute."

"What are you suggesting?" Link asked.

"Well, let me go talk to my partner," the ninja said, "We'll let you in and go tell the others to let you pass. If you can kill Tharkus and Zivlyn, more power to you."

_He's lying!_ the voice said, _He wants you to lower your guard and lead you into a trap!_

"How can I trust you?" Link asked.

"You and your friends killed six of us in seconds," the ninja said, "I could ask you the same thing."

Link thought about that a moment. _Call me crazy,_ he thought, _but I actually think these guys aren't my enemies._

"All right," he said aloud, "I'm going to let you up. Try anything and you'll be dead before your body hits the floor."

* * *

"Let me out of this thing, so I can paint the walls with your innards," Midna said.

"I've no doubt you would, if you could," Tharkus said, standing over her, "But I'm afraid things aren't so simple as that."

He had placed her, still securely wrapped in the enchanted net, atop the alter to the god of nature. The alter was shaped like an open book atop a stone pedestal about waste high, before and engraving on the wall in the shape of a great stag. Two braziers on either side, as well as eight torches on the walls provided enough light to the room to see clearly.

Tharkus didn't know exactly how well the net would function in pitch darkness, and he had no desire to test it. The Twili's magic increased exponentially in power when in the darkness and at night, and he had no doubt she could wreak havoc to the ninja and to Zivlyn.

"I was just coming to let you know that Link is in the building with us," Tharkus said.

A smile appeared on Midna's face. "And he's going to kill you."

"He tried before and failed," Tharkus said, "Remember? Oh, wait, the net blinds you. Sorry about that. An unexpected side effect, truly. I'm afraid Link has no means of killing me. I came to offer you one more chance to take my terms.

"Give us the last fragment of the Twilight Mirror, and I will release you and we will leave Link be. There need not be any death or fighting tonight. Link won't die if you give it to me."

"Go to hell."

"Yes," Tharkus said, "You do have a way with words, I see. Let me explain something to you. The Twilight Mirror is not essential to our plans. It doesn't even change our timeframe in the end. It just makes the release of the seal less of a hassle. One way or another, Shaklator will come into this world. There is no stopping that, even if the mirror is destroyed and you manage to kill every last one of us. The goddess will visit these lands once more.

"Link has officially become expendable in the big picture," Tharkus continued, "If he lives, maybe sometime down the road, he will find a way to restore the seal and win. But if you don't give us the fragment of the mirror, he will die tonight."

Midna chuckled. "Now, oh mighty wizard," she said, "Let me tell you something about Link. You can't stop him. No matter what you put in front of him, he'll find a way past it, around it, or straight through it. No matter what challenge is put before him, he always rises to the occasion. You may think you're too much for him, or are immortal, or whatever. Go right on thinking that until you find yourself dead by his hand. I suppose, much like your goddess, he can't be stopped.

"I wonder, what will truly happen when your unkillable self collides with the unstoppable hero?"

"Tharkus!" Zivlyn called from the door at the far end of the hall, "The ninja are gone!"

Tharkus turned to her. "They have betrayed us," he said, "I thought they would. Link will be here very soon. You know what to do."

Zivlyn nodded, then smiled. "I'm going to enjoy this."

There was a crash in the distance. Zivlyn turned toward the door, backing up to put some distance between it and herself. When she glanced back at Tharkus, he was gone. She truly was to have Link all to herself.

The double-doors that were the only entrance to the hall suddenly crashed open. Link stood in the opening, Master Sword in his left hand, his shield on his right arm, and a gray cloak fluttering to the floor behind him, detached just seconds before he'd kicked open the door. "Where's Midna?" he demanded.

Zivlyn gestured to the alter behind her. "Right there, hero."

"If you've so much as scratched her," Link growled, "I'll feed you your own limbs."

_That's it,_ the voice said to him, _Feed your rage! This woman took her from you! Now, unleash your anger! Let her feel the full force of your hatred!_

Link tried to keep himself calm, but he had a difficult time, seeing Midna there, helpless, and this woman, this defilement of humanity standing between them. Fire was building in his chest, screaming to be unleashed.

"Link!" Midna called to him, "Watch out for the wizard!"

Link couldn't see anyone else in the room. Zivlyn smiled. "You're all mine," she said, "Now, let's see what kind of hero you really are!"

She unbuckled the clasp of her blue cloak and threw it off her shoulders. For a moment, Link stared in astonishment. "Holy shit," he said in utter disbelief.

Every inch of Zivlyn's body was covered with knives. Belts and belts and belts wound over and around her body, and rows upon rows of sheathed blades covered her as well as any armor could have, across her chest, arms, and legs. Link couldn't help but think that all those knives had to weigh more than she did.

Then her hand moved, and something flashed past Link's face. He ducked to the side, but was too slow. The thrown knife thunked into the wooden door behind him, and he felt a warm trickle of blood run down his cheek.

"One thing I've wondered for a while," Zivlyn said, pulling a second knife from somewhere, rolling it across her fingers, "A cut like I just gave you is, by itself, harmless. It would be difficult to even see the scar when it heals. The question is, just how many such cuts can a person endure, before it kills him? How long before it finally adds up and the person bleeds to death?"

"You're not going to find out today," Link said, and charged her.

She threw another knife, but Link lifted his shield and the knife glanced off it to the right. She was almost in reach. He swung the sword to the right, arming for her chest. She stepped back quickly, the blade whistling past her with inches to spare. Link swung back, and she spun to the side, pulling another knife from somewhere and swiping upward at his face.

Link leaned his head back, and the blade missed his flesh, but clipped off the ends of his bangs. Reversing his momentum, he slammed his shield straight forward into her chest. The blow knocked the wind from her lungs and forced her back a step. Link swung his sword in a wide arc to the right, this time lower toward her waist. She moved back, and then went down. Zivlyn bend backward, her knees bending and her torso going lower and lower. The sword passed over her stomach as her hands hit the ground behind her, and before Link could change the direction of his swing, her feet left the floor as she somersaulted backward, and her right foot struck him in the chin on the way up. Link backed up, trying to get his guard back up.

Even as her feet landed back on the ground and her torso came back up, she grabbed two more knives and let them fly toward him. One glanced off his shield, the other cut into his left sleeve and into his flesh below his chain mail before flying past him to clatter into the stone wall. It was another minor, harmless cut.

"That's two," Zivlyn said, "How many more?"

_She's mocking you,_ the voice said, _Stop holding back! Unleash your wrath! Let her feel the full force of your rage!_

"Shut up!" Link said, then moved in on her again.

Zivlyn drew another knife and met his charge, swinging high at his face with her right hand. Link ducked, catching her completely off guard as he dropped to the floor, spinning and putting out his right leg to rip both of hers out from under her. She hit the floor hard as Link came back to his feet and swung downward with his sword.

Suddenly, she sprung upward, but not in the expected manner. She rose onto her hands and swung her legs toward Link, catching him off guard and clamped her angles around his neck. Then she twisted her body about, and Link's head was wrenched to the side and he was tossed through the air, flipping over before hitting the stone floor on his back.

_Dexterous little chit, isn't she?_ the voice said.

Link got to his feet quickly, but she was already on top of him, a knife in each hand. Two slashes she made, and two more cuts Link received, one on his right bicep, and the other on his left leg, just above the knee.

"Four!" Zivlyn counted as she danced out of his reach.

Link really was getting angry. Lives were on the line this very moment, and this woman was smiling, mocking him. He was trying to save a life and this was nothing but a game to her. How many people had she killed before with that same smile on her face?

The Triforce on the back of his hand was burning hot.

He charged her again. She danced to the side, just out of his reach. To stay out of hers, Link kept moving. He found the side wall of the room, and turned back to her. She threw another knife. Link ducked to the side and ran along the wall. Knives clattered off the stone behind him as she threw the blades rapid-fire.

Suddenly, he dove away from the wall in a roll, coming to his feet just within reach, and swung for her again. She went low, swinging out one leg to strike for his. Link continued his spin, lifting up his right leg over her sweeping kick and spun completely about. As Zivlyn came back to her feet, he lifted his leg higher and completed his spin with a hard roundhouse kick to her head. Zivlyn went down, face-first onto the stone floor.

"Thank you, Alex," Link whispered as he stepped back a pace.

Zivlyn didn't rise. Apparently the impact on the stone floor had knocked her cold.

Link turned to the altar where Midna lay.

Suddenly, Zivlyn shot up, once again defying normality by her feet rising up in the air as she lifted herself into a handstand, and Link found himself with her thighs locked securely on either side of his head. Looking down, he could see her glaring up at him past a broken nose, her teeth clenched in fury. She twisted sideways again, and released her grip on Link as she did so, sending him into a spinning flip to hit the floor with his shoulders first, and his sword when spinning across the floor.

He first thought that his neck had to be broken, but when his limbs responded as he got to his knees, he discounted that. Before he could get to his feet, Zivlyn hit him with both of hers, squarely in the chest, slamming him back onto his back and cracking his head against the stone floor. His vision was filled with stars, but he was aware of the weight on his chest. She was standing on him. He grabbed both her ankles and turned sideways, pulling with everything he had and slammed her down into the floor.

He rolled away and tried to get to his feet. He'd lost his shield somewhere in the struggle. His vision was slowly returning. He could make out his surroundings, but they were still quite blurry. The green blur that he knew was Zivlyn's hair suddenly appeared before him, running toward him. He saw the glint of the blade just in time, catching the hand with the knife in his left hand. He lifted her arm up and turned his back to her, pulling her arm over his right shoulder, and wrenched downward.

Her elbow popped loudly, and she screamed in pain as the knife clattered to the floor. Not stopping there, Link slammed his left elbow back into her stomach, knocking the wind from her, then shot his fist upward to hit her with the back of his knuckles to her face. She staggered back.

Link turned about. He was beginning to see clearly again. Zivlyn suddenly dropped to a knee and put her right hand against the ground and pushed her shoulder downward. With another loud pop, and another scream of pain from her, she forced her elbow back in place. She stood up, gritting her teeth and growling as she flexed it. The pain of moving it had to be excruciating, but it was functional again.

She drew two knives and ran for him. "Die die die!" she screamed, her eyes filled with fury.

Link waited until she was nearly on top of him, then dropped backward, his back hitting the floor and his feet hitting her stomach, and using her own momentum, carried her over himself and tossed her through the air to slam into the wall before dropping to the stone floor, where she lay still.

Link watched her for a moment. She still didn't rise. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank the gods," he whispered.

"Link?" Midna called, "Is it over?"

"It's over," he said, rising to his feet.

His body ached, making its protest to getting tossed around like that known. He spotted his shield near his feet and reached down to pick it up. Suddenly, he heard footsteps.

He spun and saw Zivlyn. She had rushed to the altar. She had a knife in her hand, held high above the helpless Midna. Midna screamed his name. The knife started to descend.

The world exploded around Link. Zivlyn's hand was moving in slow motion. Link was there in an instant, and he caught her wrist in his hand and wrenched it at a ninety degree angle from her arm, the bone snapped loudly as she cried out in pain and the knife fell to the floor. She looked up at him, and in an instant, her rage was gone, her face filled with fear when she saw the golden glow filling his eyes and the triangle on his hand glowing so brightly she had to squint to see it.

His hand clamped around her throat, his face contorted in fury, and slammed her back into the image of the stage on the wall, stone shattering backward and falling into the hallway beyond, leaving a great hole from the vicious impact. He spun and hurled her across the room to crash into the wall at the opposite end, the impact causing the bricks to slide back, but not collapse as the first had done. Before she had fallen to the floor, he was on top of her again, grabbing her by her shirt with one hand and swinging her above his head with a roar of fury and slamming her directly into the floor with such a force that shook the room. Without releasing his grip, he picked her up and hurled her to the side, and she crashed directly through the stone wall, her body and numerous bricks landing in the hallway beyond.

"Link!"

He turned to the voice. It was Midna. She had managed to free her head from the net that held her by removing her mask. Now, Link saw her looking directly at him. In an instant, the fury that had just consumed him was gone. The gold glow faded from his eyes and the Triforce on his hand cooled.

He looked down at his hands. They were shaking, and covered in blood. It wasn't the first time they'd been covered in blood, yet this time was different than any before. He'd unleashed the power within himself, and used it to take the life of another in the most grisly fashion he'd ever done or seen.

_And you did it all on your own this time,_ the voice in his head said, _without any help from me. You have done very well, Link. Very well indeed. Quite a rush, isn't it?_

Link felt like he was about to faint.

An odd sound, like stone grating on stone suddenly pierced the silence.

"Link, the floor!" Midna shouted.

The stones beneath Link's feet began to sink. He started running for the altar, for Midna. The stones fell away behind him, right behind his heels. He scooped her off the altar, and rand for the Master Sword where it lay. The action of picking it up, however, slowed him too much. The floor gave way beneath him, and they both fell into the darkness beneath.

* * *

Tharkus smiled, cutting off the image in the crystal ball before slipping it into a pocket inside his robe. He'd seen the entire fight. Link had unleashed the Triforce, just as Tharkus had hoped. Now he was positive it functioned off emotions. If he could get Ganondorf to unleash it in the same way, it would undo another lock of the seal binding Shaklator.

"And there is a perfect way of doing so," he said to himself, "Send Kilishandra to kill him. He will either use it to save her, or when he is forced to kill her, his fury toward us should unleash it in full. And if neither of those occur, well, then she will kill him and he will be out of the way."

But, Tharkus knew that every time Ganondorf cast a spell, he tapped into the Triforce he possessed. Perhaps he could actually only use a scant portion of its power in that manner.

He stepped from the room he had hidden in and walked back toward the altar chamber. He hadn't been able to retrieve the mirror fragment, but it mattered not. Just one last thing to check on before he departed.

The collapse of the floor had been confined to the altar chamber. Tharkus wondered just how much open space there was beneath the temple. He stopped when he found Zivlyn's body.

She suddenly coughed, blood pouring from her mouth onto the floor. Incredibly, she was still alive! She was lying on her side, her back to him, and seemed unaware of his presence. Her body was covered with bruises, blood, and many of her remaining knives had been forced through their sheaths and into her own flesh. Nearly every bone in her body had to be broken.

One of her hands still seemed usable, and started to fish weakly for something down the front of her shirt. "I have to tell Khall what happened," she whispered, "while I still can."

She found what her fingers quested for and drew it from her shirt. It was a green sound stone on the end of a cord around her neck. Before she could activate it, Tharkus stepped over her body and planted his foot on the wrist holding it. She cried out in pain.

"Now you see, I have a slight problem with you telling Khall what happened here," Tharkus said, and bent down to take the stone from her fingers and give a pull, snapped the cord free from her neck.

"What?" she said, "That means… You lied to me! Khall didn't give permission to kill Link, did he?!"

Tharkus stepped away from her, releasing her wrist as he did so. "You managed to get Link to unleash the power he possesses, while I was watching and able to take measure of it. You've been a very useful pawn, Zivlyn. You did exactly what I needed you to."

He turned and started walking away. "Damn you," Zivlyn called after him, "You won't get away with this!"

Without looking back, he called to her. "I already have."

Zivlyn, with her one fuctioning arm, pushed herself up and put her back up against the wall. She coughed again, more blood pouring onto her chest. At least one of her broken ribs had pierced a lung. What remained of her strength was going fast. "No light," she whispered, "They always said there'd be a light…"

She was suddenly gripped in fear as it was more and more difficult to take a breath, and her vision was fading rapidly. "Mommy?" she said in an almost childlike fear, "I can't see you… Where are you…"

Her head rolled to the side and her heart finally stopped beating, and she passed to the world of the dead.


	41. Chapter 40

**Chapter 40: "You are alone."**

Ganondorf lay on the floor of his cell, his head resting on his hands, his eyes closed. A small opening near the bottom of the cell door slid open and a bowel filled with some kind of beef stew and a hunk of bread was slid in. The opening shut and was locked and footsteps started away.

He was bored. Ganondorf knew he was getting restless. His strength had returned, and his wounds were at last fully recovered. He didn't understand what caused it, but while he could recover from most injuries in a matter of hours, or even more quickly if he concentrated his magics on healing, an injury from the Master Sword was not only lasting, it was tenacious.

He could easily break out of this mundane prison if he wanted. He had crossed far more difficult barriers in the past. But then he'd have the task of hunting down Link himself, along with killing everyone they sent to recapture him. It would be more of a pain than it was worth, really.

He suddenly sat up, gasping at the sensation that suddenly gripped his body. The Triforce on his right hand was burning hot, and he could feel the enormous energy that spiked some distance away. This time was even greater than the first, and closer. It was the familiar energy of the Triforce of Courage, he was sure. And carried with the sensation of pure, blinding rage.

Like the first time, it didn't last long. The sensation faded, along with the feeling of rage and the burning sensation of the Triforce of Power. In fact, it was less than a minute, he was sure. But to Link, it probably felt like an eternity. One's first experiences with true power had a tendency to do that.

"I wonder," he said, sitting up and leaning against the wall of the cell, "What could have set him off like that?"

He could locate Link the same way he had Zelda before, through the Triforce, but he could not influence Link's mind the same way he had hers. The youth was possessed of an incredible force of will, and even when his body was exhausted, battered, and broken, that will could drive him onward.

It reminded Ganondorf of himself.

The fact that he was still alive today was a testament to his unrelenting will. After four millennia of life, he still hadn't fallen to what the philosophers debated was the greatest peril to such a lifespan: Losing interest in living.

It was because he'd yet to accomplish the challenge he'd set before himself. The one challenge he'd taken up and yet to defeat was the conquest of Hyrule. Each time he had fallen short. And each time, he'd returned even stronger and more intent of his goal. After he finally succeeded, well, who knows? Maybe he would lose interest in living. More likely, he'd find something else to draw his interest.

He'd never thought about what would come after Hyrule until relatively recently. Before he'd met them, it had been all he'd ever thought about. And now, he thought of the future, and even as he did so, his thoughts drifted to the past.

He thought the memories had faded long ago, that he'd never return to them again, but they had flared up in his mind's eye, as clear as the day it had happened. The raiders had come out of the desert, raising their banners high, declaring they'd never bow to the child, the boy who would become king based on nothing but the fact he was the only male.

And the fire. He remembered that very well. Everything he had known had gone up in flames. The houses, the stores, even the people. Screaming and death everywhere, the stench of burning flesh filling the air.

Then, a woman on a horse black as night appeared before him. Her rough and scarred features gazing on him with nothing but contempt. In one hand, she clutched a chipped scimitar, the horse's reigns in the other. She lifted the blade, and struck him down. Through the pain, and the blood in his eyes, he'd seen her turn and ride away.

He was sure he was dead.

Then they had come. The witches from the desert. They saved him, healed him. Taught him the black arts of destructive magic like the lands of Hyrule had not seen in thousands of years. Trained him to be merciless, absolutely ruthless. From them he had learned his destiny: To claim the Triforce, and become a god on earth.

His first step in that long journey was to kill the scarred bitch. It had been a fitting test for his new power. There was very little left beyond ashes when he was done with her. Then, he had taken control of the tribe of Gerudo who had once followed her, and fulfilled the first phase of his destiny by united all the tribes under his rule. Some by force, some by diplomacy, it mattered only that they followed him.

To the Gerudo, he was what he was meant to be, and expected their lives to return to normalcy. But he was far from done. He turned his gaze to Hyrule, and the precious power hidden away there. While he had been busy with the tribes of Gerudo, another conflict had been occurring in those lands. The Hylian king had been conducting a similar campaign, uniting the races of the land. Some of them had not gone peacefully. And now the king was turning his gaze to the desert people as well, and Ganondorf knew he could play this to his advantage.

Under the guise of entering Hyrule to discuss plans for an allegiance, to prevent war, he used his access to the royal library to learn more about the Triforce and the Temple of Time. When he discovered he could not access it himself, he knew that he would have to create a clever trap. By sowing chaos and fear throughout the land, he had tricked the princess and the young boy into opening the gateway for him. They had done so to try and stop him, and played right into his hands.

Things didn't go quite so well after that, he'd admit, but he was still here, and that alone had to say something.

"I wonder," he whispered to himself, "Is this finally going to be it? The ending of my fight? A great final battle, where at last my opponent wields the Triforce of Courage to its fullest potential, and I must use everything I have to fight him?"

A great climatic ending to the saga of Ganondorf, the King of the Gerudo and the most powerful man alive? "If I lose, I'm dead," he said, "And if I win, what then? If the past four thousand years have been leading up to this…"

It would make more sense to simply blast his way out of the prison now, hunt Link down and kill him before he could learn to fully utilize the Triforce he possessed, and yet…

Something tugged at Ganondorf. A feeling, both strange and familiar. It was uncertainty. Like he'd always felt when he came for Hyrule, and like he'd felt for the past thousand years since he'd been cast through the Twilight Mirror, and found that the Triforce he possessed had no power in other worlds. He'd still possessed his immense strength and healing abilities, as well as his ageless existence. They were permanent effects on his body from his initial uses to the Triforce of Power. Even if it was taken from him, he would still possess them. And his control of the forces of magic was nothing to be scoffed at, even without the Triforce's aid.

But he had felt uncertain and vulnerable. And it had been exhilarating. It felt exhilarating now, too.

Ganondorf knew the gods existed. He possessed proof of that within his own body. He wasn't so certain about the concept of fate. It was easy to believe that his actions had been guided to this point, that he was chosen to be the great villain of legendary proportions. To always try and always fail to take that ultimate goal that was Hyrule.

He slowly climbed to his feet and turned his gaze to the roof of his cell. Then he shouted, as loud as he could, just to make sure the gods heard him. "To hell with fate and to hell with you!" he shouted, "When this is over, and Link lies broken at my feet, I'll be coming for you next! You hear me?!"

It wasn't about Hyrule or conquest anymore. It was about the challenge. It was about victory. He'd waited four thousand years for this, the greatest battle of his life. He could certainly wait another few weeks.

It was the very same reason he had engineered such a grand scheme with Zant as his pawn to take Hyrule. Then he had wanted to draw Link out, and to, in effect, train him. He had wanted to fight Link at his best. It would have meant nothing had he simply went to Ordon and killed him while he was still helpless.

But he was not willing to wait indefinitely. After all, he was quite certain that Khall was here, along with Kilishandra and Tharkus. They were greatly overstepping their bounds, and he had to sort them out.

"One chance, Link," Ganondorf said, "That's all you get. If you aren't ready when we next meet…"

* * *

"Link, are you all right?"

"Let's see. Both arms are still attached. That's a good start. Let me get to my feet, yep, they're both still there, too. I'm good."

"Very funny. Can you cut me loose?"

Link couldn't see a thing. It was pitch black. He wasn't quite sure how far they'd fallen, but he was reasonably sure it was into a natural underground cave, considering a short way down he'd hit a slope and slid the rest of the way down.

"Where are you?" he asked into the dark.

"About four feet behind you," Midna said, "Just follow my voice."

Yeah, now he was getting his bearings again. At first he'd been talking to her echo. He turned around and moved toward her, leaning down and feeling with his hands until he found the net that held her and her fur beneath the ropes.

"How did this little thing even hold you?" he asked, "It feels like it's made of string!"

"I don't know," she said, "I couldn't use my magic, and it blinded me until I got my head out. It's got to be enchanted somehow."

"All right, hold still," Link said, drawing his knife and slipping it under the net.

The blade cut through it easily. Either the enchantment didn't go into durability, or it was likely that whatever magic it had had already been spent. Link cut two more strands, then sheathed his knife and pulled on the opening with both hands. It parted easily.

"Okay," Midna said, "Let me get my mask out of it and back on."

A second later the thin net dropped to the stone floor. "You see the Master Sword?" Link asked, "We can't leave it here."

"Um, yes," Midna said, "Turn around, about six paces. Blade is pointed this way, so watch your hands."

Link found it and returned it to its sheath. His hand had found something else as he had searched for the hilt. "Oh, the altar!" Link said, "I'd almost forgotten about the spell fragment! Is it on it?"

"Let's see," Midna said, her voice moving closer, "Yes, there's red lettering here, just like the others. Looks like the altar itself isn't damaged."

"No getting it back up the slope," Link said, thinking to himself, "These caves have to come out somewhere. Guess I'll just have to drag the damn thing out."

"Let's see," Midna said, "There's only one passage out of here, and it seems pretty narrow. Uh oh."

"What's 'uh oh?'" Link asked, "I don't like 'uh oh' when I can't see."

"Well, the passage here heads upward, so it might get us out, but the right side opens up into a drop-off, and the ledge is very narrow. You'd have a hard time just going up it, let alone dragging the altar."

"Well, can't you carry the altar, then?" Link asked, "That magic space of yours?"

"It's too heavy," she said, "Sorry."

"Dammit," Link said, "If I could see it and made a judgement…"

"I thought you worked rather well in the dark," Midna said.

"Fighting in the dark is one thing," Link said, "My opponents make sounds as they move, and even as they breathe. And sometimes I can even smell them. Trying to navigate a tiny ledge in the dark is quite another thing entirely."

He had moved toward the passage, keeping his left hand on the wall and feeling carefully with one foot before taking a step. He found the drop-off she had mentioned. The ledge was about six inches wide, and probably got narrower further up.

"Maybe see how far it goes, then come back for the altar," Link said to himself, "But then if part gives way, we won't get back."

"Link," Midna started.

"If it's about what happened up there, can it wait until we get out of here?" Link asked.

"Not that," she said, "I was going to make a suggestion. I don't think I could guide your every step, but I think I can help."

"How's that?" Link asked.

"Well, what if I could help you see in the dark? It won't be as good as my vision, but you will be able to see considerably better than any human."

He turned toward her. "How would that work?"

"Well, let me explain," she said, "You know the green designs on my body?"

"Your tattoos," Link said, "What about them?"

"Well, you know that some of them are magical, basic protection spells and such, meant to keep me safe, though we both know how well they work sometimes," she said, "There is one design I know that is actually used to restore sight to the blind. It is never as good as natural vision, but more than enough to live with."

"I see where you're going with this," Link said, "Since I'm essentially blind in the dark compared to you?"

"That's a less polite way of putting it, yes," Midna said, "and if we should become separated again, you would still have it."

"Will it affect my vision in daylight?"

"I don't believe so."

"One way or another, it's permanent, right?" Link asked.

"Yes."

Oh, goody, a decision that could make my life so much easier, yet there was no going back from if it doesn't work.

"Where exactly would this tattoo go?" Link asked.

"Around your right eye," Midna said, "and if you're worried about your looks, I can make it a few shades darker than any of mine."

_She's trying to help,_ Link thought, _She probably feels guilty about not being able to help me with the fight. You know her. She wouldn't do something she thought would hurt you. Or blind you._

"I suppose it's worth a try," he said, "If it doesn't work, at least I haven't lost anything."

"All right," Midna said, "Sit down,"

Link sank to the floor of the cave, putting his back to the wall. A moment later, he felt Midna's small weight land on his lap and she put one hand on his right shoulder. "Now, you need to hold still," she said, "This is going to sting a bit. You can close your eyes if you want."

Link felt one of her small fingers touch his face, just below his right eyebrow. Then the stinging started. If felt like a bee sting, but in that location, it was about a dozen times worse. And it spread as Midna slowly drug her finger along his brow to the right side of his eye, then down and around beneath it and back up between his eye and his nose to connect with the starting point. Then, with the inner outline finished, she started the outer line by placing her finger about half an inch down his right cheek, then moved in the opposite direction back around to the right and up toward his brow, the outline wavering in shapes before moving back across his brow, above his eyebrow and then back down along his nose to connect the lines.

Then she took two fingers and laid them against his skin, and a warm sensation spread across his skin and she slowly moved her hand back across the marking in the original direction, filling in the inner color with the energy that would fuel the spell and give the tattoo its color.

"Okay, this last part is going to hurt the most," she said, "Are you ready?"

"Yeah."

Midna tapped his flesh within the tattoo four times, once above the eye, once below, and once on either side. Every time felt like someone was jabbing a needle directly into his face. After the fourth time, though, a sudden flare of warmth from the area she had colored welled up, and the pain quickly subsided, then the warmth died away. The lingering sensation of her touch tingled, but he felt no different than he had before.

"Open your eyes, Link."

Link did so. "I still don't see anything."

"Give it just a moment," she said, "It usually takes a few seconds."

Link waited, and then realized he was seeing something. At first he thought it was his mind playing tricks, but then it was becoming clearer. It would have been very difficult to describe. He wasn't able to see like one would in light, but he realized he could see the shape of Minda's head and mask before him, and they were highlighted by a faint green outline that slowly grew brighter. He turned to look into the cave and could see the same faint green glow along the curves and cracks of the walls, and the pebbles and gravel on the floor, along with the bricks of the temple floor that had fallen with them.

He turned back to Midna. His vision was getting even clearer, as the green outlines highlighted the features of her face and the markings of her mask.

"Is it working?" she asked.

"Better than I hoped," he said, a slow smile appearing on his face, "I can't see color, but I can make out shapes perfectly."

"That sounds right," she said, lifting up off his lap into the air.

Link stood up and looked out toward the ledge. Yes, he could see it now, the way it wound slowly upward. It wasn't steep, but once again, dragging the altar up it would be very difficult, and if he didn't fall attempting to do so, he'd probably drop it into the depths below. Link looked down the drop-off. It was very deep, and he couldn't see the bottom.

About twenty feet up the ledge, though, Link could see an area where it widened considerably. If they could get the altar up there…

"You have some rope, don't you?" Link asked suddenly.

"Well, yes," Midna said, "We packed some before we even left Hyrule."

"Bring it out," Link said, "I've got an idea."

Once he had the rope, Link went to the altar and drug it over near the ledge before standing it up in the passage. The top of the altar was shaped like an open book. Exquisitely detailed carving, and with the narrow base, it made it easy to loop the rope around the base and the top several times in different directions and around the base itself multiple times for a secure hold.

"Okay," Link said, then handed the remaining coils to Midna, "Fly up to that ledge with this, uncoiling it as you go. I'll be there in a minute for the other part of this deal."

Midna did so as Link put his stomach to the rock wall so his sword wouldn't drag and he could get what grip he could on the uneven rock, and he inched up the narrow ledge to the wider segment. It didn't take him long to get up to the wider section, where he took the rope from Midna.

"Link, this is very dangerous," Midna said, "If you drop it…"

"I know," Link said, taking the loose end of the rope and wrapping it twice around his left elbow and the palm of his hand, "That's why I won't drop it."

Once he was sure his grip was secure, Link pulled and tipped the altar off the edge of the drop-off. When the weight hit the rope, Link slid closer to the edge of the ledge, the rock floor biting into his bare feet, and the altar swung like a great pendulum beneath them, back and forth. Link secured his footing and waited for the altar's momentum to die. The altar had to weigh close to one hundred pounds, maybe one-ten.

Once its swinging slowed, Link started hauling it up, hand over hand. Compared to wrestling Gorons, this was nothing. And Link was once again proving the difference between muscle built for work, like his, and muscle built for show, like deliberate bodybuilders, or career wrestlers. He was much stronger than he looked.

In a moment, he had the altar up on the ledge. The path further up was wider, but a short distance away became much steeper. Link drug the altar to the base of the steep path. He was going to have to climb up and drag it up after he was at the top.

Midna had retreated into his shadow. For some reason, he felt much more comfortable with just her around than with the group they'd been traveling with lately. It was because he was used to it. He didn't like such a number of people depending on him to survive.

Though the path was steep, it wasn't even, giving him plenty of handholds and footholds. Unfortunately, as he came closer to the top, it looked like it was simply going to dead end. He reached up to feel the ceiling. It was damp, and when he pushed, it gave a little. He found a crack in the rock and slipped his fingers in and pulled, and a small part came free, clattering down the slope and a small amount of damp earth spilling onto him.

"I just found our way out," he said, and started pulling more rocks away from the ceiling.

* * *

"He's been in there a long time," Sheila said.

"Be patient," Zelda said as they watched the temple from across the clearing, "Link will be fine, I'm sure."

"I wish I had your confidence," Sheila said, "But I suppose being a first hand witness to him saving your entire kingdom does that to you."

"It's not just that," Zelda said, "Haven't you noticed? Link has a remarkable ability to accomplish what most men could not."

"I'm not sure I follow," Sheila said.

"Then let me say it another way," Zelda said, "Link will succeed, no matter what task he sets himself to. He doesn't know how to give up. Remember that mansion we stopped at that one night?"

Sheila remembered that quite well. One doesn't forget a malevolent spirit trying to take their flesh so that it may live again. "Even if Ganondorf hadn't, for whatever reason, come to save Link on the spiritual plain," Zelda said, "I'm sure Link would have found some way to defeat the creature."

Now that she thought about it, Sheila realized Link did carry an odd presence with him. It was subtle, and one might not notice it, but whenever he was around, she felt more confident about things. She felt safer. She'd once been told that was what love felt like, but she was quite sure she did not have such feelings for Link. She hardly knew him, after all. No, what he felt for Midna, and what she returned for him, that was love, even if they weren't willing to admit it, even to themselves.

"The ninja are gone," came a voice above them, nearly making Sheila leap out of her skin.

They looked up to see the ranger, Silviana, sitting on a branch of a tree above them. "The dark elves scattered into the forest. They are moving fast, and don't look like they'll return any time soon."

"Did Link drive them out?" Zelda asked.

"No," Silviana said, "At least, not with violence. Most were uninjured. One had a bruise on his throat caused by a barehanded strike, but was otherwise unhurt."

"You know," Sheila said, "You scare me."

Silviana simply smiled.

"Any sign of Link and Midna?" Zelda asked.

"Not yet," Silviana said, "Best you relax. They have to come out the door like everyone else."

Suddenly, a short distance away, earth flew into the air. Sheila and Zelda leaped to their feet, Sheila called into her mind a lightning spell while Zelda readied her bow and one of the remaining light arrows.

A human hand was visible, rising right out of the ground, nearly to the elbow. It grabbed a handful of grass and pulled, a mound appearing in the earth next to it. The mound rose up, more and more, dirt and grass sliding down the sides. A second hand appeared on the other side of the mound, clutching a rope in a fist. The hand pushed down onto the ground for more leverage and the mount rose more, now nearly a foot high. Then, the mound broke apart as the grass roots running through it finally snapped, and a human face appeared through the dirt.

"Link!" Zelda said, lowering her bow.

"I stand corrected," Silviana said.

They rushed to him as he pulled himself from the earth. Zelda and Sheila each took one of his arms and helped pull him free of the earth.

"What happened?" Sheila asked.

"Didn't like the floor in the temple, so I trashed it," he said as he dusted himself off, "Wound up in some natural caves beneath it."

"And Midna?" Sheila asked.

Midna appeared from his shadow. "I'm fine."

"What did you do to your eye?" Zelda asked, looking at his face.

"Haven't seen it myself, yet," Link said, "Does it make me look fierce?"

Silviana appeared from the side. She glanced at the new tattoo. "I like it," she said.

"Now, give me just a second," Link said, and started hauling on the rope trailing down the hole he had made in his exit from the cave.

In a moment, he had the altar out of the cave and on solid ground. "Okay, Sheila," he said, "Time to do your thing."

Sheila knelt down next to the altar and examined the red lettering wrapping around the base. "Incredible," she said, "What exactly happened in there?"

"I'll tell you later," Link said, drawing the Master Sword and laying it across the top of the altar.

"Okay, give me just a minute and I'll transfer this writing over," Sheila said.

While she readied for the casting of the spell, with Zelda standing close and Silviana crowding in for her own curiosity, Link moved back to the line of trees and sat down, putting his back against the trunk of one.

Midna hovered close by him. "How's your sight?" she asked, "Nothing wrong, I hope?"

"Perfect," Link said, "Seems that when there's enough light, everything goes back to normal."

"That's good," Midna said, "I was pretty sure nothing bad would happen."

Link yawned. "I think we'll have to camp here, tonight," Link said, "Using the Triforce really takes it out of you."

"At least you didn't pass out on the spot this time," Midna said.

"Yeah," Link said, not really paying attention as he watched the other three at the altar.

Sheila pushed the other two back. "Give me some room," she said, then turned back to the altar, standing about a foot away from it.

"_Yon wandering soul, lost and alone,_" she incanted, her voice bearing the same depth and force of any spell incantation, but softer and lacking the haunting echo, "_Return to where thou belong, upon this vessel._"

Light appeared at Sheila's fingertips and spread across the altar and sword. The red lettering upon the altar glowed brightly, and the lettering along the blade of the Master Sword responded. The lettering suddenly lifted itself from the surface of the altar, the individual letters floating gently up into the air, then drifting down to the blade of the Master Sword, laying gently against the flat of the blade. Then with a sudden bright flash, the light was gone.

Sheila lifted the Master Sword from the altar and turned it over. Once more, the lettering had duplicated on both sides of the blade, and now covered about two thirds of the blade, starting at the hilt and working toward the tip.

"That's three," Zelda said, "We're half-way home."

Sheila turned to Link, to return the sword, then stopped. "Well, would you look at that," she said.

Link had fallen asleep leaning against the tree.

* * *

Later that night, after they had prepared the camp and set up a small fire with the aid of Silviana, Zelda slept while Sheila was on watch, and Silviana had disappeared into the forest once more.

Midna, unable to sleep, turned to look at Link where he lay, after they had moved him off the tree and into a more comfortable position on the ground. The fact that he had not woken when they had done so worried her. Link had the ability to wake from a sound sleep quickly and quietly from even the slightest provocation. It was an ability one had to develop when traveling the road and constantly in danger, such as from the monsters that had roamed Hyrule the previous year, when they had journeyed together.

Though the monsters were gone from Hyrule, Link had never truly lost that ability, and it had reasserted itself recently.

As she watched him lay there, she realized his teeth were clenched, and he suddenly growled, grabbing a fistful of the blanket in a tight grip. A single bead of sweat appeared and ran across his forehead.

_A nightmare again,_ she thought, and then moved closer, _At this rate, he won't get any rest. I know I promised him I wouldn't do it again, but…_

She stopped just by his side. _But I want to see these nightmares, see what this woman speaking to him is saying for myself._

Careful not to jostle him, she moved up close to his side. She allowed a thin trickle of her magic to seep from her into him. She had to be careful. Too much and it could hurt him. The strand of magic found its way to his subconscious, and Midna felt herself drift from her own consciousness as she was pulled into his.

And she found herself standing in the middle of a wide, grassy plain. She looked down at herself, and felt a surge of excitement to find she was herself again, a woman, her smooth blue skin decorated with the pale green tattoos of her people.

Of course, this was natural, considering it was her spirit that had entered this place, not her body, and it would always reflect her true self, regardless of anything else. A crippled man entering such a place as this would be able to walk again with ease.

But then her attention turned to the environment. She was in a grassy plain, true enough, but the grass was a deep red in color, as though it were stained with blood. She looked up at the sky to see it was a dark purple, with thick black clouds that sparked jolts of red lightning between themselves as they rolled across the sky.

Where was Link? He had to be here somewhere…

Midna turned to look behind herself, and there she saw him. He was standing with his back to her, and he was facing a woman who seemed to come right out of the darkest nightmares Midna could imagine.

The woman was absurdly tall, towering a good four feet over Link, with deep red hair the color of blood, and was wearing a suit of armor like none Midna had ever seen. From the shoulders, elbows, and knees protruded long spear-like spikes, and the fingers of the gauntlets were lined along the top with rows of small serrated blades, which would cause a punch to shred the flesh of the receiver like a saw. The armor itself was red in color, but it was uneven, turning darker and lighter across it, as though the color had been splashed on haphazardly. The darkest areas by far were the gauntlets and the protruding knee and elbow spikes.

And her eyes…

Inky black pools with no irises or whites, looking into them was like being lost in darkness, yet there was no question where her gaze was focused, on Link. He was arguing with her.

"All you've bothered to show me is how to destroy with it!" Link was saying, "I want to use it to return Midna to normal! You will teach me that, right now, or I'm going to call it off and figure out how to do it on my own!"

"Link, you are jumping to conclusions," the woman said, "The transformation on your friend may have been done through Zant, but it was Ganondorf who did it. He has had four thousand years to learn how to use the Triforce of Power. Unless you are willing to devote a similar amount of time, you need my help."

"I've got a better idea," Link said, raising a finger to her face, "I find Ganondorf, beat him within an inch of his life, and make him turn her back! I've beaten him before, and I can do it again!"

"You're allowing your emotions to drive you," the woman said, "This is necessary to first make use of the Triforce, but to realize its greatest potential, you must maintain absolute calm. You have to put your emotions aside to focus on what you must do."

She leaned down closer to Link. "Do you understand? Emotions like happiness, pity, remorse, and love simply get in the way. If you want to help Midna, you have to let her go. Your devotion to her helped you tonight, but in the end, it will be the chain that prevents you from realizing the power needed to free her."

The woman stood up straight again. "It's not like she understands what you are going through, anyway. Think about it, Link. All the people of Hyrule. They cheered you when you saved them, when you were a hero, but when you tried to go back to your old life, they looked upon you with suspicion. Some even with fear. Heroes aren't meant to be tilling a field or milking goats, and your actions puzzle them. You were supposed to go off, leave Hyrule and seek more adventure, more heroic deeds, like all the other heroes of Hyrule before you.

"How long would it be before Midna shares their sentiments? She knows better than anyone what kind of power you possess, yet she knows next to nothing of what it means. In saving her, you will learn to utilize that power, but you will become something that even she will fear. Even she will abandon you.

"In the end, Link, you are the same as I. You are alone."

"So it's true then," Link said, "Just like I thought, you're that woman. The one who was alive when Darius was, who had the Master Sword during the ancient war."

"That's right," the woman said, "I was the first one to ever wield that sword, and was the first mortal carrier of the Triforce of Courage. They expected me to single-handedly end the war. I did. But in doing so, I unleashed my fullest potential, and became something they feared. They betrayed me in the end. Everything I knew and loved was taken from me, and I was sentenced to die.

"I was truly alone."

"Why your interest in me?" Link asked.

"Because I see in you much of what I was," she said, "I see in you the same potential, the same hopes and desires, all doomed to be smashed by mass fear and hysteria. Just like me, you are alone in the world. If you listen to me, Link, learn from my mistakes, you will be ready when they come. You will be able to survive them. Then you can rule them, destroy them, enslave them, whatever you desire. And then," she added with a grim smile, "Midna can truly be yours, along with any other women you desire. Then you will no longer be alone."

"Shut up!" Link shouted, "That is nothing I want! I don't want power, I don't want to rule anything, and above all else, I would never take Midna, or any other woman, against her will. How many times must I tell you? Maybe you were once like me, but time has obviously taken a terrible toll on your mind. I am nothing like you, and I think it's time we put this to rest. Leave me and never return!"

The woman threw her head back and laughed. "You think it's that easy, do you? You can't force me from your mind that easily, Link! 'Oh, I don't like you anymore. Go away!' It would make more sense if you tried to kill me, and that would actually be less effectual her."

She leaned down closer to him again. "I will give you some time to think about this, but no matter what you decide, you are alone, you will always be alone."

Midna started walking toward them. She had heard enough.

"Hey, blood whore!" she shouted, as she conjured a black ball of shadow energy in her right hand.

Both of them turned to her, at last realizing she was there.

"No matter what you try to convince Link of," she said, lifting the ball of energy and cocking her arm back to throw it, "he isn't alone, because he's got me, and I will never turn my back on him."

She hurled the dark ball of energy. It twisted through the air, trailing black sparks, to strike the woman directly in the chest. Black lightning arced from the globe, wrapping around the woman's body like many writhing snakes. Link backed away from her.

A moment later, the magic faded, and the woman seemed to be completely unfazed. The woman lifted one finger, pointing at Midna. "She is the chain that holds you back, Link," she said, "So long as you try to hold on to her, you will never realize what you are truly capable of."

Midna moved up on Link's right side. She took his arm in hers. "You said that one already," she said, "Don't you have anything else?"

Link smiled. "Yeah, you are getting kind of old. Maybe you ought to run off to wherever you came from and try to come up with some new material."

The woman's glare was dark. "You will be lost without me, Link."

Link politely suggested she go do something anatomically improbable.

"So be it!" she growled at him, "But there will come a time in the near future when you will regret not taking my aid. That one," she pointed a finger at Midna, "will die by the hand of your enemy, and there will be nothing you can do but helplessly watch."

Then she was gone. There was no fading, no puffs of smoke or explosions. She as simply there and then utterly gone.

In the same instant, the environment around Link and Midna changed. The grass became green, the sky turned a proper blue, and the black clouds vanished from the sky.

It was startling to see thing change so quickly and utterly.

"Link," Midna started to say, but then she found herself with Link's arms around her, pulling her against his chest.

"Thank you," Link whispered.

Midna couldn't help but smile, wrapping her arms around him and leaning her head down on his shoulder, and bask in his warmth and closeness.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I know I promised not to use this magic again."

"It's okay," he said, "I think that she was trying to make me into the same thing she became. If you hadn't come along when you did, I might have started listening to her again."

"About what she said, though…"

"What about it?"

Midna pushed Link back a small way so she could look him in the eye. "I want you to know that what she said about me was a lie. No matter what happens, no matter what kind of power you gain or what you become, if you do use the Triforce, I want you to know that I am not, nor will ever be afraid of you."

She pulled him close again. "Because I know," she continued, "that regardless of anything else, you would never hurt me."

They stood there in silence for a few moments, holding each other. Nothing more needed to be said. But Link did finally break the silence. "What she said about you dying," he said.

"I don't believe her," Midna said.

"It doesn't matter who this enemy is," Link said, "If it does come about, I don't care if it's Ganondorf, Khall, or the legions of Hell itself, I won't let it happen. I will save you. I promise."

Midna knew about Link's promises. He didn't make them if he didn't intend to keep them. Nothing short of his own death would stop him, or circumstances entirely beyond his control. He had promised Ilia he would not allow anything to happen to her or the people of Ordon, but there was nothing he could have done to stop the Silencing.

If she was going to die, she might as well at least finally tell him.

"Link," she started to say.

"I know," he said, holding her all the tighter.

He had known exactly what she was going to say.

"It won't last," she whispered.

"I know," he said, "But we've got some time yet. We'll figure something out."


	42. Chapter 41

Mur'neth's sword, officially named in this chapter, I decided to just make up a word with no real meaning for the name that at least _sounded_ Japanese-esque. Originally, I was going to call it the "Lame de Lune," which is French for "Moon Blade," but when I put it in the text, it sounded stupid.

**Chapter 41: Demons in the Night**

Tharkus arrived back at the citadel just as the sun was rising the following morning. Khall was not back yet, so he counted his blessing he did not have to deal with him at present and returned to his laboratory.

With time to spare like this, he decided to check up on his latest test subjects, half a world away. He removed his crystal ball from the inner pocket of his robe and placed it on the velvet cushion on the table near the center of the lab. Focusing his attention on the ball and trickling a bit of magic in it, images appeared within, landscapes flying by faster than one could follow before slowing to a stop on the group moving through the fringes of the forest near the southern end of Hyrule. It was Mur'neth and the five ninja with him. They were just about to reach Ordon. It was nearly time.

* * *

As the sun rose on the morning after the world shaking events of the previous day, on the other side of the world, in the silent country of Hyrule, it sank beneath the horizon, darkening the eerily quiet landscape.

The group of six dark elf ninja had at last arrived at the village of Ordon. Mur'neth knew travel spells were highly inaccurate without a beacon to focus on, but the fact they had landed in a cave near the top of Death Mountain, as the locals called it, was a bit extreme. It made him sweat to think what it would have been like if they had landed just another few feet to left, inside the cave wall.

Once they'd managed to ascertain their location, they had moved steadily south for two days to reach the farming community of Ordon.

They'd stopped to rest only once, and then they'd only caught snatches of sleep. To walk across the landscape, all the creatures and plants like statues, and not even a slight breeze in the air, it was the stuff of nightmares. It was as if the entire world had just suddenly died.

And Mur'neth had a crawling sensation along his spine from the first night onward, a feeling like they were being watched.

And now, to see the village before them, and know that they were nearly done here, it was an intense relief to see the haphazardly spread buildings around the stream that connected to the larger river that flowed south near the village. Though Mur'neth did not know it, the river continued south through the forest before reaching the waterfall which fell over what used to be Zora's Domain, in the old Hyrule, before the time of the great flood.

The forest grew thick on the north and east sides of the village, and seemingly endless on the south side. Even in the silence and knowing there was nothing alive around them, Mur'neth's eyes kept darting to the shadows of the trees, a malevolent feeling pervading from the petrified wood and making him sweat. Khall had warned him to stay on the path and out of the forest as much as possible, as its magic might remain even through the silent curst that now ruled the land.

The Lost Woods, it was called. It had once been a relatively small area on the eastern side of the old Hyrule, but had now overgrown the old territory entirely and bordered the new Hyrule on the south-eastern areas. Khall had warned him to keep to the path because those who lost their way in the forest were never seen again.

A full moon was high in the night sky over Orden, not a single cloud obscuring its light. They had more than enough light to work by, and more than Mur'neth preferred. As his ninja began moving through the village, checking the statues that had once been people looking for the one that matched the description Khall had given them, a girl with short hair in her late teens to early twenties, about five foot two inches tall. It was unlikely they'd need that much, of course, because from what Mur'neth could see, most of the people in the village were either at least in their thirties or later or naught but children.

He'd just be happy when they found her so they could get out of here.

An odd shadow on the roof of one of the houses caught his eye. When he looked closer, it was gone. Mur'neth knew well enough not to trust it to be trick of his eyes. His feeling that they were being watched just became a certainty. There was something alive here, and it had been following them, out of their sight since the first night.

He smiled slightly. They were very good indeed if they could stay hidden from his sight for so long. He motioned to one of the ninja to pay attention, then gestured only slightly toward the roof of the house and pointed at his own eyes. The ninja nodded, understanding the signal. Quickly and quietly, he slipped into the shadow to one side of the house and disappeared from sight, moving around back. A moment later, he leaned slightly around the corner on the other side of the house and shook his head, indicating he hadn't found anything.

Without moving too quickly, to avoid giving away that he knew, Mur'neth turned about, letting his eyes scan the other buildings. There was one built directly into the truck of a great tree to one side of the village. As his gaze passed it, there was a sudden thump. A single leaf of stone had dislodged from one of the branches and hit the ground.

The noise was like an explosion in the silence. All the ninja reached immediately for their weapons, turning about, searching for the unseen enemy.

Silence once again settled across them.

_Whoever they are, they're very good,_ Mur'neth thought.

Finally, they broke cover. One leaped from the branches of the great tree through the air, intending to land on a rooftop across the stream. For one brief instant, the figure was perfectly silhouetted against the full moon.

_That thing,_ Mur'neth thought, _isn't human._

Before his brain could fully process what he had seen in the unusually shaped figure, a sword blade suddenly burst through the wooden door of the building just to his side, causing him to move away in a leap as the door creaked and came crashing down in a shower of splinters.

Framed in the doorway was a creature that by all means should not exist. Its T shaped body was thin and seemed very frail, and just below each elbow its arms became curved blades that glinted in the moonlight. Its feet were clawed and carved deep gouges in the fallen door as it stepped across it.

Its face was predominated by a single eye the size of a human fist set in a head that seemed to be completely without flesh to cover the bone. It had no nose or mouth or ears, and the black flesh of its body below the neck seemed to ebb and flow like water, making it difficult to tell exactly where it began and ended.

Mur'neth drew his sword, its white blade clearly visible even in the dark night. There was a sudden cry to the side. Mur'neth glanced to his right to see one of the ninja lifted off the ground by the blade-arm of a second of the creatures piercing his back and protruding from his chest. Then he spotted three more on the rooftops rising up from their crouched positions.

"Defend yourselves!" Mur'neth shouted as the creature before him lunged at him.

He turned the swing of its right arm with his sword and quickly stepped left, out of reach of its other arm. The clash of steel rang out as the others joined the battle against the other creatures.

As the creature turned to follow his movement, Mur'neth swung his blade quickly back to the right, striking the creature just under the bare skull and cleaved its head from its shoulders. The body and head hit the ground with a thump. "Not to quick, are you?" Mur'neth asked it as he turned to the battle.

In fact, none of them were very quick. And he ninja were far more skilled. One had both the arms off one of the creatures and then removed its head with his third stroke. Another caught both the swinging arms of one with his blade held horizontally, and with a kick to the stomach he drove the creature back a step, then leaped after it and struck his blade into its shoulder, cleaving it from neck to crotch. It toppled t the ground in two nearly perfect halves.

A sound behind him turned Mur'neth's attention to the body of the one he had killed. It must simply be twitching. With a shock, he realized that the head had reattached itself, and the creature rose upward from the ground in a grotesque fashion, simply floating up into the air onto its feet, its head hanging behind its shoulders as it did so. Once its feet were beneath it, it faced forward, the pupil of its massive eye dilating, then refocusing on him.

It lunged forward in the same manner as before. Mur'neth turned the swinging blade of its arm as before, stepping around to the left once again. _Apparently they don't learn, though,_ he thought as he brought his blade back to the right once more at its neck.

With a metallic ring, he realized that his blade had been stopped. The creature had lifted its right arm up just in time to stop his cutting stroke. _So they do learn,_ he thought.

Not missing a step, he fell back a pace, bringing his sword low and swung upward, cutting across the creature's middle, cutting its slim abdomen without encountering much actual resistance. As the creature's torso began to fall, Mur'neth drew his blade back, turned the cutting edge upward and stabbed it directly into the eye in the center of the creature's face, then pulled upward, cutting through the top of the skull and immediately reversed his swing, cutting down into the creature's left shoulder and cutting diagonally across its chest.

The creature hit the ground in three pieces, with its skull cleaved in twain. As Mur'neth watched, he saw the writhing black flesh begin to move, and pieces were literally crawling toward each other, then fastening back together.

He cast a glance to the others, and saw them coming to much the same realization as their opponents pulled themselves back together.

"Master Mur'neth!" one of the ninja called.

Mur'neth cut the head off his opponent once more before it had completed its otherworldly rise from the ground, and it flopped back to the dirt. "Get them up here!" Mur'neth said, pointing to a dirt road between two building where none of the petrified villagers were in the way, "Try to group them together!"

Understanding his intent, they turned about their opponents, and changed their tactics to force their opponents to back away, step by step. As Mur'neth's foe rose once more, he moved to strike it down again, but as he did so, it suddenly leaped away from him, flipping backward through the air, clear of his swing.

_They don't fall for the same move twice,_ Mur'neth thought, _The more we strike them down, the more difficult it will be._

As the ninja were also realizing as they forced their opponents up the road. They had been moving quickly at first, the creatures barely able to defend themselves at this sudden change of tactics, but now the creatures were fighting back with a fury, forcing the ninja to earn every inch they gained, and taking steps back every so often.

Mur'neth's creature ran for him, arms held wide as it ran in a half crouch toward him. He snatched a kunai from his belt and threw it to strike the creature directly in the eye. It flipped over backward and hit the dirt with enough force to send dust flying upward.

Mur'neth dashed to join the other ninja, hitting the creatures from behind. He cut the left shoulder from one with is first stroke, then with a spinning horizontal stroke cleaved the two to his right in half. One of the ninja caught the last one with an upward stroke that tore through its right shoulder and partway through its neck, leaving its head attached by only a scrap of flesh.

The ninja each quickly caught the creatures before they fell and heave them further up the rode, causing them to land in a great pile atop the fifth one before it had finished its rise.

"Out of the way," one of the ninja said to another, "Master Mur'neth is going to use the Kajetugan!"

Mur'neth held his sword, the Kajetugan, before himself, both hands gripping the hilt as he brought the blade close to his face, the flat of the blade nearly touching his nose. The Kajetugan was an artifact of the ancient world, long before recorded history, before the gods had descended to the world, the time when demons ruled over men.

In the common tongue, its name literally meant "Moon Blade." It drew its power from moonlight, and on the night of the full moon, like tonight, it was at it's most powerful. It had been created by the ancient people of stone to slay demons.

He had received it as a gift, a long time ago, from Kilishandra.

Mur'neth placed his heels together, standing perfectly straight and tall, and held his elbows at perfect square angles to his sides. He laid the blade gently against his forehead. "Blade, return these beasts to the abyss," he said, activating the enchantment of the weapon.

The blade rapidly grew hot, and he pulled it away from his face and, keeping both hands on the hilt, pulled it away to his right side, the tip pointed behind him, the cutting edge toward the ground.

The pile of the strange creatures was rising rapidly. Soon they would be back together.

The blade of the Kajetugan was beginning to glow, red light appearing along its edge, casting an eerie ambiance to the surrounding environment.

The first creature, the one Mur'neth had fought was on its feet. Its eye dilated, and then focused on the Shadow Blade as the others rose around it.

Mur'neth made his move. He swung the blade forward and upward, and a great arc of red light shot from the blade toward the creatures. A wall of light, ten feet tall carved through the night, sending rocks and dirt flying from around its base as it carved a trench nearly a foot deep in its wake.

The pupil of the creature dilated wide, nearly completely filling its massive eye.

The red light struck the group, and the ninja averted their gaze and shielded their eyes as an explosion of light filled the area and blinded them. A second later, it was gone.

Something hit the ground right in front of Mur'neth with a thump. He looked down. It was the head of the creature he had fought, the vertical cut in the top of its skull still visible.

More parts began landing all around the ninja as the pieces of the creatures rained down. Three of the ninja looked as though they were ready to burst out cheering. The other two saw the expression on Mur'neth's face and kept quiet as he watched some of the pieces before him.

A moment later, they started crawling across the dirt, the black flesh seeking out the rest of itself.

"We need to find the girl and get out of here before they pull themselves together," Mur'neth said.

"Over here, master," one of the ninja said, indicating an area near the center of the village, "I think I found her just before the fight started."

Mur'neth followed him to the indicated statue. Sure enough, it was a girl, and the only one in the village the proper age. He glanced back at the area the fight had occurred and saw the pieces of the creatures beginning to form into several piles that slowly rose up from the ground.

"Let's go," Mur'neth said, and pulled the pendant from the front of his shirt, "Everyone either put a hand on the statue or on each other."

They quickly did so. Khall had given him the pendant to return quickly. It contained a single charge travel spell, set to use the magic circle at the citadel as a beacon. Depending on how quickly Vargas had carried out his order to evacuate the place, they might have to vacate in a hurry once they arrived.

Mur'neth pulled the pendant off his neck, then grabbed the statue's arm with his free hand. He checked that everyone had a grip on something, then smashed the pendant against the statue's head. Blue light welled up around them. Mur'neth glanced to the creatures again, to see the one with the split head on its feet already. It ran and leaped for them.

They vanished just before it reached them, its bladed arm whistling through the air where they had been seconds ago.

* * *

Tharkus had a hard time shaking his disappointment.

The golems had performed splendidly, and even managed to remain hidden longer than he had expected. He had hoped the fight would go on longer before the ninja escaped, however. It would have given the golems more of an education.

And now they were out of reach for the time being. The golems could move much faster than any living thing at a full run, and by not requiring food or rest, they could travel endlessly. They could even cross the ocean by running along the sea floor.

Even at their full speed, though, it would take at least two weeks to get back to Mystara, or longer if they had to defend themselves along the way. Fortunately, Tharkus could simply give them the order and turn his attention to other things, not like other flesh golems that would require him to practically hold their hand the entire way.

But yes, the golems had performed marvelously. He would begin growing more immediately. He could have three times as many within the month, and by next spring, he could have as many as three hundred ready for combat. And he could even merge the memories of these five with the new ones, passing on the experience they had gained in battles before that time.

Oh, yes, these golems were certainly his masterpiece. Dousing the energy of the crystal ball, he turned and walked to the back wall of the laboratory and opened the secret door to the back room. The five massive jars the golems had been grown in were empty. Further to the back of the room was one other jar, filled with the growth formula, and housing within itself his other soon-to-be masterpiece.

The golem had grown nicely from the scrap Khall had brought back from the mountains. As he had expected, Tharkus found energy residue within its substance unlike anything he had found before. He had studied it as best he could, unfortunately, he did not know if his alterations to it would be truly effective until the golem was tested against Link or Ganondorf, using their Triforce to fight it. It was a problem that arose from the simple fact that he could not reproduce the type of energy himself.

It was not fully grown yet, however, and was roughly the size of a human as it floated within the fluid. It would grow to at least three times that size yet, and it would have to be removed from the jar for the later stages of growth, or it would simply become too big to be contained in the growth jar. Another week, maybe two just to be on the safe side.

Even if it did not work as he hoped, it was going to be the most deadly golem he had ever created, and he was developing the bond between himself and it already, hoping to advance it to a point that when he had the golem under his direct control, he would even be able to use his magic through it. Link and Ganon were both likely in for one hell of a surprise.

Tharkus smiled. Yes, he could wait a few more weeks. After all, he had all the time in the world. Let Khall rush things all he liked. It wouldn't stop the inevitable.

And then there was still Zero. Exactly what had happened to that creature, Tharkus didn't know, but he was not in his cell. Whatever Zero was up to, however, it would not be good for the defenders of Mystara. Or for the Hylian named Link.

* * *

Link sat on a fallen tree trunk near a small stream that trickled slowly southward out of the forest. He leaned over far enough to see his reflection in the water and looked at the tattoo on the right side of his face. It was a much darker green than the tattoos Midna wore, and while he had thought it felt simply like wavy lines as she had applied it, it was actually very sharp edged.

The edges moved in and out as they circled his eye, with small, decorative spikes at regular intervals, and a larger one on the top-right side, parallel to his eyebrow. It had a bit of a tribal look to it, excluding the green color.

_It's something she's given me that I will never lose,_ he thought.

And that dream… She had used that magic that allowed them to share the same dream once again, because she had wanted to see what he was experiencing. He had told her about them before, but never the whole truth of what that woman had been claiming and telling him.

"_You are alone_," she had said. And then Midna had stepped to his side and declared the opposite. "_Because he has me_," she said.

And in the end, they had simply stood there and held each other for what had seemed like an eternity.

And for some reason, now that he had told that woman to never show herself to him again, he felt like a great load was just taken from his shoulders. When he woke to the morning sun, he'd smiled, a true, easy smile for the first time in weeks. He took deep breath, breathing in the morning air, feeling rejuvenated.

Silviana had been kind enough to offer to show them a quick and easy path to the forest's southern edge. There was something about that ranger, Link realized. She rarely spoke, and when she did, it was always in a soft tone of voice, almost a whisper, but she was very perceptive and extremely intelligent. Not in the sense of a scientist or book learned intelligence, but the sense of one who has seen much of the world and soaked up every bit of experience she could and not forgotten a single detail.

She had asked them to wait in a small clearing while she checked the surrounding area and changed her gear. She had still been wearing the gray outfit and cloak she used at night for much of the morning, evidently confidant that they were safe. It made her easier to see coming and going, Link thought.

She had reported that the ninja had indeed departed, scattering in every direction, and they would later regroup at their destination, but they were all well on their way out of the forest.

Link glanced back at Zelda and Sheila. Sheila was resting with her back against a tree, laying in a ray of sunshine through a small opening in the canopy with her eyes closed, evidently dozing in the morning sun. Zelda was a bit more alert, watching the branches above them. Or she was thinking, but about what Link couldn't guess.

Midna had retreated to his shadow, as was her habit. Perhaps she simply felt safer there. And he was quite used to it by now. What she did in there, other than watch, was beyond his knowledge, however.

A movement caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He turned to see what it was and spied Silviana further up the stream. She had removed her cloak and as he watched, she pulled the gray tunic off over her head.

Her back was to him, and he looked away out of politeness, but then realizing what he had seen, he looked back. The dark elf's back was covered with scars, dozens if not hundreds, going in every direction. They were all somewhat faded, but looked to be deep enough they would never completely disappear. If Link had to guess, they looked like they were from some kind of whip.

She picked up an orange tunic from somewhere out of his sight, and as she slipped it on, he saw another mark, on her right arm just below her shoulder. Though he couldn't make out the exact shape from this distance, it looked like some kind of brand.

"She was a slave," he whispered to no one in particular, turning his gaze away so she wouldn't catch him watching.

The long sleeves of her tunics would hide the brand. Maybe that was one reason she wore them like that. No, Link corrected himself, that was foolish. Her clothing was camouflage, and had to cover as much of her body as possible. Her skin and hair would stand out like lit beacons among the leaves of trees as she moved through them if they were not adequately covered.

He looked back, to see she was gone.

Suddenly, she appeared in front of him as if she had just sprung up from the ground. Link's heart nearly leaped from his chest.

"Gods!" he exclaimed, "Can't you at least give some kind of warning before you do that?"

"Sorry," she said, "I'm not all that used to dealing with people. In fact, you're the first group I've spoken to in about two and a half centuries."

Two and a half…? It was a wonder she wasn't mad!

She cast a glance at Zelda and Sheila, who seemed to have not noticed her. "Listen, I have some questions for you," she said to Link, "and I'm not taking you any further until they are answered."

"What do you mean?" Link asked.

"That altar with the spell on it you brought out of the temple. What was that about?"

Link couldn't think of any reason why he couldn't tell her, so he explained about Hyrule, the petrification of all the living things within. She listened intently, never taking her eyes off him.

"So, you need all these fragments to complete the spell and save your friends and family?" Silviana asked.

"That's right," Link said, "That's the reason we're here to begin with."

"And those people who attacked you?"

"I think they're the ones who caused it," Link said.

"So, even if you were to save your kingdom, those people could possibly do it again?"

"Yes."

Silviana leaned back and thought for a moment. "And these people, they are enemies of the people in these lands as well?"

"Yes," Link said, "We think they're trying to unleash a demon created back during the ancient war that nearly wiped out civilization at that time before it was sealed away."

"You mean Shaklator," Silviana said.

"You know of her?" Link asked.

"Only the vaguest legends," Silviana said, "About how she appeared at the end of the war, and the wizard Darius used the Triforce and the Twilight Mirror to seal her away."

"The Twilight Mirror?" Link said, suddenly understanding. Midna had told him that the wizard had demanded she give up the Twilight Mirror fragment she possessed, but he had bragged that even if they didn't get it, it wouldn't even slow them down.

They really did intend to unleash that monster. "Do you know anything else about Shaklator?" Link asked, "About what actually happened? About how Darius used the Triforce to seal her away?"

Silviana shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. Only that it took only six days for Shaklator to destroy much of the civilization that was much mightier than what exists now. If she were to be released upon the modern world…"

"Nothing would survive," Link finished.

Well, that settled it. It would do no good to save Hyrule if Shaklator was released and there was nothing that could stop her. Khall and his allies would have to be stopped, even if every last one of them had to be killed to do so.

He rose to his feet, about to call to Zelda and Sheila that it was time to go when Silviana grabbed his wrist. He looked back down and she rose to her feet. "Link," she said, "I don't feel comfortable just sitting here by myself wondering if the world is going to end or not. Let me come with you. I'm a very skilled scout, and a good shot with a bow. I may be useful to you. I'll keep my hood up in populated areas to keep people from feeling uneasy about what I am."

Link smiled. "Okay. Khall's got plenty of help, so I'll take all I can get."

"Thank you, Link," she said, the paused a moment and smiled back at him, "You know, you and that woman with you, Zelda, and your other friend, Midna, are the only people I've ever met that aren't frightened or at least put off just by the color of my skin."

"Where we come from," Link said, "there's too much variety in shape and size to let something like skin color bother us. You'd fit right in there."

"Perhaps," she said.

Link called to Sheila and Zelda, telling them it was time to go. The march to the southern border of the forest resumed, and toward the kingdom of Nigel. With just two fragments to go, one in Darimar, and one in Metallicana, Link felt like the end of that journey was in sight.

Unfortunately, now that he was certain the Lords of Chaos would have the be brought down before it would end, it seemed there was still a very long road ahead.


	43. Chapter 42

**Chapter 42: An Unlikely Idea and an Unwelcome Guest**

"Master Mur'neth."

Mur'neth turned to the ninja returning to him. Once they had appeared in the courtyard of the citadel, in the center of the glowing pentagram in the stone, they'd immediately been startled by finding the body of a creature unlike anything he'd seen before, lying in a pool of black blood, its head about a foot from its neck.

The creature had dark red skin, and was massively barrel-chested, and had been dead for at least two days. The fact it had not been moved or even discovered did not surprise him, as most of the soldiers in the citadel, having little knowledge in the workings of magic, avoided this courtyard as much as they were able.

Upon their arrival with the petrified girl from the village, Mur'neth had immediately sent one of the ninja to find Vargas and bring him to speak to him. Now, that ninja returned with unsurprising news.

"Vargas and the others are already gone," the ninja said.

"Right, we need to go then," Mur'neth said to the other four, "Leave the statue here. Head for the passes and stay out of sight. We'll find the others at the meeting point."

With silent nods, the four ninja moved for the south doorway out of the courtyard.

"So, you did order it after all."

Mur'neth turned to the voice in time to see Tharkus enter the courtyard from the north door. He was walking with his hands tucked into the outside pockets of his robe and a smile on his face.

"What do you want?" Mur'neth asked.

"I was simply wondering why the ninja who were supposed to aid me simply disappeared," Tharkus said, "They vanished at quite a pivotal moment and Zivlyn is dead because of it."

Mur'neth chuckled. "Good riddance, I say."

"For once, I'm inclined to agree with you," Tharkus said with a dark smile, "Although, she did have her uses. It will be hard to find another as sadistic, evil, and genuinely amusing as her."

"Where is Kilishandra?"

Tharkus waved one hand dismissively. "Off at war. She has already destroyed Whitos-Neiki and now marches for Nigel."

"Destroyed?"

"Yes," Tharkus said, obviously taking a great deal of pleasure in his description, "It was wiped out. Maybe twenty survivors altogether."

"You lie!" Mur'neth said, anger entering his voice, "Kili would never do such a thing! Not even Ganon was that brutal!"

Tharkus walked slowly the side, circling Mur'neth as he stood just off the pentagram in the floor. "You don't seem to realize just what is at stake," he said, "I suppose you never really did."

Mur'neth turned his head to keep Tharkus in his sight as he moved, though his feet remained rooted to the spot. "You don't realize just how much Kilishandra has invested in this endeavor," Tharkus continued, "Ten years, Mur'neth. It has taken us ten years to come this far. If we falter now, if we allow our enemies to mount a defense, now, when we are so close to absolute victory, we will never get another chance, because they will recover and counter-attack and I guarantee that they will not allow any of us to survive.

"If you back out now, you will be betraying your own people."

The wizard circled behind Mur'neth. Mur'neth didn't turn to follow him, focusing instead on the wizard's footsteps on the stone, keeping in his mind's eye exactly where he was, should he suddenly make a threatening move.

"I have no people," Mur'neth said, "My ninja follow me because I am the greatest of them. But no one commands my loyalty."

"Ah, but then why have you even followed us this long?" Tharkus asked, "I think there is one person who does command, if not your loyalty, your heart."

"And what would you know of it, necromancer?" Mur'neth growled.

"And there was something else," Tharkus said, stopping behind Mur'neth. The ninja turned to see Tharkus standing directly in front of the southern doorway. "You followed Ganon," the wizard continued, "You all but led the attack on your own homeland. You barely knew Kilishandra better than her name at that time. Why did you follow such a man that you seem to hate so emphatically, that even to this day you desire to kill?

"Why follow the man you came to kill but were bested by," Tharkus continued with a dark gleam in his eye, "and then forced the ultimate indignity on you by not finishing you off? Of letting you live knowing you would be an outcast of your people, never to return to your homeland?"

Yes, Mur'neth remembered quite well. In his homeland, the Dra'thul were a people bound by honor and tradition. When Ganon's army began its march southward, taking city after city, bringing down kingdom after kingdom, he had volunteered to assassinate the man-demon. If he failed, he was bound never to return, whether that was accomplished through death, or exile.

Ganon had proven to be too much for the ninja. He had known Mur'neth was there before he struck the fatal blow, had spoken to him without even glancing in his direction, then forced the ninja out into the center of the camp, surrounded by the horde that followed the wizard, and toyed with him. He'd offered Mur'neth a chance in single combat, and yet Mur'neth seemed unable to even touch the wizard, while Ganon moved with uncanny swiftness for one so large, delivering barehanded blows to the ninja's head and torso, knocking the wind and senses from him, then letting him get to his feet, like it was all a game to him.

Then he'd scored the single blow that should have done it. He'd cleaved Ganon from his neck to his crotch, in two almost perfect halves, and the wizard had died. Or so it had seemed. The body had vanished, and Ganon had stepped out from the ranks of the soldiers watching the fight, to the amusement of said soldiers.

He'd stopped, standing over where Mur'neth sat on the ground, looking down at him, and suddenly smiled. Something had happened then; a feeling had washed over Mur'neth. A mix of fear and fascination of this man, this wizard, who had appeared as if from nowhere and seemed intent on ruling the world.

He'd joined Ganon then, and yes, he had led the wave of men that attacked his homeland from the east. To hell with tradition, he had come home with a vengeance. There was something about the wizard, something Mur'neth didn't quite understand, that made people want to follow him. It wasn't just that he was a charismatic leader, which he was, but something else.

He carried a strange feeling with him, a feeling that inspired his followers with confidence, made them follow him without question, almost to the point they'd charge blindly over a cliff if he ordered it so.

In the twenty years since he had last seen Ganon, Mur'neth had forgotten what that feeling felt like. He couldn't remember why he had followed Ganon into battle after battle. He knew it was there, but he couldn't feel it anymore.

It was one reason he wanted so desperately to meet Ganon again. He had to experience that feeling again, to understand why he had so blindly devoted himself to a cause that was never his own. Things would be different this time, though. He was forty years more experienced than last time, and he also had the Kajetugan, a weapon made for killing demons like Ganon. And there was Kili, who bore the Nail of the Accused. Only blood from Ganon's heart could break that curse. Mur'neth couldn't afford to fail this time.

"And yet why you followed him, in the end, is irrelevant," Tharkus said, interrupting his train of thought, "You know why we are here, ninja, you know the reasons for which Khall and Kilishandra cannot back down now. Are you truly in such a hurry to turn on them?"

He stopped speaking, allowing Mur'neth a few moments to think about this. "There's one thing," the ninja finally said, "that I don't quite get. What's in this for you? You're not the kind of person to fight for the sake of other people."

"For me?" Tharkus said, "That's quite simple. Revenge."

"Revenge?"

Tharkus smiled. If he'd had fangs, they'd be showing quite well right now. "Revenge upon the people of this world for what that wizard, Darius, did to me. To my family and myself."

Mur'neth took a step back. He could hardly believe his ears. "Wait, _Darius_? You can't mean that wizard from…"

"The ancient war, eight millennia ago," Tharkus finished, "Yes, that Darius."

"But that's impossible!" Mur'neth said, "No one lives that long!"

"There are magics that allow one to extend their own life," Tharkus said.

"By a few hundred years!" Mur'neth countered, "Not thousands! Not that kind of length!"

"Why don't you ask Darius," Tharkus said, a scowl deepening on his face, "After all, he's still alive, somewhere in this world. I've felt his presence more than once in my scryings."

"That's not possible," Mur'neth said, more to himself than Tharkus.

"Now, what do I do with you?" Tharkus asked, changing the subject, "Do I kill you now, on the off chance that you side with our enemy, or do I let you go, because I know that one way or another, you will fight Ganon. Either he will kill you, saving me the trouble, or you will kill him, removing a far larger thorn from our sides."

"I think I'm not waiting for this decision," Mur'neth said, pulling something from a back on the left side of his belt.

He threw what he had at the ground, and with a blinding flash, the small object detonated, flooding the area with light that forced Tharkus to shield his eyes with one hand. As soon as it had appeared, the light was gone, and when Tharkus vision cleared, Mur'neth was gone. Tharkus knew he had likely fled through the opposite doorway of the courtyard while he had been blinded by the flash bomb.

Tharkus chuckled to himself. Even if the ninja, by some bizarre event, joined with their enemies, it would make little difference. After all, he could still sic Kilishandra on Ganon, and even Link. For her, it was a simple matter of following their orders or dying. And like nearly everyone else in the world, in her heart, Kilishandra feared death more than she feared killing people she knew.

(placeholder)

Their weapons clashed together with such force that Zelda's arm was left stinging. She backed away, trying to put a little distance between them, but Link pressed his attack, moving forward with an overhead swing. Zelda brought her weapon up in time to stop the chop, but his incredible strength nearly knocked it from her hands.

She stepped quickly to the right, trying to turn her guard directly into a swing for his ribs. Link easily slid his sword to the side, stopping her and turning toward her and he struck her across the head with his right hand, causing her to stagger sideways. Zelda regained her balance, turning to face him just in time to see he had moved with her, and with one foot he swept both of hers out from under her. There was a moment of disorientation then she landed hard on her back.

She rolled away from him quickly as his sword stabbed into the ground where she had landed. She moved quickly to her feet and turned to face him as he swung at her once again, and she brought her sword up just in time to stop the slice at her chest. She stepped around him again, this time moving around his right side and swung at his back. Link stepped away quickly, her weapon whistling as it missed him by less than an inch, whistling through the air.

She had swung too hard, and was off balance. Link moved in, stabbing his sword into her stomach, just below her ribs. Then, with his right hand he shoved her back onto the ground.

"You're dead," Link said to her, "Now get up and try again."

Zelda pushed herself up. She was tired, sweaty, and bruised, but she was already lasting longer against him than the first time. Their "weapons" were nothing but stout branches, long and straight enough to be used similar to swords, the bark whittled off so they'd simply cause bruises instead of cutting flesh. When Link had offered to teach her some things regarding swordplay shortly after leaving the forest, she had expected something closer to the swordplay routines she had seen the soldiers of Hyrule practicing for much of her life.

No, he was quite simply making her fight him and he routinely kicked her to the dirt.

"Doesn't seem very fair to me," Sheila said, seated on the grass just off the dirt road, watching their exertions as Zelda attacked him again.

"It's not supposed to be," Midna said, lying on her back, watching the white clouds roll by. There were dark clouds gathering on the western horizon, and with the easterly breeze, it was likely to rain by nightfall.

"So what you're saying," Sheila said, "is that this 'training' is supposed to be him humiliating her all afternoon?"

"Not quite," Midna said without turning to look, "Link is making her teach herself through trial and error. He explained to me that it was how he was trained by Rusl. It can take a while, depending on how quick a learner the student is, but the end result is a far more dangerous swordsman than anyone can become through swordplay routines. The student learns to cover themselves and look for openings in their opponent's defense, just as with any formal training, but they are left without a true 'style,' and thus their fighting style is extremely flexible and unpredictable. From what I can tell, Zelda's a pretty quick learner. She's already lasting longer against him compared to the first few times."

"Yes," Sheila replied, "She's almost up to thirty seconds."

The first time they had fought in this way, when Link handed her the "sword" she'd be using, he killed her three times in less than twenty seconds. And he still didn't look like he was struggling to defeat her now, even though he was holding a fair bit back.

Now, she saw their weapons clash together before them and saw Zelda grab Link's wrist and plant her feet and she pushed. Link put his right hand on her shoulder and shoved, tipping her over onto her back on the dirt once again and stabbed his branch into the ground just next to her head.

"Dead again," he said, "Did you seriously just try to overpower me? You haven't got the size or weight for that, princess."

As Zelda climbed to her feet and dusted herself off, Sheila could hear Link continue his lecture. "You've got the smaller frame, and that gives you more maneuverability. You should be trying to outdo me in footwork, not trying to take me head-on."

"That's sound advice, I suppose," Sheila said to herself, duly noting that Zelda was nearly a foot shorter than Link and probably just over half his weight.

"That's enough for now," Link said, gesturing toward the road, "Let's get some more of the road behind us while there's some sun left."

Zelda nodded, trying to catch her breath. Link didn't even look to be winded. She'd built up a great bit more stamina with the traveling since they left Hyrule, but she still wasn't close to what would most likely be considering fighting fit. Nowhere near the stamina he possessed.

It had been two days since they left the forest, and if they walked at a good pace, Sheila expected to reach the Nigel castle city by sundown. The tower of the keep was already visible on the horizon.

Since they left the forest, Silviana was sometimes with them and sometimes off on her own. The dark elf made her uneasy, and not simply because of her heritage. Sheila was almost willing to bet money that if that ranger didn't want to be seen, she could be standing on your foot and you wouldn't be able to find her.

Even as she rose to her feet, ready to resume the march, she appeared as if from nowhere and attacked Link from behind. He spun at the sound of her footsteps into her running jump and raised the stick in his hand. Wood knocked against wood and he was forced to back away as Silviana struck again and again, two two-foot long sticks carved into smoothness like his own swung at him. With one in each hand, she struck from different angles quickly and rapidly, and all Link could do was defend himself with his one.

Then he suddenly stepped forward, dropping his stick and wrapping his arms around her chest, just under her armpits and slipped around behind her under her right arm, and then had something in his right hand, held against her neck as he pinned her arms upward with his own. The hood of her cloak had fallen back in the struggle, and the sun glinted off her white hair.

He had another carved stick in his hand against her neck, a short one about the length of a belt-knife. "You may not be the only one with two weapons," he said, "A good point to remember."

_Okay,_ Sheila thought, _Link scares me more than her._

Silviana laughed out loud at his comment. "Look down," she said.

She had lifted her left foot to the inside of his thigh. A small blade protruded from the heel of her boot, in perfect position to cut open the vital artery within.

_On second thought…_ Sheila amended her previous thought.

Link chuckled and released his grip. Silviana pulled her hood back up, obscuring her face, and then reached down to her boot and gently slid the blade back into the heel. There was a small snap as it locked in place.

"A switchblade in your boot," Link said, "I wonder why no one else has thought of that."

"I'm sure some have," she replied, "but if it was common knowledge, it wouldn't be all that effective, would it?"

"I guess not."

* * *

The sun was indeed setting when they at last arrived at the city wall of Nigel. The dark clouds had drifted over as the afternoon wore on, and now a light snow was beginning to fall on the city. The first snow of winter. So, it was likely that Whitos-Neiki and Tyr, further north, had already experience their first snowfall.

Darimar, being the southernmost kingdom, was the last to enter winter's embrace, but in spite of being so much warmer in the summer than the other kingdoms, it also experienced the harshest winter. In three weeks, maybe a month, the roads in and out of the kingdom would become nearly impassable, so choked with snow as they become.

As they entered the city, Sheila suggested they purchase some horses to speed travel, and Link suggested that they get two horses and a small cart, so they could ride more comfortably, and since he was trying to teach Zelda swordplay, it would allow her to rest between lessons, if they practiced twice a day.

The street was crowded at this time of day, filled with people going to their homes and squads of soldiers moving through the streets on evening patrols. There also seemed to be a large number of people with their belongings in carts leaving the city, apparently in a hurry.

"I think this city is even bigger than Tyr or Whitos-Neiki," Link remarked.

"Oh, that's right," Midna whispered to him from his shadow, "You're not too fond of large cities, are you?"

"It's not the cities I mind so much as the people," Link said, "I don't like crowds."

As they walked down the side of the street, there was barely any elbow room as people jostled together, and they nearly collided with a small group gathered around a bulletin board on the wall of one building, all of them speaking at once so that it was impossible to make out what they were saying.

"In a single day," one said.

"How many did they have?" asked another.

"Does it matter? There was a sorceress leading them!"

"What are they on about?" Link asked.

"Let me check," Sheila said, moving toward the group and gently pushing them to create an opening, "Excuse me. Excuse me!"

She managed to get into the huddle, was there for a moment, and then came back to the others. She was shaking her head, a look of utter disbelief on her face.

"What is it?" Link asked.

"Whitos-Neiki has fallen," Sheila said in a hallow voice.

"Fallen?" Zelda asked, "Then our assumption was right. They were attacked in force. Did anyone escape?"

"Fallen isn't really the right word," Sheila said, "It was wiped out. Maybe twenty survivors altogether. King Maylow survived, and along with the others is on the way to Darimar."

"Dear gods," Link whispered.

That city had been massive and alive when they were there. Hundreds of thousands of people living there, and now they were gone, wiped out almost to the last man.

"What kind of butcher kills innocent civilians?" Zelda asked.

"The kind who won't stop for anything," Silviana said from behind her. The ranger was staying close to them within the city, and had her hood pulled low over her face and kept her face turned down to hide her appearance.

"Many people are fleeing to Darimar," Sheila said, "Before the roads get bad."

"Why Darimar?" Link asked.

"The Darimar winter," Sheila said, "In about a month, the roads will be positively choked with snow. Difficult to navigate in a small group. Impossible with an army. They think they will be safe there."

"Until spring, when the attack does come," Link said, "They're only buying time by fleeing."

"There's one other thing," Sheila said.

"I don't think I want to hear it," Link said.

"Whitos-Neiki wasn't able to hold off the attack for even an hour," Sheila said, "They had a sorceress with them who used magic to breach the wall and wipe out the defenders. They're already marching southward, coming this way."

"Perfect," Link muttered, "The perfect end to the perfect week."

Link cursed, kicking a small stone near his foot in the street, watching the crowds of people, both staying in the city and fleeing to Darimar. When he turned back to the others, he found all three of them watching him. "What the hell are you all looking at me for?" he demanded.

"I suppose it's a bit much to expect you to have an answer for everything," Zelda said, then smiled softly at him, "We've all become used to you taking charge when something happens."

"Yeah, well, I'm just one man," Link said, "I can't fight off an army single handed, and I honestly don't have a clue what to do right now."

"I suppose the best we could do is try to help with the battle," Sheila said, "With Zelda and myself we have a bit of magic, and Link, you're an excellent fighter…"

"Impractical," Zelda said, "While Link would admittedly be the best fighter on the city wall, he would simply be another fighter on the wall, and not make a great difference. And then there is the fact, can you breach a stone wall and wipe out an entire population with your magic?"

"Well, no."

"Then neither of us would be a match for the sorceress. In fact, it would be suicide to challenge her," Zelda said.

"Then what options do we have?" Sheila asked.

"I can think of one," Zelda said, "But I'd rather not talk about it in the street. Let's find an inn and get a room for the night, and we can speak in privacy."

* * *

They found an inn about three streets in; the Dragon's Keg, it was called, with a tavern on the first floor and two floors of rooms. The rooms were mostly empty, but Link paid for only one, a large room on the second floor that actually had eight single beds, more than enough for them all. It looked more like a barracks than a typical inn room.

"Now," he said as he slipped his baldric off over his head and leaned the Master Sword against the side one bed and seated himself upon it, "What is this idea of yours?"

The room was arranged with four beds on the left wall from the doorway and four on the right, with a walkway between them. Zelda seated herself on the bed across the walkway from Link.

"We've been wondering at the plans of our enemies for some time now and generally accepted but never did anything about the fact that some of them seem to be extremely powerful magicians," Zelda said, "Sheila, you are the most powerful sorceress in Mystara, correct?"

"Yes," Sheila said, sitting on the bed next to hers, "The archmage, Riven, is close, but I do have the edge."

"And we are already aware your abilities exceed my own," Zelda said, "And now it seems at least one of our enemies possess power like the world has not seen since ancient times. I can think of only one person who may be able to aid us against this kind of threat."

Link realized where she was heading with this line of thinking. "I don't think…" he started.

Midna suddenly leaped from his shadow. "Have you gone crazy?" she demanded, floating closer to Zelda, her voice harsh and her teeth bared, "That man cannot be trusted! He'd turn on us the first chance he got, if he even agreed to help us!"

Link reached to her and gently took her arm and pulled her back to the bed, getting her to sit down next to him. "I don't think that's a good idea, either," Link said, "That man has been an enemy of Hyrule longer than any of us have been alive, and yes, that includes you, Sheila."

"You mean that wizard that attacked your kingdom a year ago?" Sheila asked Zelda.

"I'm afraid so," Zelda said, "He's the only one I can think of who might be able to match the power of the Lords of Chaos."

"But Link beat Ganondorf!" Midna said, "Maybe he can beat them!"

"I'm sure he appreciates the vote of confidence," Zelda said, noticing Link rub Midna's shoulder gently at what she said, "But he had a specific advantage over Ganondorf that I don't think he has with these opponents.

"You conducted an extensive study of Hyrule's, history, correct?"

"Yes," Midna said somewhat hesitantly, not sure where this sudden change of topic was leading.

"What were the things that were always common in the conflicts with Ganondorf in the past?"

Midna thought about it for a moment. "Well, the hero always had the Triforce of Courage, and… the Master Sword!"

"Correct," Zelda said, "Now, the histories also state that Ganondorf was challenged by others, soldiers and the like who tried to fight him off, and he seemed to be invincible, recovering from his injuries as fast as they were dealt to him. But whenever this hero struck him with the Master Sword, it not only caused lasting injury, the injury seemed to cling to him. Only once did he reappear within the lifetime of a hero, and then he was almost too weak to even defend himself.

"However, when the sages attempted to execute him, even in his weakened state he was too much for them. He managed to kill one of them, and probably would have killed more had they not used the Twilight Mirror to banish him to another world."

"Another world…" Sheila whispered. She hadn't known about that.

"I believe there is some sort of connection between the Master Sword and the Triforce," Zelda said, "It is a powerful weapon in its own right, but when it is used by, or perhaps against, one who possesses a part of the Triforce, the wounds it causes become something else entirely, as if they greatly reduce a person's natural ability to heal themselves, and perhaps completely neutralize Ganondorf's ability to heal himself rapidly. Link, do you know of anyone else that the wounds seemed to cling to in such a fashion as they do to him?"

"To be honest," Link said, "I don't think that anyone else I used it on to that point survived past a few minutes anyway."

"So, while I have my theory, there is no way to prove it one way or another just yet," Zelda said, "But if it's unusual wounding abilities stem from being used _against_ a possessor of the Triforce, then the advantage you had over Ganondorf will not exist against our current enemies.

"Now, before we go further, I have a theory as to our enemy that might be a bit extreme," Zelda said, "First, I need to know something, Sheila. What is on the other side of the mountains on the western borders of Mystara?"

"Well, that would be the Desert of Death," Sheila said, "During the ancient war, the ultimate destructive magic was used on a massive encampment of the rebels there, and what had once been endless grasslands became a desert where nothing can survive."

"What magic was that?" Silviana asked. They looked up to her. She was standing by the window at the back of the room, watching people passing by in the street below.

"Well, that's a bit tricky," Sheila said, "You see, most of the forbidden magics, magicians are allowed to learn the signs of, so they will see one coming, if it is used against them. This spell is so forbidden that no one but the highest ranking people even know it exists. That's how devastating it is. In fact, there are no records left of the spell, making it impossible for a magician to even recreate it without attempting to do so from scratch, and there is no one alive capable of doing so anyway."

"Well, now I really want to know," Link said.

"I can tell you the name," Sheila said, "It was called 'Senan Serat.' It was the spell that reduced more than a hundred thousand square miles of grasslands to the Desert of Death. If I remember correctly, it was the spell created to wipe out the rebels and end the ancient war. Unfortunately, a small group had set up a base elsewhere, and they continued the war from there. It was from that second base that Shaklator emerged at the end of the war.

"But it was because of that spell that the altars in the temples were created, to capture magic that went out of control, because that's exactly what that spell did. Darius was unable to control it, and he was the most powerful wizard alive back then."

"Okay, that brings me back to my theory," Zelda said, "There is literally no place in the world where the Lords of Chaos could have built such a massive army as they possess from, which includes a large number of individuals of a race that was supposed to be," she cast a glance at Silviana, "_nearly_ extinct. Khall has claimed to be Ganondorf's apprentice at one point, and there is the simple fact that they seem to have appeared literally from nowhere ten years ago. I think I'm finally starting to understand where they have come from."

Link was catching onto her line of thinking now. "Another world…" he said.

"Exactly," Zelda said, "Ganondorf was gone from our own world for nearly one thousand years before he reappeared a year ago. Exactly what he has done with that time is unknown, but it may have been that he found a way to jump from world to world, until he found his way back into ours through the Twilight Realm. And what if one of the last worlds he was in, he stayed for a time, and built up this army that now seeks to conquer our world, or wipe us out?"

"Exactly why he can't be trusted," Midna said, "They work for him, he'll side with them."

"Except they are trying to kill him," Link said.

"Another good point," Zelda said, "And there is no guarantee he parted ways with them on the best of terms. And then, why didn't he bring the army with him when he attacked Hyrule? They were evidently in this world at least nine years before he appeared in the Twilight Realm and used Zant to help him cross from there into Hyrule."

"Invaders from another world," Sheila said, shaking her head, "I can hardly believe it."

"Is it truly so hard?" Zelda asked, "You yourself said that there are many many other worlds. The Twilight Realm from which Midna comes is a perfect example, and I believe the Sacred Realm of Hyrule may be yet another. But now, we've laid out the facts, and the reasons that I believe it would be prudent to seek out the aid of Ganondorf."

"'Seek out the enemy of your enemy, and you will find a friend,'" Sheila quoted.

"Exactly."

"I still don't like it," Midna said.

"How about a different version, then?" Link asked, "'Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.'"

He looked up at Zelda. "If we do go through with this," he said, "there is one thing that I'll have to do before we even think of working with him. I'm going to make him release the curse on Midna if I have to beat it out of him."

"This is simply our best option for plan A," Zelda said, "If it doesn't work, then you and I had best start learning to use our pieces of the Triforce in a hurry."

_I find a way out of learning it for one reason and I get saddled with another,_ Link thought.

"How do you intend to locate him?" Sheila asked.

Zelda lifted up her right hand and showed Sheila the softly glowing image of the Triforce of Wisdom. "Back at Roxim's cave, he found me through this. I believe, given a few hours, I can locate him in a similar manner. I am much less experienced in its use than he is, but I do possess some basic knowledge of it. It will likely take me longer to find him than it took him to find me, and I don't think I will be able to speak to him through it like he did to me, but if I can ascertain his location, we can start moving for it tomorrow."

"Then what do we do about the fragments of the restoration spell?" Link asked.

"I'm afraid that they, and Hyrule, will simply have to wait," Zelda said, "Although it pains me to say it, we have more pressing issues at this time. War has come to these lands, and we cannot simply ignore it. If they succeed, and Shaklator is released, where do you think she will go once the people of Mystara are completely eradicated?

"And Hyrule is not the only kingdom across the sea," she added, "If that monster is released, there will be nowhere to hide. If she truly did only need six days to nearly wipe out life from the world when the ancient civilization was at the height of its power, it likely wouldn't take her that long now."

Silence fell across them. It was a lot to absorb in just a few moments. "Is there anything I can do to help you?" Sheila asked Zelda.

"I'm afraid not," Zelda said, "I will actually be much better off if I am left alone while I try to locate Ganondorf, so I can concentrate. You may remain here if you wish, but do not disturb me while I concentrate."

"In that case," Sheila said, standing up, "I think what I need right now is a good stiff drink to clear my head. I'm going down to the bar."

"I'll probably join you in just a moment," Link said.

Sheila nodded absently as she walked to the door and exited the room, closing it behind her. Link sighed and lay back on the bed, trying to think, but his thoughts kept drifting back to the simple fact that now it seemed the entire world was depending on their little group. It was a lot more responsibility than he cared for.

Midna leaned over him, into his line of vision. "So, how do you like being a hero, Link?" she asked with a soft smile.

"I quit," he said, "Find some other lunatic for the job."

Midna chuckled, then slipped back into his shadow as he stood up.

"You want to come get a drink with us?" Link asked Silviana, gesturing toward the door.

"I will remain here," Silviana said, "I'm afraid I can't hold my liquor well."

_Yes, and hangovers are just what we don't need in the morning,_ Link thought, _Better get down there and keep an eye on Sheila, just in case._

* * *

The barkeep placed the mug on the counter before where Sheila was seated. She took a small sip of the ale, and nearly spat it back out. It had been so long since she'd tasted alcohol, and this definitely wasn't the high-price wine she had back then.

At least it tasted better than the mead she had tried once at the New Year's Fair in Tyr. She would have sworn the only things it could be made from were human hair and dirt, considering the taste.

Someone moved into the seat next to her. "What can I get'cha?" the barkeep asked.

"Just a coffee, please," said the man.

"Going to be a busy night?" Sheila asked, making small talk.

"In a way," the man said, "But I never drink alcohol on the job. You know that, Sheila."

Now she recognized the voice. Sheila looked up at the man next to her. The neatly trimmed blonde beard, the small scar just to the outside of his right eye, and the shoulder length tail of blonde hair, tied together with a leather thong close to his scalp.

It was Judge Ralthas himself.

Sheila nearly leaped from her seat as she moved away from him. "No, not you!" was all she could manage to say.

The judges had been watching them, and now the most influential of them was himself here to greet them. All Sheila could think was that it was all over. There was nothing she could do against this man. To even resist him was to be branded an outlaw. What little hope she had left had just been dashed against the rocks.


	44. Chapter 43

**Chapter 43: Offers and Demands**

"Can I get you anything?"

"I don't want anything from you."

"So be it, then, straight to business," Ralthas said once Sheila was seated next to him by the bar.

She stared down into her drink, not ready to meet his eyes.

"I assume the reason the good prince spoke to you in Whitos-Neiki was to inform you that I had my eye on you and your friends," Ralthas said, then paused to take a sip of his coffee before continuing, "You do know why I am here, correct?"

"You suspect me of treason," Sheila said without looking up, "I want to see some evidence before I'll tell you anything."

"You know I don't carry important things like that on me," Ralthas said, "Suffice to say, we have quite a case even if my suspicion is wrong. Allowing foreign travelers out of port without proper identification and immigration papers, misuse of irreplaceable valuables supposed to be kept in the Academy of Magic's vault, willful destruction of said valuables, neglecting your duties as High Elder without prior notification, three counts of trespassing on restricted grounds, and considering the body found in the Temple of Nature a few days ago, at least one count of murder."

The woman Link had fought in the temple. The judges were as efficient as ever. Sheila decided not to place the blame entirely on Link's shoulders. "If we hadn't killed her, she would have killed us."

"So justified self-defense extends to breaking six of her ribs, one of her arms, both legs, and her spine in four places? I was unaware the law had been expanded to that degree."

Sarcasm. This man could use it as a deadly weapon. Sheila hadn't been aware Link had done such a number on that woman, though.

Ralthas reached into his cloak and pulled something from his belt. It was a rolled piece of parchment which he lay down on the counter near her. "And then there is this. It is an artist's conceptual drawing of a man sighted in Whitos-Neiki the day of the attack."

Sheila unrolled the parchment. "That's impossible," she whispered when she saw the face that looked back at her.

"That's what I said when I first saw it," Ralthas said, "It was taken over a sound stone, but the witness has been escorted to Darimar and confirmed it. It is accurate."

Sheila released the parchment, which rolled itself up. Ralthas straightened it, then tucked it back in his belt under his cloak. "So you are here to arrest us, then," Sheila said, "You realize a war just started a short time ago, right?"

"Which makes this all the more imperative," Ralthas said, "Considering this evidence, your questionable actions, and the fact this attack in force has begun about a month after the foreigners arrived, I'm afraid that regardless of the circumstances, we can't allow you and your friends to run about unsupervised."

"What's likely to happen to them?" Sheila asked.

"Well, should it be proven that they have no connection to the Lords of Chaos, their other actions will likely result in exile from the five kingdoms. They will essentially be allowed to return home, provided they never come back. Hardly a harsh punishment, really. If I were you, Sheila, I'd be worrying about my own hide."

"Is that a threat?"

"More of an offer. If you agree to cooperate, the charges against you could be lessened. You may even be allowed to keep your title and only pay a few fines once this is all over."

Sheila looked up at him for the first time since she had sat back down. "You want me to testify against them?"

"Not at all," Ralthas said, turning to look her in the eye, "All I ask is a little help in bringing them in. You see, I have men waiting at the south gate of the city, and a wagon to give your friends all a comfortable ride to Darimar. That is where you are headed next anyway, isn't it? It will save you a lot of time and struggle if you just leave the city in that direction in the morning."

Sheila looked down, into the mug containing her rapidly warming drink that she had barely touched. "Morning. So I have tonight to think about it?"

Ralthas took another sip of his coffee. "You can try to run of course, but you won't escape. And then you will be branded an outlaw and will most assuredly be stripped of your title and face time in prison, if not exile."

Sheila sighed. "You don't leave me a lot of options, judge. Is there even the slightest chance you'd be willing to listen to my defense?"

"Of course. In court."

And in court was likely the one place she would have a chance against this man. By making the arrest himself, Ralthas would not be able to preside over the case. He would likely be the acting prosecutor, but the judge had to be a neutral party. But Ralthas was not the kind of man to take action like this without some pretty solid evidence. All she would have was her word, the word of Link and the others and…

The sword. The Master Sword, with just over half of the restoration spell engraved on its blade. That could possibly be the evidence she would need to overturn his case. It was there, undeniable, and could be confirmed by another magician, like Riven, and the fact he was also present when the spell book had been destroyed that night would also help.

"One condition, before I even consider accepting your kind offer," she said.

"I'll hear it, but I can't promise until I know," Ralthas said.

"Archmage Riven. I want him summoned as a witness," Sheila said.

"Now, you see, he is already on his way," Ralthas said, "I summoned him before-hand. So, you have your condition."

He was summoning witnesses before the arrest had even been made? Ralthas must feel he had a solid case, or was positive there was no way they could elude him.

"Well, I must be off," Ralthas said, and drained the rest of his coffee as he rose from his seat, "Don't want one of your friends seeing me and getting nervous. Remember, Sheila. Tomorrow morning, leave by the south gate, and surrender without a struggle and I can make things much easier for you."

He turned and walked away, leaving by the front door. Sheila looked about the room. It was mostly empty, and the few patrons remaining were minding their own business, deep in their drinks. The barkeep walked over to her. "Old friend?" he asked.

"More of an acquaintance," she said, "Just wanted to catch up on old times."

She took a swallow of her drink, hardly noticing the bitter taste. Ralthas wasn't bluffing when he said they couldn't escape. While he would be waiting at the south gate, she had no doubt he would have the other ways out of the city watched, and may even have someone in the towers watching the walls, just in case they tried to slip right over the wall via rope or something.

The man was an elf, over nine hundred years old, seven hundred of which had been spent as a judge. He had been advanced to the highest position about ninety years ago, when his predecessor died. A more honest person one could not hope to find, but he was absolutely ruthless in carrying out his duty. He had once arrested a king for treason against his own kingdom.

When she had graduated from the Academy of Magic, before she was elected High Elder, he had approached her himself with the offer to become a judge. She had turned him down, and didn't intend to change her mind. She didn't want the kind of responsibilities involved, and she wasn't intending to cave, thanks to being plenty stubborn.

"Hey, you all right?"

Sheila looked up to see Link standing over her. "Oh, sorry," she said, "Just thinking."

"Figured that," Link said, sitting down next to her, then called to the barkeep, "One of what she's having."

"This is the last call," the barkeep said, sitting a mug of ale down in front of him, "I'm about to close up for the night."

"I only wanted one," Link said, then turned back to Sheila, "You worried?"

"I'm terrified."

She looked over at him to see him take a swallow of the ale. "Link, do you hate what we're doing so much?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you don't seem too fond of our traveling, of what's happening."

"You mean do I hate being a hero, since that's what everyone seems to regard me as?" he asked, turning to her with a half-smile.

"I suppose that's a better way to put it."

"It's not that I hate traveling," Link said, "or even being in danger every so often. In fact, I rather like being on the road, seeing the world, so to speak. I just don't like having so many people depending on me. In a small group, like we're traveling in, okay. But the concept of everyone in Hyrule, or the world, depending on me… Honestly, it gives me nightmares.

"Last year, when the Twilight Realm was, I guess, 'melding' with Hyrule, the people turned into spirits, ghostly visages of their former selves. I was protected from the effect by my Triforce. I was instead transformed into a shape that represents my soul, I guess. The shape of an enormous wolf. I had nightmares of the Twilight spreading across the world, and being unable to stop it, trapped in that animal shape forever, while everyone I knew lived out lives unable to see me, unable to see the real horrors around them."

He paused to take another drink. "And now," he said, "I have dreams of wandering through Hyrule, everyone and everything around me, trapped in stone, while I am not. I beat my hands bloody on the forms of what used to be my friends and family. And then there is her…"

"Her?"

Link realized he'd never mentioned the woman who came to him in his dreams to Sheila before. He searched his memory and found another image from his dreams that he could tell her. "Zelda," he said, "I see her, impaled on the stone spire in the center of the fountain in the castle town, the water in the fountain red with her blood."

That was quite a gruesome image, Sheila had to admit.

"That's what I hate about this," Link said, "What will happen should we fail."

"We're all afraid of that," Sheila said, then she caught something in what he'd said, "Wait, your family? I thought you said you were an orphan?"

Link smiled. "I was found when I was just a child, and pretty much raised by the village as a whole. I tend to think of most everyone there as family. It's probably the reason I've never bothered to take one of their family names. I've just stayed 'Link' all my life."

"I see," she said, unsure of how to continue.

She took a swallow of her drink, and decided to just tell him. "Link, I need to tell you something. What we've been doing isn't exactly legal."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"The temples we've been going to, they're sacred grounds and it is forbidden to trespass there. The judges have been watching us, as you know. If we are arrested, we will likely be punished."

"How so?"

"Well, you and Zelda may get off relatively easy," she said, "Because you are not citizens of any of the kingdoms, you will likely be exiled and forced to return to Hyrule."

"That's not so bad, provided the war is over and we have the last two fragments of the spell," Link said, "But what about you?"

"At the least, I will be facing severe fines," Sheila said, "Nothing I can't pay of course, but my reputation will be severely damaged, and I will likely be replaced as High Elder before long. At worst, I will be stripped of my title immediately, and face prison time, or exile myself."

"That's bullshit," Link said, "You haven't done anything wrong. Everything you've done has been for our sake, anyway."

"I'm afraid that doesn't matter to some people," she said sadly, "And if we are arrested, we can be sure that we will be held until the war is over."

"Now, you see, that I have a problem with," Link said, "I'm not going to sit in some cozy cell while the world falls apart around me. Just because I don't like people depending on me doesn't mean I'm going to abandon them."

"You would break the law if it came to it?"

"Laws are supposed to protect people," Link said, "But if they get in the way of protecting people, I'm afraid I really don't give a shit about it until it no longer gets in the way. Oh, sorry, that's twice now."

"Twice what?" Sheila asked, not sure what he was talking about.

"My language," Link said, "I'm used to just being with Midna still, I guess. Zelda doesn't like it when I swear either."

Sheila smiled. She hadn't even really noticed. "And how is that different with Midna?"

"She can be just as vulgar as me, if not worse," Link said with a smile, "In fact, there were a few times I think she would have made a sailor blush OW!"

The "ow" stemmed from the small arm that reached from his shadow just behind his neck and twisted his ear. So, Link was perfectly willing to go against the law if he thought it necessary. She noted that in her considerations.

"What about Ganondorf?" Sheila asked, changing the subject, "Are you really okay with trying to work with him?"

"'Trying' is the key word there," Link said, "I don't think that man could possibly be trustworthy. Even if we can get him to work with us, I'd be watching him every step of the way. And believe me when I say I wouldn't let him walk behind me."

"That's interesting," Sheila said, "Sometimes you seem to trust so easily, and others it seems a person has a very hard time getting that trust."

"Maybe I'm just a good judge of character," Link said.

"Like that ranger?"

"You still don't like her, do you?" Link asked.

"I'm sorry, Link," she said, shaking her head, "I really am. But there is something about her, something that just doesn't fit for me. Like for starters, the fact she even exists. Her kind were supposed to be extinct years ago."

"Do the kingdoms of Mystara condone slavery?" Link asked.

The question seemed to come out of nowhere, and caught Sheila off guard. "What? No, not for some time."

"How long exactly?"

"About three centuries, I think," Sheila said, "Yes, that's right, because the final enactment of the law forbidding slavery was just a few years before I was born."

"I see," Link said, not volunteering further information.

"Why the sudden interest in the subject?" Sheila asked.

"It's 'that ranger,'" Link said, "She has what looks like a brand on her right shoulder, and large numbers of scars on her back."

"She must have been hiding out in the forest since before then," Sheila said, "An escaped slave, and never knew of the change."

"How old would that make her?"

"I don't know," Sheila said, "Anywhere between four and six hundred years, I suppose."

"When you're so long lived," Link muttered, "how do you keep from getting bored with life?"

"Sloth and boredom are actually rather common symptoms among older elves," Sheila said, "though not all of them fall to them."

Link picked up his drink and quickly downed what remained. "Well," he said, sitting the mug on the counter, "Shall we go back upstairs and wait on Zelda?"

* * *

Zelda lay back on the bed, sitting up against the headboard, her right hand up to her face, the Triforce of Wisdom glowing brighter than normal, and a second image of it, like a shadow, rotating slowly on her skin behind the normal image.

Her eyes were closed, and she was in a state of intense concentration. She could feel something, all right, but she was having difficulty pinning it down. She was beginning to truly wish she had spent more time experimenting with the Triforce before, when she had the chance.

It was a tiring task just to draw out the power within, and required intense focus. She didn't understand how Link did as he claimed, to just suddenly and completely use everything it had. And then there was Ganondorf. Whenever he used the Triforce of Power, his eyes glowed golden, and she remembered he did this quite frequently.

Her mind was drifting, so she refocused her thoughts on Ganondorf. Yes, the dark-skinned wizard who had for so long plagued her kingdom. She remembered what he looked like. He stood a gigantic seven-and-a-half feet tall, and his body seemed composed entirely of rock-hard muscle, his red beard trimmed close to his face, and his hair cut short as well. The black armor he wore, and the white scar on his stomach that literally glowed, and was visible through his armor and any clothing he wore.

He pretty much smashed the typical image of a wizard, a hunchbacked old man with a long white beard and wearing loose fitting robes, to pieces.

Something began to make itself clear. A pulling sensation in one direction, and Zelda felt herself moving, as though she were flying through the air. She opened her eyes to see the earth flying past beneath her. Trees, streams, roads, hills, everything flew past at a blinding pace. She suddenly slowed in the air over a large castle town, nearly twice the size of Hyrule Castle Town. She could see the people in the streets, looking like a great many ants, and the soldiers on the outer city walls.

The castle itself had three large towers that rose from the main keep, and a large courtyard that doubled as a training ground for the members of the military. The castle's back end was built directly into the mountains south of the city, providing a natural, impenetrable wall from that direction. Windows and walkways were visible on the mountain-face. It must have taken centuries to mine and smooth such a fortress.

Zelda found herself plunging downward, passing through the stone roof of the castle and then through the floor, flying unseen past the men and women moving through the halls, and then she found herself in a small stone room several levels below ground level. It was a cell, about five feet square in size, the only entrance a heavy metal door in one wall.

"Hello, darling," came the voice that still sent chills through her in her darkest dreams.

She turned to see him, leaning against the back wall of the cell, his hair and beard both grown long and wild from months without access to any tools to maintain them. He was wearing only a dirty pair of pants, his arms cross across his bare chest. He hadn't bathed since being placed in the cell, clearly, but still managed to radiate an aura of power. He was here only because he chose to be, and anyone who saw him knew it.

"I sensed you reaching out for me, so I thought I'd lend a hand," he said, stepping toward her, "finally come around?"

Zelda stepped back when he reached for her, out of his arm's reach. "I was only trying to find you because you may want to know about what is happening. It seems we have a common enemy…"

"I know," Ganondorf said, "I felt the spell cast a few days ago that, according to the news, wiped out an entire city in a single strike. That could only be my darling Kilishandra. And if she's here, then I can guarantee Khall and Mur'neth aren't far behind."

"Are they truly from another world?" Zelda asked, wanting to confirm her theory.

"Yes," Ganondorf said, smiling, "A parallel world that spawns even more 'heroes' than Hyrule ever has. It seemed like every kingdom there had at least one fighter or magician who could single handedly decimate an army."

"That seems impossible," Zelda said, "One warrior can't do that kind of damage."

"Okay, I exaggerate a bit," Ganondorf said, "If an entire army went after any one of them, yes, they would quickly be overwhelmed. But with large numbers of typical soldiers on both sides, focused on the large number instead of that single enemy, they can be quite destructive."

Zelda could picture that. If Link were part of an army in open conflict, she could easily see him flying through the enemy ranks, a trail of death in his wake, most of his opponents dead before they even realized what was happening.

"But you see, this world they are from is a bit less tame than this one," Ganondorf said, "When I was young, Hyrule was in a state of war as the first, and last, king of Hyrule waged a campaign to unite all its lands. Picture a conflict of similar standards, but on a world-wide scale, with every kingdom fighting for themselves, where alliances are short-lived or entirely non-existent and you get the idea."

"What did you do when you arrived in this world?" Zelda asked.

Ganondorf smiled and spread his arms wide. "I united it under a single strong ruler. Myself. I brought down kingdom after kingdom until there were none left to oppose me."

"And then you abandoned it to attack Hyrule again?" Zelda asked.

Ganondorf sighed. "I had thought I'd left it in capable hands. It seems I was wrong. Make no mistake, I intend to put my 'friends' in their place. But let me see if I've got this right. You came to me to request my aid in doing exactly that, yes? Because you lack a magician capable of matching their ability.

"Suddenly, I think I see something in this for me," he added with a sinister chuckle.

He stepped closer to her. "What do you want?" Zelda demanded, stepping further back, and finding her back against the metal door, which was suddenly felt very solid, considering she had just passed through stone walls with no effort.

Ganondorf stepped up to her, putting his hands on the door on either side of her head, leaning down so his face was as close to level with her own as he could comfortably reach, considering her forehead wasn't quite as high as his chest.

"Now, now, I think you know what I want," he said.

She was incredibly uncomfortable for him to be this close, not just from who he was, but the smell from his lack of recent hygiene was overpowering at this distance.

"I want Link," he whispered to her.

"Oh," Zelda said, "I didn't know you were into that sort of thing. I don't think he'll be too amiable in that regard, though."

"Your poor attempt at a joke is both out of place and uncouth," Ganondorf said, "If that's where your thoughts must go, however, I'll remind you that I find another far more attractive."

He suddenly moved forward, and Zelda felt his beard against her face, causing an itching sensation that made her skin crawl as his head was next to hers and he inhaled deeply the smell of her hair. She moved quickly, ducking under his chest and darting away from the wall, to the other side of the cell.

He turned to her, a smile on his face. There was nowhere for her to run, and he knew it. Zelda quickly released her concentration on the Triforce, to whisk herself back to her body in Nigel.

Nothing happened.

"I'm afraid you can't leave until I allow you to," Ganondorf said, "That's what happens when you try to track down a wizard much more experienced with your own abilities than you."

"If you so much as touch me, I'll bite my tongue and bleed to death," Zelda said.

"With what blood?" Ganondorf asked, stepping slowly toward her, "You're not here in your physical body, remember? You don't even have that avenue of escape."

He paused a moment, several feet from her. "Maybe it's the hair," he said, then a gold dagger materialized in his right hand.

He lifted the blade to his face and gripped the red beard in his left hand, and sliced the dagger into the hair. It came away easily in a single stroke, and he tossed the massive ball of hair to the floor, and his face was restored to the way she had last seen it a year ago, perfectly shaven but for the chin-strap beard that was nearly square in shape under his jaw.

He then took hold of his nearly waste-length hair and sliced the dagger through it close to his scalp, and with the single stroke it was restored to the perfectly cut shape she remembered all too clearly. He tossed the loose hair to the floor with the ball of the beard. The gold dagger vanished from his hand.

"Better?" he asked her.

She glared at him. For some reason, it was all she could think to do.

Ganondorf suddenly lunged for her, and when she tried to move to the side, he snatched her wrist and slammed her arm up against the stone wall with incredible force. She cried out in pain from the impact, and he caught her other wrist in his other and pressed it up to the wall, lifting both her arms above her head. He leaned down close to her face again, the previous smile and humor gone from his face.

"Now you listen to me, princess," he growled, "You were seeking me out to dictate terms of an alliance. Let me tell you something: You are in no position to tell me how things are going to work. If anyone is going to define how this will work, it's me."

"Money," Zelda said in desperation, "As much as you want."

"I'm not a sword for hire, princess," he said, "In case you've forgotten, there is only one kind of gold I'm interested in. One way or another, I will eventually have it. Do you know why?

"Because I will not die. It doesn't matter how many times Hyrule coughs up a hero that manages to knock me down, I will return. Hyrule represents the one challenge I've taken and not surpassed. I don't even give a shit about the kingdom anymore. You can keep it. What I want is the Triforce, and the death of its precious hero by my hand."

"You're in for a disappointment, then," she replied, "because that's the very reason they're called heroes. Your kind always lose in the end!"

"My kind? Oh, yes, the villains!" Ganondorf said, his smile returning, "History is written by the winners, my dear. The real hero isn't determined until it's all over. Even if I let Khall and his men rampage across the world, demolishing everything in their path, when I do eventually step in to remind him of his place, I will be the 'hero' then."

"And what about that Kilishandra?" Zelda asked.

"She'll change sides and join me the moment I show myself," he replied, "She is my daughter after all. Her loyalty is one that I do not question."

"Somehow, I can't picture you with any kind of family, let alone a daughter."

Ganondorf started to say something, then stopped. He released Zelda's wrists and stood up, a small smile on his face. Zelda rubbed her wrists, looking up at him.

"Kili is one of the best things that ever happened to me," Ganondorf said, his tone much softer than before, "She changed my entire outlook on my life. It's actually because of her that I am not interested in ruling Hyrule anymore."

_Incredible,_ Zelda thought, _He really does care about her. Maybe there's a heart somewhere in there after all. A very small one, though…_ she added as an afterthought.

Ganondorf stepped back from her, giving her a bit of space. "Okay," he said, "Here's how this is going to work. You are going to bring Link to me. I'll hold off on our grudge match until everything else is over. I'll even let him have the home-field advantage by waiting until we return to Hyrule. But I want him here, within my sight at all times. And you and he will both do as I say, understand? I'm in charge. If he attacks me, I'll kill him on the spot. No games this time."

"What about Midna?" Zelda asked, "Link will want her restored to her natural form."

"The Twili lives?" Ganondorf asked, a look of amusement on his face, "I'll admit, I didn't expect that. Fine. I'll turn her back to normal. But I can't do it over this distance."

Zelda kept her eyes on him. She wasn't sure she could trust him now, but she supposed this was as good as she could get right now. "Okay, let me go back, then," she said.

Ganondorf moved closer to her again, leaning down close to her. Zelda stood her ground, trying to keep her hands from shaking and trying not to flinch. He leaned close and whispered in her ear. "Stop being so afraid of me," he whispered, "I'm really not such a bad guy once you get to know me. You might even come to really like me."

"I doubt that," Zelda said, "You're not my type. You're far too tall, and I'm not into the 'murdering psychopath' type."

"I only murder the people I don't like," Ganondorf said, "You're very lucky I like you, or you'd have been dead a long time ago."

He stepped away from her. "I think we're done here," he said, "You know what I want, and you know that if I don't get it, you won't have a chance against Khall and Kilishandra. Why not got tell your friends now?"

Zelda suddenly felt herself lifted from the floor and passed through the ceiling, and quickly out of the castle into the sky, and was whisked back to the northwest.

She sat up suddenly, finding herself back on the bed in the room they had rented. When she did so, Link and Midna, seated on the bed across from her, both looked up.

"He's in Darimar," Zelda said, "Ganondorf is in Darimar."

Link nodded, leaning back against the headboard of his bed. "Then I guess there's no real need to alter our plans just yet. We can get moving first thing in the morning."

Zelda looked toward the back of the room. Silviana was there, with several of her different outfits laid out on one of the beds. She had changed into her gray one while Zelda had been in off on her little trip, and was folding up the orange one, along with a green outfit and a white outfit.

Sheila was over by the window, looking out at the night sky, evidently deep in thought. She may not have even heard Zelda speak.

* * *

Tharkus chuckled to himself as he watched the images in the crystal ball. Yes, he'd been listening in on them since they had arrived in Nigel, and now he knew exactly where Ganon was. This was glorious.

Exactly why Ganon had hidden for so long, he was unsure, but it mattered little in the end. In a short time, the forces taken by that fool, Karadiv, would be emerging from the mountain pass a short way to the west of Darimar, and the simultaneous attack on the remaining three kingdoms would begin.

Tharkus wasn't exactly sure where Khall had found Karadiv, but knew that Khall held him in little better regard than Tharkus did. He was a fairly skilled wizard, but he lacked the ability and concentration to advance to a point that he would even have a prayer against Ganon.

The best Tharkus would hope for was that Karadiv managed to drive Ganon to the point he used the Triforce of Power and released the second lock on the seal. Tharkus had his doubts though. Ganon may only be a mediocre wizard without the Triforce, but he could use several high-class spells that would make short work of Karadiv.

And even if Karadiv couldn't push him to the breaking point, Tharkus was still fairly certain the original plan would work. If one of the carriers of the Triforce died, the seal would weaken, and allow them to breach it directly.

Oh, well. All the pawns were at last in place, and now it was time to sit back and watch them slaughter each other.


	45. Chapter 44

**Chapter 44: The Hammer of Justice**

Sheila lay awake in her bed, long into the night, staring at the ceiling. She still had not told the others that she had spoken to Ralthas, and was still thinking about what to do.

When this had started, she had never imagined that they could be facing arrest and imprisonment by the end. Now it seemed almost a certainty, at least for herself. She was starting to really think about what Link had said to her when she had first told them about the judges and Ralthas.

"I can't believe someone would give one man so much power," Link had said.

Ralthas was an almost celestial figure. All the judges were figures of great power and importance, but that man seemed untouchable. If a judge went rogue, and began to abuse his power, it was Ralthas' job to bring _him_ to justice. He would revoke the judge's rank and make him a hunted man wherever he went.

And if the High Judge began to abuse his power, it was the duty of the rest of the judges to bring him down. It would take no fewer than ten judges' formal accusations to relieve Ralthas of his post and begin a formal investigation.

The judges had been conceived after the barbarian invasion long ago, when four of the kingdoms fell due to their bickering and refusal to aid each other. The king of Darimar at the time had originated the idea, but it wasn't until after his death that the idea was put into effect, the idea of a law enforcement group with authority everywhere and to everyone, and they would also serve as mediators between the rulers of the kingdoms. The downfall of being a judge was that one was not considered a formal citizen of any of the kingdoms, and there was no mercy should a judge abuse his power or turn to crime.

Ultimate power, accompanied by the threat of ultimate punishment if they should misuse it.

Ralthas was old, even by elvish standards, but his mind was as sharp as ever. Sheila was positive that if they tried to run, he would find them, or even be waiting for them. If they were arrested, they would likely be held until the war was over, if they even survived, before a real investigation could begin.

Link, Zelda, and Midna would be exiled, forced to return to Hyrule, with a penalty of death waiting should they ever return. Silviana, well, Ralthas no doubt knew she had only joined their group in the forest. She might be acquitted and released.

As for Sheila, her fate was uncertain. She kept thinking about the possibilities. If she was forced to stand in court, even if her sentence was light, her reputation would be destroyed. Even if she were acquitted of all charges, she had no doubt that she would soon be replaced as High Elder. In the public eye, she would still be a criminal.

Or she could be stripped of her title outright, and face imprisonment or exile herself. If that happened, what next?

One way or another, it looked like her time as the High Elder of Mystara was at an end. It was more of a public figure than an actual position of power, but as the most powerful magician in Mystara, she was expected to be available to deal with any situation involved unknown magic or magicians.

She would be blamed for the destruction of Whitos-Neiki, for not being there to stop the sorceress who had unleashed the magic upon the city, even though she would have merely died trying.

But with the knowledge that Ganondorf was in Darimar also clouded her mind. If they surrendered to Ralthas, he would no doubt escort them there for trial. Zelda had said that Ganondorf was perfectly able of breaking out of the cell he was in at any time. He was merely waiting for the most opportune moment.

Sheila turned onto her side, and she could make out Link's form in the bed next to hers. "I wonder if you're having nightmares again tonight," she whispered, "I'm not even asleep and I am."

* * *

Link was in fact not having nightmares that night. He had found himself in a large expanse of open grasslands and was simply running, enjoying the freedom of being able to go where he wanted with no obligations to hold him down.

A castle with three high towers was visible on the horizon, but he paid it no heed. He was running flat out across the fields, as fast as he could, and at times he felt as though he was as fleet as he was when he was a wolf.

He paused a moment to catch his breath, and the sky was turning red, the sun sinking below the western horizon with surprising speed, turning the world to a beautiful twilight.

"Hello, Link."

Link turned to the voice, and saw it was Midna. She truly was beautiful when she appeared as she was, with her perfect smooth skin, the green tattoos along her legs and forearms. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, shining in the twilight like the sun in its final moments, almost glowing.

Her outfit was an unusual design, but very flattering for her figure, made of black cloth, the shoulders draped loosely, while tight sleeves covered her biceps, and a single cloth extended from the elbow across one side of her forearms to a small half-glove that looped around the middle finger of each hand to hold it in place. The torso covered her bosom and back, but moved lower along her sides, leaving her midriff bare, to the waist that wrapped around her hips and fell in the front and back to her ankles, with the sides of her legs bare nearly to the hip. The black cloth of the outfit also bore green designs similar to her tattoos that almost seemed to glow with some inner light.

"Midna," Link said as she stepped toward him, "You're coming into my dreams again."

"I'm sorry, Link," she said, stopping before him and looking up into his eyes, "But I can't seem to keep myself away anymore. At least while I'm here, you do not have nightmares."

Link put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed gently, a smile on his face. "You really are beautiful, like this," he said.

"In spite of not being human?" she asked.

"Even more so because of it," he said, "It makes you seem…exotic, I think is the right word."

"You're not very good at this," she said, with a small smile.

"Sorry. Would I do better as the 'crush the fair maiden against my chest while fighting off a demon with my other hand' type?"

Midna stepped closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head against his shoulder. Link put one arm around her, pulling her close, and lay his other hand against the back of her head, holding her gently to him. "I like you just the way you are, Link," she said.

"I suppose there really is no way it can last," Link said, "is there?"

"I'm afraid not," she said, "If nothing else, we are two completely different species. And you have another…right?"

She was referring to Ilia. Link thought about her now. Yes, he did care for her, but it was not the same. He was very _fond_ of Ilia, he realized. He didn't want to see her hurt, and he wouldn't mind seeing her every day for the rest of his life.

But there was something special about the woman he held in his arms now. Something he couldn't place, no matter how he tried. He was drawn to her, and right now never wanted to let go. This was a dream he didn't want to wake up from.

An odd thought struck him that it was surprising she looked as similar to a human as she did. Link remembered the Twili he had seen in the Twilight Realm. They had come in many odd shapes and sizes. Would he have still cared for her in the way he did if she did not look as she did?

The only answer he could think of was "yes." He had cared for her long before he had known what she truly looked like, though he had refused to admit it even to himself.

And now, his dreams seemed to be the only place he could possibly have her.

Link leaned his head down, his cheek against hers. He sighed.

What did he want in his life? He had previously thought that to simply live in Ordon, a farmer all his life, was what he desired. But his heart leaped at a chance for adventure, to travel and see the world. Maybe he was afflicted with a mild case of wanderlust. But the danger, the adrenaline, the excitement, he loved those as well.

He just didn't want people to depend on him. He didn't want to be a hero. Because the people of Hyrule had depended on him a year ago, because they depended on him now, he simply couldn't afford to die. Even if they didn't depend on him like they did, he didn't intend to die, and would put up one roaring pig of a fight first, but the weight of people depending on him at times threatened to crush him.

And Midna was, in the end, a princess. Even if they could be together, it would mean he would have to become a king. Another responsibility he didn't desire, and it would effectively tie him down, lock him in a prison of finery.

Link remembered what Sheila had said about her parents. Her father would have long outlived her mother, even if she had not died in childbirth, but they cherished the time they did have together.

It seemed so late now, so much time lost.

"Link," Midna said, pushing him back a little to raise her head and look at him, "I never did thank you for saving me from those people back in the forest."

"You don't have to," Link said, "You know that."

"I know," she said, "You'd leap down a dragon's gullet after me if you had to. But I think there is something a princess is supposed to do when she's rescued by the handsome hero."

She reached up, putting her hands on the back of his head and pulled him gently toward her. Their lips met, and Link felt like he'd been struck by lightning. He pulled his arms around her tighter, holding her against him, the sweet feeling of her soft lips against his own making his heart leap with joy.

His dreams may be the only place he could have her. That would have to do.

After a time, they parted. Midna smiled up at him. "Feel better?"

"Midna, I…"

She put one finger against his lips, and he fell silent. "I know. I just thought you needed a little comfort."

"Do I have to wake up?"

"Eventually, yes," Midna said, "But we do still have some time until then."

Link realized what she was up to. "Are you sure?"

Midna gave him a look full of mischief. "Last time you caught me off guard. Why don't we see what happens when I'm ready for you?"

"Oh, gods," Link whispered, pulling her to himself, lifting her feet from the ground as he kissed her.

Midna put her arms around Link's neck, and he shifted his hands downward, slipping one under the back tail of her outfit and gently squeezing…

"Link, wake up."

"No!" Link broke the kiss and shouted at the mysterious voice in the sky, "Shut up!"

He returned his attention to Midna and…

"Link, come on! I need to talk to you!"

"You're a talk, go away!" Link shouted, not really paying attention.

* * *

Link woke to see Sheila standing over him. She had shaken him rather roughly to finally wake him.

"Son of a…" was the first thing he said as he blinked sleep from his eyes.

"Damn…" Midna muttered next to him.

Link glanced at the window at the back of the room. It was still dark out. "What time is it?" he asked.

"About midnight, I think," Sheila said.

Link sighed. "What's so gods damn important?"

Sheila hazarded a guess that, from his irritability, she had interrupted something she shouldn't have. But it was vital they speak.

"Link, I've been thinking about something for a while now, and I need to tell you. When I went down to the bar earlier, before you arrived, there was someone waiting for me that you didn't see. It was judge Ralthas."

"Ralthas?" Link asked, searching his memory for the name, "You mean guy who can sentence and execute someone on the spot?"

"Yes, that's him," Sheila said, "He intends to arrest us in the morning. He and his men are waiting by the southern gate of the city."

Link sat up, rubbing his eyes, forcing the last of the sleepiness from them. "Why didn't you tell me when I got down there?"

Sheila sighed. That was what she knew he would ask, yet had been hoping he wouldn't. "Because he offered me a deal, Link. Remember I told you that what we were doing wasn't exactly legal? He offered to lessen the charges against me if I took you to him and got you to surrender peaceably."

"I knew you were dropping hints about something," Link said, "I thought it was a likelihood we'd be arrested when we reached Darimar."

Sheila looked up at him, almost afraid to meet his eyes. When she did, she saw that the normal soft look was gone, replaced with a look of cold steel. It reminded her so much of that spirit in the mountain temple, the hard look of his eyes.

"Sheila," he said, "You wouldn't be telling me this if you hadn't made a decision. What is it?"

"I'm going to stand by you and Zelda, Link," Sheila said, "I thought about it for a long time, and what we have done may be illegal, but it was the right thing to do. The people of Hyrule are depending on you, due to my involvement, me as well. I'll follow you, regardless of the outcome."

Link nodded. "Okay, then we need a plan."

He wasn't mad, incredibly, but she could see him running over the possibilities in his mind. "How far is it to Darimar from here?" Link asked her suddenly.

"Um, about a week's ride," Sheila said, "Longer on foot. Why?"

"A week, huh?" Link said, then smiled at Midna, "I bet we can make it in three days. Want to see if the good judge can keep up?"

Midna gave him a mischievous smile, but said nothing.

"Three days?" Sheila said, "But that's…"

"Wake up the others," Link said, getting out of the bed and reaching for his shirt on the floor, "We're going to be moving fast and hard."

Sheila couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Link, I can't run all the way to Darimar!"

"We're going to be riding," Link said, "Now wake the others!"

Sheila did as she was told, and after a very brief explanation and rapid dressing, they were moving outside the inn. There was a stable on the north side of the building. Link selected four animals from the stalls and saddled them quickly and expertly, then produced from the money given to him by the Dragon Roxim ten gold coins and left them in a neat stack in the corner of one stall as a quick payment.

Link motioned for them to follow him as they led the horses down the side streets toward the western gate. Maybe he was hoping to slip around Ralthas' men. No doubt the judge would have people there, too, but maybe not enough to stop them.

"Destruction of priceless artifacts, trespassing on holy grounds, and now horse-thievery," Sheila muttered to herself.

"Yeah, we are just racking up the jail-time," Link said.

_I keep forgetting he hears better than most people, and as quiet as it is right now…_ Sheila thought.

There were no stars this night, and the moon was only barely visible, and a light snow was falling again. It was not even sticking, just making the streets wet, but the lack of light made it a very dark night.

They encountered no one in the streets they moved through. There were few patrols out this time of night, and they tended to stick to the main roads.

The west gate was just a portcullis over the road out of town. Lacking an exterior moat, there was no drawbridge. The gate was down, and Link motioned for them to stay quiet. When he moved to enter the gatehouse though, Silviana moved in front of him, gesturing for him to stay where he was. She then opened the wooden door and slipped inside.

A moment later, there was a shout from within, but before it rose high enough to alert other guards, it was cut off by a sudden thump. Then the portcullis started to rise, creaking loudly.

Link cursed and turned to the others. "Everyone in the city knows we're here now. On your horses, get ready to run!"

Sheila and Zelda climbed onto the horses as Link darted into the gatehouse. The portcullis rose upward, its speed now increasing as he added his strength to turning the wheel and pull in the massive chain.

There was a shout from further up the street. Sheila and Zelda looked back to see a squad of soldiers, several of them with torches, running toward them and drawing their weapons. They were shouted for them to stay where they were.

"We're clear, Link!" Zelda shouted at the gatehouse.

Sheila turned back to the portcullis to see it was high enough to ride under. It shook as Link and Silviana locked the wheel in place. They appeared in the gatehouse door, running toward them. "Go, go, go!" Link shouted.

Sheila spurred her horse and the animal leaped forward, accelerating quickly. Zelda was just off to her side, and once past the wall, she looked back to see Link and Silviana on their mounts and riding quickly after them. She could see the torchlight held by the patrol at the gate. Some were heading into the gatehouse to check on what happened inside.

Link pulled up beside her. "We follow this road out a ways, then veer south," Link said, "Circle away from the city."

Sheila nodded. That should work. If they could just get out of reach of the city before Ralthas could get his men moving…

They road hard for nearly twenty minutes before Link gave them an okay to slow down. The night was cool and Sheila shivered as they moved. Link was turned in his saddle, watching for pursuit behind them.

The city was out of sight, and they were turning south now. The road was leading downhill into a small gorge, only about fifteen feet deep and twenty wide.

"Any pursuit?" Zelda asked Link at last.

"I don't see anyone," Link said, "If we keep up a good pace, we should be safe…"

He suddenly shouted for a halt and pulled the reigns of his horse, the other three riders following suit, their horses planting their hooves and skidding to a halt and nearly falling over forward.

"You idiot!" Link shouted, "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Sheila saw him now. A single man standing in the middle of the road before them. With no light from the stars and very little from the moon, she could not make out his face, and she was amazed Link had seen him at all at the pace they were moving. He was simply standing there in the middle of the road, and had Link not seen him, they would surely have ridden him down.

"No," the man said, answering Link's question, "But I wouldn't say murder was entirely off the agenda."

His voice sent tingles of dread down Sheila's spine. He lifted one hand and snapped his fingers. Torches flared into life around them. About ten torches illuminated no less than thirty men in front of them, and a glance back revealed more coming up behind them, blocking the rear of the gorge and preventing retreat. Most held crossbows loaded and leveled at them.

The torchlight lit the face of the man in the road before them, confirming Sheila's fear. "Sheila," Judge Ralthas said, "I trust you haven't forgotten about our appointment in the morning. We can move it ahead to tonight if you like."

Sheila could see Link eyeing the circle of men around them. "Don't," she whispered to him, "These men aren't our enemies, Link. They're just soldiers doing their jobs."

"She's right," Zelda said, "We certainly don't need murder added to our list of charges."

"I know," Link said, then turned to Ralthas, "So, mind introducing yourself, pal?"

"Who I am is what I am," Ralthas said, "Judge. But if you do not cooperate, I shall also be jury and executioner. I am here to place you all under arrest for crimes against the kingdoms of Mystara."

"Like hell you will," Link started, before Zelda cut him off.

"Hear me," she said, "I am of the Royal Family of the kingdom of Hyrule, and am a stranger to these lands and their laws. I hereby demand political asylum until such a time we can explain the reasons for our actions."

That got whispers from the men surrounding them. Ralthas didn't so much as flinch. "I am afraid that is not possible at this time. One of your companions is the High Elder of Mystara and thus it falls to her to monitor you while in our lands. You became her responsibility when she allowed you out of the port without proper registration and immigration papers. She has knowingly broken the law, and you will all pay the penalty. Dismount from the horses you have stolen, now."

Link and the others looked at Sheila. "Best to do as he says for now," she said, slipping off her horse.

Once they were down, three men darted forward out of the crowd before them and took the reigns of the animals and led them quickly away. Sheila could see Link clenching his fists, glaring at Ralthas hard enough to split stone.

"Judge, please," she said, stepping in front of Link, hoping he wouldn't do something stupid, "These people have come here for the sake of their families. The Lords of Chaos have used a forbidden magic known as the Silencing upon their homeland. I will admit to using the ancient text that was the spell book of Darius in an attempt to translate the restoration spell to save their people. The book was destroyed when the Lords of Chaos attacked us and interrupted the spell. We have journeyed to the holy temples only to retrieve the fragments of the restoration spell that went awry. I will take full responsibility for my actions, but we only need two more fragments before they can save their people. Please, allow us to continue until we have those remaining fragments, then I will surrender myself without a struggle."

Ralthas didn't answer.

"Sheila, you don't have to…" Link started as he moved closer to her.

"It's all right, Link," she said, then spoke louder again, "Father, please, I…"

"You will address me by my title, High Elder Sheila Anthress!" Ralthas suddenly said, his voice nearly a shout, "I will not allow myself to be swayed by personal feelings. You know this, and your attempt at manipulating me is duly noted and added to your charges."

"Wait, 'father?'" Zelda said, turning to her.

Sheila nodded. "Yes, Judge Ralthas is my father. It's one more reason why I can't fight him."

"You can't," Link said, pulling her back behind him, "But I can. I've had enough of this."

"Link, don't!" she said, "The penalty for killing a judge is death, no exceptions!"

"Don't worry," Link said as he walked toward Ralthas, the men behind Ralthas lifting their crossbows higher, "I'm not going kill him."

Ralthas lifted one hand to signal the men behind him to not fire.

Link didn't intend to kill Ralthas. No, he was going to plant one solid punch in the man's face, then hold him in the air by he shirt collar and scream into his face about how the entire world was going to die if they didn't get to Darimar in a hurry. If that didn't work, well, he'd break Ralthas' legs and apologize to Sheila later.

Ralthas reached into the front of his shirt and lifted a small blue gem on a gold chain out and held it in his fingers. Link stopped his approach when a white glow appeared within the gem, casting a glow across Ralthas' face.

"If you want to fight someone," Ralthas said, "I can provide suitable opponents."

The light suddenly flared, blinding Link. He took a step back, blinking to clear his vision. When his vision returned, he found himself staring into a mirror.

"Mirage golems," Sheila said.

Link realized he was looking into the face of a perfect double of himself. And just to his right was one that looked exactly like Zelda, and beyond her was a perfect copy of Silviana. And to his left…

"Midna," he whispered.

It wasn't a copy of the way he knew her, but a copy of her true appearance. Her blue flesh and green tattoos perfect down to the tiniest detail, the slightest wrinkle or line. Four copies, one of each of them except Sheila.

Midna, the real Midna, emerged from Link's shadow. "He knew I was here, too," she said.

"So it seems," Link said, turning back to the copy of himself. The sword strapped across its shoulder even looked identical to the Master Sword. Link was willing to bet, though, there was nothing like the real thing.

He drew the sword, its unique metallic ring echoing off the walls of the gorge. At the same time, his copy drew its sword, the sound much more like typical metal scraping on metal.

Link glanced to his left, seeing Midna squaring off against the copy that looked nothing like she did now. To his right, Zelda and Silviana had moved up to face their copies as well. He'd just have to finish his copy off quickly, and help the others.

Link suddenly smiled, the perfect one-liner coming into his mind for this occasion. "You know," he said to his copy, "You're too good looking to kill. But I'm going to kill you anyway."

He lunged forward, swinging his blade, and steel rang against steel, and the other combatants quickly scattered.

Midna cast a stream of black lightning from each hand at her copy, and it reciprocated with the same. The streams of shadow magic hit each other perfectly, melding together into a pulsating, spinning orb of dark magic, small streams of black electricity shooting around its diameter as it slowly grew larger.

Link swung at his copy, intending to strike his sword into its right shoulder. The copy caught his blade perfectly with its own, blocking the full force of his swing without turning any of it. Link quickly pulled back and struck twice more, each time the copy matching his blow. Scarcely had the second ring occurred than Link spun on the spot, bringing up his right leg for his now trademark roundhouse kick.

His leg collided in the air with the leg of his copy as it performed the same move. Link pulled back quickly and so did the copy. "What's the matter?" Link asked it, "Can't come up with your own moves?"

Ralthas, just out of reach of the fight, called out to him. "You are a fool," he said, "He knows your every move! He is your every move! This is the one opponent you can never win against, no matter how hard you fight!"

"We'll just see about that," Link growled.

Silviana had back away further than the others and pulled out her bow. She snatched an arrow from her quiver and quickly loosed it at her copy. Her copy matched her speed and let fly its own arrow. The two arrows collided head-on in the air, the tips breaking off and the shafts dropping straight to the ground.

She drew another arrow, then quickly let it fly, followed by another in rapid succession at a different angle. The copy did so as well, both sets of arrows colliding perfectly and dropping straight down to the ground.

"Who'd think someone as pretty as her would be such a good shot?" Silviana asked no one in particular.

Zelda and her copy seemed to be locked in a staring contest. In truth, Zelda was hoping the copy would use a magic spell first, and she could counter, but the fact it wasn't moving was making the truth rapidly dawn upon her.

Link moved in on his copy again, with a vertical strike this time. The copy met his blow with the edge of its sword, the two blades perfectly against each other in a fashion any fighter would say was impossible. Holding his blade tight against his copy's, Link swung his right fist toward the copy's face, then suddenly pulled his punch, stopping his fist a hairsbreadth from the copy's chin.

He found himself with the copy's right fist in the exact same position in his face.

"So that's your game," he said, "I thought so."

"Link!" Zelda shouted at him.

"I know!" he called back, stepping away from his copy, and it backed away from him in the same manner.

It was quite simple why one couldn't beat these things. They simply imitated what the original did, and matched it perfectly. He turned to Midna to see that she had continued the battle of sheer force against her copy. The globe of dark energy was growing large and spinning rapidly, and looked dangerously close to simply exploding.

"Midna!" he said, "Stop! Just don't fight her and she's harmless!"

Midna turned to look, as did her copy, and she saw Link's copy moving as he did, though no words came from its mouth. She understood in an instant.

Simply cutting off the flow of her magic would have disastrous results, though. She'd have to throw the globe into the sky, where it would do not harm.

She applied pressure to the bottom, knowing the clone would do the same.

The globe of magic exploded, sending streaks of black lightning in every direction. Men screamed as the arcs cut into the ground and walls of rock. Even Ralthas gave up his calm demeanor as he leaped to the side and a streak ripped through the ground where he had been standing.

_She almost killed him,_ Link thought, _Damn._

"Link, just try to stay out of the way!" Midna shouted, "It should all discharge quickly!"

Link turned back to her in time to see a streak of the lightning lance through the rock wall directly above her head. She was watching the rapidly shrinking globe of dark energy. The magic from it would not harm her, but Link saw the section of rock the lightning had cut loose from the wall sliding down, and fall.

He ran. He didn't think about why or how, but he ran for her. He couldn't see the lightning or anyone around them anymore, only her and the falling rock.

Link dove for her, knocking her out of the air and to the ground beneath him. She hit the ground with a grunt and he landed over her, leaning on his elbows with one on each side of her. His face was almost directly in hers.

"Are you alright?" Link asked.

"Link," Midna said, starting to ask why he did that, when something warm hit her face. Then she saw the trickle of blood down the side of his face, running out of his hair, and the large stone that had landed on him, on the back of his head, and down to the middle of his back.

He had just saved her life once again. She looked to the side, and saw Link's copy lying over her own in a similar fashion, but without the great stone atop him.

With a grown, Link rolled to the side, landing hard on the dirt, the stone toppling off behind him. Midna sat up, putting one hand on his chest, leaning her own weight on the other. "Link?" she said, and pushed him gently, "Link?"

He didn't respond.

"Link!" she screamed, the tears welling up in her eyes, blurring her vision.

Zelda and Silviana both appeared near her, and Zelda leaned over Link, placing her hand on his neck, feeling for a pulse. At the same time, her copy did the same to the copy of Link, whom Midna's copy seemed to be fretting over, though it was not crying.

"He's alive," Zelda said, "He's alive."

"Link, wake up, please," Midna said, "You can't do this to me. Please…"

Sheila had stood aside during the short but climatic fight. She had known what the images were, but she had not known how they would respond. It was a magic that went out of regular use before she was born, and her father, Judge Ralthas, possessed one of the last amulets that could summon them without extensive preparations. It had been a gift from the Archmage back then when he had first become a judge.

Ralthas appeared at her side. He was watching the events, and without looking at her, he said, "Quite the show they put on, isn't it?"

He turned to look her in the face. "Well, have _you_ had enough yet? We can go on if you like."

"No more," she whispered, turning away, unable to watch further, "You win. End it, please."

Ralthas smiled, and picked up the blue stone pendant and tweaked his thumb across the carving on the front side. The four copies suddenly turned black in color and crumbled to dust.

"Bring the wagon up," Ralthas said to his men, "Take their weapons and load them up. If they resist, kill them. All their possessions are to be brought to me for cataloguing. If they tell me later that even one piece has gone missing, I'll have the ones responsible in the stocks."

Sheila saw the men further up the pass part as what looked like a wooden caravan wagon aside from the iron bars across the front and back openings being brought up the gorge.

_Well, we gave it a good try,_ she thought, _At least we're still going to Darimar. I'm sure King Rigdar will listen to us._


	46. Chapter 45

**Chapter 45: One Way or the Other**

"You are alone."

Link felt himself spinning through space, spiraling downward. When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing but blackness. He felt as though he'd been blinded, but he looked down and saw his own hands, his body. There was simply nothing to see anywhere else.

And then there was. He saw the faces of the people he thought of as his own family. The people of Ordon, he could see them. Bo, Rusl, and the others, and the children that he had risked his life to save. Talo, Malo, Colin, and the new baby, Rusl's young daughter. All their faces stared at him, frozen in stone.

"Okay," he told himself, "I'm dreaming. This is a nightmare. Or I've finally gone bat-shit crazy."

"You are alone."

"No I'm not," Link said, turning around to search for the source of the voice, "We've already had this discussion."

He saw her coming toward him. It was Midna, the true Midna that he had only seen in his dreams. She was wearing a regal black gown, her bright hair tied in a loose braid draped across one shoulder, and she smiled. The smile seemed to cast a warm glow that filled the darkness around them.

She reached one hand out to him, and he reached out to take it. Suddenly, her flesh cracked. Black lines spread rapidly across her blue flesh, and the pieces fell away, drifting into the blackness. "No!" Link said, reaching for her, but even as he touched her, her body crumbled away, and nothing was left, the small pieces of her flesh floating away into the darkness beyond his reach.

"She will die, and there is nothing you can do to save her. You are alone."

* * *

Link rose up suddenly with a gasp.

"Easy," came a voice close by, and he felt a hand on his shoulder, firmly pushing him back down, "I managed to stop the bleeding but you may still have a concussion."

Link looked up to see the face of Sheila looking down at him. He lay back down to find that his head had been resting on her lap. He was lying along a wooden bench that seemed to shift beneath him. "Where are we?"

"On our way to Darimar," she said, "I guess this is the 'other way' of 'one way or another.'"

That was right. The judge. He'd leaped between Midna and the falling rocks to save her, and he'd felt the impact, felt his own blood running through his hair and down his face, and then he'd blacked out. "Is everyone all right?"

"Oh, you got the worst of it," Sheila said, then gestured to the side.

Link turned his head, wincing as it throbbed in protest as he did so. Zelda lay on a similar wooden bench on the other side of the small room, asleep with her head propped on her arm. The room itself was very small, about eight feet long and four feet wide, with the wooden benches along its length. It was a paddy wagon, sure enough, as Link felt it moving beneath him. The only source of light was a small window in the door at the back, about six inches tall and wide, with iron bars blocking more of the sunlight as it tried to illuminate the wagon.

Link realized that if he did not look directly at the light, the magic of the tattoo he now bore on his face became active, and he could see into the dark corners at the front with ease. At the front of the wagon, Silviana sat on the floor between the benches, her back to the front wall, her eyes partially open, but her head leaned forward. Link judged her to be in a light doze.

"Midna is staying out of sight," Sheila said, "In case you're wondering. I doubt she'd go far from your side right now."

Link nodded, immediately regretting doing so. "How long was I out?" he asked.

"About twelve hours, if I had to guess," Sheila said, "We've still got plenty of time to wait. It's a couple of days to Darimar at the pace they're taking. Not much to do but sleep."

"Why didn't you tell us Ralthas was your father?" Link asked.

Sheila sighed. "I guess because I didn't know how you all would react. 'Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.' And just take a guess who is always the biggest suspect of that proverb."

"Of course," Link said, "That's why I asked before why anyone in the right mind would give one man so much power."

"My father is very dedicated to his duty," Sheila said, "In fact, that's what it always is with him. Duty. It's because he is so dedicated that I hardly know him."

"Wait a second," Link said, "You're telling me that in three centuries of your life, he never had the time to see you? That just seems…"

"Preposterous?" she asked, "I suppose to someone short-lived as most humans, it would seem so. He often sleeps in his office when he's working, with it nearly all the time, and after I was accepted into the academy and moved across the continent, I could see him even less. It's not unusual for me to not see him for years or even decades sometimes, and then it's usually only for a few minutes before he must be off again."

"Is he so dedicated that he would put us on trial when there is a war coming?" Link asked.

"All the more reason he'd try to get it done quickly and efficiently," she said, "If things go as I expect then you, Zelda, and Midna will be exiled and forced to return to Hyrule."

"Yeah, you mentioned that before," Link said, "What about you?"

"Well, I'm going to lose my title of High Elder," she said, "I see no way out of that. Riven will likely take my place."

Link remembered Riven. The Archmage back at the academy in Tyr.

"Then I will likely serve time in prison or be exiled myself," Sheila continued, "If it is the latter, I'm seriously considering going with you all to Hyrule."

"Hey, we, at least, would be glad to have you," Link said, "What about Silviana?"

"I don't know," Sheila said, "We can tell them that she had nothing to do with our activities in the temples, and only recently joined us, and maybe get them to let her go. If they intend to hold her to the rest of us, then it looks very dark."

"What?" Link said, looking straight up at her.

"Understand, Link, she was a slave, and a Dra'thul slave at that," Sheila said, "Slavery was outlawed relatively recently, and the Dra'thul have supposed to have been extinct for several millennia. She's technically about as far from being a citizen of any of the kingdoms as you can get. She'll likely be executed.

"Link, if what Zelda says is true, if our enemies are truly from another world, it would be logical that the Dra'thul of their world are not yet extinct, as we've seen them ourselves. And here is this single one that seems to belong in ours. Even if she truly was born in this world and is the last of her kind, it is only a logical connection to make that she is an enemy spy or saboteur sent to infiltrate through our group, which further increases our charges by suspicion of working with the enemy."

"And no doubt your father has connected all these dots," Link said.

"All these and more," Sheila said in a low voice, "Link, there's one other thing I haven't told you or the others yet."

"What now?"

"My father showed me a drawing, an artist's concept of what a survivor from Whitos-Neiki saw before he escaped. There was a man there, who appeared and challenged the sorceress. But he told the that the survivor says that he spoke to her as if he knew her, as if they were allies at a time, but he had betrayed them."

"And what's that got to do with us?" Link asked.

Sheila sighed, shaking her head. "Link, it was a drawing of you."

* * *

The sun rose over the eastern horizon, its warm light spreading over the city, street by street, and people began to emerge from their homes for another day. Word had arrived of the battles that had already occurred, but life went on, regardless. There were just more armored soldiers seen in the streets and on the walls of the castle city of Metallicana.

A few hours after dawn, a man who had not been in the city for six years made his way down the streets, the familiar buildings and shops bringing a nostalgic smile to his face. "It's good to be home," Alexander Ragefaust said to himself as he walked the streets, his sword at his hip and his pack on his back.

Six years he'd been traveling. When he first left the city, he had done so because there were no swordsman there who could defeat him and his unconventional blend of fighting styles. He'd thought at the time that he had intended to find someone who could give him a challenge, someone against whom he could continue to improve himself.

He did improved, and even sought foes over the sea to the east, but he found no one who could quickly enough adapt to his shocking low-kick, though his basic exercises had improved his speed and power of the strike to such a level that his kick had the potential to break his opponent's legs.

But after he'd met Link, met and fought him and lost, the first thing he'd wanted to do was go back home. It wasn't that he felt shamed by his loss, but it was as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders to at last know for absolutely certain that there was someone out there who was his superior. Link had lost the first match because, like all the others, Alex's low kick had taken him unawares, but whether through sheer luck or an unusual strength of his bones, Link had avoided having his legs broken by the blows.

And then he'd come back, not only ready for the low-kick, but with a counter-attack for it that defied any fighting technique Alex had ever seen or heard of. Alex was a very skilled swordsman, he was well aware of the fact, but Link was something else entirely. There was real potential there. Anyone who knew the first thing about swordsmanship could look at Link and know that he was going to be something which the world only saw only rarely. A warrior with the potential to be remembered for centuries beyond his time for his incredible ability. Possibly even spawn legends of him still living somewhere centuries after he died.

But the fact that Alex knew Link was far beyond him in both skill and potential was in a way relaxing. It also gave him a target. A goal to work toward, even if he would never reach it. Some people simply possessed a natural ability for swordsmanship, like any other profession, and Link's far exceeded his own.

The latter part of his journey home had been sped when he'd heard the news of Whitos-Neiki's fall. He hadn't intended to reach Metallicana for several weeks yet, but fear had given speed to his feet. Now that he was here, he saw that the city was safe yet, and he relaxed.

He stopped in front of a building that occupied a full city block, looking up at the sign that identified it as the Ragefaust academy of martial arts. This was what he left behind so long ago when he had become a swordsman. Now that he was home, he had someone to see here.

He opened the door and stepped inside. It was still quite early in the day, and the building was mostly empty. Only a few early risers were in the main hall, most of them toward the left side, stretching themselves for the exercises ahead. The right wall was occupied by racks holding hundreds of lifting weights, as well as band weights to be worn on the wrists and ankles during workouts.

The center of the room was dominated by a large padded ring, essentially just a three inch pad on the floor surrounded by four posts with a rope connecting them.

"Alexander!" a woman's voice said behind him.

Alex turned to see her standing a short distance away. She had just come inside and sat a pail of water on the floor. She'd evidently just made a morning trip to the public well about two streets away.

She was considerably smaller than him, almost two feet shorter, but was nearly three quarters of his weight. She was a stocky woman, her muscle well toned and intimidating, despite her small stature. Her hair was blonde, and cut short enough that it refused to lay down properly. She was wearing a loose-fitting white shirt and brown breeches, and sandals.

"You," she growled at Alex, a dark look on her face, "You've got a lot of brass showing your face around here."

Alex dropped his bag to the floor and turned to face her. "I've been told that I'm too reckless for my own good. It's good to see you, Angie."

"You know what I think it would be good to see?" she asked, cracking her knuckles, "You bruised, broken, and bleeding."

Alex turned to one of the men. "Did I do something or not do something to piss her off?"

Angie walked toward him. "Let's start with eight years," she said, "You leave without saying a word and show up again eight years later like nothing happened?"

"No, stuff happened," Alex said with a smile, "Quite a bit happened. You got a lot prettier, for starters."

Angie cracked her knuckles again. "So tell me. You still know how to fight like a real man, or did you put it all in that sword?"

The people in the gymnasium were gathering around them now, many of them smiling. They knew a fight when they saw one. Alex sighed and removed his belt, dumping it and his sword on the floor, then slid his buckler off his left arm, dropping it next to it.

Angie gestured to the rope ring near the center of the room, then moved to it and slipped under the rope walking to one of the corners. "Any special rules for the rusty one?" she asked.

Alex removed his jacket and shirt, dumping them on the floor next to his stuff before entering the ring. As an afterthought, he removed his boots as well. "Not particularly," he said, "Let's say elbows are okay, but no going for the eyes or jewels, okay?"

Angie chuckled as she watched him, now shirtless, move into position. The others were gathering around the edge of the ring. He had plenty of exercise while he was gone, judging by his sharply defined six-pack and barrel chest. "Fine by me," she said, then removed her own shoes.

They moved toward each other, then took their ready stances. Alex held his fists up before himself, his fingers loose and was up on his toes. Angie turned sideways, her right side toward him, her feet far apart, her right hand up before her face and her left over her chest.

And then, as though they were waiting for a signal, they leaped into action. Angie hopped a step toward him and her right foot came up, striking for his chin. Alex leaned back, her foot passing before his face, and he grabbed her leg just below the knee and swung sideways, intending to toss her onto her back. As he began to pull, however, her leg spun in his grip and her left foot came up, striking him in the back of the head. Alex lost his grip on her and staggered a step forward.

Angie fell to her back, but sprang up quickly, moving toward him and putting her hands together, raising them high to slam across his back. Alex spun to the side, the blow missing and throwing her off balance. Alex dropped low as he continued his spin and stuck out one leg, catching her ankles and ripping her feet out from under herself to slam facedown on the mat.

Alex regained his feet and took a few steps back. "Now who was it that was rusty?" he asked.

With a growl, Angie pushed herself up. She quickly pulled her shirt off and tossed it out of the ring, leaving her in a white breastband, but freeing up her arms. Several of the men watching whistled. Bah, let them jeer.

"Hey, you really are all grown up," Alex said, "And out!"

"Oh, I'm sure I'm still nothing compared to one of your hussies," she said, and moved toward him at a run.

Alex stepped forward to meet her as her feet left the floor and her body spun through the air in a clockwise motion, and her right leg came up for a devastating aerial spin kick. Alex quickly ducked his head down, her foot whistling past him, and he felt it brush against his hair. Angie landed on her left foot and immediately moved forward with a left punch toward Alex's face. He raised his right harm, turning the blow, then immediately deflected another from her right hand.

Blow after blow poured at him in rapid succession, and Alex was forced to take a step back as he defended himself. He felt the rope surrounding the ring against his back, and suddenly her knee came up and slammed into his stomach, knocking the wind from him. He leaned forward in reflex, and her fist came up to greet him, knocking into his chin and filling his vision with stars. Angie spun on the spot and backhanded him with a clenched fist on the side of his had.

Alex went down, hitting the thin mat that he'd swear later was hard as rock and flopping onto his back. He looked up to see Angie standing over him, her hands on her hips, smiling at him. "What's the matter?" she asked, "Forget how to use that legendary low kick of yours?"

"No, I just thought you'd like to get out of this without broken legs," Alex said.

"Well, your playing nice just got your ass kicked by your little sister," Angie said, grinning.

"Okay," Alex said, then his arm shot out and ripped Angie's feet from under her, and she landed on the mat on her back, cracking her skull against the floor hard, filling her vision with stars.

"Cheap shot," she grumbled.

* * *

"So, where exactly have you been all this time?" Angie asked.

The two of them were now seated against the back wall of the gymnasium, watching as men and women, both students and veterans, continued to arrive, it not yet being time for instruction to begin.

"All over the place," Alex said.

"Looking for your great challenge, no doubt," Angie said, "Well, did you find it?"

"Yes, actually," Alex said, "A young man named Link. He's very young yet, Angie. Younger than either of us, but he managed to beat me. Took him a second try, but it was just the morning after the first."

"So, if it had been a life or death thing, he'd be dead."

"Well, I don't think he was taking me seriously the first time. The second time, he meant business. And he was still kind of messed up after the first time. His legs weren't broken, but I was amazed he was walking, myself."

"So you're proud he knocked you flat?" Angie said with a teasing smile.

Alex leaned his head against the wall behind him, and sighed. "He's good, Angie. Real good. I mean, I'm good, but this kid's better. And he's got something else entirely. He learns and adapts fast, like he's got a natural talent for it. And the way he moves, even the way he carries himself when he walks… You can tell he's got incredible potential to be much better yet. He's the kind of swordsman who is going to be a legend in his own time."

"Oh, that's why you came home," Angie said, "To get your autograph book."

Alex smiled at her. "You don't believe I just wanted to see you?"

"You? The guy who shaved my head when I was four? Please, give me a little credit."

Alex looked across the gym. "I was kind of hoping to see dad, too. Shouldn't he be here by now?"

Angie looked over at him. "Dad died," she said, "Last winter."

"What?" Alex said, turning to her, "How?"

"Took a fever," she said, "Real bad one, too. Healer did all she could, but the next morning he simply didn't wake up."

"Oh, gods," Alex whispered, leaning forward and resting his head in his hands.

"You okay?" Angie asked, "Not like it's your fault."

"So, you managed to keep the gym open, I see," Alex said, "How'd that go over?"

"Well, it was supposed to go to you," Angie said, "But seeing as how you weren't here and no one knew how to find you or even if you were alive or dead, it passed to me as the only living relative. Believe me, quite a few people didn't like the thought of a girl teaching them how to fight."

"Even though you were always the best student?"

"Oh, there were nice long talks with the instructors. Most of them wanted me to let them run the place and pay the checks and that would be that. Took me beating them all senseless, one by one, to convince them I knew what I was doing when it comes to a fight."

"And the military contract?"

"Oh, they were going to pull out all the cadets and squires and cancel the contract entirely. It would have bankrupted the place," Angie said, "I convinced them to let me train one group of recruits over three months before they pulled out, and let them see how it turned out."

"And?"

"Aside from being one of the best out-of-basic squads they have, they were convincing enough to renew the contract, and I've got another group of thirty to work every other afternoon, beside the regular classes."

"That's good," Alex said, "Dad would be proud."

The gymnasium was a family-owned martial-school, had been for six generations, and about forty years ago, during their grandfather's time, some of the military higher-ups realized how soldiers trained in unarmed combat would be able to keep fighting long after weapons broke or were lost, and some were more dangerous with their bare hands than any sword or axe. A contract with the school was signed up, and not a single batch of new recruits left training without at least basic instruction in unarmed combat. Those that were especially promising were often pulled aside and trained as unarmed specialists.

Angie rose to her feet. "Well, it's nearly time for morning instruction, so I need to go get changed. We can talk more after, and get something to eat."

Alex nodded.

"Hey," Angie said, causing him to look up, "You here to stay?"

Alex thought about it for a moment. "I don't think so," he said, "I heard the news about the attack on Whitos-Neiki on my way back here."

"You're going to go off and find this Link, aren't you?" Angie asked, "How long will you be here?"

"Not sure yet," Alex said, "I think I'll stay a couple days at least, make sure you know what you're doing here."

"Yeah, right," Angie said, "Maybe I need to knock some more sense into your skull."

Alex smiled and shook his head, and Angie turned and headed for the changing room.

He couldn't stay here long if he wanted to, Alex realized. He'd been here less than a day and his feet were already starting to itch. Knowing about the coming war only increased the feeling. He wanted to get out there and do something about it. Link was the kind of person who would do something about it, and do it directly. If he found the center of the fighting, he'd find Link. He just knew it.

Call it a bit of masochistic fascination, but he wanted to see just how skilled Link really was.


	47. Chapter 46

So, a slightly shorter than average chapter, but hopefully the next one will make up for it, seeing as it's one of the chapters I've been dying to write since I started this story.

**Chapter 46: Questions and Answers**

The wagon lurched to a halt.

Link sat up as it did so, his head throbbing in complaint. "Where are we?"

Silviana was already at the back window looking out between the bars. "Looks like just a place to stop for the night," she said, "The sun is nearly down."

Link leaned back against the wall of the wagon, resting his head against the wood. "I guess we can expect food soon, then," he said.

Midna was at his side. "Are you feeling any better?" she asked him.

"Oh, yeah," Link said, "I feel like my head got hit with a sledgehammer, as opposed to run over by an ox, so I'm feeling a little better."

"How far is it to Darimar at this pace?" Zelda asked Sheila.

"I'm not sure," the elf replied, "If I had to guess, I'd say about four more days."

"You know," Link said, "When they bring food, we could escape."

"Barge past them and escape into the wilderness, no food or weapons?" Sheila said, "You must be joking."

"There's always great places to hide in tombs," Link said with a smile, "And if they're anything like Hyrule's, it would be fairly easy to convince them that whatever's walking around down there got us. What's the fastest route to the nearest graveyard?"

"Don't be gross," Sheila said, curling a lip in distaste, "We don't bury bodies, we burn them."

"That's funny," Link said, "I could have sworn I remembered seeing a graveyard somewhere." He stopped himself, realizing it had been in one of the visions he had seen. The one with the wizard hero, Darius, talking to the strange woman who had tormented his dreams for so long as of late.

"Burial practices were abandoned long ago," Sheila said, "During the ancient war. When the rebels began practicing the art of necromancy, graveyards suddenly became fuel for their armies. That tomb in the mountains was probably the last actual practice of burial in Mystara's history. I think it was a perfect example of why burial can be a bad idea. And from the way you talk about it, cremation would be a good practice for Hyrule to adopt."

"It's not so bad as you may think," Zelda said, "Restless dead are different from raised dead. They don't stray far from their burial places, and besides, whether the bodies are burned or not, restless spirits are hard to keep from coming back in one form or another."

"It's just a good idea to not go underground unless you're heavily armed," Midna said with a sinister smile.

The lock on the door at the back of the wagon clicked, halting Sheila's comment. The door opened, revealing three men in leather armor, the two behind the one who opened the door with spears in hand.

"Judge Anthress wishes to speak with the one named Link," the first man said, "Alone. The rest of you, including the shadow creature, are to remain here."

Midna leaned around Link so she could see them. "You know, I have a name, too," she said.

"I guess he just doesn't want you listening in," Link said, standing up, then he said to the soldier, "It hardly matters anyway. I'll tell her and the others what we talked about when I get back here."

"I'm just following my orders, sir," the man said, "Shall we go."

"Be back in a minute," Link said, slipping past them to the door.

"Just keep your eyes open, Link," Midna said, "And be careful."

Link stepped down out of the wagon. The door shut and the lock clicked into place behind him.

"There's no need to be worried yet," Sheila said, "My father won't try to kill him on the spot, unless Link gives him a reason to."

"It's not Link I'm worried about," Midna said, "It's all the innocent soldiers just doing their jobs that will die if your father does try something."

* * *

The camp was small. It seemed that most of the soldiers that had surrounded them in the pass had returned to Nigel, as Link's quick glance around only counted fifteen, including the judge. The camp was being made in a clearing off the side of the road, which was little more than a wagon track. If this was a main road, it was a long way from any civilization.

The clearing was little more than a bare patch of dirt among grass and shrubs surrounding them. There was a second wagon with them, from which men were unloading tents and cooking supplies. Link spied Ralthas near it, who took a large bag from on of the soldiers and turned to walk a short ways to a large rock about the perfect size for use as a seat, where he sat down and opened the bag.

"Come on," the soldier beside Link said, "He wanted to see you, let's go."

Link nodded and moved over to Ralthas, who removed something from the bag. Link realized it was the magic horn Roxim had given him.

"Is this some kind of symbolic battle horn or something?" Ralthas asked him as they drew close.

"No, that's a drinking horn for parties," Link replied, "You put the small end in your mouth and the ale or mead is dumped in the other end."

"Mmm hmm," Ralthas said, clearly not believing a word of it, then set the horn on the ground, and reached to his belt to pull out a small black book. "You may go," he said to the soldiers.

They saluted and moved away to help set up the camp. Ralthas pulled an ink-pen from the spine of the small book and opened it, flipping through the pages to somewhere just past the half-way point. "Your name is Link, correct?" he asked.

"Yes," Link said, "I'm sure your shadowing has told you that much."

"What's your family name?" Ralthas asked, ignoring the jab.

"I don't have one."

Ralthas looked up at him? "What do you mean you don't have one?"

"I am an orphan," Link said, "I don't know who my parents are."

"In that situation, orphans usually take the name of the family that raised them," Ralthas said.

"I was raised by an entire village," Link said, "I'd have a name a mile long if I took all their names."

"Hmm," Ralthas said and wrote something in the small book, "Where is this village?"

"In the magical land of faeries where your every desire is granted by the frolicking naked nymphs," Link said.

Ralthas looked up at him, then wrote something else in his book. "It seems," he said, "that you are the kind who is going to fight tooth and nail unless I tell you exactly what is going on, yes?"

"I don't know about the tooth and nail part," Link said, "but I'm probably going to try to kill you with sarcasm."

"Okay, smartass," Ralthas said, and reached again for his belt, this time pulling a rolled up piece of parchment, then offered it to Link, "Have a look at this."

Link took the parchment and unrolled it. "Recognize the face in that picture?" Ralthas asked.

"Oh, yuck! It's horrible!" Link said as he held the parchment before himself, "Oh, wait a second, that's me. Rather handsome fellow, isn't he?"

"That is an artist's concept of a man who was in Whitos-Neiki the day it was attacked," Ralthas said, "taken from a survivor's account of the events."

"That's impossible," Link said, "I was in the forest then. Ask the others."

"I don't have to," Ralthas said, "I had men watching you in that city. I knew when you left, and I knew where you were headed. That's why I had as hard a time believing this as you are now."

"Well, this witness has to be mistaken then, and you know it," Link said.

"Is there any chance you have a twin?"

The thought hadn't occurred to Link. Now that he thought about it, it _was_ possible. He didn't know if he had any family. What would the odds be that a twin brother could be way out here?

"There was one other thing," Ralthas said, flipping back pages in his book, "The witness said that he spoke to the sorceress leading the attacking forces like he knew here. In fact, they called each other by name. She called him 'Zero.' That name ring any bells?"

"Zero…" Link whispered, the name hitting him like a ton of bricks.

Ralthas jumped on it. "You do know that name!"

"Yes, but…" Link started, then looked down at the picture that was a spitting image of himself, "I met him, back in Hyrule. It was dark, and I couldn't see his face. But there's no way he could be related to me. He's not even human! He walked right through a stone wall!

Ralthas was writing in his book, evidently taking notes on what Link was saying. "I see," he said, "What was he doing when you met him?"

Link realized where this was going. "Hold on a second," Link said, "If I actually tell you this, is it going to help myself and my friends?"

"If you mean 'will it get us off the hook,' then no," Ralthas said, "However, this could greatly change the direction I take this investigation. And lying to me now will only dig the hole you're in deeper."

"Sheila told me that Zelda and I will most likely be exiled from Mystara," Link said, "which isn't in itself a problem, provided we find the other fragments of the spell we're after."

"That's the most likely outcome," Ralthas said, "I can arrange for you to get the fragments you still require, though an escort of at least one judge will have to accompany you."

"What about Silviana?" Link asked.

"The Dra'thul?" Ralthas said, "I know she only recently joined your little band. I'll have to hold her until the investigation is done, but then I'll let her go back to her forest if she wants, or she can go to Hyrule with you, I don't really care."

"And Sheila?"

Ralthas looked up at him. "All I'm going to say on that is that things look dark for her."

"What?" Link said, unable to believe his own ears, "She's your daughter!"

"She also took matters into her own hands that should have been brought before the council of kingdoms," Ralthas said, "This resulted in the destruction of a priceless artifact, trespassing on ancient holy grounds that have been off limits to the living for millennia, the damage and or destruction of two of said grounds, and at least one count of murder, judging from the body we found in the forest temple."

_That psychotic sadist,_ Link thought.

"That was me," he said, "I killed her, but if I didn't, she would have killed me."

"If it was a simple weapon wound that killed her, I would be able to believe that," Ralthas said, "This woman's spine was broken in six places, four ribs were broken, along with both legs and one arm. That seriously sounds like torture to me."

"It was nothing of the sort," Link said, clenching his left hand into a fist, feeling the Triforce growing hot on his hand. He forced himself to stay calm. If he lost control here, they wouldn't be able to go near a city without people trying to kill them on sight.

"Then what was it?"

"It's complicated," Link said, not wanting to give away what he carried.

"I bet. And then there is one other thing that I have to hold all of you in doubt about," Ralthas said, "The wizard."

That got Link's attention. "Wizard?" he asked.

"Do you know the name Ganondorf Dragmire?" Ralthas asked.

He saw the flash of hatred in Link's eyes. "That man tried to overthrow the kingdom of Hyrule," Link said, "Very nearly succeeded, too."

"What stopped him?" Ralthas asked.

"Me," Link said.

When he didn't say anything else, Ralthas made a note in his book. "I see. That's much what he said when we found him last year, along with quite a few other things. He was badly wounded and delirious, and confessed to a great many crimes. In fact, I find it hard to believe one man can commit as much evil in one lifetime as he claimed to have."

"He's four thousand years old," Link said.

Ralthas nearly dropped his pen. "Do you think me a fool?" he demanded, "Humans do not live that long! _Elves_ do not live that long!"

"Except he possesses a power that grants wishes," Link says, "and his first wish was to live forever. That's what the legend says, at least."

"Legend?" Ralthas said, "Elaborate."

"Why don't you just ask him?" Link asked, "He could tell you much more than I can."

Ralthas made another note in his book. "He's been even less forthcoming with answers than you," Ralthas said, "Though he did imply that you were coming for him, as though you would free him."

_No way he knows about what happened with Zelda the other night,_ Link thought.

"Free him of this life, maybe," Link said, "But not before he lifts the curse on Midna."

"Ah, the little shadow creature," Ralthas said, "She was cursed? I suppose that would explain the form the mirage golem took."

Those golems from the other night that had taken their images. The one that copied Midna had taken the form of her true self, not the image of what she was now.

"That's right," Link said, "One way or another, he's going to lift that curse, even if I have to beat it out of him."

"Now," Ralthas said, "Can we get back to the question I asked before this conversation deviated. This person, Zero, what was it he was doing when you met him?"

"He was stealing from me," Link said, "He took a fragment of a device called the Twilight Mirror."

"Twilight Mirror…" Ralthas said, making a note in his book.

"It's Midna's only way home," Link said, "so I'll be wanted to get that back, too."

"I wasn't asking," Ralthas said, but made another note anyway, "Very well, I think that's all I'll need for now."

He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. The three soldiers who had escorted Link to him came trotting up. "Take him back to the wagon," Ralthas said, then turned to Link, "You'll have something to eat soon, as soon as we get everything set up for the night."

"Yeah, yeah," Link muttered, walking with the soldiers back toward the wagon.

He glanced back over his shoulder to see Ralthas reach into the back and pull out the Master Sword. He drew the blade from the scabbard and tested the edge on his thumb, then made another note in his book.

_Well, I guess that's one good opinion of him, at least,_ Link thought.

* * *

"Don't you have someplace to be?"

Tharkus turned to see Khall by the entrance to his laboratory. "Back already?" he asked, then turned back to the task at hand, "Shame about that."

"I was taking care of my end of things," Khall said, walking toward him, "Now what have you been doing while I was gone?"

"It's taken care of," Tharkus said, and gestured to the crystal ball on the tabletop, "The best part of commanding an undead army is that you don't have to be in the field with them."

Khall looked into the crystal to see an image of said army, moving through the fields to the northwest of Metallicana. "Other great benefits of such an army," Tharkus said, "They don't require sleep or food, they can continue fighting even after losing several limbs, and there is no such thing as morale for them."

"Yes, and they also lack the intelligence for any kind of real strategy."

"Something I'm always working on improving," Tharkus said, and pointed to one corner of the lab.

Khall turned to the corner to see a single large glass tube in the corner. It was too dark to see what was within, so he conjured a globe of light in his hand and held it up to the tube. Within, he saw the form of a beast that filled the tube from the floor to the ceiling, and yet was partially hunched over. It had to be over twelve feet tall. It's flesh was dark brown in color, with splotches of black. A shape near the top moved, and a pair of glowing red eyes opened, looking directly at him.

"A flesh golem?" Khall said, "What's so special about that?"

"This golem was grown from the remains of a golem that our friend Link destroyed using his Triforce," Tharkus said, "If you're curious, that's that same time that fragment of the lock opened."

"And what does that mean?"

"Like all other forms of magic, the Triforce leaves an energy residue," Tharkus said, "Through manipulation of that residue, effects not originally intended can be created. I was hoping to create a golem resistant to the power of the Triforce, so that Link or Ganon could not so easily destroy it."

"Were you successful?" Khall asked, wondering what the point of this was.

"Even better than I could have hoped for," Tharkus said, "This golem is immune to all forms of magic! You are looking at the first truly invulnerable flesh golem!"

"Is that so?" Khall said, looking into the creature's red eyes, "You do realize how dangerous this thing would be to even us if it was loose?"

"I'm not an idiot," Tharkus said, "This thing isn't going anywhere while it's not directly under my control. It's going to be a special surprise for Ganon."

_Ah, so that's your game,_ Khall thought, then said, "That's if we find him."

"Already found," Tharkus said, turning to him with a smile, "We can thank the lovely Princess Zelda for finding him for us. He is in Darimar."

"And just how would you know that?" Khall asked, turning to him, and dousing the light in his hand.

Tharkus gestured to the crystal ball. "I scry and I spy. In fact, now that we know where he is, we call skip the attacks on Nigel and Metallicana and go straight to Darimar with our full forces."

The entire point of the war had been find Ganondorf and draw him out. As the most powerful wizard alive, he posed the greatest threat to their efforts. It had been a simple plan, to devastate the cities through magic and military force, and the one that held against the initial attack would be the one Ganon was in. If none held, they would plan their next move from there.

"No," Khall said, "We follow the original plan on the off chance your information is wrong, or there might be someone else who can cause us problems."

"Then when the next attack begins, Darimar will hold," Tharkus said, "and Karadiv will die."

"So be it," Khall said, "I've had enough of that fool's ego to begin with. If he was half as talented as he thinks he is, Ganon himself wouldn't have a chance against him."

"As planned then," Tharkus said, "Link and his companions will likely arrive in Darimar during the attack."

"Well then," Khall said, "We'll likely see just how good Link really is. And sometime after the attack, before we move in anyone else, you and I will pay him a personal visit, and we won't leave without the fragment of the Twilight Mirror in their possession."

"If we kill the Twili, it may simply disappear," Tharkus warned, "And I know from personal experience, if we touch her, Link be there like lightning before the storm."

"Oh, don't worry," Khall said, smiling slightly, "Our other ally has informed me that he won't be able to do anything about it. In fact, he will be the bargaining chip to get the Twili to give the mirror up."


	48. Chapter 47

Re-uploaded and corrected the part where I called Sheila "Kilishandra." Can't believe I did that.

Let me say real quick, in my defense, to the people who have seen Bastard!: I didn't intend for some of the scenes in this chapter to be so similar to the first episode. I really didn't. The problem is that they are similar scenes, with similar goals for developments. I was going to redo them, but I simply couldn't think of a better way to do so. If you haven't caught the rest of the references to that awesome series thus far taht were deliberate, then no worries, enjoy.

**Chapter 47: Return of the Man-Demon**

It was a cloudy day, the sun only faintly peeking through the clouds as it drifted lazily upward through the morning sky.

The castle city of Darimar was believed to be a nigh-impregnable fortress, situated with its back against the mountains on the southern border of Mystara. The castle itself was built directly onto the mountainside, with many of the inner chambers carved directly into the mountain itself.

The walls surrounding the city were tall and proud, and had endured since before the ancient war. They bore the scars of battle, but had never been breached. A deep gorge surrounded the outer walls, dug in ages long past, nearly thirty feet down, the inner side of which was utterly sheer and unscalable.

There were only two entrances to the city. The first was a drawbridge on the northern side. It served as the main entrance to the city and primary route of travel for anyone entering or leaving the city. The only other entrance was a side gate on the western side, which was scarcely large enough for two men to walk through side-by-side, and then their shoulders would be touching. A stone bridge cross the gorge surrounding the city by that gate, and while it served as the one real weak point in the event of a siege, the size of the gate itself made entry for an invader problematic, for they would be bottlenecked in and a small number of good soldiers could hold them there. Yes, the only other option would be to lay the gate open with siege equipment and risk demolishing the bridge in the process.

There were no dwellings outside the city walls, but it was by no means confined or strangled by said walls. It was literally the largest city in the world, with a population rapidly approaching one million, the largest population concentrated in one location in the entire world, and there was yet more room within the walls to spare. The walls had to contain between fifteen and twenty square miles of land. It could take one literally days to get from one end of the city to the other, and even longer if they were on foot.

It was a very noisy city, Link realized, already able to hear it through the walls of the wagon as the wheels moved from the road to the relatively smooth wood of the drawbridge.

Riding in the wagon for the better part of a week had really put a strain on him. His muscles were practically screaming for some exercise, and judging by the restlessness of the others, they weren't feeling much better. His head felt a great deal better now, though.

He knew what the Judge Ralthas had planned for them, but his thoughts kept drifting to Ganondorf. They knew the man was in this city, but the question was if he would seek them out, or if they would have to find him. No doubt Ralthas wouldn't let them go far in the first place, though Midna could easily sneak away undetected, but there was no way Link was going to let her go off hunting the wizard on her own.

Ralthas had said Ganondorf was in prison, though. Link knew that the prison wouldn't hold the wizard if he truly wanted out. Who knew, they might very soon become neighbors.

* * *

Ganondorf smiled to himself, leaning back against the wall of his cell. Yes, they were getting closer. He could feel it. They had come right to him, as he had intended. Maybe they couldn't feel his presence yet, considering they were still at a great distance, and given they were much less attuned to their Triforces.

His patience was nearly infinite, but he was getting tired of this cell, and the hedge-wizards who came each day to check the seals they had placed on the door to hold him in. Such a futile effort had amused him at first, but it had grown dull.

Wait, something had just changed. He looked up at the roof of his cell. A relatively mighty presence had passed overhead, coming from the south. That wasn't right. There was no wizard of that caliber in this world short of himself, and it certainly wasn't Khall or Kilishandra.

Ganondorf rose to his feet. And what made matters worse was that this wizard had wrapped himself in magical auras that served no purpose other than to say "Look over here!" to anyone attuned to the forces of magic. Any magician with brains would keep their hands firmly out of the magical energies until they were ready to attack, because once they did so, every magician and magic-sensitive person for miles would know exactly where they were.

And there were some spells of such power than literally anyone could feel the energies, like cold shivers up their spines.

"I see your game, Khall," Ganondorf said, smiling to himself, "You attack the cities in hopes to draw me out into a trap. This wizard is nothing more than the bait. All right, I'll play. I just hope you're ready when your turn comes."

He lifted his right hand, lifting his palm toward the iron, magically sealed door of his cell. "Because this game happens to be Sudden Death," he added, then "_Daem!_"

A streak of gold lightning shot from his palm into the door, ripping it off its hinges with a loud screech of twisting metal and sent it flying down the hallway, sparks flying where the corners dug trenches into the stone walls and floor, to land with a resounding crash at the far end.

He marched up the hallway, hearing shouts from up the stairs at the far end. A soldier appeared from around the corner, his sword drawn. When he saw Ganondorf, he went pale. Ganondorf didn't slow his walk. The soldier thrust his sword at Ganondorf, who turned sideways, the blade missing his flesh by several inches, and grabbed the soldier's head with one hand and slammed it into the stone wall. The soldier fell to the floor. Ganondorf had not forced enough impact to kill the soldier, but he would be unconscious for some time.

"I wonder, Link," Ganondorf said as he turned the corner and started up the stairs, "I've got more ground to cover. Can you beat me to the wizard?"

* * *

The first watchman on the wall who had seen it didn't think much of it. The shadow passed overhead, moving away from the city. He looked up to see the form of a dragon flying through the air. A brilliant white in color, it looked tiny up in the air. He thought that it was unusual to see a dragon of that color, let alone so far south. But he passed it from his mind. Dragons never attacked cities, and rarely grew much larger than a man. It wouldn't cause any trouble.

Then it turned around. At that moment, the alarms on the west wall were heard. The soldier turned to look and saw them pouring out of the mountain pass west of the city. An army, already several thousand strong marching toward the city, and yet more emptying from the pass.

He looked back up at the dragon to see it much closer now. He realized it was the size of a house. Its great jaws opened, and the soldier watching in shot as white-hot flames shot from its maw, then engulfed him and the stones he stood upon. He died quickly, a white ash floating through the air on the faint breeze. The stones beneath him melted with terrifying speed and in the span of a few seconds, a six foot wide gap was left in the wall, clear down to the bedrock it was built upon, the sides of the gap glowing red and steaming.

The dragon swooped low over the buildings of the city, causing the people below to scream, and a form jumped from its back. It was a man who landed on a rooftop of a two story building. In his blood red tunic and cloak, he was an easy thing to see, but that was exactly what he wanted. This was Karadiv, wizard of fire, and master of the white dragon Illumed.

"Hear me, people of Darimar!" he crowed, "You death has come! Kneel before me and you will suffer a swift and painless end!"

* * *

"What the hell is that?" Link demanded, moving to the back of the wagon to see what he could out the small window.

He saw people running by, he heard screaming, and something that sounded like alarm bells.

"It sounds like an attack," Sheila said.

Link adjusted his position, trying to see more of what was happening. He made out a gap in the wall. "Shit," was all he said.

"Just our luck," Midna said, "What now?"

"Well, first I want out of this wagon," Link said, "so I can try to keep us alive."

"_Ein baal kialla thruben dru gan…_" said a voice in the telltale echo of magical incantation.

Link looked about his limited vision desperately, trying to locate the source. Whether some god smiled on him at that moment or out of sheer coincidence, he spied the man in the red cloak on top of a distant building. The man was holding both his hands before him, a ball of flames visible between them, rapidly growing larger.

"_Spirits of fire, demons of wrath, I call thee forth,_" he said, lifting the ball above his head. Link realized he was aiming in their general direction.

"Everybody back!" he said, grabbing Sheila and Zelda and forcing them toward the front of the wagon, not much of a help, but safer than at the back.

"_Unleash thy flames of hatred and destroy all before me…_" the man continued, then a few seconds later finished with, "_Incineration!_"

An enormous wave of heat washed over them, and the back end of the wagon erupted in flames. Link quickly turned his back to the heat, and put his arms over the girls, trying to shield them from the worst of the blast of heat. The bars in the tiny window melted into scorching liquid as the wood swiftly blackened and cracked. Link could already feel the sweat running rapidly down his face. _This is it,_ he thought, _Going to die trapped like rats._

Suddenly, the heat died down considerably. Link glanced over his shoulder. The back of the wagon was still burning, but the flames had considerably reduced, though they were beginning to spread over the roof and floor. The door was still there, but had been severely burned.

"Lets get out of here," Link said, moving to the door and giving it a hard kick. The burned wood splintered easily, and a second kick sent the door and a large amount of the surrounding wood crashing to the road.

"Dear gods," Zelda said, seeing the street behind them. The stone road had turned molten in a perfectly even circle, which around the outer edges, where the back of the cart had been, was simply scorched black, and the front walls of the buildings on the left side of the effect were all but gone. The spell had been the most effective at its center. They were very lucky to have only been on the fringe. They were rapidly moving away from the damage, the head had evidently put the horse pulling the wagon into a panic.

"I'm gonna stop this thing!" Link said over his shoulder, then without waiting for a reply, stepped out the back end, holding onto the edge of the roof, and inching his way forward on the wagon. Carefully moving past the wheels, he made his way to the driver's seat. There was no one in it.

"Typical," Link muttered as he pulled himself into position in the seat. He looked for the reigns, then spied them, dragging on the ground beneath the wagon. "Damn!"

Midna appeared at his side. She quickly assessed the situation. "I can get them," she said, floating toward the ground.

"Don't bother!" Link said, "Just use that magic of yours and cut the horse loose!"

With a swipe of her arm, a bolt of black lightning seared through the braces and straps connecting the horse to the wagon, and the horse started to pull away as the wagon slowed to a stop. As the wagon slowed, Link leaped to the street and ran behind it.

"Come on!" he said, offering a hand to help Zelda down, followed by Sheila, then Silviana.

"Okay," Sheila said, "Now what?"

Link looked around. People were running up the street, away from where the wizard had been, and Link spied a group of soldiers moving the other way as quickly as they could manage with the wave of people in their way.

Link grabbed one of them by the arm. "Hey! Has the wall been breached?"

"As far as I know, not yet," the soldier said, "But there is a dragon attacking from the air and a wizard that road in on its back. Civilians are to evacuate to within the inner walls for safety. Please move along."

The soldier turned and dashed after the rest of the group. "A dragon," Zelda said, "I saw no dragon."

At the moment, with a great roar, the white dragon came down on a nearby street and unleashed a torrent of fire from its maw, the screams from the street growing louder before quickly silencing. The dragon's flame dyed away and it flew higher, its great wings causing gusts of wind that threatened to knock them from their feet.

"Somebody's got to do something about that thing," Link said.

"Surely you don't mean us?" Sheila said.

"No," Link said, "I mean me. If I can get on a rooftop in front of it as it comes down…"

"You won't do much without a weapon."

Link turned to the voice to see Judge Ralthas walking toward them, the brown bag containing most of their belongings over his shoulder.

"Look," Link said, "You're just going to have to arrest me later. I've got more important things to do."

"From what you told me before," Ralthas said, "it seems you fancy yourself some sort of hero."

He pulled the back from his shoulder and opened it, pulling out the Master Sword and Link's baldric. He offered them to Link. "Well," he said, "Let's see what kind of hero you are."

Link took the weapon and pulled the baldric around his chest, tightening it so the sword was across his back, the hilt over his left shoulder, where it belonged.

"What about my bow?" Silviana asked.

"It's still in the wagon, I'm afraid," Ralthas said, "The horses spooked and I only managed to grab this bag."

There was an explosion in the distance, and as one they turned to look to see stone and the forms of soldiers flying into the air. "That's the wizard that road in on the dragon," Link said, "I'll see if I can't do something about him, too."

He turned to the others. "Listen, you all go with Ralthas, see if you can find the wagon with the rest of our stuff or at least something you can use. Then get to somewhere safe."

"You're going to fight that thing alone?" Sheila asked, "Look common soldiers are one thing, but a dragon…and a wizard?"

"Of course I won't be alone," Link said, smiling at Midna.

"Let's do it!" she said, then dove into his shadow, vanishing from sight.

"You guys be careful, all right?" Link said, then turned to Ralthas, "And you better take care of them."

"Have no fear of that," Ralthas said, "I'll take them to safety, then try to rejoin you."

"No, you just stay put," Link said, "and I'll rejoin _you_ when I've killed a dragon and a wizard."

"So be it," Ralthas said, "Come on, you three, this way!" and started up the street, away from the fighting.

Zelda started after him, while Silviana turned to nod to Link before dashing after them. Sheila watched him for a moment longer as he turned to run the other way, then with a sigh and shake of her head turned to follow her father.

"Now," Link said, scanning the sky as he moved down the street, "where'd that thing get to?"

The dragon had to come first. As much damage as the wizard was doing, the dragon strafing the streets was killing a lot of helpless people. "To your right!" Midna suddenly said. Link looked up to see the dragon lining up for another strafing run, one street over.

No time to get on the roof, Link dashed through the alley to the street. The people, still running up the street, were in an absolute panic, tripping over themselves and each other in a futile attempt to get away.

Link stopped in the center of the street as the dragon swooped down toward them.

"Midna, you remember when you levitated me back in Hyrule?" he asked as the dragon came closer.

"What about it?"

"Get me up to that dragon! Fast!"

"I can't control it like that," Midna said, "You could shoot right past it!"

"Just get me up there! I'll handle the rest!" Link said as the dragon's great maw opened while and the first tails of flame appeared within. "_Launch me!_" he shouted.

Suddenly his feet left the ground and the wind whipped by, the dragon growing swiftly closer. Link reached for his sword and drew it out. He shot past the beasts open mouth as a great jet of flame poured forth. Link quickly jammed the blade of the sword into the massive beast's back. Its breath of flame cut short and it roared in pain and fury, and Link's momentum carried him further, dragging the blade through its flesh, making a long slit along its back, just to one side of its spine. Thick, oozing blood bubbled forth from the wound.

Link came to a stop near its back end as the beast climbed higher in the air. Link took as firm a grip of the creature's scaly flesh as he could with his free hand, then pulled the sword from the wound and stabbed it into the creature's back further up, eliciting another roar of pain and a lurch in the air, and pulled himself forward. He repeated the process, moving slowly up the creature's back. It took to making swift turns and spins in the air, attempting to dislodge him, but he kept his grip on the sword, and managed to keep moving up its back until he was just behind its great beating wings.

Link pulled the sword from the beast's back and with a single swing, cut off its right wing near the base. With a shriek of pain and terror, the dragon began spinning to the right, over and over, faster and faster, going rapidly downward.

"Oh, this was a mistake," Link said.

The rate of spin kept increasing, and Link was throw clear of the dragon, and found himself watching the ground rushing up to greet him. "This is gonna hurt," he muttered and closed his eyes.

He suddenly felt a lurch that very nearly made him lose what little lunch he had had. He cautiously opened his eyes and found himself hovering about three inches off the ground. Then he fell those remaining three inches onto his face. It knocked the wind from him, but that was far preferable to what would have happened otherwise. "Midna, did you do that?"

"Yes," she said, breathing heavily, clearing winded just back that effort, "Now don't ask me to do it again, okay?"

The ground shook beneath Link's feet, and he turned around to see a church steeple crashing down in the distance, along with the roof of the building, and the dragon's long tail lashing through the air, visible over the rooftops.

"Right on the church," Midna said, "How about those odds?"

Link turned to search for the wizard, but a sudden wave of heat accompanied by louder screams turned his attention back toward the dragon. It wasn't dead yet. With a great roar, another building, closer to them, came crashing down. Link found an alley in the side of the street and ran toward it. The church was about four streets over, and they were far from the street where he had been launched onto its back. Somehow he'd held onto the Master Sword the whole time.

He ran across the next street and into the alley. As he reached the exit to this alley, he had to suddenly stop and move back as the dragon's great head, with a mouth large enough to swallow a grown man whole, poked into the alley and snapped at him, its teeth crashing together in a horrible racket. In moved forward, opening and snapping again, and again Link stepped back, out of reach, but this time slashed downward with the Master Sword, striking into its muzzle and lopping the tips of its nose and jaw off. Thick, steaming blood poured onto the street as it recoiled quickly, then snapped forward again, trying to catch him off balance. Link moved back out of reach, then, as its teeth snapped shut, stabbed his sword downward into the top of its snout.

"Gotcha!" he shouted, but as the dragon recoiled in pain, it threw its head upward and Link, not releasing his grip on the sword, was thrown upward, and the sword came free as he was sailing through the air to land on his back on the rooftop next to the alley.

Link groaned, but quickly pushed himself to his feet. The dragon's head appeared over the edge of the roof, the claws of its front legs digging into the stonework around the edge. Link moved toward it and it snapped at him, forcing him to quickly back up as it bit a chunk of stone out of the roof where he had been standing.

Link quickly slashed at its snout, landing another blow on its muzzle, this time cutting a vertical slit through its nose, but when he went to pull the blade out, the beast clamped down on it. Link gave a sharp pull, to no avail, then the dragon flung its head to the side and released it. Caught off guard, Link had held onto the sword and found himself flying through the air over the rooftops to land on one several streets over and roll several feet before stopping facedown.

"Okay," he groaning, feeling his bruised ribs, "I can't get too much more of this."

He rose to his feet, searching for the dragon.

"Link!" called a voice from below.

Link looked down to see Sheila, Zelda, and Silviana, along with Ralthas, looking up at him. "Are you all right?" Zelda called.

"I've been better," he answered, then looked up, hunting for the dragon. He realized that he had landed just outside the first of the inner walls, with nearly six miles of city between it and the main gate where they had entered the city.

"Gods, did I really come this far so fast?'

Link looked back down at them. "Did you see where I came from? The dragon is still alive and I need to find it!"

Zelda and Silviana were armed now, Zelda with a longsword that Link could tell was too heavy for her, and Silviana with a longbow and arrows. Seeing as she did not have her elbow blades, they must not have found the wagon with their things.

Before one of them could answer, a column of flame erupted up a nearby alleyway, crossing the street and engulfing the building at the opposite side of the street. The stonework melt rapidly, both on the walls on either side of the alley and the entire front wall of the building it struck. When the breath of flame died away, the fires on the buildings persisted, rapidly spreading across the interior furnishings of the buildings.

He was only on a single floor building, so Link moved to jump off the roof to street level, when he heard something. A small cry over the sound of the flames. Link looked to his left, up the street to the gate in the inner wall. A line of soldiers were ushering the last of the civilians in, and two of them were holding someone there. A woman. She was getting desperate. Link recognized the cry now. It was that of a baby.

"There's a baby somewhere in these buildings!" he shouted, "We need to find it!"

Almost immediately, Silviana started to move. "I hear it!" she shouted and ran to the door of one of the buildings that was now on fire and kicked it open, disappearing inside.

Link jumped off the rooftop, dropping to the street level. As if on cue, a soldier on horseback came rapidly up the street toward the gate. "Enemy troops have entered the city!" he was shouting, "Seal up the inner wall!"

Ralthas motioned him to a stop. "How did they get in?" he demanded of the soldier.

"The dragon melted a gap into the northwest corner of the wall," the soldier said, "They used a siege ladder to span the gorge and cross."

"Damn!" Ralthas said, "Alright, everybody through the gate!"

"Not yet!" Link said, running toward the alley across the street, "Got to kill the dragon or it'll just open the next wall the same way!"

* * *

The baby's cries were much clearer inside the building, but most of the furnishings were burning in a bright blaze and the building was filling with smoke. Silviana had entered a main dining room, and quickly searched for stairs to the second floor, the smoke stinging her eyes. The heat was unbearable. She spied the stairs in the next room over and moved quickly, trying to hold her breath and not breathe the smoke.

Up the stairs she dashed, the sound of the crying baby growing closer. She spotted the crib near a bed that had become a blazing inferno, and a trail of flames was halfway up the side of the wooden crib. She darted over quickly and pulled the baby from the death-trap, wrapping it quickly in one of the blankets. She turned to go back to the stairs.

With a loud crack, wooden support beams gave way and collapsed on the stairs, filling it with flaming wood and stone rubble. Silviana knew one other way out. She quickly moved to the next room over, on the side of the building that had been against the alley. The entire wall was gone, and she could see into the next building, where the fires were rapidly spreading across the furniture, but she could see the stairs from where she was. She knew she could make a safe, rolling landing if she jumped straight to the street, but didn't want to risk hurting the infant in doing so.

She ran toward the open wall and leaped, flying across the alley to land in the next building and quickly dashed down the stairs. This building had been carpeted, and most of the floor was ablaze, filling the air with acrid smoke. Silviana choked as she could not hold her breath any longer. Only one choice, she made a mad dash for the door, flames licking at her legs and back, and slammed her shoulder into the wooden door. It splintered and shattered, and she was suddenly out in the glorious fresh air.

She coughed, and she felt as though the acrid smoke was clinging to her lungs, and suddenly found hands supporting her. Silviana looked up to see Zelda, who had kept her from falling on her face. "Is the child alive?" she asked.

She realized the infant had stopped crying. That was a bad sign. Silviana unwrapped the blanket to find, much to her relief, the eyes of the baby boy looking up at her with intense curiosity. He had certainly never seen anyone of her appearance before. Silviana couldn't help but smile at him.

A nearby crash and rumble of a building collapsing warned that the dragon was moving closer. "All right," Link called to them, "All of you through the gate! I'll follow in just a minute!"

Before anyone could make a move, a new voice was heard. "Things getting a bit hectic out here, I see."

Link felt the triforce on his hand burning hot. His hands started to shake a little. He and everyone else turned to the source of the voice. On the rooftop across the street from the buildings stood the unmistakable figure of a man Link would never forget.

Sheila could hardly believe her eyes. The man was an absolute giant, at least seven and a half feet tall, more likely closer to eight, and was as muscular as a statue or image of a god. Standing there with no shirt, he was barrel-chested, and easily as thick as the truck of a tree. And his skin, it was the dark brown of the ancient desert people who had gone vanished from Mystara millenia before.

"Ganondorf," Zelda whispered.

Sheila couldn't help but stare in awe. This was the man they had come here to find. Four thousand years old, possessing the final piece of the power that Link and Zelda possessed, and the most powerful wizard alive. Though his appearance was the exact opposite what one expected a wizard to look like.

And in his right hand, he held a weapon like she had never seen before. It was a sword, but the blade was white as snow, and glowed with an ethereal light.

Ralthas took Sheila's arm and pulled her behind him. He understood why this man had been so belligerent the times they had spoken now. He had somehow escaped the cell and crossed the entire city in such a short time. They were days away from the castle yet this man had made the trip in record time, he just knew it.

Link could feel the Triforce he possessed, burning hot and pulsating within him. "You feel it, don't you?" Ganondorf said, "When all three pieces of the Triforce are this close, they resonate. They want to become one again."

He jumped from the rooftop to the street, landing easily and he straightened to smile directly at Link. "But first, you and I have some unfinished business."

Link widened his stance and lifted the Master Sword before himself, ready for whatever was coming. This wasn't going to go the way Zelda had hoped, he could see.

Ganondorf stabbed his sword into the stone street and left it there, upright. He took a deep breath, and one step closer to Link. "You see, it's like I told you before, there is something about the heroes Hyrule always manages to cough up. I've done a lot of reflection and realized that it would be quite impossible for you to be a direct descendent of the Hero of Time, the one who started all this. But except for the brown hair, your resemblance of him is uncanny. Even your voice is the same. And every time I have gone to Hyrule, the same thing has happened.

"I don't know if some god has a cruel sense of humor and enjoys toying with me, but it is going to end here, today," Ganondorf said, "I'll have your head, Link!"

Midna appeared at Link's side. "We've beaten you before! What makes you think we can't now?"

"Ah, the Twilight Princess," Ganondorf said, "I was wondering if you were with them. You're a stubborn one, aren't you? I had thought I'd killed you in Hyrule Castle."

"I'm even more stubborn than you are," Midna said.

"Is that so?" Ganondorf said, "Let's find out for sure!"

He lifted his hands and almost immediately a globe of electricity began to form between them, and a golden glow filled his eyes.

"_Boraj na boraj… Dark thunder of Balmor…_" he incanted.

Sheila and Zelda both moved at the same time. Sheila forced her way past her father, who shouted in warning and dashed to Link, who was moving to charge Ganondorf, but with that spell he wouldn't have time to reach him. "Stay behind me!" she shouted to him, then quickly began her on incantation. "_Halie oh nobboe nailee, Holy Spirit become our shield and protect us!_"

Zelda had run toward Ganondorf. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded of him when she drew close.

He turned his head to look at her, the glow in his eyes and the sinister smile on his face giving him a truly terrifying appearance. "You see, princess," he said, "In the end, Link is and always will be my enemy. I hate him to such depths that you cannot possibly comprehend. I will have his head, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me!"

_Incredible,_ Zelda thought, _His concentration is immense. He can maintain the spell and hold a completely separate conversation at the same time._

"But we had a deal!" she shouted at him.

"Oh, that," Ganondorf said, "I lied. About not harming Link and several other things as well. Besides…"

Ganondorf's smile widened into a grin as he turned his attention back to Link and now Sheila. "…I think butchering Link here and now is a fitting way to renew my conquest of the world!"

And he laughed. Not a maniacal laugh expected of story villains, but a laugh of excitement and glee. _Dear gods,_ Zelda thought, _He's enjoying this…_

* * *

A distance away, Karadiv the wizard of fire, literally had to take several steps back when he felt the aura of another wizard begin to incant a spell. It was a weaker lightning spell, but the power of the one casting was…

"The magical auras are intense!" Karadiv said to himself, "I've never felt anything like this! Could it be…?"

He suddenly smiled in triumph. He had found the legendary Ganon, and he would prove he was a greater magician than the woman, Kilishandra, by returning to Khall with his head! He could hardly believe his luck.

* * *

"Now you die, Link!" Ganondorf shouted, and thrust his hands forward, "_Pyre Storm!_"

Numerous bolts of lightning streaked from the globe between his hands.

"_Striker!_" Sheila finished her incantation and a globe of light expanded from her hands and surrounded herself, Link, and Midna.

The lightning struck the globe, and _turned._ Link could hardly believe his eyes. As many as twelve streams of electricity were striking the globe directly in front of them to turn around its sides and terminating into the buildings behind them.

_Oh, I get it,_ he thought, _'Striker.' 'Strike Err.' Ugh._

Apparently the ancient wizards who had created magic spells had bad senses of humor.

Then the lightning came to and end, and the spell was done. The globe around them vanished, and Link saw Ganondorf standing across the street from them, still smiling.

"Well, well," he said, "Not bad, sorceress. With a decent teacher, you'd have great potential."

Sheila smiled. _So that was it? That's the best the most powerful wizard alive can do?_

As if reading her thoughts, Ganondorf responded. "How unfortunate for you that I can do much, much better."

The gold glow returned to his eyes, then suddenly turned red. A wave of emotion, like concentrated despair, washed over the lot of them, and the air itself took on a reddish tint. Ganondorf lifted both his arms high, his hands held before him with palms down, and red sparks began to fill the air before him.

_He hasn't even begun the incantation, but the spell is forming!_ Sheila thought, _And I can't… I can't stop myself from shaking!_

Link ground his teeth, refusing to back down, but he couldn't stop his hands from shaking. The aura of this spell was so intense that even he could feel it.

"_Han zist zinzimoean tao!" _Ganondorf intoned, the normal echo of magic deepening and expanding, and everyone within twenty miles must have been able to hear it.

Ralthas took a step back, growling and clenching his fists. The baby in Silviana's arms began to scream.

Zelda backed away from Ganondorf slowly. _No, not now, not like this…_ she thought, _We've come so far…_

_I should do something,_ Midna thought, _But… But I'm too scared to even move!_

"Link!" Sheila shouted, "I can't stop that one!"

Link knew what he had to do. He pushed past Sheila and ran as fast as he could toward Ganondorf, the Master Sword ready to cut his head off. He had to stop this insidious, evil magic.

"_Burning in the depths of the pits of darkness,_" Ganondorf continued.

Link felt like he was moving in slow motion. He was nearly there, and raised his sword high in both hands…

Ganondorf wasn't stopping. "_Let the fires of-_"

Suddenly, everything was interrupted. An explosion on the roof behind Ganondorf caught everyone's attention. Link saw rubble flying toward them. He leaped back, a piece of stone nearly as large as he was slamming into the ground just in front of him. "Everyone back!" he shouted as pieces of the building continued to rain down.

Zelda found herself on her back. She looked up to see, to her great surprise, Ganondorf himself on his hands and knees over her, shielding her from the rubble. The violent attack came to an end, and maniacal laughter filled the air around them.

The wizard in red had appeared on a rooftop near the one that had fallen. The white dragon was visible through the gap in the buildings, and moved closer to them, but did not attack.

"Hear me, piteous men and women of Darimar!" the wizard shouted, "Your city has fallen to me, Karadiv, Wizard of Fire, apprentice of Khall Dragnir, and master of the great white dragon Illumed!"

He looked down upon them, then stopped on Ganondorf, who was rising to his feet and glaring up at him. Zelda moved back quickly, toward Link and the others. She saw Ralthas digging through the bag that had some of their belongings, clearly looking for something specific.

Karadiv looked Ganondorf over carefully. "This man is a magician," he said to himself, "But he dresses like a begger, and his auras are pitiful and weak. He cannot be the mighty Ganon." Then, louder, he added, "Hear me! I seek the legendary wizard, Ganon! I thought I had sensed his presence here, the auras I felt could not have come from one as lowly as this one! Take me to him, and I promise you all a swift and merciful death!"

Ganondorf wiped blood from his forehead with two fingers and flicked it onto the ground. He wasn't severely hurt, but he was extremely pissed.

Karadiv's own anger began to rise as he felt he was being ignored. "By all the gods and powers in this world, if you do not answer me, magician, I will give you the most painful death imaginable!"

"By all that is long and windy, will you shut up?!" Ganondorf shouted up at Karadiv, "You're about two words from said most painful death imaginable!"

That did it. Karadiv snapped. "Kill him, Illumed!" he shouted at the dragon, "Feast on his flesh!"

The dragon moved toward him, its great maw opened wide. Ganondorf turned his head to see it, but made no move. The dragon's jaw snapped shut, then its neck exploded in blood. The dragon's head hit the ground, landing on its side, and with earth-shaking force, the body fell across the rubble of the building. Ganondorf stepped out of the felled beast's head through the back of the severed neck, holding his white sword.

"No, you killed her!" Karadiv shouted, unable to believe his own eyes, "You killed Illumed!"

"That's right, and you're next," Ganondorf said, stabbing his sword into the ground again, "Because you've really managed to piss me off."

"I'll kill you!" Karadiv shouted, then began an incantation, holding his hands forth, "_Serif teah mxtecotal. I beseech thee, ancient spirits of fire, come forth and honor thy blood pact of old…_"

His face contorted with rage, he thrust his arms toward Ganondorf and finished, "_Hellion!_"

The area around Ganondorf erupted in fire. Link and the others took several steps back from the blast of heat. Link looked around. "Where'd Ralthas go?"

For the first time, the others realized the Judge was gone.

But what was happening before them was far more important. In the inferno of fire, not a single flame was touching Ganondorf. His eyes were glowing gold, and the fire seemed to wrap itself around an invisible barrier surrounding him.

"He is able to counter the spell without uttering a spell himself," Sheila said, "So that must be part of the power of the Triforce."

The flames died away. Karadiv was sweating, and it wasn't from the heat. "Now," Ganondorf said, "The mistakes you made today. Number one, you pretty much announced your rather meager magical abilities when you reached the city, so I knew exactly what you were capable of. Number two, you interrupted me while I was conducting important business. A very big mistake. But your worst mistake?"

The smile vanished from Ganondorf's face, replaced with pure rage. "You nearly killed Zelda when you decided to get our attention…"

Zelda almost didn't believe her ears when he said that. Then she remembered what he had told her before. If he had wanted her dead, she would have been long ago. And she saw no real reason to doubt that.

"…and for that you die!" Ganondorf said, lifting his arms high, palms down, the red sparks filling the air before him.

"_Han zist zinzimoean tao!" _he incanted.

Karadiv's face suddenly filled with fear. "No! No, not that, not that!"

"_Burning in the depths of the pits of darkness, let the fires of Hell take you!_"

Karadiv's legs wouldn't work, or he would have fled, but all he found himself able to do was scream. "Somebody! Help me! Anybody!"

Ganondorf's hands moved, he lifted his right arm above his head, the red sparks moving through the air into the palm of his right hand. "_Let the fires become my sword to strike you down!_"

"Dear gods, help me!" Karadiv screamed.

Ganondorf lowerd his hand, opening the palm of his right hand directly toward Karadiv. "_Venom!_"

Link expected to see an explosion, a bolt of light night, something. What actually happened was far different. In an instant, the red sparks around Ganondorf disappeared, and Karadiv's flesh leaped off his body. The red wizard screamed in agony as the red muscle tissue that had previously been beneath his skin was visible for all to see, then the scream became a gurgle as blood poured up out his mouth and nose. Then he…melted. What was left of him dissolved on the spot, become a thick, dark red liquid, even thicker than blood, that oozed down the side of the building onto the street.

It had only taken a few seconds, but that had to be the most painful way to die Link had ever seen.

"Dear gods!" came a cry from behind them.

Link turned to see thousands of soldiers in the street. They had to be the invaders. They had been moving from street to street, but the bulk of what was in the city had to be concentrated right here, drawn to the shouts and fighting. Now, they stood there, paralyzed by what they had just seen.

"Out of my way," Ganondorf said.

Link turned to see Ganondorf moving toward them, his hands before him, eyes glowing gold, already beginning his casting.

"Move!" Link said, ushering the girls to one side of the street.

"_Inuath blackoverr drak du baal,_" Ganondorf intoned, a white ball of electricity forming in his hands, "_God of storms and thunder, unleash thy wrath and destroy my enemy!_"

He lifted the ball of electricity above his head. Shouts and cries were heard from the invaders, and they were rapidly trying to move back up the street, tripping over one another as they did so.

"Death to all who oppose me!" Ganondorf shouted, then thrust the ball of lightning forward, "_Riot!_"

It looked like bolts of lightning that shot from the ball into the invaders, but the streaks of electricity writhed about, as though they were alive, like snakes moving through the men on the street. And they did not strike like lightning, nor burn. The sliced into the men, cutting off limbs and heads with remarkable ease. Blood filled the air like mist. In but a few seconds it was over. The street where thousands of men had been previously was now a river of blood and human limbs.

"Dear gods," Link and Sheila said at the same time.

The people watching from the gate in the inner wall had all fallen silent. It was deathly quiet.

"How can one man have so much power?" Silviana whispered.

Someone on top the wall suddenly shouted out, "The enemy is retreating!"

This caused a cheer from the people on the wall. Link and the others couldn't see it from where they were, but he did breathe a sigh of relief. The city, and themselves, were safe for now.

Then Ganondorf turned to face them and he realized he'd relaxed too soon.

"Now, where were we?" Ganondorf asked, his sinister smile returning.

Link lifted his sword, but Zelda suddenly shoved past him and placed herself right in front of Ganondorf. "No!" she said to him, "This has gone far enough! We had a deal, and I mean to hold you to it! We have a common enemy, you fool! Why can't you see that?"

"Oh, I see it," Ganondorf said, "And we'll get to them in a little bit. First, I want Link."

"So, you really did lie to me," Zelda said, "And here for one brief instant I thought you were better than the mad, ruthless tyrant the legends make you out to be. I thought that they might be wrong or you might have changed from then, that there might be a small spark of good in you after all."

A tear rolled down Zelda's face. "The way you talked about your daughter, I thought she might have truly meant something to you after all, that maybe she had helped make you into a slightly better person, and the way you just saved my life. No, I can tell I was wrong. You're the same murderous monster all the stories make you out to be. You only protected me so that you might kill me yourself and take your damned Triforce from my corpse."

Something Link had never seen before on Ganondorf's face appeared. It was uncertainty.

"No, that's not it at all," Ganondorf started.

Zelda fell to her knees. Her tears were running freely now. "I don't care anymore," she said, "Do whatever you want to me, but make me one promise. If it's the only promise you keep in your sad, wretched existence, that will be something, but promise me you will save my people from their curse. Please…"

Ganondorf knelt down in front of her. "No," he said, "You're completely misreading the situation. I don't want your death. You were right about me. Something happened in my life that changed me. I used to be obsessed with the Triforce and the conquest of the world, but I have done a lot of reflecting and realized it was a pointless endeavor. Once I ruled the world and had killed any who could possibly rival me, what would be left? Conquest of parallel worlds? The gods themselves? I am sure now that is how I will finally die, battling the gods themselves in a test of strength, but for the immediate future, I am unsure as to how to proceed."

Link spotted Ralthas emerging from an alley behind Ganondorf. The Judge quickly put a finger to his lips to indicate silence. Then he started moving, slowly and carefully up the street toward Ganondorf and Zelda. He had something in his hand, but Link couldn't make out what it was.

Ganondorf lifted Zelda's chin, making her look him in the eye. "I do love my daughter," he said, "as though she were my own flesh and blood. But she wasn't the only thing that changed me. Like I told you before, sometime after my first defeat at the hands of the Hero of Time and the original Princess Zelda, you ancestor, though I did not realize it at the time, I had crossed the very thin line indeed between hatred and love. I had fallen in love with that Princess Zelda. Though you are not she, you are a similarly good person, and though I do not care for you in that manner, I do not wish to see harm come to you."

Ralthas was nearly within reach now.

"Then, please," Zelda said, "Help Link and myself save our people."

Ganondorf sighed, and opened his mouth to respond, when Ralthas took what he had in his hand and slammed it onto Ganondorf's back. The wizard was up in an instant, grabbing for him, but Ralthas dove to the ground, rolling out of reach.

Link wasn't sure what he was seeing. Ganondorf's body seemed to be distorting, as though one were looking at him through the bottom of a drinking glass. Ganondorf roared in fury. "Ralthas! I'll feed your corpse to the rats!"

Then he seemed to fade into thin air. The pants he had been wearing, now empty, fell to the ground, along with a small yellow gemstone. Ralthas picked up the gem and smiled, then turned to them. "Our wizard is safely contained."

"A soul gem?" Sheila said, "Father, those are illegal!"

"Judges keep a few on hand for dire circumstances," he said, slipping the gem into his pocket, "I thought now was a perfect qualification."

He pulled Ganondorf's white sword from the ground, then motioned for them to follow him to the gate in the inner wall, where people were still watching from. "Now come along," he said, "I'm starving, and I'm sure the lot of you are, too."

As they moved toward the gate, the baby in Silviana's arms, that most of them had completely forgotten about, suddenly became livelier.

"Mama!" he said, "Mama!"

"What?" Silviana said, looking down at him, but his attention was elsewhere.

The woman Link had seen by the gate, trying to fight through the guards, was running toward them.

"Mama!" the baby said.

"Oh, thank the gods," the woman said, taking the child from Silviana, "And thank you…"

She looked into Silviana's face for the first time. "Oh," she said, then added, "Thank you." and turned to hurry away.

"Well, that's some nerve," Link said.

"It's all right," Silviana said softly.

Link looked at her. She had a small smile on her face.

"For a second there, I thought he was calling me 'mama,'" she said quietly.

"You okay?"

"It's nothing," she said, "Come on. Let's go get something to eat."


	49. Chapter 48

**Chapter 48: The Storm of Blood and Steel**

"Kilishandra."

The half-elf looked up from the table and the map spread across it, her left hand slipping toward her belt knife. She knew the voice.

"Khall?" she asked, glancing at the entrance to her tent. There was no one there.

Her tent contained the scarce necessities she needed in the field. A cot, a stand for her armor, and a single table and seat, along with the map of the region spread out before her. Her specially designed armor required a special mannequin, shaped to fit the armor like the armor fitted her.

"I'm speaking to you through Tharkus' crystal ball," Khall's voice said, "Do keep up, would you?"

Scrying, she realized. The very thought of it left a foul taste in her mouth. She had always preferred the more practical magics, like Ganon, with immediate and notable effects to the slippery magics that necromancers practiced.

"I've contacted you to inform you that we have located Ganon," Khall said.

Kilishandra drew her knife, and used the tip to clean dirt from under her nails. "And?"

"He is in Darimar," Khall said, "We expect the city to hold against Karadiv's attack."

"That blowhard hasn't got a chance," Kilishandra said, "Ganon will know he's there before the attack even begins."

"Yes," Khall said, "But we are not altering the plan. You are to take Nigel's capital city, then move southward to Darimar."

Kilishandra upended her knife and stabbed the tip into the table, through the map in the location of Darimar, at the far southern end.

"There's something else I want to speak to you about," she said.

"What?" Khall said, not hiding his impatience.

"There was no one in Whitos-Neiki who could stand up to me," she said, "I decimated the city with little effort. It would have been easy to occupy it. Only one man came forward to challenge me directly, and he was a rank amateur. I see no reason to do the same to Nigel."

"Kilishandra, we are close now to absolute victory," Khall said, "We can take absolutely no chances. It's either them or us. You know that."

"Yes, but still…"

"Enough!" Khall interrupted her, "You are within range to attack the city at dawn. I want it razed to the ground. Is that understood?"

Kilishandra sighed. "Yes, Khall."

"One other thing," Khall said, "Mur'neth and his ninja have deserted us."

_Not unexpected,_ she thought.

"They may try to rejoin Ganon or aid in our enemy's war effort. If you encounter them involved in any such activities, you are to wipe them out."

"So be it," Kilishandra said.

"I will be in touch, Kilishandra," Khall said, then fell silent.

She knew he was gone. It was as though another presence had just left the tent. She sighed and sat back in her chair. That man had changed. He had even taken to addressing her by her full name instead of "Kili."

It had actually been less than ten days since she had first met Ganon when they found Khall. He had been sitting there in the dust, dirty and tattered clothing, what few possessions he had in a worn traveling pack.

She had been but a child then, and even remembered that she had been sitting on one of Ganon's broad shoulders, one arm around his neck, and his hands on her knees to keep her from falling. When they saw Khall, he had turned to look her in the eye, and said nothing. When they drew close to him, Ganon stopped. Khall had looked up at them, and Ganon offered him his free hand. He said nothing, and Khall had said nothing.

Then the boy that Khall had been had reached up and taken Ganon's hand, and the wizard had helped him to his feet. Then he resumed walking, still without a word. Khall had picked up his pack, and moved to keep up, and Kilishandra had realized that Ganon was slowing his enormous strides so that the boy could match his pace.

Not long after that, others started following them. Perhaps they had decided that if they weren't safe with a wizard, his apprentice, and his adopted daughter that any other human would have killed on sight, safe wasn't going to happen.

After a few weeks of travel, they had come to a crumbling castle about fifty miles south of the border of the northlands, where the barbarian tribes had ruled. They'd stopped at that castle, and with the help of those following them, begun to rebuild it, along with the surrounding city and nearly razed wall.

She'd never thought at the time that that castle would eventually become the center of the world.

Khall had already had minor training as a magician, and Ganon taught them both so much more. It was from him from she learned everything she knew about magic; though, after he left them, she would teach herself even more. Back then she had been resentful of how hard he pushed her, as children are wont to be, but now she understood why he'd pushed her so hard, even harder than he had ever pushed Khall.

She had a natural talent for magic. She was able to learn spells in record time, and in a few cases, actually cast an enchantment in much less time than it took others, even Ganon himself. It had something to do with the level of concentration needed for the spells. She knew that today. Tharkus was afraid of her ability. It was likely that Khall was, too. They had to be. It was the only reason they could have thought to have taken the Nail of the Accused as a condition of her loyalty, ensuring she did not defect back to Ganon.

And Khall was right. Too much was riding on this to allow pity for the enemy to get in the way. Ganon had betrayed them long ago. If he did side with their enemy now, it was just one more nail in his coffin.

She stood up and moved to the stand where her armor waited. She quickly donned it, piece by piece, until her body was thoroughly encased in the extraordinarily light but tough steel, saving the massive series of plates for her left arm until last, slipping it on like an enormous glove and locking it to her shoulder.

Picking up her sword, she slipped the belt around her waist, and pulled it tight so the hilt was at her left hip. She moved to the front of the tent and stepped out the entrance. The first rays of the sun were just appearing over the eastern horizon. The camp was waking.

Nigel would fall on this day, then the march to Darimar would begin. It would be close, but they could reach it before the winter snows made the roads impassable.

Who could have ever imagined that when Ganon had been so intent on teaching her the ways of magic, that he would be teaching the very one who would kill him exactly how to do it? But there was one other thing she had to know first. He had taken them in, taught them the ways of magic, and her swordsmanship as well, led them to power, and then simply abandoned them.

If it was with his last breath, he was going to tell her why.

* * *

Alex tightened the straps on his pack, readying for his departure. He picked up his sword and slipped it into his belt.

"Leaving so soon?"

He turned to the door to see Angie walk into the room.

"I said I wasn't going to stay long," he said.

"I know," she said, "But as long as you've been gone, I was hoping you'd be around a little longer."

Alex lifted the pack onto his shoulder. "Well, who wouldn't want to stay after that warm greeting you gave me?"

"Well, considering you're heading off to locate someone else who beat your ass…"

"This is professional interest, pure and simple," Alex said as he stepped past her and through the door into the hall.

"Alex," she said, moving after him and falling into step beside him, "I've heard the news. What happened to Whitos-Neiki. And there's rumors that contact has been lost with Tyr."

"Yes," Alex said, "War is coming."

"And do you think it's better to try and run off to find this man than to stay here, with what little family you have?"

Alex stopped. They were at the top of the stairs at the end of the hall. He turned to look at her. "Angie, listen, I don't know how to explain it, but this guy's got something. Something I have to figure out what it is. Maybe it's just charisma, but maybe it's something bigger. And I get the feeling," he added with a smile, "that the frontlines are where he is going to be."

Alex started down the stairs, and Angie followed behind him. "There's no talking you out of this, it seems."

"No," he said, "I've decided my course. Besides, I'd rather find the ward than have it find us."

The room he had stayed in was on the floor above the gymnasium, and this early in the morning, it was eerily quiet, with no students or trainers there yet.

"Besides," Alex said as they crossed the large, empty room, "You're doing well enough here without me, especially considering you were scarcely as high as my waist when I left."

"And you could scarcely grow a beard."

"Well, don't tell anyone," Alex said, "but I still can't grow much of a beard."

Alex opened the front door and stepped into the street. The sun lazily peeked over the rooftops, not doing much to warm the early winter breeze. "You going to say goodbye?" Alex asked.

"Not just yet," Angie said, "I'll walk with you to the gate."

The streets were still fairly empty, the first signs of life only now coming awake in the city. It wasn't far from the gym to the west gate of the outer wall.

"I heard it was a sorceress who destroyed Whitos-Neiki," Angie said suddenly, "If you wind up face to face against something like her, what do you plan to do about it?"

"The way I understand magic, they have to be able to speak to cast spells," Alex said, "You get right up on top of them, and I bet all they can do is scream 'not in the face.'"

"Boy, aren't you confident," she said.

"Not my style to worry," Alex said.

"I know," she said, "You live only for the moment. Be good if you'd meet a nice girl, settle down, have some kids, you know."

"Look who's talking," he replied with a smile.

"I've got an excuse," Angie said, "Men are afraid of women who can kill them with their bare hands. But look at you. Tall, muscular, handsome… Women should practically trip over each other chasing you."

The gate came into sight. "Maybe next time," Alex said, "I've got too much to do without a woman getting in the way right now, let alone kids."

"Alex," she said, grabbing his arm with one hand, pulling him to a stop.

He turned and looked down at her.

"Come back alive, will you?" she said, "I'd hate to have to force our name on any man just so it lives on."

"Oh, look, there is a little bit of the housewife in you," Alex said with a smile, "And don't worry. I've no plans on dying anytime soon. And if someone does try to kill me, I'm not going down without one roaring pig of a fight."

"I guess I'll see you when you get back, then," Angie said.

Alex nodded, and turned toward the gate. At that very moment, as if on cue, there were shouts from the watchmen on the wall, and the sound of an alarm being rung. With a heavy crash that shook the street beneath them, the portcullis of the gate slammed shut.

"What's happening?" Angie asked.

"Let's find out," Alex said, and ran for the gate.

People began to emerge from their houses, curious what the alarm was about.

There was a wooden ladder going up the stone wall on either side of the gate, so Alex dashed to one and climbed up, dropping his pack on the ground beside it. Once at the top, he ran to the front of the wall, looking out through the crenellations to see what the soldiers were shouting about in voices he couldn't make out.

"Dear gods," he said when he saw what had caused the uproar.

He'd heard the rumors that one of the Lords of Chaos was a necromancer, but had never believed it. The art of necromancy was not only forbidden, but all texts concerning its practice had been destroyed after the ancient war.

Plus, a necromancer needed bodies to animate in order to work his will, and the kingdoms of Mystara all burned their dead. Had been since before the five kingdoms had allied so long ago.

Somehow, he saw the impossible out in the fields in more ways than one. Hunched, lurching forms, staggering slowly toward the city walls, coming over the crest of a hill, like ants, pooring out steadily toward the city. Their number was already beyond immediate counting, and more and more kept appearing over the hill, like a great tide of rotting flesh and exposed bones.

Two things were proven in a short span of time. There was a necromancer with access to a large supply of cadavers, and the war had come to them, much sooner than Alex had expected.

* * *

Once again, it had been easy to breach the city walls. Kilishandra walked alone down an empty street of Nigel, the sounds of fighting still audible in the distance. There was no one here that could stop them. Her soldiers, born and raised in a world much more demanding than this one, were superior to the troops here. They were a mix of many of the different nations that she had aided in the conquest of, a mish-mash of skin colors, accents, and cultures.

It seemed that battle-hardened camaraderie was the only thing she had seen that truly removed the barrier of discrimination. Peoples that had been sworn enemies showed little trust for one another, despite being united under one banner, but after several battles where they had been forced to depend on one another to survive, the barriers vanished.

What she had seen of this world showed it was little different. What few elves there were lived like royalty, and she had not even seen any Dra'thul in the open. Perhaps it was even worse here for their kind than in her home.

Home… Odd choice of words, she realized. She had been born in a village of dark elves, her mother the only parent she knew. It was obvious to anyone who looked that her father could be none but a pale-skinned human. Her lighter skin tone, and the fact she was far too tall for an elf, and her hair, red as bright rose, was something no Dra'thul had.

And it had seemed that her mother was the only one who cared whether she lived or died. Even now, a century later, she could remember her childhood vividly. The adults of the village did their best to pretend she didn't exist, and as for the other children, there wasn't a day that went by that she didn't have fresh bruises, and returned home dirty and her clothing torn. If it hadn't been for her mother's warm smile and comfort, she might have gone mad.

Now, as she made her way down the street, stepping over a body here and there, she found herself wondering if there was a child in this city who lived as she had.

She had refused to destroy this city as she had Whitos-Neiki, but now, as she listened to fighting and screaming just a few streets away, she felt no less guilty. It had been Khall's order, and no one was to be left alive.

Suddenly, something grabbed hold of her ankle. She looked down to see one of the soldiers of Nigel, his hand gripping her ankle, looking up at her, his teeth clenched in pain. His other arm had been cut completely off, and his right leg was twisted in a manner that the bones were not only broken, but were visible, ripping right through his flesh and pants.

Kilishandra, turned her sword over in her hand, pointing the tip of the blade down toward the soldier's chest. His teeth still clenched tightly, he nodded slightly. She stabbed downward, the enchanted blade punching through his breastplate with ease and into his flesh, stabbing directly into his heart. He convulsed once, then lay still, his grip on her leg loosening.

Kilishandra pulled her blade from him, then knelt down and used her fingers to close his eyes. One thing Ganon had taught her that she would never let go of was to have respect for the enemy. He had told her that in the past, he had encountered great difficulty because he looked down upon his enemies, and it was a mistake she should never make.

There were no great heroes here to meet her, none of the ability that seemed to come by the dozen in her homeland, but these men were fighting and dying to defend what they had, and that was worth her respect.

She didn't have a choice. She was seriously beginning to regret allowing them to use the Nail of the Accused upon her, but it guaranteed her loyalty. She knew that they feared her defecting to Ganon, should he be their enemy, but circumstances seemed to be that Khall had decided he was their enemy regardless.

And as soon as she was done here, she would march on Darimar, where he now was. She knew what would come of their meeting. She had no choice but to fight him, and kill him, or she would die herself, either by his hand or the Nail. Her options were greatly restricted.

It wasn't as though she wasn't prepared for the battle. She knew nearly every spell Ganon knew, either taught by himself, or learned on her own after his departure, and a few more besides. The one spell she knew he possessed that she had been unable to master was Venom, and it was more a method of torturous death than a worth-while destruction spell.

Individually, she was easily a match and more for Khall or Tharkus, but Khall was devious when it came to workarounds. He preferred ice magic, and while it was not as destructive as lightning or fire, he had found ways to use it few ever imagined. He had even created a new spell, something no wizard had done since ancient times, capable of freezing an entire city in a glacier.

She heard a door latch to the side. Kilishandra quickly rose to her feet, turning toward the sound. "Who's there?" she demanded.

Moving toward the spot the sound had come from, she came to the front door of a residential dwelling. She tried the latch, and found it locked from the inside. She took a few steps back, then ran and slammed into it, her massive armored gauntlet in front of her. The latch held, but the door did not, wooden splinters flying through the air, a two inch hole where the deadbolt had been above the handle.

Kilishandra stepped into the house. It was dark inside. It was a small house, of three rooms. The overturned table and chairs in front of her indicated the dining room, with a small wood stove to the back end, and to the left two doors, one leading into a small kitchen area, and a bedroom.

Something flew through the air and broke against the wall as Kilishandra ducked her head. Another clay mug came flying from the kitchen. Kilishandra ducked to the side, then moved into the kitchen. And was greeted by a woman wielding a skinning knife. The woman lunged forward, slashing at Kilishandra's face. She used her left hand, catching the blade of the knife in her hand, sparks flying as it scraped the metal fingers of her guantlet.

She wrenched the blade sideways, pulling it from the woman's hand, then shot out a kick to her stomach, sending her staggering back to fall against the wall next to the cooking stove. Kilishandra dropped the knife to the floor, the moved forward, raising her sword for the kill.

"Mommy!"

Kilishandra stopped. She turned to the voice to see a girl, maybe four years old, huddled next to the kitchen door, where she hadn't seen her as she entered the room.

A mother, defending her child…

In a flash of memory, Kilishandra could see it all over again, the worst memory of her life.

* * *

The village was on fire. Kilishandra nearly dropped the basket of apples she had gathered that morning when she saw the fires. But the sound was far worse than the fires. She could hear the screams clearly, and the laughter. The hideous laughter.

"Mommy!" she said, and broke into a run, heading for the small cottage on the edge of the village, the far end from the fires. When she came closer to the village, she could see the cause of the nightmare that filled the streets.

They walked like men, but they looked like animals. Wolves that walked upright, that would grab hold of the people with their great claws, and tear their throat out with their great teeth, and large bat-men, large leathery wings protruding from their backs. She saw one grab a child no older than her, then leap high into the air, and drop the child from a great height, to splatter his brains all over the flagstone street.

She could see some of the men and women of the village trying to fight back, only for the wolf-men to rip them apart. She saw one of them being grabbed by two of them, who took hold of his arms and legs, and started to pull, and ripped him in half, the red ropes of his insides spilling onto the street as he screamed in agony.

Walking through the midst of the carnage, as though oblivious to his grotesque surroundings, was a human man, his flesh pale as the moon, and silver hair draped loosely over his shoulders. In his right hand, he carried a massive scythe.

A dark-elf man spied him, and made a run toward him, sword above his head, to cut the human down with one stroke. The human took his weapon into both hands and slashed the great blade upward in front of him. The two halves of the one who had attacked him fell on either side of him, sliced from his groin to his shoulder in two nearly perfect halves, the blood pooling rapidly around the human's feet.

Then he turned, and looked directly at her, and smiled. Kilishandra's legs felt like they were about to give way. He knew she was watching him, and started walking directly toward her with a slow but deliberate pace.

This time she did drop the basket of apples. They spilled across the street as she turned and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She ran straight toward the cottage, hoping her mother was all right. They could both run away, and hopefully escape. All she could think about was getting away from that human man.

She arrived at the house and reached up to open the door when it suddenly flew open before her. "Get in here!" her mother said, grabbing her shoulders and dragging her inside.

"Mommy, what…"

"Hush, child," her mother said, shutting and bolting the door, then turned and guided her toward the back of the room.

The cottage was small, only a single room. Her mother stopped by the edge of the rug that was beneath the bed. She flipped up the corner, revealing a trapdoor. Kilishandra was shocked. She hadn't even known they had a basement. Her mother lifted the lid, revealing a ladder leading down into darkness.

"Get down there and don't come up, no matter what you hear," her mother said.

"Mommy?" she asked.

"If I go down too then I won't be able to hide the trapdoor," her mother said, "Don't worry, just go down there. You'll be safe there."

Kilishandra started down the ladder. She looked up at her mother. "It'll be all right, child," she said, smiling at her daughter, "Just stay down there and don't come up _no matter what you hear_, understand?"

Kilishandra nodded, and her mother shut the trap. There was another sound, like metal sliding on wood, and then silence. She made her way down the ladder by feel, then stopped at the bottom, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. When they did, she made out the shape of some barrels. This must be where her mother stored some of their food. She tapped on the side of one of the barrels and found it contained a liquid of some form.

Her inspection was interrupted by a crash from above. She heard her mother shout, but could make out what was said, then there was a crash of metal on metal, then a dull thump, and a man shouting in pain. There was some more crashing, and the sound of breaking dishes.

Kilishandra moved to the ladder and climbed about half-way up to better make out the sound.

"Don't kill her," came a man's voice, "She's mine. Get some of that rope there, tie her to the bed."

She could barely make out the voice, thin and whispery as it was, and the sound of her mother fighting something, shouting obscenities and overturning furniture in the process, made it more difficult.

Then there was a thump, and it grew quiet. "Oh, I hope you didn't hit her too hard, otherwise you're about to take her place," the whispery voice said.

"She's alive, master," a growling voice answered.

"Good," the whisper said, "You may leave me then. Go find someone else to kill."

There were heavy footsteps overhead, and they moved toward the door then vanished.

Kilishandra heard her mother groan. "Waking up, good," the man said, "You don't me, but my name is Sileth Reaper."

"Why did you attack out village?" Kilishandra's mother asked.

"Because I could," Reaper said, "and no one could stop me. Now, as a warning against further interruptions, you only get ten questions, and each time you ask one, I'm going to break one of your fingers."

There was a distant cracking, and her mother screamed. "That's one," Reaper said when her screamed died away into a groan through her teeth.

"Now," he said, "I followed a cute little girl in here. Where did she get to?"

"I sent her out the back window," her mother said, "and told her to keep running and not look back. She's fast, and long gone by now."

"Is that so?" Reaper said, then there was another crack. Kilishandra heard her mother scream.

"I didn't ask anything!" her mother said at last in a half scream.

"No, but you volunteered information that I didn't ask for," Reaper said, "And I think you're lying to me."

Kilishandra realized she was sweating. She moved down the ladder, as slowly and quietly as she could. Her hands were clamming and threatening to slip on the ladder.

"What do you want with her anyway?" she heard her mother ask.

"Oh, nothing in particular. I saw a cute child that might like some of the wisdom I can impart to her," Reaper said, "Like about how I am skilled enough to actually remove a person's heart from their chest without killing them. At least at first. There's usually just enough time for me to hold it up for them to see that they get to watch it stop beating."

There was another crack. This time, though, instead of screaming, Kilishandra's mother could be hard groaning through her teeth. She had braced herself for it.

"I don't see anywhere in this house you might have secreted her," Reaper said, "as small as it is. Do you have a cellar, by any chance?"

Kilishandra felt like her heart stopped.

"Do you see a trapdoor anywhere?" her mother asked.

"Not at the moment," Reaper said, "But that doesn't mean its not under something like this rug."

There was another crack, accompanied by her mother's sounds of agony.

"Now, let's have a look," Reaper said, and Kilishandra heard his footsteps.

There was a pause. _He's looking under the rug,_ she thought, _I'm dead._

"Nothing here," he said, "Oh well, I suppose she did have to leave via the window. Very reckless, sending a child off like that on her own. Who knows what kind of trouble she'd get into out there."

"Better than letting you get your hands on her," her mother said.

"Well, I'm bored with breaking fingers," Reaper said, "What say we try something a bit more imaginative? Have to get this shirt out of the way first, though."

There was the sound of tearing cloth. "Ooh, no underwear," Reaper said, "Someone likes to be free."

"Go to hell," Kilishandra's mother said.

"Someday, I'm sure," Reaper said, "But right now, I'm still here. Let's just go ahead and get this skirt gone, too."

There was more tearing clothe. "That's funny," Reaper said, "No corset or even a breast strap, but you bother to wear garters? Women just make no sense, sometimes."

"Well, if you're going to rape me, just get it over with."

"Don't think me so low-brow," Reaper said, "We're going to have a great deal of fun, you and I. I have places to be, so I'm afraid I can't hold it out for days like I usually do, but I think a few hours won't hurt. Now, shall I prove what I said a moment ago and remove your heart? Oh, but that takes such care and only provides a few seconds of wonder for you. How about I dissect you while you watch? I can keep you alive for a few hours that way, and you can see it all."

"Someday," Kilishandra heard her mother say, "someone is going to find you, and they will kill you in the most agonizing way you can imagine."

"I can imagine quite a bit," Reaper said, "In fact, I think I'll show you just what I can imagine. Watch, I make a small slit just here…"

Kilishandra heard her mother scream.

"…now I get a hold of this here…"

The scream grew louder. Kilishandra's heart was trying to leap out of her chest on its own.

"…cut it like so, and now tie it off so you don't bleed out, and now we see how long you last. You'll be surprised how long you'll last like this."

The scream of her mother seemed endless. Kilishandra closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears, but she could still hear it. Hours went by, and though the screaming quieted every so often, it renewed a moment later, when her mother got her breath back.

In fact, the scream was so imprinted on Kilishandra's ears that when it finally quieted and stayed quiet, she could still hear it in her head.

There were footsteps up above. Then the door squeeked as it opened and then closed. There was silence above. Kilishandra realized that she couldn't hear the fighting anymore either.

She wanted to get out of the dark basement, but she was a smart child, and knew perfectly well that to go up before Reaper was far away was to die. She waited. She might have slept, but the adrenaline rushing through her was so great that it was making her shake, even as she sat silently in the dark.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, until she realized she was getting hungry. She must have been sitting there most of the night. She opened one of the barrels to find it piled to the top with dried apples. She took one and bit into it. It wasn't nearly as good as a fresh, juicy apple, but it would have to do. It made her thirsty, so she opened the barrel of liquid, finding water, and drank her fill, then sat down to wait some more.

Finally, she could wait no more. She moved to the ladder and climbed up, pushing open the trap. The sun shone through the window on the east side of the house. She'd been sitting down there the entire night.

She looked over at the bed, and immediately wished she hadn't. She looked away, tears stinging her eyes, and her stomach rising up in protest, dropping her to her hands and knees, thick bile welling up in her throat to spill across the floor, leaving her choking and coughing, unable to removed the horrid image from her eyes.

Her mother lay on the bed, arms and legs tied to the posts, the sheets stained red with blood, and the ropes of her intestines piled across her. They had been pulled out a small slit in her belly in a long, agonizing process.

She realized that the handle used to open the trapdoor from this side was gone. That had been the sound she'd heard when her mother shut her in the cellar. She had removed the handle, and the trapdoor had looked like no more than a section of the floor.

Unable to look at her mother's body any longer, Kilishandra moved to the front door, needing a breath of fresh air. She opened the door, andwas greeted with the aftermath of a slaughter.What buildings weren't burned down had been torn down, and were piles of wood and splinters.

Bodies filled the streets, none of them in one piece. One just a short distance away had his entire torso ripped open, and his innards spilled across the street.

As for fresh air, she couldn't get a breath of it. The village reeked of death, a clinging smell of blood and meat rotting in the sun, and something else entirely, something that was beyond description.

She couldn't take it. Tears running down her cheeks like rivers, she screamed, and ran. She chose a random direction and ran as fast as she could, for as long as she could, just wanting to get away from the horrible place the village had been transformed into, and never come back.

* * *

And now Kilishandra stood there, her sword ready to kill, aimed toward the mother trying to protect her child, and doing even less of a job of it than her own mother had. Her hands were shaking violently.

The girl had moved across the room and put her arms around her mother's neck and buried her face in her shoulder. The mother was holding her child, and looking up at Kilishandra, her expression one of complete terror.

_What am I doing?_ Kilishandra thought, _Have I… Have I become no better than Reaper? Am I as much a monster as him?_

She slowly lowered her weapon. The mother was staring at her, still terrified, but a small bit of confusion was visible on her face as well.

Kilishandra realized she was crying. She could feel the tears on her face, and could do nothing to stop them. It was one thing to face an opponent in battle, to kill in order to survive, but this…

This was murder. She could think of no better way to describe it. And Khall had ordered it. He had ordered the murder of this entire world. And for what? To draw Ganon into the open? To eliminate a threat before it actually was a threat?

This wasn't how things were meant to be. Even in his darkest moments, Ganon had never been this terrible. Only once had he ordered the complete extermination of an entire settlement, and then it had been a band of mercenaries that had poisoned a grain shipment with plague-ridden foods and cost thousands of lives of their men.

She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She turned and sheathed her sword and started for the door. When she reached it, she looked back at the woman and her daughter.

"Stay here," Kilishandra said, "Stay here and stay silent, and you'll get out of this alive."

The woman nodded her gratitude, and Kilishandra shut the door behind her. Her loyalty to the cause was assured by the curse she carried, but eventually, she knew, Khall was going to get his for what he had ordered and done.

You can't outrun your sins forever, and when they catch you, you will pay a hundred fold for each one.

She didn't fancy herself an avenging angel, but if it came to it, when the battle was over, she realized she just might be the one to confront him. Him and Tharkus. The necromancer had a hand in everything, and she knew it. She just wasn't sure how or why.

But the people came first, and if they didn't win this war, it would be their people who suffered.

As she stepped into the street, she paused to wipe her face on her hand, but before she started moving again, a strange feeling overwhelmed her. It was familiar, and terrifying.

She turned to face the south, her breath hissing through her teeth.

"Father…" she whispered.

* * *

At that moment was when Ganondorf unleashed his fury on the hapless wizard known as Karadiv, ripping his flesh from his body, and turning what was left into a thick, red ooze, thicker than blood, that slowly dripped down the side of the building he had been standing upon.

Kilishandra hissed through her teeth, as though she had been slapped.

In the mountain citadel, Khall and Tharkus both looked up from what they were doing with sharp intakes of breath, turning toward the southeast.

And finally, Mur'neth, who had been moving quickly across the countryside southward to rejoin his men, stopped, the few with him also stopping, but they did not feel it as he did.

"There he is," he whispered, "It has to be…"

Venom was one of the darkest, most vile magics ever conceived. An unexpected side-effect during it's creation was that any who had felt its auras at a close range before, even those not magic sensitive, would be able to feel it again, even at great distances. Exactly how far was unknown, but the effect was undeniable.

Mur'neth smiled to himself. He now knew his next destination.


	50. Chapter 49

**Chapter 49: Fires of Vengeance**

"Show me a battle and I'll show you a nightmare. Show me a war and I'll show you the face of Hell."

Link looked up. It was Sheila who had spoken. "What's that? An old proverb?"

"Oh, no," Sheila said, "That's actually a quote straight out of the journal left by Darius when he died."

There was that name again.

"As if the rest wasn't enough," Sheila said, "That wizard, that was Ganondorf, right?"

"Yes," Zelda said.

"That was horrifying," Sheila said, "So much life gone in an instant."

Link tapped his fingers on the table before him, thinking. _He never showed abilities like that before,_ he thought, _I wonder why he'd hold back?_

Their group was seated at a table under an awning of a pub two blocks in from the inner wall of the city. Link looked back to Judge Ralthas, who was quite animatedly discussing things with a group of men, most in armor, some dressed like rich merchants or something. The discussion was out of hearing, and he was getting curious about the subject matter.

"You know," Midna said, "I'm curious as to why he hasn't taken your sword back, Link."

Ralthas had, for some reason, allowed them to keep the weapons they had procured, and Link still had the Master Sword across his back. Ralthas hadn't even brought the matter up.

"It's because he's not an idiot," Zelda said matter-of-factly, "How many people saw Link fighting the dragon from the wall? How many saw the last events from the gate? If he tried to disarm us and place us in shackles, it would cause a riot."

Link turned to Sheila, who was seated across from him. "What was that thing he used on Ganondorf? That made him disappear like that?"

"Oh, that?" Sheila said, "That was a Soul Gem. It's a very rare artifact predating the ancient war, and was even rare back then. There are very few left, as most were destroyed during or shortly after the war. They literally capture the victim's soul within the gem, and hold them prisoner."

"But his body disappeared as well," Zelda said, "What about that?"

"I honestly don't know," Sheila said, "I don't think anyone ever did. Nobody's ever been sure exactly how a person's soul works, or if it's even a material object."

"Kind of surprising to find out that man even has a soul," Link said.

"Can he escape the gem?" Zelda asked.

Sheila thought about that a moment. "I've never heard of anything of the sort happening. It would probably take a wizard mightier than any of the ancients to even have a chance at doing so."

Link glanced back at Ralthas. Looks like they were going to be waiting a while.

He turned back to Sheila. "We've got some time to kill," he said, "So tell me a little about this Darius. I understand he was a hero of this ancient war, and a wizard, but not much else."

"Well, I wasn't expecting to be giving a history lesson today," Sheila said, "Let's see. Darius was the archmage, back when the war began. He was the most powerful wizard alive at the time, and according to his own journal, was a teacher of a great many students for much of his time. He was actually one of the biggest advocates for getting the academy in Tyr built, so they could be trained in a controlled environment, instead of the master-to-apprentice method that had been used since before written history.

"He was quoted as telling new students desiring to become magicians that it had taken more than fifty years of his life to gain the power he possessed, and the will not to use it. And most of the wizards of old were more powerful than any that exist today, what with the outlawing of many of the mightiest magics after the war ended."

"And yet, from the tell of things," Link said, "At least one of our enemies possesses magic rivaling theirs."

"Whitos-Neiki was decimated by a single spell," she said, "While you were unconscious, my father questioned each of us like he did you when you woke up. He allowed me to read the report of what happened at Whitos-Neiki. It had been destroyed, and its people wiped out, by the Harrowing, the forbidden magic of ultimate destruction."

"I remember that one," Midna said, "It was listed in the books of forbidden magics we were looking through back in Hyrule castle."

"It causes beams of light to shoot down from the sky," Sheila said, "The beams are all just light, but are hotter than the core of a volcano, possibly even the surface of the sun. Human flesh is instantly vaporized if caught in the light, and stone becomes molten in a matter of seconds. Nothing can survive it. And it has a wide enough area of effect to wipe out an entire army, or a city of moderate size."

"And these wizards of old, they created magic spells," Link said.

"Yes."

"I'm no magician," Link said, "but wouldn't their time have been better spent making spells that would summon rain during a drought, or cause floodwaters to recede?"

She smiled sadly. "I would agree, but it seems that it is just mortal nature to seek ever more creative ways of destroying ourselves.

"Anyway, Darius was the only upper-tier wizard who stayed with the kingdoms when the rebellion began. And when it was over, he was frustrated by them dividing themselves again. I suppose the alliance today is somewhat closer to what he envisioned. I don't remember the exact wording in his journal, and it may have been lost in the translation that I read, but his final words written were something along the lines of him being frustrated with the state of humanity, and that he would choose death sooner than remain there."

"It's kind of interesting," Link said, "He was human, right?"

"Yes."

"With what Roxim said about him," Link continued, "It seems like he accomplished an awful lot for a single lifetime."

"It is possible," Sheila said, "to extend one's life beyond natural limits via magic. It's not as glorious as it sounds, though. It basically stretches your life out, and it becomes thin, spread out, and as a result, your body becomes frailer and frailer the longer you do so. You can stay alive almost indefinitely, but after so long, it's going to be as a cripple, not to mention you will become more and more susceptible to disease."

"So, the longer you live, the more likely you are to die," Midna said, "I don't really see the difference."

Ralthas appeared at the end of the table. "Okay, that's done."

"How bad are things?" Sheila asked.

"Only have the initial casualty estimates," Ralthas said, "And it's hard to even get those, considering there are no bodies from the dragon's attacks, but we lost considerably more civilians than soldiers."

"What about the breach in the wall?" Zelda asked.

"It'll take a while, but we're organizing a team to take apart a few buildings in the nearby residential district and fill in the hole with that," Ralthas said.

"It will be a weak point in the defenses," Zelda said.

"Some good news, though," Ralthas said, leaning on his hands on the table, "The wagon with the rest of your things was found, and is en route to the castle."

"Are we still under arrest?" Link asked.

"Oh, yes," Ralthas said, "You'll be allowed to keep your weapons for now, though if you draw them without good reason, they will be taken, even if you have to be cut down in the process."

He stood up, then paused. "Wait," he said, "Where's the Dra'thul?"

They looked around themselves, realizing they hadn't even noticed her leaving.

"Must have snuck off when we weren't looking," Link said.

Ralthas turned and pointed at a soldier nearby. "You! Get a search party together. We've got an escapee!"

"She'll be back," Link said, "Besides, they won't find her."

Ralthas turned back to him. "She might be at home in the forest," he said, "but she can't hide in this city."

Link smiled. "Just watch her."

* * *

At that moment, Silviana wasn't trying that hard to hide. In fact, anyone who glanced up at the steeple of the church less than three blocks south of where Link and the others sat, would have seen her climbing the architecture, finding handholds along the windowsills and even between the bricks themselves.

The top of the steeple was a pointed roof with a small ledge about six inches wide circling around, a short distance above the windows through which the great bells could be seen. Silviana pulled herself up onto the ledge and sat down, her back to the roof, and feet hanging out over nothing.

Looking down at the city, the people looked like so many ants moving through the street, and in the distance, past the wall to the north, smoke still rose from the fires.

She felt a snowflake land on her cheek, and looked. It was beginning to fall, and judging by the thick, dark clouds, it might be a storm making a slow start.

It had been snowing on that day, so many years ago. When they had come for the child. Armed men, and the man she had thought she could trust, that she had loved. They were so intent on having the child, they threatened that if she ran, they would burn the forest to the ground.

And he had promised that if she didn't resist, he'd make sure nothing happened. But she could never see him, or the child, again. And he had apologized.

Silviana felt the tears on her face. She was crying again. She knew what was causing these unpleasant memories to come back. The child she had rescued had reminded her what it felt like to hold her son. When he smiled up at her, that was all she needed in the world.

He was still an infant when he had been taken. He'd be grown into a man now, if he still lived. His father, though, her lover, had been human. He was long passed from this life.

She pulled her hood off, letting her hair fall to her shoulders, and leaned back against the steeple roof, looking up to see the tip of the spire some distance up yet. She'd apologize for disappearing later, but for now, she wanted to be alone with her thoughts.

* * *

"Dear gods."

Alex had forgotten what was happening around himself. He could see them coming, like a swarm of ants, walking carcasses defying Death himself. Maybe if they all looked alike, like mass-produced weapons, it would have lessened the impact of what he was seeing, but as they drew closer, he could see that no two did. Some were "fresher" than others, with more of their flesh remaining on their bodies, some even the same color they would have been when they were alive, others were half-rotten, huge chunks of their skin missing, revealing the bones beneath their wrinkled, darkened flesh. Some had no hair, while others had small patches, and still others had long, greasy hair that hung across their faces. Some were so far gone, they were little more than walking bones.

It was a mockery of everything life was.

Alex was gripping the stone wall in front of himself. What kind of insidious force could have conjured this nightmare? He couldn't help but think that any moment he would wake up.

Closer they came, slow but steady. A rain of arrows fell upon them. Flesh was punctured, brittle bones cracked, skulls split open, but not a one of them stopped, and those that fell began to crawl, to be trod upon by those behind them.

Alex realized something was pulling on his arm. It was Angie. She was saying something, but he couldn't hear her. He realized that he could hear the alarm bells ringing.

"Come on!" Angie said, "They want us off the wall!"

She led him to the ladder, and he descended it in a daze. He saw the men on the wall fire another volley of arrows, which had much the same result as before. Once on the ground, Alex moved to the portcullis and looked out though a gap. From this angle, it looked like a great undulating mound moving toward the city

"I don't get it," he said.

"Get what?" Angie asked.

"Whitos-Neiki was destroyed by a sorceress," he said, "Now we're under attack by the dead? What's the connection?"

Angie shook her head. He was trying to make sense of this?

The creatures had reached the wall. They looked up, raising their arms and clawing at the stone ineffectually. The archers on the wall were firing nearly straight down now, trying futilely to kill what was already dead.

"And what's the point, anyway?" Alex said, stepping back from the portcullis at the monsters started reaching through it to try to get at them, "They won't get in the city like this."

"Use the oil!" came a shout from the wall, "Light your arrows and set the beasts ablaze!"

And yet the monsters kept pressing forward, pushing each other against the wall. Flaming arrows rained into the swarm, punching into the rotting flesh, setting light to the monsters, slowly spreading across their flesh, but they continued forward, unheeding, even setting each other alight as the pressed against one another, trying to climb over each other to get at the wall and the men and women of the city.

Wait, Alex realized they _were_ climbing over each other. They were climbing atop one another, and moving up the wall.

"Dear gods," he said, looking out to see no end of the monsters in sight, "They're just going to pile up until they get over the wall!"

"That's ridiculous!" Angie said, but then the first tipped over the crenulations on the outer edge of the wall, to flop onto the wall at the feet of the soldiers, who quickly drew their weapons and set to chopping the beast to pieces.

As they did so, more and more poured onto the wall. There were shouts, and Alex looked up, then quickly grabbed Angie and forced her back with them as a soldier in full armor fell from the wall, crashing into the street where they had been standing. Two of the creatures had drug him from the wall with themselves, and they shattered into pieces on impact.

Then their hands began crawling across the stone street with just their fingers, toward the two of them.

"Talk about persistent," Alex said, stepping on one and feeling the bones crack beneath his foot.

For the first time, Alex realized that the street was empty of civilians. More men fell from the wall, along with more of the creatures, some of which were in better condition and held together on the impact, and immediately started pushing themselves up from the ground. The first soldier that had fallen was rising. Alex drew his sword and he and Angie backed away. The soldier had landed face down, and as he looked up, they could see his face, flattened and bleeding, the bones cracked and caved in. There was no way he was alive.

"That's not good," Alex said.

And the monsters kept pouring over the wall. Alex could see one soldier, holding his ground rather well, given the circumstances. He cut down one after the other, turning to get them on either side of himself, but his swings grew more desperate with each he struck down. Suddenly, there was an explosion of blood, and his head toppled to the wall, the blood spurting from his neck as his body fell to its knees, then onto its chest.

And the most terrifying creature Alex had ever seen came over the wall where he had been. A thin figure, with wide shoulders and an impossibly thin waist, less than an inch across, great clawed feet, and its arms themselves were sharp, steel blades. And the only feature on its face was a red eye the size of a human fist. A scar ran from the top edge of the eye to the top of its head.

"Alex," Angie said, "I think we should get out of here."

"Yeah, I was thinking about that myself," he said, looking down to see the creatures staggering toward them, like an endless wall of death.

They turned and ran. They were faster than the monsters, at least. Alex glanced back over his shoulder to see them putting a lot of distance between them. A shadow suddenly filled the portcullis, and there was a great crash, the iron gate crashing down on the monsters in the street, and stone from the wall flying through the air, and another monster, this one at least fifteen feet tall, stepped through. Its glowing red eyes and dark brown flesh gave it the image of a monster from a nightmare. It looked like some kind of golem.

Alex turned into an alley and pulled Angie in behind him. "We've got to get out of this city," he said.

Shouts could be hard in the distance, and screams rose with them.

"No, we have to help, somehow!" Angie said.

"And be two more people fighting in a line?" Alex asked, "Angie, use sense. The two of us aren't going to make a difference to something like that. And I promise you, this city is lost. The wall is already breached. The only hope to stop that wall of death is to find the source and shut it down. Corpses don't walk around on their own, you know."

"And what would the source be then, smart guy?"

"A wizard, obviously," Alex said, "Necromancer. And he probably isn't anywhere near here."

"You're a coward," Angie said.

Alex turned to look her in the eye. "If staying alive long enough that I might actually be able to do something is cowardice, then yes, I'm a coward. But I'm a live one."

There was a thump from the entrance to the alley. They turned to see the monster with one eye and bladed arms rising from a crouch where it had landed, its massive eye staring directly at them.

"Go back to the gym," Alex said, stepping between it and Angie, "Get whatever you think you'll need. I'll handle our optic friend here."

"I'm not going anywhere!"

"Angie!" he shouted, stopping her short, "Listen to me! For once in your life, do as I say! If we stand and fight, we're both going to die! And I'm not leaving you here!"

"Alex…" she started to say.

"Angie, there is one thing all that training in the gym didn't give you," Alex said, "And that's experience in the real world. This isn't like a training session. These monsters aren't going to fight fair. They'll overwhelm us with sheer numbers. We can't fight them. Not yet. Now go. I'll be right behind you."

"Damn it, Alex," she said, then turned to run down the alley. Alex waited until her footsteps were a distance away.

The one-eyed creature had moved into a half crouch, one bladed arm held above its head, the other just below its face, and was inching slowly toward him.

_It's smart,_ he thought, _guarding itself well. Wait, this isn't the same one…_

This creature did not have a scar above its eye like the first one he had seen. There was more than one? What kind of monsters were these?

Alex readied himself, with his sword before himself, leaning his weight forward on his toes. The creature moved suddenly, leaping from its crouch, bringing both arms down toward him. He lifted his sword, catching the impact of both blades, and was forced to grip the hilt with both hands to keep it from being knocked from his hands. He shoved back, forcing the creature off him, then dropped to the stone, swinging out one foot and ripping the creature's feet out from under it. It hit the stone on its back with a hard crash.

Alex moved quickly, getting to his feet, and stabbing his blade into its head, straight through the massive eye. No sound issued from the creature, but it fell still.

"That was easy," Alex said, pulling his sword from the eye. He turned to walk down the alley. At the end, he paused and glanced back.

And icy chill shot through him. The creature was rising from the ground, floating upward without pushing itself, directly onto its feet.

"Oh, no," he said, and ran from the alley.

It wasn't far to the gym, but the monsters were moving through the city faster than he had expected. He was forced to strike one down as it reached for him just as he left the alley. Here and there were soldiers trying to stand their ground against the monsters, but they were gradually overwhelmed by the sheer, endless numbers. And then, they themselves would rise and join the ranks of beasts moving through the city.

"There's no way this city's going to last," Alex said to himself.

There was a blur in front of him, and he leaped to the side as the blade whistled through the air, and the one-eyed creature moved quickly after him. Alex rebounded off his landing, tackling the creature and knocking it onto its back. He stepped over it and slammed his foot down onto its face with everything he had. The bone of its skull broke apart, landing in hundreds of chips on the street beneath it, his foot stopping at the back of its skull.

"Heh, let's see you get up from that," he said, and lifted his foot from its head.

The chips of bone were sliding across the stone toward its broken head.

"Oh, come on!" Alex said in exasperation, "What does it take to keep you down?"

He started running. It wasn't much further to the gym. He reached the front door, which was standing open, and ran inside.

"Alex!"

Angie was near the ropes around the ring in the center of the room, with six of the walking cadavers heading for her. Two were on the ground already, their skulls caved in, but were still crawling toward her.

As another came within her reach, Angie spun about and her foot shot up, with a devastating roundhouse kick, her heel struck the side of its head, caving in the old, brittle bones and knocking it over sideways.

Alex ran for her, slicing into the first one as he reached it, his sharp blade tearing through its rotten flesh with ease, slicing it from shoulder to hip, and it fell to the ground in two pieces. Alex stepped to the next one, using his momentum, and sliced through its abdomen, cutting its spine and dropping it to the ground in two near halves. Angie stepped to the one nearest to her, lifting one foot high and striking straight down with a heel kick, knocking it face first into the floor.

Alex swung his low kick into the shins of the next one, but instead of just breaking bones, the kick ripped its leg off at the knee, sending it to the floor, and he stepped closer, stomping down on the back of its skull, breaking its face on the hard wood floor, and splintering the wood at the same time. One grabbed his free arm. Alex spun to the left, ripping himself from its grasp, and swung his blade high, cutting off its head with a single stroke. He continued the spin and lifted his left leg in a mighty spin kick to its side that send its body rolling across the floor.

Angie reached down and picked up the bag she had packed in a hurry.

"Come on!" Alex said, "We have to go. Now."

Angie's eyes went wide. A blade appeared from her stomach, and her feet lifted off the floor. She tried to speak, but all she could manage was a choked wheeze.

"No!" Alex shouted, and ran for her.

It was the one-eyed creature, the one with the scar above its eye. It swung its arm to the side, sending Angie flying from the blade to roll across the floor into the wall. Alex lifted his blade and aimed a high swing to take the thing's head off.

It lifted its left arm, catching his blade, and used its right to stab toward his gut. Alex stepped sideways, the blade nicking his shirt but missing his flesh. His slid his sword upward, sparks flying as it scraped along the creatures bladed arm. The instant it slid past the end of its arm and was free in the air, he swung downward, directly into the creature's shoulder, smashing through the bone, its arm falling to the floor. It lifted its other arm to strike, but Alex was too fast for it, cutting its arm off at the elbow.

He lifted his sword high, gripping it with both hands. The creature's pupil grew wide, nearly filling its entire eye.

Alex brought his blade down, directly into the top of the creature's skull, slicing through the skull and cutting through the eye, down into its shoulder, then pulling free next to the spine. The creature fell to the floor.

Alex turned and ran to Angie. She had pulled herself up and was sitting against the wall. The front of her shirt was soaked with blood.

"Oh, gods," was all he could said, as he knelt down next to her, and lifted her shirt to see the wound. When the sticky shirt came up, he could see the slit from which the blood was steadily pouring, and the entry wound on her back would be much the same.

"I'm bleeding out, Alex," she said.

"No oh no," he said, "Let me bandage it off, see if we can find a healing magician…"

"You won't find one in time," she said, "Looks like I won't be going after all."

"No no no!" Alex was practically shouting, "You can't die here! I won't… I… If I hadn't told you to run ahead… I'm so sorry…"

"Alex," she said, tears welling up in her eyes, a sad smile on her face, "It's okay. There was nothing you could have done. It's just my time."

"No," Alex said weakly, "This can't be it. Fate can't be this cruel."

"I'm afraid it is," she said, then suddenly clenched her teeth and shut her eyes, "Oh, damn, that hurts. I… I can feel something moving…"

She reached up to the front of her shirt and pulled something out of the top. "Alex… Here…" she said, holding it out to him.

Alex took it, and the tie holding it around her neck snapped with a tug from her. It was a small pendant, detailed in the work, depicting a coat of arms, but instead of swords or spears, it was a pair of crossed arms, the hands in fists, in front of a dragon. It was the Ragefaust family crest, and it had been his father's for as long as he could remember.

"You're the only one of us left now," Angie said, "You're going to go find that hero of yours, and do us proud, right?"

Alex clenched his fist around the pendant. "Yes," he whispered.

"It's not all bad," Angie said, "I'll get to see Mom and Dad again."

"I swear," Alex said, "I'll find the one responsible for this, and I'll make him pay."

"Alex," she said, "Please, don't forget who you are in the process."

She took a deep breath, and pushed herself up into a higher seated position. "You know," she said, her voice growing weaker, "I think I feel a little better now…"

Her head rolled to the side and then forward, hanging down with her chin on her chest. With a shuddering breath, Alex reached up and closed her eyes.

He looked down at the pendant in his hand. He took the strand of leather it was on and tied it around his neck, then tucked the pendant down his shirt. He picked up his sword and stood up, turning to leave.

The one eyed creature was on its feet, in one piece, watching him. Now its scar descended the length of its face, above and below its eye.

"You…" Alex growled, gripping his sword tighter.

He hadn't noticed before, but one of the cadavers had staggered in the door while he was with Angie, lit ablaze, and collapsed a short ways in, and the flames were now rapidly spreading across the floor and up a one of the walls. It wouldn't be long before smoke filled the building, the supports burned through, and the roof gave way.

One of the ones he had cut apart's torso had crawled over to him and was grabbing at his ankle. He gave it a kick to the face and it lay still.

* * *

"What? What is this?"

Tharkus gazed into his crystal ball. His attention had been focused on the golem of flesh and is destructive course across the city, but now he noticed a strange reaction in one of the others. An image appeared in the crystal ball. A young man standing over a woman, her shirt stained with blood, and tears in her eyes. Tharkus watched the scene progress, until the young man turned and saw the creature, and the rage on his face.

Now Tharkus knew what had caught his attention. It was puzzled. It didn't understand what it was seeing. The false soul this golem possessed that allowed it to think for itself was having a greater effect than he had thought, and it was trying to understand what it was seeing.

"Human emotion," he told it, "It is a weakness that causes them to make mistakes. A person driven by emotion is foolhardy and ignores danger to their own person. They can't think straight and merely react. The only useful emotion is hatred, because it allows one to focus entirely on their goal, the target of such hatred. Show him how foolish he is. Kill him."

* * *

The creature leaped upward, flying nearly to the roof. Alex followed it with his eyes; it raised its arms high as it came down toward him. At the last moment, Alex stepped to the side, its bladed arms cutting into the wooden floor. Before it could pull them free, Alex lashed out with a low kick, striking it directly in the face and causing it to flip over onto its back.

"Get up!" Alex shouted at it.

It sprang to its feet, swinging its right arm wide toward his side. Alex moved his sword into a position to block, and as the blades collided, he saw it raise its left arm to strike at his head. He stepped back quickly, the blade whistling past his face, and several small strands of his hair floating down in front of him.

He spun to the left, moving back and turning the spin into a swing, which struck directly into the bone of its neck, its head flying to the side and rolling across the floor. Its arms fell to its sides. Alex struck downward, into its left shoulder, cleaving off its arm, then into its right for the same result, then struck low, breaking its spine, and kicked forward into its chest, sending its torso flying away and sliding across the floor. Its lower bode fell back from the impact and lay still.

Alex growled through his teeth. He looked up to see the fire was spreading. With a loud crack, small pieces of the ceiling came falling down around the support beam that cracked, but the beam held. Alex picked up the pack Angie had made ready and started for the door.

When he reached it, he turned back to look at the creature. Its body parts were crawling toward the legs and fitting themselves together. Alex set the pack on the ground just outside the door, and moved back into the gym.

It rose to its feet in the same eerie manner the other had.

Alex lifted his sword in his ready stance. "One of us isn't leaving here," he said.

As if on cue, one of the supports cracked and fell in, part of the roof on Alex's right falling to the floor in a burning heap.

Alex ran for the creature. He lifted his sword high for a heavy strike. The creature brought its arm up to guard, but Alex dropped to one knee and extended his other leg, sliding his foot into its feet. The creature fell forward, directly toward him. Alex lifted his sword, pointing it up, impaling the creature directly through its face. He stood up and pushed it off the blade. It flopped onto the ground on its back.

It lay still. Alex waited for several moments, ignoring the spreading fire, waiting for it to get back up, but at last did not rise. With a sigh, he sheathed his sword.

Suddenly, it was up. It lunged for him, swinging both arms wide toward him. "Shit!" Alex shouted and reached up with both hands and grabbed it by the elbows, holding the blades away from himself. He ground his teeth, and was force back as it pushed toward him.

"Damn, it's strong," he said through his teeth as he was forced back another step.

He looked over his shoulder. It was trying to force him back into the flames behind him. He was force back another step as it pushed forward. Alex growled through his teeth, and wrenched his arms back, dragging it into him, slamming his forehead into its face.

The creature stepped back, the pupil in its eye wide in surprise. Alex jerked it toward him again, headbutting it in the face a second time. Its eye was caved in and blinded. Alex gave it a third vicious headbutt, and its legs gave way, falling to the floor, dragging Alex down on top of it. He lifted his head and slammed it down yet again.

"If you come back again…" he said, lifting up and slamming down for a fifth impact, "…I'll kill you again…" and gave it a sixth, "…no matter how many times it takes!" he shouted, rising as high as he could and slamming downward again, the bone around its eye shattering and caving in.

Alex stood up. His forehead was bleeding and running into his eyes. He wiped his eyes on his hand and looked down at the creature. The pieces of the skull were already rebuilding themselves.

With a roar of rage and frustration, he grabbed it by its shoulders and hurled it into the flames.

The black, cloth-like part of its body lit up like paper, the flames shooting even higher. The creature leaped to its feet, a high-pitched shriek issuing from it, and it took two steps toward Alex before falling flat on its face and laying still.

"So that's how you work," Alex said.

The support beam overhead cracked loudly. Alex decided this was a good place not to be and ran for the door, snatching up the pack on the way out. The beam gave way, and the rest of the supports gave way as well, the second floor and roof of the gym caving in, burying what was left of the creature in burning rubble.

Alex turned to the street. It was completely empty. Alex looked up the street toward the gate. It had been smashed down, but there was nothing in sight near it. All the sounds of fighting were coming from deeper in the city.

Alex ran to the gate and looked outside the wall. There was nothing in sight. The entire horde had gotten into the city and was ignoring everything behind them.

He looked back a moment, up the street to the gym. "Angie," he whispered, "I'm sorry."

He stepped over the rubble, through the gate, and started down the road.

* * *

Khall looked up from his notes. There was no one in the room with him, but he was sure he heard a voice. He glanced at the Twilight Mirror, where it leaned against the wall. It was missing a large section still, but that would hopefully soon be rectified.

"_Khall…_" the voice whispered again.

It was a small room with no place for anyone to hide. Just his bed, a bookcase, and his large desk, and the Twilight Mirror. The flame on the candle in front of him flickered and bent as a chill air wafted across the room.

"_Khall…_"

He realized he couldn't locate the voice because he was hearing it within his own head. "Get out of my head," he growled.

The cold air wasn't doing much good for his health, and he coughed several times. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and covered his mouth until the coughing ended. When he looked down at it, he saw the blood he had coughed up.

"_You should probably see a doctor about that._"

The candle went out. There was a green light in the room, coming from the Twilight Mirror. Khall stood up and moved to the mirror, looking into it. It looked like a green cloud, swirling within the mirror.

Two orbs appeared in the cloud, opening like eyes. "_Kind of ironic, in a way. A wizard of ice whose sickness worsens in the cold._"

"What do you want now?" Khall demanded of the shapeless form in the mirror.

"_It's not too late, you know,_" the voice said, "_I could cure your disease. Even make you immortal. If you want._"

"So I can live forever knowing about the lies I've told and the sins I've committed?" Khall said, "I'd rather die."

He wasn't about to accept charity from this particular entity. Not even Minerva had been able to cure his disease, and if there was something that even she couldn't do with her magic, the price would likely be far too high to be worth the trade anyway.

"_Knowing that your end will be greeted with a place in Hell for what you've done?_"

"Heaven or Hell is for _my_ god to decide, not you," Khall said.

"_Quoting your old enemies now? So be it. I want you leave the ninja, and their leader, Mur'neth, alone for now._"

"They have betrayed us," Khall said, "I've taken precautions…"

"_They will not side with Ganon. There are prior connections that prevent them from doing so. Mur'neth has kept it well hidden from you, and even her._"

"Her…?" Khall said, then put it together, "Kilishandra. I know they are close friends…"

"_He loves her. He will not join Ganon, solely because it would mean fighting her._"

"I see."

"_In fact, it is very likely that they will soon come to conflict with Ganon. I want you to order Kilishandra not to attack Darimar until after that. I want to see how Link performs against them._"

"Why are you so interested in him?"

"_That is none of your concern._"

"And what about Zero?" Khall asked, "He escaped recently. We can't find him anywhere."

"_I've been keeping an eye on him. He's perfectly fine where he is for now. I'll tell you if he becomes a problem._"

"Fine. Anything else you want."

"_That will be all for now. Don't give up, Khall. You're so close to victory, you should practically taste it by now._"

The eyes in the mirror closed and the green light faded and disappeared.

A fit of coughing took him, and he fell to his knees, holding the handkerchief to his mouth.

When it finally subsided, he whispered to himself. "Not yet. I can't die yet. We're nearly there. I have to live long enough to tell her that I'm sorry I lied to her."


	51. Chapter 50

Okay, something important enough I'll post it here to make sure everyone sees. My updates are slowing again, and I can't simply blame work or school for it this time, because it's mainly my fault. For the last two years, this story has been pretty much all I've been writing, and it's getting to where I turn on the computer to start of the word processor, and when I see the Sims 2 icon on my desktop, I go "Hey, that sounds like a better idea."

Simply put, I've burnt myself out on this story. I dearly want to finish it, but like I said above, I've been writing it for about two years now, and when I'm not writing it, I'm thinking about it and looking through my notes for it. I plan to finish up book 2, since it has a relatively small number of chapters left, then I'm officially going to put this story on hold and write some other things. Exactly what I mean by "book 2" and "other things" will have descriptions put up in my profile as of this update.

Nobody panic, I will be coming back to this story, as I dearly want to finish it, but it's just going to have to go on hold while I get some other ideas and genres out of my system. I'll also be removing this message when I upload the next chapter, so I don't screw up the word-count any more than I have already. Anyway, check my profile for more information.

**Chapter 50: Reunions, Both Friendly and Unwanted**

The sun was sinking behind the mountains on the western horizon. Silviana hadn't moved from her perch at the top of the church steeple, and was actually surprised, as she watched the search parties hunting for her moving through the street. Not a one of them looked up to see her, and she wasn't even trying that hard to hide. Trained soldiers they may be, but it was clear that the lack of conflict in these lands for the past centuries had provided that not a one of them, even the officers, had real battle experience.

The city was a strong defensive position, but against the foes they would soon be facing, they wouldn't have a chance against the armies, let alone the magicians. The attack that morning hadn't even turned into a real battle. Link had held off the dragon long enough for the wizard to arrive, and he killed the enemy sorcererand turned back their army single-handedly.

It seemed as though there wasn't really a point to the soldiers, to tell the truth, so easily beaten by the mighty magicians they were. But Silviana could see the logic behind it: When two such magicians met in battle, they would be so occupied with each other that the common soldiers would go practically unheeded. The magicians would become each army's rock, and one of them falling would mean the death of their followers.

But she wasn't generalizing enough, she realized. It wasn't just magicians, but the greatest fighters as well. A wizard taking an arrow in the throat would go down as fast as anyone else. And a single, battle-experienced swordsman could defeat dozens of amateurs with relative ease, they just needed a more hands-on approach than a wizard.

She had come here because she didn't enjoy the thought of being safe in her forest while the world fell apart around her. The theory Zelda had come up with, that their enemy was from a parallel world, was frightening. It would mean they had an entire world of resources to draw upon. But there wasn't going to be any help coming to save the people of this world. There were countries across the sea, where Link and the others had come from, but they were too far to send word in time, let alone for their help to get back, if they were inclined to send it.

And if all the kingdoms of Mystara fell, they would be next.

That was why she had come here. Silviana felt no pity for the countries themselves, but for the people living within them, who had no knowledge of the coming catastrophe. And for those who would ignore it, thinking themselves safe.

And the strange thing was, she didn't know why she felt that way. She knew well about the brand on her right shoulder, that marked her as a slave. She didn't remember getting it, her earliest memories as a child being those revolving around the man she had known only as her master.

She couldn't say it had been entirely terrible, as most of what was expected of her was cleaning and dusting his home, putting away the books and feeding his dog. She couldn't have been more than twenty years old then, in comparison to human age, she would have looked about eight.

He had been a wizard, though. Nothing compared to what they were seeing now, but he'd apparently been conducting some form of experiments to recreate a difficult or lost form of magic that would extend his life. He was already well on in years, and as time went on, his moods grew less and less predictable, and he would fly into rages at the slightest things, and would lash out at the first thing he saw.

She remembered still the bruises and aches she would feel after some such rages.

It went too far though when he abducted a woman and attempted to siphon the life directly out of her to extend his own. It hadn't worked, and it had cost the woman's life, starting an investigation. Silviana had known nothing of it until the day a judge and thirty armed men had forced their way into his home. He had put up a fight, and the judge executed him on the spot.

Silviana still remembered that judge. A handsome elf with golden hair, deep voice, and deep green eyes. He had found her, and was genuinely shocked, though she hadn't known why at the time. She found out later that it had been because she was a member of what was supposed to be an extinct race.

She remembered the discussions she had overheard about herself, and what should be done with her. The common agreement, from all but that young judge, was to put her in an orphanage and forget about her. He argued that slavers would pick her up again eventually, and she'd wind up in exactly the same place again, aside from the obvious, that she would be mistreated or neglected because of her skin color.

She didn't know how those arguments had finally ended, but the judge had come and explained to her that society was not yet ready to accept one such as herself, and if she wanted, he knew one place where she could be safe.

He had taught her the use of the bow, how to live off the land, and finally, taken her out into the forest where he told her that she would be the ranger that would protect the forest from civilization, and protect travelers from the forest. But she would serve no man or woman, only herself. He promised that when society would accept her as it did others, he would return to tell her.

Weeks rolled into months, months into years, and years into centuries. She had grown to adulthood in that forest, mastering the skills she had been taught, and teaching herself new ones, including the art of camouflage to the point someone would have to trip over her before they would be able to find her lying in the tall grass or bushes.

She's lost track of time centuries before, and truly did not know how many years she had spent alone in that forest.

The young judge who had taken her to the forest had grown old, and had a daughter of his own now. He was still handsome, and the beard helped hide many of the lines on his tired face, but he showed no indication of recognizing her. He may have forgotten entirely.

Well, anyway, she was getting hungry. She decided it was time to get back to the others, who had moved further through the city by now, but she should be able to catch up. She rose to her feet on the ledge around the steeple and moved to climb down, but stopped short as she caught distant movement.

On the far city wall, a dark figure had leaped over the top of the wall, moved past a soldier walking the opposite direction, then jumped over the inner side of the wall to the street below. Watching the spot, a second did the same. Then a third. Then the soldier, just reaching the end of his beat, turned around and began to walk the other way. He'd completely missed them.

"They're good," Silviana said to herself.

It had been sheer dumb luck that she had seen them, and while she doubted three ninja were going to take the city alone, maybe it would be a good idea to find them and see what they were up to. She was still wearing her gray outfit she'd been wearing the night the judge had caught them, so she blended in a little with the buildings of the city, and soon it would be dark and she could stick to the shadows.

The ninja were wearing black, as usual. Until the sun went down, they'd have to stay carefully hidden or they'd stick out like a hand with three sore thumbs.

She started down the side of the steeple, the same way she had come up, knowing she had to move quickly before she lost them. People don't leave footprints on stone streets.

* * *

Mur'neth ducked into an alley and quickly moved to a side-door on the nearest building. He tried it, finding it locked. The other two ninja moved nearby, taking positions across the alley, ducking low in the shadow of the building. Mur'neth took the set of lock-picks from his belt and inserted them into the keyhole of the door. It wasn't a complex lock, only two tumblers. He worked quickly, easing them into place with audible clicks, then opening the door just enough to look in through the crack between it and the wall.

Seeing no one, he pushed it open further and took one step in, looking around the other side of the door. He saw no one, so motioned the others, then moved inside, the other two following him. The third in shut the door and turned the lock back into place.

They'd entered what looked like a storeroom. It was fairly dark, but Mur'neth could make out sacks of flour in a corner, and barrels, probably filled with dried fruit, stacked to the side.

"Master, it is still several hours until dark," one of the ninja reminded him.

"We'll wait here until then," Mur'neth said, "Find someplace to hide in case someone comes in."

Ganon was somewhere in this city, and he wasn't leaving until he found him.

* * *

"I'm curious," Zelda said, turning to Ralthas as they walked, "How does a city this size support itself?"

"There is actually a great amount of open space within the walls that is used as farmland," he said, "and more supplies are imported from the border villages and their farmlands. There's also an underground river beneath the city that several wells tap into, so we're never short of water."

Sheila glanced back at Link, who was walking a short distance behind the rest of them, with two soldiers marching behind him. He kept glancing from side to side at the large numbers of people moving through the street, a dark frown on his face. "You okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he said, "I just don't like being in crowds. For some reason, it makes it hard to breathe."

Sheila slowed until she was next to him. "So, it seems like there is some weakness to you after all. That sounds like some kind of phobia, though I'm not sure of its name."

"I'm not afraid of it," Link said, "I just don't like it."

"It's kind of cute, actually."

Link glanced at her, she saw a small smile creep onto his face. "I'm not cute," he said, "Ruggedly handsome, sure. But not cute."

"Would it make you feel better if I held your hand?"

Link chuckled. "If you're brave enough."

"If I'm…?" Sheila noticed Midna for the first time, on Link's other side, who was giving her a dark glare. "Oh. Nevermind then."

The sound of hooves on the stone street up ahead caused her to look up in time to see two horses being pulled to a stop ahead of them. She immediately recognized one of the riders. "Richard!" she called out, waving at him.

The prince jumped down from his saddle and moved toward them, the other rider dismounting and following behind him.

"Judge," Richard said, giving Ralthas a quick nod as he walked past toward Sheila and Link.

"There's someone I wasn't expecting to see so soon," Link said.

Richard nodded to him. "I'm glad to see you all made in one piece. Seems my warning didn't do much for you, though," he added, glancing over his shoulder at Ralthas.

The prince was dressed much more regally since they had last seen him, Link noticed, in a dark blue tunic with gold lacing and padded shoulders, matching pants, and the sword at his hip's grip was made of gold with green gems inlaid in the design. That was a show weapon, not a fighting weapon.

"Well, we did make it," Sheila said, "And just in time for an attack."

"Yes," Richard said, then turned his head to face Link, "I heard about the dragon and what you did. You're a very brave man. Or totally insane. I'm not sure which yet."

Link smiled. "The difference between those is measured only by success."

"In any case, prince," Ralthas said, "Why did you come to meet us?"

"I came ahead," Richard said, "There are more men coming bringing horses for the lot of you. Father wants you all at the castle by morning, if possible."

"What's the rush?' Link asked.

"We're officially at war," Richard said, "Father knows that Ralthas will bully through to a trial for the lot of you, and he wants to get it out of the way as soon as possible so that his attention can be devoted elsewhere. He wants to hold it tomorrow morning."

"That's ridiculous," Sheila said, "The standard procedure calls for at least a week for the prosecution and defense to plan their arguments."

"Standard procedure has been overruled," Ralthas said, moving beside the prince, "as it may be. Tomorrow will be fine. You can talk to them as we go, prince, and prepare your case."

Richard turned to him. "What? You seriously want me…?"

"You thought I was joking when I said that if you wanted to help them, you'd best be ready to defend them?" Ralthas said, "On such short notice, it's either going to be that, or I'll have to appoint someone to defend them, and that will cause arguments among the common people that I rigged the trial."

"And you're going to be acting judge?" Link asked.

"No," Ralthas said, "Though I normally oversee trials, the other judges may as well, but when a judge makes an arrest, we are not permitted to act as the 'judge' of the trial, for obvious reasons. I'm going to be the acting prosecution."

"This is the first I've heard of this!" Richard said.

"On such short notice, there is no time for me to brief another on the details," Ralthas said.

"You intend to prosecute your own daughter?" Richard demanded.

"I'm afraid that my duty comes first," Ralthas said, "That was the oath I took when I became a judge. Nothing is more important to me than the law. Nothing."

"Son of a…" Link hissed through his teeth, taking a step toward the judge.

In an instant, he saw what was going to happen. He'd hoped the fact Ralthas had trusted them to keep the weapons had shown something, but if he was going to be the one they were up against in the court, it was basically going to be his word against theirs, and it was obvious the people of this country would believe him first on every occasion.

Before he could do anything, he felt a hand grab his arm, and he turned to see Zelda holding onto him. She shook her head. "Damn," he muttered, but took back the step from the judge. His temper had suddenly tried to get the better of him. He might have only knocked the judge out, maybe knocked out a few teeth, but then there was the question of what next? They were too far from any of the city walls to escape, and there was nowhere to run to. And the fact he knew they were going to have to fight Khall and his allies sometime, and since Ganondorf was a lost cause, they needed this country's military in order to have a chance.

"It's okay, Link," Zelda said.

"Look, no offense," Link said, "But how much experience, exactly, does the prince have at this sort of thing. Maybe it would be better…"

"Calm down," Zelda said, "It's okay. I have a plan. A court system like this is a lot like politics, one thing that I actually am far more experienced with than you. So stay calm, and let me handle this. I know it's not your thing to sit back and let others handle things, but it would be much better for us right now if you would do so."

She turned to Ralthas. "The prince will serve fine as our defense."

"Zelda."

She turned to the voice. It was the second rider that had arrived with the prince. "Arthur," she said.

The young man was smiling, though it was a sad smile.

"You know each other?" Richard asked.

"We met," Arthur said, "Briefly."

The brief encounter that had made him vow to turn his life around, only to have everything he'd ever know ripped from him shortly later.

"I'm glad to see you made it out of Whitos-Neiki," Zelda said.

"There were a few others," Arthur said, "No one I knew, though. My family is all gone."

"I'm sorry," Zelda said.

Ralthas suddenly stepped between them. "I'm afraid I can't allow you to speak to this man any more at this time."

Arthur moved forward. "What do you…?"

"This man is a witness to part of the events related to this trial," Ralthas said, "You may talk all you want after its completion tomorrow."

"So be it," Zelda said.

Link shook his head. He was feeling the stress already. He really didn't like having to wait and hope someone else would solve a problem. And he was pretty sure it was bad for his heart.

* * *

The sun had set. Kilishandra called a halt to the day's march, and stood on a small rise, watching her men spread out to set up camp. There was a flash in the clouds some distance away, then a few seconds later she heard the faint thunder.

The air was cool, and Kilishandra shivered slightly. The fit of her armor didn't allow for much padding between her flesh and the metal, and the cool metal made the breeze seem twice as cold.

She didn't know what happened to the woman and girl she saw in Nigel, but there hadn't been time to stay around if they were to beat the winter snows to Darimar. The narrow paths in some locations would slow them further, having to funnel the men through.

"My lady."

She turned to the voice. It was her aid, Jorl. Jorl was an old, scarred soldier, and one of the very few she trusted to speak with about her most personal thoughts. He'd been around since her first battle, when the barbarian horde had attacked Ganon's domain, and stood by her even now.

They had both been little more than children back then, herself scarcely seventy, and him in his late teens. It was somewhat saddening to look at him now, in his sixties, his hair grayed, his face tired, and his armor dull and chipped. But his eyes were just as sharp as ever, showing vast pools of experience and intelligence.

He was an example of what Kilishandra would have called the perfect soldier. He wasn't a magician, and didn't use magical weapons, yet was a devastating force on the battlefield. Too many so-called "heroes" had led their forces against theirs, yet their greatest power was the magical weapon they wielded that allowed them to cut down inexperienced or unskilled men like wheat, but when they met someone who truly was a skilled swordsman, like Jorl, they had great difficulty even though he was not armed with an enchantedweapon.

"Your tent is ready my lady," he said, "Water is being heated for your bath, should you desire it."

It would certainly be nice to warm up in a soak. "I think I shall," she said, "I'll go back there in a few minutes."

"As you wish, my lady," Jorl said, and turned to walk back toward the camp.

He never asked questions, and simply did as he was told. But, when he saw something she did not, if she were about to make a terrible mistake, he would point it out and redirect her. She was sure he'd noticed the blue nail on her hand, and had gone to do research as to what it was, but he'd never said anything about it.

She started back toward the camp, to where her tent was. It was very sad, really. There were times she'd entertained the notion that he loved her, and it was possible he did, but never said anything. She was very fond of him herself, but not in the way she thought could be called love. To be honest, she had been afraid to act for the very reason she had seen again just now. He was growing old while she was still in her youth. It would be torturous to grow old while watching your lover seem to never age, right? She was certain the reverse was true.

She reached her tent and stepped inside. Her cot was set up, and a wooden tub full of steaming water was set near it. There was also a small end table and the stand for her armor. She moved to the stand and reached up to her right shoulder, slipping her fingers between the shoulder and breastplates and undid the latch within, causing the massive gauntlet to slide off her right arm, and she lay it on the end table.

She undid a similar latch under the spiked plate on her right shoulder and sat it next to the gauntlet on the table. She reached down and undid the latches on the backs of her boots that connected them to the plates on her calves and pulled them off. Next were the latches near her ankles, and on the inside of her thighs, and the plates around her legs opened on hinges, the joints on the knees the one place where the upper and lower plates remained joined, covered by a third small plate to protect her knees, and she placed them in their proper places on the stand, locking them back in place. She opened her belt and removed her sword, laying them both on the end table.

Next came the breastplate, which was joined by two latches on the shoulders, normally under the shoulder plates, two near her hips, which the belt concealed, and one final one directly between her legs, where the front and back of the plate joined. It was a design that didn't actually allow much mobility of the waist, but her fighting style was adapted to it. She locked the plates together on the stand and turned back to the tub of inviting water.

Making sure the flap of the tent was shut, she pulled her undershirt off over her head and dropper her breeches to the ground and stepped into the steaming water, hissing once at the heat on her cold flesh. She settled down into the water with a long sigh. It wasn't exactly a luxurious bath by any means, and she couldn't stretch out like she longed to, but it was wonderful in itself.

Jorl was a man she was going to miss when he died, and not just because he was an excellent soldier. He was the only man she'd ever met, other than Ganon himself, who seemed to not focus solely on her skin and ears when they first met.

And then there was that time he'd saved her life, that always helped build one's opinion of another.

She leaned back as best she could in the tub, and closed her eyes. Yes, she remembered that day quite well. They were returning to their capitol some time after the defeat of the last of the northern warlords, and a man she'd thought was crazy at the time had walked right into the middle of their camp, alone, demanding Ganon show himself.

Ganon was still at the old warlord's city with a small number of their men, trying to get things running again so the territory could support itself again and thus be worth controlling.

And here came this idiot, looking to pick a fight. Or at least, she had thought he was an idiot at the time…

* * *

"I'm not leaving here until you come out, Ganon," the man called, "Come on, I know you're here somewhere!"

Kilishandra watched the young man from a distance where she leaned on a fence along the road, her arms crossed. He was insane, that's all there was to it. Even the way he was dressed was crazy.

Leather armor dyed bright red for starters. He stood out like a giant bull's eye for any archer with a mind to take the shot. And his weapons were preposterous. He held a sword in his right hand, an empty sheath on his left hip, as well as two more full ones next to it. He had three more swords on his right hip. Maybe he feared his weapon breaking in a fight, but under that much weight, he'd hardly be able to move in one.

The archers and other soldiers, watching him, stayed their weapons by her order. The camp had been set up next to the road, and a short distance to the east, there was a drop off, a cliff nearly two hundred feet high above a lake far below.

Jorl appeared at her side. "The archers have him. Should they fire?"

"Let's find out what he wants first," she said, "He's at least got some guts, walking into the camp alone, brandishing a sword."

And still he walked, ignoring the soldiers around him completely, and called Ganon's name once again.

"Tell me," Kilishandra called to him, "What do you want with Ganon?"

He turned to her. There was a black eye patch across his right eye. He was even blind in one eye!

"Well you see," he said, "I'm here to claim his head. Is he here or not?"

Kilishandra laughed out loud. This man was completely, stark raving insane!

When she caught her breath, she let out a long sigh. "Unfortunately, he is indisposed at this time. If you're still intent on suicide, though," she said, and drew her sword, "I think I can assist."

"My lady…" Jorl said, but she cut him off.

"I can handle this joker," she said, and moved closer to the crazy man, turning her left side to him, so her gauntlet would be ready to guard herself. "Okay, tough guy, let's see what you've got."

"That's a strange stance," he said, "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"More than you, I'd say," she said.

"All right, then," he said, taking a wide stance and taking his sword in both hands, lifting it about his head, the tip pointed toward her, "Let's get this party started."

"_You who are mindless…_" Kilishandra started the incantation for a spell, but the man ran for her suddenly.

She stepped back, losing her concentration on the spell as she lifted her sword to block his swing, then moved forward again, swinging the spiked knuckles of her left fist for his face.

"Woah!" he shouted, leaning his head back quickly and stepping back, "Trying to take my other eye?"

She ignored him, shoving forward again, pulling her sword behind her for the swing. He saw the chance and aimed a swing for her head. She brought her gauntlet up quickly, catching the blade on the back of her wrist, and brought her sword forward in a wide horizontal swing. The man leaped back quickly. The blade whooshed through the air, but missed his flesh.

He looked down at the split in the front of the soft leather of his armor. He gave a low whistle, then looked up again, specifically at the gauntlet. "I see now," he said with a smile, "That's cool!"

He put two fingers in his mouth and gave a sharp whistle. There was shouting in the distance.

Kilishandra looked up. Coming over a hill in the distance was a charging army.

"Ambush!" she shouted, and the men around her quickly drew their weapons and turned to the threat.

"Take defensive positions! Don't let them force us back to the cliff!" she heard Jorl shouting.

She turned back to the man before her. He was smiling. "Ganon might be a legendary man-demon, but you'd best not underestimate this one-eyed demon either," he said, "Now the real party's about to start!"

"Why don't you just jump on my sword and make this easier for both of us?" she asked, and moved toward him, keeping her gauntlet up.

What happened next caught her completely off guard. His hands flew to his hips, his arms crossing across his abdomen, then pulled back up quickly, and all six swords were in his hands.

"The hell?!" she said, stopping her advance.

He was holding each hilt between his fingers, so they extended from his fists like great claws.

"Pretty cool, huh?" he asked, "These blades are enchanted to be light as feathers. Though I'm still pretty sure they weren't intended to be used like this, but hey, your style's a little unusual, too."

He gestured with one hand toward himself. "Now come on," he said, "Don't chicken out now."

He ran for her. She was forced back as three blades whistled through the air past her face, and she fell to her back as the second set whipped past above her. He raised one hand high, and Kilishandra rolled quickly to the side as three blades raked into the ground where she had been, carving three trenches in the hard dirt.

_How can he even keep his grip like that?_ she thought.

Suddenly, Jorl appeared over her, swinging his blade for the man, who blocked with one set of the massive claws. They were directly over her now. The man lifted the other set of blades to strike.

Kilishandra kicked upward, her foot striking him directly between the legs. The sound he made was what she would call a combination of a scream and a groan.

He staggered back as she rose to her feet.

"That was cheap," he groaned.

"You wanted a fight, you got it," she said, and moved toward him.

He stepped back more, and realized his back was to the cliff. Another step and he would fall.

"Seems you'll never get to meet Ganon," she said.

The man sheathed his right hand set of swords, and put two fingers in his mouth and gave another whistle. Immediately, the ambushers broke off the attack and fell into full retreat.

"I know it wasn't that long," the man said, sheathing his other three swords as Kilishandra turned back to him, "But I think you've got real potential. You're not the one I want anyway. Improve yourself, and we might just meet again."

Then he stepped back off the cliff.

Kilishandra moved to the edge and looked down. She saw him land in the water with a great explosive splash. A moment later, he broke the surface and started swimming to shore.

"Son of a bitch really is crazy," she said.

* * *

Kilishandra opened her eyes. She was shivering again. She had fallen asleep in the tub, and the water was ice cold. She quickly stepped out, shaking the water droplets from her body, and moved to the cot, practically diving under the blankets.

_I hope I don't catch pneumonia now,_ she thought.


	52. Chapter 51

**Chapter 51: Warm Welcome  
**

Kilishandra watched the sun rise over the eastern horizon. The first snows had begun. It would be some time until they began to stick, when winter really took hold, but it was a sign that they were running short of time. Darimar's winter was harsh, and the roads would become impassable within a few short weeks.

This wouldn't be the first time she had fought in the snow. It seemed like ages ago, when she had stood next to her father, leading forces into the northlands, a counter-offensive against the retreating barbarian horde that had assailed their walls just weeks before.

"Retreat is just another of a warrior's options," the barbarian king had said during their brief encounter before. The man was definitely a leader, and experienced enough to know when a situation was hopeless. The barbarians had superior numbers, but even with their Herculean king and heroic general, they were no match for the powers of a wizard like Ganondorf, let alone with his apprentices, Kilishandra herself, and Khall aiding him.

The taking of the northlands had just been the start of a long campaign, though. Rather than going straight home, Ganon had them circle to the southeast, to the kingdom called Loria, situated practically on the border of the northlands, its capital located high in a mountain range where the snows never ceased. It was a vicious uphill struggle every step of the way to the capital, in areas where the more dangerous magic was unusable, for fear of bringing the mountains themselves down on themselves.

It was there that Kilishandra learned true appreciation for swordsmanship. When magic failed, steel was all one could rely on. Until the king of Loria made his appearance, that is. Michael Draken was his name, and he was a talented wizard of ice. Forgoing destructive lightning and fire, he used the very element that surrounded him to his advantage, freezing their troops in their steps, killing them as well as any explosion could.

It was terrifying when one realized that the man next to you was suddenly gone, his frozen body still standing upright next to you. With morale and numbers rapidly failing, Ganondorf himself led the final push to reach the city, and leveled the city gate with a mighty blast of fire and lightning, melting what had been permanent snow and ice on the street.

King Draken's men fought hard, and every inch of the city street they gave up they exacted a heavy price. Kilishandra lost track of the number of times she had nearly been killed by enemy troops hiding in the snowdrifts, leaping out behind them and attacking their flanks.

Realizing the battle would be lost this way, Ganon at last ordered a retreat from the city. The troops pulled out, ready to flee back down the passes and leave this icy hell behind them once and for all.

Ganon stopped at the gate and turned back to the city. Kilishandra had stopped at his side.

"They fight so hard for this frozen landscape," he had said, "I'll just have to burn them out, then."

It was then that he had unleashed one of the most deadly magics she had ever seen. It had not been the legendary Harrowing, or anything she might have expected.

He unleashed a spell of fire of near unimaginable magnitude. Flames had leaped to life from stone, the ice and snow melting in seconds, the flames consuming the stone of the streets and buildings themselves. Molten rock ran across the ground as the fires grew ever larger, men and women screaming in terror for what seemed like hours.

Then it had ended. With a single gesture of his hands, the flames were instantly gone, the molten stone of the streets rapidly thickening as it cooled in the once again freezing atmosphere. After a few moments, Ganon had ordered them back into the city. The heat from the streets rapidly rising through their boots, the men edged back into the city, weapons ready for attackers.

Kilishandra was rather surprised how few dead there were after such an attack, and even burn injuries among the people they found were scarce. It was as though the spell had attacked only the buildings and roads. The civilians kept their distance, staying out of their way. The soldiers had fallen back into the castle, no doubt preparing a last line of defense.

The gate to the castle courtyard stood open when they arrived. There were soldiers lined up against the back wall. Standing alone in the center of the courtyard was King Draken himself. He wasn't what Kilishandra had expected. He looked like a boy, scarcely old enough to grow beard, dressed in thin, skintight clothing comprised of blue leggings and a white jacket with a hood drawn up over his hair but not hiding his face. He was thin, almost frail looking, and would be lucky to be five feet tall. In his right hand he held a sheathed sword just below its hilt, nearly as long as he was tall, but it was clearly a lightweight weapon, no doubt with a razor edge capable of splitting hairs.

Ganon ordered their troops to halt at the gate and motioned for Kilishandra to follow him. The two of them walked over to the king to hear what he wanted to say.

"Why have to done this to my people?" he had asked when they stopped about six paces from him.

Another surprise, his voice was soft, and it confirmed that this man was the exact opposite of Ganon in every conceivable way.

"What does the why matter to you?" Ganon had responded, "You responded in force, as I expected you to. At this point, the why only matters to the victor."

"My kingdom has done nothing to you!" Draken had said, "We were quite content with our existence here, away from the world. We are not a rich kingdom, and surviving is a day to day struggle in this environment. But we thought it meant we were safe from the wars of tyrants like you. We have nothing you could possibly want. Why have you come here and attacked us? I would know that at least before we finish this fight."

"So be it," Ganon said, "I am mounting a campaign against the Garabodot Empire in the south. In order to have a chance against so massive a state, all the north must unite under one banner. And that includes you. Had you not attacked my forces before we reached your city, we might have been able to talk about this peacefully."

"You would bring an army to a peace talk?" Draken demanded, incredulity on his face.

"Yes, I would," Ganon growled, "Because you don't have a choice in the matter. Either join my forces, or be conquered. Those are your options. I'll not leave a single kingdom behind to attack us from behind while we are occupied on the southern front."

"You are insane," Draken said, "No one can hope to defeat the emperor. He isn't even human, but a demon, a leftover from times of old. His strength cannot be matched, and his brutality cannot be comprehended. But he is content to stay where he is. You are poking at a grizzly bear with a stick."

"You think he's a demon," Ganon said with a sneer, "You obviously know nothing of me, then. I have sacked your city in a single day. Your magic may be dangerous to common men, but you are nothing to me, mageling. You will join me or die. I will have your answer now."

Draken glanced back at the soldiers behind him. They would follow whatever he decided. They were ready to die here in a futile battle if he ordered it. "Very well, wizard," he said, turning back to Ganon, "I choose death."

"Very poor decision," Ganon said, drawing his sword from its scabbard, the glowing white blade even paler than the snow around them.

"I am a follower of Delore, God of Strength," Draken said, "So are my men. The strongest among us is to be our leader. But true strength is not simple muscle, but courage, to stand in the face of villainy such as you without hesitation, and honor, to hold fast to one's beliefs, regardless of what happens.

"I challenge you to single combat, wizard. If you win, my kingdom is yours."

A smile came to Ganon's face. "And if you win?"

"If I win," Draken said, "you'll be dead."

"Kili," Ganon said, turning to her.

"Yes, father?"

"Move the men back to the wall," he said, "We're going to need some room. Get out of the courtyard if it gets too dangerous."

"Are you sure about this?" she asked.

"I'm sure of everything," he said, "Now go."

Kilishandra motioned to the men to move back, and she stepped away, as Ganondorf and Draken squared off. Ganon took the hilt of his sword and swung the blade, the leather wrapping dropping to the ground. Draken drew his blade in one swift motion, tossing the scabbard aside.

Steam rose from the blade of his weapon in the harsh cold. Kilishandra almost couldn't believe her eyes. The blade was translucent, clear as glass. It was made of ice, and the single edge was razor sharp. Draken held the hilt in a backhand position, the long blade behind him.

"Last chance to change your mind," Ganon said.

"I have to stop you," Draken said, "I may be the only one who can."

* * *

He failed in that attempt, Kilishandra thought. A battle between two wizards was quite a sight, but when both those wizards are also adept swordsmen, it became an amazing blend of magical assaults and melee fighting.

That was the second time she had been fooled by an enemy's appearance. Draken appeared so small and frail compared to Ganon, but he was incredibly dangerous in spite of his size. He had moved incredibly fast on his feet, and the incredible reach of his blade gave him great reach even in close fighting.

A snowflake landed on her cheek, the cold touch bringing her mind back to the present.

Those times were past and gone. She couldn't afford to get caught up in the past now. The camp was nearly packed down and ready to go. It was still about a week to Darimar with a group this size.

The last major potential resistance in these lands, then things could really get started. Things were going to be different this time. Regardless of Khall's dwindling trustworthiness, and her personal feelings about what she had to do, turning back was simply not an option. Ten years they had worked for this, and this was their last chance.

* * *

"He wanted it small and fast, I'm assuming," Sheila said.

"Then he should have been here by now," Link replied.

Link, Sheila, and Zelda were seated in Ralthas' office, on the second floor near the east end of the castle. The office was relatively small, and was getting cramped with the three of them, the two guards by the door, Prince Richard, and Ralthas himself. Link took note of the cot in the back corner. Even if it wasn't often, Ralthas seemed ready to spend the night here.

The desk was a dark wood, once polished but that had long since been worn away. Its surface was covered with stacks of papers, no doubt reports of some sort, and Ralthas was leafing through a few of them as they waited. Every wall of the office was covered with bookshelves, crammed near to bursting with journals, papers, and folders. It would have passed for a small library, if it were a bit neater.

The door behind them suddenly banged open, causing Link to look over his shoulder.

"Let's get this over with," the newcomer said, stepping around their seats, toward the desk.

Ralthas rose from his seat, and pulled it back, offering it to the man. "Your majesty," he said, "This hardly amounts to a hearing."

The king took the seat, motioning him back. "I'm serving as a judge, since there's no other judge higher than you to do so, you're prosecution, Richard is defense, these people are the ones on trial, and over there," he motioned to the guards at the door, "are the witnesses. This is a hearing all right. Now, I've got a lot to do, what with being at war and all, so can we get through this quickly?"

He turned to look at Link and the others for the first time. The king was an older man, looking to be in his late fifties, with just a few streaks of blonde remaining in is silver beard and hair. He was well trimmed, the beard cut close around his chin, and his hair running long, just halfway to his shoulders, though in slight disarray, as if from being wind-blown or a great deal of recent activity.

"So you really did arrest your own daughter," he remarked, looking at Sheila.

"My duty comes before my personal feelings," Ralthas said.

"Of course," the king said, looking to Link, then Zelda, "I was under the impression there were two more of you."

"One of them has the ability to hide in another's shadow," Ralthas said, "If you will come out, please?"

Midna slowly emerged from Link's shadow, to hover a few inches from the floor next to him.

"Now that," the king said with a faint smile, "could be a useful ability."

Midna said nothing.

"Silent type, then? I can work with that," the king said, and turned back to Ralthas, "And the fifth?"

"She slipped off in the city yesterday," Ralthas said, "There are men looking for her now. It doesn't matter, as I can personally account for her having nothing to do with the charges against these four."

Link looked at Ralthas, but could see nothing in his face that was readable. _Why is he protecting her now?_ he thought.

"All right then," the king said, "What are their charges?"

"Um," Ralthas muttered, suddenly reaching for a sheaf of papers on his desk and going through it quickly. Apparently the king's fast and informal trial was underway, and had caught him off guard.

He came up with one paper at last. "Here we are," he said, "They are formally charged with at least three counts of trespassing in forbidden areas, namely the sacred temples left by the ancients to protect our lands, at least two charges of the destruction of said temples, three charges of entering the Alliance's lands without proper processing, one charge of unlawful release of prisoners from a city jail, one charge of destruction of an ancient and irreplaceable artifact, namely the spell book of Archmage Darius, and at least one count of murder."

"Do you have evidence to support these charges?" the king asked.

"Yes, your majesty."

"And witnesses to corroborate?"

"Yes, your majesty, they are waiting down the hall. I shall call them…"

"That won't be necessary," the king said, interrupting him.

"What?" Ralthas looked up from the papers in his hand, clearly surprised, "But your majesty…"

"This isn't even a trial right now, Ralthas," the king said, "There isn't time right now. This is a preliminary hearing simply to establish the crime and the parties involved, and decide what to do with said parties until the trial. Now I will hear the defense."

Richard rose to his feet, holding the notes he had taken from what Link and the others had told him the night before.

"Hold it right there," the king said, lifting one hand, "I know you were looking forward to this, son, but just to expedite things, I want to hear it from them."

He gestured to the four of them. "Well? Let's hear your side of the story for these charges."

"Your majesty," Ralthas said, "This is completely against procedure…"

"I'm well aware of procedures, thank you very much," the king said, "and I'll be hearing the same story from him as I would from them, I'm sure."

Sheila started to get up, but Zelda caught her arm with one hand, motioning her to sit back down. As she did so, Zelda rose to her feet. "Your majesty, you seem to be in a hurry, and it would be a somewhat long story in the telling, if we are to justify our actions. I cannot claim innocence to the Judge's charges, but I can claim a valid reason for our actions."

"You," the king said, pointing to one of the guards, "Tell them to bring my lunch in here, along with something for everyone else."

The guard quickly ducked out the door.

"Your majesty, if you will not here the charges first," Ralthas started.

"I heard the charges," the king said, "This young woman just admitted her guilt. I doubt she'd lie about it now. But I want to hear their reasoning. I suppose it is going to take an hour or so, but that's unavoidable. I'd rather not drag it out even longer listening to you rattle off the same things she's about to tell me."

Zelda nodded at Richard, who sank back into his seat. Then she looked toward Link. The look in her eyes made it quite clear what she intended to tell them. He glanced at the king, then back to her, and nodded resignedly.

"First, your majesty," she said, turning back to the king, "I think it necessary you know who I and my companions are. We come from a land across the sea to the east, called Hyrule."

"That was in the report," the king said.

"Did the report also state that I am the ruler of that land?" she asked.

"They missed that part," the king said, glancing at Ralthas.

"I am the Princess Zelda Daphnes Hyrule," Zelda said, "I am the highest ranking noble of the kingdom, and leader of all its people."

"Hold on," the king said, leaning forward in his seat, "You're the ruler, but princess? Not queen?"

"Hyrule has no king, and therefore it shall have no queen," Zelda said, "It has had no king for nearly four thousand years, since the time of Ganondorf, the king of darkness, was defeated by the Hero of Time and Hyrule was freed from his tyranny."

"Okay," the king said, "So if you're the princess, what does that make him? A knight? Your bodyguard?"

He pointed at Link as he asked this.

"I'm a farmer," Link said.

"He lies," Ralthas said, "No peasant is trained to handle a sword like he does."

"I'm self-taught," Link said.

"He speaks the truth," Zelda said before Ralthas could argue, "Link is from a farm and ranching village on Hyrule's southern border. He learned to use a sword to act as the village's guard, before the events that transpired just a year ago."

"Give me the short version of these events," the king said.

"According to the legend of the Hero of Time, Ganondorf, the king of darkness, swore revenge on the princess and hero who defeated him, and would return eternally to attempt to retake Hyrule for himself, and exact his vengeance on the royal line and the hero's descendents," Zelda said, "By our own histories, he returned numerous times, and was defeated each time. Just last year, he appeared again, with the aid of a Twili named Zant, and very nearly succeeded in his conquest of the kingdom. If it were not for Link and Midna," she gestured to them as she spoke, "and their efforts to revive the lands protective spirits and recover the Master Sword, my kingdom would have been lost."

"This is highly suspect," Ralthas said, "What can one man and…" he paused to look at Midna, "one strange creature do to an invader than the army couldn't?"

"The first thing," Zelda said, "is be able to push back the darkness of the Twilight Realm that trapped all who entered it in the form of spirits. Link, and by extension, myself, had a form of protection."

"Hey," Link said, leaning close to her, "I see where you're going. You sure you want to tell them about that?"

"If I don't, they will continue to suspect us," Zelda said, "We've made a mess of things, now the best thing to do is come clean. Let me handle this."

She turned back to the king. "You've heard the legend of the power left behind by the goddesses when they left the world to return to the heavens, correct?"

"Of course," the king said, "It's just a myth, though."

"No, it is not," Zelda said, lifting her right hand and holding it so the kind could clearly see the glowing triforce symbol. "This is the Triforce of Wisdom. Long ago, Ganondorf attempted to claim the power of the gods for himself, but it split apart, and has since appeared in numerous individuals throughout Hyrule's history, always appearing when it was needed. Besides this one, there are two other pieces. One is in the possession of Link."

"And the third?" the king asked.

"It still lies within the grasp of Ganondorf himself. It fuels his magic and eternal youth, and makes him nigh-invulnerable."

"But he was defeated, correct?" the king asked.

"Yes," Zelda said, "At the final battle, I stood with Link, but in the end he faced Ganondorf alone on that rainy night. We both thought he killed the man that night. But recent discoveries have revealed that he lives yet."

"Where is he now, then?" Ralthas asked.

"Well let's see," Link said with a faint smile, "He was apparently sitting in this very castle's dungeon for the past year, and just yesterday you caught him with that magic gem of yours."

Ralthas suddenly went pale. "The man who used the magic that stopped the enemy forces… That was him?"

"You didn't know that?" the king asked.

"He was delirious when we found him," Ralthas said, "He was rambling about the things he'd done. It was basically a confession, but he listed more things than any single man could possibly do in a lifetime. I thought he was crazy."

"No," Zelda said, "He is dangerously sane. But if you'll let me continue, I will come back to him in a moment."

"I need a drink," Ralthas muttered.

"That is what happened last year," Zelda said, "Our current trouble came from seemingly nowhere a relatively short time ago. Late one night, an ancient magic called the Silencing was unleashed on my kingdom."

She proceeded to tell them what happened from the time she realized what was happening and Link arrived at the castle, until they were arrested by Ralthas, and Link filled in what went on during times they were separated. The king listened intently, interrupting only to ask an occasional question. About halfway through, several kitchen workers appeared with food for everyone. Zelda continued while the others ate.

She included what they had surmised about Khall and his allies during that time, including the theory they were from a parallel world, and the reason they had been going toward Darimar to find Ganondorf.

Once she finished, the room was silent for some time. Ralthas was sitting with his head in his hands, and Richard, seated where he was, was shaking his head sadly. The king was looking directly at Zelda, tapping a single finger against his chin as he thought.

"I asked for your defense," he said at last, "and you give me a frightening look at our enemy, that is undeniably plausible. As much as I don't want to believe it, the fact they appeared as if from nowhere some years ago, and now possess such large forces that there is literally no place that they could have come from without someone noticing it… How does one fight an enemy with an entire world's resources at their disposal?"

He sat upright in his seat. "However, that is something to think about later," he said, "It has nothing to do with the task at hand. I've heard the charges, and the defense's story, which from what I heard, does not deny any of them, but in my opinion, there was a very valid reason behind them. If such a magic were unleashed on my people, and I were spared, I'd have certainly done the same as you.

"Here is my verdict: The four of you will remain in this city as my guests. For now, at least, you will be under watch. Ralthas may assign those he desires to keep an eye on you, but they will not hinder you unless you give them reason to. You will have free run of the city and castle, within reason, and will board in guest quarters within the castle itself.

"There is a war about to happen, and if we all survive it, you will be brought to task for these charges against you. However, regardless of the outcome of _that_ trial, you will be permitted to find the final two pieces of the spell you need to save your people, under judge escort to prevent anymore accidental damage to the temples. Unless anyone has anything else they'd like to say, we're finished here."

He glanced at Ralthas, who remained silent, then at Zelda, who simply nodded.

"Then this hearing is adjourned," the king said, and banged his fist once on Ralthas' desk.

"So, we've got a court order to find the last fragments and save Hyrule," Link said.

"That pretty much sums it up," Zelda said.

"Hell yes," Link said, "I love the justice system in this country."

"I have things I need to see to," the king said, "but this evening, I'd like to speak further on your theories regarding this… Khall."

"Of course," Zelda said.

"Great," Link said, standing up, "I need to stretch my legs a little."

The king disappeared out the door, and the rest started to file after him.

"Sorry I wasn't any help," Richard said, moving up next to Sheila.

"The fact you believed me when my own father wouldn't is more than enough," Sheila said, smiling at him.

Ralthas stopped Link at the door. "Listen," the judge said, "There are a large number of reasons I don't like you, and I'm sure you don't feel much better about me right now. My duty always comes first, but, I want to thank you, for protecting my daughter."

"I look out for my friends," Link said, "That's my duty. Now get out of my way before I lose control and knock your teeth down your throat."

Ralthas stepped aside and Link moved out the door.

"You know," Midna said, appearing at Link's side, and leaned one arm on his shoulder, "You're so sexy when you're vicious."

"Don't you even start."


	53. Chapter 52

Well, it still looks weird, but I'm a bit more used to the new visuals on the formatting the site threw in while I wasn't looking. And hey, I'm back, since I didn't say anything with the last chapter! I'll let you get to the story, but check my profile if you want more of an update on what my stories are going through right now, as of the time of this posting.

**Chapter 52: A Judge's Proving Grounds**

"Hyrule must be a land with strange customs, if this is how they treat their ruler," Ralthas remarked.

About a half hour after leaving the judge's office, and receiving a brief tour of the general areas of the castle, Link and Zelda decided to take advantage of the training courtyard. Though it was referred to as a courtyard, it was a small distance from the front of the castle, inside the mountain itself, with a high cavern roof overhead, but it was deep and wide, with plenty of space to use, which was divided up between several sparring circles, a central training area, and an archery range at the back end.

Ralthas had come in a few minutes later to see Link and Zelda in one of the sparring circles, blunt, lightweight training swords in hand, as she made attack after attack at him, and each time he countered effortlessly and gave her good swats across her wrist and backside with his weapon.

Sheila, seated on a bench near the front entrance of the courtyard, looked up at her father, standing next to her. "He's trying to teach her how to use a sword," she said, "And he's doing it without the use of patterns to memorize and distinctive styles."

"I can see the merit," Prince Richard, seated beside her said, "Admittedly, though, it would take longer than normal training, because she's having to figure it out with trial and error."

"She's doing much better now than when they started," Sheila said, "Now she's lasting almost a full minute on some attempts."

As if on cue, Zelda cried out in shock as Link stepped close to her and with one kick to the back of her ankles, swept her feet out from under her, to land flat on her back, only to realize Link had stooped and caught her shoulders with his free arm, saving her from most of the impact.

"You just cracked your skull open on the stone floor, and are dead," Link said, and lifted her back onto her feet, adding, "Get up. Try harder."

Zelda shook her head, trying to get rid of the dizziness her sudden fall had given her.

"He's incredible to watch," Richard said as their next round began, "Look at the way he moves. He's so fast, and has so much power, and yet he's in perfect control. He can stop his swing at any point in its arc. There's no wasted movement, no misses. I haven't seen him make a single move that wasn't effective. And at the same time, there's no predictable pattern, no leftovers of training drills.

"Gods," he sighed, leaning back, "If you had just a hundred soldiers who could fight like him, you could take over the world."

"I think you're giving him more credit than he deserves," Ralthas said, "He's still very young and inexperienced."

"He's got more experience than any of the soldiers and guards here," Sheila said, "They've never even seen real battle."

"And what are you calling real battle?" Ralthas asked, "A few skirmishes with highway bandits on your trip?"

Sheila looked up at him. "You're just not going to believe anything we say, are you?"

"Credit is given where credit is due," Ralthas said, "I'd have to see him in a real fight myself to judge his ability. Not this pathetic hoedown with a clearly untrained woman as his opponent."

Midna suddenly appeared by his right hand, and called, "Hey Link! The judge wants to spar with you!"

"What?" Ralthas nearly leaped backwards when she appeared, and then realized what she had said, "Now hold on a moment…"

Link motioned for Zelda to stop, and then the two started walking toward them. Midna turned to face the judge, floating up until her eyes were level with his. "What's the matter? Going to talk all that trash, then not going to back it up?"

"I don't think he meant that much disrespect," Prince Richard started.

"Oh please," Sheila said, "You'd be the one calling him out if he said the same about any soldier in this country."

"I never said…" Ralthas started.

"Never said what?" Link asked as he and Zelda drew near.

"The good judge doesn't think you're the real deal," Midna said, moving closer to Link, "And he called your training for Zelda a 'pathetic hoedown.'"

"I said simply that I'd have to see you fight a real opponent before I could make a judgement of your skill," Ralthas said, intent on defending himself.

"Really?" Link asked, turning a dark glare on Ralthas, "After you make your accusations against us, now you're going to insult me, and insult the man who helped me learn my swordsmanship by mocking the training style?

"I suggest you either step down right now, Ralthas," Link said, then pointed over at the sparring area, "or get your ass in that ring."

All activity in the courtyard had ceased, and everyone was now intently watching the exchange. Ralthas looked around himself at the growing crowd of eyes. "Fine," he said at last, "If you're all so intent on forcing this confrontation, so be it. I want you to know, though, that I don't have anything to prove here."

He pulled the ties holding his sword on his belt and handed it to Richard. "Hold this."  
"Of course," the prince said, leaning the weapon against the bench next to his leg.

Zelda moved toward the bench, holding out her training sword to the judge on the way by. "You'll want this," she said.

Ralthas took it, and moved toward the ring. Link followed Zelda. "Let me see your hands," he said.

Zelda stopped and turned. "Oh," she said, holding her hands up.

The skin of her palms was cracked and bleeding. The training swords they had been using were heavier than the sticks they had been using before, and the grips were the same as real weapons. And, since they were in a safe location, Link had been working her a little harder than before.

"This will stop when you get some decent calluses built up," Link said, then turned to the gathering crowd, "Can someone get some bandages for her hands?"

Almost immediately, a young man emerged from the crowd to see to her. Link turned back toward the sparring ring where Ralthas stood waiting.

"I can fix her hands in just a moment," Sheila said.

"No," Link said before she could do anything, "Not that the offer isn't appreciated, but I don't know if the calluses will develop correctly if you do so. She needs the calluses so this doesn't happen to her hands in a real fight, and she ends up unable to hold onto her weapon because her hands hurt too much."

"He's right about that," Richard said, then held one hand out to Sheila, "See, feel mine. Pretty rough, and my training wasn't even as hard as what Link is putting her through."

"I'm all right," Zelda said as the young soldier began wrapping white linen bandages around her hands, "It hurts, but it's certainly not something I can't live through."

"You got me into this, didn't you?" Link asked Midna as he turned and walked toward the white circle on the stone that made up the ring.

"Oh, yes," she said, "Sorry."

"This is one time I won't hold it against you," Link said, "I've been wanting a chance to knock that one-track head around a bit."

"You'll do fine," Midna said.

Link stepped into the white circle, with his training sword under one arm as he popped his knuckles.

"How do you want to do this?" Ralthas asked, "Disarm, first blood, yield, or what?"

"I think yield sounds good," Link said, stopping a few steps from Ralthas, just out of the reach of his blade.

"That's fine with me," Ralthas said, undoing the clasp around his neck, releasing his cloak, which he then tossed to the side. As he did so, a small pendant fell free, dangling on the front of his shirt. Link recognized it as the same kind of gemstone that Sheila wore around her neck.

"Whenever you're ready," the judge said, lifted his sword.

Link suddenly lunged forward without warning, his voice a near primal scream as he attacked Ralthas, bringing his blade in from the left side. Ralthas reacted quickly, lifting his and taking a circling step toward Link, so that his left side was to Link as he blocked the swing with his sword fully in front of himself. Not hesitating, he wrapped his left arm around Link's, pulling it into his armpit, and took another rotating step to his right, pulling Link's arm about as he did so, and using Link's own momentum to throw the younger fighter to the floor where Ralthas had previously been standing.

Link hit the ground, turning his fall into a roll past where he landed and into a half-crouch with his back to Ralthas. The judge hadn't hesitated, moving swiftly after Link, his blade high with both hands on the grip. Down the blade came, and Link, without turning, lifted his to block, but instead held the his at an angle. The blades connected, and Ralthas' slid down the length of Link's, the swing turned away to the judge's right.

His momentum still carrying him, Ralthas stumbled, and Link spun on the spot, swinging out one leg to sweep Ralthas' feet out from under him, causing him to crash into the floor in a heap. Ralthas pushed himself up and turned about, to find Link already on the attack, running for him with a high swing from the left again. Ralthas stepped toward him, rotating to his right again, lifting his blade to block, only for Link to stop his swing and spin about the other way, and strike Ralthas across the back with the training weapon, causing the judge to stumble forward with a grunt of pain.

"Isn't this a bit rough for sparring?" Sheila asked as they watched, "One of them could end up really hurt at this rate!"

"Your father particularly doesn't like Link," Zelda said without looking up from her hands, where red was slowly becoming visible in the white bandages, "The reason is primarily because the judge is a man of the law, he holds his duty above all other things, including his own life. The whole of his existence is dedicated to upholding the law. He can't stand Link because he stands in direct opposition to everything your father stands for."

The clash of the weapons echoed through the room and cheers were going up from the crowd gathered around the circle to watch the fight, both the recruits and the older soldiers serving as their trainers. All attention was on the fight.

"Link, on the other hand," Zelda continued, "does not care for authority. He does what he believes is right, and ignores anything saying he's wrong. He will break a law without thinking twice if it is for what he believes is right. In a way, the two of them are very similar. They both believe in doing what is right and good, but their perceptions of how to go about it are extreme opposite points of view. They're like different sides of the same coin, so to speak. It is because they are so similar that they can't stand each other. The only difference is that while your father holds the law as the utmost importance, Link will ignore it until everything else is taken care of."

"If Link has so little respect for authority," Sheila said, "then why does he hold you in such high regard?"

"Because he trusts me," Zelda said, "Because I have shown him that he can trust me. And I trust him." She looked up at Sheila for the first time since they started talking. "Haven't you noticed that not once in our entire time since you joined us has he called me 'princess' or 'your majesty?' As far as he is concerned, I am on the same level as him, even though I am the leader of Hyrule and he is a peasant. I've done nothing to discourage this line of thinking, because if anyone has earned the right to think in this way, he has. It would no doubt cause problems should he attend a royal council meeting, but in our personal relationship, there's nothing wrong with it. He certainly defers to me, or you, in matters that he knows little about, but when he knows what he's doing, it's far better to not argue."

"Yes, I've noticed a bit of that in him," Sheila said, "He claims to not want to be a leader, to not have people depend on him, but when something happens, he steps into the role with remarkable ease."

"As much as he tries to deny it, he is a born leader," Zelda said, looking toward the sparring ring where Link and Ralthas were still trying viciously to injure one another and smiled, "That's supposed to be my job. I'm supposed to lead and protect the people of my kingdom, and when I failed, he was the one who saved them, and me."

"You told me about that," Sheila said, "The monsters from the Twilight Realm. There was little that could be done, considering the circumstances."

"What I didn't tell you before," Zelda said, "was that I was the one who accepted the doom on my country. I surrendered in a moment of fear. They had entered the castle, trapped myself and my personal guard in the throne room. I thought it was inevitable, that we were fighting a losing battle. I was the one that doomed my people.

"And then it was Link who corrected my mistake," she added, "If he hadn't been there to step in where I failed…"

"I see," Sheila said, "So that's why you hold him in such high regard."

"This situation we are in now isn't too different," Zelda said, "Whitos-Neiki is gone, and by now Nigel has no doubt fallen as well. It's likely Tyr and Metallicana aren't too far behind."

"That's jumping a bit ahead, isn't it?" Sheila asked, "We've had no report of attack from the other three kingdoms…"

"And that's what worries me," Zelda said, "When attacking an allied group of kingdoms, one cannot simply defeat one and then wait for the others to sort themselves out and unite their forces against you. You strike while the iron is hot, bring them all down one by one, rather than try to fight them all at once."

She glanced at Sheila, who was staring at her. "I may not have been much for magic or swordsmanship, but battlefield tactics is something I excelled at. This is much the same situation as before, though on a larger scale. The attack came from seemingly nowhere, catching us completely by surprise, and soon, we're going to be trapped in this city just like I was trapped in my throne room.

"But this time, I'm not going to give up," Zelda said, "No matter how bad it gets, we can't surrender. Our enemy is from a parallel world, and no doubt have all the numbers and resources to go along with it. We don't know what they want, but we are fighting for our very survival. And nearly every creature alive, man included, is far more dangerous when backed into a corner."

"Are you rehearsing your speech for my father later?" Richard asked.

"To some extent," Zelda said, "But right now I'm also trying to convince myself. You see, they've got magicians like our world has not seen in eight thousand years, since the ancient war. They can single handedly destroy entire cities. This has left me thinking, why do they need an army in the first place? The answer is for the same reason the ancients needed their armies. Powerful as the ancient wizards were, they could destroy entire armies by themselves. But the wizards couldn't do so, because they were busy fighting each other. Trying to destroy one another or distract the other well enough a soldier could put a sword into their opponent.

"Wizards like this do not exist in this day and age, with one and only one exception."

"Ganondorf," Sheila said.

"Yes," Zelda said, "I've got to talk to him again. I've got to convince him to help us. These enemies want to kill him, too, and who knows, one of them might be capable of doing it. But without a magician of his caliber on our side, quite frankly, our chances are extremely slim. Link was able to beat Ganondorf, and that proves such wizards can be brought down by mortal warriors, but the odds are stacked very high against us."

"That's what we thought before," Sheila said, "Then he attacked us in the city."

"No," Zelda said, "He was after Link. I'm afraid that, to save our world, we might have to make an unpleasant sacrifice."

"You can't be serious," Sheila said.

"That's why I need to talk to him again," Zelda said, "Just him and me, alone. I might be able to convince him to wait for his unpleasant demand, or to take something else."

"Darimar's got fairly deep coffers," Richard offered.

"I already tried money," Zelda said, "He doesn't want it. Let's stop talking about this, it's not going to matter for now."

They turned back to the fight. "I have been watching closely," Richard said, "I think Ralthas bit off more than he can chew. Like he said, you couldn't tell what Link was really capable of until he fought an experience opponent, no offence, princess. But Link's not just his experience and training. He's just so fast. Honestly, I never thought a human being could move as fast as he does."

As if to punctuate what Richard was saying, Link caught a swing from Ralthas with a high block, and instantly moved in, stomping his right foot down the judge's toes, then gave the judge a backhand across the face with his free hand, causing the older man to stagger back.

"It's not actually that he's so fast," Zelda said, "He comes from unexpected directions, and absolutely never overexerts his swings. Wasted movement is wasted effort, he tells me. If you're not going to connect, don't put the full force into it, and try to fake your opponent out instead. If you put full effort into a swing, and it's blocked, the momentum causes you to actually lose control for a second or two. That's something Link simply does not do."

"Huh, hadn't thought of it like that before," Richard said, "I might have to get him to give me a few lessons."

They were interrupted by a guard appearing from the direction of the courtyard entrance. He slammed his spear butt into the floor once and bowed. "What is it?" Richard asked.

"It is actually a message for the lady, Princess Zelda of Hyrule," the guard said, "Arthur Ragefaust is confined to his room by order of the Judge Ralthas until he is questioned, but he has requested a chance to speak with you, if you are free."

"That's the young man from Whitos-Neiki," Zelda said, then nodded and rose to her feet, "Yes, I'll talk to him. Take me there."

The guard motioned she follow him and led her away and out of the courtyard.

"Something happen there that I missed?" Richard asked.

"Afraid I'm in the dark, too," Sheila said, "Except for a strange young man that was unconscious in the gutter, and Zelda had to stop and talk to him as we were leaving."

At that instant, the fight came to an end. Ralthas had successfully turned a strike from Link and was moving in closer to make a grab for him when suddenly, he grunted in pain, fell to a knee, and shouted, "Enough, I give!"

"Oh no," Sheila said, jumping up and running toward the sparring ring.

Link took a few steps back from Ralthas, catching his breath. Midna appeared at his side. "See, I knew you could take him."

"Wasn't me that got him," Link said.

Ralthas had shifted into a sitting position, and had to take hold of his left leg to forcefully move it into a more comfortable position. Sheila appeared at his side. "Is it your knee?" she asked.

Ralthas nodded, his breath hissing through his teeth, gritted against the pain. Sheila sat down on her knees next to him as the recruits who had been watching gathered closer, while their trainers tried to order them back.

"You!" Ralthas said, pointing to one at random, "In my office, under the cot, there's a knee brace and a crutch. Go get them!"

The young man darted away. Sheila had her hands near her father's bad knee, and a soft golden glow was visible from her palms. "Is this helping?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you," he said.

"I don't know why this won't heal completely," she said.

"Because it is healed completely, just not the way it should have," he said, "That and my bones are reminding me how old I am."

"You going to be all right, old man?" Link asked.

"I'll be walking again by tomorrow," Ralthas said, "We'll finish this then."

"No, you better stay off this for at least a couple days," Sheila said.

* * *

"Well, that old man isn't too shabby, but the kid is something else," Mur'neth said, seated comfortably on one of the rafters near the ceiling of the courtyard, "Impressive every time I see him fight. But if he was able to defeat Ganondorf, then I ought to have a pretty good chance, too."

"You really don't make it easy to tell whose side you're on," a woman's voice said behind him.

Mur'neth spun in his seat, reaching for his sword. One rafter away was a dark elf woman, clad in a dark grey outfit, leaning comfortably against a roof brace on the rafter.

"Oh, you're good if you can sneak up on me," Mur'neth said, "Did you kill my ninja?"

"They don't even know I'm here," she said, smiling, "If you lot are the best sneaksmen around in your homeland, people must not be very attentive to their surroundings there. Or maybe I'm just too used to sneaking around animals, who have much better senses than people."

"Who are you, anyway?" Mur'neth asked.

"My name is Silviana," she said, "And don't bother asking, as I've no relation to your homeland."

"That means you're from this world," Mur'neth said, "I thought the dark elves died out long ago here."

Silviana shrugged. "I don't know. I could very well be the last one."

Mur'neth relaxed a bit, taking his hand off his weapon. If all she wanted was to talk, well, that was fine with him. "What do you want from me?"

"I'm just curious," she said, "Curious about what you want. Your ninja were in the forest where I met the people you are following. Then they abandoned your other allies and hadn't been seen since, and now I find more of you in this city, following us again. If I understand this correctly, you are no longer allied with your former friends, and yet you haven't made any appearance with us to show what you want. So how about you just tell me: Whose side are you on?"

"My own," Mur'neth said.

"Now, you see," Silviana said, "You sound like a mercenary who'll work for the highest bidder, but seeing you here now, you don't seem like the type. You are after something, though. You just mentioned that you have pretty good chances against Ganondorf, implying you want to fight and or kill him. Considering our current situation, that puts you against us, since we need him to fight the other wizards."

"What do you mean 'us?'" Mur'neth asked, "You're not one of them! Look at the color of your skin, your hair! How can you refer to them and yourself as the same?"

"They've done me no wrong," Silviana said, "And I say 'us' to make sure you understand where my loyalties lay. That's why I'm not like you. I've made my allegiances and I'm sticking to them."

She leaned toward him. "On an interesting note, what happened to you that causes you to instantly assume that based on skin color, they're so different from you and I?"

"Look, I don't know how it is in this world," Mur'neth said, "But where I come from, humans and Dra'thul hate each other. Before man's rise to power in my world, demons ruled over the mortal races. The Dra'thul were their favored servants. When the demonic empire was overthrown, my people fell from power and were hunted nearly to extinction. It wasn't until they claimed a land of their own, far from mankind, that they were able to rebuild their lives."

"And what does that have to do with anything?" Silviana asked.

"Everything!" Mur'neth said, "Humans and dark elves are sworn enemies because of the time we were in demonic service…"

"No, you missed my point," Silviana said, "What does that have to do with this?" She lifted her arms in a gesture indicating everything around them. "What does it have to do with them?" she asked, pointing down, "And what does it have to do with you?"

She pointed directly at him. "Were _you_ a servant of a demon?"

"No!" Mur'neth said, "It was long before my time."

"Were _they_ part of the army that decimated the dark elf people?" Silviana asked, pointing down at the people beneath them.

Mur'neth said nothing. It had become obvious where this was going.

"I realize what I'm saying is hard to swallow at first," Silviana said, "That's kind of the whole point of racism of this type. You're taught what to believe from childhood, to the point it becomes extremely difficult to believe anything else. That it must be right. To the point you can meet people, good people, and in spite of knowing it, the thoughts still surface, telling your own logic that it's wrong."

She reached up to her neckline with her right hand and undid the clasp of her outfit. "Let me show you something."

Mur'neth chuckled. "Well, I won't say no if you're offering."

Silviana smiled a knowing half smile, then pulled the left shoulder of her outfit down low enough that he could see the skin of her arm. In stark contrast of the coal black skin stood the red scar, forever burned into her flesh. "See this?" she said, "This is a slave brand. My earliest memory as a child was the moment this was seared into my flesh, and it's a moment I won't forget for as long as I live. So, you're whining about how humanity wronged people you never knew, long before you were even a babe suckling at your mother's teat, and see that as an excuse for hatred. Meanwhile, I've had real trauma in my life. I've got a real reason to hate."

She pulled her sleeve back up and buttoned the neck of her shirt. "But those people down there," she said, gesturing to the cavern floor, "had nothing to do with it. In fact, one of them was the man who rescued me from that life. The ones who wronged me are long dead. I've moved on. You can go right on with that hatred and distrust of yours, but it's foolish and petty."

"And just who are you, my mother?" Mur'neth asked.

"No," Silviana said with a smile, "because of what she taught you, or let others teach you, your mother was obviously an idiot."

She stood up on the rafter. "Now, I'm going to go rejoin my friends. Because of where my allegiances lay, I am going to tell them that you were here, and by nightfall, guards will no doubt be turning this castle upside down searching for you. If I were you, I'd be long gone by then."

"I haven't gotten what I'm after," Mur'neth growled.

"Well, that's your prerogative then," Silviana said, "But I'll give you a fair warning to stay away from myself and my companions, because the next time you see me, I'll be armed."

Without waiting for him to respond, she turned and leaped away from him to the next rafter, stepping off it into a leap for the next, moving away with astonishing speed.

Mur'neth remained where he was for a few moments, thinking. He needed to find where Ganon was, and the best way to do that was to question one of them. That woman was obviously out of the question. Link would likely draw his weapon first and ask questions later.

There was one other option. Mur'neth smiled. He'd just have to get the Princess Zelda alone and get her to answer his questions. How fortunate, he mused, that she was also pretty good looking.


	54. Chapter 53

This chapter only took so long because I was playing the spit out of Prototype and Saint's Row 2 for the past couple of weeks. It actually took my 360 overheating for me to remember "Oh, junk! I need to do the new chapter!" Great games, both of 'em.

**Chapter 53: Into the Night**

The heavy oak door opened with a loud creak of its hinges, causing Arthur to turn where he sat toward it. Framed in the doorway was the woman he had been waiting for. "Hello, Arthur," Zelda said with a small smile.

"I thought we weren't going to be able to talk until after the hearing," he said.

"It's over already," Zelda said, "The king wanted it over swiftly, and thanks to all most all parties involved cooperating, we didn't even need the judge's witnesses."

One of the guards leaned in the door. "We'll wait outside until you're done."

"Thank you," Zelda said as the guard pulled the door shut.

"I suppose if it's over that quickly, I'm just confined to quarters until Ralthas sends word," Arthur said, "Apparently he wanted us where he could find us when the time came."

"Well, it's a comfortable room, if modest," Zelda said, looking around to chamber. There was a single bed against the left wall, a small table with two seats and an armoire for clothing. It wasn't cramped, though, and had plenty of room to move about.

"I'm curious, Arthur," she said, seating herself across the small table from him, "How did you escape Whitos-Neiki before it was destroyed?"

"I didn't actually," he said, "It was blind, stupid luck that saved me. I wasn't caught in light beams from the spell used by the sorceress, though men standing less that three feet from me were. I actually waited for the sorceress. Caught her wandering the streets alone and tried to kill her."

"Tried?"

"I don't know how to use a sword. Even though I came at her from behind, she was ready for me. She could have killed me easily, but instead she played with me," he paused and lifted a hand to his face, where four horizontal scars stood out on his right cheek, "This is from that gauntlet she wears on her left hand. It has fingers like claws."

He smiled slightly as he looked at Zelda. "She didn't get my left cheek yet, though."

"Oh, dear," Zelda said, "That means you saw what happened at the inn that afternoon. And then you tried it and that's why we found you in the gutter the next morning."

She reached across the table and took his hand with her own. "That's a very stupid thing to do. All it was when I did it was a bluff. The man in the inn could have broken me in two with ease, but I knew before I did it that it would drive him off. If someone genuinely intended harm, such a threat wouldn't work. It would sound more like a challenge."

Arthur sighed. "I guess I'm just not as good at reading people as you are."

"I don't mean to sound arrogant, but no one is as good at reading people as me," Zelda said, "I have more than a bit of an unfair advantage."

"What do you mean?"

"You know how elves have a sixth sense, to detect the life force of other beings around them?" Zelda asked, remembering what Sheila had told them the day they met.

"I had heard something like that," Arthur said.

"I have a sixth sense as well," Zelda said, "A form of empathy. I can feel the emotions of anyone around me. That is why I can tell when someone intends harm or not." She added with a smile, "It also makes it impossible for anyone to lie to me. While I cannot see the real truth, I can tell when someone is being insincere."

"So then, that day we met," Arthur said, "You didn't know what I was trying to do?"

"I knew you were being insincere," Zelda said, "and the fact that you were making such an effort to get me to trust you and get close to me made it quite clear what was on your mind. No offense."

"None taken," Arthur said, leaning back and pulling his hand from her grasp, "So you were onto me from the very start."

"Yes."

He looked down at the table, to where she was holding his hand, for the first time noticing the bandages wrapped around her hand. "What happened?" he asked.

"Oh," she said, "Nothing terrible. My own sword training."

She lifted her other hand, looking at the palm where red spots were starting to become visible on the bandages. "A lot of hard work to learn the sword," she said.

"It was terrible, you know," he said, suddenly changing the subject, "Watching all those men and women around me die while I was spared."

Zelda did not respond, instead waiting patiently for him to continue.

"There wasn't even a chance to fight back," he said, "Light lanced from the sky, and those caught in the beams, they couldn't even draw breath before they were dead, their flesh turning to ash in an instant, and their bones just a second later. They didn't even have time to scream."

He leaned forward, putting his elbow on the table and resting his chin in his hand. "My father was all the family I had," he said, "He wasn't among the survivors."

"I'm sorry," Zelda said.

"The worst part," he said, "is that I hadn't even spoken to him for a month or better, and the last time I had, we'd had a fight. I can't even remember what about, but that was the last time I'd talked to him."

He sat up and looked at her. "I've had time to think since then, and I've made a decision. It's time I finally grew up and started pulling my weight. We're at war, and the best way I can help is to enlist."

"That's good to hear," Zelda said, "Don't forget the past, but don't focus on it. Look toward the future, because that's where we're all going, probably faster than we'd like."

There was a knock at the door. "What is it?" Zelda called over her shoulder.

The door edged open. "Sorry," the guard said as he leaned in, "but a situation's coming up out here and the king has requested that you rejoin your other companions for the moment, until we sort it out."

"All right," Zelda said, standing up, "I'm coming."

"Wait, can I ask you one thing first?" Arthur said, rising form his seat.

"What is it?" Zelda asked, looking back from the doorway.

"You are such an amazing woman," he said, "So much stronger than any I knew before I met you. After what you said to me that morning, I want to know, is there really any chance that a man like me…?"

Zelda smiled. "If we make it through this war, I'll tell you," she said.

Arthur sank back into his seat as the door shut behind her. "If we make it through this war," he said to himself.

That made up his mind. He would become a soldier, learn to fight, and prove himself to be a man a valor, truly changed from the womanizing pig he was before. And he would survive. He had to survive. So he hear the answer to his question.

* * *

The guards led Zelda back to the training courtyard, where Link and the others waited, along with the king and Judge Ralthas, who was leaning heavily on a crutch under one arm. It wasn't until she was closer to the group that she noticed Silviana had returned and was among them.

The king turned as she drew near. "Ah, good, you're here."

"What's wrong?" Zelda asked.

"Your friend here," the king said, indicating Silviana, "says that we've got some rats."

"The dark elves that you said were following you early in your journey," Silviana said, "I spotted them in the city and trailed them to the castle, along the way it became clear they were once again following us. I wasn't armed, or I'd have done something about them."

"Not armed?" Ralthas said, looking directly at the grips of the elbow blades in their sheathes along her thighs.

"I took these on my way back here," Silviana said, "They are mine, after all."

"Yes, you took them from the locked and guarded room they were in with the other weapons from the group," Ralthas said, "And the guards didn't even know she'd been there."

"Count your blessings she's on our side then," the king said, "Anyway, I want your group to stay here with the judge and soldiers. If these spies are after you, then having you all in one place is safer than letting you wander about. Meanwhile, we've got two hundred men who are going to turn this castle inside out if they have to so they can find the spies."

"Your majesty, I'd rather lock them in a small room for now, what will be their quarters would work, while we search," Ralthas said, "That way I will not have to remain with them."

"You're in bad shape after your little tussle earlier, old friend," the king said, "You won't be able to keep with the search parties. Plus, our dark elf scout here said they entered the castle through a second story window. That's why I want them here. It's wide open, well lit, and there is literally nowhere they can sneak up from."

"As you wish, then," Ralthas said, moving over to a stone bench near the sparring ring and sitting down, "I can at least keep my weight of my knee, then."

"Let me help with the search," Link said.

"I hate having to repeat myself," the king said, turning to him.

"Look, these ninja are extremely adept at hiding in shadows," Link said, "Dark areas and such, or even a shadow say, up in the rafters? This marking on my face is not there for aesthetic reasons. It lets me see in these areas like they're daylight."

The king looked at him for a moment. "Dare I even want to ask?" he said at last.

"I'll tell you later," Link said, "Just let me help."

"Link and I will search as our own group," Silviana said, "I'm a more skilled sneaksman than these ninja. We will search the areas your men cannot see or reach."

The king stared at them for a moment, his eyes dark.

"Your pardon, your majesty," Zelda said, stepping in quickly to defuse the situation, "But these ninja are after us. I would prefer at least that one of my own assist in the search."

The king turned to her, then nodded, "Fine. Link and the dark elf will help in the search. The rest of you are to remain here. Is that understood? I'm tired of my orders being questioned."

"No problem," Link said, "Somebody give me a sword."

The king nodded. A guard stepped forward and drew his weapon, offering the hilt to Link with the blade down. Link took it and turned it over in his hand. "Out of balance, heavy on the front end," he said, "Why haven't you had this replaced yet? Nevermind, it'll work."

"All right," the king said, "The dark elf said there are three of them, dressed in black leather armor. I want all of them found by sundown. Those of you staying here, take your positions around the courtyard and keep a sharp eye out. The rest of you, fall out!"

Silviana motioned Link toward the southern exit of the courtyard. "This way," she said, "We can get up into the courtyard rafters in a storage room in this direction."

As Link followed her and the groups of soldiers moved off toward different exits, he sensed a familiar presence with him. "Didn't the king want you to stay here with the others?" he asked.

"I'm sticking with you," Midna's whisper came from his shadow, where she was hidden, "You seem to get into a lot of trouble when I'm not around."

"Right, and when you're with me, you're the cause of my trouble," Link said.

"Shouldn't you be following her?" Midna asked, "You're falling behind."

Link started to jog to catch up to Silviana as she disappeared out the courtyard exit.

Near the sparring ring, Sheila moved to the bench where her father was seated, and sat down next to him. "How's your knee?"

"I'll live," he said, "What was the idea back there, egging him on to fight me?"

"Sorry," she said, "But you were insulting him for no reason, and he is my friend."

"Friends," Ralthas said, and huffed, "You're not falling for him, are you?"

"Oh no," Sheila said, "Too wild for my tastes, and unpredictable."

"That's what the remaining members of our kind say about you," he said.

"I think you'll find most humans are like that, though not to the degree of Link," Zelda said, moving near them, and sitting down cross-legged on the floor, "It comes from the short lifespan we have, we have just as much drive to accomplish something with our lives, but considering most of us are lucky to make it to one hundred, we're that much more driven to do it within that short time. You elves live for a thousand years. It must always seem like you have plenty of time left."

"Oh yes, plenty," Ralthas said, tugging at the brace on his knee, "Until you hit nine hundred twenty-seven and realize your life is nearly over."

"Why, at that age, you could have seventy years left," Zelda said, "That may as well be a full lifetime for a human."

"See, you don't understand," Ralthas said, "But then, I didn't expect you to."

"How old were you when you became a judge?" Zelda asked.

Ralthas glared at her, looking as though he was about to tell her off, then just looked away, and said, "One hundred seven."

"Wow," Zelda said, "By elvish standards, then, you were barely more than a child."

"I wanted to do some good with my life," Ralthas said, "I was originally training to be a magician, healer specifically. That's where I got this," he touched the gemstone hanging from his neck by a cord, that was the same color and cut as Sheila's, then continued, "Guess I was a little too dedicated. I caught a judge's eye, and he offered me a chance to do some real good, as he put it. At first, I turned him down, but he kept coming back. Eventually wore me down. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Power to enforce the law, to even remove a king from his throne if need be, and no one, save another judge, with the authority to stop me.

"I did a lot of good with my life, but I stopped to wonder, sometimes, if I'd made mistakes. If innocents had died because of misuse of my authority."

"Who watches the watchers?" Zelda said with a small nod.

"Yes," Ralthas said, "In any case, that's neither here, nor now. If you want to talk, find something else to talk about."

"All right," Zelda said, "What about Ganondorf. The wizard you caught in that soul gem."

"What about him?"

"I need to speak to him again, soon."

"Out of the question."

"Father, you saw what he did in the city," Sheila said, "You've heard what's happening."

"He's too dangerous," Ralthas said, "At least for now."

He turned to Zelda. "If you'll wait a couple of days, I'll have Sheila and Archmage Riven set up a containment circle to hold him, so you can safely speak to him."

"That would be adequate," Zelda said, "Thank you."

"Do we have enough quartz here?" Sheila asked.

"Should be," Ralthas said, "Plenty down in the storerooms near the library."

"Six crystals would be the standard," Sheila said, "For this man I'd want at least eighteen."

Ralthas nodded, and didn't answer. Zelda shook her head, "I'm afraid you've lost me."

"There's a particular kind of quartz," Sheila said, "It's nearly crystalline in appearance, and it is one of the few kinds of stones that readily accept a magical charge. When we create a containment circle, we enchant the crystals with spells too create a barrier, similar to defensive magics, and the more crystals placed in the circle, the stronger the barrier."

"I see," Zelda said, "Compared to these lands, my kingdom truly knows next to nothing about magic."

"We know next to nothing compared to the ancients," Sheila said, "and we've been losing more every generation."

"Magic is dying out in the world," Ralthas said, "Just like the elves. There were maybe twenty elves altogether left before the killing started. If none made it out of the other cities, there's maybe three of us left, counting Sheila and myself."

"I don't think that's the case," Zelda said, "Look here."

She lifted one hand to her left ear. "In my land, all Hylians have pointed ears, yet here, only you elves do. Some time, long ago, before Hyrule even existed, ships sailed between the two great continents of our world. It is known that Darius, the hero, and many who believed as he did, left these lands and headed east. It is likely elves were among them.

"I've come to believe that Hylians are the children of humans and elves. Even if our elvish traits are limited to appearance only, we represent what has come to be. The two races, turned into one, over many generations."

"It makes no difference," Ralthas said.

"I think it does," Zelda said, "Hyrule is a land of many peoples, as different as the night and day. We have the water dwelling Zora, and the rock eaters, Gorons, who do not appear human in the least. Yet we are all bound to a single country and civilization. We are all Hyrulians, regardless of appearance and background. It is a land without discrimination.

"It is not so prevalent as the history Sheila has told me led me to believe," Zelda continued, "But racism is still here in these lands. I noticed the king will not refer to Silviana by her name, instead only calling her 'dark elf.' This is a small thing, but it is still there, and it sows the seeds of worse things."

"Understand something," Ralthas said, "We thought dark elves were extinct. They've become things of fairy tales, monsters to scare naughty children straight."

"Yes, I understand," Zelda said, "You've turned them into monsters. I suppose I'll just have to speak to one of them to figure out what they're really like then."

* * *

Link paused a moment, looking down at the training courtyard below him, his feet on the heavy wooden beam, and reached out to put one hand on the brace that attached it to the roof of the cavern they called a courtyard.

"And I thought I was good with heights," he said, feeling beads of sweat running down his forehead.

Silviana appeared beside him, landing from a leap across the gap to another beam. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, just peachy," he said.

"Wait here a moment and keep an eye out," Silviana said, "The only way back down is the maintenance tunnel behind us, but there are other passages up here. I'll check around through them while you keep watch."

Without waiting for a response, she leaped away, one foot landing on the next beam to leap again to another and continuing on without even a pause in her movement. "I don't know how she does that," Link muttered.

"She was leaping across tree branches in the forest," Midna said, "This must be easy by comparison."

"Maybe so," Link said, "I'm still regretting coming up here with her."

"I thought you said the ninja left the others in the forest shrine," Midna said, "And that they intended to sever the alliance. Why do you think they started following us again?"

"Not sure," Link said, "Either they were lying to me, or something else is happening. Silviana did say the ninja said that they were on no one's side but their own."

"He could have been lying again," Midna said.

"Maybe," Link said, "I think it's got something to do with Ganondorf."

"Why's that?"

"What Khall said," Link said, "He said he used to be Ganondorf's apprentice. That would lead to the connection that the others working with him are also Ganondorf's former allies. Including these ninja."

"What are we going to do about him?" Midna asked.

"Ganondorf?" Link said, "Not sure yet. Zelda's right, we need him, even though I'd rather mount his head on a spear."

"No faith in yourself, then?"

"It's not that," Link said, "Regardless of the magics they use, wizards bleed like any other man. If I could get close enough to Khall or the others, I would have a chance, I'm sure. The problem is not getting killed from a mile away before I get close."

Link felt a weight on his shoulder, and looked to see that Midna had emerged from his shadow and was leaning on his shoulder with both of her arms. "Link," she said, "I'm sorry for bringing this up now, but Ganondorf is within reach, maybe we can get something out of him about how to turn me back to normal?"

"Oh, I intend to," Link said, "He'll tell us how, if I have to beat him within an inch of his life to get him to do it."

"You know," she said, a smile coming across her face, "I just realized, if it weren't for him, we'd have never met each other."

"You're right," Link said, "I'll have to thank him someday, before I feed him his own limbs."

"Oh, you say the sweetest things sometimes."

Link spotted Silviana in the distance, moving back toward them. She leaped from beam to beam until she came to a stop next to Link. "Okay," she said, "It's clear up here. Sorry for dragging you up here."

"Better to be safe," Link said, "But I'd like the stone floor under my feet again as soon as possible."

"This way," she said, motioning for them to follow.

* * *

"Hmm?" Zelda turned and looked over her shoulder.

"Something wrong?" Sheila asked.

"Thought I heard something," Zelda said, but could see nothing but the guards that remained with them in the courtyard.

She stood up. "Think I'll just walk around a bit, stretch my legs," she said.

"Don't go too far," Ralthas said.

"I'm not a child," Zelda said, turning and walking toward the eastern end of the courtyard.

There was a single exit to the courtyard on the eastern side. She walked with an easy pace, not rushing, and her hands clasp behind her back. She turned enough to look out of the corner of her eye, to see that Ralthas and Sheila were speaking to one another, not looking toward them. The guards were watching the exits, not her.

Then one watching the east side turned to speak to another guard, and she quickly slipped out the doorway. The hall beyond was sparsely decorated, with a few armor stands along the walls, and almost immediately ended with a large set of double doors to the north. To the south, it lingered on for a while, with doors on both sides, probably leading down to the servant's quarters.

Zelda moved to the double doors, gently pushing one open and slipping into the room beyond. Rows of cots, each with a small chest of belongings at its foot, filled the room. This was the recruit's barracks. There were no lights in the room, and all the light there was came from windows along the east wall. This area of the castle was not completely underground.

Zelda pulled the doors to behind her, and slid the deadbolt lock home across them.

"We're alone now," she said, "Come out where I can see you."

A figure emerged from a shadowy area to her left, as though materializing from thin air. "Well, well, not bad," Mur'neth said, "Even elves have a hard time noticing me coming. You must be very good, to invite me out while you're alone."

"I know that you don't intend me harm," Zelda said, "Now, who are you, and why are you following me?"

"I am the Shadow Blade, Mur'neth," he said, sweeping his arms out and bowing at the waist, "Leader of the Dra'thul ninja. I just have a few questions I want to ask you."

"I have some for you as well," she said, "So we'll play the old 'you ask one then I ask one' game."

* * *

Link stopped short as he and Silviana moved down a hallway of the castle. He lifted his left hand, looking at the marking of the triforce, which was glowing and for some reason, burning hot, and growing hotter.

"What's the matter?" Silviana asked.

"Something's wrong," he said, "I can feel something…"

He turned and started going back the other way. "This way!"

* * *

"All right then," Mur'neth said, "I'll go first. Ganon, powerful wizard that he is, seems to have a great interest in you and your kingdom. Why is that?"

"I would assume it is because it is the resting place of the Triforce, of which he has one fragment," Zelda said, "With the other two, his power could be multiplied a thousand fold or more."

"Really?" Mur'neth said, "I knew he had something, but I wasn't sure what. All right, what is your question?"

"Why are you following us?" Zelda asked.

"I'm afraid that all come back to information," Mur'neth said, "Though I am not currently allied with either side in this affair, I do have interests involved, and I require information. Most notably about Ganondorf. I'm following you because you seem to know more about him than any other person I've seen. Which brings me to my next question. Where is he? I know he's in the city."

"Why bother asking her when I can tell you myself?"

This new voice caused both of them to turn, Mur'neth going for his sword and Zelda taking an involuntary step toward the door.

Ganondorf stood before them, moving closer with each step, his gigantic form made even more imposing by the pattern of shadows dancing across his body.

"How did you get in here?" Mur'neth demanded.

"It's not possible," Zelda said, "I saw the judge seal you in that gemstone."

"A soul gem?!" Mur'neth said, turning to her.

Ganondorf chuckled. "It seems you've underestimated me again, princess. My physical form is trapped in the gem, but a wizard of my caliber can send his spirit wandering with ease. While I cannot physically interact with the world around me, I am far from powerless. Now step back from her, Mur'neth, before I boil the blood in your veins."

Zelda could feel the triforce tattooed on her right hand, burning her flesh. The close proximity to Ganondorf was causing it to grow white hot, warning her of his presence. She wished she could shut it off.

"So that energy I felt the other day," Mur'neth said, "It was you! It was Venom!"

"Yes, it was," Ganondorf said, "You, of all people, should understand just how close you are to dying right now, ninja."

"Empty threats," Mur'neth said, "If you are projected, I know you can't do a thing to me. It takes all your focus just to hold yourself away from your body."

A sneer came onto Ganondorf's face. "Calling my bluff, eh? Well, you're only half right. I can't harm you myself, but I can still cause you harm. About now, someone else has undoubtedly felt the burn of his triforce, and is nearly here."

There was a sudden banging on the door behind Zelda, causing her to turn and step back from it, into the room. "Zelda!" Link's voice shouted outside, "Are you in there!"

"Link, it's locked!" Zelda shouted back.

The banging redoubled, and with a loud crack, wood splinters and the deadbolt lock flew from the doors as they crashed open, Link entering at a run, sword in hand, with several guards at his back. Zelda turned to see Ganondorf had disappeared.

Mur'neth moved quickly, stepping over behind Zelda, wrapping one arm around her shoulders, and she heard him whisper a curse as he pulled something from his belt.

"Get away from her!" Link shouted, moving forward quickly.

Mur'neth swung his hand down, throwing whatever he held into the floor. It exploded in a blinding flash of light, causing Link to have to stop and shield his eyes. He could smell smoke heavy in the air, and when he opened his eyes, dark gray clouds filled the room, making it impossible to see. To the right, there was a sudden crash of breaking glass.

"No!" Link moved quickly, the smoke already dispersing, and found that one of the windows had been broken outward, and Mur'neth and Zelda were gone.

"Sil!" Link called over his shoulder.

Silviana appeared almost instantly at his shoulder. "I'll find them," she said, and with a running leap, disappeared out the window.

Link turned to the guards behind him. "One of you run for the king, tell him Zelda's been kidnapped. I need the fastest horses he's got. Go!"

One of the guards disappeared into the hall.

"Damn," Link muttered, looking back at the window, "If only I'd been a little quicker…"


	55. Chapter 54

**Chapter 54: A Deal with the Devil**

"Do you have any kind of plan for this?" Ralthas demanded, "Or are you just charging off like a fool?"

Link turned from the horse he held by the reigns to look at the judge. "And what would you have me do? Leave her to them?"

"I'd have you at least take a moment to regroup and get your bearings first!" Ralthas said, "You don't even know where they've taken her!"

In the outer courtyard, horses had been brought from the royal stables for Link and a group of lightly equipped soldiers, to travel quickly, and King Rigdar stood near the main entrance castle itself, with Ralthas by his side.

"Link," the king said, "I'll do everything I can to help you save her, but stop a moment and calm down. Ralthas is right. If you don't know where they are, you could very well go in the completely wrong direction."

"Silviana is tracking them," Link said, "I'll meet up with her as soon as I'm out of the city."

"No you won't, I'm afraid."

Link turned to see Silviana walking toward him from the courtyard entrance.

"I'm afraid the trail went cold quickly," she said, "Someone is helping him, probably more of his ninja, they covered up his trail and laid several false ones. I'm sorry."

"Shit!" Link cursed through his teeth.

"There, you see?" Ralthas said, "Now how exactly would you intend to find them?"

Link glared at him, but said nothing.

"As I thought," Ralthas said, "Now, if you'll let us handle this…"

"Yes," the king said, turning to one of the soldiers, "We're going to need several search parties…"

"Your majesty, wait a moment," Sheila said, appearing from the doorway and moving to her father's side, then she turned to Link, "Zelda was able to find Ganondorf here using her piece of the Triforce before. Could you find her the same way, Link?"

Link lifted his left hand, looking down at the faintly glowing marking on its back. "Maybe," he said, "Problem is I don't know how to use it."

"So it's a dead end, then," Ralthas said, and turned to the king, "Back to the matter at hand…"

"I'm not finished," Link said, "I don't know how to use it, but I know someone that does."

"Now you're talking crazy," Midna said, appearing at Link's side, "Don't forget, just yesterday he tried to kill us!"

Link moved toward the castle entrance. "If there was any other choice, I'd take it," he said, "Ralthas, I need to see the man you put in that gemstone of yours."

"The wizard in the soul gem?" Ralthas asked, "Your little friend is right. You are crazy. There's no way in hell I'm letting him out."

"Father, we were talking before about creating a containment circle to hold him," Sheila said, "That would be the best course of action now, I believe."

She turned to the king, who gave a nod. "As long as proper precautions are taken, I'll allow it," he said.

"I'll be needing my sword back," Link said, walking toward Ralthas, "It's the only weapon I know of that can cause real injuries to him. If we do have to fight, it's essential I have it."

"Don't everyone order me around at once," Ralthas said, lifting up his crutch and testing his knee with his weight, then turned to Sheila, "All right. I want you and the arch mage to prepare the circle. How long to you need?"

"We'll be ready within the hour."

* * *

Alexander Ragefaust ascended yet another hill on his journey, but this time, he could at last see his destination in the distance. The capital city of Darimar lay on the horizon, jutting out from the mountain into which the castle itself was carved.

"There it is," he muttered, "Biggest damn city in the world. Finally."

He hadn't liked what he'd seen on the way. He had expected to catch up to survivors from the attack fleeing south, or at least people in border towns or farmsteads, but in the one town he approached, and three farms, they had already been abandoned, and most of the buildings had had their doors kicked in and were a mess inside.

Things were not looking good. But even at this distance, he could see some activity on the outer walls of the massive city before him. Darimar still stood, though everything around it seemed to be falling apart.

He sighed as he started down the hill, then almost immediately his foot slipped out from under him, dropping him on his backside and sliding down the hill.

He groaned as he picked himself up, looking back at his frustrating foe, then stopping at what he saw.

Where he had slid down the hill was a cut through the grass, right down to the earth beneath, perfectly visible in contrast to the grass around it.

"The hell? I know it's nearly winter, but the grass shouldn't break apart that easily," he muttered, looking down at the brown blades near him.

He reached down and plucked a blade with two fingers, only for it to crumble immediately to dust. "What?"

Laying his hand flat on the grass, he swept it to the side. The grass crumbled under the force, not splitting or breaking apart as it should, but simply crumbling to specks of dust. A chill shot up his spine.

"I've got a very bad feeling about this…"

* * *

Link held the Master Sword in his hands, laying the flat of the blade in the palm of his right hand. It was still a truly magnificent weapon, he had to admit. Perfectly balanced, and surprisingly lightweight for its size, and in the entire time he had used it, it had never chipped or dulled. The red letters that adorned the blade added to its nearly mystical presence.

It was remarkable, he had to admit, as he ran his fingers over the letters, that they were simply there. There was no depth of an engraving, to change in the feel of the blade like a surface dye would cause. They were just a faint glow on the blade itself.

"Now," Ralthas said, standing directly in front of Link, "If you'd like to fill me in on why exactly this sword, specifically, is needed?"

Link sighed, and lifted the sword to insert it into the sheath over his left shoulder. "You remember what Zelda told you about this man earlier today?" Link asked.

"Yes," Ralthas said, glancing over his shoulder to where Sheila and the Archmage Riven were drawing a chalk outline for the magic circle, "That he's older than any man should be and seemingly immortal."

"Right," Link said, "You'd have to ask him yourself for the details, but a long time ago, he entered Hyrule's sacred lands and took from there the Triforce, the symbol of the golden goddesses who created our world. According to the legend, the triforce fragmented, and he only received one piece, the other two going to those who would challenge him.

"The power was fragmented, but even a single piece is still capable of bestowing abilities well beyond that of mortal men. I'm not going to pretend that I understand how it works, but apparently, it is capable of granting wishes, to a limited extent," Link said, "And Ganondorf's first wish was to live forever, so it granted him eternal youth."

"And that's all there is to it?" Ralthas asked, raising an eyebrow, "It's that simple?"

"I said I don't understand it myself," Link said, "All I know is the legend. Mine certainly has never been much of a help, with a few small exceptions."

"And the sword?"

"The legend of the Hero of Time," Midna said, appearing at Link's side, "I've read a fair bit of it recently. The story states that Ganondorf strengthened his own body over time. Ordinary weapons could not even scratch him, arrows would turn away, and magic would be completely ineffective. I think a lot of it was exaggerated by the storytellers over the years, but the fact remains that the Hero of Time needed two weapons to defeat Ganondorf. The first was the arrow of light, which could penetrate the magical defensive barriers he surrounded himself with, and the second was the Master Sword, the only weapon capable of causing true physical harm to the wizard."

"Where is this arrow of light, then?" Ralthas asked.

"Zelda can create them," Link said, "But I did not need them when I fought him. It would seem the Hero of Time had to fight his way through Ganondorf's magic. He came after me with a sword."

Ralthas thought about this a moment, then turned away from them. "All right. That's most of what I wanted to know. If he does prove to be too dangerous to control, I'll expect you to put him down. Understand?"

"That's what I'm planning," Link said.

They were all back in the training courtyard, but now it was cleared of all unnecessary personnel. Near one of the sparring circles, Sheila and the old wizard, Riven, were drawing a pentagram on the floor in white chalk, around which the enchanted crystals would be placed to create the barrier to hold Ganondorf.

Link, Ralthas, and Midna were standing some distance back, with Silviana not far to Link's right, and the king and prince to their left. There were about fifteen guards, in groups behind them, to the sides and on the other side of the circle.

One of the guards moved up to Ralthas and whispered something to him. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt," he said, "Bring him in."

"What's that?" Link asked as the guard turned toward the entrance.

"That boy who survived Whitos-Neiki," Ralthas said, "Seems he wants to ask you something."

Link turned to see the guard leading the young man over. "What is it?" Link asked.

"I heard that Zelda was kidnapped," Arthur said.

"Yes," Link said, "We're going to get her as soon as we figure out where she is."

"I just want to know, is there anything I can do to help?" Arthur asked.

Link shook his head. "Look, I appreciate the offer, kid, but we're not going to have time to babysit. You'd better just stay here, because I'm pretty sure they're not going to give her up without a fight, and I doubt you'll last long against trained swordsman."

"I might not be trained, but…"

"But what?" Link asked, "You've got courage? A lot of heart? You listen to me. Nothing but skill and experience will save you in a real fight. When it comes down to it, a real battle is like a challenge of 'Who's the better killer?' I'm going to get Zelda back. That I can promise. But you would only get in the way."

"Will you teach me then?" Arthur asked, "When you get back?"

That caught Link by surprise. "You heard about my teaching Zelda to fight," he said.

"Yes."

"We'll see," Link said, turning around to see Sheila and Riven were now placing the crystals around the circle of the pentagram.

"If that's all, please take him out of here," Ralthas said to the guard, "We're almost ready."

Link heard the footsteps moving away. "You can be harsh sometimes, it seems," Ralthas said.

"Kid's a rich merchant's son," Link said, "First thing to do to make him useful is some deflating of his ego."

"Funny you keep calling him 'kid,' he looks about the same age as you," Ralthas said.

"I've seen a fair bit more of the world than he has, old man," Link said.

"True enough," Ralthas said.

The crystals Sheila and Riven were using were odd things. Roughly as long as a human forearm, and much wider at one end than the other, they placed the crystals on their narrow end, holding the large area with their hands as they said something Link couldn't hear at this distance, and a faint glow became visible within the crystal and it lifted itself from the floor, hovering a few inches in the air.

Eighteen crystals were placed in the circle, and once the last was in place, a beam of light shot from the sides of each crystal into the others, forming a complete circle.

"Now, Judge Ralthas," Riven said, turning to them, "Place the soul gem in the center of the circle."

Ralthas took the gem from the front of his shirt. It had been a small orange gem when Link first saw it, but the color was much darker now, an almost putrescent purple.

As Sheila and Riven backed away, Ralthas reached over the crystal circle to lay the gem in the center of the five pointed star within the pentagram. Almost immediately, the gem flared with light, an orange beam shooting straight up into the are as Ralthas quickly stepped back.

"It shouldn't be going that fast!" Sheila said.

They heard him before they saw him. The voice rose steadily, like a growl turning into a primal roar. The beam of light expanded, revealing within it a dark silhouette that expanded, arms and legs forming from a solid mass, the head tilted back, and the roar turned to maniacal laughter as it continued to grow in size. The laughter echoed throughout the courtyard, the guards and other bystanders taking a several steps back from the circle. All except for Link, who took a single step forward and lifted his sword hand to the hilt of his weapon.

In an instant, the light died away and the dark silhouette became true form, the towering image of a man, massively barrel chested, arms and legs as thick as a young man's torso, and red hair in his beard that stood in harsh contrast to his dark flesh. The laughter died as quickly as the light as his eyes turned toward those before him.

"That's right," Link muttered when he saw the wizard's unconcealed form, "When Ralthas used the gem, it left what his clothes there on the ground."

In those eyes lay the proof that this giant of a man was no mere brute. Cunning, devious intelligence shown in those eyes, and they quickly took in the situation surrounding him. His eyes turned down, to the crystals around his feet.

"And what is this, then?" he asked, "You children think you can contain me?"

He lifted his right hand, and almost instantly the circle reacted, sparks of energy leaping from the barrier around him to his flesh, yet it did not make him waver, but he pressed forward, the sparks growing larger.

"The crystals!" Riven shouted.

A large crack appeared in the side of one of the crystals, then another, spreading rapidly.

Link reacted. He drew his sword and closed the distance to Ganondorf with three quick steps. The sparks died away quickly as Link held the tip of the Master Sword just beneath Ganondorf's chin.

Ganondorf lowered his hands and smiled. "Well? Go on, kid. You going to kill me or not?"

"That depends on you," Link said.

"Ha! You couldn't kill me before, so makes you think you can now?" Ganondorf said.

"I'll start by taking your head off, and if that doesn't work, we'll go from there," Link said, "Now, if you'll stay calm for a moment, we want to talk."

"Then get that gods damned sword out of my face and talk," Ganondorf said.

Link took a step back before lowering the blade. "Okay," he started.

Ganondorf lifted both arms suddenly and slammed his fists sideways into the invisible barrier around him. There was a bright flash of enormous sparks, and with a loud bang, the crystals around him shattered, fragments raining around them.

There were shouts and curses from around them, but Link ignored them, raising his blade and putting his weight forward on his feet. The sparks died away, revealing Ganondorf walking slowly toward him out of the circle. Link readied himself to attack.

"Now talk," the wizard said, stopping just outside the pentagram.

The guards had leveled their weapons, and Link looked back to see Ralthas, the king, and prince had all drawn their swords as well.

"What's going on?" Link asked, turning back to Ganondorf.

"First rule of negotiating with a man like me," he said, "We do it on equal terms. I am not, and will not be your prisoner."

He lifted his right hand up, revealing the orange soul gem in his grasp. "By the way," he said, opening his fingers as the gem floated up several inches above his palm, "This will not be happening again."

A single gold spark shot from his palm up into the gem stone. The gem crumbled, and a fine orange dust fell to the floor at Ganondorf's feet.

"You bastard!" Ralthas said, "Do you know how much trouble I went through to get that?"

Ganondorf ignored him. "Now, what is it you want to talk about?" he asked Link.

Link realized he was breathing hard. He caught himself, and lowered his weapon. "Zelda's been kidnapped," he said.

"And not by me?" Ganondorf said, "Well, that's a switch."

"We can't track them," Link said, "They've covered up their trail and laid too many false ones. Zelda used her triforce before to find you. I need you to do the same to find her."

"And?" Ganondorf asked.

"And what?" Link said.

"If I do this, what's in it for me?" Ganondorf asked.

"What?" Link said, "You bastard, these guys who did this used to work for you! It's your fault we're in this position to begin with!"

"You're not going to guilt me into this, boy," Ganondorf said, "I'm not that kind. And besides, you've got a piece of the triforce as well, but if you could use it to find her yourself, you'd have done it yourself already. That puts me in an excellent bargaining position."

"You protected her back in the city," Link said.

"Your point?" Ganondorf asked, a smile appearing on his face.

Link's anger was rising. He hissed through his teeth as he fought to keep his own emotions under control.

"Don't play games with us," Sheila said, moving closer to them.

Ganondorf turned to her. She stopped a moment, her face reddening as he made no effort to conceal himself, but quickly turned up to his face. "I saw you in the city, the way you talked to her," she said, "Even if it's some small part of you, somewhere you care about Zelda."

"I care for no one," Ganondorf said, the smile vanishing from his face.

"So you would leave the innocent girl to die?" the king demanded, "If you want money so badly, name your price and I'll provide it."

"I'm not a mercenary," Ganondorf said, "And second, when did you become a part of this conversation?"

"You will address the kind with respect!" Ralthas said.

"I am a king!" Ganondorf said, "And I've been one far longer than this child!" he added, pointing to the king.

"If you're a king," Ralthas said, "Where is your kingdom?"

Ganondorf growled at him. "The entire world is my kingdom, elf. It's just a matter of time until you realize it."

He turned back to Sheila. "Which is exactly my point. Why should I care about one girl like Zelda? After all, once I rule this world, I can have any woman I desire.

"Zelda if I wish, or why not you?"

He suddenly snatched Sheila by the wrist and pulled her toward him, causing her to shriek in surprise as he held her against his rock hard chest with one arm.

"Damn you!" Link said, moving closer, lifting his sword.

Suddenly, a crack of sound echoed throughout the courtyard, the sound of flesh striking flesh with incredible force. Ganondorf released Sheila and she stepped away, her hand stinging from the smack across his face.

There was no visible effect on the wizard except for his head turned to the side. He turned back to her, his gaze dark. "I'll remember that, bitch," he said.

A chilling silence hung in the air. Ganondorf turned to Link. "Very well," he said, "I'll help you find your princess, but I will have my price."

"And that is?" Link asked.

Ganondorf pointed directly at him. "You. I want you, in single combat, to the death. And I want it back in Hyrule. That is where this began, four millennia ago, and now that I've thought about it, that is where it shall end, and my conquest of the world shall begin once more."

"So be it," Link said, "When we return to Hyrule, you'll have your grudge match. But there's one more thing I'll demand of you in exchange."

"You're very brave boy," Ganondorf said, "What is your demand?"

"You lift your curse on Midna, right now," Link said.

Midna appeared at Link's side, with one hand on his right shoulder.

Ganondorf looked at her, and took note of the look in her eyes. "Well, if looks could kill," he said, "But quite frankly, I can't."

"You mean you won't," Link said.

"No, I mean I can't," Ganondorf said, "I can certainly try, but I can't guarantee she'll survive. You see, everything I know about my power I have from the Triforce, I've learned through trial and error. She was the first creature I ever attempted a transformation on, and I didn't expect her to survive the process. The fact she did speaks of my talent and a little luck, but I'm not positive she'll survive changing back, either."

"You son of a…" Link started, but Midna pulled him short.

"Link, I've been like this long enough, it won't bother me to wait a little longer," she said.

"All right then," Link said, "Saving Zelda comes first, then."

"So long as we're all buddy-buddy then," Ganondorf said, "If someone will bring me a map, I'll locate the princess, and if someone will call a tailor, I'll stop inspiring envy in everyone here, at least so much as I can."

The king motioned to one of the guards, who quickly turned for the entrance. The map arrived first, a moment later, and was unrolled on the floor. "It's just this kingdom," the king pointed out, "But I can get a wider range one if needed."

"No," Ganondorf said, kneeling down by the map, the Triforce symbol on his right hand glowing brighter, "They're not that far. Let's see…"

He scanned the map, muttering to himself. "Northeast of here," he said, looking over it in that direction, then stopped at a symbol near the top edge of the map, "What is this location?"

"That is the Serpant Canyon," Ralthas said, "There's an ancient temple there, dedicated to the goddess of night."

"How fitting," Ganondorf said, "That's where they'll be."

"You're sure?" Link asked.

"You wanted my help," Ganondorf said, "Don't question it now that you've got it, boy."

"I remember that temple," Sheila said, "There will be a fragment of the recovery spell there. We can get it on the way."

"Zelda comes first," Link said.

"Of course," Sheila said, "I didn't mean to suggest…"

"It's all right," Link said, "Let's go get the horses ready."

Ganondorf caught Ralthas' shoulder. "You," he said, "I think you have my sword stored somewhere."

"What sword would that be?" Ralthas asked.

"Hard to miss," Ganondorf said, "Glows white, cuts through metal like cheese."

As Link moved away from the group, Midna reappeared at his side. "Link," she said, "You know what I said minute ago, about being able to wait a little longer?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I've just been like this for so long now, I actually am starting to wonder if I'll ever get back to normal."

"Don't worry," Link said, "I made you a promise, didn't I? I'll find some way to get you back to normal. No matter how long it takes. Now, let's go check on the horses."


	56. Chapter 55

**Chapter 55: Darkness Rising**

"That's got to be it," Alex whispered to himself as he looked down into the canyon.

Several figures were moving about a central point far beneath him, where they had placed a strange sculpture. Alex couldn't make out exactly what it was from this distance, but it was adorned with a large green gemstone the size of a child, which pulsed with unearthly light.

All around the base of the sculpture, the earth had turned black.

Alex stepped foreward, sliding down the slop into the canyon, coming to a stop on a ledge about twenty feet above the canyon floor. He lay down on the ledge, looking over the sharp drop.

"There's more of them," he muttered.

The figures moving about the sculpture were familiar, with their black, cloak-like bodies, the razor sharp, curved blades that were their arms, and each with a single massive eye in the center of its face. And they were definitely acting as guards, because as he watched, he realized that each of the three there were walking beats, stopping to scan the surroundings, and then resuming their patrols.

On the other wall of the canyon, a small man-made structure of brick projected from the earth of the wall, with a dark doorway standing open. Alex wasn't positive of his memory, but he was fairly certain it was the side entrance to some ancient god's temple that was located here in the canyon.

A group of more of the creatures emerged from the doorway into the temple. Four more of the creatures who immediately split up and moved different directions around the sculpture before taking positions around it in a square pattern. Two more figures emerged from the doorway. The first was a man, dressed in robes of royal purple. The other was…

"I don't believe it!" Alex growled.

Another of the cyclops creatures, but different in appearance. Only small shreds of the cloak-like flesh remained, exposing the wide white spine beneath, nearly twelve inches around, from which, in place of ribs, six large spikes protruded from its spine, three on either side, and even from this distance, Alex could make out the prominent scar on its forehead, extending vertically from its eye.

"I thought I burned you to death," Alex muttered, "I'll get you this time if I have to chop you into a hundred pieces and bury you all around the country."

The creature stayed with the man as he walked toward the sculpture and knelt down in the blackened earth and picked up a small lump that then crumbled through his fingers.

"The war hasn't made you show your face, Darius," he said, loudly enough for Alex to hear, then looked up toward the sky, "Maybe this will. I hope you show before it's too late. After all, I want you to watch everything you fought to protect die in front of you, just like I had to."

He turned to the skeletal creature behind him. "Stay here," he said, "Kill anything that comes close to the device. That includes Khall or Kilishandra, understand?"

Without waiting for a response, the man turned and walked back toward the temple entrance and disappeared into the door.

The skeletal creature turned to the other four that were waiting, and lifted one of its bladed arms in front of itself, then swept it to the side in an form of "move out" gesture. The four responded immediately, turning and moving, two in each direction, into the canyon.

The other watched them leave, then turned and looked directly up at Alex. "Oh, crap!" he muttered as he moved backwards, out of sight on the ledge.

He leaned back against the slope, his hand on his sword, expecting the monster to leap up over the edge at any moment. When it did not come, he slowly inched back toward the edge until he could see over it. He was just in time to see the skeletal figure vanish into the temple doorway.

"I need to find a way down there," Alex said, "Whatever that thing's doing, it's not good. Looks like it'll smash well enough. And then I'll find skeleton butt, and put an end to him for good this time."

* * *

"We can't take the horses any further in," Link said, looking down the slope into the canyon, "It's just too steep. Even if one doesn't break a leg getting in, we wouldn't be able to get them out the same way."

A large figure appeared at his side, and he looked up to see Ganondorf next to him. The last time Link had a good look at the man, he had been outfitted in a masterwork suit of armor, the steel dyed black and plates fitted to his form. Now, he was wearing hastily cut and poorly fitted clothing, a shirt that hung loose even around his massive frame, exposing part of his chest through the neck, and a pair of breeches that, without the belt, probably wouldn't even stay together, let alone in the place they belonged. The tailor had been rushed, purely because he normally did not make anything in the size Ganondorf needed. There was also dark blue cloak draped around his neck that wasn't wide enough, causing it to hang much more like a cape, and far too short, barely falling past his knees.

He had told the tailor to have a better set ready upon their return, or he'd fashion a shirt from the tailor's flesh.

"So how far in is this temple?" Ganondorf asked.

The rest of the party was dismounting and moving toward the canyon edge. Judge Ralthas, Sheila, and twenty lightly armed men accompanied them for the rescue mission. "It's about a half-mile walk, once we get on the canyon floor," Sheila said, "This is the only place we can safely enter, and the canyon weaves back and forth and in some areas doubles back, hence the name 'Serpent Canyon.' The temple itself is largely underground. We'll come upon the main entrance first, and if we continue for another quarter mile or so, there is a side entrance."

"The main entrance will be heavily watched," Ralthas said, "We should circle around to the side entrance."

"Textbook maneuver," Ganondorf said.

"It's the logical way," Ralthas said.

"And that's why they'll be expecting it," Ganondorf said, "So we might as well go in the front door. It'll save time."

"It'll be a trap!" Ralthas said.

"So will the side door," Ganondorf said, "It really makes no difference. There's no trick or strategy that'll give you the upper hand here, old man."

"And how would you know that?"

"Because I've fought in and led wars more in my life than most men bed a woman," Ganondorf said, then smiled, "Of course, I've done plenty of that, too."

"So you must be a believer that practice makes perfect," Silviana said, appearing in front of them from over the edge of what Link had thought was a sheer drop.

"Did you find them?" Link asked.

"They're here, but there's something else, too," she said, "Something like I've never seen before."

"Yeah," Ganondorf said, lifting one hand before himself, holding his palm out toward the canyon, "Something. I can feel it. Too far away to pin it down, but it's radiating magic like a heartbeat."

"I saw creatures," Silviana said, "With just one eye, and what looked like swords in place of their arms."

"Must be into S and M," Ganondorf muttered.

"I don't think they're all one group, though," Silviana said, "In fact, I'm not sure if either group realizes the other is there."

Sheila glanced up at Ganondorf. His arms crossed, he tapped the finger of one hand on his other arm, thinking.

"This reeks of Tharkus," he muttered.

"Who is Tharkus?" Sheila asked.

"Necromancer," Ganondorf said, "Found him living by himself less than thirty years ago, occupied by his experiments. Probably the only living person older than me."

"That reminds me," Link said, "Zelda came up with a theory that these people attacking the kingdoms here are from a parallel world. Would you know anything about that?"

Ganondorf chuckled, then replied, "You'd be amazed just how close that is. She's a smart girl."

"It's going to be dark soon," Ralthas said, "Shall we get this underway?"

"All right," Silviana said, "Once you get down the slope, it's a sheer drop nearly thirty feet, but there's a small ledge on the right that makes its way down the side. Looks like an old trail."

"Well, time's a wasting then," Ganondorf said, stepping forward onto the slope.

Almost immediately, the earth shifted beneath his feet and he started sliding downward. He leaned back to balance himself, riding the shifting earth downward until he came to a stop on the rock ledge about ten feet down. He turned and looked back up at the others. "Well?" he called, "What are you waiting for?"

"Well, you heard the windbag," Link said, turning back to the soldiers with them, "Let's get moving."

"Unless you've forgotten, I'm in charge here," Ralthas said.

"Then be in charge," Link said, "See if I care."

Link stepped onto the slope, riding down the shifting earth in the same manner Ganondorf had. Sheila watched him a moment as he did so. "Having Ganondorf with us isn't helping his temper," she said, looking over at her father.

"Neither of them are helping mine," Ralthas said, "I want you to stay away from Ganondorf. He's clearly a very dangerous man."

"I'm not a child, father," Sheila said, "I can take care of myself."

She stepped onto the slope, the earth immediately shifting under her feet and sliding toward the ledge. She quickly leaned back when she felt herself falling forward, and overbalanced herself, landing on her back as she slid down, stopping on the ledge a moment later.

Link offered her his hand. "You alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said, taking his hand and letting him lift her up. She dusted off her back with her free hand, suddenly wishing she'd gone a little slower. She heard the earth shifting behind her and turned to see Ralthas sliding down toward them.

When he reached the ledge, he stumbled, and nearly fell to his knees before pulling himself back up. "Is that knee of yours going to be all right?" Link asked, "If it's going to cause trouble, I'd rather you wait here."

"I'll be fine," Ralthas said, "Worry about yourself. Now we need to move so the rest of the men can get down here."

"Follow me," Silviana said from the path to the right of the ledge, then turned and started walking.

"Wait," Sheila said, looking back up the slope, "When did she…?"

"Probably while we weren't looking," Link said as he started walking, "Let's go."

"That woman scares me," Sheila said, walking behind him.

"I can think of several people with whom your fear would be better placed," Ganondorf said, leaning down over her shoulder and smiling at her.

"Which reminds me," Link said, turning around, "You're up front. You're not walking behind me."

"And why should I let you walk behind me?" Ganondorf asked, "You're awfully paranoid for someone so young."

"If for no other reason, you can track Zelda," Link said, "So by logic, you should lead the way."

Ganondorf sighed, "Oh fine. Have your way then."

He moved forward as Link stepped aside to let him past. Sheila suddenly let out a small scream as Ganondorf smacked her posterior on the way by.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ralthas demanded.

"You've got something of mine, old man," Ganondorf said, "Since I'll be leading the way, I'll take it now."

Ralthas growled, and then opened his mouth to reply, but Link interrupted him. "Just give it to him," Link said, "We can deal with the other problems later."

Ralthas had been carrying Ganondorf's sword over his shoulder, and now released the ties that held it in place. The weapon had no proper sheath, and instead was held in a basic leather wrap with ties of leather around the hilt and end of the blade.

He offered it and Ganondorf took it under the hilt, and released the higher tie, revealing part of the white blade that glowed faintly in the failing light. Taking a breath to get her own temper under control, Sheila moved closer to get a better look. "Where did you find such a weapon as that?" she asked.

"A long time ago," Ganondorf said, "The sages of Hyrule used it to try to kill me. It's what gave me this scar," he added, lifting his shirt, showing the long white scar along his abdomen, standing out against his dark flesh, "You can see it now, but wait until the sun goes down. It glows in the dark."

He turned around and started back down the path, the others moving behind him as the group of soldiers made their way down the slope behind them one by one.

The path sloped downward along the canyon wall. As they continued down, it was clear that it was not a natural path, but man made to allow entrance to the canyon, most likely created for the sole purpose of reaching the temple at the bottom. The sun gradually sank as they walked, the sky turning a bloody orange above them, and the canyon walls rose higher and higher. As the path finally neared the bottom, the temple came within sight around a bend in the canyon wall.

Dark bricks formed a squat shape that formed directly into the canyon wall behind it, with a large stone doorway directly in the center of the square front wall. The remains of two weathered statues stood on either side of the doorway, both in a vague feminine shape, though countless years of wind and rain had taken their toll, wearing them utterly smooth.

"Well, there it is," Ganondorf said.

"Thanks, eagle eye," Link said.

"Oh, look at that," Ganondorf said, looking back at Link, "He's found a sense of humor."

"There were guards here before," Silviana said, "and the door was open."

"Probably saw us coming," Ganondorf said, "That path down isn't hard to see from here."

The group stopped before the door, which was worn smooth itself.

"There has to be a mechanism to open it," Sheila said, "Something that heavy would be too hard to move otherwise."

"You sure it's not inside?" Link asked, running his fingers down the gap on one side of the door, "If they wanted to keep people out, a one-sided mechanism would make sense."

"Well," Ralthas said, turning away, "It seems we'll be heading to the side entrance after all."

Ganondorf grabbed Link's shoulder and pushed him aside. "Out of the way," he said, "I've got my own mechanism."

He lay the his right hand flat against the center of the door. Yellow sparks appeared around his hand, gathering toward his palm, cracking loudly through the air.

Link moved back, pulling Sheila by the arm with him.

"No door's going to stop me," Ganondorf said, then shouted, "_Daem!_"

The door exploded inward, a shower of stone fragments clattering across the floor, chips as small as a single rupee and as large as a human head rolling into the dark corridor.

"There we go," Ganondorf said, "Door's open."

"You idiot," Ralthas said, stepping up to him, "What do you think you're doing? If they didn't know we were here before, they certainly do now! Not to mention you destroyed part of an irreplaceable history!"

"People who obsess over the past are blind to the future," Ganondorf said, turning around to face them, "And now, Link, it's your turn."

"What do you want me to do?" Link ventured cautiously.

"Die," Ganondorf said, "But unfortunately, that's not an option right now. What I need you to do is lead the way. You're our resident dungeon crawler, after all. You know what to look for with traps and such, right?"

Ganondorf sneered at him. "And I'd hate to be responsible for all of you dying because I step on a pressure plate or something."

"Fine," Link said, moving past him and stepping over the wreckage of the door to go inside, "Midna, keep an eye on him and warn me if he tries anything."

"You got it," she whispered back.

"You need a light in there, kid?" Ganodorf called after him.

"I'm fine," Link said.

The Twili tattoo on his face was working its magic, and he could see the shape of the room taking form before him. The green outlines of every shape and object shone clear through the darkness. He couldn't help but smile. "Those ninja might be masters of shadows, but they won't be able to hide from me now."

The passage went about six feet in before opening into a large common room, about twenty feet deep and wide, with four large stone columns set some distance in from the corners to support the roof. Three passages led away from the room, deeper into the temple, one in each direction. Link kept a careful eye on the floor and walls as he moved into the chamber.

"See anything?" Midna asked.

"Looks clear," Link said, then called toward the entrance, "Come on in, all of you."

Link heard the footsteps as they came down the passage toward him. A sudden flash of light from that direction stung his eyes, causing him to lift one arm to shield them.

"Oh, sorry," Ganondorf said, a small globe of light hovering just above his hand, filling the chamber with light.

"No you're not," Link said.

"You're right, I'm not."

"It's so dark in here," Sheila said.

"That's what happens when there are no windows," Ganondorf said."

"The central alter room will have an open roof," Sheila said.

"And that's probably where we'll find Mur'neth," Ganondorf said, "Which way?"

"Shh!" Link shushed him, and straining his ears to catch the sound again.

"Don't shush me, boy," Ganondof said.

"Will you be quiet!" Link said, "I heard something."

Then he caught it again, a kind of scratching, like claws on the stone floor, scratching.

"There's something here," Link said.

"I don't hear anything," Ganondorf said.

Link turned about, scanning the corners of the room. Ganondorf's light didn't reach all the way, and with it in the way, Link couldn't see through the shadows around them.

It came suddenly, materializing out of the dark like a phantom, a single great eye, and shining bladed arms, flying toward Link from the side passage.

Link was forced to quickly step back from the speed of the attack as he drew his blade and lifted it to block a savage swing of the creature's right arm.

"That's one of the creatures I saw!" Silviana said, snatching her elbow blades from the sheathes along her thighs.

The room filled with the sound of metallic rings as Ralthas and the soldiers drew their weapons.

"Oh, come on, there's only one," Ganondorf said.

"Over there!" Sheila said, pointing to the right hand passage where three more emerged at a run.

Link stepped back from his attacker again as it stabbed at him with its left arm, then rebounded off his heels back toward it, and stabbing his weapon toward the creature. The blade punched into the black, cloth-like flesh with ease, and Link pulled upward, ripping through its flesh and out its shoulder. The creature stacked, reeling back. Link lifted one foot and kicked it in the chest, sending it flying backward to land on the floor with a crash.

Silviana rushed the other three, catching one with a backhand blow of one of her blades extended past her hand, using the other, lying flat across her forearm, to catch the swing of its bladed arm. She then spun the first around, to lay against her forearm, and spun away from the creature, then stabbed her elbow back, using the point of the blade to stab it directly in the massive eye on it's face.

Another of the creatures ran straight for Ganondorf, who stood his ground as it approached. "You think so, do you?" he remarked as it leaped upward, flying toward him.

He dropped his sword, and used his hand to push Sheila back behind him. The creature held its arms wide in the air, both blades pointed toward him. It came down and collided with him with all its weight. A second later they untangled, Ganondorf still standing, and holding each of the arms just below the elbow, past the blades, keeping them away from himself. "My turn," he said, and slammed the creature down into the floor, planted a foot on its chest and grabbed its right elbow with both hands and pulled.

The arm ripped from its socket with a loud pop, and Ganondorf turned it around in his hands and stabbed the tip of the blade downward into the creature's face, white puss oozing from its enormous eye around the blade as the creature went limp.

Sheila watched him do this, then looked up at him as he kicked the body away from himself. _His personality and his actions completely contradict one another,_ she thought, _I wonder…_

"Where'd the other one go?" Link asked.

It suddenly dropped from the ceiling, landing on one of the soldiers with both its blades, blood flying into the air, and it leaped toward him.

Ralthas suddenly stepped in, sweeping his sword low toward its legs, splintering the boney knees and causing it to slam face down on the floor. Two of the soldiers moved in, stabbing their swords into the creature's back. It convulsed once, then lay still.

"Well, that wasn't so hard," Ganondorf said.

As if in direct defiance, the first that Link had struck down rose from the floor, it's eerie fashion of floating upward and righting itself on its feet, the wound he had stuck closed, then turned to them, its eye focusing on them in an emotionless glare.

"I see," Ganondorf said, "Some kind of flesh golems. Physical attacks aren't going to work. Bring them to me one at a time and I'll take care of them."

"Just say when!" Link said, backing away from the creature and blocking a swing of its blade with his sword.

"_I command the spirits of the air to bend to my will,_" Ganondorf said, his voice echoing throughout the chamber in the now familiar sound of magic, and lifted his hands before himself as blue light swirled through his fingers, "_Use your bodies to form an impenetrable barrier, surround me and unleash your might._"

Link sidestepped a wide swing from the creature, countering with a slash of his own across its chest, ripping the dark flesh.

"Now!" Ganondorf shouted.

Link dropped his sword, grabbing the dark flesh of the creature with both hands and pulled back, rolling onto his back and planting both of his feet in the creature's stomach as he hurled it over himself toward Ganondorf. When he released his grip, it was sailing through the air.

"Perfect," Ganondorf said as the creature flew toward him. As it drew closer, he lifted one hand, with one finger extended, toward the creature.

Its eye focused on him, the pupil dilated wide.

"_Sky Shatter!_" Ganondorf finished his spell, and a sphere of blue light instantly surrounded him and expanded. The creature collided with the expanding globe, and its body began to dissolve into the air, twisting about itself into impossible shapes as it evaporated before their eyes. As the light of the spell faded, there was literally nothing left of the beast for it to rebuild itself from.

"Incredible," Sheila whispered, "I've never seen someone use magic with such ease."

The other creatures were rising from the ground.

"Next one!" Ganondorf said.

"Lookout!" Sheila shouted as four more of the creatures emerged from the side passage.

"There's going to be too many of them!" Ralthas said, "Let's pull back, get them choked in the hallway!"

They began to back toward the entrance as the four new creatures stopped by the others as they regained their feet.

"We need to buy some time," Ganondorf said.

"I'll handle it," Sheila said, stepping further away from them, "_Hedro mandora gaia enclor, Spirits of the Earth and Air, I summon a wave to rip, smash, and tear…"_

The creatures broke into a run toward them.

"_Rip Earth!" _Sheila finished her incantation, and the stone floor ripped up before her, massive pieces of stone floating upward then flying forward with incredible force to smash into the creatures with enough force to send their bony limbs flying from their bodies.

Over the calamitous sound, she heard Ganondorf screaming. "You idiot! What the hell are you doing?!"

"What?" she paused as the roar of the spell died away, and the floor shifted beneath their feet and the sound of stone scraping on stone filled the chamber.

"Run!" Link shouted, waving them toward the entrance.

But the floor gave way beneath them, and Sheila could feel the air whipping past her face as they fell into the darkness, and the only thing she could think was _Oh, gods. I killed us all._


	57. Chapter 56

I'm not dead yet, so stop spreading the rumors. You know who you are. I'm hoping to get this thing back on some kind of schedule, like weekly or so. As I update this, chapter 57 is nearly done, actually. Just need to revise the last bit. Expect it soon, within a day or two.

**Chapter 56: Nightfall**

At the center of the temple lay the alter room. An open roof exposed the darkening sky above, stars beginning to appear above the walls of the canyon. The front line of dark clouds was gradually moving in from the south, indicating possible rain, or if the temperature fell much more, snow.

_Not exactly the smartest design for keeping the weather out,_ Zelda thought, looking up from where she sat on the stone steps to the right of the altar to Shard, the goddess of night.

Her knowledge the gods outside of the three golden goddesses followed in Hyrule was limited, but she remembered something about Shard being harsh goddess with little mercy. Her alter depicted a six armed woman holding some form of weapon in each hand, but it was far too weathered to make out the details. But the glowing red letters of the fragment of the restoration spell contained in the alter shone clearly on its surface.

She looked over her shoulder at Mur'neth, the dark elf ninja who had taken her, where he sat in front of the altar, leaning his back against the base, his sword leaning against his shoulder with the point of the blade resting on the floor before him, his head tilted forward and his eyes shut.

He was not asleep, and Zelda could sense in his emotions that he was attempting to steel himself for something that was going to be coming very soon.

There were maybe thirty more ninja in the room with them, resting around the perimeter of the room, the center of the floor clear, except for a single one who stood a short distance from the alter, his arms crossed and watching the door. From what she had caught, his name was Vargus, and was apparently Mur'neth's second in command. Even for an elf, his age was showing in the form of deep lines around his jaw and eyes, in the form one could expect from someone who had never smiled in his life.

All the ninja wore the same kind of armor as Mur'neth, a kind of black leather that looked hard enough to stop a knife blow, but somehow flexed without creaking as they moved. Most wore hoods to hide their white hair, and some wore masks as well, either to hide beards or simply for effect.

The sound of footsteps came from the doorway, and another ninja entered the room. "Master Mur'neth! They've come! Ganon is with them!"

This caused all the ninja in the room to turn toward the door as one, then back toward Mur'neth where he sat.

"The rumbling we heard was the floor caving in," the ninja continued, "I'm not sure what happened, but they fell down to the lower levels."

Zelda turned to look at Mur'neth. There had been no visible reaction from him, but then he reached up to his face with his right hand and ran a finger down the vertical red scar that ran past his right eye. Zelda couldn't imagine what could have caused a scar of such bright red that stood out so vividly against his coal skin.

"Master Mur'neth?" Vargus said, looking back at him.

He still did not respond. After a moment, Vargus turned back to the front of the chamber. "We'll spring our own trap," he said, "We shall begin stalking them at once."

"No, we shall not," Mur'neth said.

Vargus turned back to him. "Master Mur'neth?"

Mur'neth moved at last, rising to his feet. "Don't forget, the lower levels of this temple are laced with death," he said, "If they can't get out alive, it would be a waste of time to send anyone after them. Besides, they will come here anyway.

"Years ago, I fought Ganon in single combat, and lost," he continued, "Tonight I will face him again, and I will redeem myself. Understand? I want him to come to me here, and then I will face him in a challenge of honor. If anyone interferes, I'll kill them myself!"

"As you wish, master," Vargus said.

"So that's it," Zelda said, "I'm simply your bait."

Mur'neth kneeled down next to her. "You know, you're awfully calm considering your would-be rescuer is the very man who wants to enslave your kingdom."

"In this case, at least, I'm not the one he's going to murder," Zelda said.

"Maybe so, but I wonder what kind of price he'll demand for your rescue?" Mur'neth said, "I've known him longer than you, and let me tell you something. People think I'm sick because I like to watch girls dance for me, but I don't think I can count high enough to tell you how many women that man has bedded. And that's just in the time I've known him."

"Your point?"

"Well, don't you have nerves of steel?" Mur'neth said with a chuckle.

"I won't bother you with the entire explanation why," Zelda said, turning away from him, "buy you can't intimidate me."

"So let's just cut to the chase then," Mur'neth said, "Not that I'm not confident in my ability, but how did your friend, Link, beat Ganondorf?"

"Link was the better swordsman."

"It's not that simple, I'm sure," Mur'neth said, "Ganon claims to be invulnerable. I've seen him recover from injuries that would kill other men, and in record time. How do you beat that?"

"I honestly don't know," Zelda said, looking back at him, "Link uses a sacred weapon of my kingdom called the Master Sword, which defeats Ganondorf's invulnerability, but no one knows exactly why or how it does."

"So if I got this sword, I could use it against him?"

"I doubt it," Zelda said, "The Master Sword can see the hearts of those who try to lift it. Only those it deems worthy can wield it."

"Well, I guess I can try, but it can wait until after this, if that's the case."

Mur'neth moved back up the steps, sitting down in front of the alter.

"Come to me, Ganon," he whispered, "You have to die, so that Kilishandra may live."

* * *

Sheila wasn't sure if there was any part of her that didn't hurt as she lifted herself up. She wasn't sure how far she had fallen, but it was far too dark to see. "Hello?" she asked, "Anyone there?"

A blinding flash of light suddenly appeared, forcing her to shield her eyes. As they adjusted, she could see the form of Ganondorf, a silver light visible along his abdomen through his shirt.

"So you're alive," he said, "I'm thrilled."

Sheila looked upward, to see the hold in the roof about fifteen feet above them, the light fading too much to see the ceiling of the first floor above them. Large pieces of rubble lay around them.

"Where are the others?" she asked.

"My best guess," Ganondorf said, and knocked his free hand against the wall to his left, "See this wall? Right in the middle of that big hole you made. Looks like it's just you and me," he added, a smile appearing on his face.

"Is anyone else alive?" Sheila asked.

"The hell would I know?" he said, "You just dropped a ton of rock on us. I'm amazed that you're alive."

"I was just trying to…"

"Shut up," Ganondorf interrupted her, "I know what you were trying to do. You were trying to show off, to make it look like you could use magic in just as an acceptable manner as me. I'll tell you right now. You're dead wrong. I am four thousand years old, girl. It took me the majority of that time to get where I am. You're not even on the same plane of existence as me, let alone the same league. Plus, there's the fact that what I did was create a barrier of energy around myself and then release it in a controlled manner for a precise attack. What you did was rip apart the floor and smash things around. You're an eager amateur and probably don't realize that what I did was much more difficult than what you did."

Sheila started to retort, but then couldn't think of anything to say that would prove him wrong. She settled for sighing and glaring at him, and for some reason felt like a rebellious child angry at a teacher.

"Now," Ganondorf said, turning away from her and starting down the corridor, "Get up or get left behind."

"Yes," she said, rising to her feet, "We need to find the others."

"The others will be fine," Ganondorf said, "I'm going after Mur'neth."

"You're just going to leave them?"

Ganondorf stopped walking and turned to look at her. "If you want to dig through three tons of rock to find them, go right ahead. Because in a few minutes, you're likely to have bigger problems."

"What are you talking about?"

Ganondorf snapped his fingers, and a small globe of white light appeared over his hand. With a wave to the side, the small globe zipped off to the corner of the room. "I saw it on my way in here," Ganondorf said.

The globe illuminated the walls of a perfectly round tunnel in the wall, which sloped steeply downward after just a few feet. Sheila started toward it for a better look, then stopped short. The edge of her skirt was caught under a large piece of rubble. "Oh no," she muttered, reaching down and tugging at the fabric.

"What's the matter?" Ganondorf asked, moving back toward her, and when he saw the problem remarked, "You know, something as simple as pants puts a stop to that kind of problem."

"This is a traveling gown," Sheila muttered, taking two handfuls of the fabric and pulling harder.

"Skirts aren't made for this, period, whether it's a traveling gown or an evening gown," Ganondorf said, moving next to her.

"What are you doing?" she asked, then screamed as his hands darted down, snatching her skirt and the sound of tearing cloth filling the room.

Sheila stepped back from him quickly, holding her hands up, as if hoping to ward him off. He smiled, holding up the strip of cloth. "Better?" he asked.

Sheila looked down to see that the skirt had been torn off about halfway down her thighs. "Oh," she said.

"'Oh?' That's it?" Ganondorf asked, "What'd you think I was doing?"

Sheila glared at him, then moved toward the round tunnel, and looked down the slope. It descended almost straight down, fading to darkness quickly. "What would make something like this?" she asked.

"Well, for starters," Ganondorf said, leaning over her shoulder to see downward, "It came up from down there." He glanced up at the sides of the tunnel, then added, "I'd say it's about fifteen feet in diameter, can tunnel through solid stone, and for some reason was drawn up here."

"But what is it?"

"No idea," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder and pulling her away from the tunnel, "Let me tell you something. There are things beneath the earth like most of mankind has never seen, creatures so unknown they don't even have names. I had an encounter with one a long time ago. Nasty things. Never seen one come up to the surface before, though. See, sunlight is actually lethal to these things. Even starlight is painful for them."

He pulled her away from the tunnel and toward the hallway. "Hey," she said, pulling back against his grip, "Let go of me!"

His grip tightened and suddenly jerked her toward himself, his other hand grabbing her other arm, and then lifted her from the floor, bringing her face even with his. She suddenly felt very small, looking him in the eye, her feet dangling nearly a yard off the floor.

"Now you listen to me and you listen good," he said, his voice low and dangerous, "You're testing my patience to its limit. Not very good for your long term health. I'm already quite pissed at you for that smack earlier, and every time you talk back to me, I get one step closer to killing you, or maybe just leaving you here to feed our new friend in here with us. All it would take is telling your friends that I never saw you. Now, shut up and follow me, or stay here, I don't care. But don't push me any further."

He released her arms, dropping her to the floor with a jolt. He turned away from her and started toward the passage out of the room. The light dimmed as he moved further away from her. Sheila took one look over her shoulder at the tunnel in the wall, then with a sigh, moved to catch up with him.

* * *

"Well, he's not dead."

"That's too bad."

Ralthas groaned, a searing pain shooting through his skull.

"Don't move," Link said, "Looks like you cracked your head on the way down. I need to bandage you up."

The sound of tearing cloth filled the room.

"I can't see anything," Ralthas said.

"That's because it's dark," Link said.

Ralthas felt a cloth strip pulled tight around his head.

"Is anyone else alive?" he asked.

"I'd hope so," Link said, "I'd hate to be trapped down here with just you."

"What am I?" Midna asked, "Chopped liver?"

"No, you're soft goose down," Link said, and pulled the knot into his makeshift bandage, "There, that should hold you together for now. Can you walk?"

"Yeah," Ralthas said, getting to his feet, "It's just my head that's killing me."

"Well, you hit it pretty hard," Link said, "But you're not bleeding that bad, and you should see the rock it hit. Just dust now."

Ralthas made an attempt to dust himself off, the stopped and asked, "You got a light?"

"No, but we'll be fine," Link said, "I can see everything."

"You must have exceptional night vision."

"Better than you can imagine," Link said, "Here, hold onto me so you don't get lost down here. There's only one way that isn't blocked by rubble, so I guess we're going that way."

Link took Ralthas by the wrist and pulled him along behind himself down the passage. "Make sure you watch for traps," Ralthas said, "This is probably the most dangerous of the old temples. The goddess of night wasn't a forgiving type."

"Does she prefer pressure plates or levers?" Link asked, "And are poison darts or swinging blades the lady's choice?"

"Are you always so sarcastic?" Ralthas asked.

"Oh, I'm just getting started."

"Yeah," Midna said, "You should hear how he talks to people he actually likes."

* * *

Ganondorf didn't even pause to look back at Sheila as she walked behind him. It was an effort to keep up with him, having to take three steps for each one of his massive strides. He seemed content to find his way with just the light from the glowing scar along his abdomen, so it was difficult for her to make out much more than a few feet ahead of them.

"Where did you really get that scar?" she asked at last.

Ganondorf looked over his shoulder at her. "I told you," he said, holding up the sword he carried below the hilt by the leather wraps, "This very sword gave it to me."

"But how did that happen?"

"It happened because the beloved sages of Hyrule tried to execute me," he said, "Unfortunately for them, I die very hard."

"Yes," Sheila said, "Link and Zelda told me something about that. For some reason his sword is the only thing that causes lasting injury to you. I'm curious if that's true, because it would mean that except against that sword, you're invulnerable."

"There's no such thing as invulnerability," Ganondorf said, "Even the gods can die. I've seen it happen."

"You must have seen much, considering your age," Sheila said, "And no one knows what really happened when you were cast through the Twilight Mirror."

"I'll tell you what happened," he said, "I spent nearly a thousand years jumping between parallel worlds trying to find a way back to this one. I tell you, getting into this world is more difficult that getting into the heavens or hells."

"So somewhere in there was where you met Khall and the others," Sheila said.

"Oh, I see where this is going," he said, "Next you're going to ask if I really put them together, right?"

Sheila didn't respond. Ganondorf chuckled. "You might think you're slick, but I get the idea you're used to manipulating people less intelligent than you."

"I don't manipulate anyone," she said.

"You think you don't, and do it without realizing it," Ganondorf said, "But in any case, yes, I did put them together."

"It must have been recently then," Sheila said.

"The first one I met was Kilishandra," Ganondorf said, "Nearly a century ago, in fact. She was just a little girl, no more than fifteen. Extremely young for an elf."

"Indeed," Sheila said. At that age, an elf child would look no older than a five or six year old human child.

"Now, understand something," he went on, "The world they were born in was far worse than this one ever dreamed of being. Humans and Dark elves would kill each other on sight. Hell, humans tended to kill each other on sight. I didn't plan to stay long. As soon as I found a ley nexus, I was going to jump between worlds again."

A ley nexus was a point where the ley lines, the magical blood of an entire world, converged, and it was there that magicians could draw upon the massive energy present to cast spells more powerful than anything they'd be capable of otherwise. Sheila knew of three ley nexus points throughout Mystara, but there had to be at least a dozen across the world. Now that she thought about it, it made sense. Travel spells were difficult and highly inaccurate in themselves. The energy required to use one that could leap between worlds must be so massive, a ley nexus was likely required even for the greatest magicians to use them.

"Kilishandra came rushing up to me one day as I was just walking down the road, minding my own business," he went on, "I knew what she was the instant I saw her, of course. Her skin tone, too light to be a dark elf, but clear elvish features made it quite obvious. I honestly wondered how such a child was even possible, considering the ways of that world. She was in tears, crying that someone had attacked her village and killed her mother.

"My first thought was to leave her there," he went on, "But for some reason…"

He trailed off. Then, with a sigh, he went on, "I took her in, knowing that anyone else would kill her on sight. She had a great deal of trouble sleeping for the first month. Terrible nightmares, you understand. I was quite capable of feeding the two of us. Hunting isn't my greatest skill, but I'm still a very good shot with a bow. I wandered for a while, her with me, wondering what I was going to do with her and myself.

"We stumbled across Khall during the second month. A child, about fourteen, I think he was, and in possession of a spell book. He had been apprenticed to a wizard who had been killed when barbarians raided his tower.

"Not much of a wizard if he can't fight off club-swinging hordes," Ganondorf added with a chuckle, "I remember it, the boy sitting there in the dust, looking up at me, with the girl sitting on my shoulders. I don't know what made me do it, but I offered him my hand. And he took it."

"The image I got of you from Link and the others' stories don't lend much to you taking children in," Sheila said.

"Yeah, I don't suppose they would," Ganondorf said, "Anyway, now with two kids in tow, I wandered some more. No place to go, really. Then the strange thing happened. Other people started following us. People without homes, without any place to go. Seemed like every morning there were more of them. What really amazed me was the diversity. This was a world where literally no one could get along. But I had humans, elves, even a couple dark elves, all following me. Likely they were all refugees displaced by the wars constantly being fought and were sick of it. I guess they figured if they weren't safe with a wizard and his kids, safe wasn't going to happen."

"So your army built itself?"

"Not exactly," he said, "I decided that with this many people, constant traveling was going to be too tought to keep everyone fed. I started seriously searching for a defensible position with enough open land to farm. Actually came across an old castle one day. Back right up against the mountains, and plenty of open land surrounding it. It was in a sorry state, abandoned for years, but nothing that couldn't be rebuilt.

"It was there that I established Geruholme, the city that would be the capital of the newest country on that war torn rock. I told the people with me what I intended. We would build a home that accepted all races without question, a home where they could live. They were tired of fighting, and I intended to try to change this world for the better. I'd been a villain enough times, why not try being a hero for once? I intended to eliminate the discrimination of the races, and get them to stop fighting long enough to realize at least how much profit they were missing without trading between their countries."

"That's a monumental task," Sheila said.

"Don't I know it," Ganondorf said, "Nearly seventy years later, we were finally good and established, and had armed forces growing with younger generations who had not seen war and not given up entirely on the hope of winning any of it. Good thing, too. The barbarians who killed Khall's former master decided to attack us. We fought them off and launched a counter-offensive into their lands. Pushed them back across the tundra to the ocean far in the north. I killed their leader myself. And by their own laws, that made me their new chieftain. My army's size nearly doubled with them added to my ranks.

"And I told my troops that this was just the beginning. To put an end to all the problems of that world, there was only one option, and that was to unite everything under one banner. So this was just the start of a campaign that would span the world. Hundreds of small kingdoms, sixteen large ones, and two continents, recruiting everyone we could along the way, before finally culminating at the Temple of Shadows in the far southern lands, for a final battle against the 'Invincible' Emperor Erador. It took all of thirty years to get there."

"That's incredibly fast," Sheila said, "How did you stabilize so many kingdoms under your rule so fast?"

"Didn't stop to," Ganondorf said, "I left people I could trust in charge of that while I pressed on to the next kingdom. Delaying would just waste time and give others a chance to actually ally against us, if they could stop killing each other for long enough."

"What about Khall? If this took a century, and he's human…"

"You tell me, mighty sorceress," Ganondorf said, "How would a human being extend his life beyond its natural span?"

"Magic of Longevity," Sheila said, "Just a temporary fix, even so. While he does not age, his life being stretched unnaturally would cause his body to begin to weaken physically, the effect becoming more drastic with each passing year, to the point of creating in itself an incurable sickness that will eventually kill him."

"Exactly," Ganondorf said, "The boy wanted to see things through, so I taught him what he needed to know. I didn't think he'd keep pushing it up until now, though. Must be surviving on sheer willpower at this point."

"Why did you come back to this world, if you put so much work into that one?" Sheila asked.

"Didn't they tell you? To rape, pillage, and plunder Hyrule," Ganondorf said, "To claim the one thing that has always been denied me when I reached for it."

"What about Khall and the others, then? Why did they come here?"

"I don't know," Ganondorf said, "But I'm going to find out."

* * *

"Hold up," Link said, "Feel that?"

"Feel what?" Ralthas asked.

Link lay his hand against the walk. "Here," he said, pulling Ralthas' hand to the spot with his other hand, "Feel this and pay attention."

Ralthas could feel something, like a tingling sensation, running through his fingers. "Some kind of vibration," he said.

"Come on," Link said, pulling Ralthas along through the dark, "I bet I know what it is."

As they moved further down the hall, the vibrations grew, until they could be felt easily through the soles of their boots, and a crashing sound became audible in the distance. "Thought so," Link said, "Stompers."

"Stompers?" Ralthas said, "You can't mean what I think you do."

"If you're thinking 'giant stone blocks that move and smash anything that gets caught in them to red paste,' then that is what I mean."

"Oh, gods," Ralthas muttered, "I need a drink."

"Oh, don't give up," Link said, "There's always a way past. See, stompers always have a pattern to them. Figure it out, and you're through. They're only meant to keep out people who don't belong here, like any other trap."

"And how am I supposed to do that, since I can't see?" Ralthas said.

"We'll figure that out when we get there," Link said.

The vibrations grew stronger, to the point it almost felt as though the floor was crawling beneath their feet, and the crashing grew louder, until it was nearly deafening. Link finally made Ralthas stop.

"I can see them," he shouted over the crashing.

"Wonderful," Ralthas said, "Sounds like a ton of them."

"Entire hallway has them coming from above and the sides. Looks like a twenty foot move, but I'm not sure."

"Twenty feet?" Ralthas said, "Forget it. Let's find another way around."

"There isn't another way," Link shouted, "Passages collapsed, remember? Only way out is through."

"And how the hell are we going to do that?" Ralthas demanded.

"Give me two damn minutes to try to figure out the pattern," Link said, "Then I'll guide you through it."

Ralthas growled, but it was drowned out by the incessant crashing. Link moved closer to the first stomper. If he counted right, there were eight stompers, five from the sides and three from the ceiling. From this point of view, they were a crisscrossing nightmare of smashing stone, but as he watched, and started counting, and tapping his foot with each crash.

Sure enough, there was a clear pattern. And a simple one at that, he noticed. Two from the side first, which alternated their smashes, followed by one from the ceiling, which was always raised when the two from the walls on either side of it were smashing.

"I got it," he shouted at Ralthas, "We can make it."

"I still say we should go back," Ralthas shouted, "This is suicide."

"You want to go back, fine," Link said, "I'm going through."

"Wait," Ralthas said, "There really is no other way, is there?"

"Not a one."

"Oh, gods," Ralthas said, "All right. Can you get me through it?"

"Just hold onto my wrist, and stay with me."

Link took Ralthas' hand, and held tight as the judge did the same.

He turned back to the stompers. "Okay, ready?"

"Give me just a minute," Ralthas said.

"You got two seconds," Link said, then "One, two, here we go!"

Ralthas swore loudly as Link jerked him toward the crashing. He felt the wind as the stomper behind them slammed sideways with bone crushing force, and the concussion of the air alone nearly knocked him from his feet. Link pulled down, into a crouch under the rising stomper in front of them and pulling Ralthas with him, standing as it rose, and Ralthas felt the gust of wind as another slammed sideways behind them, this time in the other direction. Link kept pulling, stepping sideways around the end of the next as it slid back into the wall, and Ralthas moved behind him as one slammed down from the ceiling behind him, and felt it barely catch the tip of his scabbard on his back, jerking the leather baldric taut against his chest.

He swore loudly again.

A few moments later, Link finally stopped pulling his wrist and slowed down. Ralthas realized that all the crashing was now behind them.

"Whew," Link breathed a sigh of relief, "Let's catch our breath now. That was intense."

Ralthas found the wall and leaned against it, sinking to the floor. He was shaking. Link looked down at him. "You okay?"

"I'm too old for this crap," Ralthas muttered.

"Hey, you're doing pretty good, actually," Link said, "Let's just hope that was the hard part."

"Kind of funny," Midna whispered to him, "Seemed so dangerous when we first met him, now he looks like just an old man."

"He doesn't like to admit his age," Link said, "The kind of guy so dedicated to his work that he hates to think his own body is just so old and battered it's going to make him quit one day."

"Okay," Ralthas said, pushing himself up, "Lets go."

"You happy you came along now?" Link asked, turning to guide Ralthas through the dark hall.

"I'm not cut out to be a dungeon crawler, that's for certain," Ralthas said.

"Well, maybe before we're done, I'll get a chance to see you be a judge without it being my ass on the line," Link said, "You'd probably do that well."

"Yes," Ralthas said, "That's where I have the most experience. I'm more concerned about finding my daughter, though."

"Then let's keep going."

* * *

"So, I'm curious," Sheila said, "Why did you decide to help us?"

"Just full of questions, aren't you?" Ganondorf said, "I think it's time you kept your trap shut for a while. Our friend might be close."

"You mean the thing that made the tunnel?" she asked.

"That's right," he said, pausing as the hall turned a corner, to check around it before moving on.

"I still don't' know what it is," she said, "You said you saw one before?"

"Yeah," he said, "Totally blind, but they have damn good hearing," he added, glaring back at her to make his point.

They walked in silence for a few moments. Sheila moved up next to him, so she could get a better view in front of them.

She immediately wished she hadn't, as the stone in the floor sank under the weight of her foot and there was an audible click.

"Shit," Ganondorf said.

Stone ground on stone and dust poured down from above them as a massive stone square fell from the ceiling toward them. Sheila didn't even have time to scream as she looked up to see it rocketing down toward them.

There was a sound of crushing stone and Ganondorf grunted loudly. Sheila realized she was still alive, and had closed her eyes. She opened them, and couldn't believe what she saw. His arms above his head, Ganondorf was holding the crushing stone up above them. The triforce on the back of his right hand was glowing brightly, bathing the passage in golden light as if it were daylight, stinging her eyes.

No, she realized, he wasn't physically holding the stone up. A barrier of golden light held it several inches above his palms. This wasn't any ordinary magic, it was the power of the gods that resided within his body! Even so, veins stood out sharply from his biceps and forearms, and he was clearly under great strain, grinding his teeth. It even shown around him, as the stone floor had cracked in starry patterns beneath his feet.

"_Move, dammit!_" he shouted at her. Sheila quickly moved forward, out from under the stone. Ganondorf growled, his knees starting to shake.

He suddenly released the stone and dove forward. It crashed into the floor behind him as he rolled on the floor, landing on his back as the golden light died away. As the sound at last died away, Sheila moved over next to where he lay. He was sweating, and breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He let out a long breath. "Give me a minute. And pull the dart out of my right arm."

"What?"

She leaned over and saw it. A single dart jabbed into his right arm, just above his elbow. "Oh, no," she said, grasping it and pulling it from his flesh, "It must be poisoned…"

"I set it off when I hit the floor on my dive," Ganondorf said.

"This is my fault," she said.

"Yes, it is," he replied, "And it's poisoned all right. It's burning. You're going to have to suck it out."

Sheila moved around him, so she could get to his arm. It was a such a small wound, it was hard to see it in the dark.

"Here," Ganondorf said, pulling a knife from his belt in his left hand, "You're going to have to open it up more for this to work. Cut two small lines on either side of it, then one across them."

Sheila took the knife and did as he said. His blood seemed so dark in the dim light from his scar. Sheila lay the knife down and lifted his arm so she could get to the wound, and soon had a mouthful of acrid taste, which she quickly spat onto the floor before going back for more.

Several mouthfuls of blood later, the acridness began to fade and was replaced with a salty taste that was far more acceptable.

"Is that any better?" she asked after spitting the last mouthful onto the floor.

"Still stings, but I think you got most of it," he said, "That was some thick, heavy stuff."

She breathed a sigh of relief as he sat up. "Okay," he muttered, then clenched his right fist. The triforce on the back of his hand glowed once more.

Sheila almost couldn't believe her eyes. The wound on his arm knitted before her very eyes, the skin almost crawling back together, and the wound closing, and as he wiped the remaining blood off, not even a scar remained.

"You really are invulnerable," she said.

"Not exactly," he said, "I have to concentrate to heal, and while small wounds like this are one thing, more severe injuries can sap a great deal of my strength to heal up. So I can't do it indefinitely. Not to mention stopping that block of stone."

Sheila looked back where the hall was blocked behind them by the massive stone slab that had fallen. "How did you do that?"

"Only thing fast enough was to use the Triforce of Power to create a barrier," Ganondorf said, "It's faster than normal magic, but about a hundred times more tiring. The human body isn't built to handle the power of the gods channeling through it. So take that as a warning. I can't keep saving you like this."

"That explains why Link blacked out after he used it before," Sheila said.

"It would, yes," Ganondorf said.

He climbed to his feet and picked up his sword from where it had fallen.

"You know, for everything you say and do to make yourself seem like a real villain," Shiela said, "After what you told me here, and the fact you just saved my life…"

"Keep up or get left behind," he said.

Sheila looked up to see him walking away without her. She quickly got to her feet and moved after him. "I'm coming."

"On second thought, stay there!" he shouted.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Then she saw it. Moving toward them, filling the entire hallway ahead of them, was a creature straight out of nightmares.

Four feet, each ended with two massive claws that carved into the stone floor as it walked. Six tenticular stalks rose from its body, each one ended with rows of teeth, one of which opened and screeched. A scorpion-like tail that nearly scraped the ceiling, and as she watched, a thick drop of poison fell from the stinger in a massive glob. Its body itself was almost like a very large bear with no head or eyes, but with a long seam along its front. Sheila watched in horror as the seam opened, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth in a circular pattern around what could only be called its throat, large enough to swallow a man whole, and it let out a low pitched roar that caused the ground beneath their feet to vibrate.

"Ancient things beneath the earth, forgotten by time itself," Ganondorf said, untying the stings around the leather wrappings on his sword, "I wonder what it was that drew you up this far from your home?"

He dropped the leather wrappings, taking his weapon in his right hand, holding it up before the creature's great maw. "Too bad for you. You had to run into a real monster. Namely, me."


	58. Chapter 57

**Chapter 57: Things in the Dark  
**

"I see light up ahead," Link said.

"I was thinking there had to be something," Ralthas said, "I'm able to make out your silhouette now."

They had been walking through the dark for some time when Link suddenly commented on the light. It was coming from the side, and as they drew closer, Link was able to make out a sharp corner, as well as a hall leading further on.

Link leaned around the corner, and wished he hadn't. He knew the sun had set some time ago, and yet a white glare filled his vision, causing his eyes to sting for a few seconds as his eyes readjusted. He realized a few seconds later that the bright glare hadn't been a natural light. Ahead was an opening directly to the outside, and a pulsing green light was visible, reaching only a short way into the hall.

"Wow, that night vision is really strong," he muttered, surprised that such a dim light had actually hurt his eyes.

Ralthas looked over Link's shoulders. "I want to see what's making that light," he said.

"You and me both," Link said, starting toward the door, then stopped when he heard Ralthas' heavy footsteps behind him, "Walk more quietly," he said, "We don't know what's out there."

"I'm wearing heavy boots," Ralthas said, "How am I supposed to do that?"

Link sighed. "Set your foot down slowly, on the heel, then slowly lower it toward the toe. Muffles nearly all the sound, even more than tip-toeing."

Ralthas tried again, this time only a miniscule scraping was heard as he set his foot down. "Hey, what do you know?"

"A lot about staying alive in hostile environments," Link said, "Now follow me."

* * *

The monstrosity opened its bizarre mouth wide, and a low pitched, guttural sound that made the floor shake beneath Sheila's feet issued forth. In the dim light, she realized Ganondorf was smiling.

The sound died away, the great jaws closing once more. Ganondorf took a step closer and said, "Well, stop talking and do something about it, if you really mean to."

"What do we do?" Sheila asked, not able to take her eyes off the strange creature.

"You stay right there," Ganondorf said, not looking at her, "I'll handle this."

Almost before he had finished speaking, the creature struck. One of the tentacle mouths stuck down toward him. Ganondorf stepped sideways with incredible agility, as the rows of teeth struck directly into the stone where he had been standing, sending chips flying into the air and clattering into the walls in the narrow corridor. Not waiting for it to recover, Ganondorf spun sideways with his sword before him, slicing into the skin of the tentacle, the white blade slicing through with ease, severing the mouth from the limb, black blood spattering across the floor. The mouth end rolled free across the floor, the teeth falling open and dropping the mouthful of stone it had bitten directly from the floor.

The tentacle pulled back upward as the other mouths screeched, waving about and spraying blood through the air onto the walls. A second later, the spraying ceased. Ganondorf took a step back as the end of the tentacle closed itself, then opened again, revealing several lines of teeth once more.

"Is that so?" Ganondorf said, "Well, I've got more tricks up my sleeve."

He lifted his left hand before his face, a dim light appearing in his palm. "_Astrim dal blu na, Spirits of wind, I command you to my will, form an edge of a blade that could cut steel,_" he said, and Sheila couldn't believe her ears at the sheer speed he chanted the spell, then he turned his palm flat toward the floor and swung his arm out to the side in an arc, "_Razor Wind!_"

Sheila knew of wind magics, and could herself conjure one that caused a dense lump of air to shoot into whatever she aimed at with enough strength to break ribs. A moment ago, she couldn't believe her ears, now she would swear her eyes weren't working. Even in the dim light, she actually saw a wide swath of such dense air it was actually visible, like a great scythe, that flow from the area his hand had moved and into the creature.

Where it broke apart and did nothing at all to the creature.

"The hell?" Ganondorf said, "It had no effect!"

Several tentacles lanced out toward him. Ganondorf dove forward, they struck into the floor where he had been, one snagging his cloak as it went by, ripping a large gap into it from about halfway down.

He rolled where he hit the floor, going underneath the creature, between its legs and out behind it.

Sheila realized that she was all that was left in front of the creature, and it was too wide to turn around in the hall. The massive stone block from the trap filled the hall behind her, preventing any escape.

She lifted her hands, her mind groping for a spell of any kind, rapidly swelling fear making her shake.

"I got something a little bigger for you this time," Ganondorf's voice came from behind the creature, and a glow suddenly appeared around it, growing rapidly.

Suddenly the beast turned. With the low, guttural roar from before, it turned in the hallway, its body ripping directly through the walls, cutting large gashes on either side as it turned, the floor shaking violently beneath them, nearly knocking Sheila from her feet, stone falling from the walls and ceiling around her.

Ganondorf suddenly stopped his channeling, stepping back from the creature swiftly as the tentacles lashed out once more, striking into the walls and floor around him. Not quickly enough, he realized, and one slammed into his shoulder, sending him flying back, then suddenly stopping him as the teeth dug into his flesh and with a sharp stab of pain clenched through the tissue to the bone.

_It can bite through stone, why the hell didn't it just rip my arm off?_ he thought.

Then it started pulling, and the massive jaws of the enormous mouth opened, revealing the circular lines of teeth and gaping black throat.

"Oh, you want me in one piece," Ganondorf said, "Faster meal, huh?"

He passed his sword to his free hand and swung up, cutting the tentacle that was latched onto him. The others screeched as the cut end pulled back, spraying its hot blood over him. The jaw on his shoulder loosened, so he reached up and pulled it from his flesh. His own blood ran rapidly down his arm, mixing with the black blood of the creature sprayed over him.

"That's going to hurt come winter," he muttered.

He backed away a few steps from the creature, and keeping his eyes on it, focused his thoughts, channeling energy from the Triforce of Power back into himself, his flesh beginning to knit itself back together.

The creature gave its guttural roar once more, and moved toward him, not even waiting for the new mouth to appear on the damaged tentacle. Ganondorf was forced to back away more, stopping his healing effort.

"Wait," he said, looking at the glowing triangles on the back of his right hand, "I get it now."

He held his hand up, the glowing symbol toward the creature. "This is what you want?" he asked it, "Then have all of it you can handle!"

The glow grew brighter on the triangles, flooding the hallway with golden light. Sparks of electricity appeared on his fingertips, which he turned toward the creatures. Streaks of golden lightning flew from his fingertips directly into the mouth of the creature as it moved toward him. It roared again, this time in pain, as its advance halted, the golden streaks charring the inside of its throat black as they weaved back and forth across it.

It slammed its jaws shut, the tentacle mouths still shrieking. Ganondorf turned his palm up, fingers held like claws as yellow dots appeared under the creature's flesh, then bursting outward as sparks of light erupted from its flesh, ripping holes all over its body, then forming into globes of gold light above it. Ganondorf clenched his hand into a fist, and the globes struck back into the creature with incredible force, nearly turning it inside out as they pulled its flesh inward. With one last grunt, the creature collapsed to the floor, the tentacles falling limp as it did so.

With the creatures lying flat, Ganondorf could see Sheila on the other side of the corpse.

He smiled. "Behold the might of the Goddess of Power," he said.

"That was incredible," she said, "I've never seen anything like that."

"Nor are you likely to again," Ganondorf said, falling to his knees as his energy gave out. He lay his sword on the ground and couldn't help but lift a hand to his face as he fought to keep from passing out. He wasn't sure it was from using the Triforce, or the loss of blood from his shoulder.

"Come on," he muttered, putting all his effort into focusing his thoughts, "Can't pass out till you mend that shoulder, or you won't be waking up."

Sheila was climbing over the body of the massive creature toward him. He felt the pain start to fade as his flesh and muscle tissue began to respond to his efforts, mending itself together. A wave of dizziness washed over him, and without realizing he had fallen, found himself lying on his side.

"Dammit," he growled, pushing himself up. "I am not this weak.."

He made an effort to refocus his thoughts. Everything was fading rapidly, and he was unconscious before he hit the floor the second time.

* * *

"All right," Alex whispered to himself, one hand on his sword, laying on the ledge where he watched the bizarre creatures with bladed arms moving about the strange alter the wizard had left behind, "Now."

He started to rise and pull his sword from the scabbard as quietly as possible, and suddenly his arm was pinned down by a foot and a hand clamped over his mouth, silencing his startled reaction.

"Lay back down," a voice said from above his head.

He did so, turning his eyes down to the coal black skin of the hand over his mouth. _A dark elf,_ he thought, _I thought they were extinct._

"Now just stay calm," the voice said, "I'm not going to hurt you."

And a woman, he realized.

"There's more of those creatures inside," she whispered, "You jump down there, and you're going to die. Nothing more."

Suddenly, the hand was gone, and the weight lifted off his arm. Alex rolled over, drawing his sword partway, only to realize that the woman was gone. He looked to the left and right, and couldn't see any sign of her.

"What was that?" he whispered to himself, somewhat disconcerted by the event. What kind of creature could be there, standing on him, and then just be gone?

He rolled back over onto his stomach, looking over the ledge at the creatures below, shaking his head. Then he saw the face right next to his own. He jumped, and before he could give a startled shout, her hand shot out and clamped over his mouth again, muffling the sound. She lifted her other hand to put a single finger to her lips.

"Who are you?" he asked when she took her hand from his mouth.

"Silviana will do," she said, "Now listen, I'm trying to get to that doorway on the other side of the clearing. I was cut off from the others I'm with when the entrance to the temple collapsed."

"Um, okay," Alex said, "What are you doing here?"

"Dra'thul ninja have taken a woman hostage," she said, "We were trying to save her."

"Dark elves? You mean like you?" he asked.

"Of course not like me," she said, "They're ninja. I'm not. I guess I'm what could be called a ranger."

"And what difference does that make?"

"Well, I didn't cut your throat when I came up behind you," she said, "One of them probably would have."

"Okay, that's a good point," he said.

"What's that thing in the center of the clearing?" she asked.

Alex looked down to the strange totem. A green crystal at its top, which pulsed with some inner light, illuminating the night around them, held by what looked like black claws reaching around it, and black metal ran over the white body of what he could guess was likely stone, to four black legs that dug directly into the ground beneath it.

"Wish I knew," he muttered, "I'm just here for him, though."

He pointed to one of the creatures below. Unlike the others, each of which was covered with what looked like black cloth, but was in fact a form of skin, this one looked skeletal, no flesh at all. Where the others were covered in black cloth-like flesh, six rib-like protrusions, three on each side, were attached to a narrow spine that ran nearly three feet from its shoulders to hips, each of the protrusions sticking out about six inches and narrowing to a sharp point.

"That _thing_ killed my sister," he said.

"Sorry about that, but if you jump down there now, you're just going to die," Silviana said.

"There's only four of them," Alex said, scanning the clearing.

"In the light," she said, "You've night-blinded yourself by looking directly at it. There's six more in the dark around it. Plus, you can't kill them."

"And why not?" he asked.

"I don't mean 'can't' as in you shouldn't, but that you are unable to," she said, "They are flesh golems, and without magic or proper equipment, they'll just keep coming back."

"I'm not leaving without that thing being dead," he said.

"Hold on a moment," she said, watching the doorway on the far side of the clearing, "Our backup is almost here."

* * *

"Damn," Link muttered as he leaned just close enough to see out the doorway, "More of those bladed golems."

"Can you see what's giving off the light?" Ralthas asked.

"Looks like some kind of altar or maybe a totem," he said.

Ralthas sighed. "I've got an idea," he then said, "We might be able to beat those things without the wizard."

"How exactly?" Link asked.

"Hope you're not expecting me to do it," Midna said, "My magic has no effect on creatures like that."

"My sword," Ralthas said, "You're not the only one with an enchanted weapon. Mine can discharge a bolt of lightning with enough force to level a building. I think it can destroy those things, or at least knock them into enough pieces to keep them down for a while. It can only do it once, though, so we'd have to get them grouped close enough together."

"That might work," Link said, "Too bad you didn't give me that horn back before we left, it would probably help."

"Yes, I'm regretting that, too," Ralthas said.

"All right then," Link said, pulling the Master Sword free of its sheath, and took a deep breath, "Let's just do it quick. Any last words?"

"Yeah, I wish I had a better plan than this," Ralthas said.

"Me too," Link said, "Lets go."

He moved quickly, running for the door. There was one of the creatures immediately to the right of the door. Link turned sideways as he moved, and as he passed out of the door, delivered a backhand swing of his sword to its back, slicing cleanly through its spine, causing it to fall as if it were folding itself in half.

As one, the others turned their eyes toward him, their massive pupils narrowing as they focused on him.

"Hey, that one's different," Link said to himself as he saw the one without the strange, black flesh across its torso.

Two of the creatures ran for him, their bladed arms spread wide and leaning their bodies forward. Link quickly pulled his shield onto his arm as they closed in.

"I got the one on the right," Ralthas said, moving up beside him.

The curved blades of the creatures' arms flashed in the dim light. Link stepped toward the creature as it swung, catching one on his shield and slashing downward with his sword, severing the other arm from the creature's shoulder. Pushing its other away with his shield, he spun about, lifting the shield straight out before and slammed the bottom edge into its face, its skull crumbling and shattering into pieces from the impact of the heavy object, and flew backward, tumbling over itself in the air and rolling across the dirt to stop nearly eight feet away.

Ralthas lifted his sword to guard against the other creature's first swing, the stopping the high swing as its other arm swung in from the side. He stepped in, ramming his shoulder into its chest, both stepping inside the swing so that the bony elbow was all that touched him, and sending it staggering back, freeing his weapon, which he brought straight down, slicing into its shoulder, beside its neck, cutting into its cloth flesh. The flesh almost immediately tried to wrap itself around his weapon to hold it fast, he lifted one foot and kicked hard into its stomach, knocking it off the blade and onto its back. Before it could rise, he moved in and stabbed his blade downward, straight into its massive eye. It convulsed on the impact, and then lay still, for the moment.

A third came from the dark to his right, seeming to materialize from the air as he looked up, and its feet left the ground, both arms high above its head to strike him down, then suddenly flipped over sideways toward the doorway behind him and landing hard to roll across the dirt, an arrow lodged sideways through its skull.

Ralthas and Link looked up to see Silviana on a ledge across from them, already notching another arrow in her bow.

Alex had leaped down from the ledge and had caught one of the creatures from behind, severing its head with a single swing of his sword, and before the head or body had hit the ground, was running for the more skeletal one of the group. It spun around to face him as he swung his weapon in a wide horizontal swing for its head. It lifted one arm, catching his blade with its own, pulling the other back for a stabbing move. Alex quicking sidestepped, the point missing his abdomen by inches, and dropped low, sweeping one leg out toward its feet, and missed completely as it leaped upward, his kick passing harmlessly beneath it before it came back down, raising both arms to strike him as he rose, but he used the momentum from his spin as he rose, lifting his sword, and catching it between its sharp rips on the way up, and catapulted it sideways from the impact, but the poor angle did not slice through, and his sword was ripped from his hand as it pulled away.

The creature landed on its side and rolled over its shoulders, getting instantly back to its feet, and with a brushing motion, dislodged Alex's sword, which fell and stabbed its point into the earth.

"You've gotten better," Alex muttered.

"Get them all on one side of us!" Ralthas shouted as he cut into his second, throwing it toward the first which were beginning to rise with a wrench of his sword that also dislodged it from the blade.

"Trying!" Link said, facing down two more, guarding against the attack of one with his shield as he stabbed the Master Sword into the massive target that was the other's single eye.

In one quick motion, he released the sword and snatched the dagger from his belt, stabbing it into the face of the other right over his shield, releasing the grip on the dagger and snatching his sword back from the first before it had hit the ground.

That was when the unexpected happened. The one he had stabbed the dagger into screeched loudly. A sound completely inhuman, so loud it was nearly deafening, and high enough to make one's eardrums feel like they were about to explode. As Link stepped back, grinding his teeth against the pain in his eyes, he could hardly believe what he saw.

Blue flames erupted over the creature's body, which spasmed violently as it fell, and writhed on the ground, the screeching somehow growing louder, and then suddenly stopping, its flesh and bone sagging and them melting into a thick, black oil that spread slowly over the ground, the dagger coming loose, it's point buried in the earth just deep enough to stand upright.

The other creatures ceased their attacks, turning toward the puddle, all their massive eyes focused on the dagger.

Deciding he'd worry about the "why" later, Link stabbed the point of the Master Sword into the ground and snatched up the dagger. "Who's next?" he asked.

Several of the creatures were slowly backing away from him. The skeletal one suddenly made a motion with one arm, sweeping it to the side, and they all turned and made a full retreat., nearly running straight up the canyon wall, and assisting their climb by stabbing their bladed arms into the rock itself.

The skeletal creature turned back to Link for a moment, its eye focused on him, then turned to Alex, who had picked up his sword and was running toward it, then turned and made its own escape up the rock wall before he reached it.

"Get back here!" Alex shouted, "I'm not done with you!"

Ralthas turned to Link, "What the hell is that knife?" he asked.

Link turned it over in his hand. "I don't know," he said, "I didn't even know it could do that."

"Where'd you get it?" Ralthas demanded.

Link turned to him and saw Silviana had come down from the ledge and was walking toward them. "Back in Hyrule," he said, "I've been carrying it the whole time. I found it in the vault…"

He stopped himself.

"Vault?" Ralthas prompted.

Link's eyes went wide with realization. "In the vault beneath the castle, where magical artifacts were stored…"

He felt like laughing maniacally. "Oh, gods, I'm so stupid," he said, "Why the hell would it have been down there if it were an ordinary dagger?"

Alex, his frustration spent for the moment, turned toward them. Ralthas looked down at the puddle of goo that was what was left of the golem. "So you didn't know it could do that until now?"

"No," Link said, "It didn't seem to have any magic at all, except…"

"Except what?" Ralthas asked.

"Except it did have a noticeable effect on that golem in the mountains," Link said, "But nothing to this degree."

Before Ralthas could start again, Silviana stepped in. "Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak," she said, "It's a viable weapon against these creatures, and that's good enough for now."

"True enough," Ralthas said, turning to the totem, "Now, about this thing…"

He moved toward it, sheathing his sword. Link put the dagger back in his belt and retrieved the Master Sword. Alex moved closer to him. "Hey, what are you doing here, by the way?"

"I should be asking you that," Link said, "I thought you were going home."

Alex shook his head. "Home isn't there anymore. Metallicana has fallen. And that monster, the one that looks like a skeleton, killed my sister."

"Oh, gods," Link said, "I'm sorry."

Alex shook his head. "I'll get it sooner or later. I was actually coming down this way to find you, or at least hoping I could help get whoever is responsible for this."

"Very long story," Link said, "I'll fill you in later. Right now, Zelda's been kidnapped by a dark elf ninja, and they're in this temple here."

"Zelda?" Alex said, "That pretty brunette? Oh, gods, I'm gonna have to kick someone's ass for this."

"You and me both," Link said, "Speaking of which…"

He was interrupted by loud swearing from Ralthas' general direction, near the totem.

"What's the matter with you?" Link asked.

"Come over here and see," Ralthas said.

They walked over to the totem, and Ralthas pointed at the ground. "Touch the earth here."

"I don't see anything," Link said as he knelt down, then he realized it.

"It's black," he said, "I mean, it's night out, but earth shouldn't be this dark, even at midnight."

He picked up a pinch of earth between his fingers, and it crumbled away, not in the manner it should, but more like ash from a fire pit, leaving black stains on his fingertips.

"What is this?" Link asked, looking up at Ralthas.

"This is mentioned in the histories of the ancient war," Ralthas said, "The necromancers devised a scheme to attempt to starve their enemies out, creating totems that would suck life out of the earth itself. In the affected lands, nothing could grow or survive. It was Darius who caught on to what has happening soon enough to stop it before real harm could be done. Eventually, life returned to the affected areas. Eventually was a long time coming, though."

"Wait, the land itself is dying?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Ralthas said, "And this means we're in a hell of a lot of trouble, especially if the enemy has planted these totems in the areas they've been to."

"Now wait, if I understand this, these things basically turn the surrounding area into a wasteland where nothing can grow, right?" Link asked.

"Exactly," Ralthas said.

"If they're trying to conquer the kingdoms here, why would they be doing that?" Link asked.

"They're not trying to conquer us," Ralthas said, "They're trying to wipe us out."

He drew his sword, and swung it into the totem, the blade ripping through the object, which then fell into two halves. The gem, now on the ground, pulsed weakly, then the light dimmed and died completely.

"The dark elf ninja leader," Ralthas said, turning back to them, "He must be taken alive. I will have answers from him."

* * *

Ganondorf groaned, lifting a hand to his face. He was groggy, but conscious.

"Are you all right?"

He looked up to see Sheila standing over him. He looked over at his right shoulder to see that it was perfectly fine. The wounds were gone. "I managed to heal myself after all," he said.

"Actually, you blacked out," Sheila said, "It was me that healed the wound. It wasn't as fast as you did earlier, but I managed."

"Healing magic?" Ganondorf said, "I thought that particular art was lost."

"There's still a few of us who can use it around," Sheila said, "Are you all right? You might want to rest a little more before going on."

Ganondorf rose to his feet. "A few minutes rest won't make up for what I've done so far," he said, and took a deep breath, holding it a moment before going on, "Hopefully there aren't any more serious obstacles between us and Mur'neth. Right now, I've probably only got enough left for one or two big spells. I'm going to end up fighting him on his own level."

"Does it have to be a fight?" Sheila asked, "I thought you and he were friends at one point."

Ganondorf chuckled bitterly. "Not even close. We worked together, but I knew from day one that he would turn on me someday. I think the only thing that kept him in line as long as he was was my daughter. He cares about her enough that he put up with me."

He turned and started walking down the hall, and Sheila fell into step with him. "It doesn't matter if I want to fight him or not," Ganondorf continued, "He wants to fight me. That's the entire reason he took Zelda. He wants me to come to him to save her."

"So there's no avoiding it then?" Sheila asked.

"He can surrender," Ganondorf said, "But he won't. When I was in the world Mur'neth and the others were born in, more than once, I gave the kingdoms I conquered a chance to surrender. When they refused, I always said the same thing to them."

"What was that?"

"'Fight. Resist. And die.' And that is exactly what Mur'neth is going to do here."

As if on cue, the faint glow surrounding Ganondorf from his glowing scar revealed a staircase at the end of the hall, leading up.

"We're almost there," he said.

* * *

"Master Mur'neth!" a ninja called from across the great hall, near the entrance, "Ganondorf has returned to the main level! He's nearly here!"

Vargus turned to look at Mur'neth, who had not moved from the spot where he sat, his back leaning against the altar. He looked up at last.

"Master Mur'neth!" the ninja called again.

"It's almost time," Mur'neth said, "Remember what I said. If any of you get in the way, I'll kill you myself."

"That's awfully brave of you, elf," called a voice from across the great hall.

The ninja near the door moved quickly to the side, to get clear as a light appeared in the dark beyond the door, and revealed the massive figure of the Gerudo wizard.

Zelda looked up from where she sat, toward Ganondorf, then at Mur'neth. The ninja rose to his feet. "Finally," he said, "I was starting to wonder if you were coming."

Ganondorf's white sword was visible in his hand, and he smiled at Mur'neth across the hall. "Mur'neth, you of all people should know better than to use a woman to get my attention."

Mur'neth walked down the small set of stairs in front of the altar, to the floor. "Forty years, I think it's been. Forty years since I tried to kill you. I've gotten better in that time. What about you?"

"I don't know," Ganondorf said, "I don't think I'm that much better than before, but I'm still more than you can handle, ninja."

Mur'neth drew his weapon from its sheath, which he tossed aside onto the floor. "I also have this," he said, holding the sword high in the air, "A weapon made specifically for killing demons like you."

"So I'm a demon?" Ganondorf said, "Then you'd best start praying if you have a god, Mur'neth, because you're going to need all the help you can get."

"I'll take that under consideration," he said, "Now are you going to fight or talk all night?"

"Fight then, elf," Ganondorf said, "Resist me, and die the most glorious death you could hope for."


	59. Chapter 58

Happy holidays, everybody!

Just have a small request: This chapter contains the only reference to the Smash Bros. games I'm going to make. Please do not flood the reviews with Falcon Punch! comments. After all, Ganondorf's is the Wizard's Fist. Just thought it would be cool to use once.

**Chapter 58: ****Dark Elf Ninja Master:**** Mur'neth**

One hundred forty two years ago, in the Dra'thul kingdom, Aistoloch, a male child was born, his father a ninja who had faithfully served the queen his entire life, and his mother a priestess of the royal temple. In such a matriarchal society as the dark elves lived, a son was nothing remarkable unless they proved to have a talent for wizardry.

This child did not. He lacked focus and concentration, often escaping lessons and being found in places he shouldn't have been able to get into. In the getting there, however, he showed a remarkable talent for staying out of sight. For this reason, the boy was selected to be trained as a ninja. A spy and assassin first, and a warrior second, he was promised that glory was forever out of his reach. His wizardry training botched, the only remaining path to power for one such as he was in the bedchamber of a high ranking female.

But he took to the training with ease, and was soon outperforming boys twice his age. Before the master could rouse them, he was awake before the others, performing exercises and single practices. He was a better sneaksman than his classmates, more than once nearly catching even their master unawares, and a better swordsman, defeating his older classmates in training with remarkable ease.

It wasn't until one day, during class, he completely collapsed from sheer exhaustion that he revealed limits to his ability. Refusing to give up a pupil of such potential, the master granted him a short time of rest, during which time he would be allowed no training excluding meditation.

On the second afternoon, the old sensei sat with the boy in the garden, the warmth of the sun falling across them. The boy had fallen asleep where he sat, and nearly fell over before he woke and caught himself. The older ninja smiled slightly.

"Mur'neth, tell me something," he said, "Why do you push yourself so hard? The path of the ninja is often the last resort of those who cannot succeed at anything else, but refuse to become a common foot soldier. There is no glory for those like us. If you are captured by the enemy, the retainers will deny you even exist."

"You say there's no glory," the boy said, "But I don't believe that. I'll make them see what we are, what we can do. Because someday I'm going to be the greatest ninja the world has ever seen."

"Even better than me?"

The boy chuckled. "Someday…"

But it wasn't until nearly a century later that his chance would come. While he had outperformed the entirety of the other students of his generation, Mur'neth's only involvement with events was minor scuffles with neighboring kingdoms, or missions as a spy that would often turn up nothing.

He knew his talent was being squandered, but as a junior ninja, he could say nothing against their leader, the Shadow Blade, who answered directly to the queen herself.

It may have been fate, or sheer blind luck, but the minor annoyances of neighboring kingdoms disappeared when scout forces from Emperor Erador's kingdom appeared some distance to the south. With the so-called invincible warlord taking an interest in their lands, all the petty hatreds seemed like a waste of energy to everyone involved, to the point of a temporary alliance between the Dra'thul and human kingdoms, until the threat had passed.

What changed the course of Mur'neth's life was an encounter with one of Erador's scout troops, which was led by none other than his retainer, Reaper. With a reputation of being a sick sadist, there was no doubt when several border villages were destroyed, and reports stated that several individuals had been tortured to death, and they had been no one of importance, farmers, innkeepers, and weavers, peasants all.

The cowards in charge were torn between hunting down the sadist and ending his terror once and for all, and fear that doing so would cause the massive army of Erador to descend upon them at once.

At last giving up on the foolishness of her retainers, the queen sent the Shadow Blade and his ninja to find Reaper before he could do any more harm. Mur'neth volunteered for the assignment, along with five others. It was a fateful mission that would end in total catastrophe.

They had gone to find a man, and in his place, something like they never imagined. Reaper appeared to be a man, but was surrounded by inhuman monsters that would feed on human flesh, and Reaper himself was possessed of agility and strength that one who looked so frail could not possibly possess.

To this day, Mur'neth was unsure of exactly who was the one who screwed things up, or how they did so, but their group was discovered far too soon, and the beasts slaughtered them to a man. Mur'neth could still remember how the Shadow Blade, in a final act of desperation, ran straight for Reaper, leaping over the creatures and evading their strikes, to suddenly stop before Reaper, perfectly still. Mur'neth could not see Reaper past him from his location, but the Shadow Blade then collapsed before Reaper, and the thin, pale man's hand was outstretched before himself, stained red, clutching the heart he had ripped from the elf's chest in one stroke.

Seeing he had no chance, Mur'neth made the best use of his abilities at the time, and made himself scarce. He hid himself and waited for Reaper and his minions to depart, then made his way back to the capital, where his report on the situation was met with mixed feelings. The loss of the Shadow Blade was a severe blow to the ninja. Until a new one could be selected, the queen determined that they would answer to her directly.

Mur'neth wanted to take all the remaining ninja and a large number of troops to hunt down Reaper and put an end to him once and for all, but changing circumstances caused this to be impossible.

To the north, a new threat had appeared as if from nowhere. A wizard of no small power had established a small kingdom near the Stormback Mountains, and was in command of a rapidly growing armed force that defied the nature of the world's established racial relations. Humans, Dra'thul, elves, and even a few dwarves were all serving under this man.

It was unsure how he overcame the hatred and mistrust the races had for one another. To be precise, the humans hated the Dra'thul and elves, the Dra'thul and elves mistrusted each other and the humans, and the dwarves hated and mistrusted everybody.

It seemed the problem would solve itself when the barbarians came out of the northern lowlands and attacked the wizard's lands, but in a single battle, he turned them back and launched a counter-offensive, pursuing them deep into their homelands. The kingdoms once again turned their attention south, doubting they would hear from him again. They were caught completely unawares when the wizard returned from the lowlands, the barbarian horde under his command, and his ranks swollen to nearly three times the size of his original command.

They did not return to his home, but followed a wild and erratic course through the middle kingdoms, taking one after the other, never staying in one for long, and more and more fell in record time. Their course was unpredictable, but they made their way inexorably southward, every kingdom in their path falling in days and some in mere hours, and yet for some reason, their numbers continued to grow. Where anyone would expect them to execute the defending leaders and disarm their military, the wizard's army instead absorbed them, growing even more insurmountable with each kingdom that fell before it.

The wizard's name and description at last began to be heard through rumors and hearsay in the lower kingdoms. Some claimed he was a master tactician, or a man of incredible charisma, to get so many to follow him. Others claimed he was not even a man, but a demon, because he seemed to be invulnerable in combat, and those of magic could not understand how he did some things he did, constantly bending the laws of magic as they understood them, and sometimes outright breaking said laws, doing what was simply impossible, and causing a great many migraines as they attempted to understand how he had done so.

While he called himself Ganondorf or Ganon, the populace began to call him Mandrag Ganon, the Man-Demon.

As his forces moved further south, their course still erratic, it became clear they would soon reach Aistoloch, and in spite of their scouting efforts, the ninja could not determine when they would attack, or what direction they would approach from.

The day that would change Mur'neth's life forever was two weeks before the attack.

In a windowless room within the castle, lit by a small number of candles, a group of ninja were gathered around a table, a map of the lower kingdoms spread before them, the current approximate location of Ganon's army marked by wooden blocks, which also followed the erratic trail back the way they had taken to get to where they were.

The oldest of the ninja, Vargus, was staring at the map, shaking his head, and sighed. "If we had any clue which way they were headed, we could engineer some kind of ambush to thin their numbers."

"There's a canyon here," one of the other ninja said, "We could create a rockslide to bury them alive inside."

"We wouldn't get more that a few thousand of them," another replied, "And this horde is tens of thousands strong."

"They won't take the canyon anyway," Vargus said, "I think they'll turn south again before entering and cross the river here…"

"That would put them on our doorstep in less than a week," the first ninja said.

"If they went straight south from there," Vargus said, "But seeing as how unpredictable their path is, they might veer off to the east or west again for no apparent reason."

"That wizard must be crazy," the second ninja said, "How do their supply trains even keep up with this bizarre behavior?"

Mur'neth, standing at the far end of the room, leaning his back against the wall, finally spoke. "I don't see how that's important," he said, "What matters is stopping this behemoth."

"That's my point," the ninja said, "Cutting off their supply lines would be the easiest way."

"They're too close for it to work that well," Vargus said, "It would no doubt make them turn straight to us, to make the attack as quickly as possible. They'd be hungry when they attacked, but their numbers would still be far to much. They'd overwhelm us like army ants swarming over a cow."

"You're all pathetic," Mur'neth said, "Cut off the head of the snake, and it dies. That's how we win this."

Without waiting for a response, he turned, pushed the door open, and stepped out.

He would go straight from that small room to the queen's audience chamber, where she was involved with her own tactical discussion with her retainers. One of the guards outside the chamber carried his message to her within, whispering it to her to not interrupt the discussion within, and she would interrupt it herself, for a small break she said, and gave permission for Mur'neth to enter.

As he knelt to the floor before her, the entirety of her retainers watching him, the queen spoke, "The guard tells me that you wish to request my permission for something. Speak quickly, ninja, what do you dare ask in this dark time?"

"Forgive my impertinence," Mur'neth said, not taking his eyes off the floor, "but I wish to invoke the right of single combat."

The queen's expression changed to one of surprise. She had not expected that. "Whom do you wish to fight?" she asked.

Mur'neth looked up at her, a dark glint in his eye. "I want Mandrag Ganon!"

"You would fight him by yourself?" the queen asked, letting out a small chuckle, "And how do you propose to even reach him with your challenge?"

"I will deliver it myself," Mur'neth said, "I will enter his encampment by the shadows, find him, and kill him. I believe that without him, his forces will break and scatter."

The queen considered this for a moment. "Very well," she said at last, "I grant you leave to seek him out. Succeed, and you shall be well rewarded. As you well know, we have been without a proper Shadow Blade for some time now. Return with the head of Mandrag Ganon, and I shall grant you the title."

Before the sun had set, Mur'neth was on his way to meet the head of the horde. When Ganon's army did not cease its movements, it was assumed he had failed, and as many preparations for defense as possible were made. When the seemingly endless ranks appeared on the horizon, by Ganon's side was Mur'neth, walking at the head of the army that was about to attack his own kingdom.

Everything had changed in two short weeks. And now everything was about to change again.

* * *

"Zelda, are you all right?" Ganondorf asked.

"I'm quite fine," she said, not resisting as two of the ninja guided her back toward the wall, away from Mur'neth, "Though, honestly, I'm a bit surprised that you're the one who came to save me. You're not exactly a knight in shining armor."

Ganondorf chuckled. "That I am not," he said, looking down at the poor fitting clothing, and realized the seams of the hastily made shirt were coming apart. He hoped his pants were holding up better.

"Twenty years now I've been waiting for this," Mur'neth said, descending the stairs from the altar behind him to the same level as Ganondorf, "Twenty years since I gave up everything I ever knew for you, only for you to leave us all to die."

"Well, it's more like you're just impatient assholes," Ganondorf said, "I said I'd be back. I didn't expect it to take ten years, but that's the funny thing about war. A kingdom can fall as quickly as a few hours, or last for years. Won't know until it gets started."

He lifted his sword suddenly, pointing the blade directly at Mur'neth. "And besides," he continued, "You're the last person to judge me. Let's not forget how easily I could have killed you that night. You might think you've repaid that debt, but you haven't even come close."

_So they really do know each other,_ Zelda thought, _That means Ganondorf was in their world. But how far does the connection go?_

"I haven't forgotten," Mur'neth said, "But I'm afraid I have a more important engagement."

Ganondorf lowered his sword, and throwing his head back, laughed, almost maniacally. "Oh," he said, looking back at Mur'neth, "You think you're being so slick. I know exactly who you're talking about and why."

Mur'neth was surprised, as was clearly visible on his face. Ganondorf snickered. "What? You think I didn't notice? The way you looked at my daughter? The way you acted around her? I'm four thousand years old, Mur'neth. One thing I've learned is how to read people. You might be able to hide your intentions and emotions from others, but you can't hide them from me.

"And don't you worry," he added, smiling, "She's going to be rejoining me soon enough."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," Mur'neth said, "And she's not really your daughter."

Ganondorf's smile vanished. His left hand shot forward, and his voice echoed through the chamber. "_Daem!_"

Mur'neth dropped to his knee as soon as he saw the hand fly forward. He felt the air above him sizzle as a streak of white lightning flew across the chamber and struck the back wall. Mur'neth looked back to see a six foot wide gap in the wall, revealing the bedrock behind the laid bricks.

He turned back to Ganondorf to see that all the humor had disappeared from the wizard's face.

"Don't ever even begin to think you know anything about my relationship with Kilishandra," Ganondorf said, "I raised her for over a century. The entire time you've known her is less than the time I spent getting her to eat her blasted vegetables!"

Zelda couldn't help it. She raised one hand to her mouth to hide a smile. She had a hard time imagining him in such a mundane situation.

"Now," Ganondorf said, "Are you going to talk all night, or can we get started here?"

"By all means," Mur'neth said.

Mur'neth turned his body sideways, both hands on his sword, which he held low, with the blade pointed back. Ganondorf merely rolled his head to the sides, causing it to pop loudly, and rolled his shoulders back, loosening himself up, but stood with both hands at his sides, the tip of his blade pointed almost lazily toward the floor.

Even one not familiar with the tactics of combat could tell they were of wildly different fighting styles. Mur'neth's stance was one that would stay low and use his speed to its best advantage, while Ganondorf's posture seemed to radiate sheer brute force.

"One good swing," Zelda whispered to herself, "If Ganondorf manages to connect with even one good hit, it will obliterate Mur'neth. That leather armor won't turn a blow of the kind of power he can manage."

Mur'neth was the first to move. A sudden dart straight toward Ganondorf, lifting his blade out to his side for a horizontal stroke at Ganondorf's left side. The white blade in Ganondorf's hand seemed to leap of its own will to the side, point straight down, blocking the stroke as Ganondorf turned to his left. Mur'neth kept moving, stepping past the wizard on his left side, spinning to his own left, completely about to bring about a second swing, this one higher. Ganondorf suddenly defied expectations, dropping his sword, which clattered across the stone as he caught Mur'neth's right arm in his left hand, stopping the blow, and snaking his right hand out to the dark elf's throat, catching him completely off guard, and lifted him from the floor with ease and held his face up to his own.

His body twisted in such a manner, Mur'neth could do little to free himself as his feet hung nearly two feet off the floor. "Pathetic," Ganondorf growled at him, and tossed him away from himself.

Mur'neth hit the floor, rolling away from Ganondorf and directly back onto his feet.

"Come on, Mur'neth!" Ganondorf said as he picked up his sword, "Twenty years you've been waiting for this. You've got to do better than that!"

Mur'neth growled under his breath, and looked upward. No stars were visible as dark clouds covered the night sky through the open roof above them. It was a full moon tonight, but if it wasn't visible, the magic of his sword was useless.

With a roar, Mur'neth ran for Ganondorf again. This time he stopped in front of the wizard as their swords met. Mur'neth back stepped quickly and crouched low as Ganondorf's blade whistled past his head, lifting his sword with both hands up to his shoulder as he did so, and as he rose back up, stabbed directly for Ganondorf's face.

To the outside viewers, it took a moment for them to realize what was happening. Mur'neth stabbed his blade, drew it back, and stabbed again in rapid succession. With each attack, Ganondorf merely leaned his head to the side and bent slightly at the knees as he dodged to the left and right, each stab missing his head by inches.

Suddenly Ganondorf threw his left hand forward, and the floor shook beneath all the ninja and Zelda's feet as a burst of concussive energy blasted Mur'neth in the chest, sending him flying backward to roll across the floor to a stop in front of the altar, where he regained his feet.

Zelda realized what had happened. Ganondorf had just used one of the easiest, weakest forms of magic, which had essentially just hit Mur'neth with a condensed ball of air. It was nothing to ignore, as it was possible to create enough force in such a manner to shatter bones, but as Mur'neth lifted himself up, it was clear it had just rattled him.

"He's toying with him," Zelda said to herself, "Ganondorf could have put Mur'neth down as soon as it started. Why is he dragging it out like this?"

Mur'neth was smiling. He could see it again. This was what had drawn so many to Ganondorf before, he realized once more. As Ganondorf lowered his hand, not moving, instead waiting for Mur'neth to come at him again, the ninja couldn't help but feel his respect for the man return once more.

It wasn't that he was incredibly charismatic, Mur'neth knew, at least no more than any other ruler he had seen. It was a sheer aura of power. Regardless of how much of it was real, the man seemed invincible, in the "if you're not with me, get the hell out of my way" kind of way. No doubt many who had joined him before had done so either out of fear, or hope to ride his coat tails to power of themselves, but Mur'neth remembered now why he had joined the wizard so long ago.

Ganondorf was everything he aspired to be. Mur'neth held no doubt in his mind that he was the greatest living ninja of the Dra'thul now, and one of the greatest of the past age. But there was always someone out there greater than himself, that he couldn't touch. Ganondorf was that one.

"If I can't beat him," he said to himself, "then I'll never truly be the greatest."

_And I'll have failed Kilishandra_, he thought.

A white spot appeared on the floor between them. It grew steadily larger. Mur'neth and Ganondorf both looked up. The clouds were moving, and the white disc of the moon was visible in the night sky. In just a moment, it would be fully exposed.

Mur'neth could feel his sword growing warm within his grip. _Now,_ he thought, _I have everything I need._

White smoke curled off the blade of the Kajetugan as Mur'neth resumed his fighting stance, holding the blade pointed behind himself. "Hope you're ready," he said to Ganondorf, "It's time to go for a ride."

The white smoke from the blade suddenly flared into bright light, engulfing Mur'neth, then it died away, and there were two of him. The light flashed again, and there were four, then again and there were eight, and once more, and there were sixteen of the dark elf. And they charged all at once, all their voices rising in battle cries, filling the chamber.

Ganondorf stepped back from the first as it swung its blade at him, and stabbed through the elf, only to have it vanish in a puff of white smoke. "Bah! Illusions!" he said, turning to the next and swinging his sword through its torso, causing it to vanish in a similar manner.

He stepped back with a grunt as the third caught him from the left, its sword cutting deep into his left shoulder and he quickly spun, stabbing it directly through the abdomen, causing it to vanish.

"Oh, we're all quite real," so many voices said at once, and in another flash of light, three more had appeared to replace those he had felled.

"Finally you really start to fight, then," Ganondorf said, and smiled as the wound in his shoulder closed itself swiftly, "Time to stop playing, then!"

He lunged forward, into the swarm of Mur'neths, catching one directly through the chest, causing it to vanish, sidestepped a lunge from another and caught him around the neck as he moved past with his left arm, and with a flex of his massive bicep, an audible crack was heard from the elf neck, which then vanished in smoke. One caught him with a slicing stroke across his back. Ganondorf staggered with a grunt in pain, dropping to one knee. One of the images lifted its sword high, to cleave his head from his shoulders, only for Ganondorf to react first, swinging his blade upward as he rose, cleaving it from its crotch nearly to its neck before it vanished.

More were appearing even as he struck them down. "First one of us to tire dies, it seems," Ganondorf said.

"It won't be me!" the images of Mur'neth all shouted as one.

He was surrounded now. Zelda found herself holding her breath as she watched, and even as she forced herself to let it out and keep breathing as he struck down more images, she felt strange to be hoping for Ganondorf to be victorious.

Ganondorf suddenly threw both arms out sideways, causing a concussive burst of air all about himself, throwing the images back. He lifted his left hand up, a dark, purple light appearing within his grasp. "Now watch this!" he said as the images leaped back toward him, and then with his glowing hand punched the stone floor beneath his feet.

What had been like a burst of air before was now a burst of dark energy all about himself, the images of the ninja first being covered in purple flames, then vanishing in white smoke. When the dark fire cleared, Ganondorf was standing in the center of a perfectly smooth crater in the floor, about a foot deep and eight feet across.

There was only one Mur'neth left. All fifteen fake images had been caught in the blast. He backed toward the altar, nearly tripping on the stairs leading up to it. More images were appearing, but Ganondorf had his eyes on the real one now.

He ran directly for Mur'neth, past the images, the purple glow building even greater than before in his left hand, and his voice rising in a wordless roar, he held his left hand back, clenching his fist tightly around the dark energy coursing through it. Mur'neth suddenly leaped sideways as Ganondorf stuck for him, and his fist slammed into the stairs, the energy expelling into the stone and sending chips, large fragments, and even entire bricks flying into the air around him.

Ganondorf turned even as the stone rained down around him. The images of Mur'neth all vanished in white smoke at once. The ninja held his sword over his head. Ganondorf looked up. The moon was fully exposed now. Mur'neth's sword appeared to be covered in white flames as he held it aloft.

The ninja took it in both hands, holding it directly above his head now. "You're mine now!" he shouted, and swung the blade forward.

The blade cut a flaming white arc into the air before him which flew toward Ganondorf with incredible speed. Ganondorf dove to the side, but not quickly enough, and he cried out in pain for the first time.

The arc of light continued on, slicing through the stairs and directly into the altar, splitting it cleanly in half as Ganondorf's sword clattered to the floor.

"Oh my gods," Zelda said.

Ganondorf looked down at his right arm. It had been sliced through by the light at the elbow, leaving blood pouring out of the stump. "I'll be feeling that tomorrow," he muttered.

Mur'neth moved his sword back to its normal low stance. "Don't hesitate now," he said to himself, "You've got him!"

He ran for the wizard. Everything seemed to slow down around him. His own footsteps like he was fighting through a bog. His heart thumped loudly in his ears. Ganondorf's gaze was coming back up from his own arm toward Mur'neth. Their eyes met for one second, then Mur'neth felt his sword bite into flesh.

Then it was over. Mur'neth was behind Ganondorf. He could feel the sweat running down his forehead, his breathing loud and ragged, and his heart trying to leap from his chest.

There was a thump behind him. He turned, looking over his shoulder to see Ganondorf on his knees. He then fell onto his back, the massive cut running from his right hip across his chest to his left shoulder clearly visible, blood pouring forth, pooling on the floor.

"Is… Is that it?" Mur'neth asked himself, "Did… did I really do it?"

Mur'neth stared at the body, and gradually became aware that the ninja all around the edges of the room were cheering for him. He looked up, toward Vargus. The older ninja was not cheering, but when Mur'neth looked him in the eye, Vargus nodded once.

Mur'neth looked back at the corpse. Yes, that's what it was. It wasn't getting back up. Not this time.

"So that's it," he said to himself, "We came full circle, and now it's over."

* * *

"Let me join you," Mur'neth said.

"Join me?" Ganondorf asked, "You just tried to kill me."

Mur'neth was on his knees, in front of an entire army loyal to the wizard who stood before him, who would have his head with but a word.

"I was just a tool before," Mur'neth said, "You've inspired me, in the time I've watched and waited."

He looked up at Ganondorf. The wizard gave no indication by his face what he had in mind. "You realize," Ganondorf said, "that my next target is your kingdom."

"You said it yourself," Mur'neth said, "I don't give a damn about them. I've watched them use me and those like me, and I played right into their game when I came after you. I'm expendable, and expected to be so. But you… you don't hold any of your men as expendable. You live for yourself, and expect them to do the same. I want you to teach me. To live for myself."

"Well, you're partly right, anyway," Ganondorf said, "But I'm sure you can figure the rest out as we go."

He lifted on hand, and held it out for Mur'neth. The elf reached up and took it, and Ganondorf pulled him to his feet.

* * *

"In that moment," Mur'neth whispered, "I thought I understood you. But now, you've changed everything again. I thought you lived and fought only for yourself, and now you came here and got killed over a girl. What was it you were really after? What did you fight for?"

He looked over at Zelda. "I guess," he said, "that now I'll never know."

He suddenly noticed that Zelda did not seem terribly distraught over the death of Ganondorf. In fact, she seemed to be watching with an oddly calm patience. Mur'neth noticed, thanks to her crossed arms, the glowing triangle on the back of her right hand, which was glowing even brighter now than when he had taken her from Darimar.

"Wait…" he said, "Does that mean…?"

A single clap of someone's hands was heard. Followed by another, and more, only a single person clapping. Mur'neth turned slowly toward the sound, already knowing what he would see there.

At the entrance to the chamber, Ganondorf stood, leaning against the side to the door, clapping slowly. The blonde haired elf Mur'neth had seen with Link and the others was beside him.

"Very well done," Ganondorf said, "You've once again slain my phantom. Not many can say the same."

Mur'neth looked back at the corpse to see it suddenly erupt in blue flame and crumble, it's flesh flaking away like shards of glass, revealing hollow insides before vanishing in blue puffs as they fell to the floor. In a few seconds, nothing remained, even the blood had vanished.

"Don't you think he put up a good fight, Sheila?" Ganondorf asked the elf beside him.

"He's good, all right," she said.

Mur'neth looked up to see that the moon was once again disappearing behind the clouds. It was as if the gods themselves were laughing at him.

More people appeared at he doorway with Ganondorf. Link, Ralthas, Alex, and Silviana entered the room.

"Nice to see you didn't get yourself killed, Link," Ganondorf said, "After all, I want to do that for you."

"Good to know," Link said, "I hope we're not too late?"

"Actually, it's almost over," Ganondorf said.

Mur'neth started shaking as they spoke. Everything had been a waste, and now an enormous rage was building rapidly within him. His sword rattled as his had shook, his grip causing his knuckles to ache under the tension.

"Tell me!" he suddenly screamed, turning to the lot of them, "What is it you fight for, Ganon? Why do you subject the world and everything in it to your maddening presence? Why?"

"I told you before," Ganondorf said, walking out into the room with him, "Figure it out. You were partly right. Surely you've figured out the other part by now?"

"You conquered our entire world for no reason other than you could," Mur'neth said, "You came back to this world and subjected a kingdom to what would have been a fate worse than death if they hadn't been able to stop you. And now you come here to rescue one of the very people who stopped you.

"It's as if the sole purpose of your existence is to cause as much chaos as possible!" he finished, saliva flying in his rage as he spat the words at Ganondorf.

"No," Ganondorf said, "You were partly right before, now you're entirely wrong."

"I'll kill you, you bastard!" Mur'neth screamed, and ran at him with his blade high.

Ganondorf easily caught the clumsy swing by snatching Mur'neth's wrists in his hands, then swept the elf's feet aside with his left foot, dropping Mur'neth onto his back on the stone floor. Mur'neth cracked his head on the stone and his vision filled with stars. When it started to clear, Mur'neth realized that Ganondorf had one foot planted on his chest and the point of his own sword was at his throat.

The ninja around the edges of the room were gripping their weapons and looking at each other, unsure what they were supposed to do. "Don't move!" Mur'neth said to them, "I said this was between me and him."

Reluctantly, they backed off, and Mur'neth realized Ganondorf's other companions relaxed a little. They had all drawn their weapons while he was dazed.

Mur'neth looked up at Ganondorf. "Well? What are you waiting for? Kill me."

Ganondorf looked down at him, his expression unreadable. It may have only been for a minute, but it seemed forever that he stood there, considering if he should or not.

"No," he said at last, "I don't think I will."

He moved the sword away and took his foot off Mur'neth's chest, turning and taking a few steps away.

"What, become a coward all of a sudden?" Mur'neth asked, sitting up.

"The man who begs for mercy is a coward," Ganondorf said, then turned back to Mur'neth, "I think it's best to save mercy for the man who begs the sword."

Mur'neth rose to his feet. "So what, then? You want me to side with you again? That's not possible this time."

"That's exactly what interests me," Ganondorf said, "I know it has to do with Kilishandra. And if you tell me exactly what they did to her, why for some reason you believe she would fight even me to the death, I intend to prove you wrong."

"I wish you could," Mur'neth said, "They made her take the Nail of the Accused, to ensure her loyalty, they said."

"The Nail of the Accused?" Ganondorf said, as if he couldn't believe what he'd heard, and his face instantly turned to rage, "But who… no, I know who. This reeks of Tharkus. Only that son of a bitch would be _stupid_ enough!"

He went on for another few moments, most of what he said being swears, curses, and various things he intended to do with Tharkus' entrails.

Finally, he took a deep breath, and calmed himself. "Never mind that for now," he said, and motioned to Zelda where she stood, "Zelda. Come here."

Several ninja looked at Mur'neth, who nodded. She was allowed to descend the stairs and walked over to them. "You're not hurt, I trust?" Ganondorf asked.

"I'm fine," she said, and turned to the others, "And thank you all, for coming after me."

Link nodded at her, and Alex smiled, though she wasn't sure what he was doing there to begin with.

Ralthas moved forward. "I need to ask you about a few things," he said to Mur'neth, "We found some kind of strange totem outside, planted by the necromancer with you."

"That's Tharkus," Ganondorf said, "He was here?"

"Yeah, left some time ago, though," Alex said, "Saw him before sunset."

"Anyway, I destroyed it, but it was having a very disturbing effect on the ground around it until then," Ralthas said, "Blighting the land around it, just like what happened to the kingdom of Nigel in the old war."

"Blighting?" Mur'neth said, "Wait, that's…"

"You know something about it," Ralthas said, "Spill it!"

"No," Mur'neth said, more to himself than to them, "That can't be right. They wouldn't…"

"If I might interject," Vargus said, moving toward them, "It's blighting the land? As in blackening the earth, so nothing will grow?"

"Exactly," Ralthas said.

"That's disconcerting," Vargus said, "Because that is exactly what is killing our world."

"What do you mean?" Ganondorf asked, "The blight doesn't spread on its own. When I left it was confined solely to the blasted lands in the west."

"It seems we were lied to," Mur'neth said, "We were told that we had to come to this world because the blight was spreading all across the world. Crops wouldn't grow and we were starving to death. We were going to move everybody here!"

"I told you, it doesn't spread on its own!" Ganondorf said, "Hell, it recedes! Life gradually comes back to blighted areas!"

"Wait," Ralthas said, "If this entire invasion is occurring because your world is blighted, and it's starting to appear here, that can only mean…"

"Tharkus," Ganondorf said, "It has to be. He spread the blight there to get them to invade here."

"But why?" Zelda asked, "What is the point to use such an elaborate scheme, only to blight these lands as well?"

"That is the question," Ganondorf said, "I'll be sure to extract the answer when I see him, as slowly as I may have to."

"We need to get back to Darimar," Ralthas said, "The king needs to know this."

Ganondorf picked him his white sword before turning back to Mur'neth. He flipped Mur'neth's sword over in his hand, offering the ninja the hilt first. "Now where does this put you?" he asked.

"If I'd known, I wouldn't have let Kili take that damn nail," Mur'neth said, "I'd have knocked her out and carried her out if I had to."

"Who thinks we should change sides?" Vargus shouted. He was answered by cheers from around the room.

"Hold on," Mur'neth said, holding up a hand to silence the cheers, "I'm not going to let them destroy this world, whatever the cause, not without a fight anyway."

He turned to Ganondorf and the others. "But I'm not going to fight Kilishandra."

"I understand," Ganondorf said.

Mur'neth reached out and took his sword from Ganondorf. "If they're staying close to the original timetable, she's set to attack Darimar any day now. The plan was to have all five kingdoms under our control before winter."

"Crush any an all opposition as quickly as possible," Ganondorf said, "Nice to see somebody learning something from me."

"What about the Twilight Mirror?" Link suddenly asked, "And the talk of this so-called goddess, Shaklator?"

"What? They have the Twilight Mirror?" Ganondorf asked, rounding on him, "And just why in hell wasn't I told this before?"

"They don't have all of it," Midna said, appearing next to Link, "I have a fragment still, and they can't use it without the whole thing."

"Well, that's one point in our favor," Ganondorf said, "Still, I'm going to need to look into some things."

He turned to Ralthas. "You've got the authority. When we get to Darimar, I want everything you have on the ancient war and Darius. I want history books, fairy tales, his journals, his spell books, hell, I want his gods damn grocery lists. Understand?"

"I might be able to get some of that," the judge said reluctantly.

He turned back to Mur'neth. "I guess that first, I have to deal with Kilishandra. If you're not going to help, then you keep yourself and your ninja out of the way. Understand?"

"I'll be watching," Mur'neth said.

"Wait just a minute," Ralthas said, "We can't just leave them here."

"You want to arrest them?" Ganondorf asked, "Be my guest. Hope you brought enough irons."

Ralthas took a moment to look around the room at the massive number of ninja around.

"Maybe I'm being a little hasty," Ralthas muttered.

"Now, one last thing," Link said, holding up the Master Sword.

He and Sheila moved across the room to the altar. Sheila knelt down to examine it, where it had been split in half by the stroke of Mur'neth's moon-charged sword.

"It's okay," she said, "I don't think the inscriptions we need were damaged."

"Thank gods for that," Link said, laying the blade across the top of the altar, bridging the gap with the blade.

Sheila used the incantation they had become familiar with in the past months, and in a few moments, more red lettering had appeared on the blade. Only about four inches at the tip remained untouched.

"Four down, one to go," Link said, picking up the sword.

"Seems like a long time ago we started out for this," Midna said, "And with everything else happening, I wouldn't be surprised if we forgot."

"I'll never forget," Link said, "I made a promise."

"That's right," Midna said.

"Hey!" Ganondorf called from the entrance of the chamber, "We are leaving! Get your asses moving!"

Link sighed, slipping the Master Sword into its sheathe. "I really hate that man. I swear, I'm just going to kill him."

"Not if I beat you to it," Midna said.

They moved to join the others and make their way out of the temple. Mur'neth and his ninja remained behind for a few minutes as they gathered themselves to depart.

"Where are we going now?" Vargus asked Mur'neth.

"Let's just find someplace to lay low for now and see what happens," Mur'neth said, and after a moment, added, "I'm sorry, by the way, for dragging you and all the others through these things."

"We swore our loyalty to you when you were named Shadow Blade," Vargus said, "And that means something because you were named not by a queen, but by all of us. We follow you because we choose to do so."

"Thanks, old friend," Mur'neth said.

Vargus nodded, and moved to help some of the others. Mur'neth glanced across the room at the altar. "Oh, crap," he said, suddenly realizing, "The goddess of night isn't a nice girl. Hope she doesn't hold a grudge."


	60. Chapter 59

**Chapter 59: Stricken and Fragmented**

"They've returned!"

The shout went across the courtyard, and one of the guards stationed ran into the castle to deliver the message. As the riders pulled their horses to a stop and dismounted, stable hands came to take the animals, including those that had returned without their riders.

When the entrance of the temple had collapsed, most of the men with them had been caught in the rubble and crushed, and of the original fifteen with them, only five remained.

The sun was just peaking over the horizon, and after checking about, decided to make a run for it, and began to rise.

Link was still awake and alert, having gone as many as three days without sleep before, but after the busy night and no rest, Sheila looked ready to fall out of her saddle as she climbed down. Zelda wasn't in much better condition, though she was doing her best to keep herself alert.

Silviana looked as energetic as ever, and Link was beginning to wonder if she ever tired. Come to think of it, he had never seen her sleep yet. Ralthas was difficult to read, while Alex appeared to be run down from several days of hard traveling. Link had listened in as Ralthas questioned him while they rode back, and his story of an undead army overrunning the city was a terrifying thought.

Ganondorf hadn't spoken since they left the temple, and appeared deep in thought the entire trip back.

The doors to the castle opened wide, and King Rigdar emerged, flanked by his son and two armed soldiers carrying upright pikes.

"Your majesty," Ralthas said as they approached, "You're up early today."

"I haven't slept," the king said, "Scouts came in late last night to tell us that an army is headed this way from Nigel. I see you were successful, though," he added, nodding to Zelda.

"Relatively," Ralthas said, "But I'll fill you in on the details later.

"Tell me," Ganondorf asked suddenly, "When are you going to evacuate the first area of the city to behind the inner walls?"

"The civilians are being moved now," the king said, "We should have the area clear by nightfall. Why?"

"Because you're not going to be able to hold it," Ganondorf said.

"And how would you know that?" the king demanded.

Ganondorf turned to him. "Because I'm going to let them in."

"You betray us?" Ralthas said, going for his sword, and the surrounding guards doing the same.

Ganondorf sighed. "No, you idiot. It's a classic strategy. Give ground and catch them off guard in a pincer maneuver with the men hiding in various places to get behind their front ranks. In this case, there will be only one person waiting out there, and it will be me."

"I don't understand," the king said, "What would be the point of this?"

"I know the woman leading them," Ganondorf said, "and I'm going to meet her alone."

"Perhaps we should discuss this later," the king said, gesturing to the others, "I'm sure you are all tired and hungry. Breakfast will be ready soon, though if you'd prefer to go straight to your rooms, I can have someone show you to them."

"I think I'll take that," Sheila said.

"Yes," Zelda said, "I think a few hours of sleep would do some good."

"Of course," the king said, "And if you need anything, I'll have someone standing by near your rooms."

* * *

"Look at that," Link said, gazing out at the city through the crenulations of the courtyard wall.

The sun had barely started its climb into the sky, and the city looked almost red in the early morning light. The city stretched on for as far as one could possibly see from here, disappearing into the horizon.

"Takes an entire day to cross it," Link said, "And even five or six hours if you've got a fast horse."

"Without that ravine outside the walls, probably almost impossible to defend," Midna said from her perch atop one of the crenulations, from where she looked out the same direction.

"Yeah," Link said, "Just so much ground to cover. Makes it a nightmare to think of sieging it, too."

They watched the sun drift slowly upward in silence for a moment. Link leaned on his elbows on the wall and rolled his shoulders, and bones audibly popped into place. "Gods, my back," he muttered, "Too much time on horses lately."

"Have you started walking bow legged yet?" Midna asked.

"Smartass," Link muttered.

Midna sighed, shaking her head, then turned to look at him. "Do you really think we can trust Ganondorf?"

"Hell no," Link said, "But we don't really have a choice."

"True," she said, looking back out toward the city, "But this blight we saw. How do you fight that?"

"Only thing I can think of is to cut it off at the source," Link said, "Got to deal with that necromancer."

"Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"What do you plan to do, when this is all over," she said, "Assuming we survive, of course. Go back to Ordon?"

"That's what I was planning on," he said.

Midna nodded, turning away from him.

"But," he added slowly, "I'm starting to wonder. Is that the best idea?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"You've read those old legends," Link said, "The Hero of Time, the Hero of Winds, and so many others who stopped the troubles of Hyrule, be it Ganondorf or something else. With the exception of the Hero of Winds, they all left afterward, never to be seen again. And for generations, nothing befell the kingdom, with the exception of the Hero of Winds. In fact, he had to save Hyrule several times within a single generation."

"And then look at me," Link continued, "I beat Ganondorf. All we did to save Hyrule and the people from him and Zant. And I stayed, and just a year later, more trouble. I wonder if it was my staying that brought more upon the land."

"No," Midna said, "Don't even start to blame yourself for this. This was going on well before what happened last year even began. It's just coincidence."

"Yeah, you're right," Link said, "I know you are. Just a bad feeling, is all."

He looked up at her, and smiled. "Don't worry. Before I settle down or disappear, I'm going to find some way to get you back to normal."

"At this point, I'm so used to it I've almost forgotten what it was like before," Midna said, looking down at herself, "But thank you. It's nice to hear you say it, even if it is getting a little repetitive."

"We have come a long way," Link said, "But we have a long way to go yet."

"You devising a plan?" Midna asked.

"Khall is in a citadel in the western mountains," Link said, "The only known pass that leads to it is in Whitos-Neiki, which is now under their control. A small group, or even a single person, might be able to sneak through."

"And if it were just you and me, we'd take off and do it without a second thought," Midna said.

"Yes," Link said, "But I don't want to just leave Zelda here and Sheila here, and especially not with Ganondorf."

"Where is he right now, come to think of it?' Midna asked.

Link was silent a moment, and Midna saw him clench his left hand into a fist, the same way Ganondorf did when he concentrated on the Triforce. "Ralthas' office, I think," Link said at last.

"Did you just locate him with your piece?" Midna asked.

"I was trying to figure it out on the way back while we were riding," Link said, "Takes a lot of concentration, but I finally started getting though. Not as accurate as what he could tell you, just general direction. And then only him. I can't locate Zelda like that. Not yet, anyway."

"Wonder what he's up to…" Midna said.

* * *

Ganondorf was at that moment working through a stack of old texts kept on hand in the castle library, as Ralthas and the Archmage Riven looked on.

"This one's useless," Ganondorf said, tossing a copy of the history of the ancient war across the desk toward them, "Second-hand accounts and hearsay. Don't you have a copy of Darius' own journal anywhere?"

"I'm afraid that a copy was never made of that," Riven said, "The original, which was never translated into the modern tongue, is stored in the vault at the academy in Tyr."

"And his spell book?"

"Destroyed," Riven said, "A short time ago, in fact, when a translation spell went awry, thanks to Sheila Anthress and the ninja who attacked us there."

"Mur'neth," Ganondorf muttered, "Well, that at least explains why Link and his friends were traveling all over the place."

"If I might ask something," Ralthas said, picking up the history book from where it had landed, "You seem to know an awfully lot about Darius, especially if you can claim this here isn't accurate."

"I'm four thousand years old," Ganondorf said, flipping through the pages of another text.

"Even if that is so, that's only half as old as the ancient war," Ralthas said.

"And I found the Senan Serat."

Riven looked as though someone had punched him. "That's impossible," he said, "It was destroyed after it was found to be impossible to control, when the energy went out of control and scorched nearly a thousand square miles of tropics into desert."

"The Desert of Death," Ganondorf said, "On the other side of those mountains to the west of here. That was also the reason the temples were used to create a safety net, shall we call it, should any other spells rage out of control. Though with two of the five destroyed now, I doubt it will work any more.

"It was a rather large book, by the way," he added, "for just a single spell. Had a lot of information about elemental spirits, theories regarding them and their relationship with the world, and possibilities of getting them to interact in the way needed for the spell to work."

"If you did find it, then where was it?" Ralthas asked.

Ganondorf smiled, looking up from the book in front of him for the first time, and leaned back in his seat. "That's the fun part. It was hidden in a back chamber of the Temple of Time in Hyrule."

"Hyrule?" Riven asked.

"That's impossible!" Ralthas said, "Darius never went there. He died here, in Darimar even, and his ashes were scattered to the winds by a dragon he had befriended long ago!"

"Did he now?" Ganondorf said, "I wonder how it got across the ocean then? Must have been stolen, or maybe the record isn't quite that accurate."

Ralthas shook his head, growling under his breath, then turned to Riven. "I need to go tell the king what happened at the temple. Would you stay here and," he gestured at the stack of books nearly four feet high on the desk, "try to help him or something?"

Ralthas turned and walked out of the office, closing the door behind him.

"Maybe if you'd tell me what you're looking for, I can help," Riven said.

Ganondorf shut the book before him and pushed it aside. "Main thing I'm looking for is any references to a magic curse called the Nail of the Accused, and any possibility of it being removed without having to cut out my heart."

"I see," Riven said, seating himself at the desk, and picking up one of the books, "Who has it, if I may ask?"

"My daughter," Ganondorf said.

"Oh, dear. I'm sorry."

"Not as sorry as the bastard who put it on her is going to be."

* * *

The day wore gradually on. Link gradually moved around the castle, taking note that the place was packed with activity. Officers holding meetings to discuss what needed to be done with the city's defenses everywhere from halls in the castle itself to the middle of the courtyard with drawings etched in the dirt.

The army this kingdom possessed must have numbered in the tens of thousands, Link guessed, and that was regulars, not counting new recruits, who were busy at drills, and from the looks of things, the king was not going to begin a draft, but then, Link realized, they already had an army larger than Hyrule could possibly furnish, even with drafts.

But none of them had seen a real war in their lifetimes. In actual combat experience, even the older, more experienced men had little to none.

"This first battle's going to be a slaughter," Link said, watching the training drills from the edge of the grounds within the courtyard.

"Ganondorf seems to have a plan," Midna said beside him.

"Wish he'd fill the rest of us in," Link said, "By all logic, we should hold them at the outer walls. With that ravine surrounding the city, and enough archers on the walls and firing volleys over them, they'd have a nigh-impossible task getting in."

"Hey, Link!"

Link turned his head to see Alex moving toward him. "Shouldn't you be asleep?" Link asked.

"What about you?" Alex asked.

"Just trying to get an idea of what we're in for," Link said, turning back to the training field.

"Not looking good?" Alex asked, stopping next to him.

"Well, it would help if I knew exactly what kind of numbers we're up against," Link said, "And then there's the sorceress that leads them."

"And your talent is going to be wasted," Alex said.

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it a second," Alex said, "You know how to survive in a hostile environment, right?"

"Yeah?"

"In here, you're just one more fighter on the wall," Alex said, "Admittedly, you'll probably be the best of them, but out there, guerilla tactics, you and a small number, maybe me, and that dark elf girl you found, we could be a real nightmare for them."

Link considered this for a moment. "You might be right," he admitted.

"Where did you find her?" Alex asked.

"She was living in the forest south of Whitos-Neiki," Link said, "It's kind of complicated."

"I don't know," Alex said, "She really seems to know her stuff, but then at other times, she seems kind of air-headed, you know? Almost like she's half-crazy."

"My best guess is that she was alone in those woods for a long time," Link said, "By the way, why did you come down here? I heard about the city falling, was it lost before you got there?"

"No," Alex said, "I was there when it fell. Creatures poured over the walls, monsters that kept getting up no matter how many times you struck them down. And each person that fell fighting them or trying to escape would get back up and add to their number. The city fell in just a few moments. They overwhelmed the defenses in no time at all."

Alex paused a moment, then went on. "And then those monsters with the bladed arms came, killing anyone else who might escape, or any groups of soldiers actually making headway against the creatures. One of them killed my sister."

"I'm sorry," Link said.

Alex nodded absently. "And it was there, at the temple. The one that looked like a skeleton."

Link put one hand on Alex's shoulder and gave him a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry. We'll get him, and the rest of them."

One of the groups in drills on the field was given a short rest by their drill officer, and while most of them went for water or to sit down for a few moments, one came running toward Link.

"Hey, it's that kid from earlier," Midna said.

It was, and as he came to a stop in front of them, Link lifted a hand before he could say anything. "Catch your breath first, it'll be easier to talk," he said, and the young man nodded, resting his hands on his knees, and Link asked, "It was Arthur, right?"

"Yes," the young man said, "I heard you brought Zelda back this morning."

"She's resting in her room right now," Link said.

Alex turned and started walking away. "I'll talk to you later, Link," he said, waving one hand.

"See you," Link said, then turned back to Arthur.

Arthur was dressed in the heavy chain shirt and plated shoulders worn by all the recruits on the field, and even in the chill of the early winter morning, the young man was drenched in sweat from his exertions in the drills.

"I didn't expect you to join the army since yesterday," Link said.

"I actually signed up a few days before you got here," Arthur said.

"Okay, then," Link said, "What did you want?"

"Well, I mainly wanted to know about Zelda," Arthur said, "Is she okay?"

"She's fine," Link said, "Just tired. If you want to see her, you'll have to wait until she wakes up."

"Is it true what I heard? That she is a princess?"

"That get circulated around already?" Link asked, then said, "Yes, she is."

"What does that make you?" Arthur asked, "Her bodyguard, or maybe her betrothed?"

For the first time Arthur noticed Midna where she had been sitting on the ground in Link's shadow, and he only noticed because she turned a sudden dark glare on him.

"Neither," Link said, "It's a very long story…"

"Hey, Ribald! Get back in line!" the drill officer shouted in their direction.

"…which you don't have time for right now," Link finished.

"Um, right," Arthur said, not looking away from Midna as he started backing away, "I'll just ask her later, I guess. When I have a chance."

He turned and ran back to his squad. As he took his place in line, Link heard the drill officer shouting at him, "You just earned yourself and the rest of the group an extra five laps of the grounds."

Link chuckled to himself at the groans from the squad. "Glad I never joined the military," he said, remembering the extra workouts Rusl had given him over the years for his swordsmanship training. The one he'd hated the most was having to plow the fields without a horse while Rusl guided the plow. Looking back on it now, he realized it was and excellent way for putting muscle on, along with the woodcutting and various other chores, and possibly worked even better than running around with all that heavy metal like the recruits here.

Link raised his arms over his head, yawning as he stretched. Maybe going to bed now wasn't such a bad idea. Considering how much city the enemy would have to take to get to the castle, he doubted he'd wake up with an enemy soldier in his bedroom. And there was the fact that while he could push himself for three days without sleep, he would need a lot after to make up for it.

He started toward the castle's doors, hoping he could remember where his room was.

* * *

The day had come and gone when Sheila awoke, the last rays of the sun vanishing over the horizon. She had gotten dressed and gone from her room to her father's office, expecting to find him there. Instead, she found Ganondorf seated at her father's desk, and Riven leaned forward, asleep on top of an open book while Ganondorf shut the one he had been reading and added it to an already impressive pile on the floor behind himself.

"Have you slept at all?" she asked from the doorway.

Ganondorf looked up at her and just grunted before taking another book from the pile on the desk and opening it.

"She must mean a lot to you," Sheila said, sitting down in a seat across the desk from him, careful not to jostle Riven, "for you to go to such effort."

"The Nail of the Accused can only end one of two ways," he said, not looking up from the text, "Either I die, whether to save her or by her hand doesn't matter, or she dies, either by my hand or succumbing to the curse. I just want to know if there is some other alternative before this gets started.

"If there is, I'll do whatever I can to save her," he went on, "But if there isn't, I'm not going to just die, I'm afraid. I'm not that kind of person. She's going to have to earn it."

"So you would kill her?" Sheila asked.

Ganondorf sighed. "I didn't say that. I said she was going to have to earn it. The biggest problem is that I know there is no way Tharkus would have been able to hold her long enough to put the curse on her by force. Which means she accepted it willingly. Which means, whatever lies they're feeding her, at least for now, she believes them."

He shut the book and added it to the pile on the floor, and pulled another over. "So in the end, it may not be a question of saving her from them, but saving her from herself."

He looked up to see that Sheila was smiling. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Not funny," she said, "But enlightening, to be sure. You deny it yourself, but I have been watching. Rescuing your former enemy, managing to spare Mur'neth and his men, and even befriending them in a way, and now, searching for a way to save your daughter. These are not the actions of an evil man."

"I told you before," he growled, "Good and evil are merely perspectives used by those who feel they have to justify their actions. I don't have to justify myself to anyone, including you."

He sat back, looking at her intently. "Do you want to know why the Hylians think of me as such a villain?"

"Because you tried to conquer them?" Sheila guessed, feeling fairly confidant.

"No," he said, "Because they wanted a villain."

"Why would anyone want a villain?" Sheila asked.

Ganondorf smiled. "Because they wanted to be the 'good' guys who defeated the 'evil' that came out of the Temple of Time that day, almost four millennia ago."

* * *

Ganondorf had not always been a being of such power as he possessed now. Back then, he was a mortal man, like any other, his magic no stronger than that of other magicians of the kingdom of Hyrule, though his application was a bit more direct and violent than the wizards who made sure the farmers got rain and stopped dangerous storms.

Born in the desert on Hyrule's western border, Ganondorf was a child of the Gerudo, the desert dwellers. And unusual race, the Gerudo were all women, and took lovers and husbands of the Hylians and other human races, and yet their children were always full-blooded Gerudo.

Once a generation, a single male Gerudo was born, and he was destined to become King of the Gerudo. There had been no king for nearly ten generations, for the reason that the Gerudo were fragmented into many tribes that roamed the desert, and many resented when the child was born to another tribe. For ten generations, the child had been killed by rival tribes before reaching adulthood.

Ganondorf's tribe attempted to keep him hidden while he grew, but were found during his sixteenth year. Even today, he could still remember the screams, and the fire. They weren't just after him. His entire tribe was slaughter, and the attacking chieftain, Aveil, cut a wound into his back while he was held helpless, and they left him there to die.

The desert would have claimed him, had they not come. Two Gerudo witches, twin sisters who had lengthened their lifespan unnaturally with supposedly lost magicks. Koume and Kotake were their names. They took him back to the ancient temple in which they dwelt, and tended his wound, nursing him back to health.

For five years, he dwelt with them, and they taught him what he needed to know for his revenge. They taught him of combat, of strategy, and of magic. In his twenty-first year, he returned to the desert, and found Aveil, and killed her. He brought Aveil's tribe under his control, and thus began a campaign the likes of which the desert had not seen for hundreds of years. By his twenty-fourth year, Ganondorf had united the Gerudo under a single ruler for the first time in ten generations.

The witches had never left him in this time, and taught him more about his destiny. The kingdom of Hyrule, to the east, was home of a gateway to a land called the Sacred Realm, where the Triforce, a relic of the goddesses who created the world, could be found. He who claimed the Triforce would gain ultimate power. This was his destiny. Ganondorf would take the Triforce and use it to unite the entire world the same way he had united the Gerudo.

The king of Hyrule was no fool, however, and had seen Ganondorf's rise in the desert. The king had himself completed a similar campaign in Hyrule, uniting its feuding races for the first time, only a few years before.

Realizing he had no hope of battling the Hylian forces directly, especially bolstered by the Goron and Zora, he devised a new tactic. He went to Hyrule in peace, to swear fealty to the king. But, this was merely a cover for his true goal. From the libraries of Hyrule, he learned of the Temple of Time, and the key to opening the gateway to the Sacred Realm. The keys lay in three sacred stones, two of which had been in the Hylian royal family's possession, but were given to the Goron and Zora as offerings of friendship once they were brought to heel by the king.

Getting them back without being discovered by the Hylians proved too difficult a task on his own, and Ganondorf feared he would be discovered when the Gorons sent word to the royal family requesting a messenger be sent to them. But fortunately, the king had more pressing matters at hand, and if the Gorons wouldn't just send their own messenger, then it was hardly important.

It was then that Ganondorf noticed that the princess, a girl of no more than eleven years, had taken to spying on him. She must have suspected what he was after, and he decided he knew exactly how to use her the day the boy arrived from the forest. With one of the stones needed to open the gateway already, Ganondorf let them go about their plan to collect the other two and claim the Triforce before he could. Just children, they were, and they never realized they were playing right into his hands. He kept close watch on the boy as he went on his way and helped the Gorons and Zora recover from the problems Ganondorf had himself caused, and returned with the other two stones.

It was then time to act. The last key to the Temple of Time was still in possession of the royal family. The Ocarina of Time would work with the stones and open the door. He made his move, breaking into the treasury and killing the guards, intending to take it.

Only to find it already gone. In frustration, he realized that the little princess had thought one step ahead of him this time and taken it before he could. He gave chase, fighting his way out of the castle as the girl's handmaiden and bodyguard, a Sheikah woman, spirited her away on horseback.

Getting to his own horse, he followed, only to find that once he reached the edge of the city that they were already gone, out of sight.

But there was the boy, right there. He must have seen them. When Ganondorf demanded to know where they had gone, the boy hadn't answered, instead drawing his sword, which actually wasn't much bigger than a knife. In frustration, Ganondorf kicked his horse and rode away, thinking that everything had been ruined. He'd have to go the old fashioned way and take Hyrule by pure warfare. But first he'd have to deal with the attack on his lands that would no doubt now come. Fortunately, he'd left his girls building an easily defensible fortress in the mountain pass between Hyrule and the desert. He could bottleneck the Hyrulean forces there and buy quite a bit of time.

Before he'd gone far, however, he could have kicked himself. It was so obvious! The princess had given the boy the Ocarina! He wheeled his horse about and started back toward the city, hoping he wasn't too late.

The boy had opened the door, and opened the last obstacle by removing the Master Sword, which acted as a final barrier blocking the gateway. In the end, the boy had still played right into Ganondorf's hands.

* * *

"So he opened it, and there was something else he couldn't deal with inside?" Sheila asked.

"No, this is the best part," Ganondorf said with a smile, "You see, he was too young to draw the Master Sword. So the sword locked him in a sheet of ice, just inside the Sacred Realm. And it held him there for seven years. And I just walked right past him."

"And what then?"

"Well, it was easy enough to locate the Triforce," Ganondorf said, "It created a gold pillar of light that could bee seen from where I entered the Sacred Realm. I had to travel some distance until I came to the Temple of Light. Ascending to the temple was a chore. A winding pathway of golden stairs that was guarded by eight valkyrie, who I had to slay to ascend. From there, I made my way onto the rooftop, where the Triforce lay on a pedestal. I took it in my hands, and there was a faintest voice I heard in my ear."

"What did it say?" Sheila asked

* * *

"If thou hast something thou desires, wish for it."

Ganondorf stood there, on the roof of the temple of light, the gold triangles clutched in his bloodstained hands. And he knew what he would wish for. He realized that the witches had played him for a fool, trying to keep him under their bony thumb. His so called "destiny" would not be what they dictated, but what he did.

He made his wish, and threw his head back, laughing maniacally, echoing across the landscape as the bright sky rapidly mutated, clouds turning a sinister black, and the color shifting from the light blue to blood red. The earth around the temple blackened, the plants and animals dying and springing back to life, twisted into new forms.

But then, the laughter ceased, and turned to cries of rage as two of the three triangles vanished from his grasp. The power he had come for, that he had killed for, had been split into three, and only one remained in his hands.

His rage fueled his newfound power, split though it may be. He lashed out at anything and everything, carving canyons into the landscape with golden beams of light, melting entire fields into molten magma.

He would have leveled the Temple of Light right there, but when he lashed out at it, it stood strong, deflecting his power. He didn't understand why, but he had tired himself in his rage. His anger spent, he rested, and would not return to Hyrule until nearly two weeks later, after much experimentation and learning of his newfound power.

When he emerged from the Temple of Time, he found a battalion of armed soldiers waiting for him. He smiled and offered them one chance to surrender. They loosed arrows at him, which he vaporized with a magical barrier, and then began his rampage through the city. He cut down entire battalions of storms of gold lightning. Lifted men into the air without touching them, and smashed them against stone walls or each other.

He found the king, waiting in the throne room of the castle, as if expecting a climatic fight. Against all odds, good would prevail over this evil. He never got the chance. Still experimenting with his new found power, Ganondorf caused the stone floor beneath the king's feet to shift as if into liquid, and pulled the king downward, into the very foundation of the castle.

Once he realized he could not escape the villainous trap, the king had looked at Ganondorf and said, "I hope there is a special place in hell for a creature such as you."

"We may never know," Ganondorf said, proudly holding up his hand so the king could see the golden glow of the Triforce of Power, "My first wish was to live forever."

* * *

"They expected a villain to come out of that temple," Ganondorf said, "So a villain they received."

"Sounds to me like you were a villain back then," Sheila said.

"I supposed I was," Ganondorf said, "I was so focused back then. So efficient. So driven."

"So selfish," Sheila said.

Ganondorf chuckled. "Selfish," he said, "Of course I am. So is anyone else on this earth. Looking out for one's own well being is selfish, and everyone does it. Take the oh so heroic Link for example."

"What about him?"

"Do you realize how selfish he is?" Ganondorf asked, "Why, it took kidnapping his girlfriend and several children from his village to even get him to notice what was going on in the rest of Hyrule. Even then, they were his first priority, and saving Hyrule from me only came after that. And he probably wouldn't have done that if he hadn't fallen in love with the Twilight Princess."

"Twilight Princess? Who is that?"

"They haven't told you?" Ganondorf said, smiling, "It's Midna of course. The little furball is the princess of the shadow folk, the Twili. And here's the real question: Do you honestly think he would have come out here, taken part in all this that's going on, if the people of his little village hadn't been turned to stone?"

"He is still fighting for others," Sheila said, "The fact people are important to him is exactly what makes him what he is?"

"But aren't heroes supposed to look after the good of all?" Ganondorf said, "Aren't they supposed to be willing to trade their life for that of an innocent?"

"I don't think that's exactly how it works," Sheila said, "A person needs to be able to do what must be done, even if it means making difficult choices."

He leaned forward, eyeing her critically. "So, you understand a bit more about how the world works than I thought," he said, "You see, you just nailed it right on the head. Doing what must be done is what precedes everything else. Good and evil, justice and villainy, all simple concepts that are applied later."

"Okay, so what are you trying to tell me with all this?"

Ganondorf sighed, and leaned back in his seat. "And then you disappoint me," he said, and lifted a small smile toward her, "Why don't you just figure it out?"

"He's trying to play head-games with you," came a voice behind Sheila.

She turned to look over her shoulder to see Zelda enter the room. "You see," Zelda said, walking over to Sheila's side, "he's trying to get you to look past your concept of right and wrong and see things from his perspective."

"Oh, go and spoil my fun," Ganondorf said.

"Just giving a fair warning to not underestimate you," Zelda said, "Your size and musculature implies to most eyes a hulking brute with more muscle than brains. Yet your wit is just as, if not more, dangerous than your strength."

"If you think flattery will get you on my good side, you might at least throw in a kiss," he said with a chuckle.

"With as long as you've lived, I'd think you'd be bored with such things," Sheila said.

"When a man grows tired of a woman's pleasant company, he's grown tired of living," Ganondorf said.

"In your dreams," Zelda said, "Now, have you found what you were after?"

"Only passing references," Ganondorf said, motioning to the pile of books beside himself, "I think that, without Darius' own spell book or journal, I'm not going to find the help I'm after."

"So, what then?" Sheila asked, "You have to kill Kilishandra?"

"Either that or die myself," he said, "And I'm not the kind to go down without a fight."

Zelda pulled a seat over to the desk, sitting down next to Sheila. "There is one thing I'm curious about," she said, "And I don't think you've ever mentioned it."

He gave her a quizzical look. "And what might that be?"

"If you found her, why did you take her with you?" she asked, "You don't exactly seem like a fatherly type."

Ganondorf sighed, and leaned back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. "That I don't," he said, "I'll admit that much. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure why I took her with me. There was something about her, something in her eyes…"

He looked back toward them. "In any case, I raised her as if she were my own. She grew strong, and healthy, and I did the best I could. I didn't exactly have much experience with children, and the way I raised her, I guess it was like one would raise a son. I taught her to fight, I taught her magic, and I tried to teach her to lead.

"There were difficulties, mainly with the other people with us. You see, dark elves in that world are even more reviled than they ever were here, and they hated humans just as much. Kilishandra was the impossible, a half-breed of human and dark elf blood. She looks almost completely human, except for the ears. And add to the fact she's almost six and a half feet tall, and she's pretty imposing to most people."

"Good lord," Sheila said, "Who was her father?"

"Don't know the guy myself, but judging by her size, he was a barbarian from the northlands," Ganondorf said, "You know those yetis that live in the artic? These guys are practically the same thing. They average nine to ten feet tall and can crush rocks with their bare hands."

Ganondorf himself was just over seven feet tall, Sheila estimated, so this girl was almost the same size.

"Now," Ganondorf said, "Is there something else, or are you finished with your attempts to analyze me?"

"I think I'm going to go," Sheila said, rising to her feet.

"I'll walk with you," Zelda said, rising as well.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light in the room. The glow of the Triforces on Ganondorf and Zelda's hands had suddenly intensified nearly tenfold.

"Something's wrong," Ganondorf said, rising to his feet.

"Hm? What?" Riven said, rousing from his sleep on the desk.

"Link," Zelda said, looking down at the glow on her hand, "But where…?

Ganondorf outstretched his hand before himself, and closed his eyes in concentration.

"Down," he said, "The dungeons!"

"What's he doing there?" Sheila asked.

"We'll ask when we get there," Zelda said, turning for the door.

* * *

About half and hour earlier…

Link had awoken in his room to find he'd slept most of the day. The sun had nearly set, only the last peaks of red rays coming in through the window. He sat up in the bed, sliding out from the blankets and reaching for his pants on the bedside table.

It was a better furnished room than he was used to, with a large double bed equipped with the curtain hanging from an upper railing that could be pulled closed around it. Rather useless, he thought. Besides the bedside table, there was a large armoire across the room from the bed which was empty at the moment, and a desk and seat by the window, for whatever purposes one could find.

The floor was also covered with a thick red carpet, which he decided was at least better than putting his bare feet down on cold stone as he dressed.

One thing he'd heard was that sometimes, a person got so used to sleeping on the ground that they couldn't sleep at all in soft beds, and he honestly couldn't imagine why. After several months of sleeping on the ground, just laying down on a bed was almost as good as making love.

His stomach growled, reminding him that by sleeping all day, he hadn't eaten. "Hey, Midna," he said, "You want something to eat?"

He pulled on his shirt, but after a moment realized she hadn't answered. "You asleep?" he asked, not seeing her and looking directly at his shadow, "Hello, you in there?"

He picked up the Master Sword from where he laid it, and almost immediately felt a small twinge in the back of his skull. Something was wrong. "Midna, answer me," he said, starting to seriously worry. In the past months, she had never gone far from his side, and it didn't make sense that she would now.

_Not here_ something whispered in the back of his skull, _They have come. Took her._

"Wait a second," Link said, and pulled the Master Sword from its sheathe. He looked at the blade, and the red lettering that had become a part of the blade in recent months, and ran his eyes down the blade to the hilt, where the single golden eye was always there, always watching.

He recalled what the dragon, Roxim, had said about the blade being semi-sentient. But even if it was, it had never spoken before. "Is that you?" he couldn't help but ask.

_Not much time,_ the whisper said, _She will die._

"Where is she?" Link asked the blade.

Not a whisper this time, but an almost prodding sensation, pushing him to the door. Link returned the blade to its sheath and stepped out into the hall. His feet moved without his thought, as though on their own, passing quickly through the dimming halls, past servants, soldiers, and others who paid him no heed.

On he went, until he found himself at a spiral stairway leading down. He started down, the prodding sensation in his skull urging him onward.

_This shall be a night to remember…_ the whisper said.

The dungeons were dark, but this proved no hindrance to Link, thanks to the night-vision granted by the tattoo on his face. As he passed cells, faces looked out through the bars at his indistinct shape in the dark, and some called out or insulted him, but they sounded distant, as though in another world.

He came to more stairs going deeper. The next level down, very few cells were occupied. The dungeons were built to house criminals when the massive city was fully populated, and as he came to another set of stairs going to the next level, he found that the cells were all empty here. As he passed by, the bars stirred memories from what seemed like an ancient time…

* * *

Link awoke to find himself on a stone floor, the only light coming through iron bars to his side. He couldn't believe what had happened. A strange creature had ripped him directly through a wall of light, and then…

He stood up suddenly, and the strange feeling came over him again. His arms and legs were far too short, and as he tried to stand, found himself bound to the ground by his right hand. Looking down, he saw a shackle around his wrist and…

Hair, and claws. It hadn't been a dream. He had been transformed. He could feel the bestial instincts, trying to overpower his thoughts. And they didn't like being chained any more than he did. He snapped at the chain, pulling on it with his fangs, ripping back and forth with what should be a killing bite.

"Well well, look what we have here."

The voice came from inside the cell with him. He looked about, and spotted the source, rising directly out of the floor. A creature like he had never seen, with black and white fur covering its body, and glowing green markings along its arms and legs. And a large mask that concealed one eye, but the other glowed red in the dark.

He didn't like it. A growl escaped between his teeth, low and threatening. The creature crossed its arms and smiled at him. "Ooh, aren't we scary?"

He snapped at it, but it hovered just out of the reach of his chain. "Hey!" it said, "Calm down, and I might just let you out of here.

The growl, which had been constant, died in his throat.

"Yes," the creature said, "You're still enough of yourself to understand me, I think. Now, be a good boy and hold still."

The creature moved forward and touched one of its fingertips to the chain binding him to the floor. There was a black spark, and the chain fell free, sliced cleanly through. Link backed up quickly, a low growl rising again in his throat.

"You don't know where you are, do you?" the creature asked, "Tell you what, I'm going to show you the way out, but then you have to do something for me, understand?"

* * *

_Feeling nostalgic, are we?_ the whisper said.

Link kept moving onward, ever downward. Just how deep did these dungeons go?

As he moved deeper, the dungeon fell into more and more disrepair. On this level, many of the cell doors were rusted through and the bars as easy to knock out as pushing on them.

At last, he came to the end. Or what seemed like the end. A solid wall ended the passage abruptly, but the prodding sensation didn't cease.

_Here,_ came the whisper.

He felt something guide his hand as he reached out to the wall. Three bricks, seemingly at random, he pushed on, felt them slide into the wall, then with the sound of grating stone, the wall slid aside, revealing another passage, and a light at the end of the tunnel, and he could hear voices.

"Yeah, couple of tough guys you are," came Midna's voice, "Let me out of this and we'll see how tough you are."

Link reached for his sword, crouching low as he moved toward the light.

"Would you just be quiet," came a man's voice, "He's almost here."

"Make sure to stand clear of the door," came a second man's voice.

"They know I'm here," Link whispered to himself, "Guess there's no point in trying to surprise them."

He rose back to his full height as he stepped into the light, which revealed an open chamber, with many torches lining the walls, burning brightly. And as his eyes adjusted to the brighter light, he saw four figures in the room. Standing in front of the others was a blonde haired youth, dressed in dark blue clothing and wearing a cape that fell from padded shoulders that clasped around his neck.

"Khall!" Link said, recognizing the wizard instantly, and drawing his sword, its unique ring filling the room as he charged.

He suddenly stopped as he slammed into what felt like a solid wall, which dropped him on his backside, and the sword slipped from his grasp, sliding across the floor just out of reach. Link pulled himself up, and could see a faint glimmer in the air in front of him. Reaching out, he could feel it, like an invisible wall before himself. Turning, he realized that it was on all sides of him. He had walked into a trap.

"Hello, Link," Khall said, "And I'm sorry it had to come to this."

Beside Khall was the wizard Link remembered from the forest, in the purple robes, who seemed to be unharmed when Link had nearly cut him in half. "Must be Tharkus," Link muttered.

On the floor beside them, Link could see Midna, bound up in the same kind of glowing net that had captured her back in the forest, charged with concentrated sunlight, it would have been lethal to any other Twili, but it simply held her fast and blinded her for the duration. And the fourth figure…

"Ilia…" Link whispered.

She had been left, trapped in the stone form of a statue, back in Hyrule. She was still trapped, the stone grey flesh and hair like a glaring reminder of what had started him on this journey.

Link reached for the Master Sword, intent on smashing through the barrier, only to find it had slide outside the light, unhindered, and was beyond his reach.

"Link, is that you?" Midna asked from where she lay.

"Yes," Link said, "It's all right, I'm gonna get us out of this."

Khall walked toward him, looking through the light at him. "You should be careful," Khall said, "That's a promise you aren't likely to keep."

"Let me out of here," Link said, putting his hands against the barrier surrounding him, "Or are you too much of a coward?"

Khall smiled. "I'm afraid you can't goad me, Link," he said, "My patience has been great enough to wait ten years for this chance. Do you think I'd so foolishly give it up?"

"What do you want with Ilia?" Link asked.

"I'm afraid she's here purely for you," Khall said, "Because I'm going to repeat my offer I made before just once. And what you decide will determine what happens next."

He turned and walked away from Link, stopping halfway between the barrier and where Tharkus was standing. "She needs to be able to see," he said to the necromancer, "Open the net enough to let her head out, and pull that mask off, just in case. That thing's dangerous."

Tharkus leaned down to do so, and Midna growled through her teeth. "Yeah, just let me out of this thing and I'll show you how dangerous I can be," she said.

"You're overestimating yourself," Tharkus said as he gripped the mask by one of its large horns and pulled it from her, revealing the short red hair hidden within its circle, as well as her other eye that had always been behind it to this point.

Khall turned back to Link as Tharkus retied the net around her shoulders, making sure she couldn't move her arms. "You see, Link," Khall said, "You have something I need. And I'm willing to offer a trade. Give it to me, and I promise that you and everyone you care about will be unharmed in the coming events."

"You mean the fragment of the Twilight Mirror," Link said, "You're hoping to release that woman, Shaklator, who nearly destroyed the world eight thousand years ago. The thing I don't understand is why."

"You wouldn't," Khall said, "And you don't have to. Isn't it enough to know that you and everyone you care about will be safe? The twili over there," he gestured to Midna, "And even her…"

He turned to the petrified form of Ilia, and snapped his fingers. The figure collapsed to the floor, her flesh once more restored to its normal tone, and gasping for breath, as though she had be desperate to do so the entire time she had been a statue.

"Ilia!" Link said, pushing against the barrier before himself.

She looked up. "Link? Where are we?"

Tharkus leaned down and grabbed the back of Ilia's shirt, pulling her up to her feet. "What's going on?" she asked, looking at Tharkus, then Khall, and back to Link.

Link shook his head, looking for the right words. "It's complicated," was the best he could manage.

"Link!" Midna said, "We can't give them the fragment!"

"I know that!" he said, and turned to Khall, who had turned back to face him, "You're saying you'll spare myself, and those I care about, but do you really think I could just let you set a demon loose and destroy the world?"

Khall shook his head sadly. "You see, Link, this is normally where I'd put a knife to your throat and ask very politely. But you're not the kind of man to fear your own death."

He turned to Midna. "And I won't risk harming you, either, because I don't know what will happen to the fragment if you die. And unfortunately, that leaves us with just one option."

_Oh, this is exciting, isn't it?_ came the whisper.

Khall turned toward Ilia. Tharkus had taken a cord from a pocket in his robe and bound her hands behind her.

"You son of a bitch!" Link said, pounding his hands against the barrier, "I'll tear you limb from limb if you touch her!"

"Link, what's going on?" Ilia asked as Tharkus gripped her shoulders form behind and forced her down onto her knees. Link could see the fear in her eyes.

"Unfortunately, this doesn't even depend on you, Link," Khall said without looking back, "It depends on the twili."

Khall lifted one hand and brought it down, smacking his palm across Ilia's face, jerking her head to the side and causing her to cry out in pain. As she looked back up, Link could see blood from her lip.

"You're a dead man, Khall!" Link shouted, cocking one arm back and punching the barrier with all his strength, and bruising his knuckles in the process.

Khall turned toward Midna, and glanced at Link over his shoulder. "You see, I don't really have a taste for this sort of thing, but this is just the kind of instance when I have no choice."

He turned his gaze back to Midna. "The question is, how long will you let it go on?"

"Me?" she asked.

Khall nodded. "It is up to you. You can see him there, forced to watch this girl, whom you know he cares about deeply, as she suffers. How long will you make him do so?"

"You're sick," Midna said.

Khall sighed. "More so than you know," he said, moving back toward Ilia, "And unfortunately, the longer you wait, the more creative I'm going to have to become."

He leaned down and snatched Ilia's hair in one hand, eliciting a cry from her as Tharkus released her shoulders and Khall pulled her to her feet. No sooner was she on her feet though, than he pulled back his other hand and struck into her abdomen, knocking the wind from her lungs and causing her to drop back to the floor, doubled over, with no breath left to cry out, choking as she pulled air back into her lungs.

Khall turned back to Midna. "Give me the mirror fragment, and I will stop."

Midna looked to where Ilia lay, choking, and then turned over to Link. His expression was dark, and she could see lethal intent in his eyes.

"Don't give it to him," Link said to her.

"He might kill her," Midna said.

"I know," Link said as Ilia looked up at him, "And it kills me to say this, but there is too much at stake."

He looked down at Ilia, where she stared at him from the floor, her face wet wear tears were running from her eyes. "I'm sorry," he said.

Tharkus grabbed the back of her shirt, pulling her up from the floor. "Will someone at least tell me what's going on?" she asked.

"It's quite simple really," Khall said as Tharkus set her up on her feet facing him, "Link was given a chance to save you and everyone you know, or the world. He has chosen the world. And that is why I must do this."

"Shut your lying mouth!" Link shouted, "She has nothing to do with this! Let me out of here and fight me yourself, you coward!"

Link drew back his fist and struck the barrier once more with all his strength. He felt a bone crack against the impact and a small streak of blood appeared, hanging on glimmer of light. The pain was distant though, and seemed utterly unimportant.

_Be still and watch!_ the whisper said.

Khall lifted one arm and backhanded Ilia across the face, leaving four spots of blood where his nails connected to her cheek

"How long?" Khall asked, looking at Midna, "How long will this go on?"

Midna felt her heart beating rapidly against her ribs, fueled by the fear and anger of the situation.

"Everything you do to her," Link said, his voice a dangerous growl, "I'll bring back on you a hundred times over."

Midna looked at Link, and back at Ilia and Khall, who watched her.

With a sigh, Khall reached to his belt and drew a knife. "Okay, looks like I have to get messy. I hoped it wouldn't take this long."

"I'll give it to you," Midna said.

"What are you doing?" Link demanded.

"We can't win this one," Midna said, "And I'm not going to watch the girl die."

"Very wise of you," Khall said, slipping his knife back into his belt, "Now, the fragment."

A red glow rose from Midna's head, seemingly part of her hair, and shaped into a large hand, clenched in a fist, which opened, revealing the fragment within its palm. Even now, the magic glow seemed weak and hazy, Link could see. She couldn't muster the strength to fight with it, unfortunately.

"Don't touch it with your hands," Tharkus warned as Khall moved toward her.

"Right," Khall said, and unbuckled his cape from his neck, then picked up the fragment with the cloth and wrapped it up.

Link put his hands against the barrier, like he was looking through glass. Midna looked at him. "It's all right," she said, "They still need to figure out how to actually make it function. There is time yet."

"Yes," Khall said, turning and handing the bundle of cloth to Tharkus, "It's not over yet. And that is why there is one last thing I must do here."

Khall moved toward Midna, reaching down to take hold of the net holding her fast. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Get away from her!" Link shouted, "If you so much as touch her…"

"Your threats are getting tired, Link," Khall said, "You see, I know who this is. The last of her people's royal line, the Twilight Princess. And also know how she can destroy the mirror. That is something I cannot allow."

No, Link thought, I can't let this happen!

With a bestial cry, he slammed both hands against the barrier before himself. Gold sparks shot from his hands as the Triforce within him roared into life, glowing brightly, feeding off his rage and ready to unleash its energy.

It was at this moment that Ganondorf and Zelda noticed that something was wrong, and began coming toward him, gathering guards in their wake as they moved swiftly through the castle toward the dungeon.

But they were so far away.

Link slammed his fists into the barrier again, this time it flashed with white light, becoming unfocused for a moment before reforming. Link lifted his fists again, and struck a third time, sparks flying from his hands on impact, the barrier shuddering visibly under the force of the blow.

"He's breaking through it," Tharkus said, "Incredible!"

Khall held onto the net trapping Midna with one hand, and lay his palm flat against the back of her head.

"You can't stop it, Link," he said, looking up at him, "You might have been willing to sacrifice your friend to stop me, but this one wasn't. And I hope you understand that this is a battle for survival. There are no heroes and villains here. Only those who are willing to do what must be done, and those who aren't."

Link slammed his hands into the barrier again, which visibly dented and rippled under the force.

"And those who aren't," Khall said, "will cost you everything."

Link struck the barrier again. It shattered, crumbling under his attack, and almost invisible specks rained to the floor around him like glass as he charged through, intent on ripping Khall's head from his shoulders with his bare hands.

But he felt himself slowing down, like he was fighting through molasses. Realization struck him like a thunder bolt. A second trap, should he break the first. He felt so stiff, and it was agony to move.

Midna looked up at him, and close as he was, he couldn't reach her. A single tear appeared from her eye, hanging on the edge, refusing to let go.

She whispered to him. Her voice was so soft, yet it rang in his ears like the earth itself ripping open.

"This isn't your fault," she whispered.

"_Daem!_" Khall's voice echoed through the chamber.

I happened so slowly in Link's eyes. A blast of concussive force from Khall's hand, directly into Midna's head. The blood seemed to hang in the air, refusing to touch the floor. Her eyes had flown open wide, and yet were already empty of any presence.

Her body fell to the floor, the small form making barely any sound as it landed on the stone, yet it seemed to echo in Link's ears.

Someone was screaming. Link realized that it was himself, a mixture of rage and horror, and yet his own voice was dying away. He looked down to see his flesh turning grey and stiffening rapidly. He was being petrified, just like before, back in Hyrule. That was their second trap. A failsafe to buy them time to escape without having to kill him.

Even has his vision began to fade, he resisted. He could feel the Triforce of Courage within him, a spark of light in the dark. He tried to grab hold of it, to use it to force the blackness back.

_No!_ came the whisper, _Too soon! You can't, you mustn't!_

In the blackness, the source of the voice appeared before him. It was not a voice from the Master Sword. It was the red haired woman who had appeared in his dreams, eyes as black as the darkness surrounding them, and she grabbed hold of him, trying to hold him back.

_It is not yet time!_ she said.

Link threw her from him, and turned to the gold glow, and could see the triangle within reach. He leaped for it, and felt it within his hands.

The blackness was replaced with a bright light, and searing pain shooting through his body. The light was coming from him, he realized, and screamed in pain as beams of golden light shot from his eyes and mouth into the dark. Then as quickly as it started, it was gone, and he knew no more.

(placeholder)

Khall looked at the stone form of Link standing before him. "We need to go," Tharkus said.

"Right," Khall muttered, looking down at the lifeless form of Midna at his feet, and muttered to himself, "She's got awfully thick blood, as though its already congealing…"

"Khall!" Tharkus said.

"Right," he said, turning and walking over to the necromancer.

He paused to look down at Ilia where she sat, watching the scene in horror.

"I am sorry," he said, then looked over at the statue of Link, "Don't worry about him. The Triforce of Courage will free him shortly, just like it did before."

The gold glow of the triangle was still visible on the back of Link's hand.

Khall reached into his pocket and pulled out a small blue crystal. The crystal was enchanted with a quick-use travel spell, similar to the one he had used to bring himself and Tharkus here.

Khall reached up and took hold of Tharkus' arm, then dropped the crystal to the floor. It shattered on impact, and there was a flash of light, and the two of them, and the fragment of the Twilight Mirror Tharkus was holding, were gone.

Ilia managed to get up to her feet and ran over to the petrified form of Link, which still wasn't appearing to have any kind of reaction.

"Hello?" she asked, "Can you hear me in there?"

She looked at the golden glow on his hand, and then realized in horror that it was growing dimmer, and rapidly. Even as she watched, it faded and vanished entirely.

She heard rapidly approaching footsteps in the hall across the room, and looked over to see Ganondorf, Zelda, Sheila, Ralthas, and a dozen guards pour into the chamber.

Nothing was said as they took in the scene before them. Link, a stone statue, and Midna's corpse on the ground, and Ilia, her face bleeding and her hands bound behind her back.

"Someone please tell me," Ganondorf said, the first to break the silence, "that they didn't get the mirror."

* * *

Snow was falling on the city and surrounding countryside in the dark of night. The moon only occasionally peeked one edge through the clouds that blotted out the stars.

To the east of the main road leading to Nigel was a wide area of rolling hills and low valleys. A figure appeared on the hill nearest to the city. From this hill, it was a straight shot down its near side and then across the basin to the city, where only the ravine stopped one from reaching the walls.

Around this lone figure, more appeared, cresting the hill and standing by her side. Surrounded by these soldiers, this woman still towered head and shoulders above them all. She flexed her hand in the clawed fingers of her left gauntlet, which led to the enormous number of interlocking metal plates covering her left arm, which served her better than any shield ever had, to the form fit breastplate that no other in the world could wear.

In the dark night, her face was nearly invisible, the low light and her dark skin blending into darkness, but one could easily see her bright emerald eyes as they gazed across at the city.

"We will make camp here for the night," Kilishandra said, her voice low and nearly masculine in sound, "At dawn we attack."


	61. Chapter 60

Okay, after looking through the comments I got over the last chapter, and the rather wide spread of opinions on the matter, I decided to use my day off this week to update instead of waiting to the weekend to write. I decided to go back to my original plan, rather than the revised one, which would have focused on the events in Darimar for four chapters before going back to Link and by the connection, Midna. Instead, going to the original plan, you'll see Link right away here, and I also made an effort to lay in more hints about what is actually going on. I thought what I added in the last chapter was a fairly big one, but then again, maybe a lot of people don't know as much about biology as I do. These hints seem pretty obvious to me, but then I know the whole thing. Maybe some of you will put it together before we get there, but all I'm going to say, to elate the fears of those threatening to stop reading entirely, is that Midna isn't gone for good. Exactly why though, you'll have to wait and see.

**Chapter 60: A Red Sky, and Bloody Earth**

"Link, wake up. You must wake up."

Link groaned. His entire body ached. As he sat up, his eyes stung, and his vision blurred so badly he couldn't make anything out.

"Midna?" he asked, "Is that you?"

"Get on your feet," she said, "If you don't get moving, you will be lost."

Link struggled up, his legs shaking, as if unwilling to support his weight. He staggered, put out a hand, and felt a wall, which he leaned his weight against, blinking his eyes, trying to clear his vision.

_You should not be here,_ whispered another voice in his mind, _It is too soon._

He recognized the voice now. It was the same woman that haunted his dreams some time ago.

"Don't listen to her," Midna whispered, "You must get moving. Find a weapon. You're going to need it."

"Midna, where are you?" he asked, "I can't see anything."

"Come find me," she said, "And in so doing, you will find yourself."

_She lies,_ said the other voice, _She will lead you to your death._

"She would never," Link said, moving forward.

His vision was at last clearing, revealing a tunnel through the earth, supported by wooden beams. In one wall was visible vein of silver. He was in a mine. There was light coming from one side, and he moved toward it, hoping to find a clue as to what happened.

The light turned out to be the entrance to the mine, opening onto the surface, and he stopped dead once he saw what was outside.

The sky above was a dark red color, and boiled with rapidly moving thunderclouds that shot lightning into one another every few seconds, and rained red bolts of fire in the distance. The earth beneath his feet was blackened and rock hard.

What was before him was even more disturbing. Sixteen men, on their knees, their hands bound, in a line, before which walked a creature like Link had never seen. Nearly nine feet tall, with great horns sprouting from a cow's head on a man's body, and black bat wings sprouting from its back, and a tail like a scorpion, ending in a poisonous barb. In its hands it grasped an axe with a blade larger than a man's torso, and a haft six feet long.

It stopped at the far end of the line of men, raised the axe in the air, and brought it down upon the neck of the man before it, sending his head rolling across the ground as blood spurted from the torso as the body fell to the ground.

"Shit," Link muttered and pulled back behind the mouth of the cave as it turned back toward him, and began moving down the line of men, some of whom watching it approach in cold silence, while others begged for their lives.

Link looked about for anything he could use as a weapon, and spied behind the creature, across from the men, a pile of weapons and armor. The creature's axe came down again and again as it moved down the line, executing the men one after another.

"I'm not going to sit here and watch this," Link muttered, and made a dash from the cave toward the weapons.

At the sound of his footsteps, the monster turned its attention from the remaining men toward him. Link saw the axe move to the side, and dove as the massive weapon whooshed through the air above him. He rolled on the ground, stopping at the pile, and snatched the hilt of a sword, pulling it from the mass.

Several of the men cheered as he ran back toward the creature as it lifted its axe high over its head, ready to cleave him in two. The axe came down, and Link quickly sidestepped, the massive bladded thudding into the earth. Link stepped up, onto the haft of the weapon and leaped upward. The creature's head turned up, following him as he brought his sword down directly onto its skull, between the horns.

The creature did not cry out as the blow struck, but black blood spurted around the blade lodged in its skull. Link hit the ground, stepping away from it quickly, but it simply toppled to the side, its massive form shaking the ground beneath his feet.

"Hey, come untie us!" one of the men said.

Link turned and moved toward them. Seven were still alive, he counted. The beast had worked down the line with stunning efficiency. "What was that thing?" he asked as he knelt down to undo the ropes binding the first's wrists.

"No idea, but there's at least six more of them nearby," the man said, "They ambushed us, and left that one to finish us off while the others moved on."

Link finished untying the man's wrists, and moved to the second, while the first moved further down the line to untie another.

"They're probably headed to the village," said another of the men, "We need to get back there before they do."

"Right," said the first man after they had untied the rest, "Everybody grab your weapons and armor, and suit back up fast. We need to move."

As they pulled the pile of equipment apart, Link retrieved the sword from the creature's skull. Looking at the bizarre creature before him, then up at the chaotic sky, he couldn't help but ask, "Where the hell am I?"

* * *

"He's gone," Ganondorf said.

"Gone?" Zelda asked, "What do you mean gone?"

"I mean," Ganondorf said, turning from the petrified form of Link to her, "that he has departed this world. His soul has moved on to the next. His spirit is gone, and his carcass, so to speak, remains. Does that explain it?"

In the hidden room beneath the dungeons, the group had gathered. Ganondorf had examined the petrified form of Link, while Zelda untied Ilia's hands.

"Here's how this works, in these limited cases involving the Triforce," Ganondorf said, "When one of us dies, the Triforce fades away, until it will reappear in a newborn's grasp the next generation. This is why, if you want to gather up the pieces, you have to extract it while they still live."

"But that wizard, Khall, he said Link would be fine!" Ilia said.

"I'll admit, it doesn't make sense," Ganondorf said, staring at the statue, "The Triforce of Courage protected him before, it should have done so again."

Sheila stepped forward. "I've heard of rare cases, usually when magic is involved, of someone's spirit being expelled from their body unwillingly."

"Yes," Ganondorf said, "Sort of like astral projection, but more akin to being informally dead."

Sheila pointed at Ilia. "You said that Link forced his way through a magic barrier, and his eyes were glowing and such at the time."

"Yes," Ilia said, feeling quite uncomfortable remembering the image.

"Is it possible, then," Sheila said, turning to Ganondorf, "that he was using the Triforce's power and unwittingly threw himself from his own body?"

"That may be," Ganondorf said, "In which case, he's likely wandering about as a spirit."

He snapped his fingers with realization. "In which case, his Triforce would have been drug about with him, which is why it isn't returning him to normal."

"How do we get him back?" Zelda asked.

"We'll have to search him out ourselves," Ganondorf said, "We use Astral Projection ourselves, and find him. We won't even be able to see him otherwise. It will take time though. Time that we don't have at the moment."

"What do you mean by that?" Ilia asked.

"It takes several hours for someone to willingly separate their spirit from their body," Ganondorf said, "And if he's wandering about, it could take days to find him. We're under threat if imminent attack. We can't take the risk."

He turned to see Ralthas crouched over the body of Midna. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Something's not right here," Ralthas said.

Sheila walked over to him. "What do you mean?"

"Look at the blood here," Ralthas said, pointing to the spatter on the floor, "The splotches are thick and heavy, and the corpse is completely cold."

He stood up and turned to the rest of them. "This happened just a few minutes ago? I doubt it, because she has been dead for at least twelve hours."

"But I saw him kill her," Ilia said.

"The way this blood looks," Ralthas said, "I'd say you saw him kill a corpse."

Ganondorf turned and looked at the Master Sword, where it lay on the floor. "I wonder…" he whispered to himself.

"There's one thing I want to know, though," Ralthas said, "How did they get in here without anyone noticing?"

"Oh, that one's easy," Ganondorf said, then looked toward Zelda, "Can you feel it?"

Zelda turned to him, then paused a moment before saying slowly, "I feel…something. Like an energy in the air."

"I don't feel anything?" Sheila said.

Ganondorf walked across the room, his eyes on the floor, tracing the gaps along the bricks with his eyes. He found a spot with a slightly wider gap than others, and knelt down, and tried to slide his fingers into the crack. It was a tight fight for his big hand, but the brick shifted sideways slightly in the process.

"You got those guards outside the room still?" Ganondorf asked Ralthas.

"Yes."

"Get a few in here."

Ralthas called toward the entrance, and four men entered the chamber. Ganondorf motioned them to come to him. When they neared, he pointed at the floor. "This brick is loose. Get it out."

They turned to Ralthas, who nodded.

They gathered round the brick, which measured nearly two feet across on all sides. Two took the spears they carried and pushed the hafts into the gap, then the other two forced it to slide back, creating a gap on the other side into which they slid theirs, and then the four levered it up from both sides. It rose, and the bottom ends of the hafts slid under the brick as it rose.

The brick was nearly two feet deep as well, but they managed to lift it from the hole, and slide it to the side. Ganondorf leaned down to look into it once it was clear.

"Thought so," he said.

A single white line, glowing faintly, was visible in the hole.

"What's that?" Ralthas asked.

"That is part of a magical seal," Ganondorf said, reaching down into the hole and pulled up on another brick enough to create a gap underneath to slide his fingers under, then lifted it from the floor and shoved it to the side. The four men, panting from their previous exertion, became wide-eyed in disbelief.

With a second brick removed, it exposed a point where the line turned sharply back in another direction.

"A typical seal is a pentagram," Ganondorf said, "A five pointed star, which is inside a square, which is itself inside a circle. The image is sometimes referred to as a 'grace.' See, the star represents life, living creatures and such. The square represents the world, the boundary of life, so to speak, and the circle represents what surrounds the world, usually referred to as the void, or the gap between dimensions."

"Why is there a seal down here?" Sheila asked, "I've never heard of such a thing."

Ganondorf looked at the Triforce on the back of his hand. "I feel it here, just like in the Temple of Time. There is passage here to the Sacred Realm."

"The Sacred Realm," Zelda said, "The place from which the goddesses created the world, and where they left the Triforce for man to discover."

"Correct," Ganondorf said, "This seal, however, was placed here to close the passage, and judging by how it was hidden, wasn't intended to be reopened.

"There is a slim chance," he added, "that in the close proximity, Link's spirit could have been catapulted through the barrier into the Sacred Realm."

"What will happen to him there?" Zelda asked.

"That depends on him, really," Ganondorf said, "The Sacred Realm doesn't abide by the same physical laws as this world. It's likely his spirit would assume solid physical form there, for starters. But if he were to die, there'd be nothing left. He'd basically fade out of existence."

"How likely is that to happen?" Zelda asked.

Ganondorf was silent for a moment, looking down at the part of the seal which they could see. "Very likely," he said at last, "It wasn't exactly in good condition the last time I left it, and it has been several millennia since then. In all likelihood, it has gotten worse."

"You did it, didn't you?" Sheila said.

"The last time I was there was not a willing visit," Ganondorf said, "What's more, the Hero of Time put me through a real hell back then. Not intentionally, I don't think, but it doesn't change the fact that he did."

"And you did no different to Hyrule back then?" Zelda asked.

Ganondorf whirled to face her. "What I did was nothing compared to this," he said, walking toward her, "In the final moment, he stabbed the Master Sword through my face. Do you have any idea what that felt like? And then, your ancestor, the original Princess Zelda, used the Ocarina of Time to send him back seven years, to give him back the time he lost, she said.

"But something happened that even I did not expect," he went on, stopping right in front of her and looking down at her face, "I was sent back as well, and the timeline was rewritten in a way like I had never existed, and yet I did, trapped there in the Sacred Realm. And then, I found myself reliving that last moment of my defeat, not just once, but over and over again like a horrible dream that I couldn't wake from. Every few seconds the pain was there again, fresh and new. For seven years, I relived those last few seconds endlessly."

He leaned down, until his face was nearly touching hers. "Don't even pretend to understand what I have done and been through, because you never will."

"Amazing you didn't go mad," Ralthas said.

"Oh, I'm sure I did at some point," Ganondorf said, standing up straight once more, "Fortunately for me, I recovered some time later. I lost track of the actual time, so I don't know exactly how long it was."

He turned and walked back toward the hole in the floor. "Back to the business at hand," he said, " The point is, Khall was able to use this seal as a beacon to target a travel spell. Those things are hard to aim, otherwise. Then he used another to get out. Get more men down here and haul the stones out. I want the entire floor pulled up so I can get at the seal by the time I get back after the attack tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Ralthas asked, "What are you talking about?"

"There's an army camped right outside the city," Ganondorf said, "Didn't you know? Oh, must be the fact it takes six hours for a runner to get from there to here. Well, don't worry, I'll protect everybody this time."

He turned and walked through the doorway back toward the dungeons. "Depending on how this goes," he said to himself, "you might not have me as an ally much longer."

Ralthas turned to Ilia. "All right, just a few more loose ends," he said, "I need to know who you are and where you're from."

"Oh," Ilia said, "Sorry. My name is Ilia, I'm from Orden. The same village as Link."

"I see," Ralthas said, "So that's why you were a hostage. Long way to drag you for that."

"She was petrified, like everyone else in Hyrule," Zelda said, "It would be like transporting a statue."

"But if she was important enough to him to use as a hostage, then they likely got what they were after," Ralthas said.

"Um, sir? Actually, it was the other one, Midna, that gave them what they wanted," Ilia said, "Link… Well, he said that what else was going on was too important."

"Oh, dear," Zelda said, realizing that meant Link would have let her die if Midna hadn't given Khall the mirror. "Are you all right? I don't think anyone has told you what is going on just yet."

"Where am I?" Ilia asked.

"You're in the castle in the capital city of the kingdom of Darimar, which is across the ocean to the west of Hyrule. I am…"

"Princess Zelda," Ilia said, "I know. I've seen pictures."

"All right," Zelda said, and took Ilia by the arm, "Come with me, let's get you something to drink, and I'll explain everything."

She led Ilia from the room as Ralthas and Sheila watched them leave. Ralthas sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and finger, an effort in frustration. "Are you all right?" Sheila asked.

"Oh, dandy," Ralthas said, "Getting drug along by things like I'm being pulled under in a river."

Sheila looked over at the petrified image of Link. "He would have let her die…" she said.

"To save how many more?" Ralthas said, "You've got to look at the big picture here. Link's friend there," he gestured at Midna's lifeless form, "may have just doomed us all. And yet, it doesn't fit together."

He leaned down and picked up the Master Sword. The blade felt oddly heavy, then seemed to grow lighter as he lifted it, as though reluctant. "That's another weird thing," he muttered.

"We need to get the statue out of here," Sheila said, "And if it's damaged, it's likely that any chance of saving Link will be lost."

"I'll take care of it," Ralthas said, then added, "And I'll call a priest to collect the body. We can at least give her a proper funeral."

She turned to look at him. "Are you sure we should do that? Before we're sure of what's going on?"

"I'm afraid that with a necromancer among our enemies, allowing any dead to lie would be extremely dangerous," Ralthas said, "We'll collect her ashes in an urn and give it to Link, if they do manage to bring him back."

He walked away from her, toward the passage leading out. Sheila looked back at where the body lay.

"Something doesn't fit," she muttered, "How do you explain the time gap?"

* * *

The village was a disaster area, Link decided. There was no other way to describe it. Buildings were falling in on themselves, the well in the center area had caved in upon itself, and everywhere there were wounded soldiers, some even standing guard with bleeding injuries.

Their armor was tarnished, their weapons rusty. The group he was with had been wearing chain mail, lighter so they could travel faster, but many around the village were in plate. And underneath the rust and filth was one thing he hadn't expected to see.

The three golden triangles, with eagle wings on either side. The crest of the royal family. These were Hylian soldiers!

Now that he was closer to them, though, there was something else he noticed. Their skin didn't look right. They were pale, and their flesh looked as though it were flaking off in patches. One in officer's armor came forward to greet his group as they entered the village. The man had only one side of a mustache, and stitches across his face, from his right eyebrow to his chin, through which small droplets of green pus slowly oozed, which he occasionally reached up to wipe on the back of his hand.

"Who's this then?" he asked them as they approached.

"He saved us there, sir," replied one of the soldiers, "We were ambushed and they lined us up to execute us, like they prefer to, and this young man jumped out of thin air and killed the executioner. We thought they were headed this way."

"There were a few stragglers, but nothing serious so far," the officer said, "You lot are dismissed for now, debriefing later."

He turned to Link as they moved away. "Right, then," he said, "Captain Viscan, Twenty-Third Hylian Infantry. Who are you, lad?"

"My name's Link," he said.

"And your family name?" Viscan asked.

"I don't have one."

"Unusual," Viscan said, turning away, then suddenly turned back, "Wait a moment… Link? As in… Link? Like the Hero of Time?"

"No no no," Link said quickly, "I'm not the Hero of Time."

"Of course not," Viscan said, "But you have the same name. You're the one. You've got to be. Listen, there is someone here who would love to meet you."

He pointed down the road to the only building in town that wasn't falling in on itself. "Go to that house over there. Just go right in. Last I heard, he's expecting you."

"Expecting me?" Link said, "What is going on here?"

"Don't worry, Link," he heard Midna's voice whisper in his ear, "You can trust them."

"Don't worry, lad," Viscan said, "He'll explain everything."

Viscan turned and walked away, in the direction of the group of soldiers. Link, shaking his head, turned and walked toward the house Viscan had pointed to. It was disconcerting to see men laying on the ground on both sides of the street as he passed, unattended, many with missing limbs and blood pouring from the stumps. He slowed to look at one that in a bizarre fashion, was missing his left arm and leg, and his skin was wrinkled and leathery, as though he had dried out in the blood loss.

Then suddenly the man screamed in agony. Link took a step back in surprise, and the man began shrieking, "Gods, why?! Why can't I die?!"

"What the hell is going on in this place," Link whispered.

Even as he turned away from the sight, someone was walking toward him and passed by. Link turned and looked at the man's face as he passed by. It was one of the men that creature had executed before he could reach them! At least, he thought it was one of them, Link thought at he watched the soldier's receding back.

"I'm in hell," he muttered, "I must be. I died and I'm in hell."

He reached the house and pushed open the door, stepping inside. It was sparsely furnished, only a single bed and table, and at the table, pouring over a map spread on it, was someone Link never expected to see.

It was himself. Or, someone who looked at lot like him. At a second glance, there were differences. This one was a little shorter, and was blonde. And he had the same pale, flaking skin look as the soldiers. As Link shut the door, the person looked up.

"Link," he said in almost a whisper, "Have I finally snapped, or is it you?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm real," Link said.

"Link," the man said, turning from the table and walking toward him, and lifted his arms to the side, as if trying to take in the sight, "Holy shit, it really is you! By the gods, this is the best thing that's happened in years!"

Link held up one hand. "Hold on," he said, "Who are you?"

"Oh, gods, that's right," the man said, "You probably don't know anything about this. Well, first of all, my name is Link, just like you. I'm sure I've noticed we look a lot alike, too."

He turned around, lifting a hand to his chin as he thought of how best to explain it. "Okay," he said, turning back around, "This might sound a little weird, but I am, or rather, was the Hero of Time. I lived in Hyrule a long time ago."

"The Hero of Time?" Link asked, "But you're dead! That was four thousand years ago!"

"Yeah, and I look it, too," he replied, reached up and pulling on a flap of loose skin on his face.

"Okay then," Link said, "Am I in hell?"

The other laughed. "No, but that's not a bad guess, all things considered. No, you're in the Sacred Realm, which is attached to our world via three different gateways, one of which is in the Temple of Time."

"The Sacred Realm? It's like a nightmare out there," Link said.

"That's because of the bleed over," the other said, "Listen, there is something happening beyond anything you've ever imagined. And it all started four thousand years ago when Ganondorf took the Triforce from the Temple of Light.

"You've heard of Shaklator by now," he went on, "She is ancient beyond anything else in the world, Link. She was the first one to wield the Master Sword, and the first to possess the complete Triforce, or True Force as it is sometimes called. There was a wizard back then, named Darius. It was through his error that she gained this power, and it was he that managed to lock her away with the very power she wielded."

"Wait, I know Darius beat Shaklator," Link said, "But how exactly did that work?"

"You see, two weapons were crafted back then, specifically to combat wielders of the Triforces," the Hero of Time said, "Silver Fang, and Black Razor. As time past, Silver Fang began to be called the Master Sword, and Black Razor was thought to be lost for a great time. Here's the thing about them. They were made by a master smith, and blessed by the goddesses Themselves. They neutralize the power of the Triforce. It's useless against them. That's why, though Ganondorf can heal himself through concentration, the Master Sword can cause lasting wounds on him.

"Now here's the thing, when Shaklator acquired the True Force, Darius used the Master Sword to try to beat her. She was a quick thinker, and used the Triforce to instead permanently alter her own physical and spiritual makeup, and rid herself of the Triforce. The Master Sword no longer affected her like it had before then. But then Darius used the Twilight Mirror to lock her away in the void, and created a barrier to hold her, with the Triforce itself acting as the lock. And the Temple of Time was made to protect the Triforce, and the other two gateways were sealed and hidden away."

He sighed. "Okay, look, Link, this was all my fault. I opened the Temple of Time and allowed Ganondorf to take the Triforce. And it's because of that the Sacred Realm is like it is now. You see, the Sacred Realm is reliving the Imprisoning War, which is basically what it was like when Ganondorf first rose to power, over and over again, and all because I let him in. He didn't know what would happen when he took the Triforce, but he basically started the release of the lock on the barrier holding Shaklator."

"That's why Khall wanted the mirror," Link said.

"Well, here's the thing," the Hero of Time said, "The mirror will speed things up, but even without it, the barrier is weakening. Eventually, Shaklator will be able to break through. It's just a matter of time. She's not a goddess, but she's close enough that it wouldn't make a difference if she shows up again."

"Why would Khall want to release her, then?" Link asked, "He said it was a fight for survival. What does releasing her gain him?"

"I have no idea. Maybe he has some kind of deal with her, or her servants. The point is, it's bad news for us. We have to find some way to restore the barrier, or destroy her."

"Wait," Link said, "I was having these dreams, of a red haired woman with black eyes, and recently I've started hearing her voice again. That's Shaklator, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's her," the Hero of Time said, "What has she been saying?"

"Promises, to teach me how to use the Triforce, and at the same time, threats, and that I would have to submit to learn," Link said.

"It sounds like she has some kind of plans for you," the Hero of Time said, "But I guarantee they can't be good. Listen, a direct fight against her is suicide at present. If you're going to have any chance at fighting her off, you're going to need a weapon."

He turned back to the map and motioned for Link to follow. "The Master Sword is a formidable tool, but it was made for fighting men. You're going to need a weapon capable of slaying a god."

He pointed at the map. "This is the village we're in here. You need to go out of the village and head west, into the foothills of the Black Crags. There is an altar there, similar to the one in the Temple of Time for the Master Sword. You're going to need the sword there."

"Wait, you're going way too fast here," Link said, "I'm still not even sure what's going on here."

"Oh, shit, Link," the Hero of Time said with a sigh, "I honestly don't know either. See, the way it works, you're not supposed to be here, like you are, unless you're dead. But if you died, you wouldn't have the Triforce of Courage anymore. It would have passed on. All I can think of is that you somehow broke the rules, you died without giving it up. Or maybe some other force is at play here. All we can do is take advantage of it while we can. I don't know if you're stuck here or if you'll suddenly be yanked away at any moment. We don't have time to deliberate."

"All right," Link said, "I'll go to the hills and I'll get this sword. But I'm going to expect some answers when I get back."

"I'll tell you on the way, then," the Hero of Time said, "Because when you get back, we're going to go for the Temple of Light. The Sages will be able to answer your questions better than me, I'm sure."

Link turned and walked toward the door. He pushed it open, and then stopped. "One more thing," he said, "I'm hearing another voice. The voice of a friend that I watched die."

"Is it telling you the same things Shaklator is?"

"No," Link said, "In fact, it's saying the exact opposite."

"Maybe her spirit is with you, then," the Hero of Time said.

"Is there any chance this means that she might not be lost?"

"I wish I knew. I really do."

Link pulled the door shut as he stepped outside, and looked up at the sky, where the clouds continued to boil.

_He lies to you, Link,_ the voice whispered, _Nothing but death awaits you if you go._

Link smiled as he pictured an image of a skeletal figure in a cloak with a scythe sitting out on a rock somewhere waiting. "Hope he brought a book to read."


	62. Chapter 61

You get two chapters with this update, because I knew 62 was going to be too short by itself, and it is. It covers exactly what I wanted it to, and while I considered adding more to it to make it longer, it would be just that: Making it longer. Like how the Triforce quest in Wind Waker is there pretty much to just make the game longer. I might just do two chapter updates until the two threads rejoin. It'll take a little longer between updates, but it'll get us toward the endgame a little quicker.

**Chapter 61: ****Sorceress of Storms****: Kilishandra**

"There you are," Sheila said as Zelda entered Ralthas' office, "Where is that girl?"

"In her room," Zelda said, "Probably crying herself to sleep. I'm amazed she didn't break down sooner, while I was explaining everything."

"So who is she?" Sheila asked as Zelda took an empty seat in front of the desk, which was still buried in the papers and books that had served Ganondorf's fruitless search.

"She is the daughter of the mayor of Orden," Zelda said, "That is the village where Link grew up. She doesn't seem to have any memory of anything past the night when the Silencing was released upon my kingdom."

"So they must have brought her here just to use as a hostage," Sheila said.

Zelda nodded, and gestured to the net in Sheila's hands. "Is that what they used to restrain Midna?" she asked.

"Yes," Sheila said, turning the thin ropes over in her hands, "Under normal circumstances, this would be lucky to hold a rabbit. There is an enchantment placed on it, though, by a wizard more experienced than me."

"What does it do?" Zelda asked.

"To someone like you or me, nothing," Sheila said, "For lack of a better term, this net seems to absorb and then contain sunlight, much like that horn that the dragon, Roxim, gave Link. Rather than unleash it in a burst, like the horn, though, it seems to concentrate it. When active, it glows intensely for a time. It was nearly spent when we got it, though, so I can't be sure how long.

"When we were in the forest," she added, "They used a similar net to capture Midna there. For some reason, the glow makes it impossible for her to use her magic, and even blinds her if her head is inside as well. But the, um, body's head was outside the net, which was tied around her shoulders tightly enough she wouldn't have been able to move."

"I see," Zelda said, "That net would be lethal to a normal Twili, if it is strong enough to hold her."

"How so?"

"It's a little complicated," Zelda said, "But the Twili are shadow people. Direct sunlight can kill them in just a few moments. Starlight, even, can kill them, but it takes several hours, and is extremely painful. Midna is a special case. Last year, when my kingdom fell under attack, the face of the attack, at least until Ganondorf showed himself, was a Twili named Zant who sought to usurp Midna's throne and then capture my kingdom for his master, Ganondorf. When Midna and Link found a weapon that would allow them to fight him, he surprised them and cast Midna from the shadows, fully into our world for the first time."

Zelda looked up toward the ceiling, and sighed. "She was almost dead when Link reached me with her. I was able to save her," she looked down at the faintly glowing triangle on her hand, "I'm still not exactly sure what I did, I just knew that it would work. Suffice to say, she survived, and also gained immunity to light. Or I thought she had. Judging by what happened with this net, it was merely a tolerance."

Sheila lay the net down on the desk. "That leads me to another question. What is Ganondorf really after? Every time I ask, he deflects the question, saying he simply doesn't have to justify anything, yet his behavior doesn't fit with the attitude. Like all the effort he made to find a way to save his daughter."

"I think he knows what he wants, and that is all," Zelda said, "It may simply be that he wants us to figure it out ourselves. Which may require a great deal of research and deductions. The man is older than we can really fathom, and possesses a genius level intellect, and that's what really scares me. If you look at him, you see the enormous, muscular man usually associated with lower intelligence, but he always seems to be two steps ahead of everyone else, except when it comes to Link."

"That's another thing," Sheila said, "What is his obsession with Link? He seems to want a fight, for some reason."

"Revenge?" Zelda guessed, "From what he has said himself, it is as if it's a sick joke of the gods, in the way Link looks almost exactly like the Hero of Time, who was the first to fell Ganondorf in Hyrule, and so have the others who stood against him through the ages. Maybe it is the fact that he seems to have claimed nothing but victories throughout his life, except for Hyrule. It represents the one challenge he has set before himself that he has failed to meet, and it is all because of Hyrule's heroes, who met him with the Master Sword in hand and the Triforce of Courage in their grasp."

Zelda turned and looked directly at her. "And behind all the threats, all the posturing," she added, "he seems to be trying to teach us something. The same as last year, now that I have looked at it from another angle. Zant was set up to fail. Ganondorf knew Link would push his creatures back, collect the tools he needed, and kill him. It was as though the entire scheme was solely to raise Link to his peak abilities and then have one grand showdown."

"I wish we had more time," Sheila said, "Then maybe we could figure him out."

"Unfortunately," Zelda said, "Khall doesn't seem willing to give us that time. The fact he came so boldly into our center and took from us two strong allies shows that. He isn't engineering a scheme to see us overcome obstacles. He intends to kill everyone."'

"What about that seal Ganondorf found?" Sheila asked, "Do you really think it leads to the Sacred Realm?"

"I'm positive of that."

"Then, if we can open it, we might be able to get Link back?"

"We'll have to wait and see," Zelda said, "Most of what we have is theory at this point."

She looked over at the empty seat across the desk, then back to Sheila. "Where is your father?"

"Out in the city, as fast as he can ride," Sheila said, "The king gave his approval, and they're going to evacuate the last civilians and soldiers from the outer city, so Ganondorf can go through with his plan."

"To meet his daughter and her army alone?" Zelda said, then stood up, "In that case, I'm going out there."

"How will you be able to help him?" Sheila asked, watching her walk away.

Zelda stopped at the door and turned back to look at her. "Not for his sake. For hers. There is more to this than appears on the surface. She bears a curse that will kill her if she changes sides. How exactly? If she believed that what she has been ordered to do was wrong, that she should side with him, it would kill her. Curses don't work on pure logic and facts. It has to be driven by something else, and something like this has to be emotions. She believes, at least for now, that she is on the right side, regardless of who her enemy is. I think he will try to talk her over, and in this case, he has to convince her heart, not her head. And when it comes to emotions, I can read people a lot better than most."

She added the last sentence with a small smile, and Sheila's eyes went to the glowing triangle on her hand, which Zelda had told her before granted her a form of empathy that allowed her to feel the emotions of any around her. And it also made it impossible for anyone to lie to her.

* * *

War was coming. Alex knew this when he had seen his home fall, and his sister die, and now, as he watched the armored men filing into the city and from the barracks into the night, he knew it had come home once more.

But from what he knew, this would not be a battle against the monsters that had taken his home. It would be men. Men in league with the monsters, or at least their master, a necromancer.

Necromancy was a dark, forbidden magic, he knew, and he knew next to nothing about magic itself, other than it took years of study to learn even the faintest bits. It was not wonder most images of wizards were thin, frail men and women. Those were years he had spent honing his body to perfection, and learning the sword at the same time.

He turned and walked back into the castle. He had been given a room when they arrived back and slept part of the day, and now, after waking, had only been able to catch brief bits that there would be a battle tomorrow, and something about someone sneaking into the castle and someone dying.

The main hall was brightly lit, even at this time of night, though it may have been because of the activity this night. The stone floor was polished to such a reflective state, you could almost make out your face in the gleam, and you dared not look down near one of the wall mounted braziers, lest you risk blinding yourself. Blue carpeting ran down the center of the hall, and up the stairs at the far side that led to the second floor, where the throne room was located somewhere nearby.

He knew that one of the side doors in the hall led to the kitchen and dining areas for the castle staff, and on the other side, a hallway that led eventually to the dungeons. As he passed this door, it opened, one man stepping out and holding it open for four others, who were hauling a stone statue between themselves.

"Strange time to redecorate," he said to himself.

"Not redecorating," came a woman's voice behind him.

He nearly jumped out of his skin she spoke, and he turned to see the dark elf woman from the previous day standing behind him. "You've got to stop doing that," he said, "You're going to give me a heart attack."

"Sorry," she said, "but look more closely."

Alex turned to look at the statue as the men carried it past. "Isn't that Link? When did that get made?"

"About an hour ago," she said, "He has been petrified by the wizards who stole into the castle."

"What?" Alex said simply as they carried the statue back toward the stairs.

"He is lost to us, for now," she said.

Magic, Alex thought, bloody blasted magic.

"Oh," he said, turning around to face her, "Your name is Silviana, right? I'm Alex."

He offered his hand to her. She looked down at his hand, then at her own, and slowly reached out to take it, and squeezed gently. "Forgive me," she said, releasing it quickly, "I'm not used such gestures, or being around many people."

"Okay," he said, "You did seem to disappear pretty quick when we got back. Where did you go?"

"Up to the roof," she said, "The air is fresher up there. It's more comfortable than down here, breathing in the exhaled breath of so many others."

"I see," he said, and looked back to see the men carrying the statue were gone, "So, I'm kind of lost about what's happening around her. Can you possibly fill me in?"

"Only what I've already told you," she said, "Or what you have guessed. There's a war coming, but I don't think our part in it will be the first battles."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She smiled, a twinkle in her eye hinted at what she knew and wasn't telling. "You'll see."

* * *

Dawn arrived at last, and a morbid morning it was, as dark clouds filled the sky. At the moment, only a light snow fell upon the city, but the occasional flash of lightning within told of the storm to come.

As the Darimar troops pulled the last of their men from the outer city within the inner walls, and the gates slammed shut, many crowded onto the wall, perhaps out of curiosity, to see what was coming. They'd have little chance unless it came much closer, for the outer wall was barely visible on the horizon from where they were. Judge Ralthas and Princess Zelda stood among them, waiting for it to begin.

"You shouldn't have come out here," he insisted once again.

"Strictly speaking, Ganondorf is a warrior of my kingdom," Zelda said, "I believe I have a right to witness this."

"So be it, then," he replied, tired of arguing about the subject.

Outside the city, Kilishandra's forces readied themselves, and she stood at the crest of the final hill, watching the walls.

"My lady," came the voice of her second, "The men are ready."

Even as he finished speaking, Kilishandra saw the movement on the wall. The drawbridge of the gate began to lower itself, bridging the ravine around the walls.

"So that is how it's going to be," she said, and turned around, "Hold here and wait for my signal."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she said, turning back and walking down the hill toward the city, "He is waiting for me."

She did not hurry, walking cross the level field around the walls toward the gate, and across the drawbridge, into the city. Immediately inside, the street opened wide into a square, surrounded by shops from tailors to blacksmiths and inns, all the normal business for the entrance to a city.

In the center of the square was a large statue, depicting a long dead king upon a rearing warhorse, holding his sword aloft and his face a stone set of what was intended to be courage, she expected.

A single figure stood in front of the statue, his back to her. He did not look up as she approached, but his massive size easily gave away his identity.

"King Jeremy Landolas Darimar," he said, reading from the base of the statue as she drew closer, "He led his men against the seemingly endless barbarian horde, outnumbered ten to one, they pushed them back and into the artic northlands from whence they came."

Ganondorf turned to look at her and smiled. "Sound familiar?"

The tailor had been busy while he had been dealing with Mur'neth, and Ganondorf was now dressed as he preferred, in a black shirt and pants, over which he wore a chain mail shirt and leggings, heavy boots, and a red cape that hung to his shins clasped around his neck.

Kilishandra silently drew her sword, the hiss of scraping metal almost resembling that of an animal, bracing itself for attack. Ganondorf looked at the glare on her face and sighed, shaking his head. "What's with that look? What did I do to make you hate me so much?"

"You left us to die," Kilishandra said, "You told us the blight wouldn't spread, and then you left us."

"I told you I'd be back," he said, leaning down and picking up his sword from the ground where it lay, "Did you not hear me?"

"After we were all dead," she said, "We had no choice. We are going to make a new home for ourselves, and here you are, fighting against us now. What am I supposed to think?"

"Kili, listen to me…" he started.

She swung her left hand forward. "_Daem!_" she cried out.

A lash of lightning shot from her fingertips, bridging the air between them. As quickly as she had fired, however, Ganondorf's hand came up, and the electricity snaked to the side, around him, to strike into the base of the statue behind him, and the great warhorse and king of old toppled sideways, shattering to rubble the street.

"Don't call me that," Kilishandra said coldly, "You don't have the right. Not anymore."

"All right then, Kilishandra," he said, enunciating each syllable of her name, "If that's how you want to do this. I guess I have no choice."

He rolled his head sideways, the bones of his neck popping loudly. Kilishandra crouched low, and ran toward him, her left arm, with its massive number of armor plates, held up before her as she held her sword behind her in her right.

_Exactly like he expects_, she thought, _and then attack from another angle._

She swung her blade in a wide horizontal slice, and his came up to protect himself, as she knew it would, and she suddenly spun to the right, turning her swing around and adding more momentum with her spin, coming at him from the other direction. Sparks flew as her blade struck into his, which had quickly moved back to protect his right side, and then her real attack came. Reaching past her sword, she shot her left hand upward, the clawed fingers of her gauntlet striking into the bottom of his chin, punching through the skin and up through his jaw, which she quickly clamped her fingers around, and jerked back toward herself.

Blood spewed as his lower jaw came off in her hand, and she dropped it to the ground, lunging quickly forward, her sword punching into his chest and out his back, and she gave the hilt a savage twist, then drug it to the right, cutting out underneath his arm, blood flying through the air and spattering on the street as he staggered back a step before flopping onto his back.

Kilishandra stared at the body a moment before she let her breath out. "I did it," she whispered, "Just like that…"

The body erupted in blue flames as its flesh crumbled away, like falling glass to vanish in smoke upon touching the street. "No!" Kilishandra shouted, turning away, but too late.

Ganondorf's massive hand stuck her right wrist, and with a cry of pain her fingers reflexively released their grip, her sword clattering to the street. Before the blade had actually landed, his left hand snatched her around her throat and his right grabbed her left arm around the wrist, preventing her from lashing out with the clawed fingers. She beat her free fist into his shoulder, producing no visible effect on him as he lifted her from the ground with ease even with her in full armor.

"You're slipping," he growled at her, "You can't even tell the real me from my phantom. That's not like you, Kili."

He wasn't actually choking her, but with his hand around her throat, was lifting her by her chin. She snatched the chance. "Nui!" she shouted.

Her sword came to life, with yellow sparks, from the blade leaped the great thunder beast, in the form of a purple tiger, twelve feet from nose to tail, and weighing just over a ton. Ganondorf released his grip, tossing Kilishandra to the ground as he turned to meet this threat as two thousand pounds crashed into him, carrying him through the air to slam into the street.

The beast raised one of its massive paws to strike, and he rolled quickly to the side, out through the opening it created, and its claws dug three inch wide trenches into the stone of the street where he had lain. Ganondorf leaped to his feet, turning to face it, and it leaped toward him again. This time, he was ready, and grabbed onto either side of its head as it slammed into him, this time carrying him through the front wall of a tailor shop.

Kilishandra was on her feet, and moved toward the shop cautiously. There was another crash from inside, and the building crashed downward on top of itself, into a pile of rubble. Kilishandra ran around the side, knowing that Nui must have carried him out the back wall, and it gave way. She turned into the alley running behind the buildings and suddenly stopped.

The great cat was seated on its haunches while Ganondorf gently scratched one ear while whispering something to it. "Nui!" Kilishandra said, "Attack!"

The great cat groaned and lay down, resting its head on its feet. Ganondorf chuckled. "You forget who it was who tamed this beast to begin with? You're not going to get any help here."

"Damn," she muttered, backing out of the alley as he walked toward her.

"You might at least tell me what it is you and Khall are trying to accomplish," Ganondorf said, "I think I should at least understand what it is you're after."

"Why should I?" Kilishandra said, "You don't care!"

"Enlighten me," Ganondorf said, "I might start caring."

Kilishandra shook her head, but said, "With the blight spreading back in our home, we need to relocate a large number of people. For this reason, we need a great deal of land, and if we just tried to come over here, we would overpopulate and cause widespread starvation, which would be little better than the blight. So we conquer, and upon the ruins of the five kingdoms of Mystara, we will establish the Sorcerers' Kingdom, which shall be ruled over by those of us with magical abilities."

She continued to back away from him, back into the square as he followed. "Once we are established and self-sufficient," she continued, "Khall, Tharkus, and I will devote research into the old magics and create new ones, which will allow us to control things like the climate, weather, and even the shape of the land. We will bring rains in drought, stop floods and storms. And we will find ways to cure even fatal diseases. Does that help you understand? There will be no hunger, disasters, no disease, and with all are people united, no discrimination, and no war."

Ganondorf stopped where he was, and looked away from her. "Kili," he said, and suddenly turned toward her, anger in his eyes and his teeth bared in rage, "You know as well as I do that that is complete bullshit! Hatred and ignorance are at the very core of human nature! You can't make them stop hating each other and play nice! This eternal heaven on earth you're after is nothing but childish fantasy!"

He slammed his fist into his own chest. "I thought I could make a change like that before, too, when I helped your people unite your world under one rule. But did that stop the hatreds? Did the dark elves suddenly start hugging the humans, all the old grievances forgotten in the face of what would be a better future? No! People want to fight, Kili, and you won't be able to stop them! If you take away their reasons for fighting, they'll just make up new ones!"

"I wouldn't expect a vulgar creature like you to understand," Kilishandra said, "But I will see it happen. A future like that is worth fighting for. It's worth dying for."

Ganondorf sighed. "Then you're beyond saving," he said, "I'd be doing you a mercy by putting you down."

"You're welcome to try," she said, "I'm not the little girl you knew anymore. And you'll learn why they call me the Sorceress of Storms now."

A smile crept onto his face. "Then show me."

Kilishandra raised on arm over her head, and her voice cried out loudly, without word, and from the dark storm clouds above, a streak of lightning shot down, striking into her palm. The concussive force of the impact pushed on Ganondorf, forcing him to take a step back as white sparks billowed around her.

And he smiled again. "She always did have a natural talent," he said to himself.

"_God of storms and thunder, I call upon your power,_" she said, moving both arms to her sides, bent at the elbow, fists pointed forward, and sparks shot across her body, the static causing her hair to stand out to the sides and the crackle of electricity filling her eyes, "_Untold wrath and irrevocable fury unleashed, crush the enemies that stand before me…_"

She thrust her hands forward, fists opening, her fingers held like claws as she completed the spell. "_Hammerfall!_"

What followed was not a single thunderbolt, but as many as sixteen, wrapping about each other in a twisting funnel of lightning that bridged the gap between herself and Ganondorf in less than a second. Ganondorf raised his arms before himself, creating a swift barrier of dense air around himself to turn them aside, as he had done before.

So tightly wrapped about itself was the lightning that it refused to turn, striking into the barrier around him, and with to solid an impact for his liking, sent him flying backward, through the front window of an inn and crashing through tables and seats and right through the counter to stop against the back wall, dislodging several bottles of alcohol that shattered on the floor around him. He looked up from where he sat at the groove of destruction he had carved, and said, "Ouch."

Kilishandra smiled a little as he picked himself up, stepping over broken furniture opened the front door, stepping back outside. "My turn," he said, stopping some distance from her.

"_Spirits of air, I command thee to me,_" he said, lifting one arm before himself, "_Form thy body into a blade and slice through my foe._"

"Heh, that old one," Kilishandra said, and lifted her own arm before herself. "_Spirits of the air, I command thee to me. Form thy body into a blade and slice through my foe._"

"She's saying that awfully fast," Ganondorf muttered as she rapidly caught up to him.

"_Blown Edge!_" they both shouted in union, and slashing their arms forward, their fingertips leaving a trail of in the air that was air itself, but so densely packed it was actually visible, that flew forward to collide halfway between them, where they stopped and began to billow, trying to cut through the other.

Kilishandra lifted her hands, concentrating with everything she had, trying to force hers through. Ganondorf held up only one hand, and started to smile as he saw his blade forcing hers back. He looked through, to see her face, screwed up with effort.

Suddenly, it was replaced with another. There was the little girl he had known, that he raised as if she were his own blood. She smiled, laughed, and cried. Everything he remembered, even to the way her large ears would droop slightly when she was sad.

"Kili…" he whispered.

His blade of air vanished, and hers shot toward him, colliding with his body and sending him catapulting backward, once more into the inn, and out the back wall, leaving a large hole in the alcohol shelves, and sending more crashing to the ground. He flipping over and landing on the pavement of the alley on his stomach, and groaned in pain.

"Never allow compassion to cloud your judgement, especially in a struggle for life or death," Kilishandra said, not moving from where she stood, but watching the hole in the back of then inn, "That was one of the first things you taught me. Wasn't it, father?"

Ganondorf pulled himself up. His cape was shredded, and he could feel the splinters digging into his flesh. This time, he walked down to the end of the alley, coming around the buildings back toward her.

"Not bad," he said, and where she could see him, concentrated on his Triforce, and his wounds closed as swiftly as they had opened, "But not good enough."

"I see you're as frustratingly hard to kill as ever," she said.

"So imagine the fame you'll get if you actually pull it off," he said.

"I couldn't care less," she said, "All that is needed is you to die."

"Kili, stop and think a moment," he said, "I taught you everything you know. Do you honestly think you have a chance of killing me? The man who raised you as if you were his own blood?"

Kilishandra's glare darkened. "You may have raised me, but you are not my father. I began to understand when you left us to die. You took me in just because no one else would. A dark elf half-blood that you could raise any way you chose. I was nothing more than a game to you!"

Lightning crackled around her hand, and she ran for him, drawing back her fist to strike with the power of the Wizard's Fist. As she swung forward, her blow suddenly stopped dead, the electricity dissipating in an instant. Ganondorf's hand was around her wrist, his grip firm, but gentle.

"Kili, have you forgotten? The day we first met?" he asked, "I was passing by on the road, and you ran out of nowhere, and grabbed the hem of my cloak?"

She had not, and even now, more than a century later, she remembered it vividly. After she had fled the village after Reaper had tortured her mother to death, and she feared he would come back for her. She had actually mistaken Ganondorf for a dark elf, dark as his skin was, and with the hood of his cloak up, his face looked almost coal black. She had begged for help, telling him what had happened, tears in her eyes and feeling completely helpless.

"Through all my babbling," she said, "you waited, and then, without saying a word, you offered me your hand. And after I took it, we walked for hours, and when I could walk no further, you carried me on your shoulders…"

"And that was just where it began," Ganondorf said, "For a century following, I made sure you were always safe. When you asked me to teach you to fight, I did so, full knowing what you intended to do with it. I warned you that killing Reaper wouldn't bring back those you had lost."

"But why?" she asked, "You've never told me. Why did you take me with you that day? If you're truly as evil as they claim, as even you claim, why did you do that?"

Ganondorf took a deep breath, looking down at her. He released his grip on her wrist, and put his hand on her shoulder, looking into her eyes. "Because when I looked at you, I saw myself."

"What?"

"Kili, I've never told you, but I lost everything I knew and cared about just like you," he said, "My village burned, and everyone was killed, all because I was supposed to be the king of my people, and another would not have it. I came back from that, and killed her. I had my vengeance. And when I saw you, for the first time, I truly realized what I had become."

"You see," he went on, "My pain didn't stop when I killed her. It grew. I turned it to a driving force behind my actions. I decided what I wanted, and I would have it. I killed anyone who stood in my way. Looking at you, I realized that if you survived, you would follow the same path, and become just as terrible as me. And I decided then and there that I would not allow it. And I vowed that I would change myself in the process. I will admit that my end goals have not changed, but my means and reasons have. Just as you did kill Reaper in the end, your means and reason were not what they would have been had I not guided you.

"It wasn't just me that saved you, Kili," he said, "You saved me."

Tears had appeared in Kilishandra's eyes. "Father, I…"

There was a sudden, sharp stab of pain in her chest. She grit her teeth and groaned.

"Kili," Ganondorf said, "Here, let me…"

With a scream, she thrust her hands into his chest, a burst of dense air blasting into his ribs, and launching him away from her. He flipped backward through the air, landing on the street on one knee and sliding backwards some way.

Hidden underneath her gauntlet, on the ring finger of her left hand, the blue Nail of the Accused had just released the first of its poison into her body, this just a warning compared to what was yet to come. If she did not steel herself, it would begin to destroy her from the inside, dissolving her bones and innards into mush, in an extremely painful death.

"I can't stop," she said, "I mustn't stop!"

* * *

"He's getting through to her," Zelda said.

"What do you mean?" Ralthas asked. They had seen flashes of light over the rooftops, and several roofs had disappeared since this started.

"I can feel it," she said, "She tries to steel her heart, but she cares for him. I just felt what seemed like relief, and then it was overwhelmed with a great wave of sadness."

"What are you talking about?" Ralthas said.

"Open the gate," Zelda said, turning for the stairs leading off the wall, "We need to get out there!"

* * *

Another streak of lightning lanced across the square as Ganondorf leaped to the side, the bolt striking through another wall and bringing another building crashing to the ground.

"Kili, listen to me for a second!" Ganondorf shouted as she pulled her arm back for another strike.

"No," she said, "This is the way it must be!"

Ganondorf was on his feet and ran for her as she swung her hands forward and shouted, "_Riot!_"

Many streams of lightning shot from her hands lancing through the air and writhing about like living things. Ganondorf lifted his hands, creating his barrier, and fighting to maintain it as the vicious electricity carried him back through the air, through the back wall of an apartment building, and bringing it tumbling down on top of him. Kilishandra moved toward it as the stones shifted and he pulled himself out of the rubble.

_I haven't forgotten everything you've done for me,_ Kilishandra thought as she watched him, _But it is already decided. Only one of us can survive this fight._

"Kili," Ganondorf said, wiping blood from his chin on the back of his hand, "Enough."

"I will decide when it is enough," Kilishandra said, her voice dripping with venom.

Another spell she cast, this one conjuring a white ball of electricity. Steam rose from it as falling snow evaporated on its surface. Ganondorf tried to turn it, and was once again launched backward, to land hard on the street, face down, while the ball of electricity turned the stone upon which he had been standing molten.

_I can't turn back,_ Kilishandra thought, moving after him, _Tharkus made sure of that. Stop trying to reason with me and just kill me._

Ganondorf pushed himself up, his wounds closing before her eyes.

_I would rather die by your hands than this curse,_ she thought, blinking back tears, _Please, just make it fast._

"Kili," Ganondorf started, and was interrupted as a dense ball of air crashed into his chest, sending him rolling across the street.

"Fight me, you idiot!" Kilishandra screamed.

Ganondorf pushed up to his feet again. "No."

"No?" Kilishandra blinked in surprise, "If you don't fight me, you'll die!"

"Then take my heart and free yourself," he said.

Kilishandra's mouth opened to speak, but she couldn't find words. "You know?"

"Yes," he said, "And I know you'll do what is right."

Another stab of pain in her chest. Kilishandra moved toward him. "Father, please, not like this…"

"Kili," he said, "There are plenty of things I'm willing to kill for. But you are the only thing I'm willing to die for. Do it."

* * *

_No!_ Zelda screamed in her own head as her horse ran at full gallop through the streets toward them, Ralthas right behind her, _There has to be something we can do! This is breaking her heart...  
_

* * *

Sheila moved around her father's desk, looking at the last book that had been left open when Ganondorf left the room. Something about magical theory regarding curses that acted in roughly the same manner as poisons once active. Something had been underlined in fresh ink, and she leaned down to get a closer look.

"Once the curse is active, it is transferred through the body as energy," she read aloud, "It takes several seconds to spread thoroughly, and an experienced magician skilled in manipulation of energy could channel it from the victim into himself. Unfortunately, while this would save the victim, it would sacrifice the would-be rescuer to the curse."

She looked up from the book. "He can't possibly mean to…"

* * *

Kilishandra drew her hand back, electricity crackling around her fist, looking at Ganondorf's chest, where she readied her strike. She was hesitating again.

"It's okay," Ganondorf whispered.

She tried to force her arm forward, to deliver the strike, but it refused to budge. Each time she attempted, it would move scarcely in inch, and pull back. She could feel the tears running freely down her face.

"I can't do it," she said, falling to her knees, the electricity dissipating.

She felt another stab in her chest, this one lingering, and burning. It was starting.

"Now," Ganondorf said.

She looked up to see him reach down toward her. He laid his hand against her chest, over her heart. A soft red glow appeared under his fingers. The burning sensation in her chest began to fade, and was replaced with a pleasant warmth.

The red glow flowed away from her chest, up his fingers and into his arm, leaving red trails in his veins before fading away before reaching his elbow. After a moment, the glow faded away entirely, and he took his hand away, and smiling, knelt down in front of her.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," she said, "What did you do?"

He reached over and brushed her hair out of her eyes. "I took the curse into myself. It had to be active before I could do so, but then I could fight it off with the healing ability I possess. I'm sorry I pushed you so hard, but I couldn't help you until the last second. "

"Father, I'm sorry," she said.

"It's okay," he said, "Everything is going to be okay now."

"What am I going to do?" she asked, "I don't want to fight you anymore, but if I help you, I'll be betraying everyone depending on me."

"We'll figure something out," Ganondorf said, "Come on, let's go to the castle, get a hot meal in you, and we'll talk it all over."

He took her hands and helped her to her feet. "In fact, a ride will be getting here soon enough…"

She looked up at him, and he smiled back at her. "If I hadn't stopped, would you really have let me…?"

"I know you better than you think," he said, "I was reasonably confident you wouldn't."

He stopped suddenly, crying out in pain. Red light appeared beneath his flesh, running all through his arms and face, and even glowing through his clothing.

"Father!" Kilishandra said as he shoved her back.

The triforce on his hand flared into life as he focused on healing himself. "The curse," he growled through his teeth against the pain, "Seems it wants to hang around longer than I thought…"

He fell to his knees, groaning against the searing pain within his body. Kilishandra watched in horror as his flesh began to writhe and pulsate as though there were something within trying to claw its way out. "Tharkus!" he growled, "I'll have your black heart on a pike for this! You can't kill me so easily!"

Kilishandra knelt down in front of him, to ask if she could do anything at all to help, when the light suddenly faded and the pulsating of his skin ceased, and he toppled forward, and she caught him by the shoulders, gently letting him down.

"Father, are you okay?" she asked.

He gave no response. In fear, she used her hand to check his breath. He was still breathing. His eyes closed, perhaps unconscious.

She became aware of horses' hooves on the street and turned to look to see a woman, and older man, and six armed men riding toward her.

"Don't worry," she said, turning back to Ganondorf's still form, "We'll get a healer as soon as possible."

* * *

Outside the city, the army waited for her signal to charge. Through all the fighting, they had waited, knowing full well what it would mean if Kilishandra lost.

As they watched now, the drawbridge began to rise, once again sealing the gate and making it near impossible to siege the city.

With a sigh, Kilishandra's second turned to his men and said, "Sound the retreat."


	63. Chapter 62

**Chapter 62: Cry of the Banshee**

The river ran red as Link watched, thick and heavy, and he spotted a skull and what looked like a rib cage floating slowly past. "Good thing I'm not thirsty," he muttered, looking for a place to cross the river of blood without having to swim it.

He spotted a rock sitting near the middle of the river a small distance away and walked downriver toward it. It seemed that there was nothing but carnage and death in this world. The earth beneath his feet was always somewhat soft, like mud, and dark in color, an unhealthy tone between brown and red. And then there was the sky…

Link leaped out toward the rock, and felt it slide as soon as his weight was on it, and quickly leaped again for the far bank, the rock sliding away and disappearing into the oozing river as he landed on one knee on the other side.

Looking up, he could see the Black Crags, a dark silhouette on the horizon. He had never seen mountains that rose so steeply and to such sharp points before. He started toward them once more, his mind running over what had just happened. The Hero of Time, huh? The legend said he had traveled both forward and back through time to gather everything needed to defeat the king of evil back then. Well, Ganondorf was real enough, so how much else was true?

"The time travel has to be true," Link said to himself as he walked, "I've done it myself."

He remembered what had happened. The Temple of Time was little more than a ruin in the forest near Ordon. But when he had placed the Master Sword back in its pedestal, it had taken him back through time, to when it still stood.

"So that means it wasn't the hero who could time travel, but the sword," Link said, pondering through it, "Or is it the Temple of Time that does it?"

He decided that was one thing he'd have to ask about later. As he walked, he reached into his shirt and pulled out the small jewelry box still hidden there. Inside was the necklace, its pendant an emerald cut in the shape of a star, that he had bought so long ago now, it seemed. He had kept meaning to give it to Midna, and yet seemed unable to find a good time, and kept putting it off.

As he looked at it, he remembered the moment it had happened. The way her eyes seemed to go blank before the blood even appeared, and everything had seemed to move so slowly, the blood hanging horribly in the air before splattering across the floor in thick, heavy drops.

"This isn't your fault," she had said.

She hadn't blamed him. She wouldn't have. They had both known what they faced, but not for even a moment had he thought he would actually lose her. After all they had been through together…

And now here he was. Apparently dead himself, but the world not quite ready to let him go. He looked at the back of his hand, where the triforce within him glowed faintly. It was still there. He remembered grabbing for it in the dark at the last moment, and the pain. Maybe he had died, and his refusal to let it slip away was what brought him here.

_Link, turn back,_ whispered Shaklator's voice in his head, _You don't realize what dangers you are walking into._

And this voice in his head, telling him what he was doing was wrong. He had sworn he'd heard Midna's voice before, but it had not returned in some time. But she had to be out there, somewhere. He was sure of it.

The sun was sinking below the horizon, casting an eerie darkness over the land, reminiscent of the perpetual twilight of Midna's home, the Twilight Realm. When he had first truly entered the Twilight Realm it was the Master Sword that protected him from being transformed as he had before, and it had glowed brightly through the darkness, lighting the path.

The emerald star glinted softly in the fading light. "There's always a light in the darkness," Zelda had said after it was all over, as Zant lay in pieces in the throne room of the palace in the Twilight Realm, and Ganondorf's body lay at the bottom of the great ravine in southern Hyrule.

_Link, listen to me. Turn back or you won't survive the night._

"Two things about me. One, I don't give up," he said as the tattoo on his face began to illuminate the landscape in his eyes as the light disappeared behind the mountains ahead of him, "And two, I'm not afraid of the dark."

And just the same as he was not thirsty, during the day's travel, he was not tiring, and did not feel hunger. It was another indication that he was most likely dead, but didn't think about it, only pressing ever forward, taking full advantage of it. If he could keep up this pace, he would reach the foothills, where the altar was, by the following evening.

He tucked the jewelry box into his shirt and kept walking, the sword he had picked up earlier in one hand, dried blood and rust caking its blade. He never expected this recent turn of events, but if he allowed it to break him, he'd never get the answers he sought. How he could end this, save the people he cared about, and most importantly, why Midna had to die.

He refused to accept it. Fate, destiny, the will of the gods, whatever you wanted to call it, they could all go to hell for all he cared. All the talk of predestined heroes and villains did nothing but anger him. He had done what he had because he chose to, not because some god had forced him. People called him a hero, yet he had never thought of himself as one. Just someone who hadn't sat and waited to be saved. Then they'd say that in doing so, he had followed the preordained path for himself.

If any god appeared and told him that he had done exactly as they planned, he'd stab them in the face. See if they planned on that.

Night came quickly, turning the land around him into a dark wasteland, and keeping watch about himself, he could swear he saw things moving in the distance, trying to remain unnoticed. Just a little to the southwest was a line of trees that looked like the border of a forest. It was difficult to see past the first line with the way his night vision behaved, outlining the shapes of the trees in green.

He sped up his pace, jogging toward the trees, and once he reached them, turned to look back, and this time he was certain, a shape in the distance, moving toward him. On the ground, it wasn't likely a winged demon like the one before, as they'd come most likely from the air.

He turned and moved into the trees, moving more west than south, so he didn't lose track of his direction. It turned out to be more of a grove than a forest, and wouldn't provide cover for long, and as he moved out the other side, he could feel the ground becoming softer beneath his feet. He paused, checking his direction, and realized that the ground ahead was too level in many places.

Pools of water, or perhaps blood, like the river before, of varying sizes dotted the landscape, and he realized he had wandered into a marsh. There was a howl some distance behind him, like no creature he had heard before, high pitched and hanging in the air several seconds after it should have stopped.

He decided he'd be better off just pushing on, rather than risk fighting something for no reason. He moved into the marsh as quickly as he dared, testing the ground ahead of him with the point of his sword to make sure he didn't stumble into quicksand.

It was strange that the entire time he'd been here, he'd seen no animal life of any kind. It wasn't enough to convince him that he wouldn't be picking leeches off his calves after getting out of the marsh, or that he shouldn't avoid the deeper water for fear of things with scales and fangs that were bigger than him.

There was a single tree near the middle of the marsh, on higher, slightly drier ground. Link veered toward it as he moved, so he could stop there a moment and try to plot a course to the other side before having to actually go.

There was a soft splash to his left. Link turned, raising his sword, to find nothing waiting for him. Ripples slowly spread across the large body of water from a spot near the shore. There was no wind, and nothing that could have fallen in.

Link was fully convinced that he was not alone.

He started moving again, a little faster than before. The footing was extremely poor, and if something was going to try to get him, he'd rather be on the high ground. There was another splash behind him, and then another, as he moved. As soon as his feet touched the drier ground at the base of the tree, he spun, putting his back to the trunk and facing the waters.

Nothing moved. The marsh was as quiet as it had been when he arrived, but the quiet now was unnerving. Link moved slowly around the tree, watching the waters around him, watching for even the slightest movement.

He was suddenly blinded, light searing his eyes, killing his night vision and forcing them to readjust quickly, and he stabbed he weapon toward the light, and hit nothing but air. As the light came into focus, he realized that it was a hovering ball in front of him, with two wings protruding from the back, silently beating the air, and the shape of a small body, two arms and two legs, began to take form as his eyes adjusted.

"Well, look at that," he whispered, relaxing a small bit. Fairies were a rare sight in Hyrule these days, but not entirely non-existent.

It flew around him, as if curious, and more lights began to appear as more came to join the first, circling around him in a dance of light that was dazzling to behold. He was considerably surprised, not expecting in the least to find fairies here at all, much less in a marsh. But they tended to congregate around water, and with no other real water source around, seeing as how the river earlier had been blood, it made sense.

The small hill he was on had become a beacon in the night, and with so many fairies around him, Link couldn't see past its edges, but he couldn't help but smile a little. "There's always a light in the darkness," he said.

There was a small stab of pain on the back of his left shoulder. He swatted at it, catching something with the edge of his hand that moved away. He turned around to see, and another stab came on his right arm. "Ow!" he said, swatting it away, "What the hell?"

The lights suddenly swarmed toward him, and he felt the small pricks everywhere they touched him. Link swatted the fairies away with increased force. One hit directly on his chest, and he snatched it quickly in his hand, and held it up close to his face. Fairies generally resemble small people, he knew, and where this one's head should be was merely a neck, lined with teeth, opening vertically and hissing at him.

"Oh, crap," he said, and threw the fairy at the ground, where it landed with a dull thud, and as it rose was suddenly crushed under his boot heel, and he ground it down, feeling the tiny bones snap under his foot.

"You're going to have to work for this meal, ladies," he said as the others flew back a short distance, just out of his reach.

As one, they flew upward, congregating into a single swarm in the air above him, and swooped downward. A single fairy had hardly any mass, and would be lucky to fist fight with a tick and win, but massed together, they collided with Link with enough force to knock him from his feet and send him rolling toward the water as they passed by and flew back up into the air.

Link stopped himself before going into the water, and picked himself up, moving back quickly as something reached out and tried to grab him, then sank back beneath the surface as he moved out of reach.

The swarm of fairies was doing something else now, they were flying rapidly in a circle, a dazzling display of light in the night sky, then suddenly all turned in and flew directly into each other all at once. The light flared brighter for a moment, and as it faded back, a new shape had taken form in the light.

A human woman, she looked like, but must have been ten feet tall, with long flowing hair that seemed to hover of its own volition, and wearing what looked more like ivy and leaves than clothing, and left little to the imagination. She looked down at Link, smiled, and winked.

It might have had more of the intended effect on him if it wasn't a wink past shark teeth that protruded over her lips in a gruesome fashion. She then threw her head back and screamed.

Now, Link had heard women scream before. This outdid them all. It went on and on, so loud that even covering his ears did little to shield it, and so high pitched he felt like his head was going to explode. Even screams that could shatter glass paled in comparison to this.

Then it stopped.

Link's ears were still ringing as he looked up at the creature where it hovered above him in the air. The light coming from her was still too great to make out anything outside the circle she cast, but he was able to see the movement in the water ahead of him.

They crawled out of the water onto the shore, their flesh blue and green, rotten and waterlogged, and as they stood up, long, stringy, wet hair hung from their skulls, fingernails grown overlong, and what little scraps of clothing they wore were rotted and ready to fall off. His ears finally easing off their incessant ringing, Link could hear them coming out of the water behind him as well.

He held his sword ready, full knowing what was coming, and for a moment, wishing intently that he hadn't taken this detour.

They moved toward him, a mass of unrelenting bodies. Link struck the head of the first off, turning to stab a second then kick it into the mass, causing many to stumble back, only to start forward once more as he struck a third down. Even as he struck them down, more were coming out of the water, swarming over the small hill, a pile of bodies beginning to build under his feet. Like a circle of death, he fought them on all sides, but each one seemed a little closer than the last as he struck them down.

_I warned you,_ came the whisper in his head, _You should have listened to me._

"If you're not going to help," he paused to cut another down, turning to those coming up behind him again, "then just shut the hell up!"

With a powerful two handed swing, he took three heads off at once, buying a little breathing room, and he turned to shove another back into the swarm, causing several to stagger back, but so densely packed were those behind them that they started toward him again immediately.

_You can't win this fight,_ said the voice, _But you can escape._

Kill after kill, body after body piled up, and Link was standing several feet higher than when he started, but the creatures climbed the bodies of their fallen as easily as they climbed the hill, and still more came endlessly from the water.

_Remember who you are, _said the voice, _There is an animal within you. Unleash it!_

Link could feel it within himself, with no time for thought, he was fighting on pure reaction and instinct. His senses were heightened. He could see more detail than any other, the exact points to strike to sever tendons and bones. He could hear distinctly the individual sounds, and knew exactly where each was even without looking, and knew where to strike. And even his sense of smell, past the rot, he could smell the water around him, and the algae that grew in the swamp.

He suddenly realized he was no longer fighting with his sword, but with claws and fangs, as he stood on all fours, and he felt even more powerful, leaping forward and ramming into the creatures and sending them tumbling over each other back down the hill. One grabbed at his tail, and he spun about, not bothering to bite, but slashing his fangs through its throat, sending it toppling down.

There was a clear path to the far side of the marsh. _Now, Link! Go!_ said the voice.

But the light from the great fairy still blinded him, and would make it too dangerous to run through the marsh. He turned toward her, still there above him. He leaped up onto the shoulders of the creatures, and using the power of his hind legs, leaped up toward her.

_No! Stupid fool!_ screamed the voice.

The fairy seemed surprised, as if she had never expected this possibility as he rose toward her. On his left front paw, the Triforce of Courage flared brightly, a golden glow overpowering even the fairy's shine. Link crashed into her, suddenly realizing he had no way to hold onto her, and quickly reached up, wrapping his arms around her neck, and hanging there as he wrapped his legs around her waist, and trying not to suffocate in her amble chest.

She seemed to realize what was happening, and reached up, trying to dislodge his hands. As she pulled one off, he pulled himself sideways, underneath her arm, shifting his grip with his other hand, and loosening his legs around her waist just enough to get around to her back, where he put his left arm around her neck, pulling himself up enough to get his elbow under her chine and grab his left wrist in his right hand, and pulled. She was reaching back, trying to dislodge him, but he pulled tighter and tighter, and with a guttural roar, put all his strength into the pull, and felt the snap under his arm.

The fairy's head rolled back, the back of her head falling flat against her own spine as Link released his grip and they both fell toward the ground.

Link dropped to one knee as he landed, lessening the impact on the squishy ground, the fairy's body landing with a loud thump, and lay still. The light had died, and Link's magically assisted night vision was returning rapidly. The creatures that had climbed out of the water had all simply collapsed where they were. The hill around the tree looked like a massive pile of bodies.

Link took a moment to catch his breath, and try to figure out what he'd just done. Without Midna's help, he had just transformed into a wolf, and then back again. In the back of his mind, there was a gnawing feeling, something to do with one of the old legends about the Triforce, but he couldn't remember exactly what it had said. Something about the world transforming you, or maybe it was "you are what you believe you are?"

And he knew that if he could do it again, he could travel faster on four feet than two, and get this chore done with that much quicker. He stood up and walked over to the hill of bodies, and tried to find the sword he'd dropped somewhere. After a few moments, he knew he wasn't going to find it, at least not without digging through the bodies and wasting time. He turned back toward the western end of the marsh, to try to figure out a way safely across.

In the distance, there was a light. Looking more carefully, he realized it wasn't a lantern or torch or even a fairy. It was an animal. Sitting just in front of the trees at the far end was a golden wolf, glowing faintly in the dark.

"No way," Link said, "It can't be."

The golden wolf rose off its haunches, and turned to walk away into the trees.

Link quickly tried to remember how he'd done it. "Let's see, an animal within me, just have to let it out, right?"

Try as he might, he couldn't get it to work again. He looked up to see the gold wolf was gone. With a sigh, he made his way down the pile of bodies, and began working his way west through the marsh.


	64. Chapter 63

**Chapter 63: Before Nightfall  
**

Morning light once more shown down on Darimar, hindered significantly by the clouds that hung heavy in the air since the previous day. A light but steady snow had been falling since the previous afternoon, and the streets were now hidden under a blanket of white several inches deep.

After Ganondorf had collapsed, Kilishandra had been taken into custody by the Judge Ralthas Anthress. A barrack stationed inside the inner wall served as a makeshift prison, and she had been locked in the officer's room for the rest of the day and night as they sent word to the castle of what had happened.

They had sent for healers, she knew, but as the light appeared through the high window, lighting the room as she lay on the bed, she had still been told nothing of her father's condition. She had not slept that night, and lay awake thinking about what had happened. He may have just given his life so that she would live.

"You're the only thing I'm willing to die for," he had said.

She had never heard him say such a thing before, in the entire time she had known him. He had always come across as stand-offish, and bullheaded. He didn't give you a choice; you did things his way, or not at all. And he was not a kind man, and rarely sympathetic. She remembered back when they had found the abandoned castle, when she was a child, and with a small caravan of refugees following them, and begun to build a community around it. One day, they had been walking through the town, because he wanted to keep an eye on things. There had been a beggar on the side of the road. Ganondorf took the man by the arm and led him to the craft shops and told the people there to give him a job. A blacksmith who was busy crafting farming implements needed someone to shovel the coal and haul iron bars and immediately took him in.

Two days later, the beggar turned up on the street again, his hand out, pleading for food and money. Ganondorf killed him there in the street. "Everyone works," he said, "There aren't going to be any leeches here. There's more than enough work to go around, and no one is going to get something for nothing. And if they think they are, well, they'd best be strong enough to prove they can take it."

Kilishandra shifted the position she lay in. She had difficulty getting comfortable with her wrists bound together as they were. Simple shackles, chained together, would not stop a magician from using her magic, so they had found a set that were basically two wrist shackles welded together, holding her wrists tight, right against one another. She was probably lucky they hadn't gagged her as well.

She laid her head back on the pillow, closing her eyes as she thought about what happened yesterday.

"What am I supposed to do now?" she asked the empty room, "What am I supposed to believe?"

Her world was dying. The blight was first discovered in the western plains when she was so young. It blackened the land and killed the plants. Nothing would grow, and nothing would survive. Standing water became poisonous to drink, and even rivers and streams would make you nauseas if you drank from them.

Ganondorf had determined the blight to be magical in origin, and that it had to be forcefully spread by a wizard. It didn't spread on its own, and would actually gradually recede as the sheer force of life pushed its way back into the land. It was nothing to be concerned about. Likely something left over by a mad wizard long since dead.

But after Ganondorf left them, the blight began to spread, and extremely rapidly. The western plains were just the start. Miles of land blackened every day, and by the time someone noticed it heading toward their city, now major capital of the largest empire the world had ever seen, it was impossible to stop.

What bothered her the most was the sound in a blighted area. There was no animal life, no insect, and it was as if even the wind refused to rise.

It was deathly silent in a blighted area. Unnatural silence as even the air just hung there, unmoving and eerie. She had nightmares sometimes where she was simply walking through a blighted area, the earth black beneath her feet, and the unnerving silence all around.

But those were nothing compared to the ones of returning home to find the blight had consumed their city, their home.

Fifteen years they had been gone, getting things ready for what was happening now. Fifteen years that the blight had continued to spread back home. Kilishandra, Khall, Mur'neth, and Tharkus had crossed dimensions, just as Ganondorf had done, to find a new world, where they could move their people to.

Minerva had remained behind, to protect the people as best she could. The last time Kilishandra had seen the woman, she was overseeing placing of fifteen foot long quartz crystals around the city in the largest magic circle she had ever seen, to erect a barrier that would hold out the blight, at least for a while. They would save as many as they could, and many would be crossing to this world as well, as the army they would need.

When they realized that this world was also Ganondorf's homeland, Khall and Tharkus decided they could not trust Kilishandra. And they were probably right, she thought, though at the time even she didn't believe it. Tharkus came up with the idea of giving her the Nail of the Accused, to ensure her loyalty.

"Tharkus…" she whispered.

That necromancer had always disturbed her, and she never understood why her father had taken him in. He hadn't even made it a secret he was a necromancer, and the form of magic was considered one of the darkest of arts, because it robbed the dead of their earned rest.

And he was to blame, more than anyone else, for what had happened yesterday, and the fact her father was now likely on his deathbed.

She sat up, turning to the side of the bed and put her feet on the floor, and looked toward the light coming in the window. She knew that Tharkus would be here soon. His army of undead monsters was the second prong of the pincer attack intended to consume Darimar.

When he arrived, she would have his head.

* * *

"And that's the situation as it stands," Ralthas said, finishing his summary of yesterday's events.

King Rigdar had arrived just an hour ago, with Sheila in tow, after the messenger had arrived at the castle, and heading out through the city in the overnight ride required to cross the massive complex of streets and buildings.

Sheila had gone immediately to the room where Ganondorf's unconscious body had been placed, to see what she could do to help the healers tending him, while the king sat down in the barracks' cafeteria to listen to Ralthas' report. Zelda sat across the table from the kind, a little ways to Ralthas' side, listening in as he told the king what had happened, and filled in a few details herself.

The king drummed his fingers on the table as he thought about the situation. The events had at least turned away the first attack, but he wasn't optimistic about them staying away.

"So," he said, "The wizard we begged to help us fight the magicians with abilities comparable to the ancient mages is on his deathbed, because he tried to save one of them. And that one is now a prisoner, inside this very building. Exactly what is the good side of this?"

"You majesty, we may have another ally in the woman, Kilishandra," Zelda said, "She's his daughter, adoptive, and believe me when I say she didn't want to fight him, and now she doesn't want to fight us. The magical curse she carried would have killed her if Ganondorf hadn't done what he had."

"I don't think that's a good idea," the kind said, "You see, King Maylow of Whitos-Neiki is here, staying in the castle for now. You haven't run into him, have you? Didn't think so. Anyway, that woman, Kilishandra, led an attack on the city several weeks ago, and used an ancient, forbidden magic to level the city. Do you know how many people survived that?"

Zelda shook her head silently, and the king went on, "Twenty seven. That's it. Twenty seven out of the eight hundred thousand that used to live there. It doesn't really matter how sorry she is or how much she wants to help us, I can't just let something like that go. And I know King Maylow would go ballistic if he heard we'd recruited her into our own ranks. If he were here, he'd probably be calling for her to be drug out into the street and her throat cut right now."

"But she only committed those acts because she couldn't defy our real enemies, or the curse would kill her," Zelda said, "Therefore, it can be said that she was not of sound mind and body, and cannot be held responsible for her actions."

"Oh yes she can," Ralthas said, turning to her, "She told me she accepted that curse willingly, to prove her loyalty to their cause. She had her choice, and that's how she made it. You're not going to win this argument."

"And what about Ganondorf, then?" Zelda asked, "What will he do if he wakes up and finds out that we've executed his daughter? That man is extremely dangerous, probably far more so than she is."

She stood up, reaching down to her hip, where her sword was sheathed, and drew the blade, a unique metallic ring like no other in the world filling the room, and lay the blade down on the table. Red letters shone on the white surface of the blade, and a single yellow gem in the pommel shone like an eye, always watching.

"This weapon is the only thing that can stop him for sure," she said, "and the only one who really knows how to use it is back in the castle, turned to stone! I'm warning you, if Ganondorf turns on us, we're not going to be able to stop him."

"That's if he survives in the first place," Ralthas said, "The healers were not optimistic. The curse did its job, attacking him from the inside. His bones have turned soft, and his insides are half-liquid. It's amazing he's even alive at this point."

"But Sheila is using magical healing now," Zelda said, "and that is working. She's putting him back together."

"We'll see. Magic can't fix everything. He might not wake up, and just lapse into a coma."

"In any case, we have to deal with this Kilishandra now," the king said, getting them back on subject, "The thing is, I don't want to execute her, especially not right here. Ralthas, is there anything we can really do regarding her?"

"She is an enemy officer," Ralthas said, "Typically, if they aren't killed, they are to be locked up until hostilities are over, and usually questioned at length regarding their forces and movements. I'm afraid that, legally speaking, there is nothing that can save her, unless she was a soldier in an allied army, and then she'd be turned over to her liege, who would be expected to try her for her crimes."

"Then my hands are tied," the king said, turning to Zelda, "I need a little time to straighten myself up. Say, fifteen minutes, then we'll bring her out and decided what to do with the situation. Got that? Fifteen minutes."

He winked at her as he said it the second time. She knew he was giving her time to try to figure something out. She picked up the Master Sword and returned it to it's sheathe. She knew what she had to do.

* * *

Sheila couldn't believe what she was doing even as she did it. The soft green glow from her palms illuminated Ganondorf's flesh in a strange color mixture as she ran her hands over his body, feeling the bones toughen under her touch, and shape restore to his flesh as his muscles and organs returned to their original shapes.

No human could have lived through that, she knew, but this man was unlike any other she had ever encountered. Not only was he still alive, it was as though he was surviving through sheer willpower more than anything else. She had set to work, focusing on his chest and abdomen first, mending his vitals before she even thought of working on anything else. Now she paused a moment, laying one hand on his chest, pleased to find his breathing had evened out, and were much deeper breaths now, and his heart had stopped beating so erratically, and settling into a steady rhythm.

She paused a moment to try to gather her energy. The healing magic sapped her strength quickly, and she hoped she could finish before she collapsed. She moved to his shoulder, channeling the energy into his bones and muscle tissue, feeling them strengthen and return to their normal shapes under her hands as she moved across his shoulder and down his arm.

Once his fingers were properly shaped again, she moved across, to his pelvis, and silently thought, _Just please don't wake up while I'm working this area…_

* * *

"I need to speak to the prisoner," Zelda said to the guard outside the captain's quarters.

"The judge gave me strict orders," he said, "No one is allowed to see her."

"I'm coming from him," she said, "He's about to pass judgment right here."

The guard shook his head. "He said he would come get her himself…"

"You're holding things up, and the king isn't going to be happy," Zelda said.

The guard sighed, and turned to unlock the door. "All right, go in, but if the judge comes around…"

"I'll take full blame," Zelda said, stepping through the open door, and the guard pulled it shut behind her.

Kilishandra rose from her seat on the side of the bed, turning toward her. Zelda had to remind herself that she was Ganondorf's adopted daughter, for when the woman rose to her full towering height, combined with the dark skin and fiery hair, she looked every inch like his blood. Her armor had been taken, leaving her wearing just the padded trousers and soft white shirt she had worn beneath it.

"Kilishandra," Zelda said, "Your father has told me a bit about you."

"How is he?" Kilishandra asked.

"Sheila, the High Elder of Mystara, is tending to him," Zelda said, "She is one of the very few healers left who can mend bones and flesh with her touch. I'm afraid the curse's damage is quite extensive, and we don't know if he'll wake up yet, but he is alive."

"I see," Kilishandra said, "Who are you, if I may ask?"

"Yes, we didn't get proper introductions when Ralthas and I reached you yesterday," Zelda said, "My name is Zelda, I'm the princess of the kingdom of Hyrule, far to the east, across the ocean."

"My father used to talk about a woman named Zelda," Kilishandra said, moving closer and looking down at Zelda, studying her face, "But I remember him saying she was blonde."

"Your father has been around for a long time," Zelda said, "He was probably talking about one of my ancestors. Ever since the first fall of Hyrule, when the Hero of Time defeated Ganondorf, the King of Darkness, Hyrule has had no king or queen, and is ruled by the princess. The first daughter of each royal generation is named Zelda, after the first, and it is she that will lead Hyrule's people."

"If that is true, tell me something," Kilishandra said, "How is it that my father has lived so long? I knew there had to be something, for though he is human, he raised me for nearly a century, yet he never seemed to age. He never told me how that is possible."

"It is somewhat complicated," Zelda said, "And I don't have the time to tell you the whole story right now. In fifteen minutes, Judge Ralthas is going to take you out to where they have witnesses, and pass judgment. The fact you brought one city to the ground with very few survivors seems to be the main factor. They think you're too dangerous to even hold as a prisoner."

"I figured as much," Kilishandra said, "I promise that I have no intention of hurting anyone else. Not that I could, like this…"

She looked down at the shackles that bound her wrists tightly together.

"I know you won't," Zelda said, "But you need to tell me something. What do you intend to do, if they will listen to you?"

"Tharkus is the one responsible for what happened to me, and to my father," Kilishandra said, "Regardless of anything else, I will kill him."

"That is the necromancer, correct?" Zelda asked, and went on when she nodded, "A young man named Alex Ragefaust was in Metallicana when an army of undead swarmed over the walls. That was Tharkus' army, wasn't it?"

"Yes," Kilishandra said, "We knew Darimar would be the most difficult city to take, especially with my father here. Tharkus' creatures are headed this way, intended as reinforcements for my troops, or to finish the job if I failed. And he will be with them."

"Do you know when?"

"Sundown today," Kilishandra said.

The words almost sounded like a death knell. The images of what Alex had described came to her mind, and it was a terrifying thought. The creatures simply climbed over each other and swarmed the walls, and each defender that fell rose again, increasing their ranks.

But one thing Zelda had excelled at back in her schooling was military strategy, and she was already thinking of ways to slow and think the undead ranks before they reached the city. Burning pitch, laid in ditches outside the wall, then lit with a flaming arrow from the wall would be highly effective. Pits lined with sharp stakes might slow them, but the creatures had to be burned or cut into numerous pieces to stop them. Fire was the best bet, and she had an extra trick there that she doubted the engineers of this country knew about.

"All right," Zelda said, "Now listen, I believe you, and that I can trust you. But my word that you can be trusted isn't going to heal the wounds you caused in our enemy's service, but the king will respect my sovereignty."

"This is not your kingdom," Kilishandra said.

"No, but your father is originally from my kingdom," Zelda said, "And in spite of what he has done, he is technically a citizen of Hyrule. And by Hyrulean law, as his child, whether blood or adopted, makes you a part of my kingdom as well with the swearing of a simple oath of service. The king of Darimar would respect that claim, even if the judge would not like it."

"So, to save myself, I have to enter the service of a kingdom I have never seen," Kilishandra said, scowling.

"You want to see a kingdom one day that is free of things like discrimination and petty hatreds," Zelda said, "While Hyrule is not perfect, a person's race does not matter there. You will be a full citizen with all the rights of any other. That was the great thing that the last king of Hyrule did. He united people of such different backgrounds and histories that one would hardly believe they can coexist. Not just human beings like myself, but in Hyrule we mingle with the Zora, the river-dwelling fish people, and Gorons from the mountains, giants of men who eat rocks and are nearly rocks themselves.

"I have heard about the way dark elves are regarded in the world you were born," Zelda went on, "And your mixed heritage must have made it all the worse for you. That is something I guarantee will not happen in Hyrule. I can't say you won't stand out in a crowd, as tall as you are, but you would be given the same respect as anyone else."

Kilishandra was silent for a moment. "I would like to see this place," Kilishandra said, "But at the same time, I would be abandoning my own people."

"No one is saying that," Zelda said, "I truly want to sort this out so this war doesn't have to end with one side killing the other. But if we don't live long enough to talk it over, we won't do anyone any good."

"You have to promise me something," Kilishandra said.

"What is that?"

"That regardless of what happens, regardless of whether this ends peacefully or not, that we will do everything we can to save the people of my world."

Zelda nodded. "Of course we will."

"Swear it on your life."

Zelda nodded, and placed her right hand over her heart. "So do I swear."

Kilishandra sighed. "Thanks. Even if there is nothing we can do, that makes me feel a little better. I guess I have to swear on something now, right?"

"It's quite simple," Zelda said, "But we need some witnesses, so it will have to wait until you are called for judgment."

As if on cue, the latch in the door clicked and the door opened. Ralthas entered, and immediately glared at Zelda. "It's time," he said.

"Of course," Zelda said, "Let's go."

* * *

"Let's get this over with," King Rigdar said when Kilishandra had been escorted into the barracks cafeteria, "This isn't the usual kind of place, but we have witnesses," he indicated the men seated around them, "So, if you will begin, Ralthas…"

"Of course," the judge said, seating himself across from them, "I will be making judgment on one Kilishandra…"

"Oristev," Kilishandra filled in when he paused.

"Thank you," Ralthas said, "You are an officer of our enemy, and during times of war, certain allowances have to be made for what war is. However, you committed an act of extreme genocide when you destroyed Whitos-Neiki, and no more than thirty of the eight hundred thousand who lived there survived. Such an action is unforgivable by any times or allowances. The penalty for such a war crime is death."

Zelda turned and looked directly at him. So, all that he had been talking about regarding other options had been merely stalling? The man could be a real bastard when he tried.

"Due to circumstances," Ralthas went on, "The surviving witnesses cannot be present, so we will skip their testimony for now. Without proper protocol, it would be wrong to pass final judgment, however, so whatever is determined here will be a temporary measure until we have time and means to hold a proper trial. But if you have anything to say in your defense, you may do so now."

"What I have done to your people is unforgivable," Kilishandra said, "I understand this, and accept it. However, I did so only because my world, and everyone in it, will die. It is a steep price, I admit, that so many must die so that others may live. I made my decision, and it was a hard one, but would you have done any different if you were in my place? But things have changed. I am convinced I have been lied to by the ones who sent me to war on your people. And the one who put me in that position will soon be here, to finish what I was supposed to start. I ask only that you let me find him, and kill him. Thus I will be doing you a great service."

"You would indeed," the king said.

"That is a matter for the king to decide, and not why we are holding this to begin with," Ralthas said, "For now, I think it is best if you are kept under guard…"

"I wish to speak on the matter," Zelda said.

"And what do you have to do with it?" Ralthas asked.

"I have spoken to her in private, and believe we can trust her," she said, "For reasons that I have explained before, it is impossible for someone to lie to me. And second, her life if mine by right."

"And what do you mean by that?" Ralthas asked.

"Her father is from my kingdom, making him a member of my people," she said, "And by Hyrulean law, his daughter inherits the same rights, whether she is blood or adoptive. While there is no formal alliance between your lands and mine, I have had some initial discussions with King Rigdar regarding the matter in private…"

Ralthas turned to the king, who nodded.

"…and I request that she be released into my custody for now," Zelda went on, "With the initial discussions having taken place, that qualifies me as a diplomat and I receive limited diplomatic immunity, as do those in my entourage. In my custody, what she has done will not be forgiven or forgotten, but she is earnest in her desire to help us now. In service to us, she will earn atonement, even if she must serve for her entire life to do so. But she cannot do so behind bars."

"And you support this?" Ralthas asked the king.

"I do," he said, "We need her."

"Very well," Ralthas said, "She will be released into your custody. Should she betray us, the blame will fall on you, Princess Zelda."

Zelda nodded. "Thank you."

Ralthas reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a key, which he lay down on the table before himself. "Here's the key to her shackles," he said, standing up and turning to walk away out the door.

Zelda picked up the key and moved to Kilishandra, unlocking the shackles which clattered the floor. Kilishandra massaged her wrists where the iron had been clamped tight. "I can't believe you convinced him," she said.

"There's still one more thing," Zelda said, and turned to the king, "Where is her sword?"

"They couldn't find it," the king said, and turned suddenly as there were shouts outside the door and Ralthas was backing back into the room, his weapon drawn.

A massive cat moved in through the door, purple fur and glowing yellow eyes illuminating the room.

"Nui!" Kilishandra said, "Just waiting for the right time to show up?"

The massive cat moved across the room to her, and Kilishandra reached out to scratch under its jaw. It purred loudly enough to shake the walls. "We're going to set things right now," Kilishandra said to it.

The beast began to glow with a soft light, and began to shrink, changing shape as it did so. In a few seconds, Kilishandra was holding her sword, the spirit of the great thunder cat within, a bright yellow gem on either side of the pommel, and strangely colored purple blade.

"You're going to have to tell me where you got that later," Zelda said.

"I'd be happy to," Kilishandra said, "So what do I do now?"

Zelda reached down to her hip and pulled the Master Sword from the sheath, and turned the blade to rest the tip on the floor in front of herself. She had grown used to the red lettering that now adorned the white blade, and probably would for as long as the weapon existed. She rested her hands on the pommel. "Hold your weapon at rest, just like this," she told Kilishandra.

The other woman did so. Zelda looked up toward the ceiling, taking a deep breath. "Hold on, let me try to remember what I'm supposed to say here. This is normally done by one of the higher ranking knights."

She turned her gaze to look Kilishandra in the eye, which was still looking almost at the ceiling with the great height difference. "By the rights of all Hyrulean families, you are a citizen of Hyrule," Zelda said, "and are subject to the laws of the kingdom. First of all, your father is your family, blood relation or no. In Hyrule, adoptive children assume the family name of their parents, and as such you shall be entered into the records as Kilishandra Oristev Dragmire. Do you swear to serve Hyrule, her people, and her crown, whether in peace or war?"

Kilishandra took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, full knowing that this was it. She was not the kind of person to go back on her word, and Zelda had already made her another promise, even if it had been empty. "I do," she said.

"By the power bestowed upon me by the laws of Hyrule, and by the golden goddesses who bless our world, and before the witnesses gathered here and the eyes of Eternity, Goddess of Time, whom sees and records all, I, Princess Zelda Daphnes Hyrule, declare you a soldier of the Hyrulean army."

She picked up the Master Sword and held it before herself in one hand. "Cross your blade with mine," Zelda said.

Kilishandra picked up her sword, holding it so the flat of the blade touched Zelda's, the two blades forming an X where they touched.

"May you live long, serve well, and fight gloriously," Zelda said, "Now, this is the part where normally you turn to the throne, kneel, and thank the princess, but I think that since I am doing the swearing, we can skip that bit. Sheathe your weapon."

They both did so, sliding the swords home in the scabbards. "Now," Zelda said, turning to the king and Ralthas, "We have a lot of work to do today, gentlemen."

"What sort of work?" the king asked.

"Readying the defenses for the undead army that will be on your doorstep at nightfall," Zelda said.

"Tharkus is coming," Kilishandra said, "Kill him, and his entire army will collapse. It is his will that keeps them moving. But the city must hold long enough for me to reach him."

"You," the king said, motioning to a nearby soldier, "Send out the word for all the available officers to meet me here for a strategy meeting."

"And get some engineers in here, too," Zelda said as he moved for the door, then turned to the king, "I have an idea that will help considerably. Do you have a ready supply of pitch on hand?"

"Of course," the king said, "How much do you need?"

"How much have you got?"

* * *

Sheila sat back in her seat. She had done everything she could. She was exhausted. Physically, he was perfectly fine now. She had completed reconstruction of his bones and organs, but he had not awakened during the process. And he didn't seem to be waking up now. She reached down to the end of the bed and pulled the blankets up to cover him.

"Don't you dare die on me now," she said, sitting back down. She was almost tired enough to fall asleep in the chair.

She heard the door open behind her and turned to see her father come in. He was followed by the larger form of Kilishandra.

"How is he?" Ralthas asked.

"Physically, he's fine," Sheila said, "But I haven't been able to wake him up. He's fallen into a coma, I'm afraid."

"There is only so much that magic can do," Kilishandra said, "And there is no magic that can bring back the dead. He always used to tell me that."

"And you are Kilishandra, I assume," Sheila said.

"For the moment, she is with us," Ralthas said, turning to Kilishandra, "But while the princess may trust you, I don't."

"I didn't ask that," Kilishandra said, "Only that I be allowed to see my father. You can leave if you're quite finished."

"If Zelda says she's okay, then I'm fine with her," Sheila said, "But I've done everything I can for your father, and he doesn't seem to be waking up."

"Thank you," Kilishandra said and turned, looking directly down at Ganondorf, "It is my fault that things were taken this far. I'm sorry. But I will get the one responsible for this, tonight. Killing him won't bring you back, but I can make sure he never does this to anyone else ever again."

"Wait, he's coming tonight?" Sheila asked.

"Yes," Kilishandra said, "Now, I need to go. There is a lot of work to do, and I'm going to go help Ze…" she stopped, reminding herself that the woman was now her liege, "The princess."

And she turned and stepped out of the room, she sighed. It was going to be a long day.


	65. Chapter 64

I promised 2 chapters until the threads rejoin, but this one got held back a couple days so I could rewrite the ending. Six times I rewrote it, because it was either too obvious, too vague, or too out of proportion. I'm not completely satisfied with it now, but I'm not going to be able to do better and still push the story in the way I want to go. Anyway, thanks as always for all the reviews and comments, guys. Even if I don't respond to them all, I do read them all, and appreciate it.

**Chapter 64: The Light in the Dark**

Link had moved quickly once he left the marsh, but he was certain now that something was following him. The forest was thick where he came out of the marsh, and he ran as fast as he could, trees whipping past in a blur. It was fortunate that he seemed to never tire in this world, for even as fast as he was moving, it was gaining on him.

"I'm going to have to fight it sooner or later," he said as its shrieking howl pierced the night once more, even closer than the last time.

_I can help you, Link,_ the voice in his head whispered, _You just have to let me in…_

"Shut up," he said, "I'm long past listening to you. I know what you are, and whatever it is you want from me, you can forget it. I'm going to find this sword, and jam it through your skull."

_You cling to false hope,_ the voice said, _He lied to you. There is nothing where you are going, no weapon, no hope, no chance to survive. Death here would mean that you cease to exist._

"You've got a lot more reason to lie to me than he does," Link said, "We'll see what happens when I get there."

He stepped up onto a root jutting upward from the ground and leaped, sailing through the air to land with a roll on the far side of a stream running through the woods, then was on his feet and running again.

A weapon that could slay a god. He wondered what it would look like. A bestial sword, large as a man, but light as a feather? Or a blade made of light itself?

But then, this would-be goddess that they had to kill or contain to stop this chaos, that was the easy part to understand. Khall was trying to release her back into the world. What did he stand to gain by doing so? That was the piece of the puzzle they were missing. They had the who and the how, but the why eluded them.

Khall had killed Midna solely because he knew she was the only one who could destroy the mirror. And without the mirror, who knew how much longer it would take to open the gateway for Shaklator to come through? A day? A year? A thousand years? Even destroying the mirror would only delay the inevitable. A confrontation with the woman would come sooner or later. But it would buy time for them to come up with a more permanent solution.

At first Link had thought only of the immediate, what he had to do here, but as he now ran through the night, his thoughts drifting here and there, he realized that every minute he was here was a minute he lost back in Darimar, where anything could be happening. It would hardly help if he managed to return only to find everyone else had been killed in the mean time.

It ate at him. He hated the thought of so many lives depending on him, but now he was the only one who knew the truth of what was happening. Hopefully Ganondorf and Zelda would be able to hold things together until he could return.

It felt funny, counting on Ganondorf to do something for him. He still wasn't convinced the man could be trusted. But they didn't have a choice at the moment.

The thing behind him howled again, bringing him back to the present. It was still gaining, and was all too close for comfort now. "I can't outrun it," he muttered.

He could hear its footsteps now, thumping heavily on the ground behind him, gradually coming closer every second.

He dared a glance over his shoulder and could see the shape coming up behind him.

"Here we go," he said, turning back ahead, searching quickly for a low hanging branch in the trees around him.

He spotted one and veered toward the tree. Hopefully the branch would hold his weight, and he redoubled his effort, speeding his run into a full sprint. The branch came within reach and he snatched it in both hands, gripping just tight enough to keep a hold, and letting his momentum continue forward, his hands sliding around the branch as his own weight carried upward into the air, around the branch in a circle.

The creature pounced, its teeth snapping loudly as he moved upward and away from it, to flip around the branch and land heavily on its back. Link quickly grabbed hold of one of the protrusions of bone from its back with one hand, cocking the other back and striking his fist into its back, just to the side of its spine. His hand sparked with pain as he realized its body was covered with hard scales, tough as armor.

It stopped running, digging its feet into the ground and sending him catapulting forward over its head to land on the ground. Link let his weight carry him, rolling on the landing and getting back to his feet, turning to face the beast.

This was no mere animal, at least not like he had ever seen. Covered in scales hard as bone, yellowed in color, it was as wide as it was tall, and was taller than any man. Four legs ended in hooves with the front ends curved wickedly like claws, and a tail with a massive round club on its end. Its head featured two dark green eyes, looking down a long snout that grew continuously narrower until the tip which was almost a sharp a point as a dagger. It gave its shrieking howl again, the entire snout opening like a fan, eight different jaws in a cylindrical shape, each jaw lined with small sharp teeth like those of a shark.

"Is everything in this world a crime against nature?" Link asked.

"You can't win against this," whispered the softer voice in his ears, "You've got to run."

"I can't outrun it," Link said, backing away as it moved toward him.

"You can with four legs," whispered the voice.

"I don't know how to do that on command," he said.

"Don't think about it," the voice said, "Just go!"

Link turned and ran. The great beast shrieked and the ground shook as it moved after him, building up speed. For a moment, Link gained distance on the creature, but it quickly got its great bulk up to speed and began closing the ground between them.

"Don't think," whispered the voice, "Use your instincts. Just react!"

Link leaped to the side, changing directions quickly as the beast landed where he had been a moment before, its claws razing a channel in the earth, skidding a distance before turning its great bulk and moving after him again.

Link kept running as it closed in again. He realized there was more heavy thumping coming from his right, and glanced over to see another creature running alongside him, and veering toward him as the one behind closed in.

"Where are these things coming from?" he asked.

"Shaklator's influence," whispered the soft voice, "She doesn't want you to get to the sword in the hills."

A third of the creatures was visible beyond the one on the right, and he heard a second set of feet behind him, closing in rapidly. Link pushed himself, putting all his strength into running. It happened without him truly realizing it. He suddenly noticed he was much closer to the ground, and all four limbs pounding the earth as he began to move even more quickly, and slowly gaining distance on the creatures.

_Well, she's going to have to try harder,_ he thought, and lengthened his stride, rapidly pulling ahead of the great beasts, the speed and strength of the wolf flowing through him, his senses heightened, and now the night was his greatest ally.

More of the creatures were appearing from his left side, but even as they tried to approach his side, they fell behind his superior speed. Now, his thoughts turned to what exactly he was going to do if he hadn't lost them when he got there.

A dim light appeared ahead of him, small at first, but growing brighter quickly. It took the form of a golden wolf, glowing in the night and running directly toward him. _It really was you at the marsh!_ Link thought.

The golden wolf leaped upward, flying over his head, and Link turned his head to watch as the wolf changed shape in mid air, into the familiar figure he had known the previous year, in rusted armor and his flesh rotted by years since true life had left his body. Lightning flashed, glinting off the skeletal knight's sword as he landed on the creature in front of the pack, the blade sinking to the hilt behind the creature's head. The great beast collapsed, its head falling into the ground, and the momentum of its run causing it to roll, flipping over itself, the skeletal knight leaping away, and the creatures behind the first plowing into it and tripping over it, causing the entire pack to go rolling and crashing into one another. Bones cracked, necks snapped, and the knight charged into the pack, his blade whistling through the air and slicing into the survivors, making quick work of them.

Link stopped and turned back, realizing that the knight had made quick work of the entire lot. "Hey, thanks," Link called to him, and realized that he was once more walking on two legs, and had missed the moment he had shifted forms.

The skeletal knight turned and walked toward him, sheathing his weapon. "You've stirred up quite the commotion since your arrival here," the knight said, "These were just stragglers, and there are many more between you and the foothills."

"Well, thanks for the help," Link said, "Honestly, I'm kind of surprised to see you again."

This knight was the spirit who had helped Link with his swordsmanship in the previous year, during Zant's attack on Hyrule. The entire time, Link had not discovered who the knight was or his reasons for doing so, but seeing him again here was like an old friend returning after a long absence.

"You haven't far to go now," the knight said, "Come with me."

He started walking, and Link turned to follow. They didn't have to go far before they cleared the trees and the ground sloped upward. They were at the edge of the foothills, Link realized. They climbed the hill, and at its crest, Link suddenly stopped.

He could see it from here. A white glow in a valley about three, maybe four miles distant, and in that glow, a round platform. It had to be the altar where the sword was entombed. It was what was around the altar that disturbed him. Many more of the creatures gathered around it on all sides, possibly hundreds of them.

"Well that's just great," he said, "How am I supposed to get through that?"

"The influence of the false goddess has grown much stronger this past year," the knight said, "and all of her attention is now focused on you, and preventing you from reaching your goal."

The knight turned to face him, his gaze as hard as iron. "But if you cannot surmount the dangers she places before you now, you cannot hope to survive meeting her."

"That's easy enough to say," Link said, "But what am I supposed to do about that?"

"I have one final lesson for you, Link," the knight said, "In our past meetings, I instructed you in the ways of the sword, but now I have something to teach you far more important than the use of any weapon."

"All right," Link said, "What is it?"

"To reach the altar, you must keep moving," the knight said, and pointed toward the light, "You can see it now, but once you descend the hill, even the magic night vision you possess will blacken, and you will be blinded by darkness. You must keep moving forward. Hold what is most dear to you in your heart, and you will find light even in the darkest moments. No matter what you see or hear in the darkness, keep moving. The creatures you see surrounding the altar are the least of your worries. You already possess everything you need. Now you just need to use it."

"You're not going with me?" Link asked, turning to the knight, to see only empty air. He turned to look behind himself and saw the shape of the golden wolf disappear into the trees of the forest. "Guess that answers that."

Link turned back to the altar. He took a deep breath, trying to steel himself as the hundreds of beasts surrounding it milled about among themselves.

_This is your last chance,_ whispered the voice in his head, _Turn back now, or be lost forever!_

"You will be fine, Link," whispered Midna's voice in his ears, "Heed the knight's words, and keep moving."

"I wonder how bad it is when the voices in my head are arguing with each other," he muttered.

He took a long look toward the altar, making sure he'd have the right direction if he did go blind suddenly, and looked one more time at the pack of monsters. "This isn't exactly going to be a leisurely stroll," he said, then started running, "Let's do it!"

He reached his full speed quickly as he ran down the hill into the narrow valley, careful not to overstep and fall. The creatures at the altar turned and started toward him, like a swarm of massive ants, their heavy footsteps shaking the earth as they ran.

The light of the altar was fading, seeming to grow more distant. The valley grew darker, and just as the knight had said, even the Twili tattoo's magic failed to pierce the blackness as it descended upon him.

With the darkness came silence. The thundering beats of the monsters' steps fell away into the distance, and his own breathing grew abominably loud. He couldn't help but slow to a jog in the inky blackness that now surrounded him. He couldn't even see his own hand in front of his face.

There was something else. Something new, watching him from the darkness.

"Keep moving," he said to himself, pushing himself forward, expecting the jaws of one of the beasts to snap toward him at any second.

"Don't you miss your old life?" hissed a voice from his right, "It was so simple when you were a farmer in Ordon, compared to now."

"How would you know that?" Link asked, not looking and continuing forward.

"Think of all the time you've lost," hissed a second voice from his left, "If you hadn't left to fight evils you hadn't known, you could have a bride by now, and children of your own."

"Oh, I get it," he muttered, "Trying to mess with my head now."

"Why do you push yourself so hard?" hissed a third from behind him, "You've long done your part. What do those people do to deserve your help? You put your life on the line for what? The world owes you, yet you continue to ask no reward from it for your deeds. Perhaps it is time you started thinking for yourself, the things you deserve, what the world owes you!"

Link tried to ignore the voices, and keep his course straight toward the altar he couldn't see.

"Just slow down, and say hello to someone who has missed you dearly," hissed yet another voice, this one from in front of him.

Link nearly tripped over his own feet as he stopped running, seeing what materialized from the darkness. Two figures, a man and a woman. They were both in their middling years, and Link could see it almost instantly. The man's features were so similar to his own face, yet not exactly what he knew from the mirror, and the woman's eyes, so piercing a blue color, like a wild, untamed beast.

"Hello son," the man said, "It's been a long time."

"It can't be," Link said, "I don't know you. I never knew you!"

"I'm sorry," the woman said, "We shouldn't have left you all those years ago. But the important thing is that you've grown up strong and healthy, and we are here now."

"That's right," the man said, "And we're never leaving again."

"No!" Link shouted, "You're not real! You're some illusion conjured by this world! I don't even know what my parents looked like!"

"But you do know us," the woman said, "You know who we are. That is a bond between parent and child that can never be broken."

"She's right, my boy," came a voice behind Link.

He turned to see Bo, the mayor of Ordon, at his shoulder. The enormous man clapped a hand across Link's back. "Now, why don't you introduce everyone?"

Link looked over his shoulder to see the rest of the villagers gathered behind him. There were Rusl and Uli, and their son Collin, and the newborn baby in Uli's arms. The other children, Talo, Malo, and Beth, and their parents. And Ilia.

"Ilia," Link said, his voice a ragged whisper.

"Don't you want to stay here?" hissed the first voice from the darkness.

"Everything you want, right here," hissed the second.

"Your home, you family," added the third.

"And the girl you love," said the fourth.

That snapped it. The illusion wavered in front of his eyes. Link's eyes locked on Ilia. He did care for her, but not as deeply as another. Link became aware of a burning warmth on his chest. He reached into his shirt and felt the jewelry box, nestled against his chest under his baldric. He opened it, revealing the emerald necklace within, the green gemstone cut in the shape of a star.

It glowed brightly, spreading its light through even the impenetrable darkness surrounding him.

The four voices hissed suddenly, and Link saw the shapes of four creatures move back from the light, away from him. They had been nearly on top of him. They barely had shape at all, and no discernable features. They were shadows, barely resembling human beings, with arms and a head, but from the waist down were a single trail of blackness.

Link took the necklace from the box, holding it in the palm of his hand.

"There's always a little light in the darkness," Midna's voice whispered to him.

Link wrapped the chain around his fingers, letting the gemstone hang outside his fist, holding it out before himself, the light growing brighter. He pushed it toward one of the shadows, which withdrew further with a hiss. He turned, letting the light spread across the villagers, who faded into blackness as the light touched them. He turned to see two of the shadows creeping up behind him, and pushed the gem toward them, and they withdrew from the light, hissing at him as they did so.

"Hold that which is most precious to you in your heart," Link said, repeating the knight's words, "and you will find light even in the darkest moments."

He thrust the light toward the shadows again. They moved back, hissing again. "You almost had me for a minute there," he said, "But you blew it. I know what is most precious to me. You didn't. You claim the world owes me, that I've given so selflessly in my actions. In a way this is true. In another, I am incredibly selfish. Everyone is in some way, I guess. I'd been trying to avoid it, to act like it was nothing, but no more. I know what is most important to me, and I am going to do everything I can to get it.

"Begone, phantoms!" he said, thrusting the glowing gem toward them again, "You will not have me!"

The spirits hissed and moved back into the blackness, beyond the glow of the light. Link unwrapped the chain from his fingers, looking down at the glowing emerald. "You really are with me," he said, "Thank you. I need you now more than ever."

He lifted the chain to his neck and fastened it around his neck, the glowing gemstone hanging against his chest, and started moving again, no longer worrying about direction. He knew he was going the right way.

He could feel the shadows, and the other beasts, surrounding him, moving with him, just outside the reach of the light from the gemstone. Let them follow. They couldn't touch him.

The darkness did not lift, but he reached the platform surrounding the altar, stepping up on it, the stone beneath his feet cracked and weathered. The white light appeared as he approached the altar.

Like the altar that held the Master Sword, the point of the blade was fit into a notch in the stone. But in the light of the gem around his neck, Link couldn't believe what he saw.

His experience with the Master Sword had taught him one thing about magical weapons. They never rusted, chipped, or dulled. Maybe they weren't all the same, but he had come to expect that. But as he leaned down to look at the weapon before him…

"This thing's got more chips than a blind beaver," he muttered, eyeing the blade with numerous notches in its edge, and the blade itself was entirely brown with rust. It would likely come apart when he tried to draw it from the stone.

_Do you see now, Link?_ came the voice in his head, _They lied to you. They expected you to die out here! Now turn and leave! There is nothing!_

"That can't be all there is to it," Link said, "Something really didn't want me getting out here. And I'm not going back empty handed."

He reached toward the weapon, grasping the hilt, and pulling upward. The blade was bound fast and refused to budge.

"Before you may claim this weapon," whispered the soft voice in his ears, "speak the word of hope."

The word of hope? He hadn't been told anything of the sort. And just what was that supposed to be? The name of a god, or something more generic? Hope was different thing to many people.

There was only one thing that gave him hope in this dark place, and only one word of hope for himself, though.

"Midna," he whispered, and pulled on the sword once more.

The blade didn't simply come free from the stone. As he lifted it, the rust showered away from the blade, revealing the gleaming white steel beneath, and as the rust fell away, the notches in the blade vanished, as though they had never been. White light glowed from the blade, and Link lifted it high above his head. Like a great ripple in a pond, a circle of light emerged from the blade and spread outward, piercing the blackness, revealing the dozens of shadows and hundreds of four legged beasts surrounding him. The light continued to spread outward, the shadows twisting over themselves and vanishing in puffs of smoke, while the large beasts' flesh peeled backward, revealing layers of muscle beneath that similarly peeled off the skeletal structure, and the bones crumbling to dust to be carried away in the wind.

The blackness lifted, and Link could see the foothills surrounding him, and the Black Crags to the west. He looked at the blade he now held in his hand, pure white and glowing faintly. No special decorations or ornamentation. It seemed a simple weapon like any smith could create, but he knew as he held it in his hand, it was like nothing else the world had ever seen.

"You now hold the final gift we have give to your people," whispered the soft voice in his ears, "and the final stage of your destiny is about to begin."

"You're not Midna, are you?" he asked, "You never were."

"Who I am is unimportant at this time," said the voice, "But I shall promise you this. The one of whom you speak is not yet lost. Take the blade with you, and return to the village. From there, you must go to the Temple of Light. There your questions shall be answered. Then you shall enter the void, and there you will find that which you seek."

"The void?" Link said, "Where Shaklator is imprisoned? Why there? You can't mean that Midna is there… Why? How did she end up there, of all places?"

"Enter the void, and you shall find that which you seek."

The voice fell silent. "Wait a minute," Link said, "You have to tell me! Is she all right? How much time do I have?"

_She will not answer you again,_ Shaklator whispered in his mind, _I will not allow it. You have defied me to the end, and only pain awaits you now. You will not reach the Temple of Light alive._

Link looked at the weapon he now held in his hand, glowing faintly in the night, the impregnable darkness that had surrounded him banished. "This is a weapon that can slay a god, huh?" he said, and turned to the east and started walking back toward the village where the Hero of Time waited, "Just throw everything you have at me. It won't be enough. Not now that I know where she is."

_You have taken a very dangerous route this day. I hope you are ready for the consequences of your decision._


	66. Chapter 65

Hey guys! I got snowed in for 3 days and my internet was out! No updating, no WoW, no news since I don't watch it on TV. God, I am so dependent on the internet it's not even funny.

**Chapter 65: ****Necromantic Master of the Horde****: Tharkus**

The sun dipped lower over Darimar, the afternoon light turning the sky red, as though warning of what was coming with the night. The Darimar army had been working through the day as quickly as they could in preparation. Mounted scouts had ventured to the northeast and confirmed what Kilishandra warned of.

Like an endless swarm of ants, a dark army of monsters was steadily approaching, and at their current pace, would reach the city just after sundown. It was a more terrifying image than any other enemy could create. These beasts were slow, but deliberate. They did not need rest or sustenance, but would never stop.

Outside the city, several lines had been dug into the earth, wide and several feet deep, and filled with the thick, sticky concoction from Zelda's recipe that she had shown the engineers how to create several hours ago.

Pitch was a thick substance obtained from tar, boiled to thin it somewhat. If boiled down further, it became oil, which could be used for lanterns and the like, but she called for the thicker, heavier pitch. With several other ingrediants, it increased in thickness, and became nearly impossible to dislodge if it contacted with flesh or clothing.

"This is an invention from a race known as the Sheikah, many years ago," she said, dipping the end of a stick in the vile mixture, "The king of the Hylians led a campaign to unite Hyrule's races under a single banner. When he reached the Sheikah, they unleashed this creation upon his men. It had no real name back then, but came to be referred to simply as Sheikan Fire."

She lay the stick down on the cobbles of the street, and held out her hand to an engineer, who handed her a burning torch. She looked over at her audience, including King Rigdar, Judge Ralthas, Sheila, and Kilishandra, and they had been joined by Prince Richard a few hours earlier, and they now watched as she lay the torch down to the black tar on the end of the stick.

It flared into life with what looked less like flame and more like white sparks, glowing brightly and nearly blinding to look at. "Sheikan Fire burns for a long while, and extremely hot. It is a lethal weapon, because once it comes in contact with anything other than itself, it is nearly impossible to remove, taking several hours of scrubbing to get rid of it, and once it is lit…"

She picked up a pitcher of water and dumped it over the white fire. Steam rose through the air and hissing sound filled the air, but the flame continued to burn. "…it is impossible to put out short of total submergence in water for nearly ten seconds."

"That's terrifying," Richard said, watching the white flames, "What ingredients are in it besides the pitch?"

"Phosphorus, mainly," Zelda said, "and a few other things to extend the life of the flame and thicken the mix."

She stepped back from the flame as the street beneath it was beginning to turn red from the heat.

Now, three lines of the vile concoction had been laid in the path of the approaching horde. Defenders were readying the outer wall as best they could now, archers were wrapping arrowheads in oil soaked cloths, to light the lines of Sheikan Fire when the enemy was in proper position, and jars of the stuff were being stacked on the walls to be thrown toward any that made it past, each with an oil soaked rag in the neck of the jar to be lit before the toss. Lighting the concoction inside the jars themselves was too dangerous, and would burn through the clay before someone could throw it.

There was still the ravine surrounding the outer wall, but if the monsters did not even get that far, all the better.

"I've done everything I can," Zelda said, watching the final preparations underway, "And it's all to just buy time for you."

"If I kill Tharkus, his monsters will simply stop," Kilishandra said, "Without his magic to drive them, they will simply be corpses."

"Are you up to it?" Zelda asked.

"He will be distracted," she replied, "His attention split between me and keeping his army going. I can beat him."

Kilishandra reached over to her left wrist and adjusted the fit of her gauntlet. She had been given back her armor, but someone had been messing with the arm plates, probably trying to see if the arm would fit them. It wouldn't, because the shoulder would only lock onto her breastplate, and that had been form fit to her shape, and no other could wear it, unless they were her exact size and measurements. It apparently hadn't stopped someone from trying, and she was tugging at the leather straps inside the plates, trying to get them back where they belonged.

"Where will you be, princess?" she asked.

"King Rigdar wishes me to be out of the way of the fighting," Zelda said, "I'm hardly a trained soldier, so I will be going back to the barracks inside the inner wall."

Kilishandra turned to look toward the king, where he stood with Ralthas, overseeing the final preperations. The king had a rather large smile on his face as he made last minute directions.

"He seems to be confidant about the battle," Kilishandra said.

"He has to," Zelda said, "He is the king, and his behavior directly impacts the morale of his men. And good morale can be better than any sword or armor."

One soldier stepped out from the working crowd and was coming toward them. As he drew closer, Zelda recognized him. So did Kilishandra.

"Hello, Arthur," Zelda said as the young man came closer to them.

"So I guess what they were saying is true," Arthur said, looking at Kilishandra, "You did recruit her for yourself."

"Arthur, I know what this is about," Zelda said, "But you must understand the circumstances behind Kilishandra's involvement."

"I know what she did," he said, glaring up at the woman standing head and shoulders taller than him, "Remember me? I met you after you slaughtered the entire city? Including my father, the only family I had."

"I remember you," Kilishandra said, "The boy who could barely hold a sword correctly, much less fight with one. So you're a soldier now? That's a big improvement already."

"Talk down to me all you want," Arthur said, "I saw what you did with my own eyes. I saw men ripped apart by your magic. Innocent people slaughtered for no reason. And now you just change sides? Just like that?"

"You don't know," Kilishandra, "You really don't know."

"No, I don't," he said, "But I do know that you can't be trusted. And you can never be forgiven. Not by me."

Someone shouted from the working crowd of soldiers. Arthur turned to leave, but cast one last look at them before shaking his head and running back to the lines.

"Don't worry about him for now," Zelda said, "I'll talk to him later."

"I'm more worried about what else he reminded me of," Kilishandra said, "Zero. He was there that day, too. I'm worried because I have no idea what he is up to at this moment."

"That would be the 'evil twin' that was seen with you that day, that Ralthas was using as an excuse to arrest Link and myself?" Zelda asked.

"Evil twin?" Kilishandra asked.

That was right, Zelda realized. She has never met Link.

"There was a sketch of the person seen there with you, and it looked exactly like my companion, Link," Zelda said, "Would that be Zero?"

"I assume so," Kilishandra said, "I'll have to meet this Link to be sure."

"That might be difficult at the moment," Zelda said, "I'll explain later. In the mean time, I think it is time for me to go back to the barracks, before Ralthas decides I need an escort. Don't go getting yourself killed."

As she walked away, Kilishandra turned to watch her go, and called after her, "Princess!"

Zelda turned back. "Thank you," Kilishandra said, "for giving me this chance."

Zelda smiled and simply nodded before turning and moving away. Kilishandra turned back to the outer wall. She started toward the gate, intending to get outside before they sealed the city. The sun sank ominously behind the western wall, nightfall nearly upon them.

* * *

"There you go," Sheila said, tightening the straps over the prince's shoulders to pull his breastplate against his chest, "Just need to hook the shoulders on and you're all set."

"Thanks for the help," Richard said, adjusting his belt so his sword rested more comfortably against his hip, "Amazing how much we've got done in so little time."

"Any chance you'll let me in on the plan?" Sheila asked, fitting the left shoulder onto the plates of his armor.

"It's very simple, really," Richard says, "When they get onto the pits of that Sheikan Fire, archers will fire flaming arrows to light it, and thin their numbers. With hope, we'll be able to thin them down enough that we don't even need the ravine to stop them. We'll send out the cavalry to run them down if that's the case. If not, we've also got a rather large stock of jars filled with Sheikan Fire to hurl off the walls at them."

"That stuff's dangerous," Sheila said, "You be careful with it, okay?"

"Oh, I doubt father will let me on the wall," Richard said, "Besides, we'll be fine. In eight thousand years, this city has never fallen."

Sheila looked over at him as she picked up the second shoulder and moved to attach it to his breastplate. "It's also never had to stand against a necromancer," Sheila said, "Promise me that you'll be careful."

Richard smiled at her. "Of course," he said, "Always been worried about me, for as long as I can remember."

"Well, it's hard for me to not think of you as a child," Sheila said, "You're, what, twenty-two now? That's not a very long time from my perspective. I remember when you were just a babe that I could hold in my arms."

"And here I am, going off to my first battle," he said, "Isn't this the point I prove I'm a man, brave and strong, and win the fair maiden's heart?"

Sheila smiled a bit as she secured the shoulder plate. "Some women are more impressed by the man than his ability to spill blood."

The plate was tightly in place, and she turned away, only for him to catch her shoulder and pull her back. Richard looked into her eyes, smiling softly. "You know," he said, "You might have acted like an older sister for most of my life, but I never once thought of you that way."

"I'm glad you didn't, then," Sheila said as he pulled her toward him.

Even in all the heavy metal he wore, his touch was soft, their lips meeting in the first kiss they had ever shared, and Sheila felt as though a jolt of lightning shot through her body, and she reached her arms around his neck, holding him close as for but a moment, time seemed to stop, and she forgot about the bloodshed that was coming this night.

When they parted, she held onto his shoulders as she smiled at him. "How long have you been waiting to do that?' she asked.

"Since I was twelve, I think," he said.

"Well, you'd better not die tonight, before I can get another, or I'll kill you," she said.

"Yes, ma'am!" he said, and laughed.

"Anyway, I need to get going," she said, pulling herself from his arms, "My father is staying at the wall, and he wants me back at the barracks, watching Ganondorf for any changes in his condition. I'll see you in the morning, I guess."

"I'll be there," Richard said, "And try to get some sleep. You look like you need it."

* * *

The sun dipped lower. There was a shout from the wall surrounding the city. The enemy was within sight, pouring over the last hills surrounding the plain around the city like an endless swarm of ants. Those outside the city ran for the gate, needing no urging to get inside before the drawbridge was raised, leaving naught but the impassable ravine surrounding the walls. Archers took their positions along the walls, checking the supply at each post of arrows with their tips wrapped in oiled cloth, with burning braziers nearby to light them from before each shot.

King Rigdar, Judge Ralthas, and Prince Richard moved onto the wall, directly over the gate, to get a view on the enemy approach. "Look at them all," Richard said, peering out between the crenulations at the even growing horde that approached. Even as the front line closed on them, more were still appearing over the hills in the distance.

"Where did he get them all?" Ralthas wondered to himself, "For eight thousand years, ever since the ancient war, all funerals have been cremation…"

"No doubt the necromancer had a supply from his world," Rigdar said, "And add to it all that they've killed in bringing down the other four kingdoms, and you've got quite a number."

The last of the men who had been outside the city were crossing the drawbridge now, into the city. The king turned to give the command to raise it when he saw the lone figure walking out, toward the horde.

"That must be Kilishandra," the king said, taking note of her bare right arm and flaming red hair, "I nearly forgot we had her."

"What is she doing down there?" Ralthas asked.

"Princess Zelda said that Kilishandra was going to go out and try to draw the necromancer out," the king said, "She will handle the first enemy wave with her magic, but then she will be after him. If he dies, all his creatures will stop in their tracks. We just have to keep them out of the city until then."

Once she was off the drawbridge and on the earth outside, the king shouted to close the gate. The portcullis slammed shut beneath them as the drawbridge rose away from the earth, shaking snow from itself and its chains into the ravine beneath it. A light snow was falling now, but once the Sheikan Fire was lit, there was no way it would be put out by any moisture falling upon it.

For all the archers on the wall, several hundred more were gathered in the square behind the gate, ready to fire volleys over the wall once the enemy was close enough. In the streets behind them, cavalry waited next to their horses, holding the reigns, for when the gate was dropped and they would be ordered to charge.

"Richard," the king said, turning to his son, "Go down into the square, and wait with the cavalry. When the time comes, you'll lead the charge."

The prince smiled. "Yes, father!" he said, and turned to move away, off the wall.

"Are you sure about that?" Ralthas asked.

"It will be safe enough," the king said, "I intend to wait them out, let them throw themselves against the walls for as long as it takes. Our ancestors created a magnificent defensible city. Let's use it to our advantage."

"Of course," Ralthas said, turning back to the approaching horde, and the single figure moving toward it in the field.

"Wait for her to make the first move," the king said, watching Kilishandra intently.

_Let's just hope it's not to turn around and blast us,_ Ralthas thought, not liking this one bit.

* * *

Kilishandra drew her sword as she moved toward the wall of endless bodies, snow crunching under her feet, and her armor cold against her skin in the chill wind. Tharkus was nowhere in sight, but she hadn't expected him to be. He wouldn't appear until he had to. She was going to give him a reason.

The lurching creatures before her were close enough that she could make out individual bodies in the mass. There was no order, no march, or anything resembling a real army here. They simply swarmed, moving ever forward, even climbing over one another in the relentless drive. Jaws hanging slack, limbs missing, large holes in rotting flesh, missing eyes, and some even just bones held together by slim strips of flesh.

It was strange, she thought, that there were no flesh golems. Tharkus seemed to have an affinity for the monstrosities, but all she saw here were walking corpses.

"Father, watch over me," she whispered, then readied herself for her diversion.

She stabbed the tip of her sword into the ground, so it would stand beside her, and lifted both hands toward the beasts in front of her. "_Spirits of fire, I call upon your rage, unleash your wrath on the fools who stand before me, turn winter to summer, night to day, and burn all with the breath of hell…_"

Tongues of flame appeared within her palms, wrapping themselves about and around her fingers and wrists, growing rapidly larger. She quickly lifted both hands straight up above her head and shouted, "_Inferno!_"

The flames in her hands exploded outward in all directions, and the area around her for a twenty foot radius exploded into flames. The magical fire burned even in the snow, rapidly melting it, sending warm water running into the snow around, melting a large circle quickly as the first of the creatures did not slow, but lurched right into the flames, which quickly attached themselves to the creatures' flesh, leaping from one to another, flaring brighter and brighter as it spread back through the ranks. The creatures did not cry out in pain, but simply lurched on as their flesh peeled and what fluids they had left boiled. Tendons audibly snapped, causing the tenuous movements they made to fail, collapsing to the ground, skeletons blackening swiftly as the unnaturally hot and tenacious flames reduced them to unmoving masses of bones.

To keep the fires burning, Kilishandra had to maintain her focus, willing the fires into existence, and to keep moving as they spread through the endless horde with incredible speed. Hundreds burned in mere moments. If Tharkus didn't want to show himself, she was perfectly content to destroy the entire lot if she had to.

The earth beneath her feet had dried and begun to blacken under the heat, and the temperature was rapidly climbing. She pulled it back a little, to avoid turning the ground molten beneath herself.

She looked up as it sparked in the distance. "There!" she said, snatching up her sword as a bolt of lightning shot from a hilltop almost directly north of her position.

She lifted the blade of her sword before herself, and an image of the great thunder beast Nui appeared before her as the bolt struck into the blade. The great cat roared as the lightning dissipated uselessly against its flesh, then vanished as Kilishandra started running straight toward the hill, sword in hand, and murder in her mind.

* * *

"There she goes," Ralthas said, noting that Kilishandra's path would take her around the left side of the horde, which was still advancing from the northeast, and more still appearing over the hills.

"I saw the lightning strike," the king said, "He gave himself away quite quickly."

"Give the order when you're ready, your majesty," Ralthas said.

"We'll not them reach the ravine," the king said, "Light the closest ditch of Sheikan Fire when they reach it, then the furthest, and then we'll cut them apart with the one in the center."

Soldiers nearby turned to each side to relay this information down the wall through the archers who stood ready.

The fires that Kilishandra had lit were burning themselves out quickly, without her maintaining them. The horde lurched onward, stepping over the bones of its fallen, directly toward the city. It was several minutes before they came close enough, at their slow pace. As they crossed the second ditch, the king shouted, "Archers, ready flames!"

Archers all along the wall notched arrows, the heads wrapped in oiled cloths, and lit them in the braziers, then drew back their bowstrings, aiming for the proper distance. The king waited another moment as the creatures lurched even closer to the closest ditch.

"Loose!" he shouted as the front rows stepped onto the thick ooze.

Like stars shooting through the air, flaming arrows whistled from the wall toward the horde, some striking home into the creatures themselves, others landing in the snow, but enough struck the pit of dark, heavy liquid, which flared into life with a flash of white, hideously hot white flames shooting up, turning the beasts within them into black silhouettes that shrank as one watched, their flesh crumbling away.

"Aim for the far ditch!" the king shouted, waiting for the archers to ready their shots, "Loose!"

A second wave of arrows flew into the horde, most striking the creatures in the great mass, but at least one made it through to the ditch, which flared up, consuming everything caught within. At the king's command, the third wave of arrows lit the center ditch, and like three walls of light right through the center of the horde, everything within was collapsing rapidly, building piles of black bones within the white flames, like grotesque monuments.

"They're turning," Ralthas said.

"I see it," the king said, "The necromancer is paying attention."

The mass of walking corpses was changing direction, moving around the flames on the east side and resuming the march toward the castle. And still more were appearing over the hills.

"Gods, how many does he have?" Ralthas asked, "We must have gotten nearly a thousand there!"

"Ready the pots!" the king shouted, and roughly half the archers on the wall laid aside their bows and went to the piles of ceramic jars containing more of the Sheikan Fire.

He turned to a soldier standing at his shoulder. "Give them a volley."

The soldier turned and shouted to the archers in the city square. "Volley ready!"

The archers in the square quickly lit the cloth wrapped heads of their arrows and aimed up over the wall. "Loose!" the soldier shouted, and like a buzzing swarm of angry hornets flew up over the wall and out into the mass of bodies moving toward them.

The creatures' flesh was quite flammable in its decomposed state, and even the normal flames cut down at least the ones they struck, though it took several seconds to burn through to their tendons and cease their movement.

"Archers fire at will!" the king shouted, "Make the shots count! Pots light and throw! I don't want to see any of them fall into that ravine! Let's show them what we're made of!"

* * *

"Tharkus!" Kilishandra shouted as she ran up the hill where he had been, "Where are you?"

As she reached the top of the hill, two undead beasts leaped up from where they had been lying, reaching toward her. With one stroke of her blade, she took the head from the first, and thrust her free hand into the other, delivering a condensed ball of air into its chest that blasted its body into pieces. She turned, stabbing her sword into the now blindly groping form of the first, and electricity discharged from the blade, burning its flesh to ash that collapsed to the ground with the sound of clattering bones.

"Show yourself, you coward!" she shouted.

"Okay, I get it, you're angry," came Tharkus' voice from her left, and she turned to see him walking up from the far side of the hill.

"You don't know what anger is," Kilishandra said, "But I'm about to show you…"

"I see you have a new master," Tharkus said, "I was scrying, watching you the entire time from when you arrived at the city until that little knighting ceremony. You always did have a habit of just doing what you were told, even when it was unhealthy for you."

"And you lied to me," Kilishandra said, "You convinced me that my father had abandoned us. He didn't even know what was happening. And the fact they have found the blight here tells me that you were behind it all along."

"I figured out how to spread it here, if that's what you mean," Tharkus said, "I didn't create it. But, I am rather disappointed. I had hoped that you and Ganondorf would finish each other off at the same time. I suppose I can correct that little problem myself right now."

"You just try it," Kilishandra said, and thrust her free hand toward him and shouted, "_Pyre Bolt!_"

A streak of lightning shot from her gauntleted hand, directly into Tharkus, who faded from view as the lightning shot into the distance. "An illusion?" Kilishandra said, "Are you afraid to fight me yourself, coward?"

"I would," Tharkus said, his voice audible in the air all around her, "but I'm a bit tied up at the moment. What with trying to keep Khall under control, and putting the Twilight Mirror together, so I'm afraid I couldn't come in person."

* * *

Far to the northwest, in the black citadel in the western mountains, Tharkus was in his laboratory, gazing into the crystal globe he used to see great distances, which was now showing within itself an image of Kilishandra.

"But don't worry," he said to the globe, a sinister smile on his face, "I didn't forget about you."

* * *

"I knew you would turn on us eventually," Tharkus' voice went on, "Especially once you found out why we wanted the Twilight Mirror."

"You said it was a gateway," Kilishandra said, "That it would let us move our people here in greater numbers."

"That is true, but you see, we intend to use it to open a passage to the void, where an ancient being of incredible power is trapped, and she will unleash her wrath upon the remaining people of this world. Nothing will survive."

"What?!" Kilishandra couldn't believe what she was hearing, "You're going to kill everyone?"

"Not only that, but thanks to the blight, the world will die, and nothing will ever exist here again!" Tharkus said, maniacal glee in his voice.

"Madman! You lied to me because you knew I'd never stand by and let you destroy the world, even if it means the death of my own!" Kilishandra was shouting again, rage driving her.

"That I did," Tharkus said, "In fact, it was Khall who told me that you would never help if you knew that our goal was total destruction. Even if you knew that he has made a deal with Shaklator, the ancient one, and she will remove the blight from your world after she has her revenge here."

"Even if it means the doom of my people, I would never resort to such a thing," Kilishandra said, "Why? Why would you do such a thing?"

"Foolish girl," Tharkus said, "The destruction of this world has been my sole purpose of existence, ever since the ancient war, eight thousand years ago! I even found a way to encase my soul in the body of a flesh golem so that I would live long enough to see it through! Darius took everything from me, for the sake of the world. Now, I'm going to take that world from him!"

"I'll stop you," Kilishandra said, "I'll raze your army, and then come for you and Khall! You won't get away with it!"

"You would," Tharkus said, "But I have a surprise for you. I had hoped to test it on Ganondorf, but with him out of the way, you will do just fine."

The crest of the hill cracked before her, causing her to back away as dark brown ooze rose from the earth, taking shape before her eyes. Like a great blob, it rose upward and spread, splitting near the bottom, forming legs, and arms appearing on the sides, and at the top, a small head, vastly out of proportion with its wide shoulders. It rose to nearly fifteen feet tall before it stopped growing, and two yellow eyes appeared in the tiny head.

"A flesh golem?" Kilishandra said, "You mock me! Nui!"

Kilishandra lifted her sword, the growl of the thunder beast within rising in the air, and she swung the blade forward, a streak of gold lightning shooting from the blade into the chest of the monster. It glanced away to the side and did not even budge the creature. "What the…?"

Tharkus laughed. "Let me tell you a little story, Kilishandra, about a young man named Link. Link possesses a piece of something called the Triforce, the power of the golden goddesses. The same power your father wields. Link used this power to defeat a flesh golem some weeks ago, but did not destroy it utterly. From the fragment I recovered, I studied the residual magic left, hoping to create a flesh golem resistant to the power, and not so easily destroyed. What stands before you now is the end result, which is far better than I had hoped. A flesh golem that is completely immune to magic of all forms! The invulnerable weapon that mankind has always sought to create, and I have succeeded!"

Kilishandra backed down the hill as the great creature moved toward her. "We'll see about that," she said, "I can hit considerably harder than that."

* * *

Bones and charred flesh were piling up outside the city as volleys from the square, shots from the archers on the walls, and pots of Sheikan Fire rained on the swarm of creatures pressing forward. At last, the end of the battle was in sight, as the tail of the great horde had appeared from the hills. There were at least a thousand of the beasts left, but the number that had been slain was considerably more than that. And it was fortunate indeed, as they were running out of the Sheikan Fire and arrows on the wall.

The king watched as the creatures tried hopelessly to leap across the ravine, falling into the blackness below. "Let's thin them a bit more, then send out the cavalry to ride them down," he said to Ralthas.

"They're no doubt smashing to pieces on the floor of the ravine," the judge said, "I think it's safe to say that you've earned your place in history, your majesty, for having not a single casualty in your first real battle."

It had been easy, King Rigdar thought as he looked up at the approaching creatures that had not yet reached the ravine. A bit too easy, in fact.

"Is this all you can muster, necromancer?" he asked.

Suddenly, someone screamed in the square. The king and Ralthas turned to see the formation of archers scattering, and many drawing weapons. And there, in the middle of the street, the stones were rising, shedding earth and mortar, to fall aside and a rotted creature pulled itself up from the street. Several other areas of the street began to rise in a similar manner.

"They're tunneling in from the ravine!" the king shouted, drawing his sword, "To arms!"

More crawled from the hole in the street as more began to appear from other spots. Swords flashed, severing limbs and heads as more and more poured from the ground, like disturbed anthills.

"Cut off all the limbs and the heads!" Ralthas shouted as he and the king descended the stairs from the wall to the street, and drew his sword, reaching out to sever the head of one before it emerged completely.

"They're coming from the alleys!" someone shouted, and a large number of the creatures appeared around the corners of buildings.

It was pandemonium. Formations broke as more came up beneath their feet, and men scattered, all fighting desperately, but for every one that was made harmless by removing its limbs, three more appeared. King Rigdar waded into the fray, striking them down one by one, moving toward the center of the square. It was a place everyone would be able to see him, and they needed to see him. If they panicked now, they were all dead.

He spotted his son, the prince, fighting to keep the creatures off the horses. A lot of good the cavalry was going to do now. As the king put his back to the statue of his ancestor, fighting off more of the creatures as they swarmed toward him, he hoped that Kilishandra would kill the necromancer soon. More and more kept pouring up from the ground. They were going to be overwhelmed.

* * *

Kilishandra didn't have time to use her magic, and was forced to keep backing away from the golem as it moved toward her. It lifted one arm, and its fingers stretched across the distance between them, grabbing at her like a mass a tendrils that she sliced into with her sword, severing bits that would flop to the ground, dissolve into liquid that snaked back toward the golem, and reenter the creature through its feet.

At last, with one stroke, she managed to slice all five off at once. The fingers shrank back toward its hand, and she thrust her free hand forward with a shout, "_Daem!_" and white lightning shot from her fingertips into the creature. It staggered back a step from the impact, but seemed unharmed.

"Damn," she said, taking another step back, "I need a little time…"

It lashed out with its tentacle like fingers again, but as she made to cut them as they came close, it lifted its other hand, its fingers shooting out as well. Even as her sword cut into the first, the second grabbed hold of her around her left arm, wrapping around the armor plates. She lifted her sword to cut them away when they squeezed, and the armor bent beneath the pressure, digging the plates into her arm.

"Nui, attack!" she said through the pain.

Her sword leaped from her hand, changing into the shape of the thunder cat, which bounded off the ground and collided with the golem, all two thousand pounds of the mighty beast landing on its chest.

Her right hand empty, Kilishandra quickly undid the clasps on her left shoulder, releasing the gauntlet, which was drug off her arm as the golem lurched back under the force of the impact. Both hands now free, she quickly lifted her hands, knowing exactly what she would do to finish the monster off.

"_Ast kailon nu drige darmin…_" she began, only to see Nui thrown aside by the golem, which lunged forward at her. She dove forward, rolling between its legs, rising into a run, only to tangle her feet, and land hard on the ground. She turned to see the creature moving after her.

Its fingers shot out like lances, the tips narrowing to points, aiming directly for her.

Steel flashed before her, the spear like tips of the fingers falling to the earth, and the tentacle fingers retracting once more.

A shadowed figure stood on her right, holding a sword that glinted even in the darkness. "Father?" she asked, remembering his glowing white sword.

"No, but an old friend just the same," Mur'neth said, smiling at her and offering his hand.

She took it and he pulled her up to her feet. "Where is your dad, by the way?" Mur'neth asked.

"He was in a coma the last I looked," Kilishandra said, watching the golem as the severed tendrils recombined with the beast.

"Okay," Mur'neth said, "My boys are entering the city right now to help the army. I'll keep this thing busy while you get a spell off to kill it."

"Just like old times," Kilishandra said with a smile.

"Yeah," Mur'neth said, "Let's do it!"

He gripped his sword in both hands and ran toward the monster.

"One Harrowing coming up," Kilishandra said, lifting her hands to the necessary position.

* * *

The body parts of the undead monsters littered the street, making it impossible to move without stepping on something, and yet more of the monsters kept coming into the city. King Rigdar found himself back to back with Judge Ralthas and Prince Richard in the center of the square as they fought desperately to keep the beasts at bay.

"We can't keep this up!" Ralthas shouted over his shoulder at the king, "We need to fall back to the inner walls!"

The king could see it happening. The beasts latched onto men, two or three of them dragging the soldier down, and one ripping its teething into his throat, tearing open his jugular. When he stopped struggling, they would release him, and seek another victim, and the dead man would rise up again, one of them now.

It was slow, but it was happening around them, and then not only did they have to fight against men they had known, but the chain mail worn by most of them, and the plate worn by the cavalry made it difficult to disable them.

The king struck down yet another, having lost count of how many he had cut apart some time ago. "Okay, let's do it," he shouted to Ralthas, then lifted his voice even higher, "Fall back! Fall back to the inner walls!"

Men broke away, moving into the streets toward the south. Some turned and ran on their own, while others tried to hold the road open, and others lent their shoulder to wounded who needed help.

"Let's go!" the king shouted to Ralthas and Richard, and as a group, they moved toward the road, fighting through the beasts the entire way.

Like shadows they appeared over the walls, great massive eyes the only feature of their faces, flesh like black cloth, and their very arms lethal curved blades. Tharkus' efficient killers descended into the square and rushed toward the retreating men. Their bladed arms sliced, whistling through the air, striking men down as they tried to flee.

Tharkus had bred more of the monstrosities. Where there had been originally five, now thirty descended upon the men with speed and efficiency.

The king saw one headed directly toward them. He shoved Ralthas aside, stepping fully in front of the creature as it swung its right arm toward him, and lifted his blade to block the blow, only to see the left spear toward him, and the searing pain in his right shoulder as the blade punched through the chain in the gap between his shoulder and breastplate.

Ralthas' sword appeared in his vision, stabbing directly through the side of the creature's head, and then Ralthas kicked it in the side to dislodge it from the blade, and it pulled the blade from the king's shoulder as it fell.

"The king is wounded!" Ralthas shouted.

The king had dropped his sword when it stabbed him, and he reached up to clamp his left hand over the wound as soldiers rushed toward them, surrounding him, and hands on each side taking him and guiding him to the road while men fought all around him to keep the creatures off.

More shadows appeared, rushing toward them. "Look out, there are more!" Richard shouted.

These shadows, however, struck down the blade armed creatures, and moved quickly to the undead corpses, moving quickly and efficiently, steel flashing as they cut apart the monsters.

One figure stopped in front of their group. Dressed in black leather armor and a hood that hid his face, he sheathed his sword as he moved toward them.

"Your majesty," he said, "My name is Vargus, master rank ninja. We are your reinforcements."

* * *

"How is he?" Zelda asked as she entered the room and shut the door behind herself.

Sheila looked up from where she sat at Ganondorf's bedside. "No change, I'm afraid."

Zelda moved over to the bed, looking down at his form, his eyes shut as though simply asleep, and the steady rise and fall of his chest.

"How goes the battle?" Sheila asked.

"I just heard that they're retreating back this way," Zelda said, "and that can't be good."

She continued to look directly at Ganondorf's face. "You know," she said directly to him, "Your daughter is out there with them. She needs you out there. We all need you out there."

There was no response.

"Damn you," Zelda said with a sigh.

"I wish there was something I could do," Sheila said, "I really do."

Zelda lifted her right hand, looking at the faintly glowing triangles below her knuckles. "There is something I can do," she said, "I just hope I didn't wait too long, and I don't regret it later."

* * *

"_Ast kailon nu drige darmin… Han trea bu zeke!_" Kilishandra chanted as Mur'neth rushed the golem.

Mur'neth leaped to the side as the beast shot its fingers toward him, which speared into the ground where he had been standing, sending lumps of earth and rocks into the air. He lunged forward and slashed his sword upward through the creature's arm, which fell to the earth with a dull thump, and immediately began to turn to liquid.

"_Ancient god of death, unleash ultimate destruction upon my enemy, and open the gates of Hell!_" Kilishandra continued her incantation.

She was intending to channel the Harrowing, the spell of ultimate destruction, onto a single enemy, a much more difficult task than leveling a city, but she had seen Ganondorf do it once before, when he killed the seemingly invincible Emperor Erador.

Mur'neth, as the creature's arm crawled back toward it, kept moving forward, cutting through its right leg below the knee. The giant toppled, slamming into the ground with incredible force.

"Mur'neth, out of the way!" Kilishandra shouted.

He leaped back, putting distance between the golem and himself.

Kilishandra leveled one hand, palm open, toward the golem. "_Harrowing!_"

The sky opened and a beam of white light shot down, striking directly onto the golem. Mur'neth backed up further, shielding his face with one hand against the enormous heat given off by the light. The light instantly night-blinded them, casting everything around them into utter darkness.

Then as quickly as it had struck, it was gone. A circle of ground, where the golem had been, was a pool of molten rock, glowing red in the dark.

Mur'neth smiled. "No fuss, no mess," he said, "I like that."

Kilishandra breathed a sigh of relief. "That did it," she said.

Nui appeared at her side, rubbing his enormous head under her arm, purring loudly. "Yes, you did wonderfully too," she said, scratching the cat's ear. The cat, contented, shifted back into the shape of a sword, which Kilishandra picked up and slid home in her sheath

"Okay," Mur'neth said, "Let's head into the city and see how things are-"

He was cut off and dark brown spears suddenly shot from the ground around him, punching upward and through his shoulders and abdomen, lifting him into the air, screaming in agony.

"Mur'neth!" Kilishandra screamed, running toward him.

The earth around her ripped apart as the golem rose from beneath her, its fingers lancing out with sharp tips, and faster than she could reach for her sword, one punched through her right shoulder, throwing her back and pinning her to the ground, and she cried out in agony as it went further into the ground, dragging its length through her flesh.

"Kili!" Mur'neth shouted, using his sword to cut through the tendrils piercing his body, and dropped to the ground, and ran for her.

More tendrils appeared from the golem, which had now apparently learned about grouping them, and was sending them in seemingly random directions, criss-crossing and racing about. Mur'neth cried out as another punched through his right shoulder, which he immediately cut through and ripped from his flesh.

Kilishandra reached for her sword, another tendril shot across her and punched through her wrist, pinning it to the side, and she screamed through her teeth, biting down as hard as she could against the pain.

"I'm coming!" Mur'neth shouted, raising his sword to cut her free.

Three tendrils ripped up from the ground in front of him, directly upward, and stabbed through his stomach and shooting out his back, lifting him into the air. He screamed, only to stop as he vomited blood down his chest.

"No!" Kilishandra screamed.

"How tragic," Tharkus' voice echoed around them as everything seemed to stand still, the golem unmoving and both of them helpless, "The would be hero comes to save the love of his life, only for both of them to end up dead."

"Not yet," Mur'neth groaned, "I ain't dead yet. I'm gonna get you, Tharkus, and feed you your own limbs."

"Heh, sore loser."

_If I could just get my sword,_ Kilishandra thought, trying to maneuver her left hand to draw her sword, but it was proving extremely difficult in her awkward position.

"Did I not warn you that this golem was invulnerable?" Tharkus said, "Now, it's just the question of what to do with the two of you? I'd hate to throw away such potential. Kilishandra, I wonder if your natural talent for magic would transfer if I used your flesh to create a new golem?"

"Not interested," she said, "I'll kill you first."

"I'm afraid you no longer have a choice in the matter," Tharkus said, "And as for you, Mur'neth, I'll use your flesh to create more of my new blade golems. Your skills will improve them immensely."

"Got to say, I ain't too thrilled about that idea," Mur'neth said.

In spite of the punishment he had suffered, he had managed to hold onto his sword. He raised it now, and cut down into the tendrils that pierced his abdomen, cutting himself free and falling to the ground. He reached his free hand behind his back, and pulled the spears from himself one by one, spilling his blood on the ground from his wounds with each. As he pulled the third out, he fell to a knee, vomiting blood again onto the ground.

"Mur'neth, stop! You're going to kill yourself!" Kilishandra shouted.

"I'm dead already," he said, moving toward her, "The rest of me just hasn't caught on yet."

The golem didn't react. "Tharkus is distracted," Mur'neth said, "Must be checking in on what's happening at the city. I'm not going to let you die along with me."

He moved over to her, falling to his knees next to her, and used his sword to saw through the tendrils pinning her down, over her shoulder, and her wrist.

Once he was through, Kilishandra gritted her teeth, and pulled her wrist off the tendril that pierced it, groaning in pain as she did so, then quickly leaned forward, pulling her shoulder off the other, blood running down her breastplate as she did so.

"Come on," she said, getting to her feet and helping Mur'neth up, "There's a healer in the city with magic. I'll take you to her, quickly…"

"Going somewhere?" Tharkus asked as the golem snaked the tendrils back into itself.

"You go," Mur'neth said, "Get help. I'll keep it busy as long as I can."

"I'm not leaving you here!"

"How touching," Tharkus said, "Maybe I'll mix both of you together and see what it makes!"

The golem reached back with one arm, about to lance out its fingers again.

A small explosion on the side of the golem's torso rocked it sideways and causing it to stagger several steps to remain upright. The golem, Kilishandra, and Mur'neth all turned as a new figure walked toward them.

"So, Tharkus," said a voice dripping with venom, "You enslave my daughter, try to kill me, and then just start causing all kinds of havoc like you'd actually succeeded and I wasn't coming back, huh? You greedy asshole!"

"You!" Tharkus' voice was shaking with rage, "Mandrag Ganon!"

"That's right," Ganondorf growled, "And as punishment for your little misadventure, I'm going to break your new toy!"

"Father!" Kilishandra called out.

"You two stay back!" Ganondorf said, "This is between me and him!"

The golem turned completely toward him. "I must admit," Tharkus said, "I am thoroughly impressed. There isn't anyone else alive who could survive what you just have. You always did have a habit of bending the rules."

"Rules that can be broken aren't rules at all," Ganondorf said, rolling his shoulders back, his bones audibly popping as he did so, "Just limitations by someone who couldn't hack it himself."

"Then allow me to break one as well," Tharkus said, "_Syco syco dos de bon te bun yamun_…"

_Is he using magic through a golem?_ Kilishandra thought, _That's impossible!_

A glowing ball of light appeared in the golem's massive hands as Tharkus continued. "_Spirits of rage and chaos, submit to my will, unleash your fury to my bidding yield!_"

"_Rip earth!_" he finished, and the golem slammed the ball down into the ground.

Like a snake under the earth, the spell moved through the land toward Ganondorf, and erupting around his feet, jagged spikes of rock thrusting toward his body from all around. Ganondorf did not even react. The spikes broke before touching him, an invisible wall thrusting outward, and both smashing the spikes and digging a small crater around him.

"My turn," Ganondorf growled, raising his right hand, where golden triangles flared brightly, two brighter than the third. Ganondorf was now wielding the both the Triforce of Power and the Triforce of Wisdom.

Gold sparks appeared at his fingertips, coalescing into a larger form, growing rapidly, and Ganondorf suddenly pointed directly at the golem, and the sparks vanished in a small blip of light that shot to the golem and vanished.

"That was it?" Tharkus asked.

The golem exploded from the inside out, its entire torso blowing outward and raining pieces down on the surrounding area, leaving the legs standing there. The pieces dissolved into liquid and began crawling quickly back toward the legs.

"Damn you," Tharkus said, "How? This golem…"

"…is another useless piece of garbage," Ganondorf finished for him, "Brace yourself, because now I'm going to put it out of my misery."

He held his hands close together before his chest, closing his eyes. "_Spirits of the earth, of the air, of the water, of the fire, of the storms, and of heaven and hell themselves, come together before me…_"

"I've never heard that one before," Kilishandra said.

"Let's hope it's a good one," Mur'neth muttered.

"_Amass thy bodies and strike down the darkness, so that the world may usher in a new age!_"

The golem, not completely reformed, started moving toward him, running with massive lumbering steps. "Damn you," Tharkus shouted, "I'm going to kill you if I have to do it with my bare hands!"

Ganondorf's eyes opened. "Dream about that all you want in hell, Tharkus!" he said, and thrust his hands forward, "_Senan Serat!_"

It was like nothing Kilishandra had ever seen before, from any wizard she'd known. Fire, ice, lightning, rocks, light, and even black darkness, wrapping about each other in a cylindrical shape that shot from Ganondorf's hands lancing through the air. The golem was lifted up by it, held in the air as the elements wrapped about it, and its body shrank as it was ripped to shreds, and the small pieces vanished, utterly obliterated from existence.

* * *

The crystal globe suddenly surged with energy, throwing Tharkus back across the room with a cry of surprise, and slamming him into the wall. He picked himself up, looking toward the globe, glowing pure bright white. "What the…?" he asked no one in particular, "What did he do?!"

Cracks formed on the surface of the globe, spreading rapidly all across it, and it suddenly shattered, sending shards of crystal flying into the walls and Tharkus' body. The shards did no harm to his undying body, but he couldn't believe his eyes. Even as he reached up to pull a fragment from his forehead, he was trying to piece together what had just happened.

"The Senan Serat…" he said at last, "Where did he gain such power? That was like nothing I've ever seen… He was hiding it! Playing us for fools the entire time! I have to tell Khall that we need to change our plans."

* * *

It occurred suddenly, as the fighting moved toward the inner walls, the undead swarms simply stopped, collapsing where they stood, the unseen force driving them disappearing. The bladed golems immediately backed away, climbing to the rooftops and fleeing over the outer walls. It was slow at first, but a wave of relief built and spread rapidly through everyone, causing some to breathe sighs of relief, falling to their knees, while others raised their weapons in the air, cheering loudly.

"About time," Ralthas muttered, "Now, need to clean up this mess."

* * *

Kilishandra held Mur'neth in her arms as she sat on her knees, looking down at him. "We won," he said.

"Yes, we did," she said, "Thanks to my father."

She looked up toward Ganondorf. The infamous Senan Serat, which even the legendary Darius could not control. A long trench had been carved into the earth along its flight path, and several hills had been obliterated. He turned and started walking toward them.

"Come on," Kilishandra said, "Let's get you to the healer, Mur'neth."

"Too late," Mur'neth said, "I've lost too much blood. If I move, I'll probably just die right now."

"Then we'll go get her and bring her back," Kilishandra said.

"It'll take too long," Ganondorf said, kneeling down next to them.

"Hey there," Mur'neth said, "Never thought I'd be glad to see your ugly face."

"I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner," Ganondorf said.

Mur'neth looked up at Kilishandra, then back to Ganondorf. "You know, you never did answer my question."

"About what I fight for?" Ganondorf asked, "I told you, figure it out."

"I never will now," Mur'neth said, looking back at Kilishandra, "But I did figure out what I wanted to fight for."

Ganondorf smiled. "Then you finally got it. What I fight for doesn't matter. What's important is what you believe in. What you think is worth fighting for. Shame it had to come so late."

"Yeah," Mur'neth said, "Kili, I just want you to know, before I go. I love you. I always have."

Kilishandra felt the tears coming unbidden to her eyes. "I know," she said, "I'm sorry. I've known for some time."

"It's okay," Mur'neth said, "I know you don't feel the same about me. Just forget about me, and find someone who deserves you."

Mur'neth leaned his head, closing his eyes with a sigh, and didn't inhale again. In that moment passed one of the greatest ninja the world would ever see, and a man who died fighting for the woman he loved.

Kilishandra wiped her eyes as Ganondorf leaned down, getting his arms underneath Mur'neth, and picked him up. Kilishandra rose to her feet, and picked up Mur'neth's sword, the Kajetugan, the blade of the moon. In silence, they walked toward the gate to the city.

* * *

Ganondorf had not helped with the battle in the city, but when he destroyed the golem and broke Tharkus' connection with the undead, they had simply stopped fighting and collapsed, excluding the bladed golems, which quickly turned and fled. The king had been taken to the barracks so Sheila could see to his wound, while Ralthas and Richard remained to oversee the operation of piling up the massive number of bodies and limbs, and burn the lot.

"We don't want them getting back up again," Ralthas remarked, "That was too close."

"Getting a count of actual casualties," Richard said, "We only lost about seventy. Could have been much worse."

"Where did those ninja get to?" Ralthas asked, but stopped when he saw Ganondorf and Kilishandra walking up the street toward them. Ganondorf was carrying the body of a dark elf in his arms.

"Who's that?" Richard asked as they drew near.

"Who is this?" Ganondorf said, looking down at Mur'neth, "This man is a hero, who died fighting for people he didn't even know. His life bought precious time for me to end the attack in its entirety. And he is not going on that pile over there. He's getting a hero's funeral. Is that understood?"

"Crystal," Ralthas said, "I'll make the arrangements for first thing in the morning."

"That will do," Ganondorf said, "Now, I'm taking the body to the barracks. There's one more stop I need to make there, too."

* * *

Sheila waited now at the bedside where Zelda lay, unmoving. It hardly seemed a good trade, Ganondorf awake for her unconscious. And it was even more distressing, because Zelda's body seemed to be in a state of suspended animation. Her heart was beating about five times each minute, and her breathing was incredibly slow.

The sounds of the fighting had stopped outside, but she waited for Ganondorf to make it back before she went to see if she could help any wounded. It was selfish of her, but she wanted to make sure everything was all right.

Heavy footsteps outside the door caused her to look up, and it opened, revealing the massive frame of Ganondorf, who had to stoop to avoid hitting his head on the doorframe.

"You made it," Sheila said.

Ganondorf moved over to the bedside, looking down at Zelda. "Time to go back where you belong," he said.

The air before him seemed to sparkle, and something moved from him down to the still form of Zelda, where the sparkles hung about her for a moment, then faded away. Her eyes opened.

"It really worked," Sheila said.

"I told you it would," Zelda said, sitting up, "It was the same thing I did to save Midna, so long ago, by binding my spirit to hers."

Ganondorf lifted his right hand, looking at the image of the Triforce there. Once more, only the Triforce of Power shone. "Hmph," he muttered, turned toward the door, glancing back toward Sheila, "Kilishandra has a puncture wound in her right wrist that you need to fix up, or she won't be able to use a sword again."

He walked from the chamber, not looking back again.

"What's with him?" Sheila asked.

"What I might regret later," Zelda said, "He just had a taste of what he's sought for longer than any of us have been alive, and I've taken it back with me. It's like giving a starving man a king's meal, and snatching it away after only a few bites."

"Do we need to keep an eye on him?"

"Now I am more concerned about getting Link back," Zelda said, "And that should be our next goal."


	67. Chapter 66

I hate to say it, but this is one of those chapters that I just have to get out of the way on the way to the good stuff, and I'm not satisfied with it, even after rewriting nearly half of it twice. Next update will have two chapters, to make up for this.

**Chapter 66: First Steps Toward the Light  
**

After retrieving the sword, Link made his way back toward the village where the Hero of Time waited as quickly as he could. It had taken two days for him to reach the altar, but faced less difficulties on the return, and as the sun rose on the fourth day since he departed, walked back into the ruin of a town, noticing much more activity than when he left.

The Hylian soldiers were readying themselves for battle. As Link turned toward the house that the Hero of Time had been in before, he was stopped by the same one as before.

"Captain Viscal," the soldier said, reintroducing himself, "I've been told to tell you when you arrived that you should go to the far end of town, to the church. They're waiting for you there."

"Oh, thank you," Link said, looking down the street Viscal indicated, then looked back at the man before him, his skin peeling and partially rotted, and the massive stitches that seemed to be holding his face together, "You mind if I ask you something?"

"What's that?"

"How long have you all been here?" Link asked.

Viscal shook his head with a sigh. "I wish I could remember," he said, "Seems like an eternity. I… no."

"What is it?" Link asked.

"I'll walk you there," Viscal said, turning and walking down the street, and Link fell into step beside him, "I actually can't remember much of my life before I was here," Viscal went on, "Other than the fact I was a soldier in the Hylian army. I… I had a wife. I remember her face, but not her name."

"I'm sorry," Link said.

"Not your fault, lad. But if that's the sword they wanted, maybe we're close to the end of this at last."

The church was in nearly as bad a state as the rest of the town, the steeple long since collapsed, and a large hole in the roof, and as Viscal pushed the door open, one hinge broke, leaving it hanging at an odd angle.

"Just go down the hall, turn right, and it's the first door on the left," Viscal said, "I need to get back to my men. Good luck to you."

"You too," Link said, entering the church and following the directions he had been given.

When he reached the indicated door, he pushed it open to find a somewhat small room, already somewhat crowded with four Hylian soldiers, the Hero of Time, in his faded green, and two other figures. As he entered, the Hero of Time turned around to face him. "Link," he said, and looked down at the glowing sword in Link's hand, and a look of surprise crossed his face, "Holy shit. You got it?"

"You sound surprised," Link said, "You didn't expect me to?"

"I thought you would," he replied, "You've got to understand. We've been trying to get into those hills for centuries. But you're the one who made it! That's like a huge weight off my shoulders. It's like a faint like just appeared at the end of the tunnel."

The other two with him, one was familiar. The skeletal knight from earlier nodded to Link. "Good to see you made it," it said.

The other was a woman, her flesh aged white and peeling like the Hero of Time and all the soldiers, and with an eye patch over her left eye. Blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders, and she was outfitted in a different armor design than the soldiers, a breastplate specially made for a woman, and shoulders decorated with the image of feathers, which connected to the design on the chest which, like the soldiers, bore the three golden triangles that were the symbol of Hyrule, but they were depicted within the image of an eagle, wings outstretched, connected to the feathered shoulders. It was the design always shown on the armor of the royal family themselves.

"This," the Hero of Time said, indicating her, "is Princess Zelda."

"To be precise," she said, before Link could respond, "The first one."

"The first one," Link repeated, "I suppose you're here because of what happened in the Imprisoning War, too?"

"I think you misunderstood what I told you earlier," the Hero of Time said, "We, and the soldiers here, are reliving an approximation of the Imprisoning War from so long ago, but we won that battle."

"We are here because it was our doing that nearly doomed Hyrule," the princess said, "And in doing so, we opened the door for an evil beyond anything we have ever known to return."

Link turned to the skeletal knight. "So who are you really? I think I'm owed that much at least."

The knight watched him, the glow in its eyes impossible to read. "I am much like the others here," the knight said at last, "In life, I was a hero of Hyrule, and wielded the Master Sword against Ganondorf when he appeared during my lifetime. In that time, I was known as the Hero of Winds. I was called that because I used an artifact called the Wind Waker to control the winds as I sailed the great sea, beneath which Hyrule had been hidden for several hundred years. I am also the only such hero to choose to remain in Hyrule once I was finished with my task and the mighty floodwaters had receded. I was knighted by the princess of my generation and served the crown loyally for the rest of my life. In my later years, I discovered the gateway to this realm in the ruins of the Temple of Time. I was not part of what caused the events that are now occurring here, and would have been allowed my final rest, but I chose to stay once I knew what was happening. The years since have not been as kind to me as the others here, which is why I look like a monster from a tomb. And each time I return to the world of the living, my body degrades further."

"This guy must have been no more that eleven or twelve years old when he fought Ganondorf," the Hero of Time said, "Can you imagine what that kind of experience does to a child? It's probably fortunate he just comes across as a little standoffish."

"I'm standing right here, you know," the knight said.

"Okay then," Link said, "You said something about going to the Temple of Light?"

"That's right," the Hero of Time said, "In the temple, specifically, in the Chamber of Sages, is the only safe place in this world right now. And I'm sure the sages will be able to answer all your questions, and get you back to where you belong, so that we can end this for good."

"Explain one thing before we go," Link said, "Just what is 'this?' And why does it have to be me?"

"I'll explain," the princess said, "This is the result of a conflict that was ancient even in our generation. Eight thousand years ago, a war was fought between wizards who possessed power like none today, save Ganondorf himself, can imagine. The conflict began when a wizard named Thalandril Arkanus began practicing the art of necromancy, which had long ago been outlawed, and considered an affront to life and death. When he was found out, he managed to escape, but discovered that shortly afterward, his wife and two daughters had been killed. I don't know if it was deliberate, or a coincidence, but it drove him to fury and hatred. He gathered those who would follow him and rebelled against the nations of the time.

"Leading the forces against Thalandril was a wizard named Darius, and an adventurer from the artic tribes of the north named Dera Shaklator."

"Wait," Link said, "Shaklator was one of the good guys?"

"In a way," the princess said, "There is a connection between her and all the heroes of Hyrule, including you, Link. One of Thalandril's allies, a wizard named Jason Galan, entered the Sacred Realm and took the Triforce for himself. Just like when Ganondorf took it, it splintered into three parts. Darius received the Triforce of Wisdom, and Shaklator the Triforce of Courage.

"I'm afraid I don't know the exact details, but something happened late in the battles, as the war was nearly ended. Shaklator managed to kill Jason, and took the Triforce of Power for herself. With two pieces, she was easily able to take the last part from Darius. Then, to ensure the Master Sword was no use against her, she used the Triforce to alter her body and spirit, transforming herself into a demi-god."

"And then Darius used the Twilight Mirror to lock her away," Link said.

"That's right," the Hero of Time said, "And for eight thousand years, she's been trapped in the void, trying to find a way back. And when Ganondorf took the Triforce from the Temple of Light, he damaged the seal Darius created to keep her out. He had no idea of what he was doing. None of us did at the time. If he hadn't done it, I probably would have, to try to keep him from getting the Triforce."

"Then what does it have to do with me?" Link asked, and held up the sword he had retrieved, "Why did I need this?"

"Because we're running out of time," the Hero of Time said, "I don't know if we have a few hours left, a few days, or a few centuries, but something is changing. You've seen the creatures out there in this world. Just a year ago, they were nothing like that. They looked like men, though even more grotesque than us. The Sage of Light, last time I was able to see them, months ago, told me that the seal was weakening and would soon break entirely. Shaklator is pushing through, and her influence is changing the landscape and creatures here.

"I'm afraid it's just bad luck that it had to happen during your time, Link. Believe me, I would do this myself if I could, but even if I could return to our world, I've been informed by the sages that my flesh would crumble and turn to dust as four thousand years of age caught up to me in a few seconds."

"What if we could return the Triforce?" Link asked, "Would that fix the seal?"

"Maybe," the princess said, "But you'd have to convince Ganondorf to part with his, too, and that task is likely to be lethal for at least one of the parties involved."

"Maybe I'll just explain it to him when I get back," Link said, "We do have a sort of truce for the moment, at least."

The Hero of Time and princess looked at one another, then back at him. "Are we talking about the same Ganondorf?" he asked, "Murders innocents, makes castles fly?"

"Yeah, that's him," Link said.

Before either of them could respond, there was a knock at the door, and a soldier poked his head in. "Scouts got back. Got a large number of ghoulies headed straight this way."

"Okay, we need to get going," the Hero of Time said, "We'll talk about this later. Ever since you showed up, things have been getting stirred up nice."

The skeletal knight moved over to the far side of the room, where the soldiers parted to allow him past, and moved back toward the other end of the room, taking bows from their shoulders and notching arrows.

Behind where they had been standing, a trap door of iron was visible in the floor, and was held shut by a large lock. The knight touched a finger to the center of the lock, tracing a pattern into it, and it gave way, unlatching itself as he pulled it away.

"This is a tunnel we've been working on," the Hero of Time said, "About a mile long before it breaks into a natural cavern which comes up on Death Mountain."

"We call it Death Mountain because if this village were Kakariko, it's in roughly the same place," the princess said, "But this one earns the name anyway, and is considerably more dangerous."

"Then why go this way?" Link asked.

"It'll be faster and easier than trying to walk through an army of demons," the Hero of Time said.

"Are we ready?" the knight asked.

The four soldiers leveled their bows toward the trap door, drawing the strings back. "Go," the Hero of Time said to the knight, and as it lifted the door, said to the soldiers, "Keep your aim steady. You see anything moving, let it have it."

Nothing emerged from the trap as the knight rested the door against the wall. "Looks clear," it said, "I'll go first."

It disappeared down the trap, landing with a thump, and the sound of footsteps moved away. "You're next," the Hero of Time said to Link, "It only goes one way, so nothing should surprise you. We'll be right behind you."

Link descended into the opening, finding himself in darkness except for the light coming from the opening. He moved forward, letting his night vision take its form, the green highlights along the walls and floor, and could see the figure of the knight moving down the tunnel, away from him.

The tunnel was far from being an architectural masterpiece. The walls were rough hewn, far from smooth, and the roof supported by bracing spaced a little too far apart for his liking, and was maybe wide enough for two people to walk side by side, if they were fairly familiar with one another.

He heard someone drop into the tunnel behind him, and the princess' voice from above the opening. "Lock it behind us. We won't be coming back this way. Then report to the captain. He's in command."

"We'll buy you all the time we can," someone said in response, then another set of feet landed in the tunnel, and the trapdoor slammed shut.

Link kept moving, following the knight down the tunnel through the dark. The glow of the sword in his hand was clearly visible in the darkness, yet for some reason cast no light on the surroundings.

He glanced back over his shoulder to see the Hero of Time behind him. "Just keep moving," the hero said, "We want to get through the cavern as quickly as possible."

"I get the feeling there's something I should be worried about in here," Link said, turning back to the front and moving down the tunnel.

"Quite a few things, actually," the Hero of Time said, "If we see any, just remember to aim for the bits that look like eyes."

"That's reassuring," Link muttered.

The tunnel was uneven, causing him to have to stoop to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling at times, and he was unable to reach the ceiling when he reached upward at others. He lost track of time in the dark, until finally, the knight stopped up ahead, and the tunnel opened up.

Link stepped out of the tunnel mouth into a massive natural cavern. His night vision faded away, superseded by the light from up ahead. Looking up, he could see the cavern roof far above, stalactites of varying size jutting down toward them, and bathed in a red glow from up ahead. The tunnel had opened onto a small ledge, about six feet away from the tunnel was a sudden drop. Link walked to the edge and looked over, and saw the source of light.

It was a river of molten lava, flowing through the center of the enormous cavern, with live flames dancing upon its surface, casting a pulsing light upon the tunnel. The river itself had to be nearly a third of a mile across, and from here, he could see only one way to pass it, an enormous rock bridge straight across it, about thirty feet above it.

"Look there," the Hero of Time said from behind him, and pointed at the far end of the bridge.

A group of creatures, marching in formation, was coming across the bridge toward the nearer side. At first, Link thought they were mounted riders, but as they drew nearer, he saw that they had what appeared to be human torsos, but where the waist should be, they attached directly to a four legged horse-like shape. But these were not centaurs, creatures that had existed only in legends, as far as he knew, these were something else. Long tails with sharp, scythe-like blades on their tips, and their feet did not end in hooves, but what looked like gargoyle feet, with three clawed toes. And their faces did not even resemble humans, featuring mouths nearly a six inches wide, no lips, and rows of teeth as long and sharp as knives. As if they didn't have enough natural weapons, each one also carried a large halberd, held ready to use.

"We need to get across that bridge," the Hero of Time said, "After that, it's a straight shot up to the surface, then down the mountain."

"Let me guess," Link said, "When we make our move, more than just those four are going to show up."

"Guaranteed."

"Then tell me one thing first," Link said, "Why did you all come with me for this? It would have been easier to slip through with just myself."

"You don't know the way," the princess said, "And you must understand something. What the world now faces came about because of us, because of our foolish actions. We've been here for four thousand years. Are you going to tell us now that we shouldn't be there for the end?"

"Okay," Link said, "Sorry. Let's go."

* * *

The castle was enormous, Ilia understood, but she didn't realize just how big it was until she came out from her room and began to walk its halls. It could have housed the entire population of Orden, and would still seem empty. The halls were deathly quiet, and she could go down several passageways before encountering a guard or just a passerby, either a maid or other member of the staff.

It still hadn't truly sunk in, everything that Princess Zelda had explained. Hyrule had turned to stone, every living thing, person, animal, plant, or insect, except for Link and Zelda, and they had come here searching for an answer, a way to reverse it.

And it had grown into something exponentially worse. To be more precise, what happened to Hyrule was just a small part of the larger scheme, just a ruse to draw them here. What kind of villain did it take to do something like that? Ruin the lives of so many, just for two people?

The last thing she could remember was that night, when it happened, and then suddenly waking up in that room beneath this castle, and not having any idea what was going on. She could feel the scab on her lip from where Khall had struck her. And it was just going to get worse, until Midna had given him what he wanted.

Link had refused. He had said there was too much at stake. That alone had rocked her to her very core. How far would it have gone? Would Link have let Khall kill her, to keep him from getting that strange mirror?

Or had Link known about the others, that they were on their way down?

But then there was the way he had reacted. When Khall struck Ilia, he had been angry, certainly, but when Khall moved to Midna, when he killed her, Ilia had never seen Link in such a rage before. If Link had reached Khall, he would have undoubtedly torn the man apart with his bare hands.

None of this was right. Link had already done everything he had to, right? He'd saved Hyrule from darkness, and was set to settle down in Orden. He was going to take over as mayor when her father stepped down, and get married, raise a family…

Ilia stopped at an intersection in the halls. She looked down the passage to her left, and her right, and shook her head. In her thoughts, she'd gotten lost in this huge place.

"Need some help?" a voice above her asked, causing her to jump.

She looked up to see a woman seated on the rafters over her head. Even so, the woman was difficult to make out, dressed in dark clothing, and with coal black skin, seated up there in the shadows. If it weren't for her white hair, Ilia might have missed her.

"Um…" Ilia managed, and then fell silent.

"It's all right," the woman said, "You're quite safe here."

She leaned forward and dropped from the rafters to the floor, making no sound as she landed, and smiled at Ilia. "My name's Silviana," she said, "I'm a friend of Link's."

Without waiting for Ilia to respond, she moved closer, taking her gently by the arm and started leading her down the hall. "Come on," she said, "I imagine you're hungry. The kitchen's this way."

"Oh, thank you," Ilia said, "I'm sorry, I'm still a bit out of sorts."

"Well, don't you worry about a thing," Silviana said, "First reports from the battle say we've won, though we don't know at what cost yet. Once that's cleared up, we're going to start trying to get Link back."

"There was a battle?" Ilia asked.

"Oh, yes, tends to happen in war," Silviana said, "This was probably just the first of many, but an early victory does wonders for morale. And getting Link back won't hurt either."

"You keep saying that," Ilia said, "I saw him turned to stone. Can someone fix that?"

"You really were out of it, weren't you?" Silviana said, "It's a bit more complicated than that. We're going to have to go find him, but Zelda and Ganondorf have a good idea where he went. As soon as they get back, they're going to get to work on that seal down in the dungeon where you woke up. Once that's open, we'll be halfway there."

"What if you can't find him?"

"Well, then he'll probably find his way back on his own," Silviana said, "He's a rather resourceful guy. I'm sure he's fine. Probably being a lot more careful on his own than when he had to protect the others. I'm sure he's not taking any risks whatsoever."

* * *

Link was, at that moment, astride a four legged centaur monster, holding onto it by the hair on its semi-human head, as it tried desperately to dislodge him, and was taking offense at him pushing his sword into its torso, then pulling it upward, cutting up and out through its shoulder, then leaping from its back as it collapsed to the ground.

"This way!" the Hero of Time called from further up the bridge.

Link ran after him, and further up the bridge, the skeletal knight was in combat with two of the creatures, catching both their halberds on its shield, then stepped forward, beneath their weapons to stand between them, where he slashed his weapon deep into one's side, causing it to leap back from the stroke, right off the bridge to plummet into the molten rock below.

The Hero of Time leaped toward the second, driving his sword into its chest as he collided with it with his full weight, and wrenched his blade to the side before pushing off, landing back on the bridge as the creature collapsed, and the knight gave it a push with its shield, sending the beast off the bridge like the first.

"I expected it to be harder than this," Link said as he came closer to them.

From this place, he could see the princess further along the bridge, who held her hands outstretched, and white chains flying from her fingers, restraining the fourth of the creatures, lifting it into the air, then suddenly flying sideways to smash into the rock wall.

"So did I," the Hero of Time said, "There are usually more around here."

"Let's take advantage of it while we can," the knight said, walking away from them, toward the far end of the bridge.

Link and the Hero of Time followed after him.

_Hang on, Midna,_ Link thought, _I'm coming for you._


	68. Chapter 67

**Chapter 67: A Dark Past**

Fires still burned in the morning light, filling the sky over Darimar with black smoke from the funeral pyres, upon which had been piled the bodies of the undead beasts, and those who had fallen defending the city alike.

For the first time, realization passed through the populace of what was truly happening. They had seen the refugees, and heard that the northern kingdoms had fallen, but now it had come home to them. King Rigdar and the armed forces did what they could to prevent panic, and news of the first victory did have a calming effect, but the king himself was not able to make many public appearances, and when he did, the dressings on the wound in his right shoulder, with his arm in a sling, made it clear how hard he himself had fought the night before.

In an isolated garden, behind the church of the Goddess of Time, a small number had gathered around a funeral pyre built for a single person, and one of the few getting such treatment on this day.

Mur'neth's ravaged body had been put back together as best possible and redressed in black cloth, and lain upon the oil soaked wood of the pyre. The priests of the church had clearly been nervous by the presence of Ganondorf, Kilishandra, and the number of black clad dark elves around the garden's perimeter. Sheila had dismissed them, deciding it would be simpler to read last rites herself.

Also attending were Princess Zelda and Judge Ralthas, though once Sheila began reading from the scriptures, he quietly departed, a great many other matters on his mind. While the number of ninja kept their distance, an older one by the name of Vargus stood by Kilishandra's side as Sheila read the text of the all-seeing goddess who governed time itself, and recorded all events, both mortal and celestial, in Her great tome of history.

While the differences in the reading from the Hyrulean version were somewhat interesting to Zelda, she cast a glance at Kilishandra, on her right, to see the woman merely watching calming, no real emotion on her face as the reading went on. She looked at Ganondorf, to her left, to see him quickly look up, away from her and back toward the body.

The spirit bonding she had done to revive him had left a lasting impression her mind. Just as when she had bonded with Midna, to save the Twili, she had seen the events through his eyes, felt his emotions and desires as though they were her own, and when he had used the increased energies from possessing two Triforce fragments, she had felt the energy as it rushed through his body, through both their spirits, and finally understood why it was so enticing.

Zelda had never been with a man before, but she was not entirely without knowledge of the pleasures involved. At the age of twenty-four, the royal council had been constantly urging her to marry, insisting that it should have been done long ago, but her first thoughts were always for the people of her kingdom. At least during waking hours. Though she had been alone at the times involved, she had experienced orgasms, and understood quite well the desired nature of such things.

The feeling of the energy of the Triforce flowing through one's body, in full control, was not the same, but could be said to be comparable. Wonderful warmth and pleasure permeating through one's flesh, and just the rush of adrenaline at the feeling of such power under your control.

It was also quite clear why someone could become obsessed with such power.

But this was not all she had experienced during her short time bonded to him. For some reason that she did not know, perhaps because they both carried a part of the Triforce, she had bonded much more closely to Ganondorf than she had with Midna, and had inherited something from him.

At first, she thought she was just imagining things, but the images kept returning to her mind. She was seeing events from the past, as though she had been there, and from the first person. She saw herself fighting, killing, and at other times, leading. She realized that she had through the bonding inherited at least some of Ganondorf's memories.

She had not told anyone yet, because they came and went with little rhyme or reason, chaotic flashes that made no sense, and were seemingly out of order. Given time, she thought she would be able to make sense of them, or at least wait until she could discuss the matter with Ganondorf in private.

He was watching her again. She could feel his eyes on her. When their spirits had separated, the Triforce of Wisdom had returned with her, bonded to her soul as it was. The only way he would have been able to keep it would be to remain permanently bonded to her, and that was an idea that neither of them wanted.

When her mother had given her the Triforce of Wisdom when she was younger, passing it to the younger generation as had been done ever since the royal family had resumed its place as the leaders of Hyrule, after the Great Sea had receded and the new Hyrule had been founded, she had also been told that the only way for someone to receive it was for it to be given freely, or another with one of the other fragments could forcefully take it when the one bearing it neared death.

"I do not want your death," Ganondorf had said to her some time ago.

Perhaps if she was able to make sense of the memories she had unintentionally inherited from him, she would be able to make sense of what it was he was really after. She glanced back at Kilishandra, and wondered if he knew what she had sworn to do, or if she had told him.

Kilishandra's right arm was in a sling, much like the king's had been when Zelda saw him earlier. Sheila's healing magics were remarkable, no doubt, but not perfect, it seemed. She remembered when Sheila had mended her broken leg, back in the mountains. She could walk on it afterward, but it was sore for days after. Kilishandra had holes punched through her shoulder and wrist, with muscle and ligament damage. She would be fine in a few days, thanks to Sheila, but without such healing, it was likely her arm would have been unusable for weeks, and the potential of not being able to use a sword ever again, if the ligaments didn't heal well enough to restore her grip.

And that man laying there on the pyre now had died to save Kilishandra. And as he died, told her that he loved her. And then she had told him that she had known.

It was almost like the plays, Zelda thought, the great tragedies of unrequited love, and someone always died in the end. In most of those stories, however, the other came around and returned the love, only to join them in death.

Kilishandra's face may not have shown any emotion at that time, but she couldn't hide what she was feeling from Zelda, from the empathy she had had ever since she had received the Triforce of Wisdom from her mother. She could feel Kilishandra's sorrow at the loss of her friend, but she could also sense a deep self-hatred right then. Kilishandra was mad at herself.

Zelda could sense emotions, but not the reasoning behind them. Her empathy made it impossible for someone to lie to her, but did not allow her to see the truth they were hiding.

There were two exceptions to this, of course. Ganondorf and Link. She had never been able to sense anything from either of them. She was certain now that it was because their parts of the Triforce protected them, masking them from her ability.

Her attention was called back to what was happening when Sheila shut the book she had been reading from. "And so we lay to rest Mur'neth, a great warrior and leader of his people, who died bravely for the sake of others," Sheila concluded, "May he rest in peace."

Six of the ninja, in their black leather, wearing their full hoods and masks, hiding their white hair, moved forward, holding burning torches. They moved so there were three on each side of the pyre, and there was a cacophony of scraping steel as every ninja in the garden drew their swords and held them in front of themselves, point high in the air in salute. The torch bearers lifted the flaming instruments in their hands in the same manner, the fires held above where Mur'neth lay.

Kilishandra drew her sword, holding it up the same way, and Ganondorf followed suit a moment later, the glowing white blade standing out harshly in the crowd. Deciding it was best to simply go along with it, Zelda drew the Master Sword from where it waited at her hip, its unique metal ring different from all the others in the garden, and held it aloft.

She silently noted that she needed to keep up the exercises Link had showed her with the weighted training swords for building strength. The Master Sword was unusually light for its size, but it took everything she had to hold it aloft in this manner.

The six torch bearers lowered the flames to the wood of the pyre, and all the ninja around them lowered their swords until the tips touched the ground at the same time. Zelda followed along as Ganondorf and Kilishandra did so as well.

The oiled wood came to life quickly, the flames shooting high and hot as the six backed away from the pyre. Vargus stepped forward, toward the pyre, out from the other ninja. He passed his sword to his left hand, and clapped his right fist over his heart, all the other ninja following suit.

"In life, loyalty," he said, loud enough to be heard over the flames, "In service, obedience. In conflict, wisdom. In death, glory."

"In death, glory!" the ninja repeated with a shout.

"A ninja is not a soldier," Vargus went on, "He is a spy. He is an assassin. He is a warrior of the shadows. Open battle is always the last resort. The greatest hope of any ninja will be for his enemy to discover him, and he will die gloriously in combat. For that is the closest he will ever get to being a hero!"

He turned away from the pyre, not moving his fist from his heart. "In death, glory!" he shouted, and the rest of the ninja repeated the shout once more.

He passed his sword back to his right hand and returned it to its sheath, and the rest of the ninja sheathed their weapons as well. When the cacophony of metal ended, Vargus added, "Rest in peace, hero."

The flames silhouetted Mur'neth's already dark form atop the pyre, and Zelda could feel the heat from where she was standing. She had attended the discussions between Vargus and King Rigdar last night, explaining the situation they were in.

Mur'neth had come for Kilishandra and no one else. The three hundred of them followed him as they always had, and reinforced the army in the city Kilishandra had been defending. Their arrival had actually saved many lives, minimizing the army's total casualties to just under one hundred men. With Mur'neth dead, their immediate task fell to carrying out his final wish, which was aiding Kilishandra. However, in a few days, they would have to meet among themselves and choose a new Shadow Blade to lead them. Until then, Vargus was the highest ranking member of their force.

Until then, at least, the king would have their full cooperation, and it was unlikely they would go against Mur'neth's wishes even afterward.

Now, they began to disperse from the garden. The way they moved reminded Zelda of Silviana, but while they had a habit of seeming to fade into shadows out of view, Silviana had a habit of being there one moment, and then you look away, and when you looked back she was completely and utterly gone.

Sheila walked over toward them, nodded to Kilishandra, and said, "If you'll excuse me now, I'm going to go see if I can help with the wounded."

"Don't take too long," Ganondorf said, moving after her, "I want you to go with me when I go back to the castle to have a look at that seal in the dungeons. It might take more than one pair of hands to work it."

Zelda turned to Kilishandra, who was still watching the burning fire as it wrapped itself around Mur'neth's body. Vargus, with a salute of his fist over his heart, bowed to her, and turned to walk from the garden, after the rest of the ninja.

"Are you going to be all right?" Zelda asked Kilishandra.

Kilishandra didn't respond for a moment, and Zelda spotted a glimmer in the corner of her eye. For the first time, a tear appeared from her eye, running slowly down her cheek. "I knew, you know," Kilishandra said at last, "I knew that he loved me."

Zelda said nothing, waiting for her to continue. Kilishandra reached up, wiping the tear away from her face. "But there was someone else I cared about," Kilishandra said, "A young man named Alistor. He was little more than a boy when I first met him, but I was barely in my thirties. Still a child, by elvish standards. I'd been with my father for about fifteen years at that point. Alistor, he was what you'd call an idealist. Wanted to help people, improve their lives and such. He was funny, though not always intentionally. He could always make me smile. He loved my singing."

She turned, looking down at Zelda. "I used to sing quite a lot. I may not sound like it, just speaking, but I have a good singing voice. I don't sing much anymore, though. Not since Alistor died. My father led a campaign across our world, conquering almost the entire thing. He didn't start it, though. The northlanders, artic dwelling men of enormous stature, raided our borders. Alistor was killed in one of those early attacks. We launched a counter-offensive, and pushed them back into their homeland. When we killed their chieftain, they submitted to my father's sovereignty.

"And then we just didn't stop. We kept going, growing our army with each kingdom we brought down, until it all finally culminated at the capital of the Erador Empire. The problem was, I never really let go of Alistor. But I did forget about him, for a while, as we drew closer to the empire. Because that's where Reaper was."

Zelda could feel the burning rage that spiked in Kilishandra when she mentioned Reaper's name. "Who is Reaper?" she asked.

"Who was Reaper is a more accurate question," Kilishandra said, "Before I met my father, or anyone else, I lived with my mother in a Dra'thul village near the northern borders of the empire. Except for my mother, no one wanted me there, and they made no secret about it. I'm a half-blood, and it's easy to tell. The adults ignored me, or cursed me. But they were nothing compared to the other children…"

She paused a moment, taking a deep breath before going on. "I can't remember a day back then that I didn't have fresh bruises by nightfall. They would come at me in groups. I was bigger than them, but could never fight them all off. They would throw rocks, call me filthy bastard, and other things. There was one time several of the older ones caught me out by the lake. Four of them held me down, while the other… Well, my mother happened to be washing the linens close by, heard me scream, and came before they could actually do anything. They wouldn't have risked her wrath, if they could avoid it. She was a bit of a recluse anyway, and apparently the village thought she was a witch."

"That's a horrible life for a child," Zelda said sympathetically.

"Anyway, one day, a group came from over the border to the south," Kilishandra said, "They weren't soldiers. Not like I had ever heard of. They weren't even men. Monsters, the lot of them. Claws, fangs, and wings. What I saw that day was horrible. There was so much blood. And the creatures didn't simply kill. They were eating the dead, and some that were still alive.

"There was one man with them. I can't ever forget him. He was even more terrifying than the monsters with him. White hair, pasty skin, and he looked so thin and frail, but he carried an enormous scythe with him. The blade was bigger than I was, and the handle almost seven feet long. One of the men managed to find a pitchfork, and attacked him. Reaper cut him clean in half with a single stroke, from his groin to his forehead. Other than that, he was doing nothing other than walking through the village, watching the brutality.

"Then he saw me. I ran for my house. A frightened child back then, the only place I could think to run was to my mother. She hid me in the cellar. The trapdoor leading down was hidden under the rug, so she was hoping to keep him from finding it. I didn't understand why she didn't go down with me, or we didn't run. I could hear what happened above me with perfect clarity. Reaper came in, introduced himself like it was a social call, and asked where I had gone. My mother said I was long gone by now, that he'd never catch me."

She paused for a moment, sighing heavily against the memory. "He tortured her. Small things at first, and then worse. I could hear her screams. The worst part was, the only questions he asked were at the start, about me. After that, he never asked anything. He had no reason for what he did, and just did it. Even now, I have nightmares about how I found her body. It was horrible. And it last nearly five hours. I could hear her screams the entire time.

"Once he was done, he left, taking the monsters with him. No one was left alive, but I almost think the people killed by the monsters were lucky compared to my mother. I ran away from that place, not knowing where I would go or what I would do. I ran until my legs couldn't carry me anymore. And then, I met Ganondorf, who would become the father I had never had."

She turned back to Zelda, looking directly into her eyes. "As I grew older, he taught me to fight, to use magic. Looking back, I think he raised me more like a son than a daughter, but perhaps that was all he knew. I came to utterly despise Reaper. I wanted to kill him, like he killed my mother. When I told my father this, perhaps the best lesson he ever taught me was right then. I think he saw my hatred, and he didn't even give me a warning. He doubled up his fist and punched me across the jaw. He didn't break my jaw, but I found myself on the floor, and it took me several minutes before I could even stand back up. In all my life, I've never been hit as hard as he hit me that day, even by people trying to kill me. He was sitting down, a short distance away, and as I got up, he asked me, 'Now, what good would killing me do for your sore jaw?'"

She smiled a faint bit. "At first, I didn't have any idea what he was saying. He explained how getting mad, getting payback, it wouldn't make the pain in my jaw go away. Then he told me that killing Reaper wouldn't make the pain he had caused me go away. It was worse than the pain in my jaw, and by killing Reaper out of revenge wouldn't bring my mother back. In fact, it would only make the pain worse, because I would no longer have a target for my hatred. And I would find another victim, and another. He would not stop me from killing Reaper, but said that he would make sure I did it for better reasons."

She turned back to the pyre, still burning. It was disconcerting to look directly at Mur'neth's body now, with the cloth and most of his flesh burned away. "Mur'neth was there with me, when we attacked the imperial capital, and I finally caught up to Reaper, almost eighty years after that day."

* * *

The initial attack had gone beautifully. The outer wall of the imperial capital had collapsed under Ganon's magical assault, and his forces now poured into the city, forcing the black-armored soldiers under the emperor's command back toward the palace.

Emperor Erador watched from the second story balcony of the palace, grinding his teeth as his men were pushed closer and closer toward them.

"Worthless foot-soldiers," he muttered, then shouted to the officer in the courtyard beneath him, "Ramso! Set it on fire!"

"Yes, my lord!" came the cry back from the sixteen year old boy who served as the emporer's highest ranking officer.

Torches were applied to the stone walls of the palace, and the fires grew magically, covering the stone of the palace in seconds, smoke and flames rising high in to the sky, the spells inlaid in the architecture roaring to life, feeding strength and energy into the emperor's body, and his laughter echoed over the city. "Beautiful!" he said, "Ha ha! It burns like paper!"

He leaped over the balcony, landing with heavy impact on the stone stairway leading to the palace gates, the stone of the stairs shattering under his weight, forming a crater around his form. He rose to his feet, checking his sword to make sure it was free in its sheath, and looked out toward the approaching enemy.

"Let them come," he said.

From inside the doors of the palace, looking out through the roaring flames, a white haired, thin man watched Erador, and saw the enemy drawing ever closer. He chuckled to himself. "A lot of carnage," he said in a voice like a snake's whisper, "I am going to enjoy this."

The gates to the courtyard were locked from the inside, but this proved no hindrance. They exploded off their hinges, wooden chips and splinters flying through the air at great velocity into the soldiers gathered in the courtyard. Screams rose from the men as the small wooden projectiles punched into their flesh and eyes.

The smoke from the explosion gradually cleared, and four figures were visible in the opening where the gates had been. The first, a towering image of a man, nearly eight feet tall, his flesh as dark as the midnight sky, and his body an image of muscle like only the legends spoke of, and in sharp contrast, red hair and a beard cut perfectly square around his jaw.

This was Ganon, the wizard who had brought the northlands under his heel, and now he had turned south, toward the empire.

By his side was a woman, not nearly his height, but still taller than most men, her skin not as dark as his, but a deep brown. Her hair was a perfect match for his in color, and she carried a sword with a purple blade and yellow pommal gem. The Sorceress Kilishandra, Ganon's daughter.

On Ganon's other side was a young man, blonde hair, somewhat pale complexion. It would be Khall, Ganon's apprentice. The fourth figure, by Kilishandra's side, had his identity nearly completely obscured in the black leather and hood, but it was easy to tell he was a ninja from the Dra'thul nation that had fallen last year.

"Charge!" said Ramso, Erador's young officer, urged the men who could still stand to attack.

Ganon merely sneered, and lifted one hand. "_Daem!_" he shouted, and a blast of concussive force sent the soldiers flying into the air, along with circular patterns of blood flying outward from their bodies, to crash heavily onto the stone of the courtyard floor.

Ramso leaped forward, through the bodies as they fell, running straight for Ganon with his sword. The big man turned the blade with his bracer on his left arm, and snaked out his right hand to wrap around the boy's throat, lifting him into the air as the three with him only waited.

He pulled the sword from Ramso's hand, letting it fall to the ground. "Is this how the mighty emperor fights?" Ganon asked, "He sends boys in the place of men?"

"All who wish to fight for me, I allow," Erador said, walking down the stairs toward them, "Ramso is quite willing to die for me, you'll find."

"Pity," Ganon said, "There's no salvaging him, then."

He clenched his hand tightly around the boy's neck, and a sickening crack was heard over the roar of the flames that consumed the palace. Ganon dropped the boy to the ground, where he lay still.

"I didn't come here to fight your men," Ganon said, "I came here for you. The mighty emperor who can topple buildings with a touch, who arrows bounce off his skin, who sold his soul for immortality."

"You're quite long-lived yourself," Erador said, "You appeared as if from nowhere eighty years ago, and haven't aged a day in that time."

"Ah, but you see, I did it in a much cleaner way," Ganon said, "The power I possess is bound to me, not I to it, and my soul is intact. And now, I'm going to find out if the soulless can die."

Erador chuckled. "You would fight me? You have a death wish."

There was a loud crash, and the ceiling of the palace's top floor gave way, causing all eyes, including Erador's, to look up toward it, then they returned to Erador, and that was when Kilishandra saw him.

Reaper, standing behind the flames in the doorway at the top of the stairs.

"Father," she said, "I see him."

"Then go," Ganon said, "And remember what I told you."

"Yes," she said, and ran for the stairs, past Erador, up toward the palace, leaping through the flames in the doorway toward her quarry.

Inside, the heat was incredible, causing her to break into a sweat as she scanned the chamber, trying to spot Reaper once again through the flames. It was incredible to see, the way the fire spread and burned along stone like it was soft wood.

She spotted him again, at the far end of the entrance hall, silhouetted in a doorway. She started running toward him, her grip on her sword tight. So long ago it had happened, but now she was here.

She passed through the door into the throne room, a wide, empty chamber with a large seat of solid gold at the far end. Reaper had seated himself upon the throne as the flames drew closer along the walls.

They descended from the ceiling toward her, the same winged monsters that had attacked her village so long ago. Quickly striking with her sword, she took the head from the first, it's body sliding across the floor behind her as its momentum carried it past. The second, she lifted her left hand and let loose a ball of dense air that shattered it to pieces, sending blood and limbs spinning through the air.

She turned toward the third to see it already collapsing to the ground, blood pouring from a long wound from its abdomen to its shoulder. Behind it stood Mur'neth, his sword bloody, and he nodded to her.

She smiled slightly, and turned back to Reaper, where he sat, watching them.

"Hmm," he said, smiling, "Seems you two enjoy this as much as I do."

"Do you remember me, Reaper?" Kilishandra asked, "I was just a little girl when you killed my mother."

"I've killed a lot of girls' mothers," Reaper said, "Fathers, brothers, and sisters, too. But I do remember you. One of a kind, you are. A half-blood that nobody wanted, until after I visited you."

"What are you talking about?" Mur'neth said, "She's one of the most respected people in the world!"

"She is now," Reaper said, "But if I had never visited her home, she would have grown up there, if she wasn't killed. Never would have met her 'father,' and wouldn't be here now, would she?"

"Shut up and die," Kilishandra said, and quickly recited a lightning spell, to hurl the bolt across the throne room.

It exploded into impact, leaving the golden throne shattered into pieces on the floor. Reaper had moved quickly, stepping to the side, now walking toward them, his enormous scythe in one hand. "You owe me for everything you are," he said, "whether you like it or not."

"Split him," Mur'neth said, "I'll come at him from the left, you from the right."

"Go," Kilishandra said, and they charged toward Reaper.

Reaper might look thin and frail, but when he hefted the scythe and spun it through his hands, it was with incredible strength and speed. Mur'neth was forced to back away as the enormous blade came down toward him, stabbing into the floor and raking through the stone as he pulled it directly to the other side, sending stone fragments flying at Kilishandra as he pulled upward. Mur'neth lunged at him, only to find the blade knocking his blow to the side, and Reaper turning back to Kilishandra, parrying her blow with the end of the haft, and jabbing it into her stomach, knocking the wind from her as she stepped back from the blow.

Mur'neth moved sideways, trying to circle behind Reaper, who lifted the scythe, spinning it above his head as he turned in a complete circle, striking downward and Mur'neth leaped back quickly as the tip of the blade whistled past his face, where Reaper spun it over again, turning it upright, and resting the haft upon the floor.

Mur'neth realized he could feel warmth on the side of his face that wasn't from the flames. It hadn't been a near miss, the tip of the blade had just missed his eye, cutting a small line above his cheekbone.

A drop of blood hung on the tip of the scythe's blade, and Reaper reached up with his free hand to catch it on his index finger, then brought the finger to his mouth. "Mmm," he muttered, "You need more salt in your diet."

Kilishandra appeared at Reaper's shoulder, aiming a swing to take off his head. Reaper dropped to the ground, his legs wide in a perfect split as the sword whistled over his head, and using his scythe as a brace, spun one around, turning his body to a double-leg sweep that ripped her feet from underneath her, and dropping her flat on her back on the stone. Kilishandra felt the wind knocked from her lungs from the impact, but had no time to rest, rolling quickly to the side as the blade of the scythe came down, digging its tip into the stone floor where her head had been. She got to her feet, backing a few steps away from him as he dislodged the blade with one pull.

"This guy isn't human," Mur'neth said, "Can't be."

"I could have told you that before," Kilishandra said.

"Don't tell me you don't want to play anymore," Reaper said, "I'm just getting started."

The roof suddenly gave way as the flames ate through the thick wooden supports, and stone and wood fell upon Reaper with no warning, burying him in a mass of rubble that filled the center of the room.

Kilishandra almost started laughing maniacally. Instead, she said, "Well, that's a pleasant surprise."

"Hell yeah," Mur'neth said, "Come on, let's get out of here."

The rubble shifted, and two hands emerged from the pile, shoving stones and beams away as Reaper emerged. Kilishandra cursed, lifted her sword again.

Reaper looked down at himself, where his skin had been cut open by the rubble, black liquid was running freely. "So this is the color of my own blood," he said.

"Kili!" Mur'neth said, pointing at the rubble behind Reaper.

Kilishandra saw what he intended. She quickly sheathed her sword, and ran at Reaper. With his scythe buried in the rubble, he was caught completely by surprise and Mur'neth and Kilishandra grabbed him by the arms, dragging him quickly backwards. Another moment, and he would have regained himself and overpowered both of them. But too late, as he felt the sharp wood of a splintered beam press into his back, ripping into his body and out his chest.

With a sharp pull, they drug him nearly three feet onto the beam before backing away. Reaper looked down at the thick wooden object protruding from his chest, his black blood coating the length before him. He looked up at Kilishandra. "Why?" he asked, "What does this accomplish?"

"Right now," she said, "nothing. Your death won't bring back my mother, and it won't make my pain go away. That's what my father taught me. But it will prevent you from hurting another soul ever again."

Reaper chuckled softly. "You dark elves," he said, "You sure are an ungrateful lot."

He suddenly gasped in pain, for the first time, and smiled. "Feels like I'm going to enjoy this," he said, and slumped forward, life finally driven from his body.

* * *

"Mur'neth and I got out of the palace then," Kilishandra said, "It was collapsing steadily, and before long, was just a mass of rubble. My father, Khall, and the emperor had moved several city blocks away over the course of their battle, and we were out to see the end of it in time. To see the way Erador, with so much blood coming out of him, it was impossible to imagine how he could still stand. In fact, after my father delivered the killing blow, Erador got back to his feet, looked directly at him, and laughed, then toppled onto his back.

"After that came the cleanup, reconciliation with the survivors," she went on, "I got away from it, somewhere I could go to be alone, and I cried. I don't really know why. Maybe repressed sorrow or something, but I just cried. Mur'neth followed me, and he stayed with me for that time, just holding me."

Kilishandra looked toward what remained of the pyre, now smoldering embers. Once they cooled, ashes could be collected for a funeral urn, but Kilishandra wondered if Mur'neth would have preferred to be scattered to the winds. She would have to ask Vargus.

"I knew even back then that he loved me," she said, "But I pretended not to notice. No, worse, like it wasn't even there. I'm such a despicable person."

"No, you're not," Zelda said, "Now you listen to me for a moment. Why do you think I helped you, to convince the others that you should be allowed to fight with us? It's because you regret the things you've done wrong. Whether it is your actions against us, or with Mur'neth here. You regret your mistakes in life, judgment, and love. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have trusted you. Mur'neth knew what he felt, and while you did not reciprocate, neither did he make an effort to make his feelings known to you himself. Everyone makes mistakes, some bigger than others. I should know. What matters is that you keep moving forward, learn from those mistakes, and try to do better.

"Right now, your path is easy to see," she went on, "Help us. Help us save our world from what those who lied to you have set in motion. Once that is done, we can see to repairing the damage they've done to your home. I'm trusting you, now you have to trust me."

"Okay," Kilishandra said, "I guess I am a soldier of Hyrule now."

"That's right," Zelda said, "Now come on. We've been standing out here for a while. Let's get inside before we both catch cold in this winter air."


	69. Chapter 68

**Chapter 68: Descent into Shadow**

What passed for morning in the Sacred Realm had come when Link emerged from the caverns with his small group onto Death Mountain. The dark clouds that filled the sky seemed even darker today, and the perpetual lightning sent thunder rolling over the mountain.

"There's why there weren't more of those things inside," Link said as he saw what awaited them in the pass.

Hundreds of the centaur creatures were slain, their bodies littering the pass, dismembered, decapitated, and some even disemboweled.

"Don't go too far," the Hero of Time said, "Look up on the left-hand side of the pass."

Link looked up, toward the rocky ledges above them. He could make out the shapes of wings, silhouetted against the lightning flashes.

"Those bull creatures with scorpion tails?" Link asked.

"Yes," the Hero of Time said, "Looks like they were busy."

"Why would they be fighting each other?"

The princess emerged from the cave entrance behind him. "That's something we don't know," she said, moving up to his side, "You see, most of the monsters in this world are left over from the time Ganondorf was imprisoned here. His experiments, so to speak. But new creatures have been appearing in the past few years. And they've been after both us, and the creatures already here."

"The Sage of Light is the one who told us about Shaklator," the Hero of Time said, "Because her influence is growing strong again, he said."

Before Link could respond, there was the sound of a trumpet in the distance. The creatures high above them looked up, and a moment later took flight, high into the air, and toward the sound.

"That will be Viscal and his men," the princess said, "He's opened the path for us. Let's go."

"Keep your eyes and ears open," the Hero of Time warned Link as they started down the pass, "Rockslides occur frequently around here. Unnaturally frequently."

Link looked over his shoulder to see the skeletal knight emerging from the cave behind them, and following. He turned to the Hero of Time. "I think you promised me some answers, now that we have a little time."

"That I did," he replied, "Ask away, I guess."

"First of all, help me understand this situation," Link said, "You said you've been here ever since you passed away, and the Sacred Realm is reliving the Imprisoning War. Why is that?"

"We're not entirely certain ourselves," the princess said, "It could be that this is our judgment the gods made on our lives, that we must continue to relive the nightmare we caused so long ago."

"Ganondorf is a monster," the Hero of Time said, "He was even before he got the Triforce of Power. But it was because of us that he got it to begin with."

"What about the soldiers, then?" Link asked, "What do they have to do with it?"

"I don't know," the Hero of Time said, "They're trapped here, just like us, and possibly worse off. You see, whenever they die, or at least, their bodies are destroyed, they reappear back at the village, and go off to fight again."

Link remembered the one he had seen back in the village, screaming "Why can't I die?"

"Even if there was no other reason," the Hero of Time went on, "I'd want to bring an end to this so that those poor bastards can finally rest in peace. You see, Zelda here, and myself, have not been 'killed' since we arrived here. Partially because we have been careful, and we're not sure what will happen if we are."

"There is a power binding us here," the princess said, "That much I am sure of. It may be that this power is preventing us from facing our final judgment, but there is no guarantee that if we die, we won't go on to that judgment. And I for one would see this end before then, whatever the reason."

"What about me then?" Link asked, "What happens if I die?"

The princess turned to him, and lifted one hand, holding it close to his body, and shutting her eyes for a moment. "I sense no energy about you other than the Triforce of Courage. It was what brought you here, and what holds you here. The question is, are you here physically, or in spirit?"

"I'm not sure what you mean…"

"If you entered the realm physically, then your death would be simply that. Your death. You would pass from the living and would go to face the final judgment that everyone must face, before the twin gods who oversee all. But if your physical body remains in the world of the living, and you are here in spirit, then your death here would cause you to fade from existence entirely. There would be no afterlife for you."

"Wow, that's bleak," Link said, shaking his head, "So either way, dying is as bad an idea as ever."

"Quite so," she said.

They walked a bit further in silence, before Link asked, "What was Ganondorf like, back then?"

"He got his start among the desert dwellers, the Gerudo," the Hero of Time said, "They were a peculiar race, all women. And for some reason, even though most took Hylian husbands and lovers, they only ever gave birth to full blooded Gerudo. Their own legends stated that only a single male child would be born each generation, and he was destined to be their king. Most did not live past their teen years, because the various tribes would refuse to bow to a boy from another tribe. But Ganondorf survived, and united them under his rule. He was brutal in his tactics, and harsh in his leadership.

"But what I know of him firsthand, well, he tried to get what he was after through fear. He tried to take the keys to the Temple of Time by forcing their keepers to give in. After I gathered the keys, and he managed to slip in through the gateway I opened, gloating to me even as I could do nothing to stop me."

He glanced over at the princess, who started where he left off. "Link was trapped, away from everything for seven years. I saw what our foolish plan to beat Ganondorf to the Triforce had wrought. The capital fell in a single day, everyone who was still alive fleeing to Kakariko and surrounding areas of Hyrule. The country became a dark place, where only the foolish would travel alone and unarmed. Moblins and other creatures weren't unusual to be seen roaming the countryside by night, but now they came out even during the day, along with a host of new beasts like we had never seen. Zora's waterfall was frozen solid, and Ganondorf revived an ancient evil dragon and unleashed it on the Gorons, among other things.

"The capital city became a graveyard, the buildings decaying and collapsing upon themselves as those who had died during his attack began to rise up again, and would attack anyone who entered the city. They were not the same thing as common undead creatures, but something even more sinister."

"How so?" Link asked, "I've seen more than just a few. Most seem to be the same things to me."

"Most are empty husks, soulless and mindless," the princess said, "Usually animated by lingering spirits who had nothing to do with the body they then inhabit, and such spirits are usually after revenge for something or another, and have little means of actually succeeding. These creatures still had their souls trapped within themselves. They were trapped between life and death, and suffered untold agony because of it. Their entire existence had become a singular driving intent, each pain-ridden step they took was one that sought to bring an end to their pain by spreading it to others."

"Anyway," the Hero of Time said, "Ganondorf set himself up nice and tight in the castle, which he had lifted from the ground, and it hovered in the air over a lake of molten rock. After the city fell, he was rarely seen outside it. He didn't have to come out, of course. He watched everything I did from there, and didn't even have to leave when he captured Zelda and used her as bait to bring me after him. I would have gone after him, but he crushed any chance of last minute preparations beforehand."

"That's something that has been bugging me," Link said, "He did this again when he appeared last year. He had Zelda, and her Triforce of Wisdom, in the palm of his hand for some time before I even got there. Why didn't he simply take it, and then take the Triforce of Courage, if that's what he wants so badly? It's the whole reason he keeps coming back to Hyrule, isn't it?"

"Well, first of all, because unless all three pieces are in the same location, they cannot be taken, only freely given," the princess said, "You've noticed how it burns in your hand when he is close by? That is not because it is warning you of his presence, it is because the pieces are reacting to each other when they are all within a certain proximity. Have you ever been in his presence without your Zelda close by?"

Link started to say yes, then stopped, thinking back, and said, "Wait, when that ninja kidnapped her just a short time ago. I didn't even notice, but Ganondorf was with me almost the whole time until we got her back. I'm sure there was still something, but yeah, it wasn't burning. I thought it was because he had agreed to help us, and he could, at least for a while, be trusted."

"Wait, wait," the Hero of Time said, turning full toward him, "He could be trusted? Were you high or something?"

"No," Link said, "In fact, I thought long and hard before I had a talk with him. He helped us get Zelda back, and help us in the war."

He looked up the path, and started walking again, faster than before. "And every minute I'm here," he said, "is another that I'm counting on him to keep everyone alive. We need to hurry."

The Hero of Time moved up beside him, keeping pace. "He can't be trusted," he said, "That man is a killer to the core. As soon as we get you back, I suggest you put him down…"

"Listen to me," Link said, "He and I have an agreement. He's kept his end so far, so I'm keeping mine. He wants to settle things, but he wants it to be back in Hyrule. There's going to be some time before we manage to get back there. I've got to hurry back, but in the meantime, I've got one more stop to make before going back."

"And what's that?" the Hero of Time asked.

"I heard the other voice again, as I picked up this sword," Link said, gesturing to the white blade in his hand, "The one that is being helpful. It told me how to save Midna. I've got to go into the void."

"That's suicide!" the Hero of Time said, "That's where Shaklator is imprisoned, remember? You go there, and there's no way you'll be able to hide from her!"

"That's what this is for, isn't it?" Link asked, holding up the sword.

"Oh, and you've figured out how to use it, how to control its powers?" the Hero of Time asked, "Until you do that, it's no better than ordinary steel!"

"Okay mister 'Hero of Time,'" Link said, "If I blow it, how about you just go back to this moment and warn me. With two of you, I'm sure I'll believe you."

The Hero of Time groaned. "Number one," he said, "I can't do that anymore, and it was never really my power to begin with. It was the Master Sword that allowed me to travel through time, and second, I couldn't control it. The sword would take me back to when it believed I needed to be. I had no control over it like that."

"The Master Sword, huh?" Link said, not slowing his pace.

"Link," the princess said, moving up on his other side, "If you intend to go through with this, you'll need the sages' help to do so."

"That's why I'm going to the Temple of Light," Link said.

"Yes," she said, "But first, at least talk to them, the Sage of Light in particular. You still don't know the whole situation, and we may be right. Going into the void might be a one-way trip."

"Midna died because of me," Link said, "I know that I'll find her there. If I don't at least try to get her back… No, I am going to get her back."

"Link, understand something," the princess said, "There is no magic that can bring back the dead. It is because death is a realm which mortals have no right or ability to control. Bringing back the dead is an impossible task."

"I don't know," the Hero of Time said, "The only way he could be here if not physically, would be for him to die without giving up the Triforce of Courage. If he can scratch and claw his way back into the world of the living, it might not be impossible to pull another along with him."

"In any event, look up ahead," the princess said, "You'll be able to see our destination from here."

The pass opened up into air, a nearly sheer drop downward, with only a small trail winding back and forth down the mountainside. Link looked down and saw in the distance a pyramid, rising from the earth, dark brown brick ascending almost four miles upward into the air, its base just as wide, with a single wide stairway leading from the base to the peak up the closest side.

"That's the Temple of Light?" Link asked, "I was expecting something, I don't know, brighter."

"That is the Pyramid of Power," the Hero of Time said, "Constructed by Ganondorf while he was imprisoned in this world, to serve as both his home, and his prison. It is an enormous labyrinth of corridors, chambers, and traps. It has fallen into great disrepair since his departure, but it is still extremely dangerous within. The traps are quite functional, not to mention the beasts that have made it their home in the meantime."

"Where's the Temple of Light, then?"

"Within it," the princess said, "At ground level, in the center. He constructed the pyramid around it to try to cut off its light, and be able to break through the barriers that protect the Chamber of Sages within the temple."

"And let me guess," Link said, "The only entrance to the pyramid is at the top."

"Yes," the Hero of Time said.

"That son of a bitch," Link muttered, "I think I am going to kill him after all."

There was a shrieking from up the path behind them, causing them all to run around. One of the centaur creatures was visible further up the pass, pointing its weapon toward them, and shouting something in indiscernible guttural noises into the cave from which they had emerged. Two more appeared from the cave mouth, moving up by its side, and other yet emerged.

"Time to go," the Hero of Time said, "Down the path, quick as you can, but don't slip. It's still a long way down."

The skeletal knight moved back up the path, drawing his sword. "I'll buy you some time," it said, "Get going."

"All by yourself?" the princess asked as it moved away from them.

"I said I'd help get you all to the Temple of Light," it said, "I didn't say I'd be able to go all the way with you."

It turned, its red eyes focused directly on Link. "I have one final lesson for you," it said, "I've shown you sword techniques, and the way a warrior must follow, always growing stronger so that he may protect those who cannot protect themselves. Now, heed my words one last time."

Link watched as the knight stabbed his sword into the rock of the path. "This is but a tool, unthinking and useless without a hand to guide it. It is the warrior who wields it that is the true weapon. Remember that, Link. You hold there in your hand a powerful tool, but it is you that is the weapon. Do not rely on tools too much, or you will grow dull. If you will face Shaklator, the false goddess, it is you that will face her, not your sword."

The knight drew his sword again from the earth, turning toward the montsers, rapidly running toward them now, the path rumbling under their footsteps. "Now go!" it shouted.

"All right," Link said, turning to the narrow path that wound its way down a nearly sheer drop, "Thank you."

The three descended down the path, beyond sight, and the knight faced the charging horde of creatures, still more pouring out of the cave.

"Come, demons," it said, "I have existed long past my time, by body wasting away, ever growing pain in simply existing. Come release me from my torment, and I shall release a thousand of you."

The knight easily stepped aside the thrusted halberd of the first to reach him, slicing his blade upward, directly through the bottom of its chin, cutting off its face, blood pouring into the air as it thundered past and over the edge of the drop.

Link saw the beast fly over their heads, out into the open air, spinning over itself toward the ground below, where it was blasted to pieces by the impact, blood and innards spilling around its limbs as they flew again, away from the impact point, leaving a red stain on the earth. More roars of pain came from the pass above them.

"Just keep moving," the princess said, "We can make it."

The narrow ledge was dangerous enough, and with the sword in his hand, Link was having a hard time maintaining balance. He quickly unbuckled his belt, loosening it a single notch, and slipped the blade into it, against his hip, with the guard holding it in place.

The path was narrow enough to force them to move single file, sideways down the face of the mountain, and was nearly sheer itself in several areas, forcing a sliding ride down slippery rocks, and dizzying one in the process, before turning back on itself, moving down in the other direction. Link kept his hands on the rock wall behind him, finding grips wherever he could, the others moving just behind him.

They were nearly halfway down when he stopped. He could here something, rumbling in the distance, but was far more worried about the vibration rising through his feet and hands where they touched the stone.

"Look up to the right!" the Hero of Time told him.

Link raised his gaze and saw it. The volcanic peak of Death Mountain, just as it was in the other world, was now erupting, throwing rocks and molten magma into the air. "We're far enough away it can't reach us, right?"

"We should be, but it's not the volcano I'm worried about," the Hero of Time said.

"Link!" the princess said, getting both their attention, looking up where she was watching.

The eruption had caused a large number of rockslides, many in the distance, harmless, but one poured down the mountain directly toward them. Rolling boulders, massive sliding slabs of rock, and enormous clouds of dust poured directly downward toward.

"Come on!" Link said, moving again downward.

"We'll never make it!" the Hero of Time shouted.

He was right. The dust was the first to reach them, sliding past their hands and under their feet, turning the already dangerous ledge into a slippery nightmare. Link tried to move, and felt the ledge slide out from under his foot. He spun as he fell, grabbing at the wall, trying to get a hand-grip to stop himself, but as his fingers found a crack in the rock, it pulled away from the wall, and he found himself falling with a large slab that he had accidentally pulled out from the wall.

He grabbed hold of it, using its weight as a brace to turn himself back over, reaching again for the wall, and at least slowing himself a little. He could hear screaming, but couldn't make out the words. A large form fell past him and he snatched out quickly, catching the princess by the arm, and nearly jerking away from his tenuous slide down the wall. He pulled her close, putting his free hand around her waist. "Hold onto me!" he shouted over the growing cacophony above them, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

A moment later, Link felt his feet hit the ground. He realized that they had slid down the rock face all the way ground. "Quick, run!" he said, letting the princess go and moving away from the wall, and paused only to look up and see an enormous slab nearly ten feet across falling toward them.

He quickly snatched her arm, pulling her back toward him, and placed his back against the wall, and prayed he had judged right.

The slab and a half ton of other rocks stuck the ground, shaking it with incredible force, rolling over each other and forming an enormous pile, covering the foot of the path in rubble. In a few moments, the noise at last died away, and the rumbling ceased as the rockslide came to its end.

Link's heart felt like it was about to leap from his chest, and if he hadn't been holding onto the princess, he had no doubt his hands would be shaking. They were standing with their back to the wall, and the slab had landed edgewise, leaning over them.

"We're alive," the princess said, disbelief obvious in her voice.

"Not if I have a heart attack now," Link muttered.

The shape of the rock wall wasn't even, and Link could see light from his right, but the position of the wall made the path far too narrow to crawl out, and to his left, it was completely blocked in. Link pushed the princess gently to the side, and braced his back against the rock wall behind him. "Give me a hand," he said, putting his hands and feet against the slab.

She saw what he intended, and did the same, and together they pushed. The rock slab ground against the wall and shifted, but after a moment, they had not made any real progress, and were forced to stop pushing to rest, and it grated back into its original place.

"That's great," Link said, "Avoid getting crushed to get trapped."

"Hang on, do you hear that?" the princess asked.

Link listened, and he heard what she meant. The Hero of Time's voice, calling out. "Link! Zelda! Where are you?"

"Over here!" Link shouted back, "We're under a stone slab!"

There was the sound of footsteps and rocks being dislodged, and the Hero of Time's face appeared in the opening of light. "Hey, there you are. You both okay?"

"We're not hurt, at least," Link said, "Can't get out of here, though."

"Hell of a ride, huh?" the Hero of Time said, "Okay, you two sit tight. I'm going to go find something to lever this rock off you with."

His face disappeared from the opening and Link heard his footsteps moving away.

"Well, we're all okay," the princess said.

"Hey," Link said, suddenly realizing, "Can't you use that magic you used back in the tunnel to get this off us."

"Too close of proximity, unless you don't mind your face being burned off," she said.

"Ah, okay then," Link said, looking back toward the small opening, then asked, "So, while we have a moment, let me ask you something."

"What?"

"You're the original princess, right? The very first Zelda?"

"Yes," she said, "I found out they've been naming the firstborn female of each royal generation after me. Rather silly thing to do, honestly."

"If it was the Master Sword that allowed the Hero of Time to travel through time, do you think that I could use it the same way?" Link asked.

"For what purpose?"

"I was thinking," Link said, "This Shaklator. I understand that she became what she is in the ancient war, eight thousand years ago. What if I just go back and stop her before she becomes a demi-god?"

"I don't think it works like that," she said, "Like he said, the sword decides when to send you to, and it is the place you are most needed. And even if you could go back and do that, messing about with history isn't a smart idea."

"Why's that?"

"It's mainly a theory, and we don't really want to test it," she said, "Do you know what a time paradox is?"

"I think that's when history and the present don't match up or something, in a way that is utterly impossible?"

"In a manner of speaking," she said, "Essentially, if you are supposed to go back in time and do something, then at that time, a double of you would appear anyway, to do that. Actually going back and changing something to be different from it was is not only a bad idea, but it could cause a time paradox, which may cause time itself to unravel, and bring about the end of all existence."

"In theory," Link said.

"Yes."

"Anyway, you're telling me it would be better to find a solution to Shaklator now, rather than wild ideas," Link said.

"Exactly."

"Then tell me what she is, really," Link said.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you anything that Link hasn't already," she said, "The other Link, that is. She was a warrior who lived long ago, who managed to gain control of the True Force, that is what we used to call the complete Triforce, and used its power to main herself immortal. She isn't a goddess, but she's close enough that it doesn't make much of a difference to us."

"So why do I need to see the sage so badly?" Link asked, "What do they know that you don't?"

"It is the Sage of Light, in particular," she said, "While the other sages have come and gone, he has always remained. He was ancient even during my time."

"Did he live through the ancient war?" Link asked.

"I have no idea," she said, "I'm afraid I never thought to ask."

"Then I'll just have to ask him," Link said, "If that boyfriend of yours ever gets us out of here."

As if on cue, there was the sound of shifting rocks, and the slab grated against the wall. "About time," Link said, and added his push to the slab, the princess joining in as well.

The slab shifted slowly. The Hero of Time's voice suddenly shouted over the sound, "Hey! Get away from them, you piece of shit!"

The slab grated back. "The hell?" Link said.

There was a low growl somewhere nearby. "That's right! Over here!" the Hero of Time shouted, "You want them, you got to go through me!"

Heavy feet moved across the rocks, and the shriek of metal on stone was heard. "Too slow!" the Hero of Time shouted.

"What is it?" Link asked.

"I wish I knew," the princess said.

A loud roar filled the air, echoing across the landscape, the dwindling sound audible even under the slab. "What, is that supposed to be scary?" the Hero of Time shouted back, "I've been here too long to be afraid of _you_!"

The shouting was close now, and Link heard steel strike steel, and a roar, this time in pain from whatever was out there. The Hero of Time's voice rose in a wordless roar, which turned to a scream of pain, and Link saw something in green fly past the small opening to his right, and red splashed on the rocks where he could see. The heavy feet moved back toward them. Link eased the sword from his belt as enormous fingers appeared in the opening, taking a grip on the rock slab.

The slab lifted up and away, rolling to the side, and the princess let out a small scream of surprise as the creature was in view.

Fifteen feet fall, its body covered in a dense green fur and rippling with muscle. Two rows of fangs jutted past its lips underneath an almost pig-like snout, and two enormous yellow horns came from either side of its head.

"Ganon!" the princess said.

"What? But he's not here!" Link said.

The creature held an enormous sword the size of a man in its right hand, and it snatched toward them with its left. Without any room to move, Link felt its fingers clench around his waist and his feet left the ground as it lifted him into the air, holding him at face level, where two glowing yellow eyes examined him.

Link saw the gigantic sword come up, ready for a swing. He quickly turned his own sword over and stabbed it into the creature's wrist. With a roar of pain, its grip released, dropping Link to the ground.

The sword came down, and Link rolling forward, the enormous blade shattering the rocks when it impacted. Link rolled directly between the enormous creature's feet, rising to his own feet behind it, and narrowly avoided being swatted by the clubbed end of its tail as it turned with surprising speed for its size.

Link back away, trying to stay out of reach of its massive sword. A dagger suddenly appeared, stabbing into its head from the side, causing it to screech in pain. Link looked to see the princess pulling a second dagger from her boot. The creature reached up with its free hand, taking hold of the blade and pulling it free, green ichor spilling from the wound as it tossed it aside.

It moved toward Link again, its heavy feet shaking the ground as it moved, lifting the enormous sword into the air. "Let's bring you down a level," Link said, and ran directly toward it.

The sword came down, and Link felt and heard the rush of wind as it passed just behind him as he dove between the creature's legs, turning and slicing into the back of its right leg as he passed. The beast fell heavily to one knee as the Achilles Tendon in the back of its leg was sliced through. Link turned as he rose, stabbing his blade downward into the exposed ankle, and dragging the blade back against the bone, pulling the foot toward himself, pulling the creature off balance.

He stepped around the tail as it thrashed toward him, and sliced his blade into the left leg, cutting the tendon in a similar manner, then rammed the blade into the ankle and drug back, pulling the foot out from under it and toppling it forward onto its hands and knees.

Link stepped up, leaping onto its back, running toward its head as it reached up one hand after him. He leaped upward off the back of its neck, spinning in the air, turning the point of his sword downward in his hands, and brought it down, directly into the creature's face as it looked up toward him. The blade raked through its skull and jaw, piecing through the bottom, and Link fell with all his weight dragging the hilt of the blade toward himself, pulling it forward, out through the front of its head. Green liquid poured onto the ground, along with the other innards of its skull as it collapsed onto its stomach to lay still.

Link stared at it for a moment as he caught his breath. She had called it "Ganon." There was no way Ganondorf would have gone down that easily, so it couldn't have been him.

"Link!" the princess called to him, "Over here!"

Link followed her voice to find her with the Hero of Time where he lay, or at least what was left of him.

"That was careless of me," he said from where he lay, his right shoulder and arm completely gone, and Link couldn't look directly at the mess for more than a moment. The princess hand knelt down on his left side and had his head resting on her knees.

"Looks like I'm not going any further, Link," the Hero of Time said, "But you've got to get into that pyramid, and to the temple."

"I know," Link said, "Don't worry about me."

"You got something special, Link," the hero went on, "Something that the rest of us never did. Sure, we stepped up, for the common good and all that. But I see it now. You've got a personal stake in everything, and people might say its selfish, but it gives you a drive and strength like we've never had before."

He paused, taking in a breath sharply against pain before going on. "I think you're the one, Link," he said, "You were always meant to be. This started long before any of us even existed, but you're the one that can bring it to an end. You got the mark of destiny on you."

"I don't believe in destiny," Link said, "Everything I've done, I've done by my own choosing."

"Even if you don't believe in it, I think it believes in you," the Hero of Time said with a smile, "Now both of you get going. Don't worry about me."

"Are you sure?" the princess asked.

"Hell, at worst, I'll just reappear back at that village with the rest of the soldiers, and keep fighting," he said, "Or, if this is it, and I'm going to be gone for good, then it's hardly that terrible. I've been waiting to die for so long…"

He paused for a moment, taking a few shallow breaths. "I think I finally understand," he said, "Trapped here for so long. A least I had company. Shaklator… She's been trapped in the void, alone, for eight thousand years. I think, regardless of what she was like before, she went insane. And the loneliness must have been unbearable. Wait, that's it! The story about the light in the darkness! I thought it was that sword, Link, but I get it now! It's…"

"_Be silent!_" a woman's voice shrieked over his words, the earth shaking beneath them. Link was forced to cover his ears against the vicious shriek.

He saw it happen. Black lines appearing in the ground around the Hero of Time's body. He reached forward and snatched the princess, pulling her away from him. Inside the black lines in the ground, the land began to crumble away into itself. The Hero of Time vanished into the new opening, falling from sight. When the crumbling stopped, a man-shaped hole was all that was left in the ground. Link leaned forward, looking down, but could see only blackness.

_You have not won yet, Link,_ hissed the woman's voice in his head, _You will learn your place._

"Come on," Link said to the princess, "We have to get going."

She nodded silently, watching the opening for a moment before turning to follow him as he walked toward the pyramid.


	70. Chapter 69

**Chapter 69: Preparations**

Tharkus moved from the corridors of the citadel into the inner courtyard, where Khall and several men had moved the Twilight Mirror, and now they struggled to move its great weight into the frame constructed for it, all with their hands prevented from directly touching its surface by small cloths.

"Khall!" Tharkus said, moving toward the younger man, "I've been looking for you since last night! We've got a serious problem!"

Khall glanced at him, then turned back to the working men. "I assume it has to do with your scheme with Kilishandra failing miserably, correct?" he asked.

"That's just an annoyance by comparison," Tharkus said, "Ganon used the Senan Serat. He kept it under control! Do you realize what that means? All this time he was playing us for saps! He's never shown his true ability!"

"I'm quite aware of what he's done," Khall said, "I watched the battle a bit more subtly than you. We have nothing to fear for the moment, so stay calm."

"Stay calm? He could obliterate us from the foot of the mountains!" Tharkus nearly shouted.

"No, he can't," Khall said, "First of all, your gloating over Kilishandra kept your attention from what actually brought him into the fight. For a very short time, he had access to more than one piece of the Triforce. I'm not sure exactly how much effect it had on him, but let's assume that for the time he held it, his maximum destructive ability was effectively doubled. But now it is back where it belongs, with the princess. But not before it had a useful effect."

The six men moving the mirror eased it into its frame, holding its form off the ground. Reforming the broken piece had been remarkably easy, as the mirror desired to come back into its correct shape, eagerly reforming the glass along the fracture.

Now, it stood pristine, as though it had never been broken to begin with.

Khall reached into a pouch at his belt and drew out the purple gemmed ring, long ago brought by Zero from Hyrule Castle. Slipping the ring onto his finger, he held one hand up to the mirror. Green symbols glowed for a moment around its edges, then faded into black on the frame. Within the mirror, a shape began to take form.

Three golden triangles, atop one another in an unmistakable form, surrounded by a gold line that formed a square, the corners of which each touched the third shape of a circle surrounding it all, which itself was inside a second circle that touched none of the other shapes.

"You remember discovering this?" Khall said, "The seal that binds Shaklator from this world."

"Of course I do!"

"You misread something, though," Khall said, "Assuming things because of the immediate events. As you guessed, the Triforce feeds energy to the seal, holding it in place. You managed to get Link to use the Triforce of Courage to destroy a flesh golem, and assumed that the weaker part of the seal corresponded with it. You were wrong."

One of the three golden triangles glowed more brightly than the other two. "This one," Khall said, "is the part connected to the Triforce of Courage. The one already 'released,' as you put it, was the Triforce of Power. Ganon's piece. This is not so simple as a lock releasing, however. Immediate use of the Triforce parts weakens the seal, but time causes more energy to flow back into it. Ganon's use of the Triforce of Wisdom has drained energy from both parts of the seal, but they will recover, especially since the princess doesn't use her fragment often. To open the seal entirely, we'd have to either find a way to drain the energy away, or do the nearly impossible, and provoke all three of them to use their fragments at the same time. But then, if we could get the seal open, we wouldn't need the mirror in the first place."

"The barrier doesn't bind Shaklator in the void," Tharkus said, "It prevents her from entering this world."

"Exactly," Khall said, "It took quite an effort to pull us and our men here. Beings of power have a much more difficult time of it. But, unfortunately, the mirror is useless without the final ingredient to the formula."

"I know," Tharkus said, "The mirror itself is not the portal, but casts one upon a surface, and the surface must be the correct composition. Obsidian, to be precise. And it must be continuous, not several pieces melded together."

"Yes," Khall said, "And a large block of it at that. Blocks of volcanic glass that size aren't exactly easy to come by, let alone move about. Fortunately, winter is coming on, and the Darimar winter is harsh. They won't be able to march their army after us for some months yet, and by the time they do, I'll have another surprise in store for them."

"You've been examining those large crystals around the citadel's lower levels," Tharkus said, "You think you can get the circle working again?"

"Several of them are damaged and need replacing," Khall said, "But before long, this citadel's real purpose will finally be revealed."

"What if I were to tell you that I know where a sufficiently sized block of obsidian can be found?" Tharkus said.

Khall turned to look at him. "I would say you've been holding out on me."

"To the west of these mountains, in the Desert of Death, a single structure remains standing," Tharkus said, "A tower, left over from the ancient war. It was intended to house the mirror long ago, but never saw it."

"I see," Khall said, considering this for a moment, "It would be easier to move the mirror there than bring such a large piece of obsidian here."

"Yes, and my golems need fear nothing from touching its surface, and can work tirelessly," Tharkus said.

"Even with the mirror and obsidian, permitting access to this world for a being of such power as Shaklator requires preperation, and the stars will not be properly aligned for least resistance for several months yet," Khall said, "We will have to wait until nearly next summer. Time was our ally before, but with Darimar still standing, and with two magicians of such ability as Ganon and Kilishandra defending it, it is now our enemy. We must hold until then."

* * *

"I think that's the last of them," Ralthas said as Sheila looked up from where she had been working her magical healing on the injury of one of the soldiers, "Are you okay?"

"Just tired," she said, "I'll be fine after I get a little sleep."

"There's a room you can use in the barracks," Ralthas said, "I'll get someone to take you there."

Keeping things under control after the battle was proving a trying task in itself. Realization had begun to sink into the populace that the other four kingdoms had already fallen if the enemy was attacking Darimar. While the city had the legend about it of never having fallen in more than eight thousand years, the thought of the enemy right outside the walls was enough to cause fear to spread quickly. The king had little time to rest as he and several other officials went through the city, reassuring the people that the first battle had been won and they were safe.

Soldiers were nearly asleep in the street where Ralthas and Sheila were, having spent most of the night piling the dead and monsters on the pyres, to make sure the necromancer wouldn't be able to raise them again.

As Ralthas turned to find someone to take Sheila back to the barracks, he nearly collided with Ganondorf directly behind him. "How about you get a carriage for her, and she can sleep while we ride back to the castle," the wizard said.

"I know you want to examine that seal," Ralthas said, "But if you need her help, it can wait."

Ganondorf looked down at him, a dark frown on his face. "You seem to think I was making a suggestion," he said, "I wasn't. Call for a carriage."

"You're not the one giving orders here…"

"I'm quite sure you were standing there when I made it quite clear I was," Ganondorf said, "Now, there's two simple ways to solve this. Either call that carriage, or draw your sword. If you do draw the sword, remember that I warned you before I painted the street with your insides."

"Father," Sheila said before he could respond, "I would prefer to get back to the castle as soon as possible. Would you please call a carriage?"

Ralthas sighed in frustration. "All right, wait here," he said, and glanced back at Ganondorf before turning and moving away, and could be heard muttering, "Barbarian…"

As he moved away, Prince Richard approached the two of them, one young soldier with him. He smiled at Sheila and she managed a faint one back. "So, the young prince survives," Ganondorf said, "What did you think of your first battle?"

"Other than the fact I was terrified most of the time, not much," Richard said, and gave a weak salute to Ganondorf, "I hear we owe you for killing the necromancer controlling them."

"He's not dead," Ganondorf said, "Wasn't even here. He had established a link to them through particularly tough flesh golem. Destroying the golem severed that link."

"Yes," came another voice from the side, and they turned to see Kilishandra and Zelda approaching them, and Kilishandra went on, "Tharkus didn't come himself. In the end, the man is a coward."

"Don't mistake caution for cowardice," Ganondorf said, "Tharkus is an extremely cautious man. He won't fight us until either he's absolutely certain he can win, or he's hopelessly and utterly cornered."

"I'd prefer the latter, in that case," Zelda said.

The young soldier at the prince's side was glaring at Kilishandra, Zelda noticed. "Arthur," she said, "I'm glad to see you're all right."

"Yeah," he said, not looking away from Kilishandra, "So she didn't betray us, I see. I take it this means everything she's done is just going to disappear?"

"Of course not," Zelda said quickly, before anyone else could respond, "But like I told the judge, her relationship to this man here," she indicated Ganondorf, "makes her a citizen of my kingdom. What will become of her is for me to decide, and it will happen in my lands, whatever that may be."

"Is that so?" Ganondorf muttered, looking down at Zelda.

"Father, I can explain…" Kilishandra started.

"Later," he said, looking up toward the sky, "I don't think we're done yet today."

An alarm bell rang from the wall, accompanied by a voice screaming, "Dragon!"

"They're sending another dragon?" Richard asked no one in particular as all eyes turned up.

The clouds were heavy, and snow had been falling lightly all morning, but the black clouds promised more. Against the black, a gray shape visible in the air, circling overhead and slowly descending.

"Archers ready!" Richard shouted, "Take aim and wait for my signal!"

"Dragon skin is too thick," Ganondorf said as every man with a bow nearby notched arrows and pointed upward toward it, "Arrows will just bounce right off."

"What would you suggest then?" Richard asked.

"Got any ballistae?"

As the shape came lower, Zelda started to think it seemed familiar. "Wait!" she shouted, then turned to Richard, "I know that dragon! He's not an enemy!"

"Come to think of it, it does look familiar," Sheila said as she watched the shape.

"Are you sure about that?" Richard asked.

Zelda raised on hand, waving toward the descending form, and shouted, "Roxim!"

The dragon clearly heard, turning its great head toward the shout, and turned about, its descent speeding up. Richard looked at Ganondorf, who merely smiled and shrugged.

"Clear the street!" Richard said, turning back to his men, "Give it some room!"

Odd looks were coming from all around, but the men did as they were told, moving out of the street, toward the buildings. The great beast pulled up above the street, settling its legs beneath itself as it settled down, the wind from its wings sending snow flying through the air over the surrounding audience.

It was indeed the weathered dragon, so old his scales had long since lost their silver color, graying with age, ancient scars decorating his flesh, and one eye completely white, long since blind. He was so large, he nearly filled the street, and his head held as high as third story windows. The great head turned, eyeing the men around him, many holding the grips of their weapons, ready to draw.

"Would all of you stop staring at me like that?" he said, his voice causing the ground to rumble beneath their feet, "You're creeping me out."

"Roxim!" Zelda said, stepping up beside Richard, "What are you doing down here?"

"What?" the great beast asked, "I can't come say hi? How you doing? Has the world ended yet? Gods know it would be an improvement…"

"Well, I thought you didn't want anything to do with the rest of the world," Zelda said.

"I got to thinking, you see," Roxim said, "Did some looking around, too. The northern kingdoms are an ugly place right now. Land's turning black, plants are dying, animals going crazy with hunger, then starving to death, that sort of thing."

"The blight…" Kilishandra whispered.

"Anyway, I decided that if the world was going to end, I might as well toss in and help try to stop it," Roxim went on, "I'm old, but I've got a couple centuries left. Don't want to spend them starving to death. Now, I think there's supposed to be a king around here somewhere, right? Would someone fetch him for me?"

Faces turned and looked about, from the dragon, to Zelda, to Richard, and back.

"Come now," Roxim said, "Surely you haven't lost him? I've got some news he's going to want to hear. Check under the bed. I hear humans sweep and kick things under those all the time."

"I'm right behind you actually," came a voice from behind the dragon.

"Could you come up where I can see you?" Roxim asked, "I might knock down some buildings if I try to turn around here."

King Rigdar appeared from the side of the dragon, moving up to stand beside Richard. The king's right arm was still held in a sling, but he held himself up to his full height as he faced the dragon. "What is it you want to tell me?" he asked.

"You know the other four kingdoms have fallen, right?" the dragon asked, and when the king nodded, he went on, "You're pretty much on your own for now, and while from the look of things, you're holding well, I do have some good news. The frost giants, from the far north, have decided it was in their best interests to choose a new, more amiable king, instead of that old Ymir, and have reinforcements for your city on their way. How would you feel about having twenty frost giants at your command?"

"Good lords," the king said, "As much as I'd love to have that much muscle, we can't feed twenty of them, not through the winter."

"Don't have to," Roxim said, "They're carrying most of what they need to get through the winter, and likely won't arrive until nearly spring. Those lumbering brutes do take their time, but the winter around here won't slow them down."

"Father," Richard said, "That will put them here just in time for us to launch a counter-offensive. Go after that damned citadel in the mountains and put an end to it."

"You're right," the king said, and nodded to the dragon, "We'll be happy to have them. Just one thing to sate my curiosity. How did you convince them? I hear they're very unwilling to talk to other species?"

"Like I said, they got a new king, who was willing to listen to me, especially considering what happened to the old one," Roxim said with a horrifying grin that revealed teeth as long as knives, "Never liked that guy. Tough, and kind of stringy."

"Well, thank you," the king said, searching for words, "You'll pardon me, I hope. I've never met a dragon before and I'm not sure how to address you."

"Roxim will be fine," he replied, "I'm too old for protocols and such anyway."

The dragon turned his gaze upward, toward the sky, where the snow was begin to fall in greater density. "Now," he said, "If you'll back up so I don't knock you over when I go, I'm going to go find something to eat before the snow makes everything take shelter out of sight."

The king backed away from the great beast, who opened his wings upward, reaching over two stories high, and beat them down, lifting his feet from the ground with a great gust of air that nearly knocked the gathered crowd from theirs.

He circled away, over the rooftops, and called back, "I'll be back later to check on you all!"

The king turned to find Ralthas moving toward him. "I heard most of the conversation," Ralthas said, "His voice carries well."

"Twenty frost giants," the king said, "With that kind of muscle, we wouldn't need siege engines to bring down walls."

Ganondorf snorted. "I wouldn't need them anyway," he said.

"Not all of us are wizards," Ralthas said, "The carriage you wanted will be here in a moment. I'm going to stay here for now and get a group together to fill in the tunnels the monsters dug on their way into the city."

"Should we be worried about another attack?" Zelda asked, turning to Kilishandra.

"I don't think so," she replied, "Tharkus and my forces were the only ones sent out upon the kingdoms. It will take time before they can regroup from this unexpected turn of events."

"They won't be able to march any more than we could," the king said, "This snow is just the early winter here. It is going to be snowing almost constantly for the next few months, and drifts will get as high as eight feet outside the city. The city streets will be under four feet of snow in the worst of it."

"Harsh winters here," Ganondorf said, "Good natural defenses, though I wouldn't want to be out in it."

Richard had moved over beside Sheila ask they spoke, and leaned close to whisper. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, "Just tired."

Richard reached for her hand, intending to give her a reassuring squeeze, only to brush it as she lifted her hands to her mouth, blowing into them to ward off the chill in the air.

"In the meantime," Ganondorf was saying, "I want to get a look at that seal in the castle dungeon. If it really is what I think it is, we might be able to rescue the idiot who got himself petrified."

"Is it dangerous?" the king asked.

"Maybe," Ganondorf said, "I'd have to get a look at it to be sure. It might just be a ward to keep people out, or it might be a trap that kills the people who mess around with it in the wrong way."

"The stories say that Darius had a laboratory in the castle before and during the ancient war," Sheila said, "It could be something he left behind."

"The only way to be sure is if you had his journals," Ganondorf said, "Any chance at least a copy is here?"

"No," Sheila said, "I don't think they ever were copied. The originals are in the vault beneath the academy in Tyr."

Ganondorf pondered this for a moment. "If they have information about this seal, it might be useful. I don't think I'd need it to open it, but it would speed the process up. Where is Tyr in relation to here?"

"Several weeks to the northeast, through Metallicana," the king said, "You'd never make it in the winter."

"Unless we fly," Ganondorf said, turning as the sound of horse's hooves on the street came around the corner, two horses pulling a carriage large enough for six, "If that dragon shows up again, tell him to meet us at the castle. He's going to make himself useful."

As the carriage approached, Kilishandra moved over to Zelda. "Who is this 'idiot' my father is talking about rescuing?"

"Link is far from an idiot," Zelda said, "He's from Hyrule. He's not one of my soldiers, but I'd trust my life to him. This sword," she added, putting her hand on the pommel of the Master Sword at her hip, "is rightfully his."

"He must be an incredibly gifted fighter if everyone is willing to go to such trouble just for him," Kilishandra muttered.

"He is, but it's more than that," Zelda said, "He has an incredible feeling around him. I can see it in everyone, myself included. We're nervous, and on edge right now, even though we won the battle. When Link is around, it just has a calming influence. Everyone is just a little bit calmer, a little bit braver. It's as if you just know everything is going to be all right. That's why we need him back, even if he'll just be one more fighter on the wall in the end. Your father knows it too, even if he won't admit it."

"So he's a good leader, then?"

"In a way," Zelda said, "He's not a tactician. He's the one in front, leading the charge. In a way, he's charismatic, and in another he's quite unassuming. And while I don't think he'd be able to plan large battles, when the blood starts flying, he is perfectly calm and steps into the role of a leader very well. He also has a way of talking, when he tells you to do something, it's hard to say no, especially when your life is depending on what happens next."

"You must be exaggerating," Kilishandra said, "You're describing him like they talk about heroes in old legends."

"Decide for yourself when you meet him."

The carriage came to a stop, and Ganondorf opened the door on the side, then helped Sheila step up into it, exhausted as she was, she nearly missed the step, then climbed in after her, then turned back, looking toward Zelda and Kilishandra. "Come on, you two. I want you there too."

Zelda nodded, moving toward the carriage and climbing up the step into the dark interior, and seated herself beside Sheila, across from Ganondorf. It may have been built to hold six, but he easily occupied at least two persons' area, and had to lean forward to avoid hitting his head on the roof. Kilishandra climbed in after Zelda, seating herself next to her adoptive father, and pulling the door shut. A moment later, the carriage started rolling, and they were on their way back toward the castle.

* * *

Alexander Ragefaust was beginning to feel pent up. He had come to Darimar to help with the war effort, and after seeing the monster than had killed his sister at the temple, he knew it would have been there at the attack, but he had been told by an officer on his way out that civilians needed to stay where it was safe, and the castle was the safest area of the city.

The outer courtyard was empty, the snow having since erased all trace of passage, and he now walked slowly through it, watching nothing in particular, the icy chill in the air unnoticed, and the training dummies and archery targets cloaked in white.

He'd seen what happened to Link. It was strange to look at a stone form and realize that it had once been flesh and blood, and it was hard to even imagine turning such a thing back. He was starting to think he'd be better off just leaving the city and hunting the monsters down himself.

He was startled from his thoughts by enormous weight colliding with him from behind, toppling him forward, face-first into the snow. Spitting out the mouthful he got, he looked up to see Silviana, the dark elf woman, standing in front of him.

"Tag," she said, "You're it."

"What?" he said, and wasn't able to say anything else as she hurled a snowball right into his face.

He rose quickly, shedding snow as she turned an ran across the courtyard from him. "Hey! Get back here!" he shouted, dashing after her.

Running wasn't quite the correct term to describe how she moved, he realized. She bounded with enormous steps, gracefully through the air, seemingly only barely touching the ground. She would also be easy to lose, dressed as she was in a pure white cloak, shirt, and trousers. If she were to pull the hood over her face and remain still, it might be easy to miss her even now, when the snow wasn't completely covering everything yet.

She turned in mid-leap, hurling another snowball at him, which he narrowly sidestepped. _I can't believe I'm doing this,_ he thought to himself, _But I'm actually having fun!_

He was slowly gaining on her. He saw her hand go down, picking up more snow, and turning to hurl it toward him. He ducked beneath it, snatching a handful of snow as he did so, quickly balling it up and throwing it, and shouted his success as it splattered against the back of her head. She slowed, reaching up to wipe the snow from her hair.

He crashed into her with a tackle that carried both of them to the ground, rolling over each other in the snow. Alex heard laughter, and realized that it was himself as they rolled to a stop. He was on top of her, one hand on either side of her head as he lifted his weight off her. "You're it," he said.

"That's enough tag," she said with a smile.

"What do you have in mind then?"

"Wrestling," she said, her legs suddenly wrapping around his waist and jerking him sideways. In the awkward position, he could do nothing as she flipped him onto his back and sat straddling his abdomen.

Alex reached up toward her, intending to toss her gently off, to find she grabbed at his wrists, catching one, but he quickly managed to grab her other hand with his, they twisted about, each trying to gain control of the other, and Alex found his arms pressed down against his chest as she leaned onto them, one of his wrists in her grip, and one of hers in his. In this position, their faces came close to one another. For the first time, Alex could really see her features.

The coal black skin was all many people noticed, he realized, but he could see every smooth contour of her face, the high cheekbones, sharp chin, and her eyes. Like no eyes he had ever seen, somewhat large for the size of her head, irises a dark purple color, and while filled with amusement at the moment, deep within they shone with a wisdom like few possessed.

"It's no fun if you just lie there," she said.

"Why should I fight back?" he asked, "You realize how you're lying on me, right?"

Just to show her, he used his open hand, that she held the wrist of, to give her a squeeze. "Oh!" she said, a little startled, "Aren't you just the brave little rogue?"

"I can think of something else we can do, out of the cold," he said jokingly.

"I might consider it, but all you've beaten me at is tag," she said, "First, you have to best me at hide and seek."

"What, seriously?"

"Close your eyes," she said, then in a stronger tone of voice, "Close your eyes."

He did so with a sigh. She released her grip on his wrist, so he did so for hers, and her weight lifted off him. He didn't hear footsteps, but when he opened his eyes, she was gone. He sat up, turning to look all around himself, and saw no sign of her, not even footprints in the snow.

"Okay," he muttered, dusting the snow off himself, "Maybe I will just give it a try."

He walked away, looking for any sign of her passage, or trace of her.

Silviana watched him from between the crenulations of the wall surrounding the castle, and giggled to herself. When he was gone, she intended to go for the door to the main hall, and go to the kitchens for something hot to drink.

"Nice knowing you," she said, wondering how long he would look before giving up.

* * *

Far north of Darimar, in the ruins of Whitos-Neiki's east city, a single figure picked through the rubble. He was furious. Kilishandra had confronted Zero there, and used her magic to fragment his body across miles of countryside. Due to his nature, even this was not enough to kill him, but it took him a great amount of time to reform himself.

Now, as he dug through the rubble, searching for the sword, Blackrazor, he was muttering to himself the ways he intended to kill her. He was up to seventy unique ideas, but unfortunately, she wouldn't survive the first.

He pushed aside a large block of stone, and was reward with at last, the sight of the black blade and blue pommel gem. With a smile, he picked it up, pulling it free of the rubble. The voice of the blade whispered to his mind, offering glory and riches for dark prices. Unfortunately for it, nothing it offered interested him.

_Zero,_ another voice whispered, _Can you hear me?_

"My lady," he said, looking up, "It's been some time."

_Link is proving to be quite strenuous to bring under control,_ she whispered, _I need you to come back to me. To the void._

"It was difficult for me to leave to begin with," Zero said.

_It will be easier to return in spirit, leaving your physical body behind, as Link has done. But because your body and soul do not function as a normal motal's, you cannot do so on your own. Go to the east, to the capital city of Tyr. Find the academy of magic. In the vault beneath it, there is a necklace. A very special necklace. Once you have it, I will contact you again._

For one instant, Zero considered refusing, he considered going south, to Darimar, to make the sorceress pay for the insult she dealt him. But he turned east. "As you wish," he said, "Do not forget what you have promised me."

_I would never. Go, Zero, and soon you will be able to take your rightful place in this world._


	71. Chapter 70

I was very tempted to call this chapter "Insert Witty Title Here," considering how long I had to think about it. Coming up with chapter titles and making sure I don't repeat any is getting more and more difficult.

**Chapter 70: Spirits and Pyramids**

The castle was alive with shouting and screams as Zelda strode down the corridors, alone, but fully confidant in her abilities. With her new power, nothing could stand in her way. She knew the way to the throne room. That's where he'd be.

Two men in armor with swords were running toward her, their weapons raised. With ease, she lifted her hands, and they stopped, lifted into the air by an unseen force, the Triforce of Power resonating brightly. She threw her hands wide, and they flew apart, slamming into each wall with incredible force, crushing their armor and spattering red in circular patterns around themselves before dropping to the floor. She moved on without giving them a second look.

The great doors to the throne room were ahead, and with a vicious kick, she shattered the lock, but they did not budge. A second kick shattered the wooden beam across the inside, sending wood splinters flying as the door flew open, revealing a line of men armed with spears, who ran for her with a roared battle cry.

She waved her hand horizontally in front of herself, and they fell to the floor as an invisible arc of magic energy sliced through their necks, their heads rolling for several feet with the leftover momentum. She could feel herself tiring, using this new magic in this way, and for so long.

She looked up to see the king of Hyrule, his sword drawn, dressed in his red robes and crown atop his head. Without a trace of fear, the gray haired king lifted his sword and charged toward her. She smiled, waving her hands before herself. It was so easy to use, the power of the Triforce, as the floor grew rubbery beneath the king's feet, slowing him, then turning almost liquid as his feet sank into what was once polished stone. It took several minutes, and words were spoken, words both from the king and from herself, but she couldn't hear any of them.

As his shoulders disappeared into the stone, the king looked up toward her and said, "I hope there's a special place in hell for monsters like you."

"We may never know," she said in a voice very much not her own, "My first wish was to live forever."

Zelda suddenly awoke with a sharp gasp, looking up quickly, realizing she was still in the carriage. She had fallen asleep along the ride. It was a long ride across the city, and though they stopped only briefly to eat earlier, they still had a long way to go. The sun had set long set, and it was nearly pitch black inside the cabin now.

It was one of the memories she had inherited from her spirit bond with Ganondorf, taking the form of a dream. She had seen the events from his eyes, long ago, when he had first claimed the Triforce of Power and killed the entire royal family, except for one who had escaped. Her ancestor, the original Princess Zelda.

She looked out the window on the side of the carriage, seeing only dark buildings passing by, and not hearing anyone outside. It must be very late.

The longer she was in this city, the more she knew she wouldn't be able to stand living here permanently. The sheer scale was nearly impossible to comprehend, and the population was so enormous. How many people lived in the capital in Hyrule? Four hundred thousand, maybe five? Barely a fraction of the enormous number of people here, and yet the city still seemed relatively empty, even possessing large farmland sections within its walls. How many people could this city support in its prime? Five million, maybe more. So many people concentrated in a single place. It seemed like it would be a hive of criminals and worse, due to simply being impossible to manage everyone.

Riding in the carriage so long was making her uncomfortable. She had grown used to constant traveling, either on horseback or foot. It seemed like so long ago when they first left Hyrule, and just a few days out, when they stopped, Link had actually had to bandage her feet, the skin on the bottoms was splitting and bleeding. They had hurt, though she had not complained. As much as she had thought she was exercised and in good shape, she had also tired long before he was even winded.

She remembered how he was also deceptively strong for his size. There were numerous exercises used in the training of the soldiers and Hylian knights for increasing muscle so they could easily wield their weapons and wear the heavy armor without tiring. Most who wore the full plate were larger than Link had been, yet she had no doubt he could wear that armor if he wanted, and probably not be as slow in it, too. His was muscle not from exercises, but hard work in the fields of his home, with animals and crops. There really was a difference between bulk and real muscle, it seemed.

She shifted her position slightly, trying to get more comfortable, and realized a weight was leaning against her shoulder. She moved carefully, realizing that Sheila had fallen asleep and was leaned against her side. There was an open seat to her right, so Zelda slowly shifted, lowering her to lay across the seat while she moved further down, toward the right side of the carriage. Sheila sighed in her sleep but did not wake.

Zelda looked up, seeing the outline of Kilishandra across from her, her head leaned to the side, resting against the side of the cabin. She was definitely asleep. How she managed to be comfortable in that breastplate, Zelda decided she would never know.

She turned to the left, to when Ganondorf was seated next to his adoptive progeny, expecting him to be asleep as well. She realized he was looking directly at her. It should have been too dark to see his eyes, and yet they were clearly visible, almost as if aglow, yet they gave off no light, clearly outlined in the silhouette of his face. The glow from the scar on his abdomen was not visible through the heavy shirt he wore today against the cold, she realized.

She started to speak, but he lifted one hand quickly, motioning to be silent. He didn't intend to wake them. He extended his hand to her, holding it with the palm up. She knew he wanted her to take it, and she hesitated. What did he intend to do? Could she trust him?

They'd come this far trusting him, she decided, and placed her hand in his, so small in comparison as his massive fingers closed gently around hers. A soft golden glow appeared from the Triforce symbol on his hand, and she felt warmth well up around her hand and drift slowly up her arm.

Suddenly, she was flying upward, realizing she was rocketing toward the night sky. Laughter filled her ears, laughter from Ganondorf, and she could feel his arms around her, holding her immobile against him.

Yet the laughter wasn't what she was used to. She had heard his laughter before, maniacal and taking pleasure in cruelty, yet this was different. Almost… happy.

She felt them come down on a rooftop, the stone cold beneath her feet, and he released her, letting her back several paces away. "What did you do?" she asked, then felt her face warm when she realized he was stark naked.

"Oh, this is nothing," he said, "I could even teach you how to do it, if we have time and you feel inclined."

Zelda had paused to look down at herself, and with a shriek, attempted to cover herself with one arm across her chest and the other down low. Ganondorf laughed again, his amusement quite clear.

"You think this is funny?" she demanded.

"You don't have anything I haven't seen plenty of times before," Ganondorf said, resting his hands on his hips, no shame whatsoever, "Besides, it's a little hard to bring along clothing when you leave your body."

"What did you do?" she asked, impatience growing in her voice.

"Astral projection," he said, "You know the term, right? The act of the spirit leaving the body behind, at least for a while. In a way, it's a lot like being a ghost, except you're not really dead. It's exactly what your little green hero accidentally did a few days ago."

"Oh, you did this so we can talk without waking the others," Zelda said.

"That's right," he replied, turning and walking a few steps away, "They need some sleep. In the meantime, I wanted to set a few things straight."

"What things?" she asked, relieved he was no longer looking at her.

"I know what you did, to wake me," he said, "I'm sure you know that, of course. I also know what you've gained as a result. Are my memories entertaining?"

"I haven't seen much," she said, "They come in flashes, and just now in a dream. They seem to be out of order and chaotic."

"Makes sense," he said with what sounded like a small bit of relief, "You just gained four thousand years of information there, and will likely take time for your brain to comprehend. Now, I've told you before, but let me repeat for clarity. _You_ do not have to fear me. I do not seek your death."

"What do you want?" Zelda asked, "As much as I appreciate what you've done for us, I can't make sense of it. Your attitude, the things you say, are completely contradictory to what you do. And don't give me that existential garbage you keep trying to feed Sheila again. I'm smart enough to know that you're hiding something still."

"Am I?" he asked, turning and slowly walking toward her, "Look at me. I'm the king of a dead race. I've no doubt I've gone insane, probably more than once, but recovered. My body is eternally youthful, but my mind is not. I've seen and done more than you can comprehend. I've killed more men than numbers exist to count. I've bedded more women than _I_ can count.

"What is really left for me?" he asked, leaning down until his face was level with hers, staring directly into her eyes, "What do I have to live for other than my immediate whims?"

"Two problems with that," Zelda said, smiling, knowing she had him, "The first is your hatred for the Hylian heroes, specifically Link this generation. For whatever reason, you want a fight, to prove that you are the mightier. The second is asleep in that carriage going toward the castle. Maybe you know her. The name is Kilishandra. Your daughter."

Ganondorf didn't move, staring at her for a long moment of silence, then grunted, standing upright and looking down at her. "In answer to the first, the Hylian hero represents the one challenge I've set before myself and been unable to defeat. It is a reminder of my old life, when all I could think of was conquest and ruling this world. It was my destiny, or at least that was what I believed."

He turned, moving away from her again. "Something changed, though. Maybe it was me, maybe it was the world, but honestly, I don't give a shit anymore. I don't want to rule everything. Too much of a pain, anyway. Yes, I would dearly love to end his life, to prove that I am the greater, but if the opportunity doesn't come along, well, I won't exactly be sorry about it. And as for Kili…"

He turned back to her again. "She is no longer a child. I've taught her a great deal, but I can't help her any further. She might think otherwise, but if it weren't for the Triforce of Power, she would be my superior as a magician. Without the added focus and endurance it grants me, I wouldn't be able to use many of the magics she can utilize completely on her own. She's got a natural talent for it that I don't possess. Not only that, but she's a born leader, extremely smart and capable. That was why I left her. So long as I'm around, she'd rather follow me than be a leader herself."

He gave a wry smile. "I was a bit shortsighted, seeing as how she attached herself to someone else's lead, first Khall, and now you."

He turned back to her. "My turn for a question. What do you intend to do with her?"

"What do you mean?"

"She is the kind of person to keep her word," he said, "If she has given her loyalty to you, you need not worry about betrayal, unless you do something to deserve it. Like lie to her. What do you intend for her? For her future?"

Zelda realized that she had given almost no thought to such a thing. Her worry had been keeping Kilishandra alive and useful for the immediate reasons. "I don't know," she said, "While the king and judge are willing to accept her help, so long as she is under my supervision, a lot of people are going to hate her, because of what she did to two of their kingdoms. She has a lot of deaths on her hands, and I can't make that go away."

"That's right, you can't," Ganondorf said, "But you are supposed to be the ruler of your kingdom, right? You intend to take her their when this is over, and what you decide will determine her future. You're letting yourself be carried along by the events here, only stepping in when you absolutely have to. I fully intend to get your hero back, if I can, but what then? Are you going to just let him handle everything? Just stand back and watch while we solve these problems?"

"Of course not!" she said, "I came here to help my people…"

"…by hitching a ride," Ganondorf said, cutting her off, "You've done little more than just tag along with Link while he solves everything, you know that? Now that he's gone, you've actually done a few things, but you're still just riding along, while I and the others do all the work."

Why was he doing this, she wondered. Suddenly tearing into her with this criticism, and the worst part was, she knew he was right. "What you need to do is to stop thinking so much," Ganondorf said, "Start making decisions. You need to decide what you're going to do. I think it's time you did your people a real favor and stop being a princess. You're supposed to be a leader. Start acting like one."

"And what would you have me do?" she asked.

He smirked. "And you've already blown it. Try again."

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, "I know you're trying to help me, but why? In fact, why did you agree to help us at all? It's completely out of your character, by what the old stories say."

"You've got my memories now," he said, his voice lowering, with a dangerous sounding tone, and moving closer to her, "You know more about me now than I've ever let anyone know. If you want to know why, figure it out yourself. Just be careful. You might not like what you find in my head."

He suddenly reached out to her, grabbing her around the waist and lifting her up into the air. She shrieked in surprise and a bit of fear as he tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of grain, then with a run, leaped from the rooftop. She felt no wind, and noticed that where they had been, the snow on the rooftop was undisturbed, without a single footprint.

A moment later, she realized she was back in the carriage, as if she had never left. She lifted her hands to herself, checking to find her clothing was once again where it belonged, and Sheila and Kilishandra hadn't moved the entire time. Zelda looked over to where Ganondorf sat, and he smiled at her, then leaned back, resting his head against the back of the cabin and closing his eyes.

She turned, looking out the small window in the side of the cabin, as darkened buildings drifted past through the night.

She knew this was going to be a rough winter, and now she knew not just because of the snow and cold.

He was right. She had to decide what was going to happen, at least in regard to her kingdom and people. She had come here to help them, and become wrapped up in something else entirely. It wouldn't do any good to just leave these things be, because if this city fell, if Khall was successful, the danger would find its way to Hyrule anyway. But maybe by then, they could fight it off, if they could get the last part of the counter-spell that would release them from the petrified state they were all in. But that was basically abandoning these people here to die, wasn't it?

Maybe it was time for a change. Hyrule had been led by princesses for too long. Maybe it needed a real ruler. A real queen.

* * *

The climb up the pyramid was more time consuming than difficult, Link decided, looking back down, the miles of stairs behind him. Once more he was grateful that he didn't seem to tire in this world.

The sky was growing darker as he and the princess came closer to the peak, where the stairs ended on a shelf which circled the pyramid. There, a single doorway was visible in the side of the pyramid, with two smaller staircases on either side that led up to the peak, with a flat top which if you were to stand upon, you could see nearly to the edge of the world.

Link had never seen the sun since he arrived here, but with the sky growing darker, he realized that he had been here at least three days at this point. He couldn't help but wonder what was happening back in Darimar.

They stopped for a moment when they reached the shelf as Link sized up the doorway. A large stone door, the same strange orange stone as the rest of the pyramid, was all that stood in the way of entry now.

"Any trick to opening this?" he asked, turning the princess, near his side.

"No, I don't believe so," she said, "It's just a heavy door."

The door itself was about four feet wide, and almost eight tall, and Link guessed it would be a foot thick. Even if his guess was wrong, it was going to be good and heavy. Tucking his sword into his belt, he moved toward it, trying to slip his fingers around the edges of the door, hunting for the small flow of air that would give away which direction it opened. He found it on the right hand side, meaning it would open to the left, the small amount of air indicating the extra clearance the door needed to slide.

He put both hands against the stone, planting his feet, and pushed. The door didn't budge, so Link leaned lower, getting his shoulder against the door, and grunted with effort as he pushed everything he had into it. There was a grating sound, and dust fell from the top of the door onto his head and into his eyes. Blinking it away, he repositioned his feet a little closer to the door, and gave it another shove, causing more grating and dust falling.

The princess appeared at his side, leaning her back against the door and pushing back, adding her strength to his, and a second later, a louder grating and the door shifted nearly an inch. They repositioned their feet, and pushed again, and gradually, over several shifts and pushes, the door slid inward.

When there was enough clearance to slip past, they stopped, and moved inside, into the corridor. It was dark, but this didn't slow Link, his magical night vision illuminating the passage for him faster than ever before. The more he used it, it seemed, the less time it took to become active.

A grating sound behind him caused him to turn, just in time to see the heavy stone door slide closed, sealing off what light there was behind them, the corridor falling into pitch blackness.

"Link, where are you?" the princess asked.

Link moved closer to her, touching her arm lightly as he said, "Right beside you. I can see just fine, so take my hand…"

He was suddenly blinded as torches alone either wall flared into life on their own, flames crackling from what looked like iron rods. A second pair lit a little further down the passage, then a third, and then a fourth some distance away.

"Wait a second," Link said, gazing down the long corridor, "That doesn't make any sense. The pyramid isn't that wide at this level."

"Link, that is, the other Link," the princess said, "He came in here before. He told me that the inside fits together illogically. More corridors than there should be space for, and so on."

"Well, we'll just have to figure it out," Link said, walking down the hallway, "No going back now, after all, and let's just hope it doesn't shift passages around in here too."

She moved after him, falling into step just a little behind him. Something that was amazing her was how at ease he seemed. The Hero of Time had said he had a drive like none of the others had. She was starting to see it, too.

About forty feet in, the hall opened into a large chamber, torches and standing braziers flaming into life, illuminating the chamber as they entered.

"Holy…" Link muttered.

The chamber was enormous, at least half a mile wide in any direction, and they moved to a railing near the door they entered from, looking down over the ledge. Staggering downward a dizzying height were ledges after ledges, each with passages leading off in different directions, and hundreds of stairs, connecting the ledges and spiraling ever downward around the edges of the chamber.

"…gods almighty," Link finished his blasphemous curse, backing away from the ledge.

"It's incredible," the princess said.

"How much space does one guy need?" Link asked, "I mean, seriously. This is just ridiculous."

"Well, at least it looks fairly straight to go down," Zelda said, "The temple is at the ground level."

"Yeah," Link said, turning toward the stairs leading downward, "So we just keep going down."

The staircase was wide, but had no railing, so they walked somewhat close to the wall on their left, as a precaution against any surprises, and descended in silence for several minutes, the only sounds their own footsteps, echoing loudly off the walls of the chamber.

Link began to take notice of the decoration around the chamber, murals painted on the walls, with no sign of degradation even after how many millennia they had been there, and statues in small alcoves in the walls, depicting warriors armed with sword and shield, wearing horned helmets and heavy mail armor. As the stairs came to a ledge below, they crossed in front of a doorway leading away from the great chamber, and on either side stood statues of Ganondorf himself, his arms crossed, an intense frown on his face.

Interestingly enough, these statues seemed considerably weathered, the details much harder to make out, and the one on the right hand side had even lost part of one arm, which lay in fragments on the floor by its feet.

As they started down the next set of stairs, circling the walls of the chamber, Link looked up at the murals to find they seemed to have no pattern. One was a depiction of a grassy field, an unidentifiable herd of animals grazing contentedly, while the next was of a city marketplace, with large numbers of people, and the next…

"Why am I not surprised?" Link muttered.

It was a depiction of several dozen women involved in a large orgy.

They walked on further, until Link stopped at the bottom of the stairs on the next ledge. "Something's not right," he said.

"What do you mean?" the princess asked.

"Whatever his goals and reasons, Ganondorf isn't exactly a good person," Link said, "We should have run into something by now. A guard, or a booby trap, or…"

There was a sound behind them of sliding steel, like swords being drawn from scabbards.

"…or an ambush," Link finished, turning around and readying his sword.

Armored men stepped from the alcoves along the stairway, swords and shields in hand. He had mistaken them for statues, but what had looked like stone had changed to much brighter color, and as one, six armored forms turned to face them, and started marching down the stairs with a deliberate pace, their swords held at the ready.

What happened next caught everyone off guard. As if from nowhere, an enormous form descended onto the stairway, crushing one of the armored forms under its bulk and sending two others flying over the edge of the stairs, descending into the distance below. It turned toward the lower ledge as the two soldiers below it turned back, raising their weapons and charging up the stairs toward it. With a flick of its tail, it sent the last one behind it flying off the stairs, then lowered its head, bringing its massive horns to bear on the two before it.

Link almost couldn't believe his eyes. It was the very monster he had fought the last year in the throne room of the castle. The great four-legged, blue skinned brute, pig-like snout, and enormous, spear-like horns on either side of its head. But there was something off about it.

"The scar…" Link said.

Ganondorf's white scar along his abdomen was something he would never be rid of. It was so pervasive, it even glowed in the dark, and through lighter clothing. But it was not on this beast.

It lunged downward, snapped up one of the soldiers in its mouth, and swung its head in and arc to the side, impaling the other on one of its massive horns and lifting them both into the air. The one in its mouth was still struggling, and it clamped down its jaw, and with the screech of metal and a loud crunch, its teeth ripped through the body, the head and legs that had be dangling out either side falling free and rolling down the stairs, before dropping the rest from its mouth.

The one on its horn had dropped its shield and sword and was attempting to push himself off the horn. It jerked its head sideways, slamming him into the wall with enough force to shake the floor beneath Link's feet. There was no blood, but the soldier ceased moving, and the creature flicked its head the other way, sending the boy flying off its horn and falling through the air toward the far floor of the chamber.

Then it turned its gaze toward Link and princess. "Run!" Link told her, "Go!"

The beast was nearly as wide as the stairs, and would be impossible to fight on the narrow ledges. He turned and nearly shoved the princess toward the doorway on the ledge that led into other areas of the pyramid. They ran into the passage, torches flaring into life as they did so, and the beast's heavy footsteps audible behind them as it came after them.

Link's hope was not in vain, as the passage soon opened up into a wide chamber, and he stopped a short way in, turning around, ready for it. Here, he could take it down, but he'd only have one chance. Midna was not around to help this time.

He saw it coming up the passage, glowing yellow eyes and large sharp teeth visible in its slavering jaws.

"Link, what are you doing?" the princess asked from some distance behind him.

"Just stay back!" he shouted.

He waited as it drew closer. It seemed to be moving so slowly, though it was at a full run. He saw it lower its horns, intending to impale him. He leaped upward at the last moment, turning to slip between the horns, planting one foot on its open mouth and leaping again as the jaws snapped shut, turning in mid-air, turning his sword over in his hands so the point was aimed down, and drove it downward into the beast's head.

For the first second nothing changed, and he was drug along by the beast, but then it stumbled and fell onto its side, its enormous momentum sliding it several feet along the floor, splashing water into the air before coming to a stop. Link climbed down from its neck, pulling his sword from its skull and watching to make sure it wasn't playing dead.

"Strange," he said, "That was a lot easier this time."

It seemed this truly wasn't Ganondorf, and was nothing more than a great beast, without the intelligence that had driven it the last time he had fought it. Then he paused, looking down. It had splashed water when it had fallen?

The floor was indeed covered in water, and was about halfway up his calves.

He turned to see the princess looking at him, a smile on her face. "I'm starting to think he was right about you," she said.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, walking past her, "Destiny, yadda yadda. What is this place?"

Taking a good look at the room for the first time, he almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. There didn't seem to be walls or a ceiling, and seemingly endless distance that vanished into mist. The water covered the floor as far as he could see, and looking closer, he could see fish swimming about.

And a tree rising from the water a short distance away. A willow tree, very much alive and green, something he had come to think didn't exist in this world.

"I've no idea," the princess said, "Why would he keep a place like this? Especially for just one tree?"

"Why would he be interested in something like this at all?" Link asked, walking toward the tree.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a small light among the narrow leaves of the tree. A soft, pink glow that moved among the leaves, as if attempting to remain hidden, and then he spotted another and another.

"Oh, gods, not again…" he said, the image of the vicious fairies back in the swamp coming into his mind.

A new voice spoke, somewhat harsh and impatient. "You're not figments, are you? I'm not wasting any more time talking to figments."

It was a woman's voice, and though her tone was harsh, her voice was oddly soft.

Link motioned the princess to back away, toward the chamber entrance. "I'm real enough," he said, "But we're just trying to get to the bottom of the pyramid. Don't do anything and I won't either."

"Wait," said the voice, "There's something about you. A familiar presence, similar to his, but not the same. Of course. You have the Triforce of Courage, don't you?"

A large number of fairies appeared from the trees branches, swirling through the air around them.

"I've been waiting for this day for a long time…"


	72. Chapter 71

**Chapter 71: Descent into Darkness**

"You do not have long. The Armos will swarm you if you are here too long."

"Armos," Link repeated, watching the growing number of glowing lights swirling through the air around themselves and the tree, "You mean those statues that came to life?"

"Yes," the voice replied, "And they are the least of your worries. The scars are searching for you."

"Scars?" Link said, "Now you're lost me."

The lights from the fairies swirling faster and faster, and suddenly came together on a single point, and with a bright flash of light, a larger figure took form before his eyes. Two great wings spread wide, brown hair hanging down over bare shoulders and down her chest, and with the barest effort of the wings, she hovered in the air over the water filling the chamber.

Link's eyes ran from her face to her feet, and back up again, almost in disbelief. It was amazing the wings, large as they were, could hold up her massive form at all. "You have encountered some of my kind before," the great fairy said, "Have you not?"

"Well, yes, though not quite of your…" he paused, searching for the right word, "…build?"

She smiled sadly, looking down at herself, the rolls of fat of her stomach, ham-like legs and arms, and fingers like sausages. "Yes," she said, "I realize I do not quite have the figure of a fairy. The dark energies of this place are to blame. And the man to blame for that is none other than the wizard, Ganondorf Dragmire. When he was trapped here long ago, by you…" she lifted one hand, pointing accusingly at the princess beside Link, "…he changed the shape of this world. What had once been paradise became hellish and twisted. My sisters are dead, or worse, as you have seen, Link."

Link recalled the vicious fairy in the swamp again. "Yes, I have."

"I know she is dead now," the fairy said, "You did nothing wrong. You released her from a tormented existence. Ganondorf did not twist me as he did the others, though. He imprisoned me here as his concubine. Perhaps my fate was kinder than what he did to the others, though this…" she spread her arms, indicating herself and her form, "…did not happen for some years. Once I began to change, he lost interest, ignoring and perhaps completely forgetting about me."

The princess nodded. "I'm sorry," she said, "It was my idea to seal Ganondorf within this world. I didn't realize what would happen…"

"You would have if you had bothered to think about it," the fairy said, "The world used to be beautiful. The damage he had done in taking the Triforce would have recovered over time. But when he was trapped here, he took out his rage on everything here. In a matter of years, he turned heaven into hell."

"We had no choice!" the princess said, "We did what we had to do!"

"You could have killed him!" the fairy said, "Ended his evil once and for all! But he lived on, simply because you were not willing to do what must be done!"

_What must be done,_ Link thought, suddenly remembering Khall's final words before he killed Midna.

_There are no heroes and villains here,_ he had said,_ Only those who are willing to do what must be done, and those who aren't._

_And those who aren't will cost you everything._

Again the bloody image played through his mind, the way her eyes had gone blank an instant before he saw blood flying through the air, the way her body had collapsed to the floor. But he wasn't seeing her as other saw her, as the furry, cursed imp. He saw the woman, beautiful and exotic, her pale blue skin, tall, narrow face, hair a golden-red, like the sun itself.

_This isn't your fault,_ she whispered.

"They did what they believed they had to," he said, his tone soft, but the way the two turned to him, he may as well have shouted, "Maybe I would have done it differently, but I wasn't there. And obsessing about the past only blinds you to the future."

"Far from it," the fairy said, "I've been planning for this for a long time. I know who you are, Link. You'd be hard pressed to find a resident of this realm who does not. And I have something I want you to take with you."

She held her hands before herself, palms up, and as Link watched, a light danced from her fingers, forming into a shape, floating scant inches above her hands. Even before it had completely formed, Link could see the fletching, and with the long shape, knew it was an arrow.

The fletching, the haft, and even the arrow's head were purest white in color, and seemed to sparkle as he watched. "It took me thousands of years to focus enough magic to create this," the fairy said, "This Arrow of Silver is the antithesis to the power of gold. It bears the same blessing as the Master Sword, and is capable of neutralizing any effects given by the Triforce. Ganondorf's inhuman endurance, as well as his supernatural healing will be ineffective if it punctures his flesh."

She lifted her hands, holding the arrow out to Link. "I want you to take this, and use it to pierce his black heart."

Link stared at the arrow, nodding slightly, his face unreadable. "So," he said at length, "You want me to take this arrow, and kill Ganondorf through premeditated murder."

"Call it what you will. That man deserves to die for the things he's done. You can't deny this. The things he has done to Hyrule and this world are just a small fragment of it. He has killed more people than you can comprehend. You can't deny this."

"Killing in combat is one thing," Link said, "But you won't move me. Murder is murder. I've beaten him before, and if I have to, I will do so again. But I will do it my way, with my own weapons. If I kill him, so be it."

He turned and moved away from her, toward the hall leading back to the central area of the pyramid. "Link, wait," the fairy said, and he stopped, turning back toward her.

"This is all I have left," she said, "I have poured my life into this weapon. Even if you do not intend to use it, please take it with you, or it may be lost here for all time."

Link looked back at the arrow. Just a single arrow, pure white in its entirety, though with a faint sparkle about it. "All right," he said, moving back toward her, and reached for the arrow, feeling a faint tingling where the shaft touched his skin.

Close up, it was like no arrow Link had ever seen. It seemed impossibly light, and he could see no grain along the shaft, so it was clearly not wooden, yet it did not feel metallic either. The fletching was not feathers, but seemed to be made of the same material as the shaft, and the head was a wide triangle coming to a sharp tip. He lifted it to see the notch where it would ride the bowstring, and turned it so it would be properly aligned. As he thought, the head's triangular shape lay horizontally when in proper position. Somewhat common knowledge among men-at-arms, be they soldiers or just hunters, was that an arrowhead needed to be vertical to facilitate ease in passing between an animal's vertical ribs. But there was only one kind of creature with horizontal ribs that arrows were made specifically for, and those were men.

This arrow was definitely made just to kill Ganondorf.

"Thank you," the fairy said, "Now you must go. The scars will undoubtedly find you soon."

"You mentioned those before," Link said, leaning down and tucking the arrow into the side of his boot, along the inside of his ankle, "What are they?"

"You've seen at least one already," the fairy said, gesturing to the hulking corpse behind him, "They are remnants of his presence. Just as his power scarred the land, so did his spirit scar its soul. Each one is different from the others, some little more than beasts, but others are intelligent. They sense your presence, Link, because of the Triforce of Courage and its connection to this world. If you remain in one place too long, they will find you."

"Then it's time to go," Link said, turning to the princess and gesturing toward the doorway through which they had entered.

"Beware the heart of the pyramid," the fairy said as they walked away from her, "That is where the greatest of them resides, with all of Ganon's dark power and villainous genius."

Link glanced back, and realized that the fairy was fading, he could see the tree through her. The tree itself was rapidly decaying, its leaves turning brown and falling into the water, its bark blackening swiftly.

She raised one hand, giving a small wave, then faded from view entirely.

"This is all I have left," her voice repeated in Link's head, "I have poured my life into this weapon."

"How many more are going to die before this is over?" he muttered to himself.

* * *

Time seemed to be passing so slowly, Zelda thought to herself as she watched the sun come up through the window. The carriage had reached the castle several hours before dawn, and she had decided to get a few hours of sleep, and after being shown to her room, she had laid down, only to wake a short time later, the sun barely peeking over the horizon in the distance, just enough to send a ray of light into the room.

Fortunately, she had not had another dream, or rather nightmare, at least. Pushing the blankets off, she shivered against the chill air of the room through the thin nightshirt. It was winter all right. She had been told that several changes of clothes that should be about her size were in the armoire across from her.

She was thankful for the carpeted floor as she walked toward it, at least she didn't have to do so barefoot on cold stone. She opened to the armoire to find no less than six gowns, and not simple everyday wear, but thick, frilly affairs, at least two of which the skirts had wire supports to hold them outward. She nearly gagged, looking at them.

Fortunately, she thought as she opened a drawer near the bottom, this wasn't all that was available. She found much simpler, though still high quality make, shirts and trousers in the drawers. Made for men, but sleeves and legs were easy enough to hem up with a couple pins, and a belt would keep them on. Maybe it wasn't proper for a woman of her stature to be wearing such things, but anything was better than those ugly dresses, and she was starting to prefer some kind of pants over skirts anyway.

Unbidden, what Ganondorf had said to her last night returned to her mind as she dressed. He had been harsh, but everything he had said was true, she realized. She had done very little this entire time other than rely on Link and the others. She had helped with the battle, providing the recipe for Sheikan Fire, and managed to keep Kilishandra from Ralthas' clutches, at least for a while.

That man was so hard to read. The Triforce of Wisdom provided her with empathy, able to read the emotions of others, and while she could not see a person's thoughts, it made it easy to converse and, yes, manipulate them. It also made it impossible for someone to lie to her. While she wouldn't be able to see through the lie, she would know it for a lie.

Ralthas' actions constantly contradicted what she felt from him, though. Though it had pained him, he had been ready to imprison Sheila, right along with the rest of them. And in the case of Kilishandra, he hadn't wanted to lock her up, undoubtedly because he had known they needed her help, yet would follow through with it if he could have.

He was a Judge, though, sworn to uphold the laws of the land, though, be it against criminal or king. Perhaps it was possible he was simply so dedicated to his duty that he would not allow his emotions to get in his way.

How many times had she been told while she was growing up that she must rule her kingdom with her head, not her heart. Sometimes one had to do the hard thing for the good of all. Maybe his situation was much the same.

She remembered the day Zant had stormed the castle, cutting down her men with his monstrous servants, cornering herself and her bodyguard in the throne room. He then told her to surrender or die. Perhaps it was a terrible mistake, but she had surrendered, and thanks to Link, the kingdom had been rescued from the brink of destruction.

What was it that had driven that decision? Pure logic, full knowing that had she fought, they would have all died? Or had it been the fear she had felt, not just for her own life, but for everyone around her, everyone in the kingdom?

What would Link have done had he been in her position?

He would have fought, that's what, she told herself. He would have charged Zant, sword in hand, his men at his back, and would have fought until he lacked the strength to even lift his sword. And then?

And then he would have died. Link was smart, but when it came to what he believed in, he allowed his emotions to rule him. That was why he performed so well on his own, or in a small group. Without so many people depending on him, he keeps his head clear and protects himself.

Perhaps the best answer was someone who could think with both their head and their heart, and approach everything on a case by case basis. In any case, it was time for Zelda to start doing something. First, she needed a little more information about the "blight" that had been discovered near the temple the ninja had taken her and Roxim had told them was spreading in the northern kingdoms.

Kilishandra had said that the blight was dooming her entire world. She was the person to ask. From there, it would be a good idea to speak to King Rigdar. If the blight was as bad as she was starting to think, it might be necessary to evacuate Darimar. An enormous number of people to move, but not impossible with enough equipment, wagons and such.

And Hyrule was the only place she could possibly take them. There were large stretches of uncultivated land within its territory, so it might be rough going for a while, but nothing they couldn't handle.

But useless without the spell to reverse the Silencing, the magic that had turned every living thing in her kingdom to stone.

She paused as she picked up her belt, the sheath of the Master Sword near the buckle, so it would sit at her left hip. They needed on more piece of the spell, and it would be ready.

Only one solution, she decided as she pulled the belt around her waist, tightening it to hold the trousers up. Ganondorf intended to go to Tyr to find Darius' journal. The kingdom of Metallicana was along the way, along with the last temple and spell fragment.

"Looks like we're doing this one without you, Link," she said, moving toward the door.

It was just one decision, but it felt good to make it, sound and solid, what she was going to do. Like the first step on a long journey.

* * *

"I've never seen a circle like this," Kilishandra remarked.

In the hidden room beneath the castle dungeons, the past two days, some of the castle staff had been hard at work, moving the stones from the floor, carting them out of the room and storing them in the empty cells. Beneath was exactly as Ganondorf had expected, and more.

Glowing white lines across the floor formed not one circle, but six, one large, and five small, around the edges, arranged to be near the points of the center star. The center circle was large enough one could easily walk over the lines and stand in the center of the star without touching any of them, which was where Ganondorf now stood.

"He was serious when he sealed this up," he said, and pointed at the small circles around the edge, "Each of these smaller ones is like a lock on the main door. Undoing them in the wrong order can have back consequences."

"What kinds of consequences?" Kilishandra asked.

"Let's see," he said, and started counting off his fingers, "Nausea, flame eruptions, electric shock, earthquakes, psychosis, coma, death, and possibly halitosis."

He stepped over the lines, moving toward one of the smaller circles, and leaned down toward it. "See, you erase the lines to remove the seal, and it must be in the correct order," he said as he rubbed one finger along the outer line, forming the outer circle.

There was a loud bang, interrupting whatever he had been about to say, and as sparks and smoke rose from the circle, he was launched backward, colliding with the stone wall and collapsing to the floor.

"Father!" Kilishandra said, quickly moving over to him, kneeling down as he sat up, smoking rising from his clothing, and he quickly patted a small flame on his shoulder out.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Is there smoke coming out my ears?" he asked.

Not quite the response she had been expecting, she glanced at the side of his head. "Um, no."

"I'm fine then," he said, picking himself up, "Though that was a doozy."

He moved back toward the circle, looking down at the lines. "I wonder…" he muttered.

"What?" Kilishandra asked, moving over beside him.

"If he was really serious about shutting this up for good," Ganondorf said, shaking one finger at the lines, thinking carefully about the matter, "I wonder if he used a fatal?"

"A fatal what?"

Ganondorf glanced at her, and smiled. "That's right, never got to this bit before," he said, "Okay, you know that magic circles, or pentagrams, are supposed to be drawn in a specific way. Starting at the center, the five pointed star that represents life. The circle around it represents the boundaries of the world, and the outer circle around it representing the edge of reality, with infinity spreading out beyond. Most of the other designs included between these are just for show. The proper way to draw a circle is to start in the center and work outward.

"A fatal circle is the opposite. You begin at the outer circle and work in. You see, a normal magic circle represents, as itself, life and growth, spreading into infinity, where mankind's souls go after death, to whatever waits beyond. A fatal circle represents limitations, and even entrapment, within our world. While not all that much more effective in its actual use, a fatal circle is much more dangerous to interfere with, usually being fatal."

"I see," Kilishandra said, looking down at the lines, and took a step back when she realized she was just a few inches from the outer line.

"That little shock I got was just a warning," Ganondorf said, "If I keep playing with it without knowing the right order to undo the circles, it's just going to get more and more dangerous."

"You think that Darius' journal would have the order in it?" Kilishandra asked.

"No, but I hope it has a clue on how to start," Ganondorf said, "Even a hint would be better than trying to open the whole thing through trial and error."

"Then I guess as soon as we find that dragon, we're going to Tyr," she said.

"That's right," he said, turning to her, "So, let's just… are you okay?"

The first time he really looked closely at her, and he realized she was sweating, in spite of the air being cool. "I'm fine," she said, "It's just this place."

"Oh, crap, that's right," Ganondorf said, and gently took her by the arm, and noticed she was shaking, "Come on, let's head back up. You didn't have to come down here with me."

Kilishandra had not always been claustrophobic. When Reaper killed her mother, she had been hidden in the basement of their house, and had been down there, in the dark, for an entire day, hearing her mother's screams as he tortured her. Ever since, dark, enclosed spaces made her feel uncomfortable. Even in the chill winter, she'd leave the window open in the room where she slept.

"You don't have to hold my hand," she said as he led her toward the passage back up through the dungeons.

* * *

When she found Kilishandra to not be in her room, Zelda had asked a chambermaid if she knew where she had gone, and had been informed that she had gotten up early and gone to see her father. Guessing she knew where they had gone, she had started through the labyrinth of passages toward the dungeon.

She hadn't gone far, however, when the smell of cooking meat caught her nose, and her stomach growled in response. She had come close to the kitchens. With a sigh, she decided that her questions could wait twenty minutes at least, and followed her nose toward the smell.

Off to the side of a grand banquet hall, the kitchen were nearly four times the size of the kitchen in the castle back in Hyrule. As she entered the kitchen, the wonderful smells washed over her. There were ten people busy around the counters, chopping vegetables or meat, throwing them in pots or sizzling in pans on wood burning stoves. The chef, a smiling, somewhat fat man, spotted her standing in the door, and moved toward her.

"Hello, miss," he said, "Can I help you? You hungry?"

Zelda looked from the food to him, and he was smiling. War outside, and it seemed like just went on for some. "Yes, actually," she said, "I don't mean to get in the way."

"Almost nobody in the castle right now but the staff," the chef said, "Anyway, making plenty of stew right now so our winter stocks last. That be all right?"

"That would be wonderful," Zelda said, her stomach growling again at the thought of hot stew.

"There's a table over there," the chef said, pointing to her left, "It'll be a few minutes more, but you'll have some company."

"Company?" she said, turning toward the table, and spotted Silviana already seated by it, who waved at her, her snow white clothing the same color as her hair, standing out like a sore thumb in the kitchen.

She moved over to the table, seating herself across from the dark elf as the chef returned to the matters of the kitchen. "Where have you been?" Zelda asked.

"Out of sight, out of mind," Silviana said, "A lot of people giving me nervous looks when they do see me. Jeffery's nice though. Said I can always hide out here."

"Jeffery…?"

"The cook you were just talking to," Silviana said, "Are all fat people as nice as he is?"

Zelda could remember several fat Hylian nobles who were anything but. "I wouldn't get my hopes up," she said, "You know, there are other dark elves in the city now. Maybe you'd be more comfortable with them?"

"Those ninja, right?" Siliviana said, "I don't think I'd get along with them."

"That's something I wanted to ask," Zelda said, "They come from a parallel world, but you're from this one, right?"

"All this talk about different worlds is a bit over my head," Silviana said, "But I don't remember stepping through any shiny doorways or whatever, and I do remember Judge Ralthas from when I was a child."

"How do you know him?" Zelda asked.

Silviana's normally cheery disposition seemed to fade, and with a sigh, she unbuttoned the neck of her tunic, loosening it enough to slide down the right shoulder enough for Zelda to see the burn scar on her arm. Though it was faded by the years, Zelda immediately knew this was no accident. It was a carefully arranged shape from a branding iron.

"You were a slave?" Zelda asked.

"Yep," Silviana said, pulling the tunic back up and buttoning it together, "From the earliest time I can remember. There were a few others like me there, but I don't think they made it out. Ralthas saved me, and several others. Trying to decide what to do with me, since they couldn't find any family or anyone who wanted a dark elf left me in his custody for several years. Seems I had a natural talent for woodcraft, and after spending a few years learning from a ranger who only taught me under Ralthas' orders, I ran away. Into the woods, and there I stayed."

A somewhat dreamy smile appeared on Silviana's face. "He used to be so handsome," she said, "I think he still would be, without that beard."

"Who? Ralthas?" Zelda asked. Her impression was that the beard was an attempt to hide the lines in his face, though many deep lines were still visible around his eyes and above the upper line of the hair.

"Well, every so often, I do wonder what would have happened if I had stayed with him," Silviana said, "But then I wouldn't have grown so much in my woodcraft, and I wouldn't have met Walter…"

She suddenly stopped, looking away from Zelda, taking a deep breath, as if to calm herself. "Are you okay?" Zelda asked, "Who's Walter?"

"I'm fine," she said, "and he's nobody. Forget I said it."

Though Zelda did not press any further, Silviana's memories were still clear as though they had happened yesterday. She knew what it was that had brought them back. When they had first arrived in the city, and the dragon attacked, she had gone into a burning building to rescue the baby inside.

When the baby had seen his mother, he had called out to her, and for an instant, she had thought he had been calling her "mama."

And that had brought back the memories of the young man who used to hunt in the forest where she had lived, the accident he had suffered, the winter they spent together as she nursed him back to health, and how close they had grown.

And the child. Her child, and his.

_No_, she thought, blinking back tears, _It was so long ago. There's no point in crying about it anymore._

"There you are!" another voice said, startling her out of her reverie.

She and Zelda both looked up to see Alex Ragefaust enter the kitchen and march toward the table where they sat. "Oh, look," she said, her smile returning, "It's the human snowball!"

"Great," he said, "At least tell me where you disappeared to yesterday. I must have looked everywhere for you!"

"I just came inside and got something to eat, and then kind of forgot about you," Silviana said, then her smile growing wider, asked, "How long did you look for me?"

"Five minutes," Alex said quickly, not daring to say he'd searched for nearly two hours, until the sun went down.

He sat down next to Zelda, glancing at her before glaring at Silviana. "You're an evil woman, you know that?" he said to the dark elf.

"I like to think I'm mischievous," she said with an irritating grin.

Zelda was shaking her head. "I don't know, and I'm not sure I want to know," she muttered.

"Wonder if they've got decent ale around here," Alex said, turning to look around the kitchen.

"Alcohol's not good for you this early," Silviana said.

"Maybe for a lightweight like you," he said, turning back toward her, "What am I supposed to drink, then?"

"Well, milk's healthy, so is fruit juice," she said.

"What am I, twelve?" Alex asked.

"You look like your early twenties," Silviana said, "Which means you're not quite finished growing yet. Besides, eating healthy and exercising is the secret to staying healthy, instead of becoming decrepit when you get old."

"And you were traveling with this?" Alex asked Zelda as a maid came to the table, setting bowls of stew in front of each of them.

"She's telling the truth," Zelda said, looking at the stew, spotting large pieces of beef, cuts of cauliflower, celery, carrots, onions, and more. "Smells good and looks good," she said as she spoon some into her mouth, the hot broth almost burning her tongue, but she wouldn't mind if it had, as wonderful as it tastes.

Traveling on the road, one tended to get tired of the staples of one's diet being mainly dried bread and beef. It was always a wonderful change when Link had managed to get a rabbit or other small animal for a meal or two, though without access to fresh vegetables like these, it still couldn't compare.

Another wonderful thing about being in civilization was paper in the commodes. You could only carry so much on you back, and if you ran out on the road, you started to miss it in a hurry.

"Someone's having a little party it seems," Ganondorf's voice came from behind her.

She glance over her shoulder to see both him and Kilishandra coming toward the table, moving around it to seat themselves across from her. "Hey!" Ganondorf shouted toward the kitchen staff, "Two more!"

"I thought you'd gone down to the seal," Zelda said.

"We did," Ganondorf said.

"What's the verdict?"

"I can probably get it open, given enough time," he said, "It'll take longer if I don't want to bring the castle down to do it."

"I'd rather you didn't," Zelda said.

"Then we need to go get Darius' diary. It might have a clue that will speed up the process considerably."

"Then we can get Link back," she said.

"If he's still alive," Ganondorf said, "We're going on four days now that he's been alone in the Sacred Realm, if that's where he ended up to begin with."

"What's so dangerous about that?" Kilishandra asked.

"Well, let's see," Ganondorf said as a maid came over with bowls of stew for himself and Kilishandra, "For starters, I killed the guardians the first time I was there, and the second time, for seven years, I relived about two minutes of agony over and over, experiencing the final moments as the Hero of Time and the princess stabbed me in the face repeatedly. When I finally was freed of that, I was pretty pissed, and wreaked some havoc, sowed some chaos, usual villainy things. I conducted a few experiments on what was left of the former inhabitants, and then I managed to escape some time later. Haven't been back since. My guess is that it's only gotten worse since I left."

"You never told me any of this," Kilishandra said.

Ganondorf turned to her, then looked over at the others seated around them, then looked back at her. "I was a different person before I met you," he said, "I told you that."

"Yes," she said quietly, turning to her bowl of stew.

"Oh look, here's one more," Ganondorf said, looking up, past Zelda shoulder.

Sheila seated herself on Zelda's left, a bowl of stew already in her hands. "Are we missing anyone?"

Zelda glanced around the table. "Not that I can think of," she said, "At least not of the people who are here."

"Cheer cheer, the gang's all here," Ganondorf muttered.

"I did overhear part of that," Sheila said, "So we're going to Tyr, to get into the vault."

"That's right," Ganondorf said, "Gonna get that dragon to carry us. So, who wants to go?"

"I'll have to go to open the vault," Sheila said, "Riven is the only other one who can, I guess, and I don't think he'd much like riding on a dragon."

"Good," Zelda said, "Because I want to stop along the way through Metallicana to get the last fragment of our spell."

"Oh, you're still doing that?" Ganondorf asked, "Thought you'd have finished a while ago."

"No," Zelda said, "This is the last one."

"So that's three, including me," Ganondorf said.

"I'm going with you," Kilishandra said.

"So be it then," Ganondorf said.

"I'll go too," Silviana said, "I've never been to the Academy of Magic. I want to see it."

Alex upended his bowl into his mouth, drinking the rest of the broth, then set it down. "What the hell," he said, "I'm tired of sitting around. Count me in, too."

"I don't even know you," Ganondorf said.

"Well, I _guess_ he's a friend of Link's," Zelda said, "Considering they were kicking the tar out of each other the last time I saw them together…"

"Who won?" Ganondorf asked.

"Well, I won the first one, then the next day he got me," Alex said.

"Eh, whatever," Ganondorf said, "Everybody finish up, then we'll go find the dragon."

* * *

The room was like any other bedroom in the castle, yet this one was all the more eerie. Ilia hadn't moved for several moments, staring at the statue across from her.

Link's petrified form had been stored in his room for the time being, since there was nowhere else it wouldn't get in the way. Looking at it now, his face still contorted in the savage rage of that final moment, his arms outspread, hands balled into fists, and eyes intent on murder.

It had taken day for what had happened that night to truly sink in. Link was mad, certainly, when Khall abused her, but he had practically said out loud that he would have let her die to keep Khall from getting what he wanted.

And yet, he had exploded into such a fury when Khall killed Midna.

There was an urn on the dresser. Without opening it, Ilia knew what it contained. They did not bury bodies in this land. They burned them. The urn contained the ashes of the Twili's body.

How could it have possibly happened?

Ilia knew what she had seen. Link had fallen for her. For that creature. How could it even happen? She didn't even resemble a human being! It was wrong! Completely and utterly wrong!

Ilia and Link had grown up together. Their first kiss had been with each other. The first time they had made love, it had been the two of them together. They were together every day for so long. The entire village had been fully expecting them to marry before much longer.

What had gone wrong?

Everything, that's what. The kidnapping. The darkness spreading over the land, the monsters. Link becoming a hero.

Link didn't look right in armor, she thought. He never did. The green tunic didn't look good either. He looked best in a white shirt and darker pants, like he usually wore out in the fields or with the animals.

A sword wasn't unusual, but it wasn't something he wore all the time, and to see him actually swinging it at living things, killing, and afterward, wearing their blood on top of everything else, dark stains on the tunic and red spatters on his face and arms, and to top it off, that creature hovering always near him, cheering him on, hugging him even with the blood…

The image was terrifying. It wasn't who he was. It couldn't be.

Could it?

* * *

For hours, Link descended the great stairwell into the pyramid, the princess a few steps behind him. The lack of sun or stars, only torchlight to go by, made it difficult to keep track of time, but if he had to guess, he'd been inside most of the night at least.

They'd encountered no more resistance yet, the statues staying where they belonged, and no more "scars" appearing.

It came as a big of a surprise when they reached the bottom. The stairway ended suddenly in flooring, and Link looked around at the square room. There were three doorways, on the three walls other than the one the stairs descended along. He moved toward the center of the room, glancing down each one.

"Hang on a second," he said, "There are stairs going up in every one of these."

"Maybe we're at the very bottom?" the princess suggested.

"Looks like," Link said, "But I'd think there'd be a larger chamber around here somewhere. A trap, or a treasure, or both."

"Link, look at the floor," the princess said.

Link looked down. A large section of the floor was made of green stone in one solid block, and upon its surface was a design Link was all too familiar with. Three golden triangles, arranged in a single larger triangle. The same as he had seen in the ruins of the Temple of Time, and the same as the shields of the Hylian knights born.

"Why would he have the Hylian royal crest in here?" Link said.

"It's not just that," the princess said, "It is the symbol of the Triforce, of the goddesses."

"Yeah," Link said, looking at the still faintly glowing triangle on the back of his hand, "I wonder…"

He knelt down, laying his hand flat on the stone. "What are you doing?" the princess asked.

"Every time I've seen this symbol in an environment, it's done something, usually reacting to a bit of a song, or the Master Sword, but just maybe I can set it off myself," he said, and then added, "Now, how do I do this?"

He realized that every time he'd used the triforce before, it had been by reaction, as though it fed off his emotions, or perhaps his wishes. Both times he had used it to save Midna. Both times because he wished to save her.

"I wish for this to do something?" he tried.

Nothing happened.

"Um, abra cadabra?"

No reaction.

"Open sesame?"

Still nothing. The princess moved over to his side. "Link," she said, "First of all, relax. Don't try to force it. Let the energy flow through you. It's not something you control. It is as much a part of you as your own heartbeat."

Link rolled his eyes, but took a deep breath and tried to relax. "Okay then, do you stuff," he muttered.

Several moments passed. "Come on," he whispered, "I know you're in there."

"Maybe try thinking of something calming?" the princess suggested.

"Calming," he muttered, then with a sigh, reached into his shirt.

It was still there, the star shaped emerald on the end of a steel chain around his neck. Looking at it in his hand, he remembered how it had saved him at the altar where the sword had been. It had been intended to be a gift for Midna, yet he had never found an opportunity to give it to her. But a faint light within the star gave a reassuring glimmer. Even if she wasn't with him in body, she was in spirit.

He closed his eyes, closing his hand around the gem, resting his other on the floor once more. There was something there, a warmth within him. He could feel it slowly spreading through him, first in his chest and then outward. It was a pleasant feeling as it ran down his arms and legs, and into his fingers.

There was a grating sound and the floor shifted beneath them. Link opened his eyes to see the floor around them rising. No, the green block was slowly sinking into the floor. "You did it," the princess said.

Link stood up, looking at the green gem once more. She was still there. He could feel it.

"I'm almost there," he whispered, tucking the gem into his shirt, "Just a little bit longer."

The walls rising around them, the lights above moved further and further away, then winked out of existence.


	73. Chapter 72

**Chapter 72: Heart of the Pyramid**

"It's so dark."

"I can see just fine," Link said, "Not that there's much to see. Just the walls moving by."

"How deep does this go, I wonder," the princess said.

"You said the inside of this place fits together illogically," Link said, "What I'm wondering is if it rearranges itself, too."

For nearly twenty minutes they had been riding down as the floor sank further and further, carrying them downward with it, toward the bowels of structure. The constant grating of the stone was beginning to get on Link's nerves.

"There must be another way down somewhere," he said, "I think we might have stumbled onto Ganondorf's shortcut for himself. Probably a lot safer than any other route."

"Possibly, though I expected more resistance," the princess said, "How did you know this was here, anyway?"

"I just couldn't believe he'd put the Hylian royal crest anywhere in here without good reason," he said, then added, "Don't move. We just gone beneath the walls. Nothing but open air around us now."

Link looked up, his night vision showing him the square gap in the ceiling their ride had taken them through, and moved a few steps closer to the edge of the block, looking down over the side. He couldn't make out anything beneath them, or on any side. He wasn't sure exactly how far his night vision extended, but it must be quite a distance to remain invisible to him.

"Glad I'm not trying to map this place," Link said, "Feels like we're miles under the earth right now."

"If we were, we'd have passed the temple entirely," the princess said.

"That's true," Link said, stepping back from the edge of the platform as he began to be able to make out the floor beneath them, about another forty feet down, "This chamber here is massive. Wonder what it's here for?"

The platform upon which they rode sank lower and lower before grating to a halt, so even with the floor around it, it seemed a part of the whole. Link stepped off the block, to stop as light suddenly flared around them, nearly blinding him as he quickly shielded his eyes with one hand.

Four massive braziers around them, each the size of a small house, had erupted into flames that stretched high into the air, casting light into the chamber, yet no walls were visible in any direction, fading instead back to darkness.

Out of that darkness, they crept forward. Bizarre, misshapen creatures, vaguely resembling men and women, some walking upright, others on all fours. Some were hunchbacked, while others limbs were disproportionate to one another. One Link could make out from the crowd's right forearm was swollen to nearly the size of a child, dragging its knuckles along the orange stone floor.

He turned around, and more were coming form the other direction, completely surrounding the two of them. Even as they came closer, more were creeping from the darkness, each twisted and misshapen in horrifying ways.

"Dear gods," the princess whispered, "They're not the monsters from outside the pyramid. What are they?"

"They were once men," said a voice from the darkness.

The rows of creatures came to a halt some distance away, and on one side, parted for a single figure, walking from the darkness with determination. As the figure came into the light, while not disfigured as those around it, it was still far from human. Blue skin, stretched tight over a muscular form, its arms and legs as thick around as men's torsos, bright red leather armor stretched over its massive chest, with a red cape draped around its shoulders that fell just short of reaching the ground. It stood nearly eight feet tall, a trident carried easily in its right hand that was nearly the size of Link himself.

And yellow eyes, glowing faintly in the firelight, behind a long snout with two enormous tusks protruding from its mouth.

"Glorious, isn't it?" it said, its voice a subhuman pitch, and spread its arms wide, indicating the creatures surrounding it, "Legends of power and treasure untold, all within the land that humans call the Sacred Realm. Countless go in search of these riches through untold centuries. Most never return. Because they nearly make it, only to fall before the final challenges, and remain here for an eternity."

Link knew of what the creature spoke. The most ancient of Hyrule's legends spoke of the Triforce being left behind when the three goddesses left the world, their task in its creation completed. The legend itself predated Hyrule's existence, and through the ages, countless people went in search of the golden triangles, to never return. It was the ultimate prize for adventurers.

And Ganondorf was the one to succeed where so many had failed.

"Every one of these people," Link said, looking at the creatures all around them, "went looking for the Triforce, and didn't make it."

"Yes," the blue-skinned creature said, "But death does not mean the same thing in this world as their own. For countless ages, they have remained here, what they sought forever just out of reach, only to see it snatched away."

"You must be one of the scars the fairy spoke of," Link said.

"What I am matters little," it said, then turned to speak to the creatures around itself, "See this child before you? You gave your lives, enduring an eternity of suffering for your failure, for the golden triangles left behind by the goddesses. This _boy_," it turned pointing its trident directly at Link, "did nothing, instead receiving the triangle at his birth, literally handing it to him for no effort, no reason at all, _and _he has refused to embrace it, to embrace the power it offers! In doing so, he insults every one of you and what you gave to come even this far!"

The princess moved closer to Link as he took a good grip on the hilt of hilt of his sword. The creatures were growing restless, growling through misshapen mouths and clubbing their deformed limbs into the floor. Link knew exactly what was going to happen.

"He does not deserve what he possesses!" the blue skin said, "But now is the chance you have been waiting for! The Triforce is before you now! All you need to do is kill him to take it!"

Like a floodgate opening, the creatures surged forward, coming toward them from all sides. Link lifted his sword, the faintly glowing white blade ready, and as the one with the massive club arm came close enough, he sidestepped as the limb came down, where it slammed into the floor, sending chips of stone flying, and sliced the blade into the arm, cutting easily through flesh and bone. The creature howled, falling back as green pus erupted from the stump as though under pressure, but Link was already turning toward another, coming at him with fingers nearly a foot long and elongated into sharp claws, raking through the air as he quickly backed away. It swung with enough force that it nearly turned its body completely around from the momentum, and Link stabbed toward it, the tip of his blade entering under its arm, and pulled to the side, ripping out through its chest, spilling blood and the unidentifiable green ooze onto the floor as it fell.

Link turned to see the princess cutting into more with a pair of long daggers, yet they made no effort to fight her. They were all intently focused on him. It was only the fact they were shoving and climbing over each other, thoroughly disorganized, that kept them from overwhelming him. He cut the head from one, stepping aside as its momentum carried its body past him, and another collided with him from behind, ducked low, trying to tackle him. Instead, he lifted his feet, rolling back over it to land behind it, and used the momentum to swing his blade upward, cutting into its groin and slicing out through its shoulder, just to the side of its neck, and turned to slice into another's chest before it had even hit the floor.

Countless more he struck down, the bodies and pieces piling together, and without even realizing it, he had soon erected a hill of carcasses which others swarmed up toward him. It was like fighting a relentless swarm of ants. For each he killed, three more appeared to take its place.

"Damn," he said as he cut into the skull of yet another, slicing through its eyes and spattering the pick insides across the corpses under his feet, "It can't end like this! I've come too far!"

He spun, stabbing the blade directly into the face of one, immediately pulling the blade to the left, out through the side of its skull and into the head of another next to it.

And now, as he fought, growing ever more desperate, the voice returned to his mind, unbidden, and unwanted. _I warned you,_ Shaklator's voice said, _Your foolish desperation to save a dead woman has doomed you._

"If you're not going to help me, then shut the hell up!" Link said, kicking one in the jaw with enough force to flip it over backward and send it rolling down over the other climbing the pile of corpses toward him.

_I'll be most impressed if you survive this,_ the voice said, _You are not ready for what you face now, let alone lies ahead. Before this is over, you will beg for my help._

"Shut up!" Link shouted, cutting down yet another of the creatures, "I am not dying here! I refuse!"

The golden triangle on his hand suddenly flared with light, reacting to his frustration and anger. Without even thinking, Link knew what he was doing, turning his sword over and stabbing the tip into a corpse at his feet, and lifted his left hand above his head, the golden glow growing brighter. The creatures around him hissed, many shielding their eyes against the light.

"You had your chance," he said to one directly in front of him, "This is mine now!"

The light erupted, a ring of gold exploding outward from Link's body, the creatures sent flying into the air where they touched it, their bodies igniting in flames and shrieking in agony.

As quickly as it happened, it was over. Link collapsed to his knees, feeling like all the strength had been sucked out of him in an instant. He grasped the hilt of the sword in front of him, leaning his weight on it to keep himself from falling over.

The bodies around him had been charred black, and still others fell from the air where they had been thrown, some shattering upon impact, and others dissolving to ash.

Link found himself gasping for breath. Twice before he had used the power of the Triforce, and both times it had caused him to pass out in sheer exhaustion. He certainly felt exhausted now, but not on the verge of total collapse, and he shakily pushed himself to his feet.

"Link, are you okay?" the princess called.

He turned, seeing her at the base of the pile of corpses. "Yeah," he managed, pulling the blade of his sword from the body, and descending toward her.

"How did you do that?" she asked as he came closer.

He stopped in front of her, taking a moment to catch his breath, and muttered, "I wish I knew. I've tried to get it work before, but never get any kind of reaction like that. Why does it work only when I'm so desperate?"

"Because, when you're desperate is the only time it's necessary," said the impossibly low voice/

Looking up, he quickly stepped around her, getting her behind him as he lifted his sword, facing the blue-skinned monster standing a short distance away.

The creature made no move toward them, instead nudging one of the charred corpses with the butt of his trident. "Takes all kinds," it said, "This one here was a bandit who came for the Triforce, thinking the power of gold literally meant gold and riches. This one," it indicated another, "is even more ancient than me. A would-be conqueror from the age before Hyrule was united by one ruler, who sought power to rule over men."

It turned, shoving another with its foot. "This one here's a real winner, though. A priest who believed the power of gold would allow him to bring an end to a drought the kingdom experienced long ago, that was causing people to starve simply from the lack of available food."

The creature looked up at Link and smiled, an expression that was incredibly terrifying around its tusks. "In a way, they were all correct."

"What's your point?" Link asked.

"Think about it this way," the creature said, "You just erased a large number of villainous types from existence, but along with them, just as many if not more decent people and would-be heroes, who certainly did not deserve their fate here."

"And?"

That single word seemed to catch the creature completely off guard. "And?" it repeated, "Do you not realize what you've just done?"

"Were you expecting something like 'oh gods, what have I done?'" Link asked, "Maybe I should collapse from guilt and slit my wrists, unable to go on. Would that work better?"

The creature laughed, its bass voice echoing around them, adding a further sinister touch to the darkness. "You're as cold as steel, boy!" it said, "I think I like that. I wonder, has Hyrule at last chosen a hero even more terrible than its villains? You kill without remorse, without pity, and people praise you! But then again, kill one man and you're a murderer. Kill a hundred, and you're a hero. That is the logic by which humans work."

"I don't know what kind of game you're trying to play with me," Link said, "but I'm not interested. All I'm trying to do is reach the Temple of Light."

"Yes, I thought as much," the creature said, "And you're on the right course. It is in the chamber directly beneath us, about a hundred feet down. But unfortunately, you're not going to make it."

Link tightened his grip on his sword. "I saw this coming," he said.

"Did you? What about your friend there who hasn't said two words? What do you think is about to happen, princess?"

"I know you for what you are, creature," the princess said, "An incarnation of Ganondorf's desires and emotions. Over the years as his desires slowly changed, the form of his transformation, known as Ganon, also changed shape. I think you are the ultimate incarnation of his greed at its strongest, and you intend to take what it is he was after."

"You are partially correct, but what that fool desires is no longer my concern," the creature, Ganon, said, "He abandoned us here, and here we are trapped for all eternity, unable to exist if we go even a short distance from the pyramid. But what if I were to take a part of the Triforce for myself? Would it hold my form together? Perhaps even allow me out of this realm and into the mortal world?"

It pointed one finger directly at Link. "You just might have what I need to escape this place once and for all," it said, "If you hand it over, I will let you go on, to find the temple and whatever answers you seek there."

"Even if I was willing to give it up now," Link said, "I wouldn't give it to you. So I'll just hang onto it, thanks."

"In that case, I will simply take it," Ganon said, lifting its trident, spinning it in its hand once, bringing the bottom of the haft to rest against its side with the tip resting on the floor, toward Link.

_He did it on purpose,_ Link thought, _Let me use the Triforce against those things so I'd be exhausted for this._

"Are you going to kill me too?" Ganon asked, leaning low and shifting its weight onto its toes, "I'm a prisoner here, and all I want is freedom. Will that be justice?"

"I can't give the Triforce to you, and in that case, if it's you or me, I vote you," Link said.

With a roar, the beast charged toward him. Link shifted his weight, ready to sidestep as the tip of the trident came up, and then it was gone. Not instantly, but shooting sideways, trailing multiple transparent images of itself behind before fading into thin air. "What the…?"

"Link, behind us!" the princess shouted.

Link spun to see Ganon coming up behind them at full run. The trident whistled as it lanced forward toward him. Link narrowly managed to sidestep, turning the trident aside with his sword, metal screeching loudly as the metal haft scraped along the blade.

The stab wasn't all, however, as the creature turned its great strength on him, simply pushing the haft sideways toward Link, tossing him into the air and sending him rolling across the floor. Link pushed himself back to his feet, feeling his limbs screaming against it, nearly falling again in his exhaustion.

Ganon twirled the trident in its hand, stopping with the tip toward Link in an overhand position, and hurled it forward. Link dove sideways as the weapon whistled past, driving its tip into the stone floor, sending chips flying through the air. A second later, the stone grated as the trident rocketed back through the air, into Ganon's grasp.

The princess had her daggers drawn, and attacked the creature from behind, attempting to stab it in the neck. Once again, the creature moved rapidly from a standing position, trailing images of itself before vanishing entirely as the princess' weapon struck nothing but air. Link turned, looking for it, and spotted it just as it materialized a short distance from him. He quickly charged, aiming his blade to cut into its shoulder just beside its neck.

Again, it vanished, this time trailing itself directly through Link, though he felt nothing in the process, the event made him feel nauseous. He turned again to see it appear directly behind the princess. "Look out!" he shouted.

She turned, just in time for the tip of the trident to pierce into her abdomen. She cried out in pain, her feet leaving the floor as Ganon lifted her into the air, the back of her shirt standing up on three point and staining itself red.

What happened next, Link would remember for a long time. The princess dropped one of her daggers, grabbing the haft the trident with her now free hand, and pulled. The points of the trident ripped out the back of her shirt as she drugg herself over the tip and onto the haft, and turned her other dagger over in her hand, and rammed it directly into Ganon's eye.

The beast cried out, swinging the trident hard to the side, sending the princess flying off the haft to go rolling across the floor, trailing blood behind her. Ganon reached up to its face, dragging the dagger from its eye socket and dropping it to the floor, along with a splash of black blood and unidentifiable meat that had been its eye.

"Damn you," Link said, running directly for it.

Ganon smiled, moving again, trailing its images. Link was starting to see the pattern. It wasn't true teleportation. It was possible, he realized, to predict where the creature would appear if he watched the direction it was going. He turned, seeing it already moving again from its new location, back the other direction. Link spun and stabbed his sword toward the open air in front of him.

He knew he had it when he felt pressure, and Ganon appeared directly in front of him, the white blade punching through the red leather and into its abdomen, black liquid welling around the blade as it howled. It raised its free hand, aiming a backhand toward Link's head. He quickly pulled the blade back, stepping back as the fist whooshed past his head, taking his momentum and completely spinning around, raising his sword high as he came back to face Ganon and the trident came up as he swung down. With a sound like an explosion, the blade broke the iron haft and ripped a long gash across Ganon's chest down to nearly its right hip.

Ganon staggered back, dropping the two pieces of its shattered weapon, and Link quickly stepped forward to finish the job. His next swing whistled as it struck nothing but air, Ganon once again vanishing with a trail of images of itself. Link turned, trying to find its new position.

"You're doing very well, lad," Ganon said from somewhere outside the circle of light, "But I wonder if you can see through this secret technique of darkness."

The four burning braziers, as one, died, their light ending and swamping Link in shadow.

"En guarde!" Ganon shouted, and with a flare of light, a ball of flame streaked through the air toward Link.

Link quickly dove to the side, the flames streaking past, singing his clothes. Link pushed himself back up as Ganon gave a deep bass chuckle from somewhere in the darkness.

_I can't keep this up much longer,_ Link thought, his legs nearly refusing to hold his weight, his exhaustion threatening to overtake him.

But he had one advantage that Ganon clearly did not realize. After a few seconds, the magic of the Twili tattoo around his left eye became active once more, and his vision pierced the darkness better than any other man alive. Green outlines became visible around the braziers, a moment later around the details around the rims, and Link turned, watching for the shape he knew was close by.

There was another flash of light, and Link dove quickly aside as a ball of flame shot past him, exploding on one of the braziers, small tongues of flame flying through the air before vanishing. Link saw Ganon as it moved, even making out the images trailing behind it in the dark. He knew where it was going.

He turned and ran, reversing his grip on his sword, so the blade extended down from his fist, and lifted it high in the air, leaping upward. Ganon materialized in front of him, and Link could even see the shock on its face as the blade came down. It opened its mouth, possibly to cry out, and the tip of the blade went in, past the tusks, over the tongue, and directly down its throat, black blood pooling rapidly over its lips as Link crashed into it with all his weight, bringing his feet directly onto its stomach, and pulled the sword toward himself, then shoved it away, then pulled it to the left and in a complete circle around to the right.

Ganon gurgled, grabbing Link with both hands and shoving him away. Link didn't release the grip on his sword, dragging it back out of the creature's throat as he landed flat on his back on the floor. Ganon staggered back, still gurgling, blood running freely from its mouth down its chest, finally toppling backward with a loud crash.

Link sat up, trying to catch his breath at last. He turned to where the princess had been thrown, seeing her form, managed to crawl toward her. Once within reach, he pulled her toward him, turning her over only to see empty eyes looking up at him. With a sigh, he gently pushed her eyelids closed. "How many more?" he whispered, "I didn't ask you to come with me, to die for my sake."

With a growl, Ganon sat up from where it lay. "Link!" it shouted, rage overpowering its formerly calm tone.

"Damn!" Link said, partially in frustration but mostly in disbelief as he rose to his feet once more.

Ganon rose to its feet, and with a roar, leaped into the air, slamming both its feet down with enough force to shake the floor beneath Link's feet. In his present state, he couldn't keep his balance, falling to his knees. Large cracks spread from where Ganon impacted the floor, spider webbing out in a circle around it. Ganon leaped again, coming down a second time, the cracks growing larger and spreading further.

"About a hundred feet down," Link said, remember what the creature had said, then shouted, "You idiot! What the hell are you doing?! You're going to kill us both!"

Ganon smiled. "Lucky for me I was never alive to begin with."

He leaped again, coming down once more, the floor shaking violently. Then the stone gave way, crumbling downward from the center point where Ganon had impacted, the creature vanishing into the darkness below. Link tried to get to his feet as the hole grew, an ever expanding circle as stones vanished downward. He moved away as quickly as he could, hoping to find a stairway or solid block.

He didn't look back, but knew the instant it caught him, as a stone slipped down under his foot, and the next was falling before he had even stepped upon it, then the floor rushed up past him. He didn't scream, but he did swear quite loudly, and for an extended period of time, as air rushed past him. He had come so far, and for it to end like this…

"Come on," he said at last, and smacked the back of his left hand, where the Triforce of Courage continued to glow, "You only work when I need you, well I sure as hell need you now!"

He was turning over in the air, and ever rotation could see the ground moving toward him at an alarming speed.

"Come on!" he shouted, "React! Do something, you useless-ass magic piece of shit!"

The ground suddenly stopped, and Link felt himself rebound in the air, and then come back down again, then back up, bouncing back and forth, less each time before finally coming to a stop. He breathed a sigh of relief. He'd apparently managed something, though he wasn't sure what. He could feel something holding him up, so he tried to sit up, only to find he was unable to move. He turned his head to the side, seeing strands of rope circling around him in a distinct pattern, and saw that many fragments of stone had been caught as well.

"Oh, gods, tell me this isn't what I think it is," he muttered.

A chittering sound to his right caused him to turn his head back that way, to see a large number of eyes over two large pincer-like fangs, attached to a large round body and eight enormous legs.

He still had his sword in his left hand, and all thoughts of exhaustion vanished as he began pulling, trying to free his arm from the sticky webbing, strength born of desperation taking hold as the gigantic spider moved across the webbing toward him. With several hard jerks, his sword arm came free, tearing the webbing where it had been, and he found himself falling several feet as a hole formed in the web, and he was hanging down beneath it in a sideways position.

The spider came closer, turning down toward him where he hung. With a wordless cry, Link stabbed the sword upward, directly between the pincers on its face. It jumped back, green liquid squirting from the injury, and shaking the web in the process. Link felt the strands along his back start to give way. He was about to fall again. He turned, looking down. It was about thirty feet down to the floor.

The spider's movements dislodged one of the stones of the upper floor, sending it flying over the edge of the web. Link had to look closer at where it landed, but then smiled as he saw ripples. "So long," he said, and slashed through the webbing above himself, and was once more hurtling downward.

He turned himself so his feet would hit first, and a few seconds later, splashed into the water. It was after this he realized his right arm and feet were still bound by the web, and he couldn't swim. Working quickly, hoping he didn't look like a meal to anything living in the water, he cut the webbing between his legs and under his right arm, then kicked for the surface. The water seemed unusually thick and heavy for some reason.

He took a breath as he broke the surface, and stopped a moment. At last, he could see it in the distance, shining in the darkness, blue walls that cast light all around it. The Temple of Light was within sight. He breathed a sigh of relief, and swam toward it with a one armed side-paddle so he could keep a hold on his sword.

It wasn't far to the shore, and he pulled himself up on the rocks, the water clinging heavily to him as he began to pull the spider's webbing from his clothing. He paused a moment, remembering the river he had seen some time ago, thick, heavy blood flowing along its channel instead of water, and looked down at himself. "Just great," he muttered, "Well, at least I didn't swallow any."

The webbing was still incredibly sticky, but he managed to get most of it off himself, then scraped the residue from his hands on the rocks. Other than the rocky shore of the lake, the land around him was level and even, and he started toward the Temple of Light in the distance, keeping his eyes open for any last minute ambushes. He wasn't sure if the Ganon creature had survived the fall or not.

Having his goal within sight at last seemed to give him a renewed vigor, though still quite tired, he knew he could make it that far at least.

_You've done extremely well, Link,_ came the voice, once more unbidden, into his mind, _I am thoroughly impressed. You don't need to go any further._

"I beg to differ," Link said, "I'm almost there, the place you've been telling me to turn back from the whole time. Why this sudden shift?"

_What if I were to tell you it was all just a test?_ the voice said, _You have the strength necessary, Link. I can teach you so much, if you would just be willing to learn._

_And together, we can save Midna._

Link missed a step, but caught himself before falling. "You were the one telling me to forget about her!"

_I was, but you have such a drive to save her, I've come to understand it is in both our best interests to save her. For your sake, because that is what you desire, and for my sake, because it may at last earn me your trust._

"And what would I have to do?" Link asked.

_Simply wait where you are. Do not enter the temple. I will come to you._

Link started walking again.

_What are you doing?_

"In that temple is a man, a sage, who was ancient even before Hyrule existed," Link said, "He has answers I need. About you."

_You don't need them! Just ask and I'll tell you what you want to know._

The temple was drawing closer. It was situated on a rise, and leading directly up to the entrance was a stairway made of gold. As Link took the first step onto the stairs, they flared brightly, glowing in the darkness and removing the remaining effect of his night vision.

There were eight pedestals on either side of the stairs at regular intervals, though they were empty. Link stopped climbing as he came upon a body on the stairs. A woman, with gold skin, clad in black armor, a broken sword lying nearby.

_That is a valkyrie, placed here by the goddesses long ago to protect the temple, and the Triforce, from mortal hands._

Where the valkyrie lay, blood pooled on the steps, dripping slowly downward. "This blood is fresh," Link said.

_It will be for all eternity. These guardians were slain by Ganondorf when he came this way to claim the Triforce for himself. There is nothing left in the temple, Link, you don't need to go in._

Link started up the stairs again, and sure enough, looking up, there were more bodies, all seemingly identical to the first. "If there's nothing left, you won't mind me having a look around," he said.

The temple was close enough now to make out the details of the structure. It was only a single floor, and rather plain building, with four decorative columns outside the doorway, though there were no windows and the walls perfectly smooth. But it glowed brightly, blue light radiating from its surface, and as he came closer, he saw that it was uneven, as ripples danced across its surface as though it were water.

_What do you want me to do, Link? Beg? Then please, don't go in, I beg you…_

Link reached the top of the stairs, facing the doorway. As he reached out to the door, it creaked, slowly drifting open on its own. Within, a second door opened into a central chamber. He passed into the building, seeing two hallways leading either direction, but continued forward, into the central chamber.

_If you are this determined, Link, then I hope you rot. Come to me and save your precious Midna, I dare you. I'll put your teeth to the grindstone! I'll flay the hide from your body!_

"Shut up," Link said.

The central chamber was a large open room, but the usable area was relatively small. A small circular platform was visible ahead, and all around it nothing but blackness below. The same dancing lights were visible on the walls and ceiling, as well as on numerous columns that dotted the room around the platform.

Link walked toward the platform, and heard the door shut behind him, and turned to see the floor behind him fading away into nothing. He reached the platform and found the walkway had vanished entirely.

On the platform itself, Link could see the three golden triangles in the center, not in the form of the Hylian royal crest, with a fourth triangle extending from the bottom and pointed the other direction, but the image of the Triforce itself.

Six other crests surrounded it, each a different color and with a different symbol. Link knew them well. They were the symbols of the sages that guided and protected Hyrule.

"I guess I'm supposed to stand here," he said, stepping onto the Triforce symbol.

The other crests began to glow, each with their respective colors, and before Link's eyes, specters rose from them. The glowing white cloaks and masks he knew from the temple in the desert, the last time he had seen the sages, each one identical in appearance, and all radiating timeless knowledge and significant power.

"Welcome to the chamber of sages, young one," said one of them, and he was unable to tell which, "In this place, we shall speak to you face to face."

The forms of the sages began to unravel, as if dissolving into the air, but new forms taking shape before his eyes, each one quite distinct, and easily recognizable. The Sage of Forest, a young girl, looking no more than ten years old, with dark brown hair and bright green eyes, wearing clothing fashioned from leaves and vines.

The Sage of Fire, a goron, wearing nothing, as his kind often did, huge and muscular, yet old, his face wizened with years and eyes bright with intelligence.

The Sage of Spirit, a dark skinned woman the same tone as Ganondorf, with fire red hair, dressed in light purple cloth pants and shirt, with matching lipstick. She was old and bent at the back, yet may have been quite attractive in her day, and she paused to smile and wink at Link. He knew immediately that other than Ganondorf himself, she was the last of the Gerudo, the ancient race of women who dwelled in the desert west of Hyrule. Sages were long-lived, it seemed.

The Sage of Shadow, a youthful man who looked no older than twenty, yet with snow white hair and dark eyes, dressed in tight fitting leather with six daggers strapped across his thigh. He had to be a Sheikah, the former guardians of the Hylian royal family that had died out more recently. An old woman living alone in the mountains was, as far as Link knew, the last of their kind.

No sage had appeared from the crest of water. The last Sage of Water had been killed by Ganondorf during his attempted escape nearly a thousand years ago, and they were forced to cast him through the Twilight Mirror to be rid of him, and no new sage had appeared as of yet.

And the Sage of Light, as Link turned to him, sent a chill down his spine. Ancient beyond year, the old man's skin was pale and looked ready to fall off, his hair snow white, and even his robes, which may have once been rather flamboyant, were faded to almost gray. But what startled Link was not his aged appearance, but the shape of his face.

"No way," Link said, "You can't be."

It seemed like so long ago now, but Link remembered the vision, when Shaklator had concealed her identity from him and had been trying to convince him that everything she had done was justified. The vision in the cemetery, where she had been mourning her dead lover, and the man who had come to her, to attempt to comfort her in the vision was now standing before Link.

"You're Darius!" Link said.

The old man smiled. "I haven't been called that for a long time. When I gave up my old life and came to Hyrule, I took the name Rauru to conceal my identity. I guess things have come full circle now."

Of course, Link realized, who could possibly be better suited to answering his questions than the man who was there, eight thousand years ago? And that was why Shaklator had tried so hard to convince him to not come here. She feared him learning the truth.

"I have a lot of questions for you, old man," Link said.

"And I have answers," Darius said, "You have come a long way, and you deserve to hear them. So let's just get started."


	74. Chapter 73

After two chapters in this entire thing that are 90% monologue, I've decided to never do such a thing in anything else I write _ever_ again.

**Chapter 73: The Forgotten Past**

"So let me see if I have this right," Roxim said, "You want me to carry the lot of you to the other end of the continent so you can see if you can find a book?"

The great dragon had reappeared over the city at nearly midday, and was waved down by Zelda in the castle courtyard, where he heard out their group's request.

"I realize it is a long trip," Zelda said, "But we need to get there as quickly as possible. The trip could take us months on foot."

The dragon looked down at the group gathered before him. Zelda was once more dressed in her chain mail vest and blue tunic and breeches she had worn from Hyrule, with the Master Sword at her hip, a bow over her shoulder and a quiver of arrows visible on her back, with gold fletching on the arrows and odd designs on what was visible of their hafts. To her right stood Kilishandra, not quite meeting the dragon's eyes, and her left hand resting on the pommel of her own sword, evidently not comfortable so close to the great creature.

Ganondorf stood to Kilishandra's right, his arms crossed over his chest, and standing with his side toward the dragon, facing the outer wall of the courtyard, as if expecting to see something. Though he didn't appear to be paying attention to the conversation, Roxim found it quite obvious that the wizard was listening intently, and possibly sizing him up. Even to the dragon, the enormous man had a dangerous air about him.

Sheila was standing to Zelda's left, with the dark elf and young man that Roxim did not know behind them. "You haven't told me everything," Roxim said, "But Link is in trouble, right? And that book you want will let you help him?"

"Yes," Zelda said, "Please. I hate to ask yet more of you, but this is our only option."

"That young man is a rare kind," Roxim said, "I'll take you, for his sake. But I will not carry the wizard."

"What?" Ganondorf suddenly turned to him, looking up at the great creature, "You have a problem with me, dragon?"

Roxim leaned down, his massive head close to Ganondorf. His nostrils flared as he took a breath, then said in a low growl. "You reek of blood and death, wizard," he said, "I will not carry you."

"There's not a person here who hasn't killed something, someone," Ganondorf said.

"But you are the only one who has enjoyed it," the dragon said, sitting back up to his full height.

This caused many of those gathered to turn to look at Ganondorf, even Kilishandra, with faint concern as a smile appeared on his face and he chuckled to himself. Zelda did not face him, instead staying focused on the task at hand. "If he stays here, you will take the rest of us?" she asked.

"Yes," Roxim said, "So that leaves five of you. It'll take about a week to get there and back, so you'd best go get whatever supplies you'll need, as I imagine the countryside has only gotten worse since I was up there, and you won't be finding food on the way."

"Thank you," Zelda said, and turned to Sheila, "Shall we take a trip to the larder?"

"I'll need to make some other arrangements," Sheila said, "Make sure the right people know what's going on."

As they moved away, Alex turned to Silviana. "You ever been to Tyr before?" he asked as the two of them moved after Zelda and Sheila.

"No," she said, "Not that I can remember, anyway."

"I've heard it's a pretty big place, though nothing could rival this city," Alex said, his voice dying away as he moved out of earshot.

Kilishandra remained beside Ganondorf, finally turning and starting, "Father, what…"

"Don't worry about it," he said, cutting her off, "I'll just play along for now, and stay here to keep the lizard happy."

Roxim snorted, turning and walking away across the courtyard, his heavy footsteps causing the ground to rumble faintly beneath their feet.

"Besides, now that I think about it, one of us does need to stay here," Ganondorf said, "I'm not sure about Tharkus, but Khall, while not your or my level, commands enough power to destroy a city on his own. If he were to try something while we were gone, there'd be no one here to stop him."

"Right," she said, nodding her understanding, "I'll be the one protecting this little group then."

"Zelda's smart, but she's not a trained fighter," Ganondorf said, "The lecture I gave her the other night seems to have had some effect, but time will tell how much. As for the others, they're capable enough."

"There's something I'm trying to figure out," Kilishandra said, "Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"When I was younger, you told me stories about Hyrule, the kingdom inhabited by your sworn enemies, the only ones to best you in all your life," she said, "So why? Why are you doing all this to help them now, against the very people you brought together, who are now also their enemies?"

"Tell me why you are, first," he said.

"Tharkus and Khall lied to me," Kilishandra said, "They said to ensure my loyalty, I had to bear the curse they placed upon me, and maneuvered me into committing genocide for no reason. I thought we were here for conquest, but Tharkus told me now that they seek the total destruction of this entire world."

"So," Ganondorf said, "You fight against your own people, to save a world that is not your own, full knowing that yours is dying, little by little each day. Saving one is not worth the destruction of another?"

Kilishandra lowered her eyes, looking down at her feet. "I have thought about it," she said, "Should I have chosen differently?"

"On what basis?" Ganondorf said, "You know what you believe is right, and you chose that. That is nothing to be ashamed of. If you feel you have to atone for the lives you took, then do so. That is what makes you different from me."

He lifted her chin with one hand, raising her eyes to meet his own. "As for why I am doing this, I will not answer that question yet, even to you," he said, "because I don't want my reasons to influence yours. You'll understand someday."

He turned away from her. "Now you better go get ready. You'll need to be off soon, so you can get as far as possible today."

"Fine," she said, "But when this is all over, will you answer my question?"

"When this is over," he said, "I shouldn't have to."

* * *

"You really are who I think you are, right?" Link asked.

He was somewhat surprised at himself, standing here in the very place, where the Hero of Time had stood long ago, and learned of his true destiny, where no one other than the sages themselves had been in centuries, and yet he gave this only a passing thought, intently focused on the task at hand.

"I am," the Sage of Light said, "I have existed far beyond my intended time, because I knew my seal would fail eventually, and I needed to be here when it did. Now, where would you like me to start?"

Link pondered this for a moment, glancing at the other sages, waiting patiently around him as he considered. "I guess the best place to start is the who and how. Shaklator's voice has been coming in my head for the past few months, and I've heard a little bit. Who is she really? How did she become what she is, and how did you seal her away?"

"I'll need to fill in a few more blanks around that as I go," Darius said, "I first met her before the great war began. In the artic lands north of the mountains bordering Mystara live tribes of nomadic peoples. These people survive in a climate extremely harsh to any living things, and while there is a mutual respect among them, battles have occurred over the herds of artic creatures they hunt when numbers grow thin.

"Jazeira Shaklator was her name. Understand that these tribes treat their women exactly like their men, and everyone is expected to pull their weight. She was trained as a hunter and warrior, but she left her tribe shortly after reaching adulthood, intent on seeing more of the world than the ice and tundra. A classic case of adventurer's wanderlust, not something that one receives, but they are born with.

"I personally encountered her in a village within the borders of Tyr. I was just passing through, so it was pure chance I was there when it happened. Slavery was not illegal back then, but Shaklator's upbringing hadn't exposed her to things of our world, and she had not been educated in our ways. Like most of her people, she wasn't acquainted with the concept that one man could own another, and when one of the slaves begged her to help him, she started smashing the slave pens, freeing them, and killing the slave owners who came to stop her. I heard the commotion from my room at the inn, and came to see what was happening."

Link sank down to the floor, seating himself cross-legged, letting out a sigh as he lay his sword on the floor next to him. "Sorry," he said as the sages watched him, "I'm really tired. Keep going."

"In any case," Darius said, "I took her into my custody after calming her down. Judges would cite that ignorance of the law was no excuse, but I did not own slaves and didn't approve of it, but there was little I could do about that at the time. I brought her back to the capital with me, explaining some things about the way of the our world. She was far from stupid, but many concepts of what we consider to be civilization were ideas that she had never even heard of. Little did I know at the time that her nature and unrelenting grasp of what she believed to be right and wrong would drastically change the course of events during the war, and I would make a mistake that would turn her against us.

"The war itself was sparked by a single man named Thalandril Arkanus. He was the archmage at the time, though I would be elected to the position after he turned. Back then, our mastery of magic was far beyond anything in the world as you know it. We were experimenting with the fabric of reality, so to speak, creating new magics and spells to attempt to better lives. I was the one who discovered travel spells, allowing one to leap great distances in seconds. The ultimate form I never perfected, when I discovered I had accidentally thrown myself into parallel worlds, and it took years to return. Along the way, I saw many things that men of our world had never imagined, and discovered what you call the Twilight Mirror. When I did manage to return, I brought it with me, believing it would help further my studies.

"Thalandril's studies led him down a different course. Altruistic to the core, he sought magic that would allow him to control the weather, so that he could prevent disastrous storms, or bring rain to drought areas. You see, he would often take a good portion of his earnings and buy as much food as he could, taking cartloads of it down to poor areas, where people were homeless and starving, but in the end, there simply wasn't enough, and prices kept climbing. He was trying to improve farming by controlling the element that no one could, which is the weather, and thus increase food production.

"Two events occurred that changed everything I knew about the man. The first was that several students went missing from the academy, and the judge investigating the matter discovered a secret laboratory in Thalandril's quarters while he was occupied elsewhere. The bodies of the students were in the lab, as well as evidence of practice of necromancy. When he went to arrest Thalandril, he fled, escaping the judge for the moment.

"I knew where he was headed," Darius went on somberly, "I went to his home in the city, hoping to beat him there. He would take his wife and daughter and flee the city. They were still there when I arrived, so I explained to his wife that I needed to see him, and as soon as he came home, to contact me. That night I watched his home, and saw someone sneak in the back way. Intending to confront him, I went inside to find it was not Thalandril, but a common burglar, and I was too late. He had barged in on Thalandril's wife and killed her when she screamed, and the little girl too. I stopped him, killed him with no more effort than as if I was swatting a fly. But Thalandril came in the back door to this scene. He saw his family dead, and me, covered in blood, and flew into a rage."

Darius looked away from Link. "He escaped me that night, refusing to listen to me. He severed all ties to his old life, fully embracing his necromantic studies. He abandoned even his own name, and began calling himself Tharkus."

"Wait just a minute," Link said, "That's the name of the necromancer attacking Mystara right now! If you're still alive, then does that mean he's the same man?"

"He is," Darius said, "Though his means of extending his life are different from my own. While the Temple of Light keeps me alive, I cannot leave it, or my vast age will catch up to me within a few moments, and my body will crumble to dust. Tharkus continued his studies into necromancy, and discovered that he could manipulate the human soul, given enough time. And he discovered a way to transfer his soul, and his consciousness, into the form of a flesh golem. So he exists now, immune to pain, age, disease, all the weaknesses of the flesh, but at the same time, tortured by the pleasures he cannot have. Drink will not satisfy his thirst, food does nothing to quell his starvation, and the pleasurable company of a woman can do nothing to slake his lust. He is a tortured man, in a wretched existence.

"After escaping that night, he began to gather others to his side, promising them that he intended to change the world. Wizards should rule rather than the royalty that existed then, and they could use their power to ensure that everyone could live comfortably. No starvation, no disease, and so on. Promises that I knew he could not fulfill. Maybe he believed he could, but the fact was, it gained him many followers, from whom he built his army, while we searched for him."

"Shaklator made herself extremely useful," he went on, "Thanks to her, we managed to track down many gathering points where his followers recruited others, and her knowledge of woodcraft was impressive, managing to follow some to bigger outposts in the wilds. We never found Tharkus, though.

"He finally resurfaced several years later, when he appeared in Darimar. By the time anyone realized who he was, he was inside the castle, and though guards tried to stop him, they were no match for his magic. He hadn't been the archmage for nothing, after all. I was contacted through a voice stone and immediately set up my travel spell to my laboratory underneath the castle. I knew what he had to be after, and that was the gateway I had discovered.

"Beneath the castle is one of the three gateways that connect our world to this one, that we now call the Sacred Realm. At the time, it was the only known gateway, and a closely guarded secret. Tharkus intended to enter and take the ultimate prize. The Triforce."

"And when he did, it fragmented apart, right?" Link asked.

"Yes," Darius said, "The legends haven't changed much, even in eight thousand years. He managed to breach the Sacred Realm and take the Triforce, believing it would grant him unlimited power. When he did, it split into three parts. It was to my shock that I received the Triforce of Wisdom, and Shaklator the Triforce of Courage.

"He escaped us again, and shortly later, the war truly began, as he sought to overthrow all five kingdoms. I'll skip the unnecessary details here, but the war went on for nearly four years, to great devastation to the land. Everything changed during one specific battle. You see, there was a dark elf, trained as a bodyguard for his owner, who was simply freed when his owner was killed during an attack on the capital of Whitos-Neiki. This dark elf's name was Patrick, and when Shaklator saved his life during that battle, he joined our forces, and he stayed close to her. The two of them grew close.

"This time, Shaklator, Patrick, and a small number of men were, unfortunately, left by themselves at a fort blocking a pass through the western mountains. Tharkus' forces attacked the fort to draw attention, while another part of their forces circled through another, more dangerous pass, to try to take a border village near the mountains. I saw what was happening, and knew what was happening, taking those with me to the village. It was a decision I knew I'd regret, because there simply weren't enough people in the fort to hold it. I expected them all to be dead when I managed to get there after protecting the village."

He turned and smiled somewhat sadly at Link. "You see, I and my men were supposed to be her reinforcements. They were expecting us, and that's why they didn't retreat, giving up the fort. When I arrived, I found that the fort had held, but Shaklator was the only survivor. She was badly wounded, and when I came in, I saw her, sitting against a wall, corpses and blood everywhere, and she was barely conscious, but was holding onto Patrick's body, holding him in her arms.

"We took care of her, and she recovered from her injuries, but something changed in her that day. She never really trusted me again, and as the war drug on, she grew sick of it. I think she realized that what she was fighting for, she didn't really believe in. The thing she held onto was Patrick's death, and she blamed me as much for it as Thakus, because I hadn't come when they needed me.

"When she finally snapped, I think, I still remember exactly what she said to me, when she had gone to visit Patrick's grave. 'There's no such thing as happy endings,' she said. That night, she was gone, and I wouldn't find out where to until nearly a month later."

He paused for a moment. "Do you know how the Triforce passes from one person to another?" he asked.

"I've never really thought about it," Link said, "Is it important?"

"Yes," Darius said, "You see, it can only be given freely, at least if the receiver only possesses one, or no fragments. When someone has two parts, there is little that the other can do to resist if that one decides he wants the third. When Shaklator came back, she had the Triforce of Power, in addition to the piece of Courage. Somehow, she had convinced Tharkus to give it to her, and she had come back after the one I had, with Tharkus' army in tow. It was somewhat fortunate I was leading our forces through the mountains toward their main base, a tower in the western jungles, and was not in one of the cities.

"I realized what was happening, and knew I had to destroy her, before she could get the third piece of the Triforce, so I made use of a destruction spell that I had never before dared to even attempt, because if it worked, its destructive force would make the Harrowing look like sunburns. I used the Senan Serat. I couldn't control the power of intertwining all four earthly elements, and it went out of control, ravaging the landscape beyond even my worst fears. The tropical jungles that formerly occupied the region vanished, leaving behind a wasteland that would come to be called the Desert of Death. And be freak chance, I missed Shaklator entirely, though I did irreparable damage to the army as a whole. I ordered my men to retreat while I stayed behind to face her.

"She didn't kill me, instead ripping the Triforce of Wisdom from me by force. With the complete Triforce in her possession, she had come close enough to godhood that no mortal being could stand before her, to wound her, let alone kill her. She let me live, saying that just as I had taken everything she cared about from her, she would do the same to me. I fled back to the city, already figuring out what I must do.

"Two unique weapons had been created some time ago, named Silver Fang and Black Razor, swords intended to be used together by the judges against the monsters created by necromantic arts. I took them into the Sacred Realm, and brought them here to the Temple of Light, and begged the goddesses to give me weapons that could be used to stop the evil that I had unwittingly created.

"Silver Fang was blessed with a holy light like no other, gaining the power to completely neutralize the Triforce's energy, and became the Master Sword, capable of cutting through whatever defenses Shaklator laid about herself, and could inflict lasting injury to her, defeating her superhuman healing abilities. But by some divine prank, or perhaps a deliberate balancing act, Black Razor twisted into a dark weapon, the antithesis to the Master Sword, capable of negating _its_ powers, and gaining a dark sentience that whispered to one's mind, and was capable of driving men mad.

"I took the Master Sword, returned to Darimar, and confronted Shaklator when she came. The weapon worked beautifully, protecting me from her immense magic powers, and wounding her body as if she were still mortal. She was a smart one, though. She used her newfound power to permanently alter the makeup of her body, giving herself inhuman strength, endurance, and so on, then released the Triforce from herself, ridding herself also of the direct weakness to the sword. When she released it, she basically had to give the Triforce to the nearest person, which was me.

"I had planned ahead, just in case, and had the Twilight Mirror set up in the city square, with an open portal to the Void, the emptiness between worlds, intending to trap her there if I had to. I now possessed godlike power, but had no idea how to use it. So I lured her through the portal, so intent she was on killing me, and after a struggle, was able to escape back through the portal, and smash the obsidian block upon which the mirror cast its portal, thus sealing her in. To ensure that she could never return, I spent several years working on what would be my last creation. A barrier spell around the world itself, to prevent her from passing from the Void back to our world. The only source of power great enough to maintain it was the Triforce itself, so I established links to it, and set the center of power from an external source, this world."

Darius stopped, and gestured with one hand toward Link. "And there you are. The who and the how."

"That's a lot of information," Link said, laying back on the floor, resting his head on his hands, "There are a few details I need you to clarify. The Twilight Mirror for a start. I thought it came from the Twilight Realm."

"Not the Twilight Realm you are thinking of," Darius said, "The mirror originates in a world different from our own, where eternal night reigns. The beings you know as Twili are descended from the race that exists in this world. I brought a few back with me, along with the mirror. Refugees, so to speak."

"What happened to them?" Link asked.

"They joined Tharkus, but toward the latter end of the war, abandoned him, fleeing east, over the sea, and attempted to establish dominion over the area that would come to be Hyrule in future years," Darius said, "After the war, seeing that the five kingdoms were intent on rebuilding into exactly the same state as they began, easily allowing a tragedy like this to happen again, I severed the ties I had to everything and left. When I arrived in Hyrule, I saw what the Twili were attempting to do, with an artifact of their own they called the Fused Shadow, and regrettably had to stop them and cast them entirely from our world with the mirror. The spirits that exist around Hyrule proved useful in the undertaking of shattering the Fused Shadow."

"And then you became a sage?" Link asked.

"It wasn't quite that simple," Darius said, "I knew that to keep the Triforce and therefore the barrier in place, I needed to make it as difficult as possible to enter the Sacred Realm. Before I came to Hyrule, I sealed the gateway beneath the castle with a barrier that will kill anyone who attempts to open it incorrectly, and when I discovered a second in Hyrule, I arranged construction of the Temple of Time, and used the Master Sword itself as a key to the barrier, to prevent entry by those whom it deems unworthy. I never found the third gateway, unfortunately.

"I established the sages to be the gatekeepers, and protectors of the land, yet we would exist separate from it. Around the Temple of Time, Hyrule grew, with no direct influence on our part. It would still be centuries before the first king of the Hylians would unite the Gorons and Zora under his rule and bring an end to their constant feuding. I did not interfere because I had no further interest in the wars of men. That was, until Ganondorf undid the seal I had established so long ago."

"Yeah, I know the story from there," Link said, sitting up, "The other Link, the old one, told me that Ganondorf didn't realize what he was doing when he took the Triforce. Because of that, the barrier is failing and Shaklator is getting back in."

"That's correct," Darius said, "She still blames me for what happened, and seeks to end all life in the world as repayment. Though, given the amount of time, she may not even remember why she hates me so much. Or perhaps she remembers all too clearly."

"What is her interest in me?" Link asked, "She's been talking to me for some time, trying to sway me for some reason or another."

"I think she sees herself in you, and a potential ally in that," Darius said, "She was the one who told Khall to kill Midna, possibly attempting to recreate in you the same thing that drove her so much. Which in itself implies that she is at least calm enough to be thinking clearly again, making her all the more dangerous. Or perhaps she thought the Twili was an obstacle, getting in the way of what she is attempting to mold you into. She may be trying to make you as terrible as she herself has become, or perhaps something else entirely."

"Okay, last question before I change the subject," Link said, "How do I stop her?"

"I'm still not sure exactly what she did to herself when she gave up the Triforce," Darius said, "but her power has only grown since I locked her away. I couldn't kill her then, and even with that weapon you now have, I doubt you can now. If it comes to a direct confrontation, you may have no choice but to attempt it. The best solution would be to return the Triforce here, to the Temple of Light, and reestablish the barrier."

"And then when some other idiot comes in to take it, this starts all over again," Link said, "So the only choice is to put her down. She has to have some kind of weakness. How do I kill her?"

"She still possesses the rapid healing given to her by the Triforce," Darius said, "But it is still extremely draining on her stamina. Your only option would be to wear her down to the point she can no longer fight back. But you won't last that long. Listen to me, her flesh is hard enough that ordinary weapons will break as though striking stone, and she is strong enough to topple a building with a touch. It's impossible to fight against that."

Link rose to his feet, picking up his sword as he did so, holding it up so that Darius could clearly see the pearl white blade, glowing faintly, yet shedding no light. "I was told that this will make it possible," Link said, "It's all about having the right tools for the job. Can this sword hurt her?"

Darius hesitated, then nodded. "Yes," he said, "If you can last long enough, and inflict enough damage, that weapon can kill her."

"Good," Link said, "Last question. How do I enter the Void from here?"

This caused exclamations from several of the other sages, and Darius looked as if Link had struck him.

"You can't be serious!" Darius said, "That's suicide!"

"You listen to me," Link said, "Even since I landed here, someone has been dangling Midna in front of me like yarn in front of a cat. Shaklator too. And I know she's in the Void. How she got there, I don't know, but I'm not leaving her there. The fact I can deal with Shaklator while I'm there is just a fortunate side effect. Now how do I enter the Void?"

"Are you even listening to me?" Darius said, "You'll be killed! Even if you can find your friend, you won't get back out!"

"He's brave, if a bit impetuous," the Sage of Fire said, "Let him go. He's not going to listen to reason right now."

Darius turned to the goron. "And what if he is lost?"

"Then someone else will have to deal with the matter," the Sage of Shadow said, "Without Link, Ganondorf would be our next best bet."

"Already making backup plans," Link said, "Fine, so how do I get in?"

Darius sighed. "I can help you, but at least rest first. You're exhausted and in no condition to fight, and I guarantee you're going to need to."

Link started to protest, then stopped, full knowing he was right. "Okay," he said, "A few hours won't hurt, I suppose."

* * *

"Everybody ready?" Roxim asked.

The group of five was arranged single file alone his back, holding onto the ridges of his spine, seated far enough back to not foul his wings. "As well ever be," Zelda said.

"Okay," the dragon said, "Hang on tight. If you don't fall off when I take off, you'll be fine."

"Wait a second, what are you-" Alex started, and grunted as the dragon lurched upward, his great wings beating down and sending snow flying outward from around his feet with the force of the wind, and Alex desperately clung to the protrusion of bone in front of him, behind Silviana's back.

As the great wings stroked down again, Alex looked over the side to see the ground quickly moving away, and making his stomach turn. He quickly focused on what was in front of him. Silviana was seated in front of him, with Kilishandra past her, and Sheila and Zelda at the front of the line.

He couldn't help but smile a little. _On a trip with four good looking women,_ he thought, _So I guess this is what it's like to be in your shoes, Link. We sure have it rough, huh?_

Down on the ground, Ganondorf watched the dwindling shape going higher and higher and moving toward the far horizon, away from the castle.

"All right, Kili," he said to himself, "It's in your hands now. Do me proud."


	75. Chapter 74

**Chapter 74: A Winter's Night  
**

Flying on a dragon was easily one of the fastest ways to travel, Zelda decided by the time they had come to earth as the sun set, near a small farmstead easily four day's travel on foot north of Darimar, and they had made it in only a single afternoon.

No one had come out to greet them as their group made their landing, and no one fled at the sight of the dragon either, so when Zelda went to the door of the house and knocked, she was not surprised when there was no answer.

"The door is locked," she said after giving it a push, and turned to the others, "Either no one's home, or they don't want to talk to us."

"More likely they fled to the city before Thakus' undead came swarming through here," Kilishandra said, watching the horizon in the distance as she surveyed the area.

It was a small farm with nearby barn and small shed, likely used for storage of tools and seed. The blanket of snow on the ground prevented them from identifying the fields, and snowflakes were drifting lazily down through the air, though in Darimar's winter, this was just a warning of more to come.

"We can't sleep out here," Zelda said, "and even a gutted house is more appealing than the barn. Can someone get this door open?"

"Right here," Alex said, stepping forward as Zelda and Sheila stepped aside.

He took a hold of the handle, giving the door a push, which didn't budge, then took a step back, lowered his shoulder, and charged into it. There was a loud crash, but the door held, and Alex swore, slipping in the snow, and landing on his face on the doorstep.

Sheila and Zelda both snickered as he picked himself up. "Just checking the distance," he said.

"Of course," Sheila said, still giggling.

"Let me get a little further away," he said, taking a few steps back from the door.

"Where'd the dark elf girl get to?" Kilishandra asked, turning back to the group.

Before anyone responded, Alex lowered his shoulder and charged at the door, and kept right on going as it opened before him, causing him to shout in surprise as he ran right past Silviana, who stepped aside as he overstepped and toppled forward, crashing to the floor, swearing again, more loudly than before.

Silviana looked at him for a moment, then turned to the others. "Bedroom window wasn't locked," she said.

"That's convenient," Zelda said, and turned to where Roxim had seated himself some distance away, "Are you going to be okay?"

"I've got fire in my lungs," the dragon said, "It will have to get a lot colder out here before I get uncomfortable."

"We'll see you in the morning then," Zelda said, the group moving through the door, and Kilishandra shut it behind them.

The immediate room was bare, with three doorways leading off from it, the one on the left going into an empty room with a pair of rakes and a shovel leaned up against the wall. The one on the right led into the kitchen and dining room, a wood burning stove and table across the room the only implements left. The last passage led to a small hallway that in turn led to two bedrooms, each one with a single bed.

"Alex, you want to make yourself useful?" Zelda asked, turning to where he was gently massaging his shoulder where he had landed.

"Why not?" he said, standing up.

"Go to that shed outside and see if you can find some firewood to get that stove going, so we can warm the place up," she said.

"Sure," he muttered, moving toward the door. With a faint smile, Silviana followed him outside, pulling the door shut behind her.

"So what's the plan?" Sheila asked, "Tyr first, then the temple in Metallicana?"

"It's the same distance either way," Zelda said, "Let's go to Tyr first, since it probably won't be as dangerous, if this temple will be trapped like the others have been."

"It will."

"Then we don't need someone getting injured and having to carry them along unless we're going straight back to Darimar," Zelda said, then added, "I remember your healing magic, Sheila, but I'd rather not depend on it if I don't have to."

"And without Link, none of us are experienced in dealing with traps and the like," Sheila said.

"Yes," Zelda said, and sighed, "It's a rude awakening, just how much we depended on him."

There was a thump as Kilishandra lay the right shoulder of her armor on the table, and started unhooking the left from her breastplate. "Who is he?" she asked, "I've only heard scant details so far. A knight?"

Zelda smiled. "No, not exactly. He is the best swordsman I've ever seen, but no knight. He's a farmer, in fact."

"A farmer?" Kilishandra repeated, then said, "Hyrule must be a very strange place where farmers learn swordplay."

"Most border villages keep at least a few trained swordsmen among their population, in the event of bandits or the like," Zelda said, "They also assume the role of leading the people there if worse comes to worse, and must learn to fight in a hurry, like a foreign invasion, at least until the army can get moving."

Kilishandra lay the other shoulder on the table, then turned around and leaned back against it, resting her hands on the edge. "He's the one who defeated my father, isn't he?" she asked.

"Yes," Zelda said, "Ganondorf orchestrated an invasion from a world called the Twilight Realm, and found a way to bend reality until the worlds overlapped. It would have been Hyrule, then the entire world, covered in darkness."

"If the two worlds merged without any ill effects," Sheila said, "There is a great deal of theory written about such an event, nothing solid, but worst case scenario would be that both worlds would be destroyed, which could have drastic repercussions on reality itself. There are many other worlds, or dimensions, for a clearer picture, and what affects one in such a way will affect them all. Absolute worse possibility is that the fabric of reality would unravel and everything everywhere would cease to exist."

"Who wrote those kinds of theories anyway?" Kilishandra asked.

"That would be Darius," Sheila said, "Possibly the greatest, most powerful wizard to ever live."

"There's no way he was more powerful than my father," Kilishandra said.

"Let's not start _that_ kind of debate, please," Zelda said, interrupting them, "It won't get us anywhere."

Kilishandra turned to her, starting to retort, then pulled herself short. For better or worse, she had sworn to this woman's service, and she had to respect what that meant. "Sorry," she said, turning away and unbuckling the shoulder straps of her breastplate.

"You should have worn a little more," Zelda said as Kilishandra pulled the breastplate off, with only a thin cotton shirt underneath, "It's too cold for that little bit."

"I can't," Kilishandra said, turning back around, untucking the shirt from her belt and letting the tail fall loose, "My armor was made by a master blacksmith to be form fitting, so that only I can wear it, and without any more padding than this. Also means that if I put on any weight, muscle or otherwise, it won't fit me anymore."

Zelda had moved over to the table where it lay as she spoke, and felt along the edge of the plate with two fingers. "I've never seen armor like this," she said, "It's so thin. But it's steel?"

"Yes," Kilishandra said, "I'm not an expert, but there was something about removing impurities from the metal, so that it can be thinner and lighter, but just as strong."

"And a tad more dangerous," Zelda said, testing the edge of one of the blades on the right shoulder with her thumb.

The front door opened, Alex and Silviana entering, each with an armful of wood. The three made way for them to dump their loads next to the stove. "Not in the shed," Alex said, "but we found some around behind the barn."

"Awful long way," Sheila said as Alex opened the stove and started fitting logs in, taking his knife to the last one to make kindling with the shavings.

"Anyone got some flint?" he asked, looking up from where he was, and paused when for the first time since entering, particularly at her shirt, and smiled, saying, "Wow, it really is cold in here."

"Move," Kilishandra said, walking toward him. He moved aside and Kilishandra knelt down in front of the stove. She lifted her hands before the stove, muttered a cantrip, and the logs burst into flames. She shut the front of the stove as she stood up, and returned to the table, where she went to work on undoing the straps on the back of her legs.

Sheila opened up her pack on the floor, pulling out several packages of travel rations. "So, what will it be?" she asked, "Would you like some dried beef, some dried beef, or some dried beef for dinner?"

"I'll take the stuffed pigeon in the sauce, none of the cheap stuff, please," Silviana said.

"Sure," Sheila said, handing her a wrapped packet, "Compliments of the house."

Zelda sighed as she accepted a package of the tough meat. "And I'd just started getting used to real food again," she said.

"At least we'll only be out here for a week," Sheila said, "Honestly, I lost track of time last time. Didn't realize how long we'd been out there."

"The days will blend together after a while," Alex said, "But that's true if you do anything day in and day out."

The heat from the stove was beginning to spread through the room. Zelda paused between bites and looked toward Alex. "It just occurred to me that I've never asked why you showed up in Darimar to begin with," she said, "Last time I saw you, you said you were going home, after Link knocked you out."

"Oh, that," Alex said, "That army of monsters took the city. Killed my sister."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"That's why I came down here," he said, "Actually was looking for you guys. I just want to do anything I can to help stop this."

"How noble," Kilishandra said, "And if you can be a hero and become famous in the process, that's just gravy, right?"

"Wait, you're judging me?" Alex said in disbelief, "The sorceress who changed sides, after committing genocide on an entire city? Are you serious?"

"That's enough," Zelda said, "We don't need this right now."

"No, please," Alex said, "Just let her answer. I want to hear this. Should be good."

Kilishandra stared at him for a long moment, her face expressionless, but her green eyes seemed to bore into him, making him uncomfortable. At last, she said, "Are you asking if I feel regret, or my reasons for doing so? Yes, I do wish I hadn't done it. It was an unforgivable act, and I will answer for it, when the time comes. But right now, we need to focus on what we should do, not what has already happened. 'If you focus too much on the past, you blind yourself to the future.' My father taught me that, a long time ago. Along with a great many other things."

In an attempt to change the subject, Zelda said, "I still have a hard time picturing him raising a child. How old are you, anyway?"

Kilishandra glanced at her, a little surprised. "Actually, I'm only one hundred and seven. Little more than a child by elvish standards."

"Hope I age that gracefully," Zelda whispered to herself, then asked, "When did he find you?"

"I was fifteen, I think," she said, "It really was a long time ago."

"You don't really look like an elf," Sheila said, "My mother was human, but I bear more resemblance to my father, still."

"Unusual circumstances, I guess," Kilishandra said, "My mother was a Dra'thul, a dark elf, and my biological father was one of a race known as the Getherzei. They look like humans, but average fifteen feet tall. I'm probably lucky I'm only six and a half. It's hard enough finding things that fit me already."

"Yes, Ganondorf mentioned something about that some time ago," Zelda said, eyeing Kilishandra's shape through the thin shirt, partially transparent in the firelight.

She was very athletic, and had more muscle on her than a lot of men Zelda knew. The way she moved in a fight, though, was so fast, just like Link, with strength that somehow seemed greater than her size should allow. It was probably a safe assumption that, like Link, she was at that physical peak, the maximum amount of muscle possible without actually being muscle-bound, and therefore slowing down because of it, like Ganondorf.

Zelda couldn't help but be frustrated, however, that even in that athletic condition, her breasts, though relatively small, were still larger than her own. That simply wasn't fair.

Back to the matters at hand, though. "I want to ask you one other thing, since we have some time," Zelda said, "Ralthas said something about a blight near Darimar, and you said something about it overtaking your entire world. Can you tell me about it? I want to know what we're dealing with."

"I'm not sure how to describe it," Kilishandra said, "It's like a magical plague that infects the land itself. The earth turns black, plants wither and die, water turns to poison. A verdant grassland becomes a wasteland in a matter of days. Nothing can survive."

"I thought Ganondorf said something about it receding?"

"It does, slowly," she went on, "At least, that's what we thought. There was a location in my world called the Blasted Plains. That was where the blight originated. It was shrinking, gradually, and thought it was no threat, until it was nearly too late. Suddenly, it was everywhere. Farmlands were rotting, game animals dying out, and drinking water becoming deadly. If it really is appearing here, then only either Khall or Tharkus can be behind it. If we can cut off the source, by stopping them, we might be able to stop it before it's too late."

"And Roxim said the northlands have already been taken by it," Zelda whispered, leaning back against the wall.

"What are you thinking?" Sheila asked.

"Darimar is self-supporting from crops grown within its own walls right now," Zelda said, "but if this blight gets as far as the city itself, that won't work, and all the land around it will be infected, too…"

"Dear gods," Sheila whispered, "They really do intend to wipe us out."

"They said they were going to move our people here," Kilishandra said, "They were lying. They intend to destroy everything. But what will that really accomplish? Two dead worlds instead of one?"

"We can't solve the puzzle without all the pieces," Zelda said, "But we can make a guess. It does take time for the blight to spread, right?"

Kilishandra nodded. "So, we plan ahead. Unfortunately, due to winter, the army can't march, so we can't go to end this now. If we can stop them in time to contain the blight on this continent, though, then perhaps we can evacuate everyone overseas…"

"That's nuts," Alex said, "Darimar alone has millions of people, and that's just its native citizens. There aren't enough ships in the world!"

"No, but there is the Twilight Mirror!" Zelda said, snapping her fingers as it came to her, "We use it to open a gateway to the Twilight Realm, move everyone into there, then a small group takes the mirror to Hyrule, and opens another gateway to bring them back through! We have to get it back."

"Talk about it all you want, but don't we have another job right now?"

Everyone turned to Silviana, seated leaning against the wall across the room from the rest of them, with her arms crossed across her chest. "Focus too much on the past and you blind yourself to the future," she said, "Good advice. But at the same time, focus too much on the future, and you lose sight of the present."

"Of course," Zelda said, "We'd better get some sleep so we can get an early start."

As they rose as a group, Silviana smirked. "Though the sheets that were left are clean, there are only two beds. Who's sharing with who?"

"Well, I wouldn't mind…" Alex started, and stopped as the other three women turned to him, causing him to pause, then sighed, "Just give me a blanket and I'll sleep out here by the fire."

"Don't be ridiculous, you'll catch cold, and a stone floor isn't good for you anyway," Silviana said, "And after the fire goes out, it's going to get very cold. At least two bodies in a bed make things much warmer. You can share one of the beds with me, and these three can have the bigger one. Just keep in mind that nothing is going to happen except sleeping."

She took him by the hand and led him from the kitchen into one of the bedrooms. "I just don't understand her," Kilishandra said.

"You're not the only one," Sheila sighed, "Just wait until you've been around her a little longer. She scares me."

As one, the three of them entered the hall and moved toward the other bedroom. They stood just inside the door for a moment, staring at the bed. It was big enough, but that wasn't the problem.

"We never speak of this to anyone, ever," Zelda said, "Agreed?"

"Agreed," Kilishandra and Sheila said at the same time.

* * *

"I want to know why the hell she wasn't imprisoned, or better yet, killed on the spot!"

Judge Ralthas' office was crowded, with the judge himself seated behind his desk, King Rigdar and his son, Richard, as well as Maylow, the half-elf king of the destroyed country Whitos-Neiki, gathered in the small room.

Maylow had been the one shouting, leaning on Rathas' desk, and low, right in the judge's face.

"There are certain extenuating circumstances that I couldn't ignore," Ralthas said, "Believe me, I wanted her locked away, but we have enough enemies already."

"So that's it?" Maylow demanded, "We just forget about the fact she leveled an entire city, killed hundreds of thousands of people?"

"Forgive me for sounding callous," King Rigdar said, "But that's war, my friend, and she was on the other side."

"Nothing justifies killing civilians!" Maylow said.

"I agree," Ralthas said, "But considering the circumstances, I have suspended charges until the immediate crisis has been adverted. And then, she will be tried in Hyrule, since the Princess Zelda has claimed rights to her life. We have to respect that, and the judges do not have authority in her lands, so ultimately, the sorceress' fate will not be up to us, for good or ill."

"And you're just letting her run loose then?" Maylow asked, then sneered, "What's more, I thought the group she's with weren't allowed out of the city without a judge's escort?"

"There is a judge with them," Ralthas said, "though most of them don't realize it."

Richard sat up in his seat. "Wait," he said, "So that means Sheila really is…?"

"Of course not."

The four of them turned to the door to see Ganondorf standing just inside, leaning against the wall. "If his daughter was a judge, he'd have hardly put her up with the rest of them on the charges."

"But then who is it?"

"This isn't even a hard one, kid," Ganondorf said, "Use that mush between your ears and figure it out."

This was the first time Maylow had seen Ganondorf face to face, and he found himself unnerved, both by the man's sheer size, and the way he seemed to carry himself, exuding an overpowering presence like nothing he'd ever encountered.

"Fine," he said, "If you'll excuse me, since no one is going to listen to me anyway. I just hope you're not all making decisions that you're going to regret."

"I doubt that," Ganondorf said as he passed by toward the door, "I don't regret a single thing I've done in my entire life."

The whispering tone of his voice, as well as the look in his eye as he said that sent a shiver down Maylow's spine. Without replying, he stepped toward the door, only to stop when he felt Ganondorf's hand on his shoulder.

"The next time you feel like discussing my daughter's fate, how about including me in the conversation?" Ganondorf said, "If you don't, I can make things very uncomfortable around here."

"You can't possibly make things any worse for me," Maylow said.

"Is that a challenge?" Ganondorf asked with a grin.

"To what do we owe this honor?" Rigdar asked.

Ganondorf turned back to the others, releasing his grip on Maylow, who exited the room, shaking his head.

"There's one more who has yet to join us," Ganondorf said, "Wait until he gets here."

"No need, I'm here," said another, entering the doorway.

"I know you," Rigdar said as a dark elf entered the room, pulling back his hood, revealing an aged face and short white hair cut and shaped into a perfect flat top.

"Vargus, master rank ninja, your majesty," he said, bowing at the waist.

"That's right," Rigdar said, "I didn't get a chance to properly thank you after the battle."

"That is quite all right," Vargus said, "We were following orders."

"And you disappeared from sight to decide what to do next after Mur'neth's death," Ganondorf said, "So what have you decided?"

"We have decided that we shall respect Mur'neth's final wishes," Vargus said, "and we place ourselves at your disposal, your majesty. We are not frontline warriors or wall defenders, but when your enemies come, we can make ourselves a terror that strikes them from their weakest sides."

"I thank you," Rigdar said, "I certainly won't turn away help at this point, especially not after what you've already done."

"Very good," Ganondorf said, "Since that's settled, Vargus, I want your ninja to keep an eye on things around the castle, and keep me informed of anything unusual."

"Are you expecting something?" Richard asked.

"Tharkus' horde is defeated, but the man himself wasn't present," Ganondorf said, "I expect flesh golems in the form of assassins. He's just the type to try something when you'd least expect it."

"I'll set up patrols," Vargus said, "If you'll excuse me, your majesty."

"Do you need any of my men?" the king asked.

"Not at the moment," Vargus said, "Besides, rather than alarm anyone, we'll stay out of sight."

He bowed, then turned and walked from the room.

"They've always been a fun bunch," Ganondorf said.

"Was that all you were here for?" Ralthas asked.

"Well, if you'd like me to roar and maim something, I suppose I could," Ganondorf said, "But instead I'm going back downstairs to take another look at that seal and see if I can make any progress."

He turned toward the door, pausing to say over his shoulder, "One last warning to all of you: Don't discuss Kilishandra outside of my presence again. I won't regret it, but you will."

He exited, shutting the door behind him.

"I don't understand that man," Richard said, "Half the time, he's threatening us, yet is helpful."

"At this point, so long as he stays helpful, he can say anything he wants," the king said, "Ralthas, if you'll excuse us, I think I'm going to go get something to eat."

"Of course, your majesty," Ralthas said as the two of them rose.

Ralthas leaned back in his seat as they exited, sighing deeply. There was so much to see to, and the final count of surviving judges had finally been completed, simply because voice stones had received no answer, and he had simply had to give up on finding the others.

Other than himself, he knew of only two surviving judges after the initial battles, out of the original thousand. That simply wasn't enough to recruit more, let alone with the usual eighty percent attrition rate when they either fell short of ability or allowed the sudden great amount of power over other men to go too much to their heads.

His eyes fell on the small portrait he kept on his desk of his departed wife, and picked it up, looking at the face of the woman he had loved more than his own life. "It's over, Maria," he said, "The judges are finished, whether we win or lose."

He reached down the right hand drawer, opening it and removing a bottle of scotch, setting it on the desk. He set the portrait aside as he undid the cap, and took a deep swallow. "I never dreamed it would be during my lifetime," he muttered, "let alone so close to the end of it."

He lifted the bottle, as if making a toast. "I hereby swear to use my power to uphold the law, and protect the people of these countries, and the world, from criminals, from villains, and from themselves," he said, repeating the vow he had sworn so long ago, then chuckled bitterly, taking another long drink from the bottle.

* * *

Darius leaned in the doorway to the side chamber where Link was resting, and saw that he was still sound asleep on the makeshift bed that had been put together out of pillows from other chambers.

"He was even more exhausted than he thought," he said, "It's amazing he was still standing at all. He has an incredible will."

He turned away, back toward the chamber of sages in the center of the temple, and paused for a moment. "Maybe he can finish what I started all those years ago," he said, "if he can understand that sheer destructive force is only the basest form of the power of the Triforce he possesses."

* * *

Zelda could once again feel it, that sense of being out of place as she woke in a tent somewhere in a desert. She rose and dressed, exiting the tent to find the sun was setting. That was right, in the Gerudo desert, the climate was far too hostile, too hot during the afternoon, and too cold after midnight until morning.

The other members of her tribe were deconstructing their tents. It was time to move to the next oasis. But as she turned to take down her own, a scream of agony rose up from the far side of the camp. She turned, hearing pounding hooves and the sound of steel being drawn.

Women of another Gerudo tribe, on horseback, charged into the camp, wielding their scimitars and cutting down everyone within reach. Without thinking, Zelda stepped into her tent and picked up her weapon, a Hylian longsword, and emerged again. One of the riders veered toward her, raising her weapon up high.

Zelda struck upward, piercing through her abdomen and lifting her off the horse as it galloped past, and turned, throwing the woman from the blade into the sand. Zelda quickly turned as more bore down on her. A high pitched whistling split the air, and flaming arrows rained down on the camp, setting the tents ablaze.

Everything seemed to meld together, time racing past, and Zelda found herself on her hands and knees, one hand holding her side where she could feel her own blood seeping from a deep wound. She looked up to see a red-haired, dark woman standing before her, a drawn, bloody scimitar in her hand.

"And a stupid legend is all there is that says you will rule us all," the woman said, walking around to Zelda's side, "I will never bow to you."

The scimitar rose up, and came down, and Zelda felt a vicious pain slicing into her back.

She woke with a gasp. It took a moment to remember where she was, in the small farmhouse. It had been another dream, made of Ganondorf's memories. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they came in order, but this one was undoubtedly from before he had come to Hyrule, when he had been much younger. There hadn't been much detail this time, though, not like before.

There was no point in worrying about it right now, she decided, closing her eyes to go back to sleep, and only then realizing there was a warm form pressed up against her back. She lifted her head just enough to see, and realized that not only was Sheila pressed against her, the elf had inadvertently thrown one arm across the princess as she slept.

_Oh, lord,_ Zelda thought, _Well, at least it's warm. The fire must be out by now._

Trying to ignore the feeling of Sheila pressed against her, Zelda closed her eyes, and after a few moments, managed to sleep once more.


	76. Chapter 75

At the time I'm posting this chapter, I'm also updating my profile with information regarding why it took so long, and what's going to happen in the future with this story, rather than tack it all to the top.

**Chapter 75: The Calm Before**

Link woke as he always did, without the normal struggle to awaken as most people did, but instantly and completely awake. It was something one had to develop when sleeping in dangerous environments, as he often did the previous year, when his travels had been confined to simply Hyrule. Now, he rose to his feet in a place that so few mortals had ever seen, the Temple of Light's walls rippling with uneven, moving light that cast a blue hue over everything.

It was time, at last.

He picked up the sword he had made such a desperate effort to claim, and moved toward the chamber door. He was worse for wear after the trip here, his green tunic stained with blood, the chain mail he wore beneath it rusting, and both with numerous rips and openings. He was filthy, unwashed, his hair matted and nearly a week's wild growth of beard hid his face.

As he stepped from the chamber into the main passage that looped around the temple, the elderly woman who was the Sage of Spirit appeared at his side.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"I've never been more ready for anything," he said.

"Then come with me to the Chamber of Sages," she said, motioning him to follow down the hall.

The temple was not complex, the main passage forming a square, or possibly circle, around the Chamber of Sages in the center. Exact size was difficult to determine, the dancing light on the walls and floor making it difficult to judge distance accurately.

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" the sage asked as they turned the corner, toward the entrance to the chamber, "The Sage of Light believes you are putting your life in grave danger for no reason."

Images danced through Link's mind. Images of Midna, the time he'd known her. So condescending when they'd first met. He'd put up with her only because he had no choice at the time, he had needed her help to save the people close to him.

And yet, as time passed, and he learned more about her, he had softened toward her, and her to him. He could still remember that rainy night, trapped in the form of a beast by Zant, and she lay on his back, dying. He had ran like never before that night, until his body ached, his lungs screamed, and he'd been certain he'd collapse.

His effort hadn't been for nothing then, because Zelda had saved her, and then Midna had stayed with him, not simply for the sake of destroying Zant, but for his sake.

"I can't leave her there," he said, "I owe her too much."

"No one truly knows what happens to the soul after death," the sage said, "Not even we sages. What if she's not there?"

"She's there," Link said, clenching his empty hand into a fist, "She has to be."

They entered the chamber of sages, walking across the floor of light toward the center platform, where the other four sages waited. The woman took her place in the circle, one empty place remaining for the non-existent Sage of Water, and Link stepped into the center of the circle, facing Darius, where he waited, arms crossed across his chest.

"There's no way I can talk you out of this?" Darius asked.

"No," Link said, "Now, what do I need to do?"

"Then first, let me warn you about a few things," Darius said, "The Void is not as its name implies, emptiness. It is the space that exists between universes. Exactly how many there are is unknown, possibly too many for mortal minds to even fathom. In the Void is collected the, so to say, leftovers of these universes. The terrain will be extremely misshapen, and constantly shifts, making it impossible to map, and easy to become lost.

"Second, the interest Shaklator displays in you. I think it is extremely unlikely that she will try to kill you outright. If you can avoid a direct confrontation with her, all the better, but if you must face her, remember that the Void is not bound by the physical laws of other worlds. In truth, concepts such as breath, light and dark, and gravity hold no sway there. Any kind of physical boundaries mean nothing to those with strong enough will to overcome them."

"Mind over matter, huh?" Link said, "Anything else?"

"Before I show you how to enter, I want you to answer a question of mine," Darius said, "I've answered enough of yours, and you owe me this much."

"Fine. What is it?"

"Is it worth it?" Darius asked.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Link asked, "Of course it is!"

"Is that so?" Darius said, crossing his arms over his chest, "You're going to risk not just your life, but your very existence for the sake of a single woman, when it would be quite possible to send you back to where you belong from here. A battle awaits when you return, but I know from experience that sometimes one person is all it takes to change the course of events. What if you are that person, and you die in this attempt of yours?"

"The world doesn't rely solely on me," Link said, "The mere idea is ludicrous!"

"After everything you've seen, everything you've done, you still believe that?" Darius asked, "You don't believe that you've been chosen for a greater destiny?"

Link's eyes darkened. "Don't even start that with me," he said, "I'm getting tired of repeating this to everyone. No one controls my destiny but me. The choices I make shape my life, not the other way around. Fate and destiny are just words."

"So are justice and honor," Darius said, "Just words, unless people choose to believe in them. Do you reject them too? Do you believe the world would be a better place without such beliefs?

"The Twili do."

Link started to retort, then stopped and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Were you not paying attention?" Darius asked, "I told you, the Twili are descended from a shadow people I encountered entirely by accident long ago. They turned on me in the end, and everything I had done for them, so they could seize power. They cannot be trusted.

"Especially not their ruler."

Link knew Darius was trying to get under his skin, trying to convince him going was a bad idea, that Midna wasn't worth it. But he wouldn't allow himself to be dissuaded, not now, after coming so far. And he knew the man was lying. Maybe when he had first met Midna, he would have agreed, but he knew her better than anyone else alive, and there was no way she would betray him.

"Do not talk about her," Link said, his voice low, with a dangerous edge of controlled anger.

"Why are you angry?" Darius asked, "If I'm wrong, you've no reason to be so. Just tell me so. Or are you afraid that I'm right?"

Link's hand shot out, grabbing Darius' robe by the collar, jerking his face close to his own. The other sages were startled by the speed of the unexpected move, some crying out, and the goron Sage of Fire taking a step toward him. Darius lifted one hand, motioning them to be still.

"You do not know her," Link said, his face directly in front of Darius', his voice barely above a whisper, "Do not talk about her like this, or I will kill you. Do you understand? I. Will. _Kill you._"

It wasn't just his voice and the words, but looking into Link's eyes, Darius knew that this was no empty threat. Those deep blue eyes were hard as steel, and Darius felt as if he was looking into the eyes of a tiger, already crouched and ready to strike.

"You care about her that much?" Darius whispered, "But isn't there another? Someone else whom has given you their heart?"

"How do you know this?" Link demanded, trying to keep Ilia from entering his thoughts, which would only distract him right now, "How long have you been spying on me?"

"We sages watch Hyrule and its inhabitants," Darius said, "And we take special interest in those who bear the golden triangles. Your entire life is known to us."

Link pushed Darius back, releasing his grip on the sage's collar. "Then you should know well enough that you're just wasting both our time," he said.

"Yes," Darius muttered, adjusting his collar back into a comfortable position, "You're an unusual specimen. You have already done great things, and helped a great many people. Yet you have no loyalty to the common good, or your home country, only to the things that you believe are important. That you care about. You're incredibly selfish."

"And so are you," Link said, "You walked away from everything, even changed your name to escape your past, and rather than find a way to fix the problem you created, you just tried to hide it away and pretend it would disappear. And then you don't even have the common courtesy to die and make room for someone who could fix it, instead watching from this little temple of yours, watching the world spiraling downward, toward the exact same problem as before. I'm selfish, sure, I'll give you that. But you are not only selfish, you're also a coward. They called you a hero, but rather than clean up your mess, all you did was run and hide!"

"I'm trying to keep you from making the same mistake I did!" Darius said, "I couldn't do anything back then…"

"No, you wouldn't do anything!" Link said, "If this woman is so intent on killing everyone in the world, you should have found some way to put her down for good! Sealing her away was just a delaying tactic. You know it and I know it. You should have kept going, with that time, and found a way to get rid of her!"

"You don't understand," Darius said, sighing and looking at the floor, "I couldn't do it."

"You keep saying that," Link said, then stopped, realization dawning on him, the anger disappearing from his voice, replaced with surprise, "My gods. You loved her. Didn't you?"

Darius looked up at him, and merely sighed again.

"Even in the end, with so much on the line," Link said, "you couldn't bring yourself to do it."

"Put yourself in my place," Darius said, "And put your Midna in hers, and you'd have a comparable situation. Could you do it? Put her down, once and for all?"

"It's not the same," Link said, "She would never do such a thing. I know her."

"Like I knew Jazeira?" Darius asked, "I would never have believed she was capable of the things she did. Although, now that I think about it, maybe I've got the roles reversed. You, Link, are a lot like her. She was strong-willed, just like you. She was brave and stalwart, absolutely unshakable in her beliefs.

"She took Midna from you, just as Patrick was taken from her," he added, "If she could have brought him back, I'm sure she would have pursued it with just as much relentlessness as you now do. And you're playing right into her hands."

"So that was it," Link said, "When Midna went missing, I heard Shaklator's voice in my head. She said it would be a night to remember. She planned it like that."

"Yes," Darius said, "That's why you need to calm down and think about this. If you keep going…"

"I've already ruined her plan," Link said, interrupting him, "I remember. She tried to calm me down, before I blacked out and woke up here, and she was good and pissed that I was in this place at all. She's been trying to talk me out of coming here the whole time. That means I've got to be doing something right. She doesn't want me going into the Void. So one way or another, that's exactly what I need to do."

"I see," Darius said, considering this perspective, "Maybe you are right. I hope for your sake that you are. Very well. Are you ready?"

Link nodded. Darius glanced at the other sages and nodded once. As one, they lifted their arms into the air. The triforce symbol beneath Link's feet began to glow, almost blindingly bright.

"Understand this," Darius said, "Once on the other side, you will be entirely on your own. We cannot follow, nor see what transpires there. You will have to find your own way back, once you are finished."

"I'll worry about that when the time comes," Link said.

"Then we send you now," Darius said, "Good luck."

The sages gradually rose upward around him. No, Link realized, he was sinking. He looked down to see his own legs sinking into the floor as if it were water. It gradually rose past his thighs and over his hips, with no sensation at all.

* * *

At that moment, Ganondorf was in the hidden chamber beneath Darimar castle, standing near the center of the seal that blocked entry to the Sacred Realm, and tentatively probed it with small bursts of energy from his Triforce of Power, attempting to ascertain its weakness, or perhaps a gap, a way through. Link had managed to throw himself through it, right?

He was getting ahead of himself, he realized. There was a good chance Link was simply dead and gone, however Khall had managed it. His original intention of this entire theory to get him back was to simply calm the Zelda and the others down.

Was it a problem that he had started to believe it himself?

It was an intriguing change he noted in himself, he had to admit. The old Ganondorf would never have given a second thought to a potentially dead enemy. But for now, at least, they were allies, and there was no reason he could think of to not use his full abilities in that direction.

He knew it was Tharkus that had cursed Kilishandra to set her against him, but even so, he could never forgive Khall for allowing it to happen. As such, they and all who followed them were his enemies. And they had seen first-hand what he did to his enemies.

What truly intrigued him, however, was the fact that Kilishandra had spoke of his leaving them as if it were a betrayal. That he had known they were doomed and left them to their fate. If the blight had spread, covering the entire world, it would have been like a slow death sentence. But nothing he had seen while examining the blight at the Blasted Plains had indicated it even could spread. It had to have a driving energy behind it from an outside source.

Which meant that only Khall or Tharkus, or possibly both, could be responsible. The question wasn't who, though, it was why. Why engineer such a thing as an excuse to invade a parallel world, only to eradicate all life, as Tharkus had stated at the previous battle?

Ganondorf was starting to think it wasn't so much a logical reason as an emotional one. Men were not creatures of reason when affected by feelings such as anger, hatred, and even love. He had learned this the hard way that he himself was susceptible to such things as well, and continued to be, in spite of his best efforts.

But Kilishandra had changed all that. Though she didn't realize it, she had reminded him what it was like to be human, and to live for people other than himself.

She was in interesting case herself. She was a strong fighter, of course, talented sorceress, had a natural charisma, and easily slipped into the role of a leader with virtually no effort. Yet she preferred to follow rather than lead. That was why she had followed Khall and Tharkus, and when the opportunity had presented itself, she had attached herself to Zelda.

There was no doubt, if they all survived, and she was not given reason to null that agreement, Hyrule would benefit from a person like her as a knight, or possibly even regent. It was a question, though, that if he returned to Hyrule once more as a conqueror, then whose side would she be on?

Yes, whose side would she be on? If she stood against him, would it wound him as deeply as so long ago, when the woman he had given himself unconditionally to had turned on him?

But that was a long time ago, and no longer mattered. He chided himself for letting his thoughts wander so far, especially while toying with something as dangerous as this seal. He ceased his tests, turning and walking toward the outer edge, careful not to step on any of the lines.

So far, his efforts had been fruitless, but he was just getting started. Whoever had laid this seal didn't intend for it to be opened. Close examination had revealed that the lines were not simply drawn, as was usually the case. Chalk was often used for temporary circles, while some for of ink, or even blood, were used for much longer lasting circles. This one, however, was formed of silver, forged into the shape and laid directly into the floor before being charged with magic. Shielded from the elements as it was, this circle could last almost indefinitely, considering that magic didn't simply fade over time.

There were those who believed that magic was an rising and ebbing force, moving and rippling across the world like the tides, growing and fading over time, immune to efforts by man to either control or understand it. But then there were also people who believed if you stuck two fingers up your nose and blew, it would increase your intelligence.

While there certainly were locations that were much more saturated with magic, the Lost Woods in Hyrule being one example, it didn't move, fade, or grow. Magic was the constant in such a chaotic world, and while the process could be extremely tiring to the inexperienced, wizards did not create something from nothing with their spells, they learned to manipulate the energies around them. In locations with greater magical saturation, like the Lost Woods, they could create bigger spells than normally, but if their own ability was not great enough to control it, it could detonate, doing even more damage than intended, and potentially killing the very wizard who had attempted to cast it.

There were also certain areas with very little magical energies, or "dead zones" where magic was extremely difficult to use, if you could pull enough energy together to do something at all. This was one area where Ganondorf had learned that the Triforce of Power gave him an extremely unfair advantage, in that he could fuel his spells with its energy, rather than drawing on that around him, thus allowing him to use magic where others could not, or to increase the destructive force of his magic, though the process was even more tiring, and he couldn't manage more than two or three big ones before he was exhausted. But it still did not compare to the sheer power or exhaustion following directly unleashing its power.

The catch was the words of the incantations. He was convinced they were completely unnecessary, yet only the smallest of cantrips could truly be used without them. Maybe they helped with concentration, focus, and even confidence, but were such words truly needed? Maybe the magics that called upon existing spirits or even deities, but others? In spight of his best efforts, however, he had been unable to use powerful magics without the verbal component.

He turned back to the seal. He could figure it out and open it, given enough time, he knew. Problem was, "enough time" might be four or five months of constant work, tracing the lines to figure out how the energy flowed and correlated with the smaller seals to learn the order to open them. And that was if he rushed it.

If Darius' journal had any information about the seal, even a hint, it would speed things immensely. If not, then even if Link could be saved, he would have to sit out of events, most likely, or find his own way back.

Ganonorf snorted. As if Link could. He might be smart, but without a guide, he tended to stumble about blindly. Honestly, would he have found any of the temples in Hyrule without Midna's guidance? Maybe, but not nearly as quickly.

But once they had Link back, things would be back to the way they should, and when they got back to Hyrule…

"Are you that desperate?" Ganondorf asked himself, "Is some kind of grand showdown with that boy so important that it's all you can think about? What about after that?"

Beyond his immediate goals, he hadn't given much thought to what he intended to do with himself. Conquering the world? He didn't care about it anymore. He had toyed with an idea of taking the Triforce and then he would challenge the gods themselves, but thinking realistically, Zelda wouldn't give him hers, and there was no way Link would even consider it. And without one part given freely, the other would be forever out of reach.

"So, when this is over, what next?" he asked himself.

* * *

The sun rose over the small farmstead, the white snow shining in the morning light, the first clear day in nearly a week. The great dragon, Roxim, stood up, shaking the snow from his grayed scales, wincing as his hips popped loudly, and quickly checked to make sure no one had heard. Seeing no one around, he stretched his front legs out, his back popping loudly and repeatedly for several seconds.

He groaned against the small sparks of pain this ignited in his muscles. "When did I get so old?" he muttered to himself.

As a dragon, he lived much longer than humans and even elves, and had a good century or so left in him, he figured, but it was a saddening notion that after his death, there would be no true dragons left in the world. Just the small reptiles that were called dragons by people who didn't know any better. A dragon was a wise, majestic creature, that the people of old had respected and even worshipped as gods. There was nothing majestic about those other things, they were simply about twelve hundred pounds of flaming muscle powered by a brain the size of a walnut.

For several thousand years following the ancient war, he had searched the world for another of his kind, and found nothing. The age of dragons was long over, and when he finally passed, his kind would be nothing but a memory.

The door of the house creaked open, and he turned to see Kilishandra step out, closing it behind her, and adjusting the left shoulder strap of her breastplate as she moved out into the sunlight.

"Sleep well?" the dragon asked.

"Well enough," she said, not turning to look at him, "The others will be out soon and we can go."

"You've certainly got your mind focused on the task at hand," Roxim said, "Reminds me of a certain wizard I knew a long time ago."

"Is that so?"

"Yes," Roxim said, "So focused he was that he didn't realize that everything he cared about was slipping away, until it was too late. Are you going to do the same?"

She turned, looking up at him, for a long, silent moment, then sighed softly. "I already have."

"I see. I won't push further, then."

Kilishandra glanced toward the house, seeing no movement, the others not yet coming, before turning and moving closer to Roxim. "I do have a question for you, dragon," she said.

"And what would that be?"

"You said my father reeked of blood and death, and you would not carry him," she said, "At this point, I'm hardly any more innocent than he. Why will you carry me?"

"Because, you regret what you have done," Roxim said, "He does not. You are a good person in your heart, and are trying to make up for your mistakes, even though the ones you feel most guilty for are not truly your fault.

"I feel that you are trustworthy," he went on, "Men like Ganondorf are not. He seems to have very few ties that one could call 'loyalty.' While he shares a common foe with the rest of the world, I don't think he will turn on us, but as for afterward, I'm not so sure. Suffice to say, even I am not willing to let him stand behind me."

"That's rather extensive judgments for people you just met," Kilishandra said.

"I pride myself on being a good judge of character," Roxim said with a toothy smile, "Helps one live longer."

The door creaked open, causing them both to turn, to see Zelda and Sheila step outside, with Alex a few steps behind them. "Are we all ready?" Zelda asked as they moved toward Roxim and Kilishandra.

"Of course," Roxim said, "I think we can get most of the way there today, so we should get to Tyr tomorrow."

"Where's Sil?" Alex asked, looking around them.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when the dark elf tapped him on the shoulder.

"I was up early," she said to the others as he tried to recompose himself, "So I was looking around the area. Nothing important."

"All right," Roxim said, kneeling low so they could climb onto his back, "Let's get going."

* * *

Link wasn't sure how long he was in darkness. It wasn't a lack of light, but nothing to see. After some time, Link felt his feet touch the ground, and in a moment, he could see the earth beneath his feet, and like a circle of light, it gradually expanded outward, more and more becoming visible, then suddenly rising as walls, upward and to a ceiling.

Everything was blackened, as though flames had smothered it all, and only a few odd bits of color came through in small locations. Where there had perhaps once been carvings or images, only soot remained. Link turned slowly, seeking some form of opening, a passage or doorway, in the walls, and stopped suddenly, seeing what lay at the far end of the room.

"Midna," he whispered.

It was not as he had always seen her, but the true Midna, laying across a stone pedestal, her pale blue skin standing out clearly against the darkened environment, her green tattoos glowing faintly, and golden-red hair hanging over the side of the pedestal.

Link moved toward her, feeling almost numb. So long he had been fighting, so far he hand come, and there she was right in front of him. All he had to do was wake her up, and figure out a way out of this place.

He stood over her now, looking down at her, her eyes closed, as if in peaceful sleep. It was a beautiful sight, in truth, to see her laying there. He reached down to her bare shoulder, gently shaking her. Her skin was so soft to the touch, it made him feel somewhat ashamed of his rough, calloused hand touching her.

"Midna, wake up," he said, "Please."

Her eyes fluttered open, taking a moment to truly wake and see what was before her. She smiled slightly at him.

"I knew you would come for me," she said.

"I'd never leave you behind," he said, "Now, we need to get out of here…"

He was interrupted by a thunderous cracking noise, and nearly faster than his eyes could follow, the stone pedestal, Midna, and the entire back wall ripped away from him, flying into the open space beyond.

"No!" Link screamed, watching it go.

In the opening where the wall had been, now Link could see into the true Void. A sky of stars and nebulas was the background to network of interconnecting masses of rock, buildings visible on all of them, many on the sides or even upside-down, some floating sideways, other spinning in place.

"Shaklator," Link growled through his teeth, his hands shaking in a fury that would give even the bravest souls pause, "I swear to whatever gods there are, I am going to end you."

"_Come and do it then, Link,_" said the voice that was all too familiar now, not from inside his head as before, but from all around him, echoing eerily over the misshapen landscape, "_Come and save her, if you can._"


	77. Chapter 76

**Chapter 76:** **Desperate Struggle**

He was so close. He'd seen her. Touched her. And then she'd been pulled away.

Every great story and legend had a moment like then. When the hero would see his goal, his strength would be renewed, when he would save the distressed damsel and his righteous wrath would undo the villain.

In the distant future, when this story would be told as a legend, Link's fury would be described as righteous as well. But if the future storytellers could see what he was thinking, what he was truly feeling, they would have been shaken to their very core.

He was no longer thinking, simply reacting. He leaped from the shorn floor, falling to the ledge below. Even as his feet struck the stone, a strange light began to well up from beneath, rising into the air as a dark mist and shaping together into humanoid form.

After everything he had overcome, these minor obstacles did not even slow him down. Before they were fully shaped, he lunged forward, his blade cutting a wide swath, black ichor splashing across the stone as he moved rapidly forward. More and more began taking shape before him.

The ledge attached to a stone bridge between two of the large masses of stone hovering suspended in the empty space of the void, which Link took at a full run. Vaguely humanoid creatures, their flesh seemingly composed of the same black ooze now dripping from his sword, were coming from the far end.

With barely a break in his step, Link moved to the side as the first to reach him attempted to impale him with an arm shaped like a sword blade, and stabbed his sword into its side, pulling upward and slicing easily through its shoulders and out. It fell to the ground, splattering into a puddle, its body without bones or entrails, spreading across the stone.

The second raised its bladed arm high as it ran for him. Link sidestepped as the limb sliced downward, stopping to plant his feet, and then spun in place, lifting one foot into a back-kick to its mid-section, and sending it toppling over the side of the stone bridge. It did not fall downward, but continued drifting onward, out into the empty space beyond. As Darius had said, earthly rules such as gravity held no sway here.

He turned back toward the far side of the bridge, where five more of the creatures waited for him. He started running again, leaning forward, holding his sword out to his side, closing the distance rapidly as they began moving toward him.

Link's fighting style always impressed professional swordsmen, simply because of the fact it held no basic patterns, and was purely reactionary, adapting to a situation on the fly. Now, driven by rage and desperation, he was at the deadliest he had ever been. Not a single wasted movement as he moved into the group. Every swing was a killing blow, cleaving the first creature in half, below its armpits, and carrying to momentum of the swing directly into the second, lodging in its chest. He stepped around it, dragging the blade with him as the sword arm of a third whistled past his ear, turning toward it, his back to the other, hands over his head, and swung forward, ripping the blade upward through the second's head, arcing over into the third, which raised its arm to defend itself.

The mystic blade would not be stopped, cleaving directly through its arm and head. Link turned as the other two approached from his left side. He sidestepped toward them, before they could react, and swung his blade to the left as he turned, a wide arc that cleaved through both in a single swing.

The bodies dissolved into the black liquid that formed them. Link paid this no head, turning onto the path. The mass of stone before him was topped with a single large building, with stone carved stairs leading directly to it. He started upward, full knowing it could be a trap, but it may be where Midna was now being held. Had he been in less of a rush, he might have noticed the defaced statues on either side of the doorway, or even the Hylian royal family's crest on the worn door. The building was a temple, and as he stepped inside, he slowed to a walk at what was presented.

The entrance led directly into a chapel, where a priest would hold sermons. He would see the altar at the far end, as well as the podium when the speaker would be standing. On either side of the center walkway, there were masses of splintered wood that had once been the pews where worshippers would listen to the sermons. He came to a stop for a brief moment as he looked upward. Two large statues dominated the altar, extending to nearly the roof, and though efforts had clearly been made to make the statues outside and along the edges of the chamber unrecognizable, nothing had been done to these two, perhaps out of respect, or fear.

Eternity, the goddess of time, her hands holding the tome and quill with which she recorded all events, both mortal and celestial, and across the altar, her twin brother, Infinity, god of space, his cloak decorated with all the stars of the heavens. The teachings of Hyrule's church rarely touched on these two as objects of worship, but never denied they were the true powers of the universe. Even the golden goddesses responsible for the creation of life and the world obeyed the laws of the twins, their elder siblings.

Link only pondered a moment before he back searching for a way to the second floor. He had to search the building before moving on, or he might miss something or someone important. He found a side door leading to a flight of stairs going upward.

As he climbed, he was forced to pause a moment and listen. The silence, he realized, had been suffocating inside the building, except for his own footsteps and breath. Now, a faint sound in the distance perked his ear. Link knew his hearing was better than average, yet now he was forced to strain his ears, trying to locate the direction of the sound. It came clearer as he moved up the stairs, and as he emerged from the stairwell onto the second floor, he realized that it was a woman's voice. She was singing.

The hall only went left or right, and after pausing a moment to check the sound, Link turned to the left, walking softly, to avoid drowning out the soft voice. He was getting closer, but was unable to make out the words. They seemed to be in a language he had never heard before.

He moved further on, stopping at several doors to check inside, finding only empty rooms, before moving further on. Finally, at the end of the hall, he was sure he found the right one, turning the knob, opening it slowly as he peered around the wood. Seeing nothing, he stepped inside.

He found himself in a bedroom, that looked nearly identical to the one he had slept in back in Darimar. But the room was empty. He was certain he'd heard the voice from this room. There was a window in the far wall, past the bed. He moved toward it, leaning on the sill as he looked out.

"There's no way," he muttered.

Below him, he saw the courtyard of Darimar's castle, exactly the way he remembered. The outer wall was exactly thirty four feet from the wall of the castle, the gardens spread out below him, and further out, was the city.

He might have suddenly wondered if he had been dreaming all this, if not for when he looked up, seeing the strange, starry sky, filled with green and orange clouds, a sun far too close, and floating spheres of landmasses, decorated with buildings and ruins hanging at impossible angles.

He turned away from the window, walking back out through the door, to find himself on in the hall of the temple, but a hall that exactly resembled the castle passage he had become so familiar with.

Link's initial fury had subsided enough for him to realize that Shaklator was playing with him. She had something in mind for him.

"You may as well just tell me this game you have in mind," he said, "because I'm not falling for it."

"_No game,_" said the disembodied voice he had become all too familiar with, "_I think you may still be salvaged. All I need to do is make you understand a few pieces of information that others have been hiding from you._"

The color seemed to drain away from the walls. The stone had always been gray, but it seemed to lose all luster. The carpet along the floor, formerly Darimar's dark blue, the same as on its royal crest, faded and became almost black. Then people began appearing. Like the environment, they lacked color, being of a pale gray pallor, and not seeing him as they moved past.

"_Do you wonder how Khall captured Midna that night? Surely you must have, seeing as how she shared your bed, yet vanished without your noticing._"

The door behind Link had shut, and now he turned to see Midna, once more as an imp, emerge directly from the door, in a small burst of dark smoke as she passed through the relatively thin obstacle with ease. It was late at night now, and only a few guards on slow patrol and chambermaids were still awake.

Midna turned, moving past him without seeing him, down the hall, toward the stairwell.

"_Follow her._"

Link was already moving. She had come out of the room on her own, so Khall hadn't had to snatch her from the bed, so to speak. That alone helped explain quite a bit. She went up the stairwell, and Link moved quickly after her, and down the passage to emerge onto the second tier of the castle's roof.

She glanced to the sides, making sure no one was around, as Link watched, then something appeared in her grasp before his eyes.

The three fractured pieces of the fused shadow, which when attached to the final piece that she wore as a mask would transform her body into that of a gigantic beast, with many hands and arms, and capable of incredible destructive force. Link had known she still possessed them, but had never seen her use them since that day, when they had confronted Ganondorf in the throne room of the Hyrule castle.

Each piece, alone, didn't seem like anything more than an innocuous toy, but when all four were in close proximity to one another, they radiated energy that made one uneasy, and possibly even sick to their stomach. As they hovered before her hands now, they sent sparks of energy from one to another, reacting to the others' presence, as if desiring to become one whole form again.

"_Think about this for a moment, Link,_" said the voice, "_What she holds there is a power that the gods themselves sundered and hid away from mortal hands. Not to protect this power from abuse by mankind, but to protect mankind from it. She has had it in her possession, unchallenged, for over a year now. You know here so well, what is she thinking right now? Look into her eyes and tell me._"

He already was, and didn't want to believe what he saw. As Midna floated there, about a foot off the ground, the dark fragments of her people's ancient power in her grasp, was temptation. When she had used the power to kill Zant, destroying him with but a gesture, she had shocked even herself at the power she possessed.

He had never seen this look in her eye before. How had she kept it hidden for so long, from him especially? The fused shadow should have been hidden away once more, he realized. Power alone was merely corrupting, but this was power that, to some extent, was driven by its own sentience.

But even as he watched, her expression changed. The temptation faded from her eyes, replaced with denial. She closed her hands into fists, the three fragments shrinking and vanishing into her palms, to wherever she was able to hide the strange objects, and she took a deep breath, letting it out with a sigh.

Link smiled. "I see through your game," he said, "You're trying to sow doubt in me, but I know her very well after all."

"_But you saw it,_" came the reply, "_The seed of temptation is there, and once it is, it will never disappear._"

"Maybe so," Link said, "And that's why I will get her back."

How long ago had it been now? Nearly six months since they left Hyrule? The last night, as they had camped on the shore of Lake Hylia, when he and Midna had sat down and had a long talk about the situation, and themselves.

"I hope, that when this is over, you don't become as terrible as some of our enemies," she had said.

"I know you'll be there to keep me in line," he had said, "If I start to look more like a villain, just kick me in the head as hard as you can, and I'll snap out of it."

It seemed like so long ago at this point, yet he felt the weight of what he had said press down on his shoulders harder than ever. He looked down at the sword he held in his left hand, its blade stained with the thick black ooze of the creatures he had been killing, the glowing white of the blade marred and mostly hidden beneath.

And there, on his hand, glowing faintly, was the golden triangle that was as familiar to him now as his own heartbeat. He lifted his hand, looking down at it closely for probably the first time ever. He knew the stories and the legends of what it promised, and had unleashed but a small part of what it was capable of several times himself.

He knew what temptation was like. If he did start learning to control it, where would it stop? Would he still be himself, or would he become as obsessed as Ganondorf? He had thought he kept himself in check with an iron will, but now that he thought about it, it was because he feared alienating others by what he would become.

"She is what keeps me in check. I need her," he said, looking back up at the image of Midna, who was looking up at the sky, watching the stars in the night, "And she needs me."

In an instant, something shot from the dark, colliding with Midna, slamming her into the stone. It glowed brightly, even without the color it would normally possess. It was a net, wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her side. The same kind that had held her in check back in the forest.

Link looked up to see Khall and Tharkus moving toward her across the rooftop. He lunged for them, raising his sword and striking directly into Khall's chest, only for the blade to pass harmlessly through with no resistance.

These truly were merely images, nothing solid.

"_The nets that hold your precious Midna in check are enchanted by Tharkus to contain sunlight,_" Shaklator said, "_Though she now has an extremely high tolerance for the light of your world compared to the other Twili, she still cannot resist this level of concentration. While the net would be pleasantly warm to your touch, it is burning hot to her, and in addition to restraining her magic, blinds her while over her face. She's very fortunate. Any other of her kind would burn to death in just a few seconds._"

"Why are you telling me this?" Link asked, watching helplessly as Tharkus reached down and picked up Midna's struggling form, though nothing she could do would free her.

The images faded from sight, dissolving in to the background.

"_It's no fun to just tell you. Keep going, and you will find your answers._"

Color was gradually returning to the environment. Once more, Link could see the different shades of the stone that made up the rooftop upon which he stood. He turned, moving toward the door, and as he pushed it open to reenter the castle, he emerged on the second floor balcony of the chapel he had previously entered. The environment shifted again, and he wondered if it was natural, or if Shaklator had a hand in it.

He stopped, listening. He could hear the singing again, and it was much closer this time. He moved forward, to the edge of the balcony, looking down into the chapel, towards the altar.

He couldn't believe his eyes. There she was! Midna was seated upon the altar, leaning back against the back of the altar, where the symbol of the twin gods, a quill across a nine pointed star, was engraved.

She still sang in a language he did not know. It must have been the Twili's own language. He had never heard her sing it before, yet even in her soft voice, it sounded ominous. He realized there was someone else down there with her. Seated in a relatively undamaged pew near the altar. His back was to Link, so that he couldn't see who it was.

Not willing to risk the area shifting on him again, Link looked for a way down instead of going for the stairs. Near the side of the balcony, he found the remains of what had been a hanging tapestry, though now rotted beyond any reconcilability of the design. Taking hold of it in his right hand, he leaped from the balcony.

The cloth ripped under his weight, and he fell downward, slowed only by the fraction of time for the cloth to tear as it ripped a vertical line downward as he fell.

He landed on the floor with a loud crash, dropping to one knee to lessen the impact, and looked up toward the front of the chapel.

Midna had not moved, still leaning back against the altar, and the figure near her had not shifted either. Link picked himself up and walked toward the altar, moving slowly and gently easing down his steps onto his heel, then slowly letting his foot roll down to rest silently.

The figure was on his left side, putting him at a disadvantage if he had to strike quickly around the side of the pew, but he moved up closely behind it. He was nearly close enough to touch it, when it suddenly leaped upward. Link followed it with his head as it back-flipped through the air, over his head, landing on its feet behind him.

As the figure's face came back up, he smiled at Link, as Link realized the face looking back at him was his own. The match wasn't identical, though. The other bore silver hair, instead of Link's own brown, and while Link's eyes were blue, this one's were a dark purple. Other than that, they looked exactly the same.

"So you're Zero," Link said, leaning his weight onto his toes, ready to react, "I've heard quite a bit about you."

The other smiled, leaning down low, resting one hand on the floor as he watched Link.

"_You're not entirely correct,_" Shaklator said, "_While this bears the same image as Zero, it lacks one thing that Zero possesses. And that is a human soul. No Link, standing before you is what I now understand you fear more than anything in the world. Before you is the darkness within your own heart._"

"As if I'm falling for that," Link said, "There is darkness within all men's hearts. Only the weak and the foolish do not learn to control it."

"_True enough. I do not know what is within the darkest pits of your heart, what you truly desire there, so this game won't work if you're not going to believe it. But I have another challenge for you then,_" Link could almost hear the smile as she said this, "_Midna isn't going anywhere until she has finished her song, I'm afraid. All you have to do is protect her until then. Fail, and she will be forevermore beyond your reach._"

Without waiting for a response, the copy sprang toward Link, and as he lifted his sword to strike it down, leaped upward once more. Link turned as it sailed over his head, and reached upward. "No you don't!" he said, snatching it around the ankle and planting his feet. Its own momentum, combined with Link's downward pull, slammed it into the floor with incredible force, where it shattered into pieces, its arms and legs flying away from the torso, and the head rolling across the floor. There was no blood, but Link was coming to expect that in this place.

In the corner of his eye, he saw movement, and turned to see another copy of himself running from the side, toward the altar. Link moved quickly, stepping between them. This one was carrying a sword, and raised it to strike, and Link sliced upward as he stepped, and the sword, along with the copy's arm, fell to the floor. Without missing a step, Link brought his sword back down, cleaving through its chest, from shoulder to hip, the pieces falling to the ground with dull thuds.

Sensing another behind him, Link spun, and stepping up onto the altar, leaped across Midna's legs, coming down with a powerful swing that split the creature's head in twain.

There were more coming. He could see them approaching from the shadows lining the edges of the room. As he turned, he could see more and more of them. He turned to Midna, where she lay, with her eyes closed, still in the midst of her song.

"Midna!" he said, "Wake up! Please!"

They couldn't stay here.

With a thunderous crash, the back wall cracked open, caving inward, enormous blocks of stone spinning through the air over Link's head as he dove to shield Midna, and even as he moved down, he saw what was coming, and for a moment, time seemed to slow to a crawl as the realization of what it was dawned to his mind.

"Holy shi-" he started as the fist the size of a horse collided with him, the impact rattling his bones and sending him flying back through the air. He turned over in the air, getting his legs beneath himself, and dropping to one knee as he landed to lessen the impact, and still slid several feet back across the floor.

The giant hand opened, its enormous fingers turned down, and as Link screamed in protest, came down, raking across the floor, dragging Mida, altar and all, out through the hold it had created, leaving twelve inch deep grooves in the stone floor where the fingers raked.

Two of the copies leaped at Link, grabbing at his shoulders, but he stood, rushing forward, shrugging them off as their fingers gripped only his tunic, which tore easily, ragged strips coming off in their hands. He rushed toward the opening in the wall, stopping at the edge, looking outward.

Before him was the enormous figure of a woman. Standing at least forty feet tall, her body covered in plate armor the same dark red as blood, her hair a perfect match, and she smiled at him, her eyes nightmarish coal-black orbs with no retinas or whites, yet Link felt no doubt that their gaze was fixated directly upon.

"You lied to me!" Link shouted at her, "You said you would give me a chance to save her!"

"But I didn't say from what," Shaklator said, "You assumed it was the doubles of yourself. I told no lie, I merely withheld information you didn't ask for. And I am afraid that you have failed, most spectacularly."

Link glanced over his shoulder. The doubles were still coming, moving toward him from behind. He turned back to the massive being before himself. She was big, but he had brought down massive creatures before. It was just like the leviathan from the water temple in Hyrule. He just had to find a weak spot…

"You're still not giving up," Shaklator said, "So be it. You want to fight, and a fight you shall get."

She was moving away from him, floating back effortlessly. With his free hand, Link tore the scraps of his tunic away, to make sure the ripped pieces did not impede him. Worldly rules like gravity did not apply in this place, like Darius had said, and Link had seen it already when he had thrown the creatures from the bridge into the emptiness. He tugged on the neck of his chain shirt, adjusting the fit to a more comfortable position. He only had one shot at this.

Link took two steps back from the opening, then dashed forward and leaped from the edge as the doubles behind him snatched nothing but air. He was moving swiftly, and gripped his sword with both hands, pulling back to strike as his target came near.

Shaklator watched his approach, the dark orbs that were her eyes following his movement. As he drew closer, one hand came up, closed into a fist, her arm held across her chest. _I am such an idiot,_ Link thought, realizing he had taken one of the worst possible courses of action.

The enormous fist swung sideways, striking Link with a vicious backhanded strike. He was aware of three things following the blow. The first that every bit of him was in pain, and he wondered how many of his bones had been shattered. The second was that the stars he was seeing weren't just in his vision, but still the background of the Void, and they spun wildly before him as he spun end over end. The third was a cry of pain that wasn't his own. He had lost his grip on the sword and now, fighting against the pain, swung his arms, attempting to at least slow his spin so he could see where he was.

Only mildly successful, he was able to discern that he had been knocked directly back, toward the temple, and was headed directly toward the steeple on top. A long iron bar, part of a long decayed decoration, protruded straight up from the apex. Link reached out, and felt his hands contact the metal, and gripped down. His momentum nearly jerked his grip loose, but he held, and rode around the bar, swinging around a second time, swinging his legs forward to build more momentum, and released his grip, throwing himself directly back toward Shaklator.

He saw the reason for the scream now. His sword was lodged in the back of her hand. The blade had pierced her gauntlet with ease, and thick red liquid seeped from the crack in the metal. Shaklator's attention was on the blade, holding her hand where she could see it. Her right hand was still clenched tight around the prize she had snatched from the temple.

She looked up as Link came closer, but too late, as his hand closed over the hilt of the sword, jerking it from her hand on the way past, and collided with her, planting his feet on her chest, and with a roar, shoved the point of his sword into her flesh, just below the neck, between her enormous collarbones, and through the jugular.

Planting his feet on her armor, Link braced himself to pull upward, ripping apart her throat, only to be jerked away as her fingers closed around him and carried him back, and she held him out at arm's length. He managed to retain his grip on his sword, pulling it from her throat, blood running down her breastplate. Link reversed his grip on the sword, turning the point down, lifting it to stab into the hand that held him around the waist.

"You don't want to be doing that," Shaklator said.

Link looked up, amazed she could still speak. He realized that the wound he had given her had already vanished, though her neck was covered in blood, the wound had healed already. Not even Ganondorf could recover that quickly.

_That's right,_ he thought, _Darius told me the rapid healing tires her. I have to do enough damage to exhaust her to the point she can't heal herself._

"Remember what I have here?" she said, holding up her other hand where Link could see it. In the grip of the red-sheathed fingers, he could see Midna, "I should make you watch as I crush the life out of her."

The fingers tightened. Midna, previously still unconscious, jerked upright, her voice crying out in agony. "No, stop it!" Link shouted, turning toward Shaklator's face, and lifted his sword, in reverse postion, over his shoulder, and hurled it, point first, toward her, "I said stop it!"

The blade stabbed into her face, causing Shaklator to jerk back, and Link felt her grip around him loosen. He quickly pulled himself up, freeing his legs from her grasp, and running up the length of her arm. Her gaze turned toward him as he leaped off her bicep, toward her face. Her hand came up, rapidly toward him as he snatched the sword from her cheek, cutting a long slice in the process, spinning past her nose, and stabbed into the other side of her face, shattering the cheekbone and driving the blade in up to the hilt.

Her hand was coming, and Link quickly pulled the blade free, and slashed toward the hand, the unexpected move catching Shaklator, and with a scream, each of her fingers was a knuckle shorter, the pieces and trails of blood floating away into the emptiness.

The sword was clearly proving its worth, for a being so close to being a god it made no difference to a mortal fighter, she was proving extremely vulnerable to the glowing white blade. "I'll finish this now!" Link said, planting his feet on her shoulder, and with all his strength, swung the blade into the side of her neck. Far too wide to cleave in a single stroke, he stepped around, running down along the slope of her breastplate, evading her grasping hand, and with a second stroke, cut from the front to the back, and he heard the snap of bone as the blade snapped the vertebrae of her neck.

Blood was pouring from the slices, out over her shoulders and chest, washing over Link's feet, up to his ankles. The massive head fell back, away from him, spilling gallons of blood that floated in the emptiness.

"Link!"

Link turned to Midna's voice, seeing that Shaklator's grip on her had failed, and she slipped loose of the limp fingers. Link could see one of the blocks of landscape surrounding them behind her, and leaped from the shoulder of the decapitated giant toward her, catching her with his right arm on the way past. "Hang on to me!" he said, and she put one arm around his neck, turning to see.

As they drew closer to the island in the emptiness, Link was able to make out what looked like a field of wildflowers. He turned himself so that when they landed, he was on his back and cushioned the impact in grass and flowers nearly six inches tall.

Link looked back, toward Shaklator, where the body and head still floated, motionless, pouring more blood from the severed neck. He couldn't help but smile. "So that's it?" he said, "The sword really worked."

His attention was brought back when Midna wrapped her arms behind his head and lay down against him, resting her head next to his. "Thanks you, Link," she whispered in his ear.

He lay his sword aside, and placed his arms around her shoulders, holding her gently to avoid hurting her bare skin against his chain shirt. "It's all right," he said, "It's over now."

Just having her close to him again felt like he'd found a missing part of himself. He let out a ragged, tired sigh, feeling as though he was about to cry. _The worst is over,_ he thought, _Now, we just have to get back and deal with Khall._

High above them, among the starry background, in two places, the stars began to vanish, as holes in the blackness opened and spread, and the eyes of Shaklator looked down upon them.

_

* * *

_

"There it is!" Roxim shouted over the rushing wind, "See it on the horizon?"

Atop the dragon's back, Zelda, Kilishandra, Sheila, Silviana, and Alex strained their eyes, and were able to make out the silhouette of the city of Tyr against the sunset. The towers of the Academy of Magic rose high over the city, the clearest marker in the fading light.

"We're almost there," Zelda said, "If we move quickly, we should be on our way back by morning."

Thought they did not realize it, just as with Link, sinister eyes were watching them at that moment. From a balcony on the academy's south side, Zero leaned against the side of the doorway, watching the dragon, growing closer.

"They're here," he said, "And one of them will be able to open that blasted vault."

A smile appeared on his face. "I dearly hope Kilishandra is with them. I owe her a great deal of pain."


	78. Chapter 77

Been a while, huh? Regardless of how long it takes, I will finish this thing. Sorry it sometimes takes so long. Had a case of writer's block with this chapter, but I'm very pleased with the end result.

**Chapter 77: Chills of Ice and Fear  
**

"Dear gods, look at that."

As the dragon descended toward the city, the sight that greeted the small group was something even more horrifying than a bloodbath. The walls of the city, the buildings, and streets were all covered in ice, which glinted at them in the fading evening sunlight. Roxim set down just inside the city, in the center of the street.

The people were all still there, along the sides of the streets, horses and carts in the streets themselves, all covered in a thick sheet of ice, completely immobile. After slipping down from the dragon's back, Zelda moved over to one, and felt a shiver go down her spine as she saw the flesh within one of the statues of ice, turned pale blue, eyes still open, staring lifelessly back at her.

"It's like something straight out of a nightmare," she said, looking up the street, seeing only more of the same ahead of them.

"This was Khall," Kilishandra said, walking slowly up the icy street, to avoid slipping on the ice, "It has to be."

"If he could do this, then why the war?" Sheila asked, "Why not simply do this to every kingdom?"

Kilishandra turned to her. "The Glacier spell is extremely tiring," she said, "Just like with all magic, the more powerful it is, the more it drains from the caster. Even more so with him, considering his illness. It would be weeks before he was able to do so again."

"Khall's sick? You didn't mention that," Silviana said, leaning close to a shop window to see through the sheet of ice to the inside. Even the inside of the building was covered with ice, and shadowed shapes of statues that had once been people were visible within.

"I didn't know until recently," Kilishandra said, "Using magic is especially straining on him. It seems to be connected to the spells he has used to extend his life beyond normal human limits. Though he retains his youthful appearance and strength, his health is deteriorating. In any case, he wouldn't be able to do this to Darimar. The city is simply too big."

"Would you mind if we talk about this later?" Sheila asked.

"Yeah," Alex said, rubbing his arms against the cold, "Like after we get out of here?"

"What's the matter?" Silviana asked, "You cold?"

"Cold? We hang around here much longer and I'm gonna have icicles hanging from my hair," he replied.

"Wimp," she said, pulling her cloak tighter about herself.

"I'm afraid this is as close as I can get you," Roxim said, "The roof of the academy might work, but I'm not sure it will stand up to my weight, with the ice and all."

"The vault containing Darius' journal is in the basement," Sheila said, "It would hardly do to bury it under several tons of rubble."

"Yes, and the rest of the streets get more and more crowded as we get further in," Roxim said, "No safe place for me to make a landing. I'll keep an eye on you from the air, though."

"Well, let's get going," Zelda said, "While we still have some light. As cold as it is now, it's going to be downright freezing when night falls."

"Hey," Alex said as the group started down the street, "Are we even going to be able to get into this vault, if everything's covered with ice?"

"Ice can be broken, or melted, whatever the need be," Kilishandra said.

"Yeah, I'm just wondering," he said, reaching out to touch one of the frozen people as they passed by, "This stuff just seems like it's several inches thick, and ice is pretty tough like that."

There was a loud snap as the arm of the frozen statue came off in his hand. He cursed loudly, dropping the limb, which clattered loudly on the ground, sliding down the street, spinning slowly.

"Nice," Sheila said, "Any other bodies you would like to desecrate?"

"I didn't know it was that brittle!" he retorted.

Zelda sighed, trying to block them out as she kept her eyes forward, scanning the road ahead, and the streets they passes, watching for any sign of movement. The evening shadows were slowly lengthening, and making her nervous.

"You look uncomfortable," Kilishandra said, moving up beside her.

"To tell the truth, I am," Zelda said, "I'm afraid this is the part that I always relied on Link for. He was the experienced adventurer and explorer. He'd know what to watch for right now. Every shadow here makes me nervous."

"I don't think there's anything alive here," Kilishandra said, "I think we're safe, relatively speaking."

"I don't think I'll sleep well for weeks," Zelda said, glancing at a statue of ice as they moved past.

The group moved on, and Roxim launched himself into the air over the city. Every now and then, they would see him pass by overhead as he slowly circled the city. They moved further into the city, passing by more and more of what had once been people, and horses and carts along the streets. Zelda felt her stomach turn when they passed what had clearly been a group of children.

"Damn," Alex whispered, "And I thought what they did to Metallicana was bad."

"How is this really any worse?" Silviana said, "Everyone is dead, and the city is effectively razed. There's no telling how long this magical ice will last, so it's impossible to bring people back here."

"What I mean was more like, how could they do such a thing?" he said.

Silviana looked down at her white outfit and sighed. "I'd need a dark shade of blue to blend in here," she muttered, "I feel so exposed right now…

"Anyway," she added, "You'd be surprised what people are capable of when it comes to winning a war. After all, history is written by the winner. So whoever wins will surely be the 'good guys.' What's sad is that winning a war only comes from one side victimizing the other."

Alex looked at her from the corner of his eye. "I don't get you at all," he said, "One minute you seem half crazy, and now you're talking like that…"

"I'm just saying there are two sides to every story," she said, "I agree, this is an appalling sight, what's been done here. But Khall might have seen it as the only way, that the ends justify the means, you know?"

"No ends justify the slaughter they made me commit," Kilishandra whispered.

Zelda glanced at her, but said nothing. It was likely she was the only one who heard the statement. More and more, she felt her trust in the woman had been well placed, though she did wonder how a man like Ganondorf could have raised such a loyal and honest woman.

Sheila hugged her cloak tighter about herself as they walked. A breeze was coming up as the sun sank below the western wall, but that was not the only chill running through her. The last time she had been here, that fateful night that started her adventure with Link and the others, the city had been so full of life, now, as she walked past the remains of that light, she felt as if someone had taken hold of her heart and was squeezing. She felt uneasy, but it bordered on physical pain. This was the city she had grown up in, this was her home, and to see it like this now was unbearable.

She turned away from a statue that had once been a little girl, no more than six or seven years old, looking up at the academy, drawing closer in the distance. Its walled glistened in the fading light. To think a wizard would be capable of something like this was itself a shock to her system. Power like this had long since faded from mankind's grasp, and now, to see so many appear at once that wielded the same, if not greater power than those of old was unthinkable.

And yet, Ganondorf had used the Senan Serat to destroy the flesh golem outside Darimar, she was sure of it. The very same spell that Darius, the greatest wizard the world had ever seen, had failed to control, its power exploding over what had once been tropical forests, and burned them away, creating what still remained known as the Desert of Death, where nothing could survive.

In the past few months, the world as she had known it had turned upside down. She looked up at the twin towers of the academy, drawing closer as they were only a few streets from the gates, and stopped, pausing to look more closely.

It was gone, but she could have sworn she saw movement on one of the upper balconies.

"I don't think we're alone here," she said.

Alex and Zelda turned toward her, while Kilishandra, one hand on her sword, paused to look down a side street. "What did you see?" Zelda asked.

Sheila looked up at the tower again. Whatever it had been was gone now. "I'm not sure," she said, "It was up there, too far away to see clearly."

As all eyes turned upward, they stopped walking and fell silent, searching for whatever she had seen. The silence of the city around them seemed to press in. "If it's in the academy, we'll just have to be careful," Zelda said, and started walking again, "Let's keep going."

Kilishandra watched the towers for a moment more, as the others moved past her. Even if he did this alone, there was no way Khall would have remained here, she knew. Tharkus wouldn't be caught in the open like this, he was too smart for it. Anyone else, and they'd have encountered a group by now.

There was only one person, no, _thing_ that it could be.

* * *

Link and Midna lay where they landed for some time, and he watched the body drifting among the stars high above them as she rested her head against his shoulder, while he had one arm around her.

He'd fought gigantic foes before, but nothing like that. And the body drifted through space, unmoving, he reassured himself that the sword he'd retrieved had done its job. And yet…

"It was too easy," he muttered.

"What?" Midna whispered.

"Her… That thing," he said, "She was a goddess, or close enough to it. That can't have been all there is to it."

Midna turned, looking up at the body. "Looks dead to me," she said, and reached one hand across Link's chest, and held him gently, "You're just exhausted, and nervous. No one could blame you."

Link took a deep breath, and let it out with a sigh. "Yeah," he muttered, "You're probably right. I guess it just bugs me that I never actually found out what she wanted from me. Anyway, we need to start looking for a way out of here."

He sat up, removing his arm from her and gently shrugging hers off himself. He felt one of her hands catch his shoulder. "Wait, Link," she said, "Before we do anything, you need to rest. You're not going to do anyone any good if you collapse."

"That's the strange thing," Link said, "Ever since I woke up in the Sacred Realm, I haven't needed rest, except for after the time I used the Triforce. I can keep going."

"You might not feel it, but it shows," she said, "You've got bags under your eyes the size of my thumb, and are moving much more slowly than usual."

"I am?" he asked, "That's weird, I feel fine."

She moved close behind him, wrapping one arm over his shoulder, around his neck, hugging him gently. "The world can wait a day or two," she said, "It's not going to fall apart without you. And I won't let you fall apart for it."

"Yeah," he said, "Yeah, you're right. I could use a day off. Let's just move someplace that we can't see that thing floating up there."

"Of course," she said, "I know just the spot."

Link didn't see it because she was behind him, but a smile flashed across her face, and for one brief instant, her red eyes glazed over, becoming completely black voids, returning to normal a few seconds later.

* * *

"We are definitely not alone here," Zelda said as the group passed the outer wall, toward the entrance to the academy.

The shattered ice and doors hanging off their hinges, leaving the entrance to the academy wide open, were all the evidence needed. Kilishandra and Alex drew their swords, stepping ahead of the group, through the open doorway, one just a few steps behind the other, and turning to the sides, taking in the entrance hall around them.

"Check all the corners," Kilishandra said, "Every shadow could be a hiding place."

"We could use some light," Alex said.

Sheila moved forward, and lifted one hand, a small globe of light springing to life above her palm. The light reflected off the icy walls and floor, dancing before the eyes in a mesmerizing pattern. Sheila looked around the hall, noticing that many passages were completely iced over, while other stood open, frozen statues halfway through the doorways, and others throughout the room, their shadows seeming to move under their own volition as she moved the light in her hand.

"A fight in here would be ugly," Alex said, "Ice makes for poor footing."

"Which way do we go?" Zelda asked Sheila.

"Well, it would be that way," she replied, pointing to the passage on their left, which was completely blocked with ice, "But there is another way around we can take, if it's not blocked off."

She motioned directly ahead, toward the main hall from which the rest of the building's network of passages was accessible. "Through the library and a few of the classrooms."

"All right, let's go," Zelda said, "Lead the way."

Sheila moved past Kilishandra, toward the main hall passage. The others fell in behind her, but as they moved from the circular entrance hall, she felt a chill, not from the cold, but the sight as they moved forward. She had expected it, after what they had already seen, but to actually see it was something else altogether.

The main passage was full of icy statues that had once been the students and instructors of the academy. Nearly wall to wall, shadows danced eerily as dozens upon dozens of bodies filled the passage ahead. She slowed as she stepped between them, trying not to touch any of them.

"Careful," Silviana said, appearing from around one in front of her, causing her to have to stifle a scream, which turned into a loud squeak that echoed off the icy walls. When it had died away, Siliviana added, "I was going to say, this is a good place for an ambush."

"Would you please not do that?" Sheila hissed, "You're going to give me a heart attack!"

"Keep moving, both of you," Kilishandra said, moving past them, having to turn her large frame sideways to slip between the statues, "Let's get in and out of here as fast as we can."

"Now that I agree with," Sheila muttered, resuming her winding path through the bodies.

The passage at least opened into the main hall, a large circular room at the center of the academy. It was not as crowded with bodies as the passage, but many still littered the chamber. Sheila paused a moment to get her bearings. It seemed like an eternity since she had last been here, and the horrific atmosphere didn't help matters. "Left," she said, pointing to the passage on the left hand side, "Down the hall, fifth door on the right."

It all looked the same, as they moved down this passage. Ice over everything, frozen statues of what had been living people some time ago. Sheila stopped them before the fifth door, where there should have been a set of square double doors across the entry. Instead, they lay on the floor just inside the library, among wooden splinters and ice shards. Smaller strips of wood still clung to the hinges, ripped away when they had been smashed down.

"Whoever is in here was definitely headed for the vault," Zelda said.

"Yes," Kilishandra said, leaning down to look more closely at the doors in the dim light, "What's troubling is that there was there was no magic involved here."

"What do you mean?" Zelda said, moving next to her.

"Look," she said, pointing at the doors, "You can see the indentation of the impact point. With all the broken ice around here, the door had to be frozen shut. There's not enough room to wield a battering ram in that hall around all the frozen bodies, but any kind of magic used to open it like this would have melted the ice and left scorch marks of some sort, or if they'd used a spell of dense air, the doors wouldn't have fallen down, they'd have shattered to splinters."

Silviana ran her hand down one of the strips handing from the hinges on either side of the doorway. "What kind of creatures has the strength to do this then?"

"I can think of two, one of whom is on our side," Kilishandra said, looking up, and saw Sheila moving away from the group, looking between the icy bookshelves that towered up to the ceiling, "Don't get too far ahead. It is most definitely not safe here."

Sheila turned back, only to be stopped as from the darkness between the shelves, hands snaked out, one wrapping an arm across her shoulders from behind, the other holding a knife that glinted in the light from her palm, the tip pointed directly at her face. "Oh, if you only knew," said a voice in her ear.

"I knew it," Kilishandra said, standing up, "It's Zero."

"That's Zero?" Zelda whispered.

She had seen the sketch Ralthas had shown them all, heard the story, but she realized that she hadn't truly believed it until now. In the dim light, he was unmistakable. The features were all the same, except for the hair, which was a silver gray.

"He looks exactly like Link," she said.

"No," Silviana said, slipping her elbow blades from the holsters along her thighs, and turning them over to lay flat against her forearms, "Look into his eyes. He looks nothing like Link."

She was right, Zelda realized, looking past that sinister smile into those blue eyes. When you looked Link in the eye, you never forgot what you saw there. You saw someone that could not truly be controlled, yet could be trusted. A courage tempered with wisdom. And you saw an unmistakable nobility.

Zero's eyes were like a wild, feral animal. Zelda could tell immediately that this man was extremely dangerous and unpredictable. "Sheila, stay calm," she said, "Don't move. Let's not do anything rash."

"Very smart one, you are," Zero said, "But I do need this one alive, so she's in no danger so long as none of you do anything stupid.

Sheila wasn't reassured in the least by this. She realized she was trembling, and her heart felt like it was beating itself against her rib cage. And all she could do was stare at the knife blade pointed at her face, shining in the dim light. This was the first time she had ever had a weapon pointed at her in such a way, and the terrifying thought that kept shooting through her mind was that it was also likely the last.

Zelda could sense Sheila's fear, the empathy granted to her by the Triforce of Wisdom letting feel it as if it was her own. She took a deep breath, steeling herself. She couldn't let Sheila's fear overwhelm her as well. The others around her provided rocks she could grab hold of, and calm herself. Alex was nervous, but steady. He wasn't sure what to do, and was waiting for a signal from someone else. Kilishandra was as solid as she had expected, feeling not fear, but frustration and anger. But Zelda nearly gave herself away when she realized she could sense nothing but calm from Silviana. The dark elf gave off no heightened emotion whatsoever. It wasn't the same as Link and Ganondorf, she could sense nothing from them, most likely because their Triforces made them invisible to hers. But this, it was unnatural to be so calm right now.

"Hello there, Kilishandra," Zero said, his smile turning into a sneer, "Didn't think you'd be seeing me again, did you?"

"I knew I would," she replied, "I had just hoped it would be a bit longer."

"It might be, depending on what happens here," he said, "Now listen very carefully, because your lives all depend on it. I need something from that vault. I understand that little lady elf here is the only one among us who knows how to open it. All I need is for her to be breathing and conscious enough to do so. Beyond that, her condition is irrelevant. You are all going to stay right here while she and I go for a little walk. If any of you try to follow us, you'll regret it."

"You wouldn't dare hurt her," Alex said, "Not if you need her."

"You'd be surprised what a person can live through," Zero said, taking a step back from them, and Sheila was forced to step back with him, "Now, we're going. Be good children, and we'll be back shortly."

"Just do what he wants for now," Zelda said, then said louder, "Sheila!"

The elf looked up from the knife blade toward her, as if breaking out of some kind of trance. "It's going to be all right," Zelda said.

They vanished around a bookcase, and their footsteps faded further and further away as the group waited. "Well?" Alex finally asked, and when Zelda looked at him, went further, "We're going after them, right?"

"Of course we are," Zelda said, "But wait a few more minutes. She needs to be out of his grasp before we start going after him."

"And how is that supposed to happen if we don't do it?" Alex asked.

"Look around you," Kilishandra said, "The elf girl is already gone."

He did look, and true enough, Silviana, in her way, had slipped away from them, into the shadows. "Okay then," Alex said, "So we're waiting for some kind of signal then?"

Zelda wasn't paying attention to him. "So that's Zero," she said more to herself than the others, "He looks just like Link, but one look at those eyes and you know they're nothing alike. And yet, I couldn't sense anything from him."

"What do you mean by that?" Kilishandra asked.

"Oh, I thought I told you," she said, "I possess a form of empathy, and can sense emotions from others. I couldn't feel anything from Zero. The only ones I can't sense from have been Link and Ganondorf, because they have a form of protection, I believe. But Zero, how can I say this, it's like having an extra sense that has always been even more reliable than sight or hearing, yet while those two say he is there, this extra, more reliable sense, is essentially telling me he doesn't exist. Or that he's not actually alive."

"He isn't," Kilishandra said, "I suppose I should have warned you earlier. I'm not sure what he is, but his body is that of a flesh golem. He's immune to all physical harm, and is stronger than all of us combined. And considering what I did to him last time, he seems to be tougher than flesh golems are normally."

"Where could such a creature have even come from?" Zelda whispered to herself, "His very existence defies nature…"

"Skip to the end," Alex said, "How do we kill him?"

"Normally, flesh golems must be completely destroyed with magic," Kilishandra said, "If even a single piece of his body remains, it will regenerate by feeding off the blood and flesh of corpses and small animals, and even people, if possible. And something big enough to destroy him, given his unusually tenacity, will likely bring this building down on top of us."

"That would be bad," Alex said, glancing up at the ceiling, which was too dark to see.

"That might be it," Zelda said, "If we can't destroy him, we might just have to try to bury him alive."

* * *

"Good thing you're not fighting me," Zero said as he pushed Sheila ahead of him, one arm still around her neck, though he had put away the knife.

Sheila was calming down, finally, and trying to get her thoughts to line up in a cohesive manner in her head. "You want me to open the vault?" she asked, "That's it?"

"That's all," Zero said.

"What makes you think I know how?" she bluffed.

"Please, I know who you are," he said, "Your picture was in the Archmage's office, along with information, sorted rather neatly with the rest of the students who had been in attendance here. You are the High Elder Sheila Anthress, a position that in actual influence and power means extremely little, but in terms of public face and knowledge means a great deal. Well, not for much longer, considering the way four of your five kingdoms have gone."

He turned her down a hall to the left. He knew where he was going, so unfortunately, it was clear he had already found the vault entrance, but hadn't been able to enter. "Now," he said as they walked, "My little angel that is guiding me, or likely devil from your perspective, has warned me that there is a protection on the vault besides just the locks. So you're going to shut that down, too."

It struck Sheila like a lightning bolt to her brain. Of course, the purge! The vault had a last defense, a sort of trap, from ages past. From the outside, it was possible to activate a spell that obliterated everything alive within the vault. She could open it, let him go in, then lock him in and activate it. There wouldn't even be ash left afterward, so thorough it was.

She only had to cooperate until that point. "Yes," she said, "I can do that."

"And here I thought you would take some convincing," Zero said, "I guess you value your health."

Just stay calm, she told herself. If he intended to kill her, he'd have already done it. Her heart was finally starting to slow when his face suddenly exploded, a steel blade erupting through it as his grip on her failed and he collapsed forward, past her. She took an instinctive step backward as the blade struck into the floor, pinning Zero's head down.

Holding the grip of the blade that had pierced directly through his head was held by Silviana, who had landed on his back, her weight slamming him forward.

A shiver went down Sheila's spine as Zero's arms moved, pushing up from the floor as Silviana jerked the blade from his head, and moved toward her, grabbing her arm in her empty hand and whispering, "Let's go. Now."

Sheila pulled back. "No, this way," she whispered, pointing to the doorway, "We need to get to the vault. I can put this guy down for good."

Zero pulled his head up from the floor, the hole in his face receding as his skin flowed, almost like a liquid, back into place.

"Fine," Silviana said, "Come on."

The two moved for the doorway toward which Zero had been ushering her, Silviana pushing it shut behind them, and spying a nearby beach underneath a window overlooking the courtyard, moved to it, motioning Sheila to help. With a few sharp pulls, and a stout kick from Silviana, the ice rooting it to the floor shattered, and the two quickly drug it over in front of the door, tilting it to wedge under the knob.

The two moved quickly down the hall, as fast as they dared on the slippery floors. There was a loud crash behind them, and Sheila turned to see wood splinters and ice shards flying through the air as Zero stepped through the smashed door, and broke into a run for them.

"This way," Sheila said, quickly moving to a side door that was not frozen over and stepping through.

Once Silviana was in, Sheila pushed the door shut, turning the latch.

"You just locked us in a dead end," Silviana said, turning to glance over the bedroom with no outer windows.

"Before I was the high elder, I was a student here," Sheila said, moving to a bookcase across from the bed, "After that, I was a teacher for a while. The ice isn't too thick, help me move this."

By planting her blade into the ice at the point the bookcase touched the wall, the two were able to lever the bookcase out as the ice snapped and crackled to the ground, revealing the passage behind. They stepped in, and pulled the bookcase back as best they could, just as they heard the latch of the room's doorway rattle. They moved quickly down the passage as the resounding crash of the door being smashed filled the room.

"He's just going to find us," Silviana whispered.

"Keep going," Sheila whispered back," Just up ahead, I can buy us some time."

The bookcase wasn't slid back, but crashed loudly as Zero's inhuman strength smashed it into the opposite wall. "Run all you want," he shouted at them, "You've got nowhere to go that I won't find you."

Sheila watched the wall, trying to stay focused as his footsteps started up the passage toward them, hoping her eyes were well adjusted enough to the dark to see what she was after. She was starting to think she missed it, panic rising up when she spotted the notch in the wall, and hand turned crank, and reached quickly for the release.

"Help me!" she said to Silviana, "The latch is iced up!"

Silviana stabbed her weapon into the ice under the latch, and levered it up. There was a crack in the ice followed by a loud crack as the latched released. Chips of ice poured from the ceiling behind them as iron bars crashed down, a gate blocking the hall.

Sheila smiling, looking back, and was unable to see anything beyond the bars. The two kept moving a little further, the passage closing off, and the two of them pressed against the wall, the ice splintering as the bookcase coving this entrance toppled forward with a loud crash.

Sheila looked back, pausing a moment to conjure a globe of light in her hand, squinting against the sudden light as she looked up the passage.

Zero looked at her through the iron bars. There was something wrong. As she watched, he moved forward against the bars, they dented into his flesh. She cringed as the skin of his face parted and rejoined on the other side of the bars.

"Dear gods," she whispered.

He suddenly halted, pushing forward, but something was holding him back. He reached over to the shirt he wore, ripping it from himself with a loud tearing noise, then did the same with his trousers. The rest of his body then began to pass over the bars just as easily as his head had. A smile appeared as he stepped directly through the bars toward them.

"Stop staring like an idiot!" Silviana said, grabbing Sheila's arm and dragging her toward the door.

Silviana kicked the door, smashing the ice over the latch and sending it crashing open. The two moved into the hall, and Sheila quickly started in the direction of the vault. She realized that up to this point, she had never known what true fear was. Sure, she had been scared times in her life, but nothing ever like this. Pursued by a monster that they couldn't outrun, couldn't stop, and couldn't even slow down. It was like a pick of ice boring directly into her chest. Her heart was beating wilding, and her hands were shaking. In spite of the cold, she was sweating intensely.

The vault was their only hope.

Zero emerged from the doorway to the room behind them. He smiled to himself. They were still headed in the right direction, so all he had to do was herd them there. He started up the hall after them, almost wishing they would make it more difficult.

The windows on the left side of the hall were frosted over, but he spotted the movement outside, turning just in time to see the window smash inward, glass and ice raining down as a figure landed on the floor, and steel sang out as it drew a sword.

Alex looked at Zero as he stood up and the creature turned toward him. "Okay pal," he said after seeing Zero's naked form, "I'm not sure what you want from those girls, but you're not getting it."

Zero grimaced and gave a small grunt, turning completely toward Alex. Alex rushed forward, shouting, his sword high, and struck downward. Zero's left hand came up, and met the blade as it cleaved into his flesh, yet no blood erupted, and no cry of pain issued from Zero.

Alex looked at where the blade had stopped. It had cut between Zero's second and third fingers, into his palm, where it lodged. "The hell?" he said as the flesh reformed around the blade, holding it firmly in place.

Zero moved in, with a low punch that struck square in Alex's stomach, doubling him over, and he lost his grip on his sword as Zero pulled it to the left, away from him. The wind knocked from him, Alex stepped back, fighting to regain his breath, then moved forward quickly, striking with a left handed punch into Zero's stomach, followed by a right with everything he had directly into Zero's face. The counter came out of nowhere as Zero dealt a backhand strike under Alex's right armpit that send his flying several feet through the air to crash onto the icy floor and slide down the hall.

He looked up to see Zero turning toward him, and swore again in disbelief at the dents in Zero's flesh that his punches had left, which slowly vanished as his flesh returned to its original form. Zero took hold of the sword with his other hand and pulled it from his palm, then tossed it casually onto the floor, sending it sliding toward Alex.

"Pick it up, hero," Zero said.

Alex rose to his feet, picking up the sword, waiting for Zero to strike. "You're not like any golem I've ever seen," he said, "What the hell are you?"

"Don't insult me by comparing me to one of those machines," Zero said, and spread his arms wide for emphasis, "I am the first of a brand new species. Soon to be the dominant species of this world."

"Yeah, and I'm the queen of fairies," Alex said, smiling.

Zero saw the smile, and wondered what could possibly make the human smile at a time like this. He realized too late as the raised voice behind him cried out, "_Daem!_"

The burst of magical energy ripped through his back and out his chest, and Zero disappeared, pieces of his body smashing into the walls and pattering down across the floor. Kilishandra stood behind where he had been, her free hand outstretch, nearly at point blank to where he had been standing.

Alex chuckled as he sheathed his sword. "That was easy," he said.

"It's not over," Kilishandra said, watching the pieces of flesh as Zelda moved up behind her.

As they watched, the pieces seemed to disolve, and like liquid, began crawling slowly toward each other.

"Sheila! Silviana!" Zelda shouted, moving past them up the hall, "Where are you?"

Sheila and Silviana had begun down the stairs toward the basement where the vault was located, but stopped, and moved back up toward the hall. Sheila leaned out into the hall, waving. "Over here!"

The three turned toward her. Sheila saw the brown ooze moving across the floor, and realized what it must be. "This way!" she said, "What we need is down here!"

The three moved to join them, and descended the stairs, Sheila conjuring another sphere of light in her hand to light the way. Once at the bottom of the stairs, it was a straight shot to the vault. "I have a plan," Sheila said as they moved, "The vault has what is called a purge system. When activated, every living thing inside is eradicated entirely. Nothing is left. If we can lure him in, I can activate it, and we'll be rid of him for good."

"Convenient," Kilishandra said, "I've never heard of such a defense before."

"Well, it wasn't a defense, originally," Sheila said, "See, long ago, they were experimenting on creating golems like that thing back there, but not out of flesh. Out of stone and such. The projects were shut down, being deemed too inhuman to capture souls and place them in golems. That was the purpose of the system. It was a chamber to destroy physical bodies while capturing the soul in a soul gem. Like the one my father used to capture Ganondorf back in Darimar."

"So we activate the system with him in the vault, his body is destroyed, and his soul is trapped in a gem?" Zelda asked.

"That's right."

"He'll be a lot less dangerous that way," Zelda said, "And we've got no other choice. Let's do it."

The way ahead was open, the last doorway, normally kept locked, was already smashed open from Zero's previous entry. Against the far wall was the vault entrance, two massive stone doors, glowing blue runes shining on their surface. The room was bare otherwise, aside from four stone support columns, one in each corner.

"Why didn't he just smash through those?" Alex asked as Sheila moved to the doors, and he and the others turned to watch the passage for Zero.

"Magical warding," Sheila said, tracing the runes she had long ago memorized to open the door, "These doors could stand up several hundred pounds of black powder explosives without any more than soot getting on them. Plus they're almost fifteen feet thick."

"Okay, here's the plan," Zelda said, "She gets the door open, then the four of us go into the vault, to lure him in. Sheila, you hide behind one of these columns, wait for him to go in. Then we'll distract him so Kilishandra can knock him to pieces again to buy time. We lock him in and set off the purge once we're all out."

Kilishandra and Silviana each nodded, and Alex gave a thumbs up.

Several tense moments passed, until finally, with a loud grating, the doors started to move. They turned as the two massive stone blocks slid apart, grating to a stop only a moment later, the passage between them only wide enough to walk single file. "That's it?" Alex asked.

"Any more and it might not get shut in time," Sheila said.

"Everybody in," Zelda said, "Sheila."

"I know," she said, moving to stand behind one of the wide columns as the other four moved through the passage into the vault.

Zelda was expecting much the same sight as the vault beneath the castle back in Hyrule, and was surprised to find instead of racks full of objects, bookcases. Row upon row of bookcases, looking like a large library.

She almost couldn't believe they were keeping nothing but books down here, reaching out to examine the spine of one, and jumping back as a spark leaped from the spine across the others nearby.

"Spread out a little," Kilishandra said, "Try to look like you're searching for something. It'll be more convincing."

Back outside the vault, Sheila's heart was beating heavily as she heard footsteps coming up the passage. They stopped a moment, and she peeked around the column to see Zero standing at the exit to the passage, and stooping to the floor for some reason. He scooped something up, and lifted his hand to his face for a moment. He stood up, blinking heavily, and with a smile, started toward the vault.

_This is it,_ Sheila thought, _Just go in…_

Her heart nearly leaped from her chest when she saw him stop at the door, and trace the last opening room in reverse. Panic rose as the grating returned, and the doors began to slide shut.

"No!" Zelda shouted inside the vault when she saw the doors start to shut.

They ran for the doors, but the massive stone slabs ground together and shut before any of them could reach them, not that they would have made it through the narrow passage without being crushed.

Kilishandra swore loudly, and Alex rushed the doors, futilely trying to fit his fingers into the crack and force them open, panic rushing over him.

"Now that you're all safe and sound inside the vault, I'm going to obliterate the lot of you," Zero's voice said, seeming to come from the walls all around them, "You see, I knew about the purge system. Hoping to find the means to open the vault, I searched the archmage's office. Tragically, the combination wasn't there, but information about the purpose and operation of the purge system was."

"That's great!" Alex said, "He knew about the trap before we did! We walked right into it!"

"You kept your eyes on the passage," Zero said, "Too bad you weren't watching mine. Had you looked down, you would have seen one of my eyes on the floor. I saw the combination and now have everything I need to operate the vault. Which means you are all expendable. I know dear Sheila isn't far, but she won't dare interfere. She holds her own good health in too high regard."

His words were like a knife in Sheila's heart. Her hands were shaking, and yet she couldn't deny it. What chance did she have against that monster? Kilishandra had been unable to kill him, and she was a far more powerful magician.

"And yet I wonder," Zero said, "This was intended to create soul gems to install in golems long ago. I wonder what would happen if I attached the gems containing your souls to strips of my own flesh? Perhaps nothing, but perhaps the gems will cause new bodies to grow for you, and you will become like me. The dawn of a new species. It would be glorious. Think of it. Like me, you won't require rest. You'll be insusceptible to disease. Possess physical strength beyond your wildest imaginings. The perfect organism! Perfect!"

He chuckled before going on. "But best of all: Human emotions will hold no sway over you. Happiness, pity, remorse, love… Nothing but a distant ugly memory…"

"What is he talking about?" Alex demanded.

"Nothing good," Zelda said.

"I don't believe it," Kilishandra said, "There has to be something we can do!"

Silviana watched silently, sighing as she leaned back against the wooden end of a bookcase.

Outside the vault, Zero began to trace the necessary runes to activate the purge. "Kiss your flesh and blood goodbye!"


	79. Chapter 78

Well, not dead yet.

**Chapter 78: Weapons of Legend, Silver Fang and Black Razor Collide**

With a sream of fury, Kilishandra leveled her hands as streaks of lightning shot from her fingertips, crossing the space to the vault doors and sending sparks shooting through the air as they weaved back and forth across the stone, which in response glowed a bright blue as the protective wards shielded against the force of the vicious magic.

"Damn!" she cursed, releasing her grip, unable to hold it any longer. The door was unfazed, without even scorch marks remaining.

"Okay," Silviana said, not moving from where she leaned against the end of a large bookcase, "Brute force didn't work. What now?"

Zelda turned to her, then looked back at Kilishandra where she had dropped to one knee, breathing heavily as she tried to catch her breath. Such magic was very draining on a person. Though Ganondorf always managed to make it look easy, it was the Triforce of Power that gave him such inhuman endurance, along with his immense strength and eternal youth.

Alex moved over to the doors, kicking the stone in frustration. "Hey!" he shouted, "Open this door and fight me like a man, you coward!"

Zero's voice, transferred by some unknown means from outside of the vault to within, chuckled softly. "You continue to struggle even now," he said, "You should be pleased. Just think of it! You'll never need sleep, never get sick, maybe even never die. Who knows? When I'm finished with you, we'll all be the start of the new dominant species of this earth. Prepare yourselves to be fundamentally redesigned."

"And you prepare to have your face redesigned!" Alex shouted, and doubled up his fist, punching the door with everything he had. Grunting against the pain as the stone refused to yield, he drew back his other hand, striking again, and once more, repeatedly punching the door in frustration and futility.

At last, he stopped, hissing through his teeth at an audible pop of the bones in his left hand, pulling back to look at the blood smeared on the stone, and groaned at the pain and realization that he had broken a bone in his left hand, the knuckle of his middle finger sunk back into his hand, now even with the knuckle of his first finger, and flexing his fingers caused stabs of pain in his palm.

"Stop that," Silviana told him, "Are you seriously trying to knock the door down? All you're going to do is hurt yourself further."

"I won't give up," he said, "And besides, if you don't try, how will you know? The next punch might be the one to break through."

Silviana smiled softly as he turned back to the door. _Pretty dense,_ she thought, _But he has a good heart._

"Get out of the way," Kilishandra said, rising to her feet, "Let me try again."

"Your efforts are futile," Zero said as Kilishandra began incanting another spell, and Alex moved quickly out of the way, "Even if you do get through the wards, there is no escape through ten feet of solid stone."

"_Riot!_" Kilishandra shouted as once more, streaks of lightning leaped from her hands, dancing across the doors.

"Oh, yes, the sorceress may eventually be able to blast through it," Zero said, "But by then, it will be far too late."

Zelda watched as once more, Kilishandra held for as long as she could, but when she was forced to stop, the door was unmarked. Kilishandra nearly collapsed, falling to her knees and catching herself with both hands on the floor.

"I can't keep this up," she said between gasps.

Alex was moving toward the door again. "Stop!" Zelda said, and he paused, turning to her, "There's nothing we can do. Not like this."

"We can't stand here and do nothing!" Alex said, his voice rising to a shout, "I am not going to die like this! I refuse!"

_He is so much like Link,_ Zelda thought to herself, _But he's lacking one vital part. Link's ability to remain absolutely calm under pressure. Damn it. Link, I tried, but I can't do this without you. I need you here!_

She realized for the first time that her hands were shaking. She clenched them into fists, trying to hold still, but this only made it worse. She was terrified, and knew that she had every right o be. But such a feeling of absolute helplessness was just overpowering. Even when she was a prisoner of Zant and his monsters, she didn't feel so impotent as she did now.

She had no idea how much longer they had left, but Zero was undoubtedly activating the purge system as quickly as possible.

She wouldn't be sure about it later, but it was a matter of pure coincidence that it happened that way. In her fear, a single tear escaped her eye, and fell from her cheek to splash on her shaking hand, and as if activated by the teardrop, the Triforce of Wisdom sprang to life, glowing brightly.

* * *

Night had fallen over Darimar several hours before, though it made no difference to Ganondorf, alone in the secret room beneath the dungeons, walking slowly around the magic circle that formed the barrier over one of the three entrances to the Sacred Realm. He was pausing his examination for a moment to consider this location for such a gateway.

With this one here, and one in Hyrule, that made two of the gateways in the world, and knowledge of the third long since lost to legend. But the golden goddesses were obsessed with their adherence to trinities and triangles. Give some time to figure out the exact distance between the two locations, he would then be able to come up with two possible locations of the third, depending on which direction the point of the triangle extended from the line between them.

But that was research for another time. He smiled somewhat, thinking once more about the irony of the situation. For so long, he'd been trying to kill the heroes of Hyrule, and now he was trying to save one.

The simple fact, though, was that it was impossible to open the gateway without erasing the seal in the opposite patter it had been drawn. Sure, it was possible to figure it out through trial and error, but that would cost a great deal of time and bodily harm. Though, come to think of it, Darius' journal might not include any information about the opening of it at all, and the entire trip to Tyr for the others would be a waste. But if it did have the combination in the journal, it would save so much time. Time that they likely wouldn't have.

Outside, the Darimar winter was beginning to come down with its full force, with snows nearly every day, and icy winds that could chill one to their very core. The snow on the ground was nearly knee high on grown men now, and the weather showed no sign of abating. Armies could not march in this vicious winter, making it both a hindrance to launching a preemptive attack on Khall, but also a natural defense against his forces. Which gave time to focus on other areas, such as this.

He walked slowly around the faintly glowing lines etched into the floor. So far, his efforts had proved fruitless in finding the starting point to begin the work, but he had nothing better to do at this point.

It was at this point, as he contemplated where to try next, when a pulse of energy washed over him. To anyone watching, there was no alteration to the environment, even the flickering flames of the torches along the walls did not react, but he immediately spun in place, turning to the north, and the Triforce of Power burned sharply on his hand.

* * *

Sheila peeked around the column, where she could see Zero at the vault door. It was taking him time to activate the purge, because first there were safety mechanisms that had to be disabled. His back was to her. Maybe she could do something to distract him. But ultimately, what good would it do? Kilishandra had been unable to kill him when they met previously, and she was a far more powerful sorceress.

But she couldn't just let him kill them all without at least trying to stop him. And if she didn't do anything, he'd just kill her next anyway. Screwing up her courage, she took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the pillar.

Zero immediately turned toward the sound of her footsteps. Sheila extended one arm, palm toward him. "And just what do you think…" Zero started to say, but was interrupted as Sheila shouted, "_Daem!_"

The result was not near the destructive force presented by Ganondorf or Kilishandra, but a blast of heat and invisible force struck Zero in the chest, causing him to stagger back, and look down at himself in surprise with his head hanging to one side as a visible split down his torso, the two halves of him throwing him off balance.

Yet the most disturbing was what Sheila already knew. If the roof had filled with blood, if his bones and innards had spilled out onto the floor, she would have been less terrified than what was before her. No blood, bones or organs, only a clean rip in the flesh that resembled pulling apart soft clay.

As she watched, tendrils of flesh reached from one side of the split to the other, and began to pull his form back together, merging his flesh as if it had never been ripped, not even a scar remaining.

* * *

"You're a lot braver than I thought," Zero's voice carried into the vault, "But whatever you try, it is ultimately futile."

There was another explosion, followed by silence.

"Sheila is buying us time," Silviana said.

"I'll try again," Kilishandra said, sitting up onto her knees on the floor, still breathing heavily, "Just give me a few more seconds."

Alex glanced at her, then back toward the door. _Dammit! I feel so helpless! I can't stand this!_

Sheila suddenly screamed, her voice carried into the vault as easily as Zero's. "Now, let's see how well you use that magic of yours," Zero said, his voice edged with venom, "with both arms broken!"

There was a loud snap, followed immediately by and ear splitting shriek of pain. Before the scream died, another snap, and Sheila's voice renewed the force of its scream.

"Bastard!" Alex screamed, "You want to fight someone, fight me!"

_What are you doing?_

Zelda turned from the door. "What?" she asked, searching for the source of the voice.

_Don't tell me you've already forgotten what I sound like,_ the voice said.

"Ganondorf," Zelda whispered, "Where are you?"

_I'm still in Darimar,_ the voice went on, _You don't need to speak out loud. I can hear your thoughts as easily as you're hearing mine right now. A moment ago, you sent some kind of signal through the Triforce. Looks like you're in trouble._

_Yes,_ Zelda thought, _We're trapped in the vault under the academy. Is there some way you can help us?_

_No,_ Ganondorf's voice said, _Even a travel spell will take too long, and that's if I manage to land inside the city itself. You're going to have to save yourself._

_How?_

_You have everything you need,_ Ganondorf said, _In fact, you've had it your whole life. Do you remember the combination to the vault?_

Zelda quickly retraced what Sheila had done in her memory to the runes. _I think so,_ she said.

_The triforces have several uses, though each of the three pieces excels at a different matter. One way they can be used is to manipulate objects from a distance. Doing so requires intense focus, and will drain your strength rapidly, so you must be quick. I can help guide you, but you have to do this yourself._

_What about Zero?_

_The golem? If you have the strength left, you can kill him. Creatures like that go against the laws of life itself, which is something the goddess of wisdom cannot abide. Direct bursts of energy from your Triforce should be able to do lasting harm to him. But worry about that after you get the door open._

"Okay," Kilishandra said, rising to her feet, "One more time…"

"No," Zelda said, stepping forward, "Let me try."

Kilishandra glanced toward her. "What?"

"Just let me," Zelda said.

Kilishandra stepped aside as Zelda moved closer to the door. She took a deep breath, and lifted both hands toward the door. _Okay, show me,_ she thought toward Ganondorf.

_You've got to focus,_ he responded, _But you also need to relax. Don't try to force it to happen. Just let the energy flow through you. Think about the vault and what needs to happen, and will it to do so. The Triforce will respond to your desires._

"What is she…?" Alex started, only to be shushed by Silviana.

As they watched, a faint glow began to emanate from Zelda's body. It grew, until she was outlined in gold light.

* * *

Sheila was amazed she was still conscious, as the red haze in her head finally started to clear, seeing through the pain. She shifted, trying to find Zero, and her arms screamed in agony at the movement. She bit down, hissing through her teeth, saliva spitting through the gaps and running down her chin, mixing with the tears streaming down her face. She turned her head, trying to see how bad it was.

Each of her forearms was bent square halfway between her wrists and her elbows, and on each, one of the two bones had ripped through the skin, a white splinter jutting out, blood oozing from the holes in her flesh onto the floor. The gruesome sight was making her stomach lurch, and she looked away, shaking her head to clear it. _Don't pass out,_ she told herself, _That's the worst thing you could do right now._

Her arms screamed again as Zero lifted her up by the front of her shirt. She clenched her teeth down, trying not to scream, her voice hissing through her teeth. "That's right," he said, "Feel the pain. I bet you would like to be rid of it right now, wouldn't you?"

Sheila managed to lift her head enough to look him in the eye. "Go to hell!"

A smile crept on Zero's face. The expression only made him even more terrifying. "You first," he said, lifting his free hand toward her face.

A bright light dazzled her eyes, forcing her to turn away, even as Zero turned toward the vault door. The runes upon the surface were glowing brightly. "What is this?" he asked as he dropped Sheila to the floor, where she cried out again against the pain in her arms.

As Zero watched, one of the runes grew brighter than the others, then another light, even brighter, appeared at one end, then ran the length of the rune, tracing it perfectly. Then another began to do the same. The next was faster, followed by a fourth, even faster.

"It can't be…" Zero said, almost awed by what he was seeing.

Faster and faster, the runes were traced by the glowing lights, until finally, the last in the combination was complete, and the floor began to shake beneath them as the great stone doors grated loudly, and began to slide apart.

Zero stood directly in front of the growing opening, watching down within. As the doors slid further apart, at the other end of the resulting hallway, he could see Zelda, her head bowed, standing directly in the opening. "Nice trick," he said, the grating ceasing as the doors slid to a stop.

Zelda looked up at him, her eyes not their normal smoky blue color, but solid gold, glowing faintly in the dim light. "Oh, shi-" Zero started to say, and was cut off as she lifted one arm, drawing her hand back, as though she were going to punch him, and thrust it forward, palm flat toward him.

Zero didn't see what hit him, but he was suddenly away that he had staggered back several steps, and something had ripped into him, strips of his flesh splattering across the walls before blackening and crumbling to ash on the floor.

"What did she…?" he started to ask, looking down at himself to see that the front of his chest on the left side was completely gone, his left arm attached by only a thin strip of flesh. He was interrupted by another vicious strike, this time to the head, whipping it back and ripping it in half, more pieces splattering across the walls, only to crumble away to a black ash.

Only the right side of his face had survived, and that was little more than one eye, down to about half his mouth and chin. Zelda was moving up the hall toward him, her pace deliberate and determined. Zero moved back, still trying to understand what was happening. Zelda raised one hand over her head for another strike. Zero quickly dove to the side, trying to escaped, but was too slow as the invisible force ripped his right arm and shoulder from his body.

He crashed into the ground near Sheila. Try as he might, his body wouldn't respond to his urgings to reform. The flesh was dying, and for the first time, he felt a twinge of fear. Zelda emerged from the vault entrance, turning toward him. With his remaining hand, Zero pushed himself to his feet, and made a dash as she attacked yet again, blasting into his back, knocking him forward on the floor, a hole piercing completely through his abdomen. Not waiting, he was up again and running for the stairs. Zelda took a step after him, and then her knees gave way.

She collapsed to the floor, catching herself on her hands. She could feel the Triforce's energy fading from her body. She had experienced the feeling through Ganondorf during the brief moments her spirit had been bonded to him, but she had still not been prepared for it on her own. It was so taxing and exhausting, yet just the feeling of the Triforce's energy flowing through her had been wondrous. A pleasure that she already knew could become a dangerous addiction if she let it.

There were footsteps behind her as the others came up the passage from the vault. "Can you help her?" Kilishandra asked.

"Let me see," Silviana said, "Alex, help me."

The two of them moved to where Sheila lay as Kilishandra moved to Zelda and knelt down beside her. "Are you all right?"

"I will be," Zelda said, "Just need a few minutes to catch my breath. I wasn't able to kill him."

"Don't worry," Kilishandra said, "I'll track him down and finish him off, before he can recover."

"Can he recover?" Zelda asked, sitting up on her knees, "I was able to destroy a good part of his body."

"Flesh golems can feed on the blood and flesh of others," Kilishandra said, "They can rebuild from even a single scrap of flesh this way."

All the frozen people in the city leaped into Zelda's mind. "Dear gods," she said, "He's got more than enough up there."

"Exactly," Kilishandra said, "I hate to leave you all like this, but I'll only have one chance."

"Go," Zelda said, "We'll follow as soon as we can."

Kilishandra nodded, and turned to walk toward the steps, disappearing up them after Zero.

Zelda forced herself to her feet and moved over to where Sheila lay, Alex and Silviana on either side of her. "Is she okay?"

"I'm still awake, you know," Sheila said.

Zelda smiled at her. It was painful to even look at her arms. "Both her arms are broken," Silviana said, "We're going to need to make splints for them. Alex, back in the vault, on the left side, there's a table and some chairs. I think the legs off the chairs will do."

"Right," he said, leaping to his feet and running back into the vault.

"These are rather severe breaks," Silviana said, "I'm not sure how well they'll heal at all, but we need to set the bones, and we need to do it before you lose more blood, or it won't matter."

"I know," Sheila said, "I wish I could use healing magic on myself."

Zelda moved around near Sheila's head, and pulled her belt knife free of its scabbard. Fairly small, it seemed a size that work. She turned it over and held the hilt in front of Sheila's mouth. "Bite down on this," she said, "It'll help."

Sheila did so, biting down on the leather grip. "Are you ready?" Silviana asked.

Sheila nodded, her breath hissing around the dagger hilt. The hissing turned into a cry as Silviana righted her arm, and slipped the white bone back through the hole it had ripped in her skin. Zelda put her hands on Sheila's shoulders, to make sure she didn't reflexively jerk away. Silviana now took a firmer grip on her arm with both hands, and pushed. There was a loud pop and Sheila screamed around the dagger.

"That's the big one," Silviana said, "Now the other."

Another snap and scream, and it was done. She tore a strip from her cloak, wrapping it tightly around the wound to stop the bleeding as Alex returned from the vault, carrying four legs off one of the chairs, broken off about the length of a person's forearm.

Silviana moved around to Sheila's other side, and repeated the process over again, then both arms were bound with pieces of the wood to hold them straight. "Traveling won't be good for her in this condition," Silviana said, "But this is hardly the place to keep her. We need to get her back to Darimar."

"I agree," Zelda said, "We'll get the book we came for and leave. Everything else can wait."

"Once we're a safe distance from this city, we'll need to stop and clean the bandages," Silviana said, "Be hell to live through this and die of an infection."

"How do you know so much about medicine?" Alex asked, "Didn't you live in the forest?"

"That's hardly relevant right now," Silviana said, taking her cloak from her shoulders, and ripping it in half, "Here, using this to make some slings for her arms. Alex, you stay here with them while I go help Kilishandra."

"Maybe you should stay," Alex say, "I don't really know about this sort of thing…"

"You want to help, I understand," Silviana said, "Right now, this is more important. The princess is exhausted and Sheila won't even be able to stand on her own. Here's how you can help: Get them out of here. Find Roxim. If worse comes to worse, I'm sure Kilishandra intends to bury Zero alive in the rubble of this building. You all need to be long out of here by then."

"We still need the book," Zelda said, rising to her feet.

"Oh, right," Silviana said, reaching around to the back of her belt and producing a small, plain leather-bound book, "Here."

"That's it," Sheila said from where she lay, "How did you know?"

"Not important," Silviana said, moving toward the stairs, "Now, you three get going."

"Help me up," Sheila said.

Alex leaned down, trying to be gentle, lifted her with one hand under each arm. "Can you stand on your own?" he asked.

"I think so," Sheila said, "Just stay close to me."

"All right," Zelda said, tucking the book into the front of her vest, "Let's get out of here."

* * *

"What's the matter, Zero?" Kilishandra asked, "Too scared to come out and fight now?"

The hallways were eerily silent, as when they came in, and she weaved between the frozen people, watching every shadow and corner. He could only have gone back the way they came, certainly in no condition to smash open more iced doors after the treatment Zelda had given him.

She moved past the broken window through which Alex had attacked Zero previously, glancing out, but seeing no movement, kept moving toward the end of the hallway, and though the open doorway. More iced individuals awaited, the glint of icy walls giving an eerie look to the entire place. She began moving toward the far door, only to stop when she realized something was wrong. She looked again at the icy figures near her. She remembered them being darker before, and moved closer.

"Damn it," she whispered, realizing the face of the icy statue had been smashed in, and the shape was hallow. She moved to the next, and found it to be the same, and so was the next. As she moved to the next, her foot struck something hard on the floor. She looked down. In the dim light it was nearly invisible. A black sword hilt, topped by a blue pommel gem, the blade stabbed directly into the floor.

"That's where he put it," she whispered.

One of the nearby figures suddenly moved, and she spun as Zero crashed right through one of the hallow ice statues, rushing toward her. She stepped back, and immediately cursed as her heel struck the hilt in the floor, toppling her over it and sending her sliding across the icy floor. She pushed herself up, using the edges of the plates on one knee of her armor to arrest her momentum, scraping a half inch deep mark in the ice.

Zero had stopped by the hilt, and reached down, pulling from the ice, sparks flying as he did so. He had fully reformed himself, but he was not unmarked by the confrontation with Zelda. The segments of his body that had been destroyed had returned a much darker color than before, and his left eye had not reformed, in its place was what appeared to be a severe burn scar. But even with the scars, she had to be careful. If he wasn't already back at full strength, he was close.

And he was furious. For all the talk about being free of human emotions, his face was an image of unrestrained fury, teeth grinding and all. He ran for her raising his sword high. She wasn't even on her feet yet, and desperately lifted her sword to defend herself. His blade came down, and the two weapons collided. As strong as she knew he was, she should have been crushed under the sheer force of the blow, but now she pushed to her feet, pushing him back. He wasn't at full strength after all!

She slid her blade up his, trying to lock the guards and disarm him, but he stepped back, freeing his weapon, and stepped forward again, this time coming in low with a slash at her knees. She jumped, lifting both feet over the blade as it whistled past, and as she landed, brought her weapon down on his shoulder, cleaving halfway down his chest, and kicking him in the stomach to knock him back and free her sword. The wound closed, as she knew it would, but it took several seconds longer than before.

She knew there was only one way to do it. "One more time, Nui," she whispered to her weapon, "We'll get this bastard this time."

Zero came at her at a run, and she thrust her free hand forward. "_Daem!_"

Zero was hurled across the room, crashing through icy statues and into the far wall, cracks forming halfway to the ceiling. As he rose to his feet, Kilishandra hurled her sword upward. "Now!"

In a flash of light and with the sound of thunder, the sword transformed into the great thunder beast, which hurtled at Zero, purple hair bristling and sparks flying from its claws, a roar like an endless boom of thunder, and crashed into him and the wall with force that shook the walls.

"I just need a few seconds!" Kilishandra said, lifting her hands and readying herself.

A groan emerged from the great cat, shifting her attention back. Before her eyes, the great animal flicked, and turned transparent. On the far side, Zero held his sword arm extended, the black blade piercing straight down the mighty beast's throat.

"No," Kilishandra said, her voice tense.

The blue gem on Black Razor's pommel flickered, and Nui vanished with a cracking sound, and the fragments of metal that had been the creature's form as a sword clattered to the floor, shattered.

"No!" she screamed again, as if hoping her voice would change what she saw before her.

"Using the same trick twice," Zero said, "Not the best thing to do in this kind of work."

"You bastard," Kilishandra hissed, her hands clenching into fists, as sparks danced across her body and down her arms.

She lifted her hands. "_Ast namar kal drumaan…_" she said, her voice taking the otherworldly echo of spell casting.

Zero was suddenly directly in front of her, one fist striking her in the stomach. Her breastplate absorbed the impact, but she was knocked backwards, face down on the floor, her spell broken. She started to push herself up, but his foot struck her across the face. She found herself on her back looking up as he stared down at her. He planted one foot on her arm, holding her down. As she reached over with the other to try to trip him, he placed the other on her neck and pushed down. She grabbed his ankle, trying to dislodge him, but with his full weight on her, she could barely move him.

"What will it take to make you get it?" Zero hissed down at her, "You can't beat me!"

She punched his ankle with everything she could manage at the odd angle, but he still pressed down. Her lungs were starting to burn. Unable to speak, she couldn't even use the most basic of magic to forcefully dislodge him.

"I'm going to enjoy every second of this," he said, smiling at her.

Two blades suddenly emerged from his abdomen, and sliced out to either side, followed by a kick to his backside that send his torso flying across her to land on the floor a few feet away. With the reduced weight, Kilishandra quickly ripped the foot off her throat, sending the other half to the floor, and sat up to see Silviana moving toward where Zero's upper half had landed, both her weapons drawn, the blades laid flat along her forearms.

The two halves were already dissolving and oozing back toward each other.

"I was too late, but he's still not at full strength," Kilishandra said.

Zelda, Alex, and Sheila appeared from the hallway leading back to the vault. "You're all here?" Alex asked.

"Keep going," Silviana said, "We'll keep him busy until your outside, then bring this whole place down."

Kilishandra turned to Alex. "Do you have a spare weapon? He… killed mine."

Alex started to draw his sword, but Zelda stopped him. "We know his won't hurt that thing," she said, drawing the Master Sword from its scabbard, with its unique ring filling the air, "Try this one."

She leaned down, and slid it across the icy floor toward Kilishandra. Zero's body had begun to reform, rising from the floor like some nightmare rising from beneath the earth. Kilishandra scooped up the Master Sword, immediately surprised by the light weight for such a large weapon. "What is…?" she started to say, when the blade flashed, glowing blue and illuminating the room with its aura.

_That's a relief,_ Zelda thought, _Also proves I was right about her. She's trustworthy, or she wouldn't be able to pick it up. But that reaction…_

"You…" Zero growled as he regained his feet and scooped up his sword, "You've ruined everything."

He was staring at Kilishandra. She took a firm grip on the Master Sword, ready for him.

"That weapon was supposed to be used by Link," Zero said, "It was supposed to be used by him when we finally face each other. It was supposed to be a battle like the world had never seen!"

"You're not going to live that long anyway," Kilishandra said, and ran toward him.

Kilishandra knew about magic, and she knew about enchanted weapons, but when the Master Sword and Black Razor collided, the reaction was unlike anything she had ever seen before. Even sparks from the striking of metal on metal would have been something she had seen.

As the two blades connect, and explosion of light lit the chamber, accompanied by a sound like a lightning strike. And as she struck again, and he stopped the blow, it happened again, and again. Zelda was forced to shield her eyes, looking directly into the light was blinding. Silviana ushered them toward the doorway leading toward the main hall. "Go! We'll be right behind you!"

The three moved away as Kilishandra and Zero's blades locked together, the two of them glaring past the burning light where the blades made contact. "I see now," Silviana said to herself, turning back to the fight, "Twin weapons, one black as night, one white as light itself. That part of the old stories was true."

Kilishandra pushed forward, trying to throw Zero onto his back, but he sidestepped to his right, circling around her left side and pulling his weapon free from the deadlock and aimed a swing for her backside. She quickly leaned forward, the blade whistling over-head as she turned and thrust for his stomach. Zero backed off quickly, apparently not willing to let this weapon touch him.

Silviana struck from behind, stabbing the blade of one of her weapons into his back, and raising to other to cleave his head from his shoulders. Zero dropped to his knees, the swing missing and the other weapon slicing upward and out his shoulder. He spring boarded back, crashing into her with his shoulder in her stomach and dragging her back onto the ground, where he turned completely over with one hand on the floor as he landed back on his feet.

Kilishandra was already on him, stepping over Silviana, aiming a heavy blow for him, but he lifted his sword to guard himself again, and as he did so, she stepped to the left, changing the angle of her swing, and the blade stuck home, burying itself in his chest in a long stroke through his right shoulder.

Unfortunately, the blow did not have the effect she had been hoping for. She quickly kicked him back off the blade, and as he lurched back, his flesh began to reform, as always, though in his weakened state, it was taking a greater amount of time.

"Get ready to run," Kilishandra said, turning the Master Sword over and stabbing the tip into the floor.

Silviana was on her feet, and moved to intercept Zero should he charge again.

"_Ast namor kal drumaan…_" Kilishandra said, sparks lighting up at her fingertips.

Zero looked up, and took a lurching step forward.

"_Spirits of the air, unleash your fury and bring forth the lightning to strike down…_"

Zero lifted his sword and ran for them, but there was too much distance.

Silviana stepped aside as Kilishandra thrust one hand forward. "_Thunderstruck!"_

The hole appeared in the ceiling as a bolt of lightning struck down, and a wave of impact caused the two of them to stagger back as Zero vanished, unidentifiable pieces of flesh flying in all directions and bouncing off the walls. The sword, Black Razor, hurtled through the air, flipping end over end to lodge its blade in a wall near the ceiling.

Initial blast of noise and impacted died away, but a steady rumble remained.

"Let's go!" Kilishandra said, pulling the Master Sword from where she had placed it and the two of them ran for the far door.

* * *

"Roxim!" Zelda shouted as she, Alex, and Sheila emerged from the academy, "Get down here!"

A few moments later, lightning struck from a clear sky, as Alex helped Sheila across the icy courtyard and Zelda searched the sky for any sign of the dragon. Sheila looked back toward the academy as the ground started to shake. "They're really going to do it," she said, almost not believing it, "The academy…"

"Is better off burying everything in that vault than letting Zero get his hands on it," Zelda finished.

"You're right," Sheila said, "Of course."

A heavy flap of leathery wings turned their eyes up as Roxim circled down to land in the nearby street. "Where are the other two?" he asked immediately.

"They're still in there," Alex said, pointing toward the academy.

The sight of a building collapsing was in a way, both traumatic and hypnotizing, the way first, certain sections of the roof began to fall inward, and spreading outward toward the walls, which seemed to sink into the ground, rubble spreading outward as clouds of dust rose around it, blocking the view.

In a few seconds, it was over, and the shaking ceased, and only clouds of dust rose into the air around the wreckage of the academy.

"I don't see them," Alex said.

Zelda sighed, shaking her head and turning away from the destruction.

"Come on," she said, "We need to get Sheila somewhere safe, so we can clean her injuries."

Alex and Sheila reluctantly turned away from the wreckage, and he guided her toward Roxim, the great beast still watching the remains of the academy.

The dust began to settle, and there was a cough from that direction. The dragon smiled, and the others turned back. Two outlines were visible in the thinning dust, and a moment later, Silviana and Kilishandra emerged from the cloud, covered in dirt and choking, but neither the worse for wear.

"See?" Roxim said, "You young people have no patience these days."

Alex left Sheila by Roxim and moved over to the other two. "You two okay? Need any help?"

"We're fine," Silviana said, "Ready to put this place behind us."

* * *

After ensuring Sheila was secure on Roxim's back, the others climbed up and the dragon lifted off, turning back toward the south. The return trip had begun, but they would have to change the original plan. Sheila was in no condition to go to the temple in Metallicana for the last fragment of the spell, so it would have to wait for later. Zelda reassured herself that there was no rush yet. After all, if they didn't win this war, she wouldn't be going back anyway.

Kilishandra, seated behind the others, turned to look back at the city moving away in the distance. On a hill to the west of the city, she saw something. She wasn't sure if it was just her eyes playing tricks on her, but it looked like a great beast twice the size of any horse. It lifted its head, and a sound like thunder rumbled across the hills.

She smiled. Nui was not a creature, but a force of nature itself. Though the sword that had been the beast's earthly form was shattered, it could not die. Such a beast was supposed to be untamable, and maybe this was for the best. There was no point in grieving when nothing had truly been lost.

* * *

Several hours passed after the collapse of the academy. The city had once more fallen to the deathly chilling silence, until something finally shifted. A single fragment of stone clattered down from the rubble of the academy, followed by a trickle of dust.

A moment later, with a violent roar, a hand erupted from beneath the rubble, clutching the black sword, holding it high as a second hand appeared, and Zero clawed his way to the surface, like a dead man rising from his grave.

He pulled himself from the rubble, standing atop the wreckage, and surveying what lay around him. Then he threw his head back and roared his rage into the empty sky.


	80. Chapter 79

I'm going to start getting these chapters longer again. Better to go for more and more quality than rushing stuff just to put something up. I'm taking plenty of time anyway. This one is a little shorter than expected because I really _really_ wanted to end it where it does.

**Chapter 79: Shattered Visions**

"Why must I do this?" Zero growled as he traced the chalk across the stone of the cave floor.

_You failed to retrieve the gemstone from the vault,_ hissed Shaklator's voice, _The enchantment on that stone would have made all this unnecessary and saved us a great deal of time. Time that is running out. Link is suspicious and I won't be able to hold him in thrall much longer._

Zero lifted the chalk, moving around the circle to begin drawing the next line. "So kill him," Zero said, "That woman has already ruined what I wanted from him."

_Just because the sword has chosen a new master means nothing,_ Shaklator said, _You wanted to fight Link, and a fight you shall have. He has proven resilient to all my efforts to coerce him, so now we change tactics, and break him._

"And if I kill him?"

_Then you'll have proven you still have some uses, considering your performance on your own has been less than inspiring._

Zero traced the final line of the star, dragging it to intersect another line where the point touched the inside of the square, each of it's four corners touching the circle on the outside edge. "There," he said, "It's finished. Now what?"

_Stand in the center, and I will do the rest._

* * *

Heavy clouds hung low over Darimar, snow still falling steadily. It had been worse the past few days, and had risen to nearly waist high on grown men. Walkways had been maintained in the streets just by the necessary passage of the people, yet with most in their homes near the fires as the evening approached, it was nearly empty.

Atop the wall near the courtyard gate, one guard pulled his cloak tighter about himself, waiting for the end of his watch. He glanced up toward the sky, hoping the snow would break soon, just in time to see the clouds part, and an enormous dragon descended toward him. He gave a startled cry as the great beast began to circle lower. Other eyes from the wall, and from within the castle emerged to see as the it circled lower, settling in the courtyard, the final beats of its wings sending snow flying into the air around it.

Five figures riding on its back began to dismount, one shouting for someone to get a doctor, as the dragon sank to its knees, and two of the people began helping another down from its back.

Judge Ralthas appeared from the castle, moving toward the group, and when he realized the one being assisted was Sheila, broke into a run for them. "What happened?" he demanded as he came closer, "Is she all right."

"She'll live," Zelda said, making sure Sheila was stable on her feet, with Alex standing close if she needed help, "We did what we could, but she needs a doctor."

Ralthas moved closer, gently opening the front of the cloak wrapped around Sheila to see both her forearms splinted. "I should have gone with you," he whispered.

"I don't think you'd have been able to do anything," Sheila said.

"How did this happen?" Ralthas asked.

A small smile appeared on Sheila's face. "I made someone very mad."

"She saved out lives," Silviana said, moving toward Ralthas, "And I can now confirm there is a look-alike that was mistaken for Link some time ago."

"Is that so?" Ralthas said, "Did you get the journal?"

Zelda pulled the small book from her belt, holding it up in one hand. "Right here," she said, "Has Ganondorf made any progress with the seal?"

"He hasn't exactly kept me informed…" Ralthas said, stopping as heavy footsteps approached from behind him, and turned to see Ganondorf moving toward them.

"I've made some," he said, answering Zelda's question, "I've figured out where to start, and partially erased one of the smaller seals. Let me see the book."

Zelda placed it in his offered hand, and he opened it, leafing through the pages. "This is the right one," he said, skimming a few pages, "Very old dialect, predating even the language of my youth."

"Come on," Ralthas said to Sheila, gesturing toward the door, "Let's get you somewhere to lie down, and I'll get a doctor."

Roxim sighed, sitting back on his haunches as they watched them go, and Ganondorf flipped more pages in the journal. "So, now what?" Alex asked, looking around at the others.

"Now, we get something to eat," Silviana said, "lick our wounds, and let others handle things for a while."

Kilishandra and Zelda moved over to Ganondorf, looking at the book in his hands. Silviana waved at Roxim. "Thank you for your help," she said.

"Not like I've got anything better to do," he said, "But now, I need some rest too, so I'll be leaving the city for now."

He could hardly be blamed. The trip to Tyr at the steady pace up had taken a week, but he'd made the return trip in three days. He leaped upward from the ground, the beat of his wings spraying snow into the air, and circled away from the city to the west, disappearing from sight as he moved above the heavy clouds.

"Come on," Silviana said to Alex, "Leave the bookworms over there to their fun. I want something hot to eat."

"You know, that's sounds really good after all that dried beef," Alex said, following her toward the castle.

Ganondorf turned another page, and stopped. "There we go. He did take enough time to think it might need to be opened again."

There was a diagram of the seal on the left page, and the facing page, as well as several after, were full of not just the center righting, but side notes and smaller diagrams, often with indications of specific locations. It may have been in the same language they spoke now, but Zelda could barely spot any resemblance. "Can you read it?" she asked.

"Bits and pieces," Ganondorf said, "I'm no language expert, but I'm sure we can find someone in the city who is. We'll have your hero back in a day or two, if there's anything left to save, that is."

He snapped the book shut, glancing at Zelda, then at Kilishandra. He gave a small nod to Kilishandra, and started toward the castle door.

"That's it?" Zelda asked, looking at Kilishandra, "I'd though he'd at least say hello to you."

"He's always been like that," Kilishandra said, and smiled, "When I first met him, he didn't say a word to me until the next day. Well, shall we, princess? You have to be hungry too."

"Yes," Zelda said, "But there's something I need to talk to you about first."

Zelda rested her left hand on the pommel of the Master Sword at her hip. She had been thinking, ever since what she saw in Tyr, when Kilishandra had picked it up. The reaction to Kilishandra's touch had caused the sword to spring to life, the unmistakable blue glow, the same as she had seen when Link had fought Ganondorf back in Hyrule.

"Do you have any idea what this sword I'm wearing is?" Zelda asked.

"Considering the way it lit up, I assume it's magical in some way," Kilishandra said.

"Not just any way," Zelda said, "This sword is a priceless treasure, and has existed longer than my kingdom has. Each time evil has befallen my kingdom, it has been the weapon of choice for heroes who have faced impossible odds and emerged victorious. It has several names, the Master Sword, the Blade of Evil's Bane, and I've recently learned a much older name was Silver Fang. The important point about it is that only those pure of heart may wield it. Impure individuals are unable to lift it, it may as well be welded to the floor for them. And if an evil being touches it, he'll be lucky if it doesn't take his arm off."

Kilishandra crossed her arms, leaning slightly to one side as she considered this. "So, you didn't know if I'd even be able to use it when you slid it to me."

"I had a hunch," Zelda said, "I told you before, you can't lie to me. I can't see the truth through a lie, but I know when someone is lying to me. That's why, up to that point, I believed you trustworthy, because you never lied to me. As had you just been able to use the sword, it would have confirmed it beyond a doubt. But the reaction the sword showed when you picked it up is something else entirely.

"You see," Zelda went on, taking a deep breath as she explained, "It has been shown, countless times over the years, that the sword has a bit of a mind of its own. When it is placed in the altar in Hyrule, which seals the Sacred Realm from this world, none but one truly worth of it may draw it from the stone. The sword essentially chooses its own master."

"So that reaction?" Kilishandra asked.

"I've seen only once before, and that was when it was wielded by Link," Zelda said, "And it was he that drew it from the altar. That reaction does not occur for me, for example. It tolerates me, you could say. But it seems that it sees something in you, for it has chosen you now. And I may have to call on you to use it again. However," she said, looking up at Kilishandra's eyes, "With the possibility of getting Link back, I intend to return it to him. But I have to plan for contingencies. You took an oath to my service so that we could save you from immediate trial and possible execution by order of the judge. I had intended to release you from it once this was all over, and let you go your way. But in light of this, depending on what happens, that may no longer be a possibility."

Zelda sighed. "I wanted to tell you because I'm basically deciding your future, and I wouldn't be able to do that without at least telling you. Warning ahead of time what might come."

"I see," Kilishandra said, "I haven't thought that far ahead, to be honest."

"The biggest problem is simply whether or not, even in all your honesty, if I can trust you," Zelda said, "Not forgetting your father has been an enemy of my kingdom for the past thousand years. I don't think it's been explained to you, but the agreement we have with him is an alliance of necessity. I've no doubt it will end after Khall and Tharkus are dealt with. What happens, then, well, I hope it can end peacefully, but if it doesn't…"

"You wonder if I will side with him or you," Kilishandra said.

"Exactly."

The snow continued to fall as they watched each other for a moment. There was no personal hostility between the two, but it was clear they were each carefully examining the other.

"I don't know," Kilishandra said at last, "I try to keep my promises, but in that situation…. I just don't know."

"I'm not trying to insult you, or drive you away," Zelda said, "But in the end, I have to consider things like this, for the sake of my kingdom. And don't worry. I haven't forgotten my promise to do everything I can to save yours."

"And you have my loyalty until then," Kilishandra said, "That will have to do for both of us for now."

"Yes," Zelda said, and offered her hand.

Kilishandra took it, and they shook once. "Now, let's go get something to eat," Zelda said, "Then I'm going to go check on Sheila."

* * *

Link had walked the entirety of the small planetoid he and Midna had landed upon, and the only thing he could find that may be a start toward escaping the Void lay back the way he had come. He looked up now toward the ancient temple, suspended high above against the starry background.

Rules like gravity did not apply in this place like they did in other worlds, as he had discovered, but now, he was considering how best to make a return. If he missed, there was no telling how far he would drift until he stopped on something else.

But Midna could help, he thought. After all, she had lifted him down into the canyon back in Hyrule, yet at the same time…

He glanced over his shoulder toward her, where she lay in the grass next to a small stream of crystal clear water, resting her head on her hands, eyes closed and with a small smile on her face. How long had they been here? Link realized that it was nearly impossible to track days due to the unchanging nature of the surroundings, and it all seemed to blend together. Had it been just a day since he killed Shaklator, or had it been longer? If rules like gravity were different here, what about time?

"It's time to go," Link said.

Midna turned her head toward him. "Go where?" she asked.

"We need to find a way back to the Temple of Light, and from there we can get back into our world," Link said, "The only place I can think of to start is back where I entered this place."

"Oh, right," Midna said, leaning back again.

Link took a step toward her. "'Oh, right?'" he repeated, "That's it?"

Midna turned to him, leaning up on her elbows, as he took another step toward her. "Are you serious?" he asked, "Everything that you know is on the line, and the best you have is 'Oh, right?'"

"Link, what's wrong?" Midna asked.

"I think I should be asking that," Link said, standing over her where she lay, "Don't you understand what's happening?"

"Link," Midna smiled up at him, "The world's not going to end just because you relax for a few days."

Link suddenly reached down, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her upward sharply, causing her to gasp sharply. "That's hurts!" she said as he pulled her onto her feet.

"Look me in the eye," Link said.

"Link, what are you…" she started to say.

"Look me in the eye."

She lifted her head looking toward him. The moment their eyes met, Link knew everything he needed. A person's eyes were the gateway to the soul, and whenever Link had looked into Midna's eyes, he had known her beyond anything she had said. Even when they had first met, and she had treated him little better than an animal, he had seen there a soft heart, with a great curiosity, but a determined courage as well. This person's eyes were empty, shallow, and may as well have been glass.

"You did manage to fool me for a time," Link said, "But your eyes betray you. You are who wears her face."

"Link," Midna said with a forced smile, "Please, you know me. I would never lie to you."

"Except you have," Link said, "And each time you insist I remain here is another nail in the coffin. Midna understands that I have responsibilities and would not keep me from them. Now, tell me where I can find the real one, or I will break you in two."

If the threat itself wasn't enough, the fact that Link said it in such a perfectly level tone only raised the impact of the words. But the creature before him did not flinch, in fact, she only became more confidant, as a smile appeared on her face, and her eyes began to glaze over with blackness, leaving two dark orbs staring back at him. "You will regret this decision, Link," she whispered, no longer Midna's voice coming from her lips, but an all too familiar voice that Link had hoped to never hear again, "This was your last chance. If you will not listen, if you will not submit, you shall be broken."

"What do you want from me?" Link demanded, "All this you've put me through, what is the point of it all?"

"The point was for you to become the best you could be," Shaklator's voice replied from Midna's form, "Look at yourself, Link! You were born with one of the greatest powers a mortal can possess, yet you resist it, you try so hard to be a normal person, blind to the fact you can never be! You have accomplished things that no other could compare to, yet you refuse to truly embrace what you are!"

"You don't know me!" Link said, his voice rising, "You know nothing of what I am!"

"Quite the contrary," she replied, "I know you better than you know yourself. I've told you before that we have a great deal in common. In truth, we are more connected than you could possibly know."

Link didn't see what happened, but something struck him in the chest, and he found himself on his back, laying on scorched hard earth. As he started to pick himself up, a foot landed on his chest, the weight pinning him down. It was not the bare foot of Midna that pinned him, but a heavy armored boot, the metal dyed red, as were the greaves and breastplate as he looked up, to see a different face looking down at him, but the same empty black eyes staring down.

"Now it is your turn, Link," Shaklator said, "Look into my eyes, and I will show you the truth that Darius did not tell you."

Link's hand was on his sword, but he looked up, directly at her. Though he did not move, it seemed as though her face came down toward his, and as he looked into the blackness of her eyes, it seemed to grow, and envelop his vision.

The darkness began to clear, to be replaced with a red haze as a screaming pain appeared suddenly at his groin. He screamed, but it was not his voice, but that of a woman.

"Come on now," an older woman's voice said somewhere, "One more push!"

Another scream and split of pain, and it was suddenly over. A plaintive wail replaced his screams, and as Link's senses began to recover, he found himself lifting his head and looking toward it. An older woman was cleaning something with a cloth, and Link started when looking down at himself.

_What the hell is this?_ he thought, intending to shout it, but the words refused to come, as he saw a woman's body in place of his own, legs apart and knees high.

There was someone holding his hand, and he looked to see a dark elf man smiling at him, squeezing gently on their hands. The older woman turned back toward them, holding the bundle wrapped in cloth for them to see as she moved closer. "It is a boy," she said, "A healthy baby boy."

"Listen to those lungs," the dark elf said over the screaming child, "He's going to be a strong one."

Link found himself moving without intending to do so, sitting up and reaching for the child. The midwife handed the child to him, and he held him close, looking down, the face a mix of the two races, not the charcoal black of a dark elf, nor the much paler of the northern barbarians, but a muddy chocolate brown.

_I get it,_ Link thought, _This is a memory. One of her memories._

"He's got your eyes," the dark elf said, leaning down over them for a better look.

Link saw the eyes turn toward him, and past his body acting on its own, snuggling the infant, he saw the eyes looking back at him. A deep blue color, and something else, something intangible that couldn't quite be described. As what was before him faded from vision, the eyes remained, and another face surrounded them. Then another, and more. He began to see more than faces, he saw men and women before him, each replacing the other, the clothing and skin tones changing with each, but each one armed, swords and axes, bows and spears, and one thing never changed, and that was the eyes. Always the blue eyes, always with that intangible, that wild aspect that seemed more animal than human. Four thousand years of generations passed before him, finally stopping on a single woman, a brunette with a soft smile, and the darkness again receded, revealing what was around her.

She was seated on a moving wagon, rolling down a dirt road with a young man sitting at her side with the reigns in his hands. She held a small bundle in her arms that gurgled happily each time the wagon struck a bump on the road and jostled them.

Link realized he recognized the terrain around them. It was the fields of southern Hyrule, just north of Ordon. He realized with a shock that the child in the woman's arms was himself. The man and woman were speaking to one another, but he could not hear the words, but she smiled and laughed at something he said.

_That's my mother and father…_ Link thought, _But how?_

_I have been watching you since before you were born,_ Shaklator whispered, _But this is still just one of my memories. You have wondered what happened to your parents, and I am going to show you._

An explosion of earth suddenly turned the wagon over, sending dirt and rocks flying into the air. The horse drawing the cart panicked, pulling against the reigns as the couple and their belongings were tossed to the earth, the woman deliberately rolling to land on her back to protect the child. The wagon was still being dragged by the horse down the road on its side as the two rose to their feet. The woman handed the child to the man, and snatched up a sword from where it had fallen from the rest of the luggage.

In the distance, a lone figure was moving toward them, walking at a deliberate pace, its arms cross with each hand inside the opposite sleeve of the deep purple robes, and a hood pulled up over the head. The woman pulled the sword free of its scabbard, and tossed the scabbard aside as she gripped the weapon with both hands. She said something to the man, then ran for the distant figure, her weapon held tightly.

The figure opened its arms and lifted its hands high, causing the sleeves of its robe to slide back down its arms to free its hands, which then came together as tongues of flame began to leap between its fingers. The woman was too far, Link realized, she wouldn't stop the spell. The figure thrust its palms forward, as a column of flame erupted forward, and the woman dove to the side, rolling on the earth, and straight back into a run. As Link watched, the figure moved its arms, fire still churning forth, pulling it to one side, as the head of the column of flame began to turn in the air, circling back.

The man shouted something, and the woman looked over her shoulder, to dive down as the flames passed over her, and rolled to the side before returning to her feet. She lunged for the robed figure, and with two deft strokes, first cleaved its hands off at the wrists, and send the head flying to roll to a stop on the ground several feet away.

Link immediately saw what was wrong. The cuts had been clean, but on both wrists, and the neck, there was no blood. It looked like one had cut directly through soft clay, and he could do nothing but watch as the hands and severed head dissolved into thick liquid and crawled back toward the body which still stood. The woman said something, a look of disbelief on her face, as the ooze disappeared under the bottom of the robe, and the hands and head began to reform upon the figure.

Though featureless at first, Link watched in horror as the nose, eyes, and mouth began to grow into shape on the figure, and realized that he recognized the thing standing there.

_It's the wizard I fought in the forest!_ he thought.

He became even more sure as the black hair and hooked nose became more prominent. He was just as invincible as he had been in the forest, and Link remembered what Darius had told him about the ancient wizard who had transformed his body into that of a flesh golem.

_It's Tharkus,_ Link thought, _It has to be! I have to do something!_

_You can do nothing,_ Shaklator said, _This is only a memory. One of my memories. You can do nothing to change it. Now watch._

The woman lifted her sword again, intending to strike him down. As Link watched, Tharkus stepped back, avoiding the stroke, as he pulled his left arm entirely into the sleeve, then stepped forward again, thrusting his left shoulder forward. It was so fast that Link didn't realize what had happened until it was over. A dark brown sword blade nearly a foot wide had emerged from Tharkus' sleeve and impaled the woman directly through her abdomen.

She looked down at it, disbelief on her face, as he used it to lift her into the air, blood running rapidly down the blade, staining the robe and more dripping onto the ground. Her own sword slipped from her grasp as her head rolled back and her arms and legs dangled limply.

The man was screaming something, and had retrieved a bow from their luggage, and now fired a shot that whistled through the air, striking home directly in Tharkus' throat. The wizard merely turned to him, and almost casually, swung the massive blade to the side, tossing the woman to the earth. The man picked up another sword, pulling it from its sheathe, only to stop and look down at the infant, where he had lain it next to the luggage. He shook his head, clearly angry, said something else before scooping up the child in his free arm and fleeing.

Link found his vision following the man as he fled to the south, toward Ordon. There was a small border of trees outside the village between it and Hyrule proper, and rather than follow the direct road, the man, clearly experienced in the forest, took a weaving path between the trees.

It would avail him naught, as Tharkus stepped out from behind a tree directly in front of him, and intercepted the man quickly as he tried to dodge around. He came a stop, colliding with Tharkus. At first it seemed the two were merely glaring at one another, and then Link saw that Tharkus was even more terrifying than he had thought. The wizard's hands had plunged directly through the man's shirt into his abdomen, and has he watched, Tharkus lifted him into the air, his arms moving deeper into his flesh, under the rib cage. The man screamed, but lifted his sword, making one last effort, but the blade was no more effective than before as it cut into the wizard's shoulder.

Though he had still not dropped the child, the man's strength was failing, and the infant slipped from his grasp to land on the grassy ground, crying loudly. Tharkus spun to the side, throwing the man through the air to crash into a tree, and slamming into the earth, where he lay still. Tharkus tossed aside a bloody shape that had stayed in his grasp, and with blood dripping from his hands, picked up the child.

_This can't be right,_ Link thought, _If it was, he'd have just killed me then._

_No,_ Shaklator said, _Because I wouldn't let him. What he wanted from you was something much smaller._

Tharkus fished in a pocket on his robe and pulled out two items. The first was a small vial, and with a small knife, made a scratch on the child, just below the ribcage, and took a few drops of blood in the vial before placing a stopper in it, and held one hand over the scratch until it stopped bleeding.

The second item was a small crystal, cut in a rectangle, which he laid against the child's forehead, and a moment later, a soft blue glow appeared within its shape. Both items were returned to his pocket as he wrapped the child in the blanket once more, and looking up at the sound of a horse on the nearby path.

Tharkus moved quickly, out to the path, laying the child directly in the path before disappearing back into the woods. The horseman came around a bend, and stopped his horse when he saw that the source of the screaming was the child, and dismounted, moving over to the bundle.

Link realized it was Rusl, the swordsman from Ordon, and the one who had taught him swordplay. It was a much younger Rusl than he remembered, without gray in his hair, and fewer scars. Rusl picked the baby up, taking note of the blood on the cloth, and looking around, searching the forest for any movement, finally looking back down at the child in his arms.

_After taking you to the village, he and several other villagers would search the forest, but they did not find the bodies,_ Shaklator said, _Tharkus was very good at covering his tracks._

_Why did you do this?_ Link asked as the vision faded, darkness taking his vision once more.

_You were not the first,_ Shaklator said, _It was an experiment that has occurred with several generations. Some rose to the challenge, but lacked the qualities I desired, while others grew to become criminals, murderers, and madmen. Ours is a very colored family line._

Link's vision was clearing, and found himself again staring up at Shaklator, her boot on his chest as he lay on his back. "I was even starting to wonder if there was even any point in trying to hone my descendents," Shaklator said, "Especially after several of the truly world-changing heroes of Hyrule weren't even of my bloodline, while those that were wallowed as mercenaries and petty thieves. One thing that carried well through the generations was the wanderlust that permeates most of our family. We cannot sit still for long, and after much time in one area, will set out seemingly at random for distant parts of the world."

"So you're saying I'm descended from you?" Link asked, "That's all?"

Shaklator's smile vanished. "What do you mean 'that's all?'" she asked, "Four thousand years, countless generations, and you brush it off like nothing?"

"If you were hoping this would shake my beliefs, you've made a serious mistake," Link said.

A chuckle emerged from Shaklator's throat, and her smile returned. "You are a strong one, indeed," she said, "You resist beyond all reason! Don't you see that I am trying to help you? If you embrace what I offer, the world could be yours! The two of us could throw the gods themselves from their throne! You want to save the world? You could! You could make a new one! You could even bring your precious Midna back."

The name caused Link's expression to darken. "I'm warning you," he said, "Give her back to me right now…"

"Don't tell me you still think she's even here!" Shaklator said, "You're a smart boy, but incredibly thick sometimes. Her spirit has passed on to whatever afterlife awaited her. They don't come to the Void. She was _never_ here!"

"What…?"

"You've been following a lie, Link," Shaklator said, "And one that I didn't create. Look up."

Link turned his head, and found that he was laying on his back in the ruins of what looked like an ancient church, not the same he had been in on the way here, but before him, two massive stone statues towered over the pair, both greatly worn, but the unmistakable tome and quill of Eternity, the Goddess of Time, and the starry cloak of her twin, Infinity, God of Space, were still visible.

"That kind woman up there was the one pretending to be Midna, and told you to come here," Shaklator said, "I was trying to stop you, because it was pointless. There was nothing to find."

"She said I would find what I sought here," Link said.

"Just like a god," Shaklator said, "Isn't that how they always are in the stories? Ambiguous if not outright liars. So what you sought must not have been Midna herself, but the power to bring her back from the dead. The gods made those rules that the dead cannot return to life, and if you help me, Link, we can change that. Otherwise your only chance of saving her would be to change history itself."

Something snapped into place in Link's mind. He remembered his talks with the Hero of Time, about how the power to travel through time hadn't been from the Hero himself, but the Master Sword. "That's it," he whispered.

He almost felt like laughing maniacally. It had been staring him in the face the whole time and he hadn't seen it. He could use the Master Sword to go back to when she died, and stop it from happening! It had to work. He'd find a way to make it work.

But first he had to get out of here.

"Now, Link," Shaklator said, "I'm going far beyond what I should have, and am giving you one last chance. Join me. All you have to do is swear that you will not betray me, and accept token that will ensure your loyalty. And think carefully, because you do not have the ability to kill me in this place."

_You better gods damn work when I need you,_ Link thought toward the Triforce in his hand, _Because this is going to be ugly._

"Let me tell you something," Link said.

Shaklator leaned down, a small smile creeping onto her face. "What's that?"

"First, I take orders from _no one_!" he shouted, and swung a vicious left handed punch into her face.

Something reacted, as an explosion of gold sparks filled the air, and when the cleared, Shaklator had landed some distance away, rising to her feet shaking her head. Link rose to his feet, picking up his sword, and racing for her. Shaklator backstepped as he drew close, and a weapon appeared in her hand, a long, serrated blade with a shimmering and bubbling surface of red, looking very much like a sword made entirely of boiling blood.

"Second," Link said, "I only fight for what I believe in!"

Link pressed his attack, stepping forward and aiming a swing for her head, but she turned it with her blade, and moved, trying to ram him with her shoulder. Link dropped down, and with a crabwalk step, moved directly between her legs, coming up behind her and swinging upward, intending to cleave from her groin to her face. She stopped the blow by holding her blade horizontally low enough to catch his, then quickly stepped away, turning back toward him.

"No man or god, and certainly not you, controls my fate but me!" he shouted.

Shaklator smiled back at him. "So be it then. Time's up, and we have another guest to see to," she said.

She floated upward into the air, her sword vanishing as she moved away.

_Why would she back off so easily?_ Link thought, and turned to see what was going on.

At the far end of the church, holding a drawn sword, was a being like what Link saw each time he looked in a mirror, but with silver hair, and a menacing aura that seemed to darken the air around it.

The other was dressed identically to Link, complete with rusty chain mail and torn scraps of a tunic clinging in parts, and a sword with a blade as black as coal clutched in his hand.

He looked up at Link, and Link saw, even through the features so similar to his own, eyes with a wild viciousness and no temperance, and a smile that was the stuff of nightmares, all the violence behind it perfectly visible.

"Hello, Link," Zero said, "When we first met, I told you Shaklator wanted to see you perform. But you've disappointed her, and I get the prize."

Link firmed his grip on his sword, and readied himself.

"Don't worry so much about your precious Midna," Zero said, lifting his weapon, "I'll send you to her!"


	81. Chapter 80

**Chapter 80: Reflection in Blood**

Far to the west of the five kingdoms of Mystara, a single tower rose from a decimated land that surrounded it. As far as the horizons in all direction, no other landmarks existed in the desert, transformed from a tropical paradise by the magical catastrophe of the ancient war. Like insects, dark forms inhabited the grounds outside the tower, with more clinging to the tower's external walls, their flesh like black flowing cloth, clawed feet and bladed arms. Near the top of the tower, a single one, different from the rest, the strange flesh burned away, with six massive visible ribs along a narrow spine making up its torso, turned its single massive eye toward the inside, through a window at the top floor.

A single room at the peak of the tower, with only one entrance sane creatures could use, was completely empty but for two structures, the first being a massive block of obsidian on the far side from the stairs, extremely rare to find such a large, continuous piece of the black volcanic glass, and even more difficult to transport due to the weight. Nearly ten feet wide and twenty feet tall, the enormous block reached for the ceiling, nearly touching it, implying that it had not been moved there, but the room had been built around it.

The second, in the center of the chamber, was a half-circle frame, built specifically to house one of the most valuable, and dangerous artifacts discovered in ancient times, and now, for the first time, the Twilight Mirror rested in the frame, its mirrored surface aimed toward the obsidian block. This was necessary for the mirror was not a portal itself, but created a portal upon the surface of the obsidian.

From the stairs, a single figure entered the chamber, pushing back his hood and walking toward the mirror. Tharkus walked around to the front of the mirror, watching himself in the reflection. He reached out with one hand, sliding his fingers along the mirror's surface. Had he still been human, the surface would not feel as glass, being far to slick, and dark energies would have reached out, attempting to warp his body and mind.

Instead, he felt nothing. He had nothing to fear from the touch of the mirror, having twisted himself so long ago into what he was. Everything he had done had been to prepare for these moments. His ancient enemy turned ally at the end of the war, Shaklator, was the key for finally completing his vengeance upon Darius. Thakus mused about how the ancient war would never have happened if it hadn't been for what he'd seen that night. His practices in necromancy discovered, Tharkus intended to take his family and flee. But then, seeing Darius there, in his home, his clothes and hands covered in blood, and on the floor, Tharkus' wife and daughter, both dead in pools of their own blood.

Tharkus had intended to change the order of things. To remove those in power that allowed such an atrocity to happen, but had lacked the support to fight all five kingdoms, as well as Darius. Darius himself proved to be an idealist, constantly citing about what was "right" and the "greater good."

Tharkus had lost everything, including his revenge. Darius had passed forever beyond his reach, and now, the only way he could exact his revenge was to destroy everything Darius had held dear. With the Triforce, Shaklator had achieved a level of power never before seen upon their world, and only Darius' cleverness allowed him to defeat her. And now, the very tool Darius had used to ensure that victory would be used to unleash her once more.

Tharkus reached into a pocket and removed a small ring with a blue gemstone. He lifted the ring to the mirror, and for a moment, the gem on the ring began to glow. Around the edge of the mirror, twelve green runes began to glow behind the surface of the glass. Tharkus waved the ring to the side, and each of the runes wiped away, all becoming green squares which faded from view a moment later. Within the surface of the mirror itself, an image became clear.

The three pieces of the Triforce glowed a soft gold color within the surface. It was something passed over by so many others, but in truth it represented the seal which bound Shaklator from reentering the world. The barrier was not truly upon her, but upon the world itself, blocking entry for beings of power. It was easier to move smaller, mortal beings through the barrier than one such as she. Originally discovering that when one of the pieces of the Triforce weakened the barrier, Tharkus had intended to set off the others by using Kilishandra against Ganondorf.

While in the end, it succeeded in forcing Ganondorf to use the Triforce of Power against his golem, it had proven useless, as the Triforce of Courage's lock had restored. It would take all three being used to their full extent simultaneously to weaken the barrier sufficiently for this technique to be of any use.

Now, the weakened aspect of the barrier was the Triforce of Wisdom, and in a week or so, it would be restored as well. Not perfectly, however. Each time the barrier weakened, things on the other side attempted to force their way through, and fought to keep the footholds they'd gained. But it was like chipping at a brick wall with a table knife. Shaklator wasn't the only thing trying to force her way into the world. Nor had she been the first place he'd gone looking for help, but the other one was even less trustworthy than her.

The Twilight Mirror would allow easier access through the barrier, but only when the constellations aligned correctly, and caused the barrier to weaken further. There was power to be had in the celestial light of such a period, which occurred only once each four millennia. There would be a window of only a week, and Tharkus had traced it to the following spring. Just a few months away, and everything would come to an end.

But he had not lived so long by not having contingencies. Even if the mirror was lost, there remained other solutions. As he watched, the image of the Triforce faded from the mirror, and something else began to form within its surface. The ruins of an old church, the ceiling long since caved in, and wreckage of walls barely standing. Two large stone statues, their faces worn away stood over it all.

And two figures within, squaring off with weapons drawn. As he watched, he recognized the same face on both of them. A smile crept onto Tharkus' face. "We all have our demons, Link. Now it's time to face yours."

* * *

"Watch yourself, Zero," Shaklator said from high above the pair, "Remember that you are here merely in spirit, as he is. The two of you are identical, without your physical advantages."

"All the better," Zero said, holding his weapon low in one hand, and moving toward Link.

_Not exactly,_ Link thought, taking note of the weapon, _He's right-handed. Or ambidextrous. Let's hope it's the former._

When Zero made his move, it was sudden, and Link was nearly caught off guard by the mad charge, with a vicious forward swing of the black sword, but Link quickly stepped to the right, turning and stopping the blow with his weapon. Zero turned away, spinning on the spot and bringing his weapon around again from Link's right. Link ducked his head, the weapon whipping by overhead, and rammed his shoulder forward into Zero's chest, knocking him back a step, and bringing his own weapon upward. Zero stepped back again, leaning back as he did so, the tip of Link's sword barely nicking the chain of his armor.

Zero moved forward again to counter, only for Link to turn on the spot, carrying the momentum of his swing around, and slammed the pommel of his sword into Zero's face, causing him to cry out and stagger back several steps. The very concept of pain was something Zero had little experience with, the only previous time he had felt it had been when Zelda had stuck him with the Triforce of Wisdom in Tyr. His mind struggling to comprehend the agony as he fell back, and Link, seeing his opening, pressed forward.

Zero was able to get his sword up to block Link's stroke, but Link's right fist connected with the side of his face, sending him stumbling sideways, nearly falling to the stone floor. But the impact of the punch was more of a wake up, knocking him back to his senses, and as Link moved in again, Zero turned his sideways lurch into a spin, swinging his sword in a wide arc that forced Link to stop and back up.

"Oh, you're fast, all right," Zero said, regaining his balance after the swing, "But if we're the same here, so am I!"

Zero lunged again, lifting his sword with both hands, and bringing it down with a powerful stroke that caused Link to step back as he blocked it. Metal screeched as Zero drug his weapon off to the side, and reversed his motion, aiming for Link's side. Link quickly lowered his weapon, point down, to guard against it. As the metal collided again, Link stepped into Zero, landing a knee into his stomach, causing him to double over and step back again.

"You are not any physically stronger than he is!" Shaklator shouted down at Zero, "Stop trying to rely on brute strength!"

Zero glared up at her. "I'm the one doing this!" he shouted, "Stay out of it!"

"And here I thought you did what you were told," Link said, stepping back as he rolled the grip of his sword in his hand, securing a better grip.

Zero smiled. "It benefits me to work with her. She doesn't own me."

"What are you supposed to be, anyway?" Link asked, "My evil twin or something?"

"Far from it," Zero said, walking slowly to the side around Link, who kept his eyes locked on him, realizing how stupid it would be to let his guard down, "I am you, or more correctly, I am what you could have been, if didn't so vehemently resist what you are."

"If there's one thing I'm getting sick of, it's crazy people telling me what I am," Link said, "I know what I am."

"Do you?" Zero asked, "Look at yourself, standing right here. Every inch of you screams that you are a fighter, a killer, and yet you want to live an ordinary peasant life in a farm village? That rings hollow."

"You don't know me," Link said.

"I told you, Link, I _am_ you," Zero said, "You saw the memory, when Tharkus killed your parents. He collected a bit of your blood, as well as a fragment of your soul. That's what the gemstone was for. It was an insignificant piece, and the soul heals just as well, if not better than, the body. And it doesn't scar as easily. Not from direct wounds, anyway."

"And you really expecting me to believe that?" Link said, "That someone found a means to actually manipulate a person's soul?"

"But you've seen it already, Link," Shaklator said, appearing from the side, resting her back against a crumbling wall, "The very thing that makes flesh golems such insane monsters: The lack of a soul. It is an abomination of nature for such a creature to exist, driving them mad with endless pain. You've seen Tharkus himself. The first success he had was transferring his own soul into the body of a flesh golem. It's how he's survived all these years. Such a creature does not age, so long as it has enough flesh and blood to feed from. It also does not experience the endless pain just by existing."

This was as Darius himself had told Link. "That still doesn't explain him," Link said, pointing at Zero.

"An experiment," Shaklator said, "Tharkus believed he could use a smaller piece of another's soul to create a perfect copy, so he came to me, and I helped him find you. It worked even better than we imagined."

She gestured to Zero. "Once placed in the golem's body, grown from your blood, the fragment also began to grow, regenerating if you will. In the end, except for his physical form, which like all flesh golems, is highly resistant to damage, immune to pain, and possesses physical strength beyond your wildest imaginings, Zero is identical to you. But he had a much more controlled upbringing than you. While he is similarly hard to control, he is more inclined to listen than you are."

"I've had a long time to think about what I am, Link," Zero said, "Unlike you, I embrace what I am, including my very nature. I am not human. This does not concern me, because I represent a new start for this world. Once the reshaping of the world is complete, there will be more like myself created. We shall be the new dominant species of this world. And as for mankind, they will be to us what cattle are to them."

"You're insane," Link said, "Just like Tharkus. Darius told me all about the effects of an existence like that. Hunger, thirst, neither can be sated. Sure you're immune to pain, but then what does pleasure even mean? I don't think it's possible to experience the good parts of life without the bad. You just simply exist. That's not the same as being alive."

"Creatures like you are driven by emotion," Zero said, "Creatures like me can move beyond that, nothing but logic, and we can craft a world like you can't possibly imagine. Every step you took to reach this place was out of a mistaken belief that you could save a dead woman. Even now, you can't let her go. You keep placing her before everything else. That is why you will lose this in the end. Your emotions are a weakness. Chains that hold you down, which I do not suffer from."

"Really?" Link said, "Because with the look in your eyes when you look at me, I'd say you've got hatred down well enough. Plus your ego is giving Ganondorf a run for his money."

Zero suddenly lunged at Link, aiming a swing toward his neck. Link leaned back, the blade whistling past his face, and stepped forward, aiming a counter toward Zero's torso. Zero managed to bring his weapon back, catching Link's stab and turning it under his arm. Link caught him off guard by releasing the grip on his weapon, and pulled his left hand back, and unleashed a punch with everything he had in his strong arm, turning his shoulder to add even more force, striking Zero directly in the jaw.

There was a loud pop of flesh impacting, and Zero's feet were lifted into the air, spinning to his own left and turning over in the air before landing face down on the stone floor. Link snatched up his sword from where it fell, and moved after him, intending to finish it. He turned the blade over in his hand, aiming it down toward Zero's back. Zero rolled away as the tip of the blade struck stone, and lifted his legs up to springboard himself back up. Link raised his sword to guard himself, but Zero backed away, shaking his head, trying to clear his vision.

Link moved in quickly. This time it was Zero to catch him off-guard, sidestepping his thrust and with one foot, catching Link's ankle and sweeping his feet forward, toppling him back onto the floor. Link leaned his head forward to avoid cracking his skull on the stone as he crashed onto his back. Looking up, he quickly leaned his head to his right, the blade of Zero's sword striking into the stone floor next to his ear.

As Zero lifted the blade for another strike, Link lashed out with one leg, ripping Zero's feet from underneath him, sending him sprawling over Link's chest. Link left his sword lying, sitting up quickly as he lifted Zero, who attempted to strike with his sword, but being so close could get no real force behind it, and Link easily caught his wrist, slamming it down to the floor and breaking his grip on the sword. As Zero tried to rise, Link snaked out one arm, getting it around Zero's throat, pulling him back against his chest. Link's elbow lodged under Zero's chin, he pulled back harder, even grabbing his own wrist with his other hand and pulling back on it.

"If you're a golem, must not be fun having all the same weaknesses as me here, huh?" Link asked, as Zero struggled, unable to respond with any sound.

Zero struck back with his elbow into Link's chest. Link grunted, but held his grip. Zero then rocked his head back with everything he had, striking Link in the face. The impact dazed Link, and his grip slipped. Zero pulled away, slipping from his grasp, snatching up his weapon as he stepped away.

Link scooped up his sword even as Zero spun, bringing the blade up to stop Zero's strike, the weapons locking together, their faces only inches apart. In Zero's eyes, Link could see an uncontrolled rage, hell bent on his own destruction.

"What did I do to make you hate me so much?" Link asked.

"Nothing but exist," Zero said, "Do you not yet understand? We are the same. And when you die, I will be the only one. I will be the real 'Link,' and I will drag the world into a new era."

"You better stop messing around, then," Link said, "I'm not the kind to go quietly."

* * *

Ralthas didn't look up from his desk when there was a knock at the door. "It's open," he said, dipping a pen in the inkwell to sign his name on the paper before him.

Sheila entered the room, gently closing the door. Ralthas finally look up, and laid aside his pen, stepping out of his seat and moving around the desk.

"You wanted to see me?" Sheila asked, and was cut short as he crossed the room and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her to him.

"Silviana told me what happened," he said, "I should have gone with you."

"We're all okay," Sheila said, "And Riven was able to mend my arms, so I'll be fine."

"How do you feel?" Ralthas asked, stepping back but holding onto her shoulders as he looked down at her.

"Well, not any slight on Riven, but my arms are still sore," she said, "They're going to be for a while, but I'll be fine…"

"Not that," Ralthas said, "Silviana told me what you saw in Tyr. Are you okay?"

Sheila sighed. "It wasn't even what I'd call a bad dream," she said, "It was something from a nightmare. All those people, even the children, just gone."

"Here," Ralthas said, "Sit down, and I'll get you something to drink."

He motioned her to one of the seats in front of his desk, and moved to the other side, opening the bottom drawer on the right hand side, removing a half-full bottle of scotch and a short glass, pouring some into it before sliding it across the desk to her.

"You still keep that there?" Sheila said, accepting the glass but not lifting it from the wood, "I wish you wouldn't do this to yourself."

"Like I said, Silviana told me what you saw up there," Ralthas said, setting the bottle on the desk and sitting back in his chair, "I hope it's easier for you to forget than some of the things I've seen."

"Is it about Mother?" Sheila asked, "You've drank for as long as I can remember. Karen told me you didn't start until after she died."

Ralthas' eyes opened, somewhat surprised. "No," he said, "Your mother… Maria… She was a wonderful person. I don't regret a moment I spent with her."

Ralthas tapped his fingers on the desk for a moment, considering for a moment. "There is something I never told you, thought I probably should have," he said, "Your mother wasn't what you might think."

"She was human," Sheila said, matter-of-factly.

Ralthas looked up at her. "How did you…?"

"Karen told me when I was thirteen," Sheila said, and smiled softly, "She thought it was pointless to keep a secret."

"That nanny apparently told you a lot of things," Ralthas said, "But you have to understand. You were probably too young to remember it, but for an elf to marry a human back then was something our kind looked down upon, especially because of the dwindling numbers of our race. Look around today, there's maybe a hundred of us left in the entire world. That's why I decided to keep it a secret, not just from you, but from everyone. And it would give you an easier life."

"Did you love her?" Sheila asked.

"Of course I did," Ralthas said, "I still do. It's been three centuries since she died, and I still can't imagine myself with anyone else."

Sheila shrugged. "Then I don't see a problem, but I still don't want you to drink yourself to death over it."

"No," Ralthas said, staring at the bottle of scotch, "That's something else. When your mother died, I tried to move on, burying myself in my work to put aside my grief, at least for a time. Slavery had been outlawed at last just a few years before in the five kingdoms, and I was a Field Judge at the time, working with local city guards to track down the remaining trade rings trying to slip under the law. Most of them were cut and dry, break into the underground auction houses, arrest everyone there, and free the slaves, either returning them to their families, or sending them home, if they were foreigners.

"I was an idealist back then," he went on, "My main thought was protecting the innocent people by arresting the criminals. That was how things worked. But then an incident with a particular noble changed my attitude about a lot of things. There was a noble here in Darimar that was actually a friend of mine. He'd been one of the biggest supporters of the judges and guard in stamping out slavery. Another judge, higher ranking than me, turned up with a witness who claimed this noble was holding slaves for auction beneath his estate outside the city.

"I refused to believe it, and defended my friend. This judge, Michael was his name, invited me to come with him to search, and if he was wrong, offered to surrender and let me arrest him for abuse of his power. He was that sure of it."

Ralthas paused a moment, turning the scotch bottle idly with one finger. "We sent no warning of the search, instead arriving at his estate with a detachment of the guard. And what we found under the estate was much worse than just slave pens. There were torture chambers running the length of the estate, with every implement you can imagine, and a few I had never even heard of before. And many were in use."

"What was he trying to do?" Sheila asked.

"That's just it," Ralthas said, "He wasn't trying to accomplish anything. He was purchasing slaves from underground dealers, and then just… using them. The man was a sadist to a degree I had never seen. What's more, he tried to justify it all. Most of the prisoners down there were dark elves. He claimed he had done no wrong, and he believed it, because the Dra'thul, ever since the war, when they fought with Arkanus and the usurpers, they had, as a people, been denied most of the rights others take for granted. He felt they were less than human, so to speak, and he had every right to do what he would with them."

"And what did you do?"

"Probably one of the dumbest moves of my career," Ralthas said, "I didn't even bother giving him his rights. I took my sword, and I cut his head off, on the spot. If it had been any judge other than Michael with me, they would have arrested me on the spot, since I had just killed an unarmed man, completely ignoring the proper procedures.

"Anyway, we freed the survivors from the contraptions, about fifteen in all. So many had died in the machines and then just left there. I can't ever forget what I saw that day. The fact a man I had considered a friend was capable of such acts… It chilled me right to the bone. But what really got to me was when we were going through the pens at the far end, they were empty, except for one person.

"A dark elf girl, no more than eleven or twelve years old, was huddled in a small cage without enough room for her to even stand. She shied away from us when we approached, and I could see she didn't even have clothes, but other than the brand on her shoulder, she didn't have any marks of physical abuse, or at least, I didn't see any until we had her out of the cage and in the light."

Ralthas glanced at Sheila. "I'll spare you the details, but I don't think it takes much to understand what we knew when we saw dried blood on the inside of her thighs."

"Dear gods," Sheila whispered, "What kind of monster does that to a little girl?"

"I never found out if it was the noble or one of his guards," Ralthas said, "But a little interrogation found that most of his estate guards knew about the chambers beneath the estate, and even took part in what went on down there. I wanted them locked up where they'd never see the light of day again, but most received what seemed more merciful. They were beheaded in the largest mass execution I've ever seen. And I hope to never see it again."

"What happened to the girl?" Sheila asked.

"The judges are not a shelter organization," Ralthas said with a sigh, "When no family could be found, she was turned over to an orphanage. It was by no means a bad place. Funded by the crown, and all the children there were guaranteed to be fed, clothed, and receive a full education. About a month afterward, I found some free time to go check on her. She was the only dark elf in the orphanage, and wasn't making friends, usually off by herself. Which didn't improve matters with the other children. She became the target of their teasing, and when I arrived, I saw them throwing rocks at her in the yard."

He gave a weak smile. "Sometimes children can be the cruelest of all. Looking back on it, I should have taken her out of there right then. She'd have been much better off in our home, with you and Karen. But I was worried again, about the way others would perceive it. The judge with a half-elf daughter, and adopting a dark elf girl. It would not have won friends among the nobles. And then I wouldn't have had to choose. I kept going back to see her, instead of spending time with you, like a real father would have. I was careful to keep my visits secret from those was concerned about. After a few months, she finally started talking to me. I'd taken her out of the city, it was a sunny day, and I wanted to try to take her fishing. I think it was being out in the open like that that finally made her open up. She couldn't remember anything before the time she'd been locked in that cage.

"I expanded from there, going to different locations, and teaching her about wildlife. She especially loved being out in the forest," he paused again, and sighed, "I've never told anyone else about this, Sheila. I'm really sorry that I wasn't around more for you."

"Hey," Sheila said with a smile, "I think I turned out okay. From the sound of it, that girl really needed you. Do you know where she is now?"

"Yes," Ralthas said, "In fact you've known her for a while now."

"You mean Silviana?" Sheila said, "I'd never have made that connection. She's always such a cheerful person."

"Considering what she'd gone through, she made an excellent recovery," Ralthas said, "And when she showed an interest in martial training, I kept an eye on her, and in spite of everything, she was an intelligent, good hearted person. So much so that I recommended her to become a judge.

"You could say that about this time was when I was finally getting past the illusion that respect from the nobles was I needed," he went on, "The numbers of judges were already dwindling, and that was the argument I used to convince the others to look past her skin color. And considering the tests and training to become a judge have an eighty percent attrition rate for even those recommended, it was all the more remarkable when she passed them all."

"She never mentioned she was a judge," Sheila said, "Though that does explain a few things about her."

"I've deviated a fair ways from the original topic, but I've explained that," Ralthas said, "I've never stopped having nightmares of what I saw beneath that estate. It got to where the drink was all that would drive the images away."

Sheila leaned forward, taking the bottle from him and sliding it across the desk to the far corner from him. "Don't you see it, though?" she asked, "You don't need it. That little girl was strong enough to put it behind her. I've never once seen a moment of weakness in her, even when I've been terrified out of my wits. If she can do it, I know you can."

"Sheila, I'm over nine centuries old," Ralthas said, "I've been drinking for nearly three of them. My time is almost up. I've lived my life, poorly, but I'm nearly done."

"And why cut that shorter?" Sheila asked, "I don't want to be without you yet. I want you to be around to hold your grandchild in the future."

Ralthas suddenly looked up. "Are you…?" he started to ask.

"No, not like that," Sheila said, her face growing hot and cheeks turning red, "But sometime in the future. After the war."

"If we survived, that is," Ralthas said.

"We will," Sheila said, "And you'll know why as soon as this trip to Tyr pays off and we get Link back."

"I hardly think one man can make so much a difference," Ralthas said.

Sheila rose to her feet, turning and walking toward the door. "You will," said as she walked, stopping at the door and looking back at him, "You haven't been around him as long as I have. I don't know how best to describe it, but Link has this incredible feeling around him. It's like when he's around, you just know you're safe. That everything is going to be all right. It's the same reason I know we'll get him back. When he sets his mind to something, there's nothing on this earth that can stop him."

As she pulled open the door, she stopped again. "Please, just think about what I said."

Ralthas nodded, and she pulled the door shut as she left the room. Ralthas sighed, glancing at where she had left the bottle, on the corner of his desk, just out of reach. As he stood up and leaned over the desk to pick it up, he noticed the cup he had poured her, sitting on desk near her seat, where she had left it without ever taking a drink.

He looked again at the bottle, now in his hand. With a nod to no one but himself, he pulled the stopper, and upended it, pouring the contents onto the floor.

* * *

"You think that little book is going to help?" Alex asked as he walked along an upper level of the castle, looking out at the snow blanketed city between the crenulations.

"Of course it will," Silviana said, stepping along the crenulations themselves, occasionally kicking snow from them toward hapless guards on the levels below, "At the worst, it will confirm it is of no help, and no more time will be wasted on it."

"And we're just back to sitting on our hands," Alex grumbled.

"You need to learn some patience," Silviana said, "I realize impatience in humans stems from their shorter lifespan than elves, but you can't exactly go to do anything until the roads clear in spring."

"And speak of the devil," Alex muttered as a snowflake hit his cheek, and he looked up to see more falling from the clouded sky, "I'd heard about Darimar winters, but never been caught in one before."

"Look on the bright side," Silviana said, "Our enemies can't attack us either. If they did, their supply trains would be sorely taxed, not to mention the near impossibility of getting enough firewood to keep an army warm out there in the weather."

"That's something that keeps bugging me," Alex said, "I thought you lived in the forest. You seem to be awfully knowledgeable about things like military strategy and even medicine."

"Women's intuition?"

"Is that why history's greatest military minds are all men?"

"I guess you're right," Silviana said, smiling, "Something as stupid as war had to be invented by a man."

"Hey, now that's uncalled for," Alex said, "I might look tough and masculine on the outside, but I cry on the inside like everyone else."

"Aw, does baby need a snuggle?"

"Second," Alex said, turning to her, "Are you just following me around to make fun of me?"

"Would it make you feel better if I said no?"

Alex moved toward her, quickly snatching her cloak and yanking her from the crenulations. She crashed into him on the way down, and he caught her around the waist, backing up only a single step as he caught her weight. Their faces almost touching, he smiled. "I'm starting to think you're getting attached to me," he said.

Silviana smiled softly, putting her arms around his neck. "You think so, do you?"

Alex looked into her eyes, the deep purple depths filled with good humor, but always that sign that she knew more than she was letting on. He leaned closer to her, their lips nearly touching as he held her close. He was suddenly interrupted as she pulled the hood of his cloak over his head and down in front of his face.

She was laughing as she squirmed from his grasp, and he lifted his hood to see her backing away, in her new white clothes and cloak, nearly vanishing into the snow. "You're making it too easy," she said.

"And you really are just making fun of me," he said, walking past her toward the door back inside, "You're more like an annoying insect than an elf."

"Buzz," she said as he walked past.

* * *

Zelda entered the storage chamber on the first floor, just off the main hall, where at the back of the room, the stone form of Link waited. She stepped softly, as if afraid to wake him, until she came closer, and lifted an oil lantern from a shelf, turning the choke and clicked the striker, causing it to leap into life. The statue was exactly as she remembered, Link's hands clenched into fists, his face contorted in rage.

"Seems like you've been gone a long time," she said, "Two weeks without you seems like an eternity."

She sat the lantern on the floor, sinking down to the stone to sit cross-legged. "I've come to realize something, during your absence," she said, "You've already done so much for me, for my kingdom. And for so many people you will never know. All without asking for anything in return.

"I became reliant on you. I expected you to always be around, to fix the problems. The more I think about it, the more I see the comparison to Hyrule of old, when the Hero of Time did not appear, and the kingdom vanished beneath the Great Flood for nearly five hundred years. They expected to be saved, and because of that, did nothing to save themselves.

"This short time without you has been a wake up call for me. I can't depend on one person to solve all the problems in the world. I'm supposed to be a leader, and the only real decision I've made in my life nearly doomed us all. I surrendered to Zant out of fear. Had you been in my place, I know you would have fought to the end. Even if it did end with our deaths, the least we could do would be to make such an end that the gods themselves would sing of it for millennia to come. But you would have also not been foolish. You would have retreated, let them have the castle, and taken it back once you'd amassed the forces you needed.

"I've always thought that the tradition of Hyrule to be led by a princess, rather than a king or queen, was in defiance to the fact the only king it has ever known allowed Ganondorf, and the seven years of darkness, to arise, because he refused to see it coming. But now I believe it was because those that followed feared that the same thing would happen, due to power blinding them to what was happening. And this fear has permeated our royal family for four thousand years."

She rose to her feet, looking at the statue. "You've always kept your word to me, Link. So now I'm going to make you a promise. Regardless of what happens, I am going to stand up and take control like I should have a long time ago. I'm tired of being the scared princess, depending on others to protect her.

"When we return to Hyrule, the kingdom shall have its first queen. And I intend to make sure she is worthy of that title."

She picked up the lamp, turning back toward the door. "Spying on me?" she asked.

"You're as perceptive as Mur'neth said," responded Vargus, as the ninja stepped from the darkened corner of the room, where he had been all but invisible in his dark clothing.

"You were his second-in-command, if I remember correctly" Zelda asked.

"I was," Vargus said, pushing back his hood and pulling down the mask hiding his face, revealing the short white hair, and a face weathered by age with skin toughened like leather, "Events for the moment have made us allies. It was Mur'neth's with that we aid the people of this kingdom, and we are obliged to do so."

"So I've heard," Zelda said, "I haven't seen your men around, though."

"We keep a low profile," Vargus said, "The people of this city aren't eager to trust us. Out of sight, out of mind."

"So why were you spying on me?" Zelda asked.

"Not spying, in the sense of stealing information or seeking weaknesses," Vargus said, "I would call it observing for the moment. The reason I am doing so is that, once the war is over, we will either be dead, or myself and my men will be traitors to our home. As the highest ranking member of our force, I have a responsibility to plan for their future."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"I've heard that you rule a kingdom far from these shores," Vargus said, "A land where distrust of a race does not exist, and every member of your sovereignty is judged by their merits, rather than their skin color. And I believe that you may find value in the services we are capable of providing."

* * *

In the inner courtyard, some distance into the castle, sheltered from the weather, preparations continued. The massive chamber was filled with groups of trainees, involved in tasks as simple as marching in formation, to dueling in the heavily used practice rings. King Rigdar and Prince Richard watched one of the rings, the old king shaking his head when one of the recruits through himself completely off balance with an overzealous lunge, but even more disappointing, his opponent did nothing to capitalize on the opening.

"It could be worse," Richard said to his father, "We could be going to fight tomorrow like this."

"One thing I've learned over the years," the king said, "Never say 'it could be worse,' because it usually gets worse."

As they watched, someone approached from the outer area of the courtyard. "Your majesty, my prince," Sheila said, and Richard glanced toward her as she curtsied.

Suddenly his attention was gone from the trainees as he moved toward her, and without for her to reacted, hugged her tightly. "I was worried about you," he whispered, "I'm sorry I couldn't come see you, but we have so much to do."

"It's okay," Sheila said as he released her, "I'm going to fine. My arms are still sore, but that should be gone in a few weeks. I'm actually looking for Ganondorf."

"Why? What could you have to talk to him for?" Richard asked.

"Well, Riven is translating Darius' journal," Sheila said, "I wanted to see if he's made any progress with that seal. And if there is anything I can do to help."

Richard turned and pointed to the far side of the practice rings. "He's over there, with that sorceress. I think they're sparring."

"Thanks," she said, "I appreciate it."

"Hey," Richard caught her hand as she started to leave, "What's the rush? Rive said it's going to take at least till tomorrow to translate what the wizard wants."

"I know," Sheila said, "But we're so close right now, and I want to see if there is anything I can do."

"I'll fix that," Richard said, "Dinner with me tonight."

Sheila smiled at him. "That's sweet. I'd love to, but I don't think I could keep my mind from wandering. Maybe some other time? How about this, I promise I'll dance with you first at the New Year's Festival."

"That's two months away!" Richard said.

"Maybe we can work something else out in the meantime," Sheila said, "Now, if you'll excuse me. Your majesty," she added, and the king responded with a nod of his head, and she turned to walk toward the far practice rings.

Richard watched her go, and sighed. "Should have went to see her as soon as they got here."

Sheila spotted them at the far side of the room, with several empty rings between them and the trainees. Ganondorf and Kilishandra, both armed with blunted training swords, squaring off in the ring. Kilishandra was outfitted in the protective padding worn by trainees during such practice, while Ganondorf, probably for lack a fitting suit, had gone shirtless.

It didn't seem to be bothering him much. While Kilishandra was sweating, her hair matted down by the wetness, he still looked fresh, and wasn't even breathing hard as Kilishandra charged him, and their weapons clashed several times before she backed off, evading a strike toward her torso.

Sheila remembered what she had seen him do while they were alone in the temple north of Darimar. He had to be holding back his immense strength to avoid hurting her. As she watched, Kilishandra moved in again, their weapons collided once, and the dark elf side stepped, slipping around his side under his immense arm, turning as she did so to get a spinning blow toward his back.

Incredibly fast for one so massive, Ganondorf spun, stopping her sword with his own, and aiming a backhand swing of his free hand toward her head. She dropped, his fist passing over head, as one of her legs scythed out, striking him in the back of one knee, causing him to drop down. As she rose to her feet, she raised her sword to strike for his shoulder.

Using his low position, Ganondorf sprang for her, tackling her with a shoulder to her midsection and dragging her down to the ground. As he sat up, his weight on her chest, Sheila saw him raise one fist into the air.

"No!" she shouted, but the blow came down. It took a moment for Sheila to realize what happened. Ganondorf's fist had struck the thin padding on the floor next to Kilishandra's head, not harming her. Sheila realized, in that position, the man's fist was as large as Kilishandra's head. Just thinking about the kind of force a punch from the enormous mountain of a man was a frightening though.

"What do you want?" Ganondorf asked as he climbed to his feet, and offered one hand to help Kilishandra up.

"I wanted to ask how much progress you made with that seal," Sheila said.

"Enough for today," Ganondorf said, "I'll work on it tomorrow. Hopefully with a guide."

Kilishandra moved to the side the ring, picking up a towel from the floor to wipe off her face and neck.

"In that case, I also want to ask you to help me improve my spell casting."

Ganondorf turned enough to look at her out of the corner of his eye. Then he smiled and gave a soft chuckle. "That's a good one."

"I'm serious," Sheila said, "I was just in a near death experience, which could have gone completely differently if I were a better magician. I want you to teach me."

"It took me the better part of three thousand years to reach the level of power I possess," Ganondorf said, "I don't think you have that long."

"I don't want to be as powerful as you," Sheila said, "I just want to increase our combined might as much as possible before the fighting starts for real. Kilishandra, he trained you, didn't he?"

"He did," Kilishandra said.

"She also has a natural talent for magic like I've never seen," Ganondorf said, pointing at Kilishandra, "She was manipulating elements without even realizing it. If I didn't train her, she'd have been a danger to herself and everyone around her for lack of control. You do not have that talent."

"I'm the best sorceress Mystara has seen in nearly five hundred years!" Sheila said.

"Congratulations," Ganondorf said, "You're queen of the hedge-wizards! When I was your age, a wizard at your level of ability was a student, or ashamed of himself."

"So help me learn," Sheila said.

"No," Ganondorf said, turning away from her, "Now go pester someone else."

It was like arguing with a brick wall. Sheila shook her head, starting to turn to leave, and noticed Kilishandra watching her, her hands resting on her weapon, the tip on the ground.

"If you really want, I can probably teach you a few things," Kilishandra said.

"Don't waste your time," Ganondorf said.

Ignoring him, Sheila turned to Kilishandra. "I'd appreciate it."

"We'll start first thing in the morning," Kilishandra said.

"Why are you doing this?" Ganondorf asked, "If you're just trying to piss me off, you're going to have to try harder."

"She's friends with the princess," Kilishandra said, "Don't forget, in my current situation, she could convince Zelda to order me to help her, and then I wouldn't have a choice."

Ganondorf shook his head, turning away from them and walking several paces, muttering, "Gods damn it," before turning back, pointing at Sheila. "Fine, you'll get what you want. But not until _after_ we're done with the seal. I'll teach you then, and if I think for even one moment that you're not giving me everything you've got, it's over. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," Sheila said.

Ganondorf growled, glancing at Kilishandra, and pointed at her as a small smile formed on her face. "Don't do it," he said, "Don't you laugh, don't even smile. You're going to be there, too. It's time to whip you back into shape."

He turned and stomped away from them, scooping up his shirt from the floor as he passed. Sheila turned back to Kilishandra. "Thank you," she said.

"We'll see if you still feel that way later," Kilishandra said with a smile.

* * *

Link and Zero lunged at each other once more, their weapons clashing, and Link leaned away as Zero swung with his empty fist toward his face, countering with a low punch to Zero's stomach, knocking the wind from him, only for Zero to grab him by the wrist, pulling close and delivering a vicious headbutt that filled Link's vision with stars. Beyond the fog, Lick saw a long, dark shape rise up, and sidestep as Zero's sword came down again, missing him by inches, and Link lifted his left knee directly into Zero's stomach, doubling him over, and raised his own sword in both hands, aiming for the neck. Zero rolled forward, escaping the swing and rising to his feet, turning to face Link several feet away.

_He's getting the hang of fighting like me,_ Link thought, _Fast learner. I need to put him down now._

Without waiting for Zero to steady himself, Link dashed toward him. He aimed his sword for a high swing, but this was merely the distraction, as Zero's blade came up to stop the blow, Link stepped his right foot forward, hooking it behind Zero's leg and tripped him, sending Zero toppling downward as he grabbed Zero's chain shirt at the collar, stepping even closer, and shoving downward as he knelt down, inserting one knee under Zero's back.

There was a vicious cracking sound and scream from Zero as his spine snapped in two on Link's knee.

Link shoved Zero away, who rolled off Link's knee to land facedown on the ground as Link stood up. Zero tried to force himself up, but found his legs would not respond. "How…?" he groaned, trying again.

"I guess since both of us are here in spirit, leaving our bodies behind," Link said, "I guess the soul creates a new body, like they're supposed to be. For all your bluster, your soul, which I still refuse to believe is the same as mine, creates a body like human beings are supposed to have. That golem body you're used to is unnatural, to the point even your soul rejects it in this place."

Zero looked up, seeing Shaklator, her arms crossed, leaning against the wall where she had watched the fight. "Help me," he said, trying to crawl toward her.

She watched him for a moment, then turned to Link. "Finish him off," she said.

"What?" Zero started, and looked up at Link.

Link's grip visibly tightened on his sword, as the blade rose before him, and then stopped, Link's eyes on the blade itself.

"What are you waiting for?" Shaklator said, "Kill him. You know he would kill you, were he in your place now."

Link's thoughts were in conflict right then. He knew he should finish Zero off, here where he was vulnerable. If allowed to escape, he could return, in that flesh golem form, with the same nigh-invulnerability and inhuman strength possessed by Tharkus and other such creatures. And yet, that was what Shaklator wanted. She had admitted to trying to make him into something he didn't wish to be. She would have him become as vicious and terrible as this monster laying helpless before him.

She insisted that he embrace and use the Triforce in his possession, to become a being of power. He had seen Ganondorf at his worst, and more than anything, was terrified he'd become just as terrible if he did so. But he had also recently seen the man help them, as well. He'd even spared the life of the man who'd kidnapped Zelda, and potentially made him an ally.

Link had come this far, believing he could save Midna from the terrible fate he'd witnessed. He could almost see her now, so close, but still out of reach. A possible solution he had, but only if he managed to get out of here alive. With Zero dealt with, there was still one massive obstacle between him and freedom.

He hadn't even had a chance to test her strength before she stopped the fight a few moments ago, but like Darius had said, this was a woman who was as close to being a goddess as a mortal being could be, and was so close that it made no difference to them.

But as Link looked down at Zero now, he saw fear in his copy's eyes, something that Zero had clearly never before experienced.

"If it's me or him, the choice is easy," Link said, and turned away from Zero, "But he's already dealt with. I'm no murderer, and you can't make me one."

"So be it," Shaklator said, "Zero shall be returned to his body, where he will live on, and will make your loved ones suffer in your place."

Link looked back, to see Zero had become transparent, and was gradually fading away. The same wicked smile as when he had first appeared had returned to his face. "I hope you live through this, Link," her whispered, "I'd hate to not be able to crush the life from you with my own arms."

He faded away, disappearing entirely.

"And now it's just the two of us," Shaklator said, stepping away from the wall.

Link looked again at the white blade of his sword. The weapon supposed to be able to destroy this woman, if he could only do enough damage to her. But even then, she was far more powerful than he. Link reached up to his neck with his free hand, touching the pendant he wore. The small emerald, cut in the shape of a star, still glowed faintly and felt warm to the touch. The gift meant for Midna, which he had never found a chance to give her.

It was time to make a decision, he told himself. If he was to have a chance to survive this, he couldn't afford to hold himself back any longer.

"There's always a little light in the darkness," he whispered, remembering the Hero of Time's words. It was more than just an analogy. He had seen it himself, from the odd behavior of Ganondorf, to the very weapon he now held hidden away in an unnatural, all consuming blackness.

The words of the skeletal figure of the Hero of Winds, among the many encounters they had the previous year, rang through his mind, one of the last and most prominent came up from his memory. "All the techniques and training do not change one single fact: A sword is but a tool, wielded by whomever may lift it. It is the warrior that is truly the weapon, and if his resolve breaks, no sword in the world will save him."

"There are no heroes of villains here," Link said to himself, "Only those who are willing to do what must be done to survive, and those who are not."

And thus did Link, for the first time, embrace the legend of the Triforce he possessed, and made a wish, as the legend spoke, for himself. "Give me the power," he said, lifted his sword high in the air, the Triforce symbol on his hand leaping to life and glowing brightly, illuminating the surrounding area with gold light, "Give me the strength to live on, to save myself, and those I've promised to protect."

Shaklator took a step back, looked up, for a moment, an expression of uncertainty crossing her features as behind Link, the statues of Eternity and Infinity reacted, the Goddess of Time's eyes glowing white, and light dancing across her tome and quill, while the stars upon the God of Space's cloak illuminated, as his eyes did so, and before them, smaller images of three women, with skin of gold, eyes glowing red, blue, and green, moved up behind Link, before fading away, and the lights upon the statues dying away, and the glow of the Triforce of Courage itself faded away.

Shaklator looked back at Link, who turned his eyes toward her. Without a word, he leaped toward her, crossing the fifteen feet between them in a single bound, and she quickly raised her weapon to stop his blow. With a vicious shove, she sent him flying backwards, to land back where he started, dropping low as he skid further back along the floor.

"You still have no clue what you're up against," Shaklator said, "You're going to regret this."

"I'm going to do what Darius should have done eight thousand years ago," Link said, "One way or another, this is coming to an end!"


	82. Chapter 81

Now, back to Bulletstorm. Must find ever more inventive ways to torture my foes...

**Chapter 81: ****The Fallen Hero****: Shaklator**

It was just past midnight, and the castle was silent, save for the knock on a door in the guest quarters on the east side. The Archmage Riven held a number of loose sheets of paper on one hand, beating on the door with the other.

"Somebody better be dead," Ganondorf growled past the door as he pulled it open from the inside.

"You said you wanted it as soon as I was finished, and I quote, 'regardless of when it is,'" Riven said, holding the papers up, and Ganondorf accepted them with a growl, and leafed through them.

"This looks good," he said, "Just have to reverse the order in the list to undo the circle."

He looked up at Riven. "You're still here? You want a treat or something?"

Riven growled as Ganondorf shut the door, disappearing back into the room. He had thought about waiting until morning, but had decided to ruffle the wizard's feathers. He definitely hadn't made a friend, but he doubted Ganondorf would try anything foolish.

He started down the hall, pausing to glance back when he heard the door open again behind him. Ganondorf had emerged, fully clothed now, and started off in the opposite direction, turning a corner and making his way through several halls before stopping before another door, and beat on it with his fist. A moment later, the door creaked open, revealing Zelda standing within, holding a robe shut with one hand as she looked out.

"What do you want?" she asked, seeing Ganondorf standing outside her door.

"Get dressed," Ganondorf said, "If I'm going to be rescuing your little hero, you're damn sure going to help."

* * *

"Okay," Link said to himself, watching Shaklator standing some distance from him, "Not sure what that did to me exactly, but let's hope it's enough."

Shaklator was ready for him, her stance unusual compared to most fighters Link had seen, her knees half bent into a low position, but she held her weapon in one hand out to the side, leaving her body fully exposed, yet Link's first thought was it was a style intended to trap foolishly aggressive attackers by feigning weakness.

It gave him a clear look at the weapon itself. It wasn't simply a red blade of dyed metal, but as he watched, the surface seemed to flow over itself, and occasionally bubbled, as if it weren't metal at all, but some kind of vicious liquid.

She clearly was not going to make the first move, but Link didn't dare turn his back to her, either. His only option was to try to turn her trap to his advantage. Watching for her counter, he lunged for her. With a single leap, he crossed the distance between them, and as he expected, her weapon came up, aiming for him as he closed in. Link turned, stopping her blade with his own as he crashed his shoulder into her chest. She didn't step back from the impact, and Link felt like he'd just collided with a brick wall. He lifted one elbow, aiming for her face. She grabbed his hair in her free hand and yanked to her side, sending him to the floor on his back.

He managed to avoid cracking his skull, but the next thing he saw was her armored foot coming down toward his face. He rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the impact, as the metal boot crushed the stone beneath it, sending a spider web of cracks out in the floor around it, and small chips flying into the air.

As he started to rise, Shaklator reached down, grabbing the front of his chain shirt, and yanked upward. Link found himself face to face with her for a brief instant, then swore loudly as he kept rising, and she released her grip, and Link found himself floating further upward.

With a wordless roar, Shaklator leaped upward toward him. Link looked down in time to see her close the distance between them. Their weapons rang out and sparks flew as the edges drug along one another, and the pair was tumbling through the air. Link saw the floor moving past over his head as he drew back his free hand, aiming a punch toward her face. The awkward position didn't allow for much force, and Shaklator merely growled, catching him by the front of his chain shirt again, pushing him away, then jerking him back toward her and lifting one knee into his stomach.

Link grunted, the wind knocked from him, and before he could even take a breath, Shaklator released her grip, and lifted her arm across in front of him, and delivered a backhand blow with her gauntleted fist to his face, and Link found himself spinning wildly through the air, to smash into the ground on his back, smacking the back of his head into the stone. Link forced his head up, pain shooting through his skull, his vision filled with dancing lights, which turned red and another impact knocked what little breath he'd recovered from him as Shaklator came down with one knee on his chest.

Link felt something crack, and coughed, tasting blood, and feeling the warmth of it on his face. Shaklator's knee lifted off his chest, but did not come back down. A few seconds passed, and with a stab of pain, Link felt another crack in his ribs, but this time the pain faded quickly away, and he rolled over, lifting himself up.

"That's good," Shaklator said, and snatched him by the hair, jerking up and tossing him onto his back again, "But you still have no idea what you're doing."

With a growl, Link rolled up to his feet, and lunged at her with his blade aimed for her abdomen. She quickly pulled her blade across, turning his blade past her left side. Link shifted his footing, leaving one foot secure as he both rode the momentum she gave him, and added more of his own as he spun to his right, lifting his other foot high and sending her staggering to the side as his heel struck her directly in the head.

As soon as his footing was secure again, he moved after her, and she turned back toward him, but still off balance, she managed to lift her blade to stop his blow, but the force of the impact caused her to step back, and Link pushed forward, forcing her further back, until she was stopped by the stone wall, and Link pinned her back, their blades crossed in front of them and their faces inches apart.

"I've accepted it," Link said, "Is that not what you wanted?"

"You healed the broken rib in seconds, like I could, so long ago," she said, "Like Ganondorf does now. But you do so by reaction, fueled by pure instinct. You have no control. And that is why you cannot win."

She shoved back, and Link was forced to take a step back, and she quickly turned her blade, swinging upward, catching Link's weapon just past the hilt, jarring it from his hand and sending the sword spinning upward into the air. Shaklator rushed forward, and Link ducked beneath her blade as it whistled past his head, turning in a crouched position as she stepped past him. He reached up with one hand, snatching the hilt of his weapon as it fell back toward him, and lashed out at the back of her legs, the blade missing as she quickly hopped over it, turning as she landed and he rose back to a standing position.

"If I'm not worth the effort, just let me go," Link said.

"No, Link," Shaklator said, "You still have potential, which I refuse to let go so easily. I'd have preferred you aid me willingly, but you've proven to stubborn. So I will break you, a hundred different ways if I must, until you submit. Everyone has a pain threshold, and yours is certainly high. Now I intend to find out just how high. And since I do not need to worry about permanently damaging you any longer, we are going to have a lot of fun in finding it."

* * *

Zelda looked again through the pages in her hands as Ganondorf moved around the circle in the center of the room, carrying a small torch in his hand that he used to light the others in brackets along the walls, illuminating the gloomy chamber.

"Okay, I understand that it started with the larger circle in the center, but the rest of this is going on about constellations. What has that got to do with anything?" Zelda asked, turning back to the first page.

"There is power to be found in the light of the stars," Ganondorf said as he placed the torch he carried into the last bracket, "There's any number of stories about witchcraft during the light of the full moon and so on. Not all of it is mere superstition. But the stars move much more slowly, and are only in place for their power to be truly utilized once every four thousand years. Not only that, but during this period of time, there is a surge of paranormal activity. Restless spirits always abound if you know where to look, but during this time, even those normally at peace crawl from their graves and walk the earth. And other things, that some would call demons, appear in the darkest reaches. It is this time when the barriers between the world of the living and the next are at their weakest."

"Let me guess, we're in the middle of that right now," Zelda said.

"In a manner," Ganondorf said, "I'm assuming that if Tharkus and Khall are serious about unleashing this Shaklator creature on the world, they're going to have to have it down to about a week or so of the precise moment of greatest weakness. Possibly even the specific day. I traveled through parallel worlds once, when I was cast through the Twilight Mirror. Getting back here was hard enough for me. Typically speaking, the more powerful the being trying to pass through the barriers, the more difficult it is to succeed. It's the main reason we don't see gods walking around on a daily basis."

Theology was never Zelda's strongest area of study, but she did remember something about the Gods of Time and Space ruling that gods would not walk among mortals until the end of days.

"So how does this help us now?" she asked.

"The bit about the stars was the information I needed, more so than the order itself," Ganondorf said, "If I'm right, we're about to see something incredible."

Zelda turned to the circle, and for several minutes, they waited in silence. "What are we waiting to see?" she asked.

"Patience," Ganondorf said, "In a few minutes, it should be precisely one o'clock."

Several more minutes passed, and nothing happened. With a sigh, Zelda turned away, only to stop when she saw a small light in the corner of her eye. She turned back, and saw it, starting in one of the smaller circles along the edge of the seal, a small point of light that rapidly traced the lines of the circle, before riding the outer circle of the larger seal to another, and following its lines, faster and faster. The lines drawn into the floor began to glow, and as the light traveled further, misty curtains of white began to rise from the lines of the seal, reaching toward the ceiling.

"What's happening?" she asked quietly.

"There's no need to whisper," Ganondorf said, "Darius was a wily old bastard. This is more than just a seal blocking the gateway to the Sacred Realm here. It's an elaborate alarm system. Look at the ceiling."

Zelda looked up, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand then looked again. The night sky was visible as if they were outside. Before her eyes, the dark clouds that had hung over the city for days parted, revealing the dots of light beyond. "Six points on the star within the seal," Ganondorf said, "Each corresponding to one of the smaller circles, and each one is aligned under a specific constellation."

They were not the constellations she knew from Hyrule, but Zelda could see several of them, though she did not know their names. They were in a near perfect circle almost directly overhead.

"The seal will become brighter every night until the alignment passes," Ganondorf said, "It's a warning of the weakening barriers. The story says Darius was the one to seal Shaklator away. He left a warning that she could come back."

"But can we get through it?" Zelda asked, "To get Link back?"

Ganondorf stepped closer to the circle, passing his hand through the curtain of light. It made his skin tingle, and the Triforce of Power reacted, lighting up with a golden glow on his hand.

"We don't even have to open the seal," he said, "You and I can pass through it. I suppose he knew that if someone possessed even a fragment of the Triforce, they'd be the ones who needed to get through."

He motioned for her to follow, and stepped into the light. Zelda hesitated a moment, then taking a deep breath, screwed up her courage and followed. The light tingled and warmed her flesh as she passed through.

As the light cleared, and allowed her to see what lay beyond, she stopped short, finding herself standing on scorched earth, with a red sky high above, and dark thunderclouds on the horizon that threw fire between themselves. As she turned, she could see no sign of life in any direction, and where the land was not scorched black, it was a deep red.

"Welcome to paradise," Ganondorf said, "The holy land that your people revere. Is it everything you ever hoped for?"

"This has to be wrong," Zelda said, "This can't be it."

"Oh, but it is," Ganondorf said, and pointed past her to the horizon, "See that light?"

It was faint, but Zelda could see the blue light, like a beacon in the distance, rising into the sky. "That," Ganondorf went on, "is the location of the Temple of Light, at the center of the Sacred Realm, where the sages of the elements reside. And it is where Link will be, if he has any sense at all."

"It could take days to get that far," Zelda said, "We aren't prepared for that. We'll need to get supplies, more people…"

"Nope, just you and me this time," Ganondorf said, "No one else can pass through the seal. Does that worry you?"

Zelda glanced at him. She was suddenly acutely away that she was alone with him, and no one would even hear her if she called for help. He had done nothing yet to give her reason to mistrust him, but the sudden thought that this would be the perfect opportunity for him caused her to slip one hand down to the hilt of the Master Sword at her side.

"Besides," he said, walking past her, "We can travel much faster with just the two of us. You see," he looked back at her over his shoulder, "You've had the first taste of the power we are capable of on the mortal plane, but in this place, there is nothing we cannot do."

He lifted his hand, so she could clearly see the Triforce glowing on his flesh, and as she watched, his body began to twist and distort. His hands disappeared and he shrank in size, and black feathers grew from his skin, and his face elongated into a black beak, and in just a few seconds, his form had changed into that of a massive raven, smaller than he had been, but still larger than herself.

"In this way, we can travel faster and be at the temple within the hour," he said, though there was no sound, she could hear it in her mind, "Remember when you used your Triforce before. It reacts to need and desire. Focus on what you need, and it will be done."

Zelda nodded, and closed her eyes. She wasn't sure how she would describe what she was doing to another, but Ganondorf's encouragement pushed her on. "Don't force it," he whispered, "Just accept the need to assume another shape. Picture what you need in your mind, and let the Triforce do the rest."

For the third time, Zelda felt the incredible sensation of the Triforce's power rushing through her. A comforting warmth, coupled with an indescribable ecstasy, and she realized that she had moaned aloud in pleasure. She wasn't aware of how much time had passed when it began to fade, and she opened her eyes to see the raven watching her.

She looked down at herself, and found her neck bending in an impossible way, to see the white feathers across her body. She'd managed it, though she could not tell what manner of bird she had become.

"You enjoy it, don't you?" Ganondorf's voice asked.

"It's incredible," she said, though the words did not come from her mouth, she knew he heard them, "If you said you were celibate, I'd believe you."

"That would be one of the most obvious lies I could ever tell," he replied, "It can be intoxicating. I'm sure I've lost myself in it at least once. Blank spots and blurs in my memory prior to… waking up, I think is an appropriate description."

He turned away from her, opening his massive wings. "Now, come," he said, and with a powerful flap, lifted himself from the ground. Zelda moved after him, feeling awkward as she opened her wings, feeling like arms that were horribly misplaced, and lifted herself from the ground. After a few tries and some wobbling through the air, she managed to get the rhythm and was able to catch up to him as he ascended higher.

"I hope we're not already too late," she said.

Ganondorf did not respond.

* * *

Link dodged to the side, Shaklator's thrust passing by him, the blade scraping against a cracked stone column. He stepped around her, pushing with his body on her arm to pin the blade against the stone, and managed to grab her hair in his free hand, and shoved forward, driving her face directly into the column. The strength seemed to fade from her, stunned from the impact, an he pulled on her hair, drawing her head back about a foot, then slammed forward into the stone again, and a third time, and drew back one more time, dropping his sword to take a grip with both hands, and hurled her forward with all the force he could manage, the column toppling forward under the impact, and she fell atop it as it crashed down and Link backed off as he picked up his sword.

She pushed herself up, lifting her head toward Link. He growled in frustration at the sight of a single trickle of blood from a split on her forehead, but no other visible damage, and as she rose, the flesh wound sealed itself, vanishing as if it had never been there.

He had to get her with the sword, he knew. If it could do lasting harm, he could bring her down. With a roar, she charged him, their weapons clashing as he backed off, and she hammered repeated strokes toward him, and he kept giving ground as he blocked. Too late he saw the open palm coming at his face, as she struck him square in the jaw with the hell of her hand, lifting his feet from the floor and sending him toppling backwards and glancing off the top of a pile of rubble that flipped him onto his stomach on the stone floor.

The pain in his jaw was severe, and he was amazed it wasn't broken after being struck in such a way, and with a full gauntlet, no less. He quickly pushed himself up to see Shaklator leap over the rubble, her sword held high in both hands as she fell toward him. Link leaped back, the red blade striking into the stone and sending chips flying as the blade buried itself in the floor. Link rebounded, and lunged back for her, his sword aimed in a thrust at her neck. She released her sword and leaped to the side, evading his thrust, but Link turned with her, pulling the blade back across with a vicious slash that he felt clip something. Sure enough, the tip of the blade was red, and a single red drop ran down along the edge. Shaklator looked down at herself, where the blade had cut through her armor like paper, and a red slash mark about an inch long was visible within. Just a nick, but as he watched, it did not close like the cut on her face.

"That's one," Link said.

Shaklator put her fist into her other hand, pushing together and her knuckles popped audibly. "Don't stop now. Impress me."

* * *

"I can't see the light anymore," Zelda said.

The two of them had been flying for about half an hour, and she was amazed at how quickly they could travel like this, but as they had drawn closer to the light, it had gradually faded away, and now was gone from view.

"Look down there, about three miles ahead of us," Ganondorf said.

She did so, and spotted a structure on the ground, constructed of brown stone, a pyramid, with a massive staircase running from the ground to the peak along one side. The peak itself was flattened, with an additional level above what looked like a doorway.

"Is that the Temple of Light?" Zelda asked.

"No," Ganondorf said, "That is the Pyramid of Power. When I was imprisoned here by your ancestor, the original Princess Zelda, and the Hero of Time, I was a tad angry, but I'm sure you can understand. I constructed the pyramid over the temple, trying to hide it from view, as well as frustrate the sages."

"Not that I'm complaining, but why not just destroy the temple itself in that case?" Zelda asked.

"Tried, and couldn't bring down the barrier," Ganondorf said, "What's more, I couldn't even enter the place. That's why you needed to come along. You'll have to go in and ask the sages about Link while I wait outside."

"How are into the pyramid is it?" Zelda asked.

"It's at the bottom," Ganondorf said, "I can take you that far. Head for the roof. The inside of the pyramid isn't designed to be friendly, but there are several shortcuts. Looks like Link didn't find the first one, but when we reach the temple, the sages should be able to tell you if he made it through or not."

The two began to descend toward the pyramid, when Zelda noticed movement on the ground before the pyramid's stairs. A small group of creatures she couldn't quite make out at this distance, but a moment later, something came hurtling from the ground toward them. Ganondorf suddenly veered his course, avoiding the flaming ball of tar launched from a catapult on the ground.

"Who are they?" Zelda asked as he veered back toward her, and she saw them reloading the contraption for another shot.

"Dead men, that's who," Ganondorf growled, "The roof is clear. Head there and wait for me."

Ganondorf angled into a steep dive toward the ground, rapidly picking up speed, yet as Zelda watching, his form was already shifted, just like before. The creatures on the ground, which Zelda was beginning to be able to make out the features of as she came closer, were drawing back the catapult, and then scattered when they realized Ganondorf was diving directly toward them.

Strange creatures, with the bodies of men, the heads of bulls, tails of scorpians, and great gargoyle wings, scattered in all directions as Ganondorf crashed directly into the catapult, splintering the wooden frame and sending pieces flying into the air along with a great cloud of dust.

The creatures turned toward the impact sight, waiting for the dust to clear. As it did so, a new form became visible amidst the wreckage of the catapult. The figure rose to its feet, standing nearly fifteen feet in height, clutching a sword larger than a grown man in one hand, and black plate armor adorning its body from head to toe, with two large horns jutting from the top of the helmet. A single slit in the front of the helmet, cut like a V, lit up as two red eyes opened within.

The creatures were edging forward, clutching their pikes, as if unsure of what was before them. Ganon lunged forward, though his feet did not move, hovering a few inches above the ground as he practically flew toward the beasts, and with a single stroke, cleaved the first in two with his enormous sword. One moved up behind him, and he spun in place, his blade severing the pike in two, along with the creature's torso.

As Zelda watched, she fully understood at last why the legend of the Hero of Time referred to Ganondorf by two versions of his name. It always spoke of Ganondorf as the person, and Ganon as the monster. As the stories went on, the creature Ganon was always a new form, and always described as enormous and powerful, but more bestial than man. This figure now, while undoubtedly powerful, was brutally efficient. Every stroke killed one of the beasts, and no effort was wasted. She had not yet reached the roof before the carnage was done, and the black armored figure stood alone amidst the gore.

As she landed on the rooftop, and began to change her own form back to normal the same way she had changed to begin with, she turned back to the stairs to see Ganondorf, once again in his normal form, ascending toward her, and was on the roof much faster than she had expected.

"That was incredible!" she said as he approached her, "Do you know where those things were?"

Ganondorf turned to look back toward the carnage at the bottom of the pyramid, and looked down at his own hand, and appeared to be pondering something. "That was different…" he muttered.

"Is something wrong?" Zelda asked.

"Nothing you need to worry about," he said, and waved one hand across in front of himself.

The floor shook beneath Zelda's feet for a split second, accompanied by a grating noise. A second later, the roof began to sink into the pyramid, taking them within.

* * *

The duel still raged amidst the silence of the Void, as Link and Shaklator's weapons clashed violently amidst the ruined temple. Link was forced to guard himself against and onslaught of rapid strikes as he backed away, Shaklator pressing him hard. Link knew there was a gap in the wall behind him, just to his left, and as he backed further, he made a quick move, turning and spinning around the wall, placing it between them and moving away from the corner, just to get some breathing room.

He waited a moment, and knew something was wrong when she did not follow immediately. A harsh cracking sound split through the air, and Link swore as ten feet of stone began to topple toward him. He dove away from the wall, but was too late, as the heavy stone crashed down upon him. Pain shot through his body, he felt ribs snap as the weight piled down upon him with incredible force. A moment later, the shaking stopped. He was still alive, beneath the stone, as just like the pain had come, he felt his ribs snap back into place, and it faded away.

He pushed upward, the weight on his back slipping to the sides as he rose to his feet, dumping the stone atop him to the air. The wall had crumbled on impact, yet even as he reached his feet, he had to focus and steady himself to prevent collapsing again. Just as when he used the Triforce before, it was sapping his stamina rapidly each time it healed his injuries. He had yet to do any real damage to Shaklator, and he knew that he was fighting a losing battle.

"And so you begin to understand," Shaklator said, stepping onto the rubble of the wall, moving slowly toward him, "You weaken, while I do not."

"I'm not finished yet," Link said, turning toward her.

"Look at yourself!" she said, "Look at what your defiance has wrought! You've lost your home, yourself, and the woman you love. It could have gone very differently if you just listened to me. And yet you still resist. That is the weakness of mankind, one that I know all too well. I used to be much like you. Humans are creatures of emotion, and we will fight even when we know it is hopeless."

She stopped, and held her free hand out toward him. "Think about what I offer, Link. It's not your people I wish to destroy, only Darius and what he deemed so important to sacrifice everything I was and fought for. You can still save your home, and with my help, you can save Midna."

"That was eight thousand years ago," Link said, "No one alive today has anything to do with what happened to you. You would punish innocent people just for revenge on a dead man?"

"You spoke to Darius," Shaklator said, "You know he lives."

"I spoke to a corpse," Link said, "A man who has long since given up living. But he is too much of a coward to simply die and let the world take its course."

"That is because he fears my return," Shaklator said, "My presence in the five kingdoms will draw him out, force him to face me one last time. And then it will all be over. I will depart and never return."

"To where?" Link asked.

"I don't know yet," Shaklator said, "Listen to my offer, one last time, Link. You are much like me, a free spirit, and you refuse to believe that some greater presence controls your actions. The gods toy with mortal lives like they are playthings. Once my vengeance is complete, and Darius lies broken at my feet, you and I, we can turn to the golden throne, and cast the gods themselves down. We will storm the gates of the heavens, and we can get Mida back…

"We will shake the very foundation of reality itself," she went on, walking toward him, "You can still be a part of that. All you have to do is follow me."

She stopped in front of him, and offered him her hand. Link looked at her hand, and then into her eyes. He could read nothing in the black void of her sockets. He lifted his free hand, hesitant at first, then reached out and took her hand. A smile appeared on her face.

"There's just one problem," he said.

"And what's that?" she asked.

Link pulled her hand, jerking her toward him, and stabbed his sword forward, piercing through her stomach, the blade erupting out her back, splattering blood onto the stone as she grunted.

"I told you before," he whispered, "I don't take orders, and I choose my fights."

"You… dirty…" she hissed, and turned, dragging him by the arm as she spun, and hurled him back into the temple, where Link crashed directly through the opposite stone wall, landing on the hard ground beyond.

His vision blurred, stunned from the impact, as he picked himself up, his back screaming in pain from the impact on the stone wall, and realized he heard crumbling rock, and quickly backed up, only to faintly make out the gray shape in front of him collapsing upon itself in a heap, rather than tipping over.

His vision and the dust began to clear, as the pain in his back quickly faded, the Triforce of Courage mending the bruises and cuts, but sapping yet more of his strength as it did so, and he could see Shaklator on the far side of the temple, bent double, one hand over her stomach where blood bubbled around her fingers, dripping on the floor in a steady trickle. Link gripped his sword, that he had somehow managed to hang on to, and started toward her, only for his legs to give out and drop him to his knees on the dirt.

He was spent. He knew it, and also knew that she knew it. Much more of this treatment and he wouldn't even be able to stand. He put the tip of his sword on the earth, and used it as a lever to pull himself up, his arms shaking as he did so. He had to finish her, and he had to do it now, while she was vulnerable.

The impact had ripped his chain shirt, along with the padded shirt beneath, causing the metal links along the tear to bite into his skin. Link quickly loosened his belt, and pulled both off over his head. They'd only get in the way in their current condition. As he tightened his belt again, he looked up at Shaklator, who had raised her eyes to him. While her eyes were unreadable, there was no denying the murderous intent plain on the rest of her face, as the blood continued to flow from her wound unabated.

Link picked up his sword, making sure his grip was secure. "Time to do or die," he whispered.

* * *

The descent through the pyramid seemed to take ages. The bare stone walls rising around them made Zelda lose track of progress, looking exactly the same the entire time. She glanced at Ganondorf occasionally, but he remained exactly where he was, arms crossed, with his eyes closed, waiting patiently.

She smiled slightly and shook her head. About three months ago, she'd never have imagined she'd be in this kind of situation, with him as one of her most needed allies. Necessity and all that, she was sure. Things had taken strange turns, but had also become severely complicated. She shook her head to clear it. She should stay focused on the task at hand, not wandering off to other problems until she was able to actually do something about them.

She almost didn't notice when the walls around them simply stopped, and the platform upon which they rode descended into darkness. She could see nothing in the distance around them but blackness, and nothing beneath them, but the platform still descended at a steady pace, not plummeting into the abyss.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"The central chamber," Ganondorf said, lifting one arm, a globe of light igniting in his palm, spreading light to illuminate the walls on two sides, but not nearly far enough to see the ends of the chamber in the other directions, and not deep enough to see the floor, "During my imprisonment, I used this room as an arena of sorts. I'd test my strength against various creatures I could conjure, and sometimes would watch them fight. It was one form of passing the time and attempting to maintain my sanity. That's odd…"

"What?" Zelda asked.

"Well, this is where the floor used to be," Ganondorf said, pointing to the wall on one side, "Over there, you can still see where it crumbled."

"It was a long time," Zelda said, "Maybe it eventually just crumbled?"

"No, it wouldn't have," Ganondorf said as the platform continued to descend into the depths below, "I think Link was here, and something got in his way."

"You said the place was trapped."

"Not this chamber," Ganondorf said, "Hang on, I'm going to speed this up."

Even as he spoke, the platform seemed to fall out from under her feet, and Zelda found herself hurtling downward, her hair whipping upward in the wind. Before she even had time to scream, her feet were once more secure and they were slowing down.

"There it is," Ganondorf said, pointing past her.

She turned and saw in in the distance, even through the darkness. The walls of the Temple of Light, glowing with a blue light, and glistening as if water ran across their surface. The platform carried them toward it, before finally setting down at the base of the stairs leading up to the entrance.

"You'll have to go in without me," Ganondorf said, "I don't know the layout, but the Chamber of Sages is supposed to be in the central chamber."

"Why wouldn't you be able to enter?" Zelda asked, turning back to him.

"If you really have to ask, maybe I should be asking if you've hit your head."

Zelda shrugged, and started up the stairway. "People change, some don't," she said, and approached the massive stairway that seemed to lead for half a mile up to the temple.

She climbed for several minutes, and stopped in her tracks at the sight she was approaching. Three figures lay sprawled on the stairs, fresh, bleeding wounds on their bodies, the blood running down the stairs, blotting out trails in the glowing stone.

She realized that these were the three valkyrie, placed by the goddesses themselves to guard and protect the Triforce. Only those worthy would be permitted passage. Of course, she realized. When Ganondorf entered the Sacred Realm so long ago to claim the Triforce, he would have to get past them. It was clear what means by which he had proved his worth, though she could hardly believe the bodies still looked as if they were freshly slain, and the blood still running freely. She looked back down toward Ganondorf, who waved her onward. She shook her head, and started up again, stepping around the bodies.

She continued to the top of the stairs, stopping before the massive wooden double doors that guarded entry to the temple. As she reached up to push one of the doors, with a loud creak, they opened as if of their own accord, and Zelda searched through the crack between them, but saw no one waiting to greet her. She glanced back down the stairs again, but Ganondorf had turned his back to the temple, and wasn't even watching.

Zelda turned back to the door, and with a deep breath, stepped inside. The walls on the inside were the same out outside, shimmering with a blue light that flowed over their surface, making them look not like stone, but water. She reached out and touched a wall, out of curiosity, and found it felt like neither, but more like a smooth, slick grasp that her skin slid easily along, as if it held no friction at all.

She turned toward the hall, a simple layout that split in three directions, going left or right, and another going straight forward. Zelda started down the forward path, toward the center of the temple. There was no sound other than her own footsteps, and her eyes wandered, watching the dazzling patterns along the walls, and as she looked up at the ceiling, she saw what looked like stalactites of pure light hanging from the ceiling.

She started to feel incredibly out of place, as if she didn't belong here. It came with a sudden realization that she was walking where none other than the sages of Hyrule had been for thousands of years. As she came to the wooden door at the end of the hall, she decided that she was extremely fortunate. She should remember everything of this place, not that she would easily forget, so that she could put it to writing when time allowed.

She pushed the door, stepping past it into the next chamber. This chamber was much wider and open than the previous, though only a narrow walkway led to the center of the chamber, where a wide platform awaited, and off the sides, only blackness below, but the walls visible in the distance showed the same dancing patterns as the rest of the buildings.

The center platform showed additional features as she drew closer. Six small pedestals, only a few inches higher than the ground. Each was a different color, and the top decorated with a symbol of one of the elements upon which the world was founded. As she stepped onto the center platform, she looked at each one, identifying them one by one. Light, Fire, Water, Forest, Shadow, and Spirit.

How was it the legend went? From the Forests, life began, spreading onto the world. Water was the essence allowed it to flourish and be diverse. Fire gave the living beings both their tools, and their ambition, to make their mark on the world, while Light granted the wisdom to use them. And the end of life, Shadow represented passing from the world, and the Spirit would live on in the next. Each of the sages represented one of these elements, and were to serve as guides for the people of the world.

In the center of the platform, one other symbol was visible. Three golden triangles, unmistakable, represented the Triforce, in its true form. This was where the One who possessed the three would be able to commune with the sages, and where he or she would make decisions that could change the face of the world itself. Once more feeling out of place, and wondering if she may be committing sacrilege, she stepped onto the symbol.

"Another has come," a voice whispered.

Zelda turned toward it, but saw no one. The room was empty except for herself. "Hello?" she called.

"It is the princess herself," another voice whispered, from the opposite side of the room, "and she comes armed for battle."

"But why does she come?" whispered a third, "Perhaps we have not watched her as closely as we should have."

"Please," Zelda said, "I'm looking for a man named Link. I need his help."

The elemental symbols around her began to glow, and before her eyes, forms began to rise from them. She turned, trying to watch all of them, the sight incredible. From the green symbol of Forest, a young girl, looking no older than eleven or twelve, clad in green cloths woven from forest leaves. The red symbol of Fire raised a goron, large and muscular like all his kind, every inch a warrior. The symbol of spirit revealed and elderly woman with bright red hair and dark skin, nearly identical to Ganondorf, and gave Zelda a start, realizing that this was one of the Gerudo, a race long since extinct, and must have been kept alive by the power of this place. The symbol of Shadow revealed a youthful looking man, in his mid-twenties, yet with hair white as snow, dressed in dark clothing, and several black tattoos across his face.

And from the symbol of Light rose an elderly man in dark robes, and Zelda gasped when she was able to clearly see his face. His flesh was of a ghostly pallor, and markings that looked as though his skin itself was cracking were visible everywhere on his face and hands, and undoubtedly ran the length of his body. It was like his flesh itself was trying to crumble, yet something held it together.

No sage emerged from the symbol of Water. There had been no Sage of Water for nearly a thousand years, ever since the attempted execution of Ganondorf, and his quick banishment through the Twilight Mirror, an effort that had cost the previous sage's life.

"Princess," the Sage of Light said, "I honestly did not expect you to come yourself."

"Yes," she said, "I came looking for Link. We have reason to believe he may have accidentally sent his own spirit into this realm some time ago. We need him back."

"He did," the sage said, "He was here about five days ago. But I don't think you'll be able to get him back."

"Why? Where did he go?" Zelda demanded.

"He has entered the Void," the Sage of Shadow said, "The empty space between realities. He did so seeking something he will not find."

"Why did he go there?" Zelda asked.

"He was convinced he would find a way to save the dead Twili," the Sage of Light said, "But the Void is also the prison of a being named Shaklator. He has been alone with her for five days. It is impossible that he would still be alive."

"No," Zelda said simply, "That can't be. He would do something like that. He's smarter than that."

"I'm afraid he had become obsessed," the Sage of Light went on, "He would not listen to our warnings."

"So close," Zelda whispered, "And just too late."

* * *

Ganondorf nudged one of the valkyrie with his boot as he passed it on the stairway. He grunted something when it did not respond and continued up the path to the doorway. As he reached the crest, he paused, seeing the door still standing open.

He lifted one hand, reaching out cautiously to touch the wood. He wasn't sure what he was expecting. A bolt of lighting, or maybe just a burn on his hand. All he felt was the wood. No matter what he had tried before, he had been unable to open the door, either by subtlety or sheer destructive force. And now it just stood open before him.

A smile crept onto his face.

* * *

"Is there no chance Link is still alive?" Zelda asked, "Are you absolutely sure he is dead?"

"We cannot see what is happening in the Void," the Sage of Fire said, "We cannot be certain, so there is a possibility, but the only way to find out would be to go there and see."

"And we sages cannot leave this chamber at this time," the Sage of Light said.

"Tell her the truth. Tell her you'll crumble to dust if you leave this room."

All six on the platform turned to the door, and with several cries of surprise, saw Ganondorf marching down the walkway toward.

"How did that monster get in here?" the Sage of Shadow asked.

"You are not welcome here!" the Sage of Light declared, pointing directly at Ganondorf, "Begone, fiend!"

Ganondorf merely sneered, stepping into the circled on the pedestal, and slowly turning about, looking at each sage in turn, and stopping with his gaze centered on the Sage of Light.

"Boo!" he said, suddenly stepping toward him, and laughed as the sage visibly jumped.

"I thought you couldn't come in here," Zelda said.

Ganondorf shrugged. "Not going to pretend I understand it, but whatever works. Now listen up, you sacks of waste. I'm with her. We're here to get the precious hero back."

"You? Aiding us?" the Sage of Light said, "You expect us to believe it."

Ganondorf pointed at the sage. "I remember you, old man. You were there when I was locked away in this world, away from all life and humanity. Just give me an excuse."

When the sage only glared at him, Ganondorf added, "Please?"

"In any case," the sage said, "I can tell you nothing I haven't told her already. Link entered the Void. It's unlikely he lives."

"The Void?" Ganondorf said, then shouted, "Gods _damn_ it!"

"What?" Zelda asked, "What is it?"

"If I'd known that, we wouldn't have needed to come here!" Ganondorf growled, "Okay, looks like this is my show now."

He turned away from them, toward the walkway, and lifted both hands in front of himself, extending the first finger and thumb of each fist, and bringing them together to form a triangle. Almost immediately, a gold glow began to form on the inside of the shape.

"What are you doing?" Zelda asked.

With a growl, Ganondorf thrust his hands forward, and the light expanded, toward the walkway, before collapsing upon itself, and exploding outward again, and formed a circular shape, black and rimmed with blue flames.

"Tell me what's going on, dammit!" Zelda said.

"I just opened a portal to the Void," Ganondorf said, "It's not nearly large enough for Shaklator to be able to get through, but big enough for me. It'll only hold for a few minutes, so I need to go. If there's anything left of Link, I'll bring him back with me. You stay here. This is probably going to be ugly."

Ganondorf marched up the walkway, stepping through the portal and vanishing.

Zelda chuckled. "The more I get to know him, the more he and Link are alike. Hard head and all."

* * *

Link knew this was his only chance, and lunged for Shaklator, leaping across the rubble where she stood, one hand with her sword, the other over the bleeding wound in her stomach. She watched him approach, and turned his first strike with her blade, backing away as she did so.

Link stepped in, aiming to finish her off, but her other hand came up unexpectedly, and with it, a palm full of blood that splashed across Link's face and into his eyes. "Damn!" he shouted, blinded and backing away quickly, trying to wipe it way with his free hand. He could hear her footsteps, closing in on him, and raised his sword, but instead of the expected strike, an impact struck him in the stomach, tossing him onto his back. He managed to get the blood out of one eye well enough to see as he started to crawl up, only to be slammed down again when a boot landed on his chest.

He lifted his sword to strike, and the wind flew from his lunges as suddenly all of Shaklator's weight was on his chest, as she lifted her other foot and brought it down on his sword arm, with a loud crack as her foot slammed his wrist into the ground. He cried out in pain and his sword slid from his grasp. This time, the pain did not go away, and the bones did not mend. He was simply too exhausted.

Shaklator looked down at him, turning her sword over in her hand, so she held the point downward, and raised it high in the air. "Any last words, Link?"

"Three," shouted a voice nearby, causing her head to turn, "'You are screwed!' _Daem!_"

A streak of gold lightning struck Shaklator in the chest, hurling her through the air to crash into the one still standing wall of the temple, and bringing it down on top of her. Link groaned, sitting up, and found a hand taking his arm to pull him up.

He looked up to see Ganondorf, who was watching the pile of rubble for movement. "You?" Link said, incredulous.

"That's right, I'm your knight in shining gods damn armor," Ganondorf said, "If you'd prefer, I can just leave you here."

"No, I'm glad you're here," Link said, "Just never thought I'd be so happy to see your ugly face."

A primal scream from the rubble interrupted them as Shaklator rose from the wreckage.

"Let's hurl barbs at each other later," Ganondorf said, "With you so messed up, I don't fancy our chances here."

"I wounded her pretty good," Link said, "You think you can finish her off?"

Ganondorf glanced at Shaklator, whose body was now outlined in flames as she turned back toward them.

"Might as well give it a shot," he said, and pointed in the opposite direction, "There's a portal that way. Get your ass in there. If nothing else, I'll buy you a little time before I get the hell out."

Link reached down for his sword, wincing at the pain in his left wrist, and scooped it up in his right hand. "I can make it that far," he said, "Good luck, I think."

"Get going before I change my mind," Ganondorf said.

Link nodded and started running. Ganondorf faced Shaklator, who was moving toward him. "Let's see who's the bigger monster," he said.

He focused his thoughts, his body changing form under the Triforce of Power's direction, his shape expanding, armor plating appearing as if part of his flesh, and in a few seconds, the towering form of Ganon, the black knight with red eyes visible in the slit of his visor, had taken his place, a massive sword six feet in length clutched in one hand.

Shaklator leaped into the air, trailing blood and fire through the air, and he leaped to intercept her. He aimed his massive sword toward her, and swore as she caught him by the wrist, reversing her body's position, locking her legs around his waist, and with impossible weight for her size, bore him into the ground with shaking impact. The heat from the fire around her was heating the armor, causing him to sweat already as she drew back a fist and slammed it into his helmet, metal ringing on metal and filling his vision stars. She threw a second punch, and then a third before he managed to get his free hand around her neck, sitting up and slammed her into the stone floor. He quickly got to his feet, raising one boot high and bringing it down toward her face.

Shaklator rolled to the side as his boot cratered the stone floor in an area as large as her torso. Before she could get to her feet, he snatched her by the back of the head and drug her back, raking her face across the stone and carving a trench several inches deep, stained red.

She leaped onto her hands, flipping over and bringing both feet toward him, bent her knees, and unleashed a mule kick that sent Ganon flying back nearly ten feet. She was on her feet as he regained his, and got a look at her face, flesh nearly scraped off, with the red muscle tissue and white skull revealed below, and the flesh was already knitting before his eyes, repairing the damage rapidly.

_I haven't even phased her,_ he thought, _This isn't going to work. Have to come back another day, with a better plan._

While the form of Ganon was powerful, it drained his stamina rapidly. He only had another few minutes before he had to revert, and while he would still be in fighting condition, there was no chance against a creature like this.

With another wordless scream, Shaklator launched herself at him. Using her momentum against her, Ganon dropped his sword, snatching her around her chest, his body already reverting to his normal shape, and he carried her weight over himself, leaning back and bending his knees to come down further.

With a resounding crash, her face collided with the stone floor, her body going limp atop him and the flames surrounding her dying away as he quickly rolled her off himself and stood up. She weakly started to push herself up. She was merely stunned, and he knew it, and started a mad dash toward the portal that led out. It wasn't long before there was a scream behind him, and he knew she was coming.

It came within sight past the rubble of the temple. It was sheer luck that had opened it so close to the site, but it had worked beautifully. He saw Link, still limping toward it as he leaped a pile of rubble, and there was a crash behind him. Ganondorf collided with Link from behind, scooping the smaller man up in his arms.

"The hell?" Link shouted.

"Don't take it the wrong way," Ganondorf said, and dove through the portal.

The portal flicked, and faded from existence as Shaklator reached the site. She dropped to her knees, screaming her frustration into the air, and slamming her fists down, sending chips of stone and earth flying into the air as the ground shook from the impact.

* * *

Zelda moved quickly to Ganondorf and Link as they crashed to the ground in the Chamber of Sages. "My gods, Link! Are you all right?"

Link shook his head, and groaned as he tried to pick himself up with his broken wrist, and instead settled for sitting on the ground. "I've been better," he said.

"Don't mind me, I'm fine too," Ganondorf said, climbing to his feet.

"I'm serious," Link said as Zelda knelt down next to him, "Broken wrist, but that's the worst of what I've got right now.

Zelda stood up, offering her hand, which he took with his right, and helped him to his feet. They turned to see the sages all watching them.

"You are something else, Link," the Sage of Light said, "I fully expected you to be dead."

"I would have been, if she had wanted me dead," Link said, "Only in the past few minutes she really started trying to kill me."

"I assume you found what you sought?"

"It wasn't exactly what I expected," Link said, "But I found a solution."

"He told me you were trying to save Midna," Zelda said, "Link, you realize she's dead, don't you?"

"I'll explain later," Link said, "For right now, we need to get back to Darimar."

"There's no magic that can bring back the dead, kid," Ganondorf said.

"I'll explain later," Link said, and turned to the sages, but stopped short of asking how to return to Darimar.

The five of them were staring at the Triforce symbol on the floor, which had begun glowing brightly.

"Of course," the Sage of Light said, "The three fragments have gathered to this place, though they are not in the possession of one, but three."

"What is this?" Zelda asked.

"The temple is reacting to the presence of the Triforce," the Sage of Shadow said, "The three of you are connected through it."

"Ganondorf has spoken to me through it," Zelda said, "And he also was able to track our positions through it."

Link glanced at Ganondorf, who shrugged noncommittally. "What relevance is it?" Link asked.

"At the moment, none," the Sage of Light said, "But you have been in combat with Shaklator. You understand what you now face."

"All too well," Link said.

"I wonder," the Sage of Light, "Not a One, but a Holy Trinity. If she does manage to enter your world again, we may be able to use this to our advantage."

"Could that destroy her?" Ganondorf asked.

"I'm not sure. It would depend on each of your abilities with the Triforces you possess, and well as the synchronicity between you. At the very least, it should be able to restrain her, and give us time to find another solution."

The Sage of Light nodded. "Give me time to search the memories. You will not need to return here. We will contact you with anything we find."

"Okay," Link said, turning to Zelda and Ganondorf, "So how do we get back?"

"The same way we came," Ganondorf said, "Through the gateway."

"Hey," Link said as Ganondorf turned to the door, and when Ganondorf turned back to him, said, "Thank you. For saving my life."

A smile crept onto Ganondorf's face. "Don't thank me. You owe me. And I intend to collect."

* * *

It was still three hours to dawn in the castle. The guard shift was only two hours from changing, but many on duty were already fighting to keep their eyes open. The halls were empty as Ilia made her way through the castle, the first time she had ventured out of her room in days.

It was such a strange sensation, to be here. She felt incredibly out of place. She had never even seen the castle in Hyrule, much less from the inside. But now, unable to sleep, she ventured through, trying to make sure she found the correct passages in the enormous maze of a building, and was wondering if she'd gone too far or missed a turn, when she found herself entering the side passages, and found the door she was seeking, and entered the dark storage room. She felt for a lantern on the nearby shelf, and once located, opened the choke and pinched the striker, creating a spark that caused it to leap into life, illuminating the dark room. Pushed back to the far end of the room, was the stone form she had spent hours looking upon when she had first been allowed to walk free in the castle.

Link was the same as she had left him, his body stone, fists raised, face twisted in rage. She had known it would be, and wasn't sure why she had been hoping that something, anything, would have changed.

She was so far from home, and knew no one in this place. And they seemed happy to just ignore her. Better than being in the way, probably.

But she felt so alone. Like she had been forgotten by the world. As she looked at Link, she realized that, in spite of the things he had said, the way he had acted when she last saw him, she just wanted him back. Something familiar to hold onto.

As she turned away, there was a small cracking sound. She turned back to see a small flake of stone fall to the floor. More cracks appeared, spreading along Link's chest and arms, down to his legs and up over his face. Ilia involuntarily took a step back as his eyes lit up, a golden glow illuminating the room more brightly than her lantern, and with a roar, Link threw his arms out to the sides, chips of stone flying through the air, raining down through the room, clattering across the walls and floor. The glow in his eyes died away as he looked down at himself, and flexed his left hand experimentally.

"Didn't carry the broken wrist," he said to himself, "That's good. Sword's gone though. Guess that was too much to hope for…"

"Link?" Ilia said.

He looked up, noticing her for the first time. "Ilia…" he said, "You're here… That's right, I remember now."

He stepped toward her. "Are you okay? Did Khall hurt you?"

"No," she said, "I'm more worried about you. Are you okay?"

Link gave her a weak smile. "I'm tired. Very tired. But I'm fine. And there's something I have to do before I rest."

He moved past her, toward the door. "Where are you going?" Ilia asked.

"To the basement," he said, turning back, "For this to work, I need the Master Sword, which Zelda has, and while I don't think the gateway down there is necessary, no reason it won't help."

He nearly started to turn back, stopping as something else caught his eye. On a shelf near where he had been standing when he awoke, was a single ceramic urn. The shelf was empty other than the urn.

"What is that?" he asked, pointing to it, and moving toward it before Ilia could respond.

"That?" Ilia said, "It's a jar for a person's ashes, I think."

Link looked around, at the other items stored in the chamber. Piles of robe, numerous lanterns along shelves, and in the far corner, barrels, most likely filled with oil. Why would a crematory urn be stored in such a place? Link's hands shook as he took the urn from the shelf. He knew exactly whose ashes it contained.

"_Link, this isn't your fault._"

Her last words echoed in his head, and he remembered the horrifying moment as if it were happening right in front of him again. Khall shouted the spell work, her eyes going blank, and the air turning red.

"Wait," he whispered, "That's it! I can fix this! I know exactly what to do now!"

Taking the urn, he turned for the door, stepping past Ilia. "Link!" she said, and as he turned back to her, "Tell me what is going on? What are you doing?"

"I'm not really sure if I can explain what I'm about to try," Link said, "Look, we'll talk later, okay?"

With that, he vanished out the door, leaving her alone. She merely stood there for several minutes, trying to comprehend what she had just witnessed.

* * *

Link made his way down the maze of passages, to the deepest area of the castle, the very room where he had witnessed the fateful event, which seemed like an eternity ago, and intercepted Ganondorf and Zelda as they were making their way out.

"Don't go anywhere," Link said as he stepped around them into the chamber, "I'm going to need the Master Sword here in a minute."

"Link, that jar…" Zelda started to say.

"It's Midna's ashes, I know," Link said, stopping some distance from the circle on the floor, looking it over, "That's the first thing to fix."

Zelda almost didn't believe her eyes when he dropped to his knees, removed the stopper from the urn, and upended it onto the stone floor. "What are you doing?" she asked, moving toward him.

Ganondorf stopped her with one hand on her shoulder. She glanced up at him, but his eyes were riveted on Link, with a keen interest, and perhaps a bit of worry? She turned back to see Link set the urn aside, and slowly reached out, holding his hands a few inches above the pile of ash.

Several seconds passed, and nothing happened. "Come on," Link growled, "I can do this. I know I can."

"Don't try to force it, kid," Ganondorf said, "Focus on what you want, and let it happen."

Zelda still wasn't sure what he was trying to do, but as she watched, Link took a deep breath, relaxing as much as he could, and held the position, unmoving.

A single spark leaped from one hand to the ashes on the floor, followed soon by a second. The Triforce of Courage was beginning to glow on his hand, and more and more sparks crossed to the ashes, and what Zelda witnessed next was a sight she would truly never forget.

The ashes lifted from the floor, spreading thing and swirling in a gray and black circle, and began to coalesce to a single point. In seconds, she saw a shape began to grow. From the feet upward, the familiar shape rebuilt itself, inch by inch. A few seconds later, Midna's body sank back to the floor. Her eyes were open, but unseeing. Other than that, she looked exactly as he remembered, though without her mask, he could clearly see firery red hair that stood at such a stark contrast to her blue and black body. Link fell forward, onto his hands, panting heavily. Sweat poured down his face and neck as he gasped for breath.

"Stay conscious," he growled to himself, "Almost done. Just one thing left to do."

Ganondorf moved over, looking down at the body on the floor. "You rebuilt her from ash. That's impressive. She's still dead. You have to give it up, there's no magic that can bring her back."

"Zelda," Link said, ignoring him, "I need the Master Sword."

"This should be good," Ganondorf said, backing off as Link rose slowly to his feet.

A she approached, Link leaned down, picking up Midna's still form, and situating her so he could carry her with one arm as Zelda drew the sword, and turned it to rest the tip on the floor, holding the pommel for Link. He reached down, taking a grip on the familiar hilt, and nodded to her. She stepped back as he picked up the sword, and turned to walk into the center of the magic circle upon the floor.

"You worked once before," Link said, "Took us back to the Temple of Time before it was ruined, so I know you have something to do with it. I just hope the temple isn't another part of it. I know where and when I need to be, and you damn well better agree."

He turned the sword over in his hand, pointing the tip down. "One time," he said, louder than before, "One more time is all I ask!"

He rammed the sword downward, the blade biting into the stone floor at the center of the gateway. An explosion of blue light erupted outward. Link heard Ganondorf swear, but it was gone before he had completed the profanity, and the light grew brighter, and brighter, whiting out Link's vision, and then gradually faded, and he found himself exactly where he had been.

As he turned, he saw what was different, however. Five figures were in the room with him. He could see them all, and every one of them was as still as a statue. Tharkus was there, standing behind Ilia, her hands bound behind her back, on her knees on the floor. He saw himself, bound by an invisible force, unable to fight, and he saw Khall, with his hand on the back of Midna's head, and could even see the first syllable of the lethal word on his lips.

Link nodded to himself, and moved over to where Khall was, and lay down the body he carried, and gently slid Midna from Khall's grasp, and undid the knot in the rope of the net that held her. He lifted her from it, laying her gently on the floor, and picked up the body he had brought with him, inserting it into the net, and refastening it around the body firmly.

That damned net, enchanted in some way to house concentrated sunlight, he realized. It would kill any other Twili in an extremely painful manner. It merely rendered her magic useless and held her fast. He wished he could just kill Khall and Tharkus here, but doing so would alter history too much, and likely not for the better. He slid the rope of the net back into Khall's grip, positioning the corpse's head against his other hand, just as Midna's had been.

He picked up Midna from the floor, his heart lifting at feeling the warmth of her body, though she did not react, and moved back to the Master Sword. As he took a grip on the hilt of the weapon, he glanced back at where his past self was held fast. "Don't worry," he said to it, "You'll figure it out in the end."

He pulled the sword, and the blinding light returned, and in a matter of seconds, his vision once again cleared.

And was immediately kicked in the stomach.

Link dropped to the floor, couching and in pain as Midna flew from his grasp, only to turn back and immediately cry out, "Oh, gods, Link! I'm sorry!"

She move down next to him, one hand on his shoulder as he choked, trying to get his breath back. She looked up to see Ganondorf and Zelda watching them, Zelda with an expression of utter disbelief on her face, and Ganondorf with fascinated interest.

"Link, are you okay?" Midna asked, turning back to him, "I'm really sorry, I didn't… That is… What just happened? Khall was going to kill me…"

"It's okay," Link said, sitting up, "It's all right now. We're all safe."

"I get it," Ganondorf said, "He created a time loop. He put the corpse in her place. That explains why it looked like she'd been dead for hours already. That's a lot smarter than I expected from you, to be honest."

"Wait a minute," Zelda said, "If she never actually died, then where did the corpse come from?"

"Don't think about it too much," Ganondorf said, "It'll just give you a headache."

Midna turned to Link as he sat up on his knees. "Link, what happened, exactly?"

"I'll tell you all about it," Link said, and then gave a deep sigh, "Right now, I can't tell you how good it feels to have you back."

"Link…" she started, but he reached out, taking her gently by one shoulder, and pulled her close, hugging her to him.

"Gods, I missed you," his whispered.

Ganondorf snorted, and turned to walk from the room. "Come on," he said to Zelda, "Let's give the lovebirds some privacy."

Zelda glanced back at the pair, and, with a small smile, followed Ganondorf.

Midna sighed softly, clearly not going to get any answers yet, but the last thing she remembered, she was convinced she was about to die, and suddenly, a reprieve out of nowhere. Her heart was still pounding, and she was shaking. But now with Link's arms around her as she returned the hug, she couldn't think of anywhere she'd feel safer.


	83. Chapter 82

Something a little shorter this time, but I was really eager to take a break from the main plot and do a bit of character stuff.

**Chapter 82: The Morning After**

With a groan, Ralthas sat up in his bed. His head was throbbing and his hands were shaking. He'd had the nightmare again, of walking through that dungeon, torture devices filled with bodies, and some of them still alive, screaming. He knew the nightmare wasn't the same as reality, but he could still remember, walking, the seemingly endless halls filled, never ending, always going on into the darkness.

He reached down, under the bed, picking up the half-empty bottle of scotch, pulling the cork and lifting it to drink, only to stop himself at the last second, remembering the conversation he'd had with Sheila the previous day. He stared at the bottle for a moment, thinking about how it had become such an unconscious thing in his life.

She was right, of course. How many days had he started this exact same way, for so long? And even as he shook his head, refusing as he sat up, his insides burned. He needed it. With a sudden roar of frustration, he hurled the bottle across the room, causing it to shatter on the far wall. He hung his head in his hands, trying to still his shaking. "Come one," he said to himself, "You've faced down everything from bandits to serial killers. You can beat this."

* * *

The sun did not appear over Darimar that morning, hidden away behind dark, low hanging clouds as snow began to fall once again. Only the fading of the night darkness signaled the coming of day, and the city began to come to life. In the castle, the service staff had been awake for over an hour, beginning their daily routines, and several looked up with a start as King Rigdar, flanked by his guard and the crown's lead engineer, and the king, without even looking back at the engineer, was shouting at him, "You tell those idiots of yours that I'm not interested in a steam-powered ballista unless it fires bolts a foot thick and can pierce stone at five hundred yards."

"But your majesty, there are other improvements we can make…"

The king glanced over his shoulder. "Why are you still following me? I've got more important things to do than listen to you brag about useless toys!"

The engineer hastily gave a quick bow, and turned to leave as the king cross the throne room to his seat, growling as he slide his sword from his belt, leaning it against the side before seating himself and rubbing his eyes, his guards taking their positions on either side of the throne.

"I swear, that idiot," the king growled to himself, "Next he's going to invent self-slicing bread or some nonsense."

Lifting his eyes, he waved one of his guards forward. "Go find the chamberlain. Tell him I want to start the audiences early today. He'll know what to do."

The guard saluted with one fist across his heart and departed at a jog across the room and out the far door. As he passed through the door, he went directly past Zelda, who was presently going back to her room to see about fixing her hair and clothes, when she glanced into the throne room. The king saw her, and called "Princess!" and motioned for her to enter the room.

With a sigh, Zelda reached up and attempted to straighten her hair with her hands as she turned and entered the room, moving toward the throne. "Good morning, your majesty," she said, offering a bow from the waist, "I trust you are well today?"

"Please skip all that," the king said, "I just want to talk to someone sane for a few minutes before the day gets going. I'm surprised you're up so early."

"So was I," Zelda said, "Ganondorf woke me last night to assist him with the seal beneath the dungeon. I suppose this is as good a time as any to tell you we were successful. My companion, Link, is back among us."

"That's certainly good to hear," the king said, "I'll ask Ralthas when he makes an appearance if he's any closer to figuring out what happened that night, though I imagine Link will be able to tell us more easily."

"Yes," Zelda said, and glanced back at the maids, still working duteously on the white marble floor with their rags and buckets of water, and lowered her voice, "There's another matter involved that I think would be best if we kept quiet, at least for now. Link discovered the one of the greatest powers of the weapon he wields, the Master Sword, and used it to travel back in time to save Midna, the one that was killed that night. He did not bring her back from the dead, so to speak, but I'm sure you can guess what the reaction would be if such a rumor got around."

"Could he do it again?" the king asked.

"I do not believe so," Zelda said, "This is a power that was last seen four thousand years ago, in my kingdom, and even then, we know very little of it. Time has ways of warping the truth of events. I do not believe it is something that we can rely on. I do see how time travel could be used to our advantage, but it would be best to focus on fighting our foes the normal way."

The king chuckled. "And what is normal anymore? You say that the wizard, Ganondorf, held your entire kingdom hostage a year ago, and now he's an ally, as is his daughter who attacked my own city just a short time ago. And so are the dark elves who kidnapped you. To me, the normal way of fighting your enemies is just that, to fight them. It seems that you prefer to absorb them."

"If only it were that simple," Zelda said, "The two remaining leaders of our enemies are both powerful wizards, and from what Kilishandra has told me, they lied to her about their true objectives."

"And you're sure she's not the one lying?" the king asked.

"Quite sure," Zelda said, "In addition, she has give us no reason to distrust her, yet."

"And what of Link and Midna?" the king asked.

"Given Link's exhausted state, I believe he has gone to his room," Zelda said, and smiled softly, "And I doubt she is far from him."

* * *

Link had be more exhausted that Midna had realized, and she had needed to help him up the stairs from the dungeons, and now, not even bothering to undress, he was sound asleep on top of the blankets of the bed in one of the rooms near the west side of the castle.

He had not told her exactly what had happened yet, but now that she had calmed down, she had managed to piece together some of it from what Ganondorf and Zelda had said, and apparently she had just jumped two weeks into the future, from her perspective, when Link had pulled her out at literally the last second, by using the very same means the Hero of Time used to prepare for his fight against Ganondorf long ago.

Now, she sat on the bed next to him, looking down at his sleeping face, and smiled at the situation. "I've heard all the stories," she whispered, "The ones about the handsome prince who slays a dragon, or a witch, to rescue a princess, but I think you just topped them all. Not a one of them has ever changed history before."

It made it all the harder, as she looked down at herself, to stand what she saw. She had thought she'd gotten used to it, but more and more it frustrated her. This was not her. For over a year now, she'd existed as this… thing. And remembering what Ganondorf had said, that attempting to reverse it could kill her, simply because he didn't know himself how he had done it, was like a knife to her chest. What if it did kill her, after what he'd just done to save her? The thought alone was painful. She knew she couldn't bear to do that to him.

She looked down at Link again, sleeping soundly. She could easily picture this, waking up next to him for the rest of her life. The thought carried a wonderful warmth with it, that it was just right, somehow. She wanted to be with him, but that was the easy part to accept. Much harder was the though of being with him like _this_. She could enter his dream again, and there he would see her as she truly was, but in the end, it was just a fantasy. She wanted it to be real, and to be wonderful.

She was almost certain that if she asked, he would accept her, as she was, but that wasn't what she wanted. And she knew he would not push the issue. He was too respectful for that. And as always, the thought forced itself into her mind. She had to return to her own people. It would make it so easy if he would go with her, but even if he were willing, could she do that to him? She had known him long enough to understand his spirit, even when living in the small farm town he called home, he had taken to leaving for days at a time in the past year, exploring the darker corners of Hyrule, ancient caves and tombs forgotten by time.

Of course, there were undoubtedly such places to explore in the Twilight Realm, but ultimately, she would be caging him. It would be a gilded cage, to live in her palace, but a cage nonetheless. It was different to be born into such a life, but cage a wild animal, and eventually, that wonderful free spirit within them dies, and they are nothing more than a prisoner.

After everything he had done for her, all the time they had spent together, could she be so cruel as to do that to him? The tears were welling up in her eyes, making it hard to see. She knew what she wanted, but it was as if the entire world was holding up its hands and shouting "No!"

But then, the Twilight Mirror. It was in the hands of the enemy now. They would probably have to destroy it. And then, she wouldn't be able to go home. It was bittersweet to think about. She would never see her home again, and would effectively be abandoning her people, but then, she could stay.

She was suddenly startled from her thoughts by a knock on the door. She looked up, toward it, and back at Link, who did not stir. He was out of it. Midna lifted herself from the bed, floating into the air, and drifted back into a corner of the room, fading into a shadow, where she could not be seen, even if someone wanted to find her. It was more out of habit than anything else.

With a soft creak of the hinges, the door slowly opened. _Oh, it's just her,_ Midna thought as Ilia stepped into the room.

Ilia moved across the room, toward the bed. As she leaned down over Link, Midna drifted quickly from the corner, catching her with one hand on her shoulder. Ilia gasped, her head snapping around to see her. "Don't wake him up," Midna whispered.

"What…" Ilia said, her voice disbelieving, "I saw you die."

"I got better," Midna hissed, "But he needs sleep. He's exhausted."

Ilia backed away, unable to take her eyes off Midna. She was not wearing the mask Ilia had always seen her in, and now, with those two red eyes watching her, and the way the red hair framed the darker face, it made her even more frightening.

"I just wanted to check on him," Ilia said as they moved across the room from the bed, "Speaking of which, what are _you_ doing in here?"

Ilia suddenly turned back to Link, then back at Midna, who seated herself on the vanity table against the wall. "Oh, gods," Ilia said, "You two didn't…"

"Oh, please," Midna said, "First of all, look at him, he's fully clothed. That would get in the way. And second, look at me. I know you two were an item when you were kids, but are you seriously that paranoid?"

"What do you mean 'were?'" Ilia demanded, "You don't have a clue how close Link and I are."

"If that's true, why did you jump to that conclusion about me?" Midna asked, "Though I suppose mistrust of your loved ones come naturally to you humans. As a species, you're so insecure, convinced that everyone else is out to get you. It's a real shame that people like Link are the exception, instead of the rule."

"And I supposed you're better than us?" Ilia hissed, "I seem to remember an invasion last year that said otherwise."

"And there it is," Midna said, "You're going to place the blame of one individual's actions on all of us? You've had quite a few villains through the ages. We had one."

"I don't believe that," Ilia said, "There's no way all of you can be perfect."

"We're not," Midna said, "My point is, if you care so much about Link, why are you so quick to mistrust him?"

Midna leaned forward, before Ilia could respond, and added, "Don't misunderstand though. I care about Link a great deal. I suppose the biggest difference is that I can trust him implicitly. But I suppose it's easier considering he has saved my life more than once."

"You're not even human," Ilia said, "Do you actually think you could even have a long term relationship with him? What if he wants children? Would you even be able to have his? It won't work. Sorry, but I won't give him up that easily, least of all to you, you… freak!"

Ilia turned and moved o the door, jerking it open, but at least having the consideration for Link to not slam it behind her. Midna shook her head, turning to the mirror on the vanity, looking herself in the eye. She couldn't argue that point, and yet…

She picked herself up from the vanity table, moving back across the room, setting down on the side of the bed, across from Link, and laid her head back on the pillow next to his, staring up at the ceiling. She was tired herself, having not slept the previous night, but she lay there, thinking about what Ilia said about children. That was another reason, though it pained her to admit it, that for Link's benefit, perhaps she would have to step aside. But to a girl like that? Even if it wasn't Midna, she knew he deserved better than a distrusting child. Midna shook her head. Ilia was certainly of age, and if she remembered correctly, was a year or two older than Link, yet it was impossible to think of her as a woman, instead of just a girl.

Midna knew she could live with Link's free spirit, if the opportunity arrived. It was a wonderful thought, to picture Link and herself, on the road, always traveling to new places. Even with the trouble they would undoubtedly find in doing so. She could live with that. Ilia wouldn't be able to. She would want Link to be tied to one place, most likely the very village where they grew up. She would not want to see him in danger. The thought of him fighting even common bandits would tear that girl apart.

Midna sighed, closing her eyes and trying to relax. All this thinking did no good right now. She'd follow Link's example, and get some rest. He had quite a story to tell when he woke, she was sure.

* * *

Sheila had slept later than she intended, but she realized now that as she made her way toward the kitchens in search of breakfast, she had nothing to do today. The king would be holding audiences in the throne room in the morning, if she remembered correctly. Maybe she could sit in and watch, but that wouldn't take long, depending on how many cases were presented this morning. There was always something that needed the king's attention, but most civil cases were handled by the officers of the guard, and more extreme situations regarding criminals were handled by the judges, though as few remained, that might change in the near future.

She passed through the cafeteria, sticking to one side away from the tables occupied by the castle guards and soldiers, the noise of their discussions nearly deafening, and moved into the kitchen itself. There were smaller tables off in the corner, where she remember, usually used by the kitchen staff themselves, but as she looked past the stoves and piles of meat and vegetables, she spotted Kilishandra sitting at one of them by herself, and as she approached, Kilishandra looked up and waved her over.

"Good morning," Sheila said, "Anything good?"

"Food's passable," Kilishandra said, gesturing to a cut of meat and pile of mashed potatoes on her plate, "But you can't expect masterpieces when they're cooking for a castle full of hungry soldiers. It's still better than what rations tend to be in the field."

"I know that," Sheila said, "I spent a few months going around with Link and Zelda. Honestly, I hope I never see any dried beef ever again."

"Well, if you prefer stuffed pigeon in sauce, we might be able to work something out," said one of the maids, with a smile, as she sat a plate with a cut of beef and generous helpings of mashed potatoes and eggs in front of Sheila.

"This looks perfect," Sheila said, accepting the offered knife and fork, and the maid nodded, returning to her duties on the line.

"By the way," Kilishandra said, "My father told me to inform you to dress warm this afternoon. We're going to go outside the city to start your instruction, though he used a more colorful term to describe it. He wants to be out of the city so you don't have to worry about knocking down city walls."

"I thought he wanted to wait until after he finished with the seal," Sheila said, cutting into the beef with her knife.

"Apparently he did so last night, while we slept," Kilishandra said, "He said that Link is alive and well, and has gone to his room to rest."

Sheila sighed and smiled. "Thank the gods," she said, "Finally something going right for a change."

"Personally I was disappointed," Kilishandra said, "I didn't get a chance to meet him. I'm very curious about this man who keeps getting built up like he's some kind of legend."

"You'll understand when you do meet him," Sheila said.

"I hope so," Kilishandra said, "In all the time I've known him, I've never seen my father defeated in direct combat. But this Link apparently did so. I'm wondering what kind of man is capable of such a feat."

* * *

When the chamberlain arrived in the throne room, it had soon filled rapidly with the other nobles of the castle that were awake, and others had gradually moved in over time, and they would serve as the witnesses of the hearings.

The king had invited Zelda to sit in on the audiences, and in an effort to gain more of the king's trust, accepted, only leaving the throne room to better fix her hair and change out of the tunic and pants into a regal gown that had been provide, though she wished there wasn't quite so much lace on the thing, having it around the base of the skirt, the ends of the sleeves, and around the top of the bodice. She was now seated on the left side of the throne, far enough back to not be in the way, but close enough to clearly see the center of the chamber and those concerned with the hearings as the first was ushered in by the guards.

Ralthas himself appeared in the far doorway before the first began, making his way unannounced across the chamber, and with a silent nod to the kind, took up a position to the left of the throne, glancing at Zelda as he did so. She wondered, as he turned toward the front of the chamber, if something may be wrong. He was sweating, and seemed somewhat pale. If he had taken a fever, he should be in bed, not here.

"The first hearing is a simple one, you majesty," the chamberlain said as two guards led a single man forward to the throne, "This man is Talos Orland, owner of a farm hold on our lands to the north. He was arrested last night stealing grain from the crown's own silos, within the city."

"Do you have anything to say in your defense, Talos?" the king asked.

"I admit I stole," Talos said, "But please, have mercy your majesty! My family and I were forced to abandon our home when the enemy forces marched on your kingdom, and we've lost everything. My children are hungry, that's the only reason I did so."

"Poor bastard," Zelda heard Ralthas whisper to the king, "The punishment for such action is death. If he'd stolen from anyone but the crown, he'd get off with a flogging."

"I'm not about to condemn a man to death for trying to feed his children," the king said, "I could give you the flogging instead, but I think I have a better idea. As you know, we are at war, and need soldiers. Serve in the army and I will see to it your wife and children are fed and taken care of."

"Yes," the farmer said, "Thank you for your mercy, your majesty."

_And he might still end up dead,_ Zelda thought as the guards escorted him from the chamber.

As the chamberlain called for the second group to be shown in, Zelda saw Ralthas take a step back from the throne, shaking his head as if trying to clear it. The king turned in his seat and asked, "Are you all right?"

"I'm…" Ralthas started to say, and toppled backwards to the floor, his body convulsing violently in the fit of a seizure.

Zelda and the king were both on their feet, and a woman in the gathered crowd screamed, and other voices rising. "Someone get a doctor!" the king shouted as he stepped around the throne to Ralthas.

Zelda was there, kneeling down near Ralthas' head. "Oh, gods…" was all she managed to say, watching helplessly as Ralthas shook violently.

* * *

An hour later, Zelda found herself among those waiting outside Ralthas' office, pacing helplessly as the doctor was within with the judge. The king himself and his guard were there as well. The audiences had been postponed for the moment, until they knew what had happened.

Zelda turned at the sound of footsteps rushing toward them to see Sheila running up the hall. She stopped as she came near. "Where is he? Is he okay?" she asked, barely pausing for breath.

"We don't know yet," Zelda said, "The doctor is with him now."

"What happened?" Sheila asked.

"He collapsed during the audiences," the king said, "and he was having a seizure. I'm afraid we don't know why."

"I did notice he seemed pale and was sweating when he entered the throne room," Zelda said, "Something was definitely not right."

"Oh, gods, why?" Sheila said, turning around and pacing, holding her head with one hand.

She seemed to be on the verge of tears, and Zelda knew she was worrying herself and making it even worse in her anxiety. Zelda reached out, catching her arm with one hand. "Come here," she said, and pulled Sheila close, wrapping her arms around her in a gentle hug.

Sheila returned the gesture, burying her face in Zelda's shoulder, sobbing quietly. "It's going to be all right," Zelda said, "Just calm down."

"I'm sorry," Sheila whispered, "I just… I can't lose him, not now."

The door creaked open, causing them to turn and see the doctor emerge. Zelda released Sheila as he turned to them after pulling the door shut.

"Is my father all right?" Sheila asked.

"For the moment," the doctor said, "He's stable now, and is going to need to stay in bed for a time. From the symptoms and what he managed to tell me, it seems he's suffering from alcohol withdrawal. It's fairly severe, as much and as long as he's been drinking, but I don't think he'll have another attack if he stays in bed. He's fairly weak right now anyway."

"Alcohol," Sheila said, and buried her face in her hands, "Oh, gods!"

"Are you okay?" Zelda asked.

"I was urging him to stop drinking the other day," Sheila said, "And now it nearly killed him."

"If he lives through it, I'm sure he'll thank you," the doctor said, "Just keep him in bed, and make sure he eats, and if you start seeing an improvement in a day or two, then he'll pull through, no problem. He's going to be having headaches and probably feelings of weakness for some time, but in few weeks or so, he should be perfectly fine. That's when he'll need to stay off the drink, however. Former alcoholics are more susceptible to a return of the addiction."

"Thank you, doctor," the king said, "I appreciate it."

"Your majesty," the doctor said, excusing himself and moving down the hall.

Sheila move to the door, and stepped into the office, glancing back to see the king nod, turn and walk away, while just said, "Go ahead. I'll wait here."

Sheila pulled the door shut, and moved into the room, past Ralthas' desk, to the bed in the back of the room. "Who's there?" Ralthas asked as she came closer, his voice weak.

"It's me, father," Sheila said, kneeling down next to the bed, where she could see him.

He was pale behind his beard, and sweating. Sheila put one hand against his cheek, checking his fever. It did not feel severe, but he was warm. "Doctor said my fever's gone down," Ralthas said, "Said it's looking good, since I lived through the first few minutes."

"I'm so sorry," Sheila said, "This is all my fault."

"No, it's mine," Ralthas said, "I let it get this bad to begin with. You didn't do anything but worry about me."

Sheila realized she was crying again, and could feel the tears on her cheeks. Ralthas reached up with one hand, wiping them away. "Hey," he said, "It's okay. I'm not going to let this stop me. And I want you to know, no matter what happens, I'm proud of you, and I love you."

These words only made it worse, and with her eyes filling with tears, Sheila laid her head down on the bed next to him, sobbing into the sheets. Ralthas gently massaged the back of her neck with one hand, waiting for her to finish, no more words appropriate for the moment.

"Please," she said at last, picking her head up, turning her tear streaked face to his, "I'm not ready to lose you yet. You have to get through this."

"I will," Ralthas said, "I promise. Now dry your face. Can't be seen looking like that."

Sheila wiped her eyes, sitting up again. "Do you want anything?" she asked, "I can go to the kitchens and get you some soup or…"

"For now, I think some more sleep would be best," Ralthas said.

A knock at the door interrupted them. "Tell them to come in," Ralthas said.

"It's open," Sheila called across the room, rising to her feet.

The door opened, and Silviana entered the room, pausing just past the door. "I'm sorry," she said, seeing Sheila and Ralthas, "If you want, I can wait a few minutes."

"It's all right," Ralthas said, "Come over here where I can see you."

Silviana move around the desk, approaching the bedside, while Sheila watched her. Silviana looked down at Ralthas and smiled. "You look terrible," she said.

"You…!" Sheila started but Ralthas raised one hand.

"It's all right," he said, and looked up at Silviana, "Sil, you're going to need to keep an eye on things while I'm bedridden. I don't expect anything requiring a judge's attention to happen, but just in case."

"I understand," Silviana said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything."

"I know you will. Get Roxim to help you if something does happen," Ralthas said.

"The dragon?" Sheila asked.

"Is also a judge, yes," Silviana said, with a sly smile, "All three of us that are left are right here."

She turned back to Ralthas. "You don't worry about a thing. Just get well, and I'm sure you'll be eager to do something again by then."

Silviana turned to leave, and Sheila paused a moment to lean down and give her father a kiss on the forehead, and he smiled as she turned to follow Silviana. Once out of the office, she pulled the door shut, and turned to Zelda.

"You all right?" Zelda asked.

"I don't know," Sheila said, "I just don't know."

"Hey, cheer up," Silviana said, "Things will get better, you'll see."

"I don't know how you're such an optimist," Sheila said.

"Someone has to be."

* * *

Link woke at close to noon, coming awake as he always did, instantly and completely alert, a result of sleeping in the open in hazardous territory, where even a few seconds could cost his life. He smiled to himself, looking down to see Midna against his side, with her head resting on his chest.

Well, he could certainly afford a few more hours, he decided, and though he was more awake now, he still worn out. He moved his arm, gently wrapping it around Midna, and she snuggled closer in response. He leaned his head back on the pillow, closing his eyes.

There was one more thing he wanted to do for her, and as quickly as the Triforce drained him, he would need his strength.


	84. Chapter 83

Didn't intend to be gone that long, but money got a little tight and went without internet for about a month. More and more it seems like I constantly come back from long breaks to assure folks the story isn't dead.

**Chapter 83: The Light Still Burning**

"Today's already had some excitement," Silviana said to herself with a smile, walking through the castle corridors toward the main entrance, "Wonder what I can dig up this afternoon?"

She spotted Alex heading her way, and he nodded, acknowledging her, though evidently wasn't going to stop to talk. She caught him by the arm as they passed. "Where are you off to?" she asked.

"Nowhere in particular," he said, "I'm probably going to go work out a bit in the training yard."

"Come with me instead," she said, "You've just been deputized."

"What?" was all he managed as she drug him after her.

"In a city this size, there's always something going on," Silviana said, "And with the influx of refugees and heightened tensions because of current events, I'm sure the guard would appreciate the help. So let's go give the place a good shake and see what we find."

"Wait a second, aren't vigilantes beheaded in this country?" Alex asked, not quite ready to commit just yet to this kind of crazy.

Silviana smiled, shaking her head. "So thick, but that's part of why you're so cute. Besides, weren't you complaining about having nothing to do?"

She paused long enough to hand him the extra cloak she had been carrying before they stepped outside, into the snow and brisk air.

* * *

Zelda did not return to the throne room from Ralthas' office, instead going to her room to change out of the dress and into a clean set of traveling clothes, greatly preferring the simplicity of a tunic and pair of pants over the gaudy and overkill of lacing that seemed to be women's fashion in this country. Out of habit, she checked her belt to situate her sword, only realize it was missing. She'd left it with Link, she realized. Oh well, that was where it belonged, after all.

So, now what? They couldn't march on Khall until spring, the Darimar snows piling nearly eight foot drifts, the city streets only kept navigable by the constant use of the citizens, but it was conditions that made moving an army near impossible, and one bad storm would be all it took to sever supply lines.

There were just under two months remaining until spring, and it would be wise to use that time to prepare as well as they could, as no doubt Khall would advance what forces he still possessed on them quickly. And yet, try as she might, she couldn't think of anything that wasn't already being done. The king had his army stepping up recruitment, and day in and day out, they were using the inner training grounds of the castle, away from the weather, to drill.

It was amazing he'd managed to keep the citizens calm, all things considered. If circumstances were better with her own kingdom, she'd be able to send word and have reinforcements arrive by ship in the spring, but that was impossible.

But now that they had Link back, there was still the last fragment of the spell to recover. That was the most logical course of action, to have it ready before spring, so that as soon as they were able, they could depart for Hyrule, and complete the very mission that had brought them here to begin with.

But she couldn't just leave before the end of the war. Or maybe she could go for the reinforcements while Link and the others remained?

In any case, she needed to start making arrangements to go to the temple in Metallicana, and the first step was to talk to Link, and see if sleep had recovered his strength, or if he needed more time. Zelda left her room, and made her way through the halls of the castle, which were becoming more familiar with each passing day, and after several minutes came to Link's room, where she knocked twice on the door.

A moment passed with no response, and as she was about to knock again, the door slid open, revealing Link looking out at her. "Oh, hello," he said, opening the door wider and turning away as he loosened his belt and adjusted his tunic, which had become knotted on his back as he slept.

"How are you feeling?" Zelda asked, glancing at the bed as she entered the room. Link had clearly slept on top of the blankets, rather than beneath them, and Midna watched her from where sat, propped up on the pillows.

"A lot better," Link said, "Hungry now. Is the kitchen still open?"

"I believe they're working all day," Zelda said, glancing at the Master Sword, where it was propped against the side of the vanity across the room from the bed, "Before you go, I should warn you about a few people you might see around the castle. You've missed quite a bit."

"I bet," Link said, "You don't look any worse for wear. I just wish I'd managed to hold onto that sword," he added, adjusting the position of his knife on his left hip.

"First of all," Zelda said, "The ninja, you might remember them, are here, though they keep a low profile. They're on our side.""Can they be trusted?" Link asked, sitting down to work the Master Sword's sheath back onto his baldric.

"They've been honest to me, at least," Zelda said, "It seems the entire reason they followed Khall was because of Mur'neth, their leader, and his last command was that they aid Kilishandra in the war. Afterward, they're on their own, however. And their current leader, Vargus, seems interested in moving them to Hyrule, since their own people will see them as traitors."

"Who's Kilishandra?" Link asked.

"The other I needed to warn you about," Zelda said, "She's Ganondorf's adopted daughter. Khall and Tharkus lied to her and used her against us, and Ganondorf was able to save her. Now she's with us."

Link slid the baldric over his shoulder, pulling the ends together to tighten and buckle it in place across his chest. "And how trustworthy is she?" he asked.

"Flawlessly," Zelda said, "It's what's so strange to see someone so committed to her word, and yet she was raised by him. And it's part of the problem. She looks up to him, and I have no doubt would follow his word without a second thought, even if it meant betraying us."

"Just keeping it all in the dysfunctional family," Midna commented.

"She's extremely loyal," Zelda said, "I just hope it's not to the wrong person."

"Don't worry about it right now," Link said, picking up the Master Sword, and pausing a moment as he held it, turning it over in his hand and murmering something to himself, then lifting it over his shoulder to slide it home into its sheath, and went on, "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Old Hyrule wasn't burned in a day, after all."

"Built in a day," Zelda said.

Link glanced at her. "The phrase is, it wasn't built in a day," she said.

"Right," Link said with a shrug, "Whatever works."

"I also think it would be for the best if you keep a low profile for now," Zelda said to Midna.

"As if I didn't before," Midna said.

"Can you make some arrangements for me?" Link asked, turning Zelda's attention back toward him.

"What do you need?" Zelda asked.

"Well, I noticed the lettering on the Master Sword hasn't changed," Link said, "So we've still got one temple to go. Can you get the supplies together we're going to need, and make arrangements, since we're not allowed out of the city without a judge escort, if I remember correctly?"

"It will be a tad simpler than that, all things considered," Zelda said, "but I'm more worried about you."

"About me?" Link asked, "Why would ever worry about me?"

"Link, put yourself in my place for a moment," Zelda said, "You've been gone for two weeks. We nearly got ourselves killed trying to find a way to get you back, and when you do come back, you manage to bring with you someone that we'd all written off as dead. No offense," she added with a glance at Midna.

"I'm not sure if that should be insulting or not just yet," Midna said.

"And technically she didn't die," Link said, "I'm not sure exactly how I did it, but I pulled her out the instant before she would have been killed…"

"Gods damn it, Link, that is the problem!" Zelda shouted, interrupting him. She took a deep breath, and went on in a lower tone, "You have done what should be impossible. And now you're going to act like nothing's happened? How are we… How am I supposed to react to this? The very thing that kept us out of prison was the goodwill of King Rigdar. That same goodwill is all that has allowed us to keep moving freely. We are not part of his kingdom and he has every right to assume that our too timely arrival before the start of that war places us as insiders for the enemy. It's what I would do. I have done everything I can to keep things smooth with him, and he seems to be willing to listen, but I have seen the increase in guard, and how they all watch me wherever I go. Maybe the others haven't noticed, but I've no doubt you will when you start moving around.

"I've appealed to him to keep what you've done under wraps, but rumors spread one way or another. When the story gets around of you altering time, how many people do you think will start begging for you to change history and save their loved ones, or even stop the war to begin with? This has dire repercussions and I don't have any way to deal with them."

While she spoke, Midna glanced at Link, who had leaned back against the vanity, crossing his arms and waiting patiently for Zelda to finish. She was venting her stress on him, Midna knew, and undoubtedly he realized it as well.

When she finished, Link waited a moment in silence before responding. "I am sorry, for what it's worth," he said, "But understand that quite frankly, I don't give a damn what the populace thinks of me right now. Whatever happens, we have to deal with it when it gets here."

He turned to Zelda, walking toward her. "I'm sorry," she said, looking up at him, "I don't mean to dump it all on you like this. But I need you to tell me the whole story, from what happened that night, up to you bringing Midna back. It would help if I at least understand what's going on."

Link reached out and squeezed Zelda's shoulder reassuringly. "I don't think it's as bleak as you're making it out just yet," he said, "After all, if the king had no trust at all, then Midna and I'd probably be breaking us all out of a prison right now, and then we'd figure out something else that didn't involve having this country on our side."

"I know I'm assuming the worst," Zelda said, "But one thing I've learned these past couple of weeks is that I've been too dependant on you. I can't always count on you being there to clean up the messes. I've got to look at the bigger picture, and figure out how to make this work myself."

"If you look at the big picture too much, you lose sight of what's right in front of you," Link said, "It's kind of like farming. Get too focused on that end of season harvest, and you might not notice the problems right in front of you, from pests to weather, and they'll become bigger problems the longer they're ignored. Focus on what you can do now, and work toward that final goal. That's what Rusl always tells me."

"Then for now," Zelda said with a smile, "You can start with telling me exactly what was happening on your end for the past two weeks."

"I think I can do that, if you don't mind it being at a meal table," Link said.

* * *

"Khall!" Tharkus said, slamming the door to the younger wizard's office open, and finding him seated across the room, went on, "We have a problem!"

"What is it now?" Khall asked, not looking from his desk and the half eaten bowl of stew.

"Link," Tharkus said, walking across the room, "We need to get rid of him now."

"That would ruin the deal I have with Shaklator," Khall said, still not looking up, "I promised her that he would not be harmed. Too much is riding on that deal to endanger it now, when we are so close."

"You haven't been paying attention, have you?" Tharkus said, "You should bother scrying them more often. That night, when you killed the Twili in the dungeon, something happened. The next time I knew where Link was, he was in the Void. Do you understand that?"

Khall sighed, leaning back in his seat to look Tharkus in the eye. "And? Would that be exactly where she wants him?"

"I was able to watch it through the Twilight Mirror," Tharkus said, "Link defeated Zero there, and then gave Shaklator a run for her money! By the end of it, she was trying to kill him, and couldn't pull it off! He would have eventually tired himself too much to fight, but Ganondorf interfered and pulled him out.

"The real problem is that Link has accepted his Triforce, and not in the manner Shaklator wanted."

"How do you mean?" Khall asked, finally hearing something that truly got his attention.

"Everything we were doing, that I did in the forest, that you did that night, was to attempt to drive him into a rage, to use its power for the sake of revenge. In that state, he would be far more amenable to Shaklator's desire for him."

"And then he would have come for us anyway," Khall said, "I don't see what you're getting at."

"I've been a dead man for longer than you've existed," Tharkus said, "So long as I get what I want out of this, I don't care about what happens after. And you, you're going to die anyway. Don't think I didn't know your sickness is getting worse," he added when Khall's expression turned to a glare, "So long as the deal is finished, and Shaklator removes the blight from your home, does it matter how you die?"

"And?" Khall said, "What exactly is the problem now?"

"Link has somehow gained access to the Triforce of Courage's power not for the reason Shaklator desired, but for some other reason," Tharkus went on, "Now, Shaklator has nothing to tempt him with, and he will be impervious to her whispers. If he is allowed to develop further, he will be far more dangerous than Ganondorf ever was."

"I think you're overreacting," Khall said, lifting another spoon of stew, only to set it back in the bowl once he realized it had cooled, and shoved the bowl to the side of the table, "Besides, time is on our side at this point. Twenty-eight days following the new year, a mere four weeks into spring, and there will be nothing anyone, including Link, can do to stop us. If I had to guess, it would take three weeks to get from Darimar to the tower where you've placed the mirror, and that's moving at a good pace, not counting crossing the mountains. And even if the mirror is destroyed outright, another two weeks after that will place the constellations at the proper positions to sufficiently open the pathway that the summoning will not even require the mirror.

"If you want to rush off and get yourself killed, by all means," he went on, "Better yet, how about you make yourself actually useful and find Zero. I don't like him running around out there on his own. Right now he's more dangerous than Link could ever be."

Tharkus growled through his teeth. "You should put out the effort to take a look in on Link, and see who happens to be with him. That would be all the evidence you need. He's even less human than I am at this point, and if he becomes as skilled with his Triforce as Ganondorf, no amount of planning will let us overcome them working together. Don't say I didn't warn you."

As he spoke, he had turned and walked to the door, and after the last sentence, slammed it shut behind him. Khall pushed his seat back, standing up and moving to the side of the room, near his bed, where a small desk with a few essentials was kept. He took a large shallow bowl from one side, setting it in the center of the desk, and a pitcher of water kept there for such reasons, pouring it into the bowl until the water rose to the rim, just under spilling over, and set the pitcher aside.

He reached to his belt, opening one of the pouches that wrapped around him, and reached inside with his finger and thumb. "Not much left," he muttered as he pulled a pinch of sparkling sand from within. As he released the sand into the water, the individual grains were nearly invisible, landing with not even a ripple upon the water's surface. Khall muttered a small incantation as he rubbed his thumb and finger together, ensuring it all fell to the water, then stepped closer to the desk, looking down into the bowl.

The water remained still, but something stirred within. An image appeared, fuzzy at first, and gradually sharpening. Khall focused his thoughts upon the object of his desire, Link, and the image, now showing a castle, began to move, as the perspective raced through the walls, doors, and people without slowing, before finally coming to a stop in a kitchen, slowed for the moment just after the midday meal, and three figures sat alone at a table in the far corner.

"I'll be damned," Khall said with a smile as he identified them, Link and Zelda seated across the table from each other, and seated on the table's surface to one side was the Twili princess, Midna, without her mask.

Khall looked down at his right hand, turning the palm toward himself. He remembered, something odd had happened that night. He had thought he'd killed her, and yet couldn't help but feel something had been wrong. A small feeling, but as if his grip on her had shifted a small amount in an instant, in a way it shouldn't have.

"I wonder," he whispered, but then brushed it aside as irrelevant now, and turned back to the bowl. He willed the view closer, and focused, to clear the image and carry through their conversation to him.

* * *

Link had been explaining to the pair the events after he had appeared in the Sacred Realm, and his meeting with the Hero of Time, all the way to the face-to-face encounter with Shaklator, though he omitted the detail of the Sage of Light's true identity for now, and paused a moment to take a breath when describing his meeting with Zero, but Midna interrupted with a question.

"Are you serious?" she asked, "This guy, Tharkus, the same one that was with Khall that night, the very same man who attacked us in the forest and nearly got me killed there, he was after you when you were an infant, just so he could make a flesh golem that looks like you?"

"What?" Link asked, turning to her with one elbow on the table, "You don't believe me?"

"I have very little incredulity left in me at this point," Midna said, "But that is pushing it."

Zelda, who had been silent the entire time as she listened, spoke for him. "It's true."

They both turned to her as she went on. "I met Zero not too long ago," she said, "He does look remarkably like Link, but it is more than that."

She looked up, straight at Link. "It's your eyes, Link," she said, "Anyone who looks into them long enough will see something there. Something dangerous. But you are a good person, perhaps honest to a fault, and that tempers it. Zero, on the other hand, it's like you, but with everything good sucked out. Only the dangerous part remains, uncontrolled."

"I should have killed him while I had the chance," Link muttered, "But standing up to Shaklator, after everything she'd put me thought… I guess I was trying too hard to prove a point, that I wasn't going to do what she wanted, even when she was urging me to kill him."

"So we deal with him when we see him again," Midna said, "You already know you can beat him."

"That's the thing," Link said, "He was forced to fight me on even footing there. When I meet him again, he'll have all the power of a flesh golem."

"Inhuman strength, immunity to pain, and the ability to recover from any injury that doesn't completely obliterate every scrap of him," Zelda said, "I nearly had him down myself, but didn't have enough strength to finish the job. Using the Triforce just drains me too fast."

"So you did it too?" Link asked.

"I used the Triforce of Wisdom to strike him, yes," Zelda said, then leaned forward, "I thought you were using yours when you rebuilt Midna's body from ashes. How did you learn to do that?"

"I'm still not sure what happened, exactly," Link said, "Shaklator had me cornered, and I had no chance, I knew, so I did something I never have before. I prayed."

That was something Midna had not expected to hear. Link being described as "not a religious sort" didn't even come close to describing his near visible resistance to such things. He believed in the gods well enough, but he was the kind of individual that could be described as treating them with a "they don't bother me, I don't bother them" kind of attitude. It was also heavily tied with his outright denial of forces such as fate, believing that weaker men who refused to take responsibility for their own lives found it easier to simply blame an invisible force controlling their lives.

"I can't really describe what happened next," Link said, "because all I know is that something changed. There was some kind of reaction. I think I actually got an answer. And then, while I was before only able to use the Triforce while in a heightened emotional state, like if I was really enraged, it now came so easily, like it just flowed through me as easily as my own blood. It even reacted on its own, healing my injuries remarkably fast.""That's just like Ganondorf's healing," Zelda said.

"Yes, exactly," Link said, "But it also drained me incredibly fast. About three broken bones being restored, and I was spent. Got my arm broken after that, and it wasn't working, not to mention being exhausted on top of it. The arm didn't carry with me coming back here, but the exhaustion did. It was about all I could do to finish up and restore Midna's body."

"Would you mind explaining that part to me now," Midna said, "since I am still fairly convinced I didn't die like people seem to think."

"Okay, the Hero of Time explained to me how he managed to travel in time before," Link said, "It was actually the Master Sword that enabled him to do so, and then only at the Temple of Time. I realized that you and I had done so previously as well, when we went back to the Temple of Time before its destruction. He said that he could only go to the times the sword would take him, as if it picked the destination of where he was needed. So it was more hope that anything when I went down to the dungeon that it was tied to the Sacred Realm, rather than the temple itself. And I was right. I took the dead body I rebuilt from the ashes, and swapped it with the living Midna, and brought her back with me."

"So you're actually very lucky the sword even agreed with where you needed to go," Zelda said, "And you can't control it at all?"

"Doubtful," Link said, "And even if I could, it's not something we should be mucking with, I think. I could, say, go back and kill Shaklator before she became a goddess, and even prevent the ancient war, maybe. But then Hyrule would likely never exist, and neither would we. What I did with Midna was a calculated risk, and for the most part there seems to be no ill effects, but it was also a very recent event. If we were to change further back events, like preventing the destruction of the other four kingdoms, and yes, I thought about doing it for a bit, there could be other, untold effects that could be disastrous elsewhere."

"So what we should do is accept the consequences of what has occurred, and rebuild, just as we would anyway," Zelda said.

"Prisoners of our time, I'm afraid," Link said.

"Indeed we are, and we have a war to win," Zelda said, "Can I count on you, Link?"

"Of course you can," Link said, "But I thought you didn't want to rely on me?"

"I'm afraid I intend to use you as a pawn," Zelda said, "to do what you do best, and that seems to be solve problems. Roxim assures us the frost giants we encountered in the mountains are coming this way, and will be here by spring, and able to assist us. With their power, and Darimar's standard army, you won't be needed on the front lines or walls. You'd arguably be one of the best fighters there, but I think we can come up with something to let you, and you," she added, glancing at Midna, "be real terrors to Khall and his forces."

"I see," Link said, "While the fighting is going on, you intend to find some way for me to sneak in and cut off the head of the snake."

"Obviously, this is just speculation," Zelda said, "We'll have to wait for spring to see what actually occurs before we come up with a real plan."

"Speculation or not," Link said in a low tone, "I'm getting the feeling that this isn't the best time to be talking about such things.""What? Why?" Zelda asked.

"I don't know," Link said, "But the hair on the back of my neck is tingling. If I didn't know better, I'd think we were being watched."

* * *

Khall quickly backed off, losing his concentration and the image in the bowl faded to nothing. Damn! He'd almost blown it, listening in even closer when the talk of such plans had been going on. Link already had superior senses to normal humans, due to his time spent as an animal, and he had detected Khall's presence, though he didn't realize what it had been.

Link might actually be as dangerous as Tharkus feared, possibly even more so. Combining what he had just heard with what he knew of Link, it was ever more clear that while Link tended to avoid positions of leadership, his mind worked exceptionally quickly under pressure, and he stepped into the role of a leader with a natural ease few men possessed. An exceptional fighter, charismatic, and too damn smart for his own good. One could say he was the ideal hero.

But he had his weaknesses. When it came to learning, if Link lacked interest in something, he would not pursue it. He was thoroughly uneducated on the subject of magic, and was only just beginning to understand the capabilities of the Triforce he had possessed since birth.

The more Khall thought about it, the more he realized that exactly what he needed was to isolate Link, and deal with him personally. Their little plan to assassinate him would draw Link exactly where he wanted him.

The pain in his chest reminded Khall that even scrying taxed him more than it used too, and he returned to his seat, reaching for the handkerchief in his pocket, just in case a coughing fit took him. He brought in his other hand a rolled paper, which he spread out on the table, shoving the ice cold bowl of stew further to the side.

It was an architect's sketch of the citadel he now resided in, from both the side and above. On the aerial view, six red X's were visible in a circle around the outer edge of the foundation. Khall smiled to himself. He had men working in all four locations at this very moment, installing the clear quartz crystals in each location, in the positions of the points of the star within the magic circle that occupied the entirety of the citadel.

The circle had existed since the citadel was built during the ancient war, but its function had never been completed, at least until now. With crystals of the size he had ordered carved from the caverns below, six feet tall and nearly three feet thick, the power of this enormous circle would at last be usable.

And once it was working, the citizens of Darimar were in for the surprise of their lives. He would make use of it in the early spring, when their army readied to march, to buy the time needed for the Twilight Mirror to be used.

"You've overcome every challenge set before you so far, Link. Even if you manage to overcome this obstacle," Khall said, "the damage will be done, one way or another."

* * *

"Is there anything left?" came a voice from behind Link's shoulder, and he turned to see another coming toward them.

"There's always stew," Zelda said, pointing to the slowly bubbling cauldron in a nearby fireplace, its fire gone, but still heated by glowing red coals.

Kilishandra stopped a few steps away from the table, looking directly at Link as he looked her up and down. "You must be Link," she said.

"You've got the advantage on me, then," Link said.

"This," Zelda said, gesturing to her, "is Kilishandra. Ganondorf's adoptive daughter."

"Adopted?" Link said, somewhat surprised, seeing the similarities, with her dark skin, red hair, and standing nearly six and a half feet tall, but then added, "Actually, I can believe that, because I doubt such a pretty girl could come from that man."

"In case you can't tell, I happen to be a woman," Kilishandra said, "Don't call me a girl again."

"Now that attitude you got from him," Link said with a smile.

"What about you?" Kilishandra asked, "You're a lot smaller than I expected. The way people talk, you should be ten feet tall with lightning shooting from your eyes."

She gestured to his clothes. "Plus, green? Seriously?"

Link glanced down at his tunic. "Hey, I thought I looked good in green."

"I think you do," Midna said.

"There, see?" Link said, "Sorry, but her opinion matters more to me than yours."

"You two a married couple already?" Zelda asked, "If you're quite finished, this is a good time to talk about something else I need to. Kilishandra, this concerns you too."

Kilishandra retrieved a bowl of the stew before seating herself at the table, next to Link, but allowing about a foot and a half of space between them.

"This concerns what happened when we encountered Zero," Zelda said, "Kilishandra's weapon was broken in the fight, and I threw her the Master Sword."

"Oh, really?" Link said.

"Yes," Zelda said, "There was a reaction, Link. The sword glowed when she picked it up, bright enough to nearly blind you. You realize what that means, Link."

"That does explain it," Link said, "When I picked it up just a little bit ago, it seemed heavier than I remembered."

"Is this what you were saying before, about the sword 'choosing' me?" Kilishandra asked.

"Yes," Zelda said, "And apparently it has not re-acclimated to Link as I had hoped."

"Let me see," Link said, rising from his seat and backing away a few steps form the table.

He grasped the hilt of the sword, pulling it free from the scabbard in one smooth motion, into a forward swing that stopped just above the floor. He raised the blade, spinning to one side with a horizontal slice, then turned, spinning the hilt over in his hand, twirling the sword on one side, before taking a firmer grip and swinging once more. Throughout the demonstration, his expression grew further perplexed.

"Yes," he said finally, "It'd definitely heavier than it was. I wonder what other effects this could have."

"That means that the sword that that has protected Hyrule through countless generations now goes to the daughter of the very man it has been used to fight?" Midna said, "That's… that's so stupid!"

"I think 'ironic' is the term that would best apply," Kilishandra said.

"Not exactly," Zelda said, "The use of specific words for the direct opposite of their literal meanings, that's irony. This is just coincidental, in regard to the relationships."

"Language lesson aside, the fact she could use the sword at all speaks more for her character than any amount of words," Link said, sheathing the sword, but accepting her as its true wielder, I'm not sure what that means, because I'm still not sure what it saw in me."

"The stories say that the Master Sword can only be wielded by those pure of heart," Zelda said, and was cut off by both Midna and Link laughing, and she raised her voice to quiet them, "In any case, it's been done, and we need to decide what to do with it."

"Well, I've already found out this sword won't work on Tharkus or other flesh golems," Link said, "Something about it makes it only truly effective at neutralizing the power of the Triforce. That's why it can cause lasting injury to Ganondorf. His normal rapid healing is canceled out."

"Is that how you were able to beat him?" Kilishandra asked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Link responded.

"I'm still trying to figure out how someone as scrawny as you beat him, when he is capable of leveling a city with little effort," she said.

"Well, I did have some help," Link said, and winked at Midna.

When Midna gave a small smile, Kilishandra turned to her. "What? This? What is this anyway? Some kind of cat?"

"Watch it, _woman_," Midna said, turning a glare and putting extra emphasis on the word to remind her exactly what she was referring to, "I happen to be royalty, you know."

"Anyway," Kilishandra said, standing up and stepping away from the table, then moved toward Link, "I don't care about your sword right now. I'm more interested in you, or more specifically, what's so special about you."

She stopped about a foot away from Link, and towering a full head above him, looked down as he looked up, and they locked eyes. "You look like no more than any other little man I've met," she said, "and that, combined with the way people talk about you, has me intensely curious. Plus, you've defeated my father, a man I have only once seen beaten, and no other man would have survived an encounter with that creature. I'm sure you can understand if I want to see a little proof."

"You want me to beat up Ganondorf while you watch or something?" Link asked, "He and I are on thin enough ice as it is just working together right now."

"No. I want to fight you."

"You can't be serious."

"How serious am I when I say there is a training ground within the castle with sparring rings," Kilishandra said, "Meet me there in half an hour. That will be enough time for me to find my father and tell him I won't be going to his training session with Sheila today. And though it's more for concern for the castle and bystanders, I won't even use my magic against you."

Without waiting for him to respond, she turned and marched away, and was out of the kitchen. Link turned to Zelda and Midna, who said nothing as he moved back to the table and sat down.

"She's his daughter all right," he said, "Just as crazy as he is."

"She's in a difficult place," Zelda said, "You see, she owes for keeping her alive, essentially, and is effectively now a soldier of Hyrule. I've recently had a discussion with her regarding what is going to happen in the future, and explained to her about my difficult position. In the end, Ganondorf is still an enemy of my kingdom, and while she may not be his blood, she looks up to him as if he were, and while he is rather harsh, but that's who he is, he treats her as if she were his own blood. She is trustworthy, up to the point where she would have to choose between her debt to me or her loyalty to him. At that point, I have no idea where she would go."

"So what happens if I actually go fight her, and beat the crap out of her?" Link asked.

"I don't think it would be best for our situation at the moment," Zelda said, "Ganondorf has made no indication that he intends to betray us, but the empathy the Triforce of Wisdom grants me, to see other people's emotions, does not work with him, the same as it doesn't with you, and he is very difficult to get a read on, and that's only compounded by the fact the man is so terrifyingly smart. He's nearly always thinking several steps ahead of any of us."

"But you know if you don't fight her, he'll never let you live it down," Midna interjected.

"Guess I'll just have to get it over with and see," Link said with a sigh.

"Link, please, don't hurt her," Zelda said, "I'm not sure exactly how well she compares to you in ability."

"You didn't seem worried about hurting him when he was trying to teach you," Midna said.

"We were also fighting with sticks," Zelda said, "At worst, I'd have given him a light bruise."

"Sure," Link said, "Now make Kilishandra promise not to hurt me."

* * *

They hadn't told anyone else of the impromptu match, yet when Link entered the training yard, a crowd had gathered around the sparring ring where Kilishandra waited. As Link stepped through the crowd of unknown faces, he spotted Ganondorf also waiting by the edge of the ring, near Kilishandra, and the two turned to him as he moved toward them. Standing so close to each other, the pair truly did look related, with nearly matching hair color, though her skin tone was lighter than his. It also was an interesting scale, Link thought, seeing how much taller she was than himself, yet Ganondorf still stood head and shoulders over her.

Zelda was behind Link, moving with him, and as Link stopped by the edge of the circle, marked in chalk on the ground, Midna emerged from his shadow, as if rising from the floor. "If that man can stand in the open with no fear, I'll be damned if I'm going to hide," she said as eyes all around the ring turned to her.

"How is this going to work?" Link asked, "Knock out, first blood, or what?"

"I'm thinking the first to submit," Kilishandra said.

Link noticed she had changed into padded leather armor, the kind used in training with blunted weapons. Someone called his name, and he spotted Sheila weaving through the crowd toward him, a bundle of such armor under one arm, and a blunted training sword in her other hand.

As she came close, she gave him a small smile. "It's good to see you," she said.

"You too," he said, "That for me?"

She lifted the bundle under her arm so he could take it, and he unfolded it, revealing a vest, thigh guards, and armguards that extended to the elbow, all hard leather with an inner padding. "It should fit over your clothes," Sheila said.

The torso piece was a single part, that he slipped on over his head after removing his baldric with the Master Sword, which he passed to Zelda, then tightened the straps at the waist to secure it in place, and pulled on the sleeves and guards. "Wow, this stuff's light," Link said as he tugged at the neck, making sure it was snug.

"I'd guess so since you're used to wearing chain," Midna said.

"A fair warning, Link," Zelda said, leaning close, "Kilishandra usually wears plate. So it's going to feel even lighter to her. And she's fast enough already in the plate."

"Ganondorf decided to wait until tomorrow to help me with my magic," Sheila said, "Thanks for giving him a reason. I don't want to be too far from my father yet."

"Did something happen?" Link asked.

"Ralthas collapsed earlier today," Zelda said, and when he started to ask, she went on, "He's all right, for now. The doctor thinks he'll be back on his feet in a few days."

"Guess when I'm done here, I should drop in and say hi," Link said, taking the sword Sheila offered, and gave a small swing toward the ring, testing the weight.

"Hey Link!" Ganondorf called across the ring, "Just to let you know something: This is my daughter. You hurt her, I'll hurt you twice as bad. But if you just let her win, it'll be even worse for you."

"Really giving me options, isn't he?" Link muttered.

Kilishandra stepped into the ring, holding her sword tightly in one hand, and Link entered across from her, and she immediately noted which hand he carried it in. _A lefty,_ she thought, _That complicates things, but not badly._

Even as she sized him up, Link was doing the same to her. She was bigger than him, but he noted the size of her arms beneath the pads, and shape of her torso, implying muscle packed within, but not to the point of actually being muscle-bound. She was in peak physical condition, with the maximum muscle possible before it would actually begin slow her down. At that time, she was coming to much the same conclusion about him. In spite of the difference in size, they were on roughly even footing when it came to sheer strength.

Link lifted his sword, leaning his weight onto his toes as she did the same. "You ready?" he asked.

"You better be," she said, and dashed toward him.

Their weapons met with a resounding crash, as Link deflected her blow, stepping back one pace, before stepping to the side around her second swing, aiming one for her that she deftly ducked beneath, stepping back and turning the step into a spin as she aimed her next shot for his knees. Link leaped upward, the blade passing harmlessly beneath him, and the instant his feet hit the floor, he shoved forward, driving his shoulder into her chest.

Kilishandra staggered back several steps from the impact, and was barely able to get her blade up to stop his next swing as he moved after her, and he continued, stepping around her left side, where she would be exposed. She spun the opposite direction, driving her sword pommel first toward his head. Link ducked beneath it, stepping back the way he came, and hooked one foot behind her ankles, and kicked to the side, dragging her feet out from under her.

_Gods, he's fast,_ she thought as she fell, landing flat on the thin padding covering the stone floor.

"Good enough?" he asked, looking down at her.

Kilishandra growled, lifting her legs and then jerking them down, spring boarding to her feet, spinning to face him, weapon up. Link stepped back, but Kilishandra wasn't about to give him room to breath and make use of his fast footwork again, so she closed in. She aimed a high blow for his shoulder, and as his sword came up to deflect it, she let her blade slide along his with a screech as she stepped closer, aiming a strike with her left hand, and the punch connected with his jaw, jerking his head to her right with the impact. Rather than stagger, Link rode the momentum of the blow, allowing it to spin him in place as he aimed a swing at her midsection as he turned completely around. Kilishandra was barely able to bring her blade back over, and with a sloppy parry, absorbed the full force of his blow on her wrist, nearly jerking the weapon from her hand.

Link didn't wait for her to recover, spinning back the other direction, his right hand coming up and aiming a backhand for her face. Kilishandra saw it coming, and tried to step back, his knuckles grazing her skin in the way past. The foolish attack had left him wide open, his arms wide, and she stepped back in, raising her knee into his gut, and smiled at the audible grunt he gave, and grabbed his shoulder with her free hand, pulling him over her knee and tossing him onto his back on the floor.

"They both fight dirty," Zelda said as the gathered crowd around the ring grew louder, taking enough interest in the fight to cheer, and she saw money changing hands as bets were made on the winner, "Someone might have to step in before they actually hurt each other."

The sound of the crowd rose as Kilishandra's foot came up, and kicked down, striking the mat where Link's head had been before he rolled away. "Hey!" Zelda shouted, trying to be heard over the crowd, "None of that nonsense!"

"I don't think they heard you," Sheila said.

"She may not be wearing armored boots," Zelda said, "but the ones she is wearing are still heavy enough to cause real damage like that."

As Link was on his feet, their weapons clashed again as the pair collided, the weapons locking together at the guard, and each pushed back on the other, trying to topple them over.

"Not just that," Zelda muttered, "This is already a bit too intense for my liking. Those weapons may be blunted, but they're still heavy enough to crush bones as hard as those two are swinging."

Sheila shrugged. "I guess if that happens, I'll have to fix them up. Don't forget I fixed your leg once already."

Midna, meanwhile had joined the crowd, and her voice was audible over the rest of the noise, screaming, "Kick her ass, Link!"

Kilishandra and Link were still locked together, their feet planted as they struggled with their weapons against one another, which also caused their faces to lean close to each other. "I'll give you this," Kilishandra hissed through her teeth, looking down at him, "You're stronger than you look."

"Thanks," Link said, "Not sure how to compliment you. I'd say you're tough for a woman, but it seems there's plenty of tough women around here, at least two of which have tried to kill me."

"Some kind of chauvinist then?" Kilishandra asked, pushing harder on his blade with hers, the metal weapons grating.

"Not at all," Link said, shifting his feet and holding his ground against her push, "Just more worried that you'll take my head off if I said you were pretty."

_That_ wasn't what she had been expecting. Kilishandra hesitated for one instant, relaxing her push while she tried to figure out what the hell was going through his head, and Link capitalized, shoving forward. Kilishandra was force to step back or be thrown onto her back. Link stepped around her side as she moved, turning to face her left side even as she staggered back.

_You're not getting me like that again,_ she thought, expecting him to attempt to hook her legs again, and reached up with her left hand, catching him by surprise as she wrapped her arm around his neck and drug him down and toward her, tightening her arm around the headlock as his head came down toward her torso and he was forced behind her to avoid snapping his neck.

As fast as it happened, he changed the direction again, dropping his sword and wrapping both arms around her waist, and then she realized her feet had left the floor. She swore aloud as he stood up straight, lifting her higher, and she fully expected him to toss her backwards in a suplex, but instead he turned on the spot, spinning in place, and as she tried to hook one leg between his to unbalance him, he suddenly dove forward, and she saw the floor rushing up toward her, and was not unable to get her feet back in place in time.

They landed in a heap. The impact was not great, but Kilishandra smacked her forehead against the mat hard enough to daze her, and she had lost her grip on her weapon. She pushed herself up, and realized Link was still on top of her. "Give up yet?" he asked.

She jerked her elbow back, snapping it hard into his face, and sent him rolling to the side, swearing loudly. She smiled as she rose to her feet, somewhat unsteady, and he did the same, lifting one hand to his face. When he pulled it back, she could see the trickle of red from his mouth.

"Damn," he said, "Bit my lip."

"Don't slow down," Kilishandra warned as she stepped toward him.

He swore again as he leaned away, narrowly avoiding her punch. Even as he did, he grabbed her arm with both hands, turned and pulled her over his shoulder, dropping her onto her back once more.

"How many more times we going to do this?" he asked, looking down at her as her head lay near his feet.

Her response was a jab upward, catching him directly between the legs, and Link staggered back, now spouting a stream of profanties as he made clear to get out of her reach, struggling to stay on his feet.

"And that," Kilishandra said as she climbed to her feet, "is why women are better fighters than men. One less weakness."

Link shook his head, and forced himself to stand upright. "Okay," he said, "Now I'm pissed."

* * *

The fight went on for nearly another ten minutes, until, deciding they had gone quite far enough, Zelda stepped in and declared it a draw. Link and Kilishandra had both protested, but not too loudly, and Link now sat on a wooden bench at one end of the courtyard, now with his tunic off as he checked over his injuries.

"Oh, look here," Midna said, pointing at the area under his left arm, "The bruises make a cute little pattern."

"If this works like I think it will, then any second now," Link said, and as Midna watched, the bruises were already shrinking and fading away, "Yeah. Just takes longer because I'm already tired."

"That's incredible," Midna said, "If it didn't tire you out, you'd be invincible."

"Not really," Link said, glancing down a the Master Sword where it leaned against the bench next to him, "This sword neutralizes the Triforce, remember? Which means it would be just as effective against me as Ganondorf. Wounds from it would not heal."

"All the better you have it then," Midna said.

The crowd had dispersed, full of the disappointed betters that there had not been a clear winner, and Link could see Zelda in the distance, talking to Kilishandra and Ganondorf. Ganondorf simply shrugged at something she said, and turned, walking away. Zelda glanced toward Link, then turned and walked away in another direction. Link picked up his tunic, pulling it back on over his head, and realized Kilishandra was moving toward him. He sat up as she approached, and was able to see the start of what was going to be a vicious black eye on her face. For a moment, he felt bad that he was already recovering, and she would be sore for days.

"The princess says that you and I need to get along," she said, stopping in front of him.

"You were the one that started it, but sure," Link said with a shrug.

"Oh, don't misunderstand, I'm disappointed that I didn't get you to crack," Kilishandra said, "But we are going to be fighting together in the near future."

"Tell you what," Link said, "Just answer me one question. Why are you here? You were working with Khall, and now you're with us. What's the reason?"

"Princess Zelda may have saved my life, depending on what the judge intended to do," Kilishandra said, "I owe her, plus my father is working with her."

"That can't be all," Link said, "What is _your _reason for being here? What exactly is it that you're fighting for?"

Kilishandra was silent a moment before answering. "I was lied to, by Tharkus and Khall," Kilishandra said, "My world is dying, a blight on the land makes water turn to poison and plant life refuses to grow. The land itself is dying, and taking everything else with it. They told me that we would take this land and move our people here. I've recently found they intend nothing less than the complete destruction of this world. Such an act will not help my people. I don't know why they do it, but I intend to stop it. To make up for what I've already done to the people of these lands."

Link glanced at Midna, who looked back at him and shrugged. Link rose to his feet. "Okay then," he said, "But what happens after that?"

"I don't know," Kilishandra said.

Link smiled. "Okay," he said, "Good enough for now, anyway. I think Zelda's right about you."

He offered his hand, and after a moment's hesitation, Kilishandra took it and they shook. "I can trust you at least until this is over. After that, we'll cross that bridge when it comes."

"So glad to have your approval," Kilishandra said somewhat sarcastically.

As she turned to leave, he stopped her, and picked up the Master Sword from where it lay. "Here," he said, "I think you should take this."

"But it's yours," Kilishandra said.

"Not anymore," Link said, "This sword sort of has a mind of its own, and I guess now it's chosen you."

Kilishandra tenderly took the sword from him, then smiled. "Okay then. Friends for now at least?"

"Sure," Link said, "Oh, and sorry about the eye."

"I've had worse," Kilishandra said, tossing the sword up onto her shoulder, "I've got scars in places you're never going to get to see."

She turned and walked away as Link sat back down on the bench.

"Are you sure about that?" Midna asked, "Especially after what you just told me?"

"In the end, it's just a sword," Link said, and smiled at her, "You want to know something? What kept me going that whole time I was in the Sacred Realm? It wasn't a sword."

Before she could respond, he picked up a small box from beside him, under where his tunic had laid, and started to open it, then stopped. "Close your eyes," he said

"What are you, ten?" Midna asked with a smile.

"Just do it, okay?" Link said.

With a sigh, she did as he asked. Link opened the box, and lifted from it the necklace, with the emerald pendant cut in the shape of a star. He undid the clasp, and reached over to Midna, quickly refastening it around her neck. "Okay," he told her.

She opened her eyes and looked down, picking up the pendant to see it. "I bought that for you back in Whitos-Neiki," Link said, "I should have given it to you months ago."

"Link, you don't have to buy me," she said.

Link leaned closer to her. "Listen," he said, "When I was alone in that dark place, this pendant was all that I had left of you, and I had never even given it to you. But it kept me safe, and I knew that somehow, you were still with me. That's what kept me going. I would have given up for anything less."

Midna felt a sudden wash of sorrow, that she hadn't been there with him. They'd been through so much together, and suddenly he'd been thrust into far worse by himself. He'd been through trauma that would have broken a lesser man, and to hear him say that she was everything that he had kept persevering for.

"Before he died, the Hero of Time told me something," Link said, "Something about a light in the darkness. He didn't get to finish it, but I think I've figured it out."

She dropped the pendant, letting it dangle around her neck as she turned more fully toward him. "What is it?"

"Hope," Link said, "I never truly gave up hope that there was a chance to get you back. The light in the dark is hope, because when the darkness manages to extinguish hope, that is when we are truly lost."

Midna found herself blinking back tears. "Link, you've already done so much for me, and to think…"

She stopped, noticing something odd at his belt. "What's that?" she asked.

Link looked down. The only think on his belt was his knife, but he noticed something odd around the top edge of the sheath, just below the pommel. "It's glowing?" he said, to no one in particular, and reached down to pull it free.

As the blade slid free, he received a start as the blade continued to pull, even further than the length it should have. He had to stand up to get enough room to continue. Further and further the blade emerged, until finally the tip came free, and it was not a dagger, but a full size longsword, its blade purest white, and seeming to glow, even though it cast no light on the area around it.

"How did that happen?" Midna asked.

But Link immediately recognized it for what it was. "You can't be serious," he said, "I had it with me the whole time?"

He remembered, he'd taken the dagger from the vault beneath Hyrule Castle so long ago now, and yet looking at it now…

"Midna, this is it!" he said, "This is the sword I found in the Sacred Realm! I don't know how this happened, but this is what we need! This is the weapon that can kill Shaklator, even if she does manage to enter our world!"

"That's really it," Midna said, more a statement than a question, "A weapon gifted to men by the goddesses themselves."

"Yes," Link said, "The Master Sword is an exceptional weapon, but this is on another level entirely."

He smiled slightly. "I get it. The light in the dark. Hope. This sword is hope."

He turned to Midna. "This is the Sword of Hope."

"You're so corny."

"I am not!"


	85. Chapter 84

**Chapter 84: Blood on the Snow**

Tharkus returned to his study, slamming and locking the door behind himself.

To hell with Khall, he would just have to fix this himself. The shards of his crystal ball still lay on the floor where they had fallen after the ball had been destroyed by Ganondorf. He would have to do it the harder way. He made his way to the table near the center of the room, and with a sweep of one hand, cleared it of the racks, beakers, and vials, each of which had contained samples of blood and other liquids, shattering on the floor.

Khall wasn't the only one with contingency plans, Tharkus thought as he retrieved a shallow bowl from a chest beneath it, and poured water from a pitcher until it was nearly full to running over. He tossed the pitcher aside, spilling what remained onto the floor as he reached into his robe with his other hand, retrieving a pinch of shining dust from an inner pocket which he sprinkled into the bowl of water.

With a soft muttering of the incantation, he held one hand over the bowl, his fingers poised like claws, and ground his teeth as an image began to appear within the water. The image began to clear, and a dark figure appeared within the water, standing in the snow atop a building in Darimar, and it turned, as if looking directly at him, one massive eye looking out from the center of a white, featureless face.

"Listen to me very carefully," Tharkus said, "You're only going to have one chance at this."

* * *

"You still haven't told me what we're looking for," Alex muttered, and blew into his hands to warm them.

It was getting to be late in the afternoon, and the streets were mostly empty, what citizens of the city had had to run errands had long since completed their business and returned home, and the businesses had closed early, and Alex would think only fools remained out in this cold. He was used to being further north, where the snow was not nearly so bad, and cursed under his breath as Silviana turned down an alley, forcing them to shove through waist-high snow between the buildings where it had not been trampled down.

"I'm not sure what we're looking for," Silviana said, "But I was going through Ralthas' reports, and one thing that managed to make it to his desk seemed actually worth pursuing. You know how, during times of war, the guard have extra prerogative to watch for sneaking, skulking people, right?"

"Spies?" Alex asked.

"Maybe," Silviana said, "Anyway, piecing together several of the reports, I was able to put together a basic idea of the movements of what I think is a single person or group. Each afternoon, there have been sightings of black cloaked figures, after the activity for the day dies down, moving through the city. If I'm right, they'll be in this general area today."

"There you go, talking like that again," Alex said, "Half the time you act like you're half crazy, and the rest of the time like you're too damn smart for your own good."

"Do I make you nervous?"

"About as nervous as anyone else who could put an arrow through my eye at a hundred paces would."

"Not like this," she muttered, coming to a stop to lift her quiver and dump the snow that had been packing into it around the arrows as she shoved through the deep snow in the alley.

"Kind of random question, but why do you use a hip quiver?" Alex asked, "Seems like it would just get in the way more than a shoulder quiver would."

"Shoulder quivers look pretty enough for soldiers on parade," Silviana said as they emerged into the street on the far end of the alley, "but for practical use a hip quiver is much easier and faster to draw from."

As they stepped from the deeper snow into the trampled path of the traffic earlier in the day, she pulled her bow from her shoulder, handing to Alex, telling him to hold it while she shook the snow from her cloak and dusted it from her leggings.

"This is actually really high quality," Alex said, tugging at the bowstring while watching the flex of the wood, "Hard to believe you made it out in the woods."

"Just because I spent most of my time in the forest, watching for bandits, doesn't mean I never went into town," she said, turning and taking the bow, "I would usually go into Whitos-Neiki once a season to barter hides and such for things I couldn't make myself. And this bow was actually a gift from…"

When she trailed off, Alex started to ask who, but stopped himself when he realized she was looking at something on the bow, just above the grip. He eased a step closer and realized it was a symbol of some kind, heavily worn by years and use. It was nearly illegible, but he was able to make out the wide wings on either side of the a nearly invisible body.

"Isn't that the Whitos-Neiki royal crest?" Alex asked.

"It doesn't matter," she said, slipping the bow back up onto her shoulder, "It was a long time ago, in any case."

"You're just going to leave me hanging like that?" Alex said.

Silviana turned to him, but before she could say anything, a shadow passed over them, causing her to look up, searching for the source. It had been a short flash, but something had definitely crossed above the alley. Alex turned to where she was looking, just in time to see a dark figure leap across the alleyway, moving the same direction as the first.

"That's the ones we're after!" Silviana said, "Come on!"

She turned, dashing down the street in the same direction the figures were headed, so quickly that Alex's own reaction ended with him running after her once she was already half a block away. Before reaching the end of the block, she turned, running toward an apartment block, up to the door, and turned, motioning him to follow, before shoving the door open and entering.

Alex entered behind her in time to see her disappearing up the stairs at the far end of the main hall, shaking his head as her ran after her, past the entrances to the family quarters on either side of the hall. She was moving faster than any mortal creature had a right to, he decided, and wonder how he was going to catch her as he started up the stairs to the second floor.

As he emerged onto the second floor, he found her waiting by the first door in the hall, and she pointed down the hall behind her. "You keep going and find a way onto the roof. I'm going to go out a window and try to head them off," she said, and pounded on the door for what he assumed was the second time, "Open up! Judge business!"

The door opened as Alex moved past her, and a middle-aged man with a confused expression on his face greeted her. She slipped inside past him without touching him as gracefully as a ghost. "It's not you or your family," she said to reassure him, as well as the woman and teenage boys seated at the table in the first room, a meal still in front of them, "You'll just have to shut the window behind me."

She slipped around the table and into the next room, spotting a single window that would open back onto the street. She quickly pulled it open, ducking her head through and looking up toward the rooftop. She could hear footsteps overhead, but not see their source.

The windowsill was not large, but just enough to get her feet onto, and she stood up on the outside of the window. She couldn't reach the rooftop from here, but to her right was a clothesline that was hung up across the street, within reach of the window. Accustomed to leaping across tree branches faster than most could run on the ground, it was nothing as she stepped onto the line, balancing with one hand on the wall as she lifted herself upright, and pushed herself off the metal hook in the wall with one foot, reaching for the ledge of the roof.

Her fingers grasped the ledge, dislodging snow into her face. With one hand, she pulled the cloth mask up from her neck, covering her face up to the bridge of her nose in the same white as the rest of her outfit, then with both hands and her feet on the wall, pulled herself upward, getting one arm onto the rooftop.

Finally able to see onto the rooftops, she spotted her quarry, their backs to her, moving to her right, in the direction of the castle. They were not moving at a relaxed pace, as if in no hurry.

_Those things again,_ she thought, recognizing the creatures from the temple, where they had been hunting the ninja to rescue Zelda.

One couldn't help but think that something was horribly wrong when looking at these things. Creatures such as these simply shouldn't exist, so defiant of nature they were. Their black bodies moved with the wind as if they were cloth, their legs seeming to be made purely of bone, ending with gargoyle feet with three clawed toes extending forward, and one to the back, their arms similarly bone, but at the elbow turning to steel, with vicious curved blades in place of hands and forearms. Though they were not facing her, she knew as well the most disconcerting part of all was the face, each would be dominated by a single eye, with not mouth or nose. A creature that lacked the need and even the facilities to eat or breath, and didn't even bleed when cut.

_And I didn't bring anyone actually capable of killing these things,_ she thought, silently pulling herself up onto the rooftop and pulling her bow from her shoulder.

She quickly scanned the rooftops surrounding them, plotting a course toward the castle. If she could lead them there, and find Ganondorf, Kilishandra, or even Sheila or Riven, then they could put them down.

The real problem was that there were five of them. If they scattered, there was no way she could keep track of them all. She was rethinking the wisdom of her orders to Alex as a nearby hatch in the rooftop slammed open, hurling snow through the air, and the crash causing the five dark figures to turn as Alex emerged, drawing his weapon as he did so.

"You freaks again!" Alex said as he stepping onto the rooftop.

_No helping it now,_ Silviana thought, pulling an arrow from her, quickly notching it and barely taking time to aim, loosed it toward the closest of the creatures. The arrow embedded itself in the creature's eye, the impact jerking its skull backward and toppling it onto its back.

Alex jerked his head around, spotting her near the edge of the rooftop. He hadn't even realized she was there, but seeing her drawing another arrow from her quiver, he turned back toward the group of monsters.

"Imbeciles. Kill them both, quickly and quietly!" a voice said, from an indiscernible place among the group.

"The hell?" Alex said, lifting his sword, "They never talked before!"

"It wasn't them," Silviana whispered, then so Alex could hear her, said, "It's the necromancer! He's watching us!"

"So what do we do?"

The creatures were spreading out, moving to surround the pair. "Maybe we can disable them," Silviana said, noting the one she had shot was rising, and used the tip of one of its blades to dislodge the arrow in its eye, "Go for the heads. Take them off, and don't let them rejoin the body. At the very least, we might be able to blind them."

Alex didn't wait for the golems to make the first move, and charged the nearest one. It brought both its blades to bear on him, crossing its arms over its chest and slashing outward as his approached. He stepped quickly to the left, evading the blade on his right and catching the other with his own blade, and even as the blades clashed, he lifted his right foot and smashed it forward, delivering a straight kick to the creature's knee. There was an audible crunch over the screeching steel of the weapons sliding against each other, and the golem's knee collapsed in the wrong direction, chips of bone pattering the snow behind it.

The support of its leg vanished and the creature went straight down to its knees. Alex's sword came up and flashed down, smashing through the neck and sending the white skull sailing to the side in an arc, landing in the snow and vanishing beneath the white powder.

As Alex had moved, Silviana loosed her arrow into another of the creatures, toppling it much like the first, and as Alex struck down the first, two more began closing in on him from either side. Silviana snatched two arrows from her quiver and lifted the back of the hafts to her face, biting down on one feather on each and tearing the feathers from the arrows with her teeth, and quickly notched both to her string, the now featherless sides facing each other, the remaining feathers toward the top and bottom of the bowstring. She lifted her bow horizontally, aiming directly toward Alex, drew back and loosed the arrows.

The missing feathers caused the arrows to arc in either direction, striking both of the golems in the chest. At this close range, the sheer force of impact drove them back several steps, though it did no real harm to the creatures. She tossed her bow aside and snatched her blades from the sheaths sewn into the thighs of her leggings, spinning them over in her palms once to position the blades along her forearms, and moved next to Alex, as he turned to the creature to his left, and she stepped between him and the one on the right.

The first one she had shot was on its feet and moving in with the others.

"I just realized something," Silviana said, her back to Alex, "Since I've met you, you've lost every fight you've been in."

"Not really the time," Alex responded, "And it doesn't count as a loss when the opponent runs away, or is invincible. I'd have killed Zero three times over if he didn't cheat like that."

"Well, just remember what I said," Silviana said, "Beyond that, we'll have to play this by ear."

The sound of metal clashing rang out over the streets.

* * *

"I don't understand that," Midna said, looking at the sword in Link's hand, "It's just too white to be steel. It's like it's glowing, but there's no light."

Link sat back down on the bench, rolling the weapon over in his hands. "I'm having a harder time believing it's here. When I was in the Sacred Realm, I found it in a very dark place. And now, it turns out to be the dagger I've had the entire time…"

Midna moved up to his side, leaning with one arm on his shoulder. "You're wondering if you were actually there at all."

"No," he said, "I was definitely there. Plus, Zelda and Ganondorf were both there in the end as well. I just wonder if…"

He suddenly laid the sword aside and leaned down, pulling off his left boot and reaching into it. "What are you doing?" Midna asked.

"Not there anyway," Link said, sighing and pulling his boot back on, "I had an arrow, it was given to me by that fairy I mentioned. There was something about it working the same way as the Master Sword, able to neutralize the Triforce. She gave it to me to kill Ganondorf."

"Even if it could do that, just one arrow?" Midna said, "We've both got reason to want him dead, but you know as well as I do that man dies hard."

"I'd fully expect him to put up one roaring pig of a fight," Link said, standing up and picking up the sword, "Anyway, that's a topic for another time."

He glanced down at the small sheath on his belt, then at the sword, and with a shrug, upended the weapon and aimed the tip into the opening. A second later, the white blade sliced its way out the bottom of the sheath. "Of course it's not that easy," he muttered, and looked up at the courtyard. Spotting an individual passing by between the sparring rings, he waved and shouted, "Hey, you! Can you point me to the armory?"

"I can show you if you'd like," said another voice to his left, causing Link and Midna to both turn.

"You were the prince, Richard if I remember correctly," Link said.

"That's right," Richard said, "And you're the one bringing people back from the dead, I hear," he added, glancing at Midna.

"Not exactly," Link said, "It's more complicated than that. Looks like you don't have time for the explanation, though."

Link was referring to the fact the prince was wearing the padded leather of the trainees in the courtyard. "I just finished for the day," Richard said, "My father stepped up drills, with the war, and that includes me. You need something from the armory?"

"A new sheath," Link said, brandishing the sword, then after a second's thought, "A baldric, too. Could have kept that, I guess."

"Follow me," Richard said, turning to a passage on the west side of the courtyard, and as Link fell into step beside him, went on, "I was just wondering if it had something to do with what your princess was talking to my father about before she left. You're going to go ahead and find that last part of your spell?"

"That's the idea," Link said, "I keep getting reassurances that Khall can't get his troops here during the winter, so we might as well take advantage of the breather."

Richard smiled. "We couldn't get our troops out either. I don't know if you've looked outside since you woke up from your nap, but winters here are vicious."

"Are we even that far south?" Midna asked, "I thought the northern mountains of Mystara bordered the artic. Surely we didn't come that far south again."

"Didn't notice it's uphill the whole way, did you?" Richard said, "We're at a much higher elevation, plus with the mountains right at our back essentially acting like a massive wall, we catch all the weather blowing south."

"Sounds like a lot to put up with," Link said, "Don't think I'd want to live here. No offense."

"You're used to a warmer climate, I take it," Richard said.

"We'll see maybe three inches of snow all winter in the village I grew up in," Link said.

Richard laughed. "We get that before breakfast."

He motioned for them to turn at a split in the passage, and they continued walking. "You know," Richard said, "Your friends were jumping through hoops like mad to try to get you back."

"Oh really?" Link said.

"No offense, but I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what's so special about you."

"I wish I could tell you," Link said with a shrug, "People keep saying that, but I just do what I have to. Usually scared out of my wits while doing so."

"Now you're just being modest," Midna said, "If anything, you think faster under pressure."

"I'm good at hiding it," Link said.

"Yeah? What about that dragon in the cloud temple?" Midna said, slapping him on the shoulder, "I couldn't even see the path you were taking to get above that thing. Or the leviathan? The one tiny weak point on that thing the size of a building."

"Well, first of all, I was trying to blind it, and was going the eye. Didn't realize it would kill it," Link said, "And as for the dragon, I don't know. I was playing it by ear."

"I wonder if that Darius I keep hearing about ever 'played it by ear,'" Midna said.

"Hey," Link said, the humor disappearing from his voice, "We can joke about things all you like, but don't compare me to that man."

"I'm sorry," Midna said, "I didn't think that would…"

"It's fine," Link said, interrupting her, "But I think his stories don't quite have all the facts of what happened back then. Probably no such old tales do."

"In any case, here we are," Richard said, nodding to the guard as he opened a door on the right side of the hall, and stepping through with Link and Midna behind him.

"Nice selection," Link said, looking down the racks of swords, spears, axes, and he even spied a few war hammers to the side of the room. Further back in the room he could see lines of shields, and stands with breastplates and chain mail all waiting.

Richard led him through the racks of swords, to one near the right wall, where sheaths were neatly lined up and waiting.

"You said baldric, so do you want a shoulder or hip sheath?" Richard asked.

"There's a difference?" Link asked.

"Well, there's this here," Richard said, picking one from the rack, "Can't really be worn on the hip, but it makes an over-the-shoulder draw easier."

Link could see why. The length of one side of the sheath, stopping a few inches from the tip, was open, and would allow one to draw the weapon through the side, without having to pull it straight out the end. A simple leather strap with a snap button was at the top of the sheath, to be pulled over the guard to keep the weapon secure when not in use.

"That would be great, if it's possible for a lefty to wear," Link said, "Not much good if the open side is down."

"Easy enough," Richard said, and simply turned it over, showing both sides featured gaps in the leather to slide the belt of the baldric through and hold it in place. He turned back to the rack and retrieved a leather baldric, and Link helped secure the sheath in place, then slipped his sword into the sheath, securing the leather strap around the guard. "Perfect fit," he said, and lifted the baldric over his shoulder, catching the other end around his hip and buckling it in place, pulling it securely tight across his chest, "That's better. No more carrying it around in my hand."

"Anything else?" Richard asked.

"That should be all for now," Link said, "I've got my shield and chain shirt back in my room. Thanks for you time."

"There is actually something I wanted to ask you," Richard said, glancing over at the door, "While we're somewhat away from other ears. Oh, except…" he added, glancing at Midna, who was occupying herself by glancing over the bows on the opposite wall.

"I don't keep secrets from her," Link said, "And if you're asking me to do something, _if_ I'm going to do it, she'll probably be with me."

"No, nothing like that," Richard said, "It's more advice that I want, though this is uncomfortable to ask, but I wanted to ask someone who isn't paid to be nice to me. If I'm right, I think you would have more experience with women than I do…"

That came out of nowhere, and Link wasn't sure how to react. "That can mean two different things," he said, "and if it's the meaning I think, I will say 'I doubt it.' I have experience with _a_ woman, and I have a hard time believing a prince has trouble with that."

"That's awfully blunt," Richard said, "Is every in your country so relaxed on the subject?"

"No," Link said, "I guess I'm just used to everyone knowing about it. I grew up in a village with less than twenty-five people around. Everyone knew everyone's business. I think that's also why I'm uncomfortable in city crowds."

"That's not what I meant anyway," Richard said, "And besides, I was raised to be a gentleman. Let's say there's this girl I really care about. I'm not sure she feels the same way about me. I did make her aware of it, and I thought she responded the same way, but I'm not sure anymore."

"This is more than a bit outside my expertise," Link said.

"What would you do, in this situation?" Richard asked.

Link scratched the back of his neck, thinking about it. "Well," he started, glancing over to where Midna was, just long enough for Richard to follow his gaze with ease, then turned back and said to the prince, "Personally, I think these things just happen, or they don't. If you try to force it, you may some years down the line find out you can't stand each other. I'd say you need to clear it up. Ask her. If she's not interested, it'll hurt for a while, but you'll survive, and can move on with your life."

"Just random luck, huh?" Richard said.

"Maybe," Link said, "There's definitely more to it, but I'm not one who can explain it, that's for sure."

"Thanks anyway," Richard said, and motioned toward the door.

Link called Midna's name, getting her attention, and the moved out of the armory. "Don't suppose you'd know where Ilia is, would you?" Link asked.

"I'm afraid I don't know that name," Richard said.

"She's the girl who I'm sure turned up the night I went missing," Link said.

"I'm not sure, but I can find out where her room is, if you like," Richard said.

"I'd appreciate it."

* * *

The snow on the rooftop had been nearly all shoveled away into the streets below by the fighters' movements, and Alex and Silviana found themselves back-to-back once more as the five monsters surrounded them. No wound they dealt the creatures would last long enough to make a difference, and they were both tiring.

"We need a new plan," Alex said between breaths, "Any ideas?"

"They haven't tried to escape," Silviana said, "If we can get them to follow us to the castle, we can get the help we need."

"Down the hatch then?" Alex asked.

"No, not through the buildings if we can help it," Silviana said, "You think you can keep up with me?"

"Probably not," Alex said, thinking about the mind boggling ways she moved.

"Then we split up and see who they follow," she said, "I'll go on the rooftops, you take street level. Just don't lose them, and go for the castle. It's only about a mile run from here."

"'Only' she says," Alex muttered.

"Ready," Silviana said, then as one of the creatures lunged for her, caught its blade with one of her own and spun the other into its face, embedding it in the skull from the side, and as she kicked it off, shouted, "Go!"

Alex went one way, and she the other. Silviana slipped into the gap left by the one she had stuck, stepping around behind one of the two attempting to intercept her and broke into a run, leaping the alley to the next building over.

Alex had moved straight for one, diving under a swing of its arm to roll forward onto his shoulders, and planted both feet squarely under its jaw with a vicious double kick that lifted it several feet into the air and sent it flying over the side of the building to smash into pieces on the street below. Rolling quickly back onto his feet, Alex jumped from the building, his fall cushioned by a large drift of snow on the side of the street, and quickly pushed his way out of the pile, looking up just long enough to spot the castle, and started running as fast as he could manage on the slick streets.

Silviana glanced back to see three of the creatures following her, and paused just long enough to return her weapons to the sheaths sewn into the thighs of her pants. Taking a deep breath, she then launched into a full sprint toward the far side of the rooftop, and leaped from the side, sailing high across the street, Alex passing beneath her as she did so.

She was going to fall short, she realized, reaching out with her hands, grasping for the edge of the far roof, but passing down well short. She managed to catch hold of a windowsill, and felt like she had nearly pulled her arms from their sockets as her full weight caught down on her. She pushed on the window, trying to open it, and found it locked. Shadows passed overhead, and the creatures had made the jump across the street.

No other option, she looked around, and spotted an icy flagpole to her right. One of the creatures was looking down at her from the rooftop, dislodging snow that fell onto her head. Silviana braced her feet into a crouched position on the wall, and leaned to the left, then threw herself to the right, using everything she had.

She was in freefall for a moment, then felt her hands grasp the pole, and she gripped with all she had to keep from slipping, kicking her legs forward to build momentum, riding in a complete circle around the pole once, then with another kick, released her grip and sent herself flying nearly straight up, and managed to catch hold of the edge of the rooftop.

She was on the roof even as the three creatures were heading toward her again, and she spotted the fourth that she had previously struck down some distance behind her, but catching up to the others. The beasts didn't even run like human beings, instead holding their arms wide, like some kind of bird trying to take flight, and their feet landed one directly in front of the other in a perfect line, their steps too fast and too small, far from a natural human gait.

She turned and started once more for the castle. Alex only had one after him, so she'd have to hope he'd be all right for now while she led these four.

* * *

Zelda wasn't sure what she had been expecting when she stepped into the banquet hall. Her previous conversation with the ninja master, Vargus, had led her to believe there were very few of them remaining, but when she attended as requested, she was greeted by the sight of hundreds of bodies packed into the hall, nearly shoulder to shoulder, and many even sitting up in the rafters, and all of them dressed in black leather armor, with hoods and masks to hide the white hair of the dark elf heritage.

Vargus was waiting near the large banquet table, capable of seating over a hundred along its massive length, and she only recognized him because his hood and mask were down, revealing the aged, toughened face, and his hair cut short and practical.

"I'm here, like you wanted," she said as she walked toward him, "Now what?"

"As I told you, I am not the true leader of these men," Vargus said, "I am merely the highest rank at the moment. I've told them all of your land, where creatures even more unusual than men coexist in equality. They all agree it is an good prospect, but without a leader, you must convince them you are worth following."

"You didn't say anything about this!" Zelda said, suddenly acutely aware her hair was barely straight, she wasn't wearing makeup, and was still in the tunic and trousers instead of something formal, "I'm not ready to give a speech. I'm not even dressed for it!"

Vargus moved over closer to her, leaning close and whispering. "That's the idea. We've had masters in the form of opulent nobles before, and when Mur'neth returned at Ganondorf's side, we joined him. We've also cut our ties with the allies we gained back then, however, so that is what this is about. Our future. You just have to convince them that you're worth following, and you will have their loyalty far beyond my lifetime."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

Vargus shrugged. "You're supposed to be the leader of men here, not me."

Zelda fervently wished for the heavens to drop something heavy on him. But she turned to face the crowd watching her from the length of the hall, looking over them and up at the ones in the rafters looking down at her.

She had no experience with the type of racism she had witnessed even in Mystara, but it was nearly a waste of effort due to the Dra'thul, the dark elves, being all but extinct anyway. These men were not even from this world, but a parallel one, and what little she knew was that they were hated there merely because their race been on the wrong side in a previous war. She realized, however, that looking through the group that there were no women among them. They were doomed as a species regardless of what was decided here.

Unless they could be integrated into another society. Kilishandra was living proof that the dark elves could bear the child of a human, and the reverse should hold true as well. The dark elves would eventually be gone, but perhaps their teachings and culture could be saved for future generations.

"I'm supposed to convince you that I would be a leader worth following," Zelda said at last, speaking loud enough the ones at the far end of the room could hear, "But looking at you here, I realize that you don't need a leader. You need a home."

She paused, climbing up onto the chair at the head of the table to make sure they could all see her before going on. "I was at Mur'neth's funeral, and I understand what Vargus said there at last. You are the last remnant of your people, outcast even in your own lands just because of your skin color. You would be no more out of place in Hyrule than the Gorons, mountain men with skin like stone, or the Zora, the mer-people who build their society in our lakes and rivers.

"You would not be given special treatment there, in either direction. If you wish to take a profession other than what you are now, you would be expected to perform up to the guild standards, like any others, or lose your position. That is the way of things in my land. You earn your keep like everyone else. But no one will look down on you because of your skin color, and will treat you the same as they do anyone else.

"Certain allowances can be made to preserve your people as a culture, or if physical necessities are required. The Zora's only special treatment is that no one looks at them weird if they go for a swim in the moat, for example. Gorons do receive a wide berth from most Hylians in the streets, but that is due to them being enormous and weighing up to half a ton. I don't think they'd deliberately hurt someone by knocking into them, but accidents can happen.

"The point is that you, as a people, would be integrated into our society, and receive all the rights and privileges associated with being a citizen of Hyrule. Throughout our history, as a kingdom we have gone to great lengths to preserve the unique cultures of the peoples who live under our banner.

"There was one people that tragically is no longer with us, known as the Sheikah. They were people of the shadows, much like your own, with unique teachings and customs that other Hylians found fascinating. From childhood, they were trained to move silently, out of sight, and to be fighters. They were not soldiers, being too few in number and not trained for direct conflict. They served the royal family as personal bodyguards. Where one was visible, five were watching from out of sight. It was to them that the lives of the first king and his family were entrusted, and it was they that saved the princess of the time so that she could return seven years after the invasion of Ganondorf, whom you all know, to bring the Hero of Time and a grand rebellion against him and free the land. They are the unsung heroes of Hyrule's history, electing to even be buried in a communal plot with a single gravestone that bears none of their names.

"In Hyrule, you would be free to choose your own lives and professions, but any of you who would wish to remain as you are, ninja, I would gladly welcome you into my service to fill the long empty role the Sheikah left behind when the great flood took their people from us."

As she fell silent, there was no perceptible response from the crowd. Zelda sighed as she climbed down from the seat, but Vargus moved up beside her and motioned for her to sit down. As she did so, he faced the assembled group.

"It seems that depending on what we decide here, this may be our last decision as a clan," he said to them, "You already know what I think we should do, and now a simple 'aye' or 'nay' is all we need to hear."

There was silence. They did not even turn to discuss with each other. Some crossed their arms, looking down in thought, and others leaned back in their seats. The pressure in the room was incredible, and Zelda had to grip the arms of her seat to keep her hands from shaking.

Finally, one seated further down the table looked up and said, "Aye."

There was another "Aye" from the rafters above, and more and more began to speak out, and soon, a torrent of Aye's filled the room. Zelda did hear a few Nay's among the noise, but they were almost completely drown out by those in agreement.

"Then we are decided," Vargus said as the noise died down, and turned to Zelda, and crossed his arms over his chest, "Princess Zelda Daphnes Hyrule, we of the Tiger Ninja Clan, originally of the kingdom of Dogora, do hereby swear fealty to you until death, you choose to release us from it, or the clans determine you an unworthy leader."

This was followed by the entirety of the room before her crossing their arms across their chests, and leaning forward in a small bow. Getting the hint something more was required, Zelda rose to her feet, and returned the gesture, and said, "I am honored. I hope I will prove worthy of your trust."

Without another word, the ninja before her began to dissipate through the hall's doors, and far faster than she expected, the room was empty save for herself and Vargus. "Congratulations," he said as she sank back into her seat, "You now have the loyalty of two hundred eighty-seven ninja."

"Did you set that up on purpose?" Zelda asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the dead silence when I was done just to make me sweat," she said.

"Not at all," Vargus said, "You'll find they're a fairly quiet bunch on most occasions. When you're trained for situations when even the sound of your own breathing can give you away, you tend to not talk more than necessary in most situations."

"So what happens now?" Zelda asked.

"I would assume we'd keep preparing for Spring as best we can," Vargus said, "All this is for nothing if we all die."

* * *

The castle's main entry hall was nowhere near as opulent as the throne room, its walls and floor constructed of heavy granite rather than marble, though the stone was smoothed to near glass-like perfection, and the hall itself was decorated with red carpets leading up to the grand stairway, and rich tapestries hanging along the walls.

The oak benches alongside the walls may have once been varnished to a gleam, but were heavily worn, and as Link sat down on one to wait, he wondered if he should be worried about getting a splinter in an awkward place.

Ilia hadn't been in her room, but Richard had set a member of the castle staff on the task of finding her, and would bring her to the entry hall, and easy to find location.

"So what do you need to see her about anyway?" Midna asked as she settled down next to him.

"I kind of brushed her aside the other day," Link said, "I wasn't expecting to see her or anyone else from the village again until we went back to Hyrule, and the look she gave me… Well, let's just say I get the feeling she is feeling very lost right now, and I need to explain everything to her."

The hall itself was nearly empty aside from a pair of guards over by the stairway leading to the second level, and Link sat back, shifting his sheath to a more comfortable position as he relaxed.

"When we're done here, would you mind going by Ralthas' office with me?" Midna asked, "Zelda said he locked my mask up, and I'd rather it just not be in someone else's hands."

"Yeah," Link said, "Probably should go say hi anyway."

A few minutes passed, and tired of doing nothing, Link glanced at the Triforce symbol on his left hand, and thought about what he could try, just to see if it was still there. _Let's see,_ he thought, _Don't try to force it, just picture what I want and let it happen._

A moment later, he had dust from beneath the bench dancing in front of them in the shape of a small whirlwind. Midna looked from it to him, and seeing the smile on his face, asked, "How are you doing that?"

"Just wanting it to happen," Link said, "Watch this."

The swirling dust changed its pattern, swirling into the shape of a woman's face, and shrinking away to reveal her body, and another shape formed beneath her, rising up toward her…

"Oh, gods, Link," Midna said at the resulting image, "What are you, twelve?"

Link laughed as the shape disappeared, the dust scattering onto the floor. "It's still there, all right," he said, "But I can only affect what's already there. It seems I can't create something from nothing. No throwing lightning like Ganondorf, I guess."

"And what does that accomplish?" Midna asked.

"Well," Link said, turning his head to look toward her, "If you're willing to let me try, I think I can finally break that curse on you."

Midna had not even considered this concept, and the realization was almost like a slap in the face. "Of course I would, you even have to ask?" she said, "But I thought Ganondorf said it would be dangerous."

"That's why I intend to take it slow," Link said, "I'm already pretty tired after that fight, so after a night's sleep, when I'm at my best."

"Of course," Midna said, sitting back on the bench. She could hardly believe what she'd heard. She'd so wanted it, but at the same time never expected it to be so soon. And it could even be tomorrow? It was a shock to the system to say the least. "You really think you can do that, Link?"

"I intend to try," Link said, "I did make a promise to you, didn't I? And you know I keep my promises."

"Well, that's good to hear."

Link looked up to see Kilishandra approaching them. The tall woman was dressed as if for battle, in her plated leggings, and a breastplate that fit as if it were made for her, and a warm jacket pulled over it all, but Link spotted the hilt of the Master Sword peeking out over her right shoulder from beneath the jacket, his old baldric strapped across her chest. The way she walked, he could tell she wasn't used to carrying a sword this way. Or maybe the jacket wasn't big enough to wear over the sheath comfortably.

"Where are you off to?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Not really sure. First I'm going to try to find an open tailor."

Link then noticed the jacket was much too small, the sleeves stopping halfway down her forearms, and he doubted that even without the breastplate that it would button up. "I'm guessing there's nothing your size around here," Link said.

"Not other than my armor and its padding," Kilishandra said, "And whether I find a tailor or not, there's got to be an open bar somewhere in this city."

"You know what?" Link said, a smile appearing on his face, "That actually sounds like a great idea. I haven't seen a drop of wine or ale in this castle."

"Well," Kilishandra paused, glancing over her shoulder as if checking for someone, then shrugged as she turned back to him, "You want to come along? I don't think I have enough money for two… or three, though," she added, acknowledging Midna.

"I've got money," Link said, "That's one thing that didn't disappear, but I'm waiting to talk to someone here, first."

"Speak of the devil," Midna said, glancing around Kilishandra to the passage on the east side of the hall, where Ilia had just emerged along with a woman of the castle staff, and with a glance up and down the hall, spotted them, and started moving toward them. The staff person bowed, and turned back into the hall.

Link rose to his feet as Ilia drew near, and the girl glanced nervously at Kilishandra as the woman turned to face her. "Link…" she started to say as she drew close.

As if on cue, a loud crash shattered the silence of the quiet hall. All eyes turned upward toward it. The hall itself was two stories high, and on the second story level, above the doors of the main entrance, a round stained glass window was the only source of outside light into the hall.

The crash had been the glass breaking, and a figure in white flying through the air from the window. Link grabbed Ilia, shouting to move, and the four moved quickly away from the bench, further from the window as shards of sharp glass fell to the floor. There were more crashes, and four more figures had leaped through the window, breaking away what was left of the glass, these figures garbed in black.

The first had leaped through the window at an angle, and snatched a tapestry on the wall, using it to slow their fall, the cloth ripping loudly over the tinkle of glass raining across the floor as the figure rode it down, ripping the expensive tapestry almost perfectly in half.

The other four figures landed heavily on the floor, nothing slowing their fall, amidst the sharp glass, bending at the knees to lessen their impact, and rose up, lifting their eyes toward the group.

"Those things again!" Link said, reaching for his sword, and pushing Ilia away from himself, "Go somewhere safe."

"What's going on?" she asked.

"I'll explain later, just go!" he said, releasing the snap across the sword's guard, and drawing it free of the scabbard.

Something seemed to be missing for a just a second, and that changed when Kilishandra drew her weapon, the Master's Sword's unique metallic ring filling the hall. Link glanced at her, and she nodded to him. "These things are flesh golems of some kind," Link said, "Your sword won't do more than slow them down."

"That doesn't surprise me," she said, "This reeks of Tharkus."

"You two!" Silviana shouted to the guards who had been moving up behind Link and Kilishandra, "Sound the alarm! The enemy is in the castle! And there's one more unaccounted for!" she added after a glance at the four that were now focusing their attention on Link and Kilishandra.

"Kill them all!" Tharkus' disembodied voice urged the golems forward.

Link and Kilishandra moved first, charging the creatures together. Link went to the right, and Kilishandra to the left, and metal clashed together, echoing across the hall. Sparks flew as Link turned a stroke from one, ducking quickly beneath the slash of its other arm, and spun to the second, ramming his shoulder quickly into its chest, staggering it back as he slashed upward. His blade caught its arm, just above the elbow, sending a bladed forearm flying into the air.

Kilishandra had engaged the other pair, quickly parrying two blows from one and countering with a swift left hook to its face, causing it to stagger back, and spun toward the other, crouching low as the Master Sword bit into the flesh of its midsection, its arms whistling over her to either side. The ease with which the blade cut its flesh nearly threw her off balance, but she recovered quickly and kicked the creature in the chest, sending its upper half flying across the hall as its legs stepped a few paces back before toppling over.

Ilia had not moved, watching the fight in the exact place she had been when Link told her to run. Her feet may as well have been rooted to the floor, as she watched in horror as Link waded through the group, not a single blade touching him. He wasn't even wearing his chain shirt, and even a glancing blow could cause a serious injury. The creature he had sliced the arm off appeared behind him, raising its remaining weapon high to strike. Ilia screamed his name.

An enormous red fist the size of a human torso materialized from nowhere, striking the creature in the side, sending it rolling and bouncing across the floor. As she watched, the fist retracted, vanishing into the red hair upon Midna's head, as if the fist itself had been constructed of the hair. Midna herself quickly backed away, out of range of a counter from the creatures, as Link turned to Ilia.

"Ilia, run!" he shouted, trying to move toward her, but one of the creatures moved in front of him, forcing him to defend himself against its blows.

There was a heavy thump to her left. Ilia turned, and found herself looking straight into the single eye of one of the monsters, and she could see her own face mirrored within. She couldn't even find the breath to scream as the bladed arm came up.

The eye suddenly vanished, with the sound of splintering bones a blade struck through its neck, sending the head flying across the room. Silviana flipped her blade back along her forearm, taking two steps around to get in front of the now teetering form, and lifted one leg, delivering a spinning kick to its chest, sending it flying a good five feet back toward Link and Kilishandra.

She turned back to Ilia, lifting her free hand, and a loud smack was heard over the other noises of the fight. Ilia lifted one hand to where Silviana's open palm had struck her face. Ilia looked at her as she glanced back at the fight, where Link took the legs off one creature with a low swing, as Kilishandra split the skull of another with an overhand blow. The two of them were back to back now, and Midna had moved to circling around the fight, keeping an eye out for more surprises.

"Go," Silviana said, turning back to Ilia, "You need to be somewhere safe."

"But Link…" Ilia started to say.

"He's more vulnerable while you're here," Silviana said, "Now go!"

Ilia glanced back at the fight, and could hear Kilishandra saying, "Try to group them together. I'll get all four with one shot."

With a growl through her teeth, Ilia turned and ran for the stairs, to the upper level. She didn't know where she was going, but she couldn't watch this any longer. Silviana turned back to the others, where three of the four creatures were now on their feet again, surrounding the pair. Then she saw the fourth, struggling to crawl toward them, its legs still missing.

Sudden realization struck her, and she searched the other three, and spotted the one she hoped for. One of them only had one arm, the other a stump cut off just above the elbow. "Link, your sword!" she shouted, "It's wounding them!"

"Of course!" Link said, glancing at the one on the floor with no legs, "The dagger killed them before, so the sword can too!"

"Go for the eye, Link!" Midna said, "You stabbed the one in the eye, and it killed it!"

Link lunged at the nearest one, parrying a strike of one arm, and turning the parry into a thrust. It did not connect. The creature dodged to the side, rolling on the floor past one of its allies, regaining its feet between the pair. "Not going to make it easy, I see," Link muttered as he turned.

A crackling sound caught his attention as he moved up beside Kilishandra. He glanced, to see her lifting her free hand, white sparks dancing around her fingertip. A smile appeared on his face. The golem's dodge had put it the three very close together. Kilishandra drew back her hand, her fingers clenching into a fist as the sparks grew larger.

She screamed, a violent, furious sound, filling and echoing across the hall as she dashed the three steps it took to close the distance to the trio. The three started to move, the already large pupils of their eyes growing enormous in their surprise as Kilishandra delivered the lighting charged punch to the center creature's chest. Link was forced to shield his eyes as light exploded from the impact, turning everything he saw white. Within the light, three dark silhouettes stretched and contorted, before dissolving into the air. As the light died, Link could see the mark of the Wizard's Fist, where the three had been standing, a hole had been burned in the red carpet, the stone beneath scorched black, and a few tiny flames clinging to the edges of the mark, burning the loose threads of the carpeting.

"Link, behind you!" Midna shouted.

Link turned, and the fourth, with no legs, was nearly upon him. Link easily turned a feeble strike with his blade, stepping toward it and stabbing the tip of his blade downward through the back of its skull. Immediately, blue flames erupted around the wound, spreading rapidly across its body, and in seconds, it was gone, a pile of ash all that remained.

Link turned, and Kilishandra was moving to stamp out the flames along the burned carpet, before they rose into something much worse. "Nice job," he said.

She turned to respond, but Silviana interjected, "There's one more somewhere. It was chasing Alex, and I told him to meet me here."

"He'd have to come in this way," Link said, turning to the door, "So its still out there somewhere. Come on, we'll find him!"

He marched for the door. Kilishandra, Silviana, and Midna all moved to follow him when the massive doors crashed open, drawing them all to a halt. Alex stumbled in, nearly crashing onto his face on the floor, with two guards from the gate on either side of him. "I lost it…" he said as he gasped for breath, "…at the gate… it took off in another direction… went straight up the wall like nothing I ever seen…"

The sound of many feet rapidly poured into the room behind the group, and they turned to see guards, heavily armed and in large numbers. "Where are the hostiles?" one in the markings of a captain asked.

Many of the guard held their weapons level, eyeing Link and the others as Silviana stepped forward, pulling off her hood and mask, fishing in the front of her tunic, and pulling out something on the end of a chain around her neck. "I'm a judge," she said, holding it up for them all to see, and most visibly relaxed, "The four here have been dealt with. There is one more in the castle somewhere. It needs to be found immediately. What you are searching for is not human, has only one eye, and swords instead of hands. Get moving, and make sure the king and prince are safe!"

"You heard her!" the captain shouted, "Spread out! I want one squad to stay here and watch the door and courtyard! Another to the king's side! The rest of you, search every inch of this castle! Move! Move!"

In seconds, the hall was nearly empty, save for five men who took positions around the chamber, and ten more that went outside. Silviana motioned to Link and Kilishandra. "You two with me. We need someone who can kill these things."

"Right," Link said, and Kilishandra nodded. With Midna in tow, the group moved at a run deeper into the castle.

Alex groaned, still not having caught his breath, and started after them.

* * *

On one of the upper levels of the castle, looking out through the crenulations over the city that stretched to the horizon, Sheila stood alone, dress in several layers against the icy air. She'd come up here to get some time alone, and to think, at least that had been the idea. Now, she was asking herself, what was she to think about? About the situation? She could think about the immensity of and invasion from a parallel world all she wanted, but that wouldn't fix the problem. Her father's condition? The only thing that would help him now was rest.

It was snowing again. Of course it was. That's all it did during the Darimar winter, she thought. It snowed and snowed and snowed. Looking out at the city, it was beautiful, covered in a blanket of white, but it drew her thoughts to Tyr, where everything had been encased in ice. The buildings, the people, and even the children. She'd had nightmares every night since then, always about ice, even herself being trapped in it.

From somewhere, completely unbidden, the teachings of the church surfaced in her mind, promising that an eternity encased in ice was the fate that lay in wait for traitors. "And now my mind is just wandering where it feels like," she muttered, idly brushing the snow from atop the crenulations.

The real problem was the waiting, and she knew it. If she were actually doing something, she wouldn't be feeling like this. Idleness could easily cause unease and even depression if it went on long enough, just thinking about everything but not able to do anything about it. She'd have to find Ganondorf and get him to start helping with her magic as soon as possible. That would at least give her something to do.

The snow crunched behind her, and she turned. Richard was approaching her, similarly dressed against the chill in the air. "You're hard to find when you want to be," he said, then stopped, "I'm sorry, did you not want to be disturbed?"

"It's fine," she said, "Just thinking."

"What about?" Richard asked.

"Everything, I guess," she said, turning back toward the city, "Wishing there was something I could be doing right now, instead of just waiting."

"I know how that feels," Richard said, moving up beside her, then said, "The snow might be a pain, but that does look incredible, doesn't it? So peaceful out there."

He was talking about the city, of course. "Yes," she said, "Though it does make getting around difficult. The city may as well hibernate in the winter."

"Oh, the businesses are open," Richard said, "You just won't see criers in the street. The bars actually see more business, from people looking for a drink to warm their bones."

He was stalling for some reason. She could tell that much. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"What? Why would anything be wrong?" he asked.

"You think I can't tell when you're uncomfortable?" she asked, "Is something going on?"

"Well, I did hear shouting on my way up here," he said, "Couldn't make it out. Probably just rats in the larder or something."

"Not that," Sheila said, "Why did you come all the way up here to find me?"

Richard sighed, turning around and leaning against the wall. "Look," he said, "About the kiss…"

Sheila nearly laughed. "That was weeks ago! Don't tell me now you regret it."

"I might, unless you tell me why you've been avoiding me," Richard said.

Sheila shook her head, turning away from the city and walking away from him, stopping a few steps away, and turned back. She realized that in a way, she had. "It wasn't intentional," she said, "I've just got a lot on my mind. We all do, I guess."

"True enough," Richard said, "Look, I really do want to spend more time with you, but if you don't want to, or if we should wait until this is all over, I'll understand."

"Richard, do you know how many elves are left in the world right now?" Sheila asked.

That came out of nowhere, he thought. "What does that have to do with…?"

"Five," Sheila said, "Three of them are my father, myself, and King Maylow. The other two live on a private estate in Whitos-Neiki's lands. They might even be dead, considering the army that marched through there. Though I suppose there's one more if you count Silviana."

"Why does this matter?" Richard asked.

"I'm getting to that. In the past, the elvish people made quite clear that they refused to breed with humans, and any who did would be cast from their people," she went on, "Half-bloods were 'too human' to be elves, but they still lived long lives, which garnered the same jealousy from their human neighbors that the full-blooded elves gained. This is a time long past, but the element that matters still exists. And that is the nature of a relationship between the races, due to one living so much longer than the other.

"Richard, I am a half-blood. My father married a human woman, full knowing he would outlive her by several centuries. But he loved her dearly, to the point he never remarried, or even courted another woman since. He did not even get the full time he expected with her, though. She was twenty-seven when she died."

"I'm sorry," Richard said, "I never thought to ask… I'm sorry."

"I never knew her," Sheila said, turning away from him, "She died in childbirth. They managed to save me. I understand she wasn't a strong woman, tending to be sickly, but I'm not sure that had a play in it. I am healthy, and don't think I'm in the same danger, but that's not what I want you to think about.

"I'm three centuries old," she said, turning back to him, "Assuming we live through this, I've got at least five, probably six left to live. To you, that probably seems like an eternity. Here's the point: Look at me now. This is what I look like, and what I'm going to look like for all of your life. You are going to grow old and wizened, and I will remain the same as I am now. This is the problem with this kind of relationship. Either the aging participant cannot endure growing old while his or her mate remains unchanged, or the longer lived participant grows weary of their aging partner."

She paused, taking a breath, and smiling softly. "I'm sorry to heap it all on you like this, but if you think you can handle this, I'm willing to give it more of a try, if you are."

"What it all comes to is that someday, people will be mistaking my wife for my mistress," Richard said, smiling, "I think the real question is, can you handle that?"

Sheila laughed. "Okay, smartass. Let's just take it slow for now, okay? No more of this forced nonsense like today."

Richard pushed off the wall where he leaned, moving toward her. "Okay," he said, "Slow. How about that dinner I offered tonight?"

"Okay," Sheila said, "Dinner tonight, and we see what happens."

"Now," Richard said, moving toward her, "Let's go inside before we both catch pneumonia."

She started to turn away when a shadow passed over them. Sheila turned back to him, then looked up. "Did you see that?" she asked.

"See what?" Richard asked, turning to look over his shoulder.

There was a crunch in the snow. Sheila turned toward it. A dark shape rose up behind Richard, where she couldn't make it out. Richard spun toward it, reaching for his sword, swearing loudly. There was a glint of steel and flash.

The world turned red.

Hot liquid splashed across Sheila's face. The air filled with a hot, red spray, causing steam to rise from the snow where it landed. Sheila's eyes were riveted on the round shape flying through the air, spraying red in its wake, all the way to its landing place, six feet away from where it started, turning the snow around it dark red where it stopped.

Sheila's gaze was fixed upon it, where behind the sandy brown bangs, the blue eyes looked straight toward her, just a moment ago full of happiness, now empty of everything forever. She forced herself to look away, back toward where Richard form collapsed to its knees, giving her a clear view of the stump of the neck where blood poured freely down his chest and back, and the torso fell back toward her, the blood pouring onto the snow toward her, her eyes riveted on the side of smoothly cut muscle and vertebrae.

She at last looked up, the dark form, with one singular eye staring at her, and bladed arms, one with blood still dripping, and it took a step toward her, directly onto the corpse's chest.

Sheila screamed. She screamed louder and more harshly than ever before. It was not a scream of fear, but one so primal and enraged, its echo carried across the courtyard, and several miles of the city, drawing all eyes that could see up toward the castle. Witnesses would later say they saw an explosion high atop the castle, but what truly happened was far more incredible.

With no words of enchantment, no timely build up of energy, fire leaped from Sheila's fingertips, engulfing the creature before her, the force of the flames carrying it away from her, smashing it through the stone crenulations into the open air. Stone would fall into the castle courtyard, but the creature would not, as its body crumbled away into the air, the flames around it turning white with incredible heat, and the creature burned away in a fire nearly as hot as the sun, until not even ash remained. The flames then died away and Sheila fell to her knees.

She would be found there about ten minutes later by guards investigating the commotion, huddled against the wall in the snow, staring at the body of the prince, blood spattered across her face and smeared by trails of tears, and a hole in the crenulated wall, the edges of which now consisted of rapidly cooling molten stone.

Though the guard were unsure whether to help Sheila or arrest her, Silviana arrived soon, with Link and Kilishandra in tow. Silviana took one look at the scene and moved to Sheila.

"Sheila," she said, kneeling down, with one hand on Sheila's shoulder to get her attention, "I need to know what happened. What did this?"

Sheila looked up at her, and back at the body. "A monster," she said, "A demon straight out of hell."

"Did it have bladed arms and one eye?" Silviana said, "Please, that is all I need to know."

Sheila nodded, and sniffed. "I killed it. It killed him and I killed it."

One of the guards moved over to them. He hesitated at first, but when Silviana looked up at him, he took a deep breath. "The… uh… head was cut clean…" he said, trying to think about how best to phrase it, "It's a smooth cut, from a sharp blade."

"Then it was our last one," Silviana said, rising to her feet, "Sound the all clear, but double the guard."

"What about the prince?" the guard asked.

"Send for a coroner," Silviana said, and full knowing this was her fault for leading them here, added, "I'll tell the king. Take Sheila inside, somewhere warm."

"I'll do that," Link said, moving over to them.

He knelt down, taking Sheila gently by the arm, and helping her up. She didn't resist, and walked with him as he guided her back inside. Kilishandra watched them go, and turned to Silviana. "Looks like it hit her hard."

"She's probably thinking its her fault," Silviana said, "And I don't think she's ever seen someone die in front of her before. Think about the first time it happened to you," she added, moving toward the door, leaving Kilishandra with the guard.

The first time Kilishandra had seen someone die, it had been her own mother. She felt like retorting as Silviana went, but checked herself. There was no point in arguing about it now. As she started to go, Ganondorf emerged from the door.

"Father?" she asked.

Ganondorf didn't respond, instead taking in the scene, from the body, to the blasted and melted wall. "That girl did that?" he said.

"I believe so," Kilishandra said.

"I felt the wave from the other side of the castle," he said, and with a smile, turned away from the scene, "She might have potential after all."


	86. Chapter 85

No real good excuse for why this one took so long. It was half done, then I realized Duke Nukem Forever was two weeks away, and that was pretty much all I could think about from then on, until I picked it up and finished it. So yeah, this chapter goes up the same week as the release of the ultimate vaporware, that was 14 years in the making. Hail to the King, baby.

**Chapter 85: The Harsh Truth**

Silviana had been dreading telling King Rigdar about his son the entire walk to his chambers. When she explained what happened, and apologized, taking the sole responsibility for what happened, being her quick plan, she expected him to explode, to loose his rage on her. What he did was far worse, and least for the way she was feeling.

He did not scream or threaten, and he did not break down. He had been standing as he listened, and when she was finished, he quietly sat down in the vanity's seat, his back to the mirror, his hands on his knees, and lowered his gaze from hers. The silence in the room was heavy, and she realized his fingers were squeezing tightly on his knees, and the only sound out of him was a single shuddering sigh.

After a moment, Silviana started to speak, but the king asked first, "Was it quick?"

"Yes," she said, "It was a clean cut."

"Then, he had that mercy, at least," Rigdar said, and sighed.

After another moment, Silviana spoke again. "Your majesty, I'm sorry to have to push like this, but given that our enemy is a necromancer, who can and has struck from a distance, the funeral must be taken care of immediately, within the hour if possible."

"Is that all?" the king asked, "I'm sure you're needed elsewhere."

"Of course," Silviana said, bowing and the waist, and turned to the door. She stopped in the threshold, looking back, "I'm am sorry, for what little it is worth."

The king simply waved her away. She pulled the door shut behind herself as she stepped into the hall. Alex was waiting for her, leaning against the far wall to her left. Silviana moved past him, without saying a word. She heard him fall into step just behind her. "You okay?" he asked.

"No, I'm not," she said, "I screwed up. I screwed up bad."

"The prince? That wasn't your fault," Alex said.

"Then who's fault was it, if not mine?" she snapped over her shoulder.

"If it's anyone's fault it's mine," Alex said, "I let that thing get away from me."

"And it was my plan to begin with," Silviana said, "I'm fine when watching roads and dealing with common bandits, but I'm clearly not cut out for this kind of stuff."

Alex put a hand on her shoulder, pulling her to a stop. "What is the matter with you?" he said, "Listen to me, no one could have done better than what we did. Yes, the prince is dead, and it's terrible, but if those things managed to sneak into the castle, how many more would be? A dozen? A hundred? You didn't do anything wrong. And you're not the kind of person I'd expect to sink into depression."

"What do you know about it?" she asked, shaking free of his grip.

Before she could walk away, Alex grabbed her by both shoulders and turned her to face him. "The only thing I can know. My sister was killed by one of those things right in front of me. And it was just a puppet anyway. The one to blame is that necromancer. It's his fault! If you want to place blame, put it in the right spot! That's why I came here. Because I know one way or another, someone here is going to find him. So long as he gets what's coming to him, I'll be satisfied. If I get a chance at him myself, though, what happened to my sister is going to look like a happy party compared to what I'll do to him."

He stopped to catch his breath, and Silviana sighed, then smiled. "Your heart's in the right place, at least."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alex asked, surprised by that response.

Silviana shook her head, the smile disappearing. "The king is a good man. Honest and kind to a fault, but also a good, strong leader for his kingdom. The fact these things had to happen during his lifetime is itself a tragedy. And even then, no parent should have to bury their child. I let him down."

"If you're going to be like that, _we_ let him down," Alex said, then realized there were tears in her eyes, and his tone softened, "Hey, come on. You're supposed to be the overly cheerful one. You keep this up and I'm going to start crying."

"I'm starting to wonder myself how much of it was an act, trying to fool myself," Silviana said, "I spent most of my life by myself. Probably lucky the isolation didn't leave me insane."

"That's easy to fix," Alex said, "You've got me to kick around now. And as far as I can see, that's not going to change anytime soon."

"A little flirting is one thing," Silviana said, wiping her eyes with one hand, "And I do like you, but how well do you really know me?"

"I do remember asking, and you dodging the questions," Alex said, then something clicked, and he went on, "Wait a minute. You started tearing up when you said 'no parent should have to bury their child.'"

He let the statement hang. Silviana sighed again, turning away from him and moving several steps away. Alex waited silently as her gaze fell to the carpet.

"I had a baby once," she said, not turning back, "I fell in love with a young man one winter, so long ago. He was hunting in the forest I watched and lived in. He was by himself, hunting deer and the like, but was attacked by a boar. I managed to save him, but it gored his leg badly. I had no means to get him to the city, and couldn't leave him alone to get someone, so I took him to the cave I used during the winter, and took care of him until he recovered. At first he reacted like most people did, because I was a dark elf, uncomfortable around me and such, not looking me in the eye. By the time he had recovered, spring was upon us, and we had become fairly familiar with one another. A necessity of sharing such a small living space. I escorted him to the city, and we parted friends.

"The next fall, he turned up again, hunting once more. And it was clear he was looking for me. Thinking he had learned nothing, I let him find me. It turned out his efforts to find me were not for my skill as a tracker. We spent the winter together again, this time without him being injured. If we were fairly familiar with one another before, by spring we were now even more so. Considering certain events from my childhood, even I was surprised by how wonderful such things could be in the right circumstances."

She glanced over her shoulder, smiling somewhat at the fact Alex's face had gone red, but he didn't interrupt her. "He went back to the city again that spring," she went on, "When he came back again that autumn, I had a surprise for him. A baby boy, born from our time together the last winter. I wasn't sure how he was going to react, or if he would even acknowledge that it was his. But he was thrilled. Once more we spent the winter together, though this time our activities were not so singularly focused."

"Sorry," Alex said, interrupting her, "I'm still trying to wrap my head around this. You were with child, by yourself, in the forest, and gave birth on your own?"

"Women of the artic tribes do so all the time," Silviana said, "Not all women are as helpless as city girls, even with child.

"But that winter was the most wonderful time I'd ever had in my life," she went on, "I was so happy. I'm not sure how I can really explain it to make sure you understand. Him, and me, and the baby… That was all I needed in the whole world. He tried to convince me to go with him when he returned to the city that spring, but I refused, saying I didn't belong in that sort of world, and the way people would react to me. He said he didn't care what they thought, and yet…"

Alex could see the tears welling up in her eyes again, but he waited for her to finish.

"It wasn't autumn when he returned. Less than two weeks after going to the city, he was back, escorted by a large number of soldiers. And the way he was dressed, not the hunting clothes he normally wore when I saw him. He was the second prince of the Whitos-Neiki royal family. He had never told me."

"Why did he bring soldiers?" Alex asked.

"He didn't bring them, they were escorting him," she said, "They didn't even let him speak to me at first. The captain with them demanding I hand over my son. For the first time, I pushed my status as a judge, and demanded that I speak with the prince and find out what was going on. And the prince told me what he had done. He'd gone to his father and explained what had happened between myself and him on his winter-long hunting trips. He said he did it out of a desire to see the child and myself taken care of.

"I go so mad at him. Told him I was perfectly capable of taking care of both of us. He said he wanted the child to be acknowledged as his, and had believed it wouldn't be difficult to get his father to accept it, since he was the second born, not the heir to the kingdom. It might have worked out better if I had gone with him the first time, because his father had agreed to accept the child, but not the dark elf mother. If I'd been there, things might have turned out differently.

"And the captain," she nearly spat the word, clenching her hands into fists, "had taken the time we were speaking to have his men surround us, and now informed us of what the king hadn't even told the prince. That he was under orders to bring the child back no matter the cost. He was to see the baby dead before he would let me leave with him, only for him to come back at a later date with a claim, however weak, to the throne.

"They took my child from me," she hissed through her teeth, "I could have escaped, but if they were so set on it, they could be back with far more men, to comb the forest in entirety, even level it if they had to. I wouldn't be able to hide forever. I had no real money to travel with, having no real use for it in my typical life. I could have pushed my authority as a judge, and probably should have, but I didn't. I made that prince promise, on pain death, that he would make sure the boy was safe. And they took him from me.

"The kind of people who would allow, no, demand taking a child from his mother, they disgust me," she went on, "I was a judge, but I was also a dark elf. Lineage. Social status. Why should these things matter? But that was all those people cared about.

"And look at me, going on like this," she turned to him, wiping her eyes, "Even if he was still alive, I doubt he is now, considering what happened to the city and how few survivors there are."

"I'm sorry," Alex said, "I didn't mean make you bring up such painful memories."

"Yes, you are kind of thick," Silviana said, turning back to him, but she was smiling again.

"Did you ever find out what happened to him?"

"No," Silviana said, "I never saw the baby, or even the prince again."

Alex moved toward her, and she turned to start walking. "We've wasted enough time here," she said, "Let's go."

Before she could take a step, she was stopped by Alex's arm, across her shoulders and neck as he embraced her from behind. She started to protest, and stopped when she saw his face over her shoulder, his eyes closed, and features soft as he held her close.

"I am sorry, for what it's worth," he whispered, "But I think I understand why this hit you so hard now. I wish there was something I could do to help."

This was the first time she'd told anyone about this part of her life. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest, and she reached up to give his arm a gentle squeeze. "You've done more than you realize," she whispered back.

She leaned her head back, resting it against his chest, and sighed softly. Alex looked up suddenly. "Wasn't Kilishandra the one that destroyed the city?"

"I can't blame her for that," Silviana said, "In the end, it's war, and she was on the other side. Though if she betrays us, I'll put an arrow through each of her eyes."

After a moment, she gently slipped from his grasp. "Now, there are a few more things I need to take care of," she said, "I need to finish cleaning up this mess of mine."

* * *

Khall leaned back in his seat, allowing his concentration on the scrying bowl to relax, the images within the water fading away to nothing. He had watched as Tharkus attempted something, though Khall wasn't exactly sure what the necromancer had been trying. The kingdom's prince was dead as a result, but that was hardly something that aided their plans.

Khall had known Tharkus had ulterior motives when the invasion took place, but had believed they tied into exactly what he needed for his deal with Shaklator to carry through. Tharkus was rushing, though. He was utterly convinced Link was a very real threat to them, even more so than Ganondorf.

The original plan had called for Darimar to fall, thus removing any threat to them once the real magics began to work. Only those familiar with and sensitive to magic energies could usually sense when a spell was cast. But they were attempting to bring a being into the world through a gap in the laws of reality so small that the excess energies created by the process would be felt by every being in the world. That was why they had to eliminate anyone close enough to actually have a chance of doing something about it.

He tapped one finger idly on the table as he thought. Kilishandra siding with their enemy did complicate matters. Short of Ganondorf himself, she was the most powerful magician alive. Far more powerful than himself or Tharkus. She was far from invincible, however. An arrow through the heart would fell her as quickly as any other.

He coughed softly, pain lancing through his chest, and reached for his handkerchief in case he had an attack, but it subsided. He knew they had to play it safe now, yet he wasn't sure he had enough time left. And it was all because of that cursed man.

Eredor, the only man who rivaled Ganondorf in power and ambition. Khall had been part of the largest war to ever rock his homeland when their forces collided, Ganondorf from the north, and Eredor from the south. Eredor had been no wizard, yet Khall had seen him with his own eyes. The emperor had led his troops from the front of the charge, and demolished those who opposed him. Every swing of the man's sword sent dozens of men flying through the air, and ever stomp of his feet created shockwaves that shook the earth beneath them. And the cape…

Where Eredor had found such an item was a true mystery. When he pulled the cape around himself, it stopped swords and axes as if it were steel, and when he swept it forward, the frayed hem cut through men like razor sharp blades.

Ganondorf had faced him in direct combat three times, and each time the earth itself seemed as if it would shatter under the destructive force. Khall had thought he'd seen powerful magic before, but what those two men unleashed against one another was something else entirely. The first conflict turned several miles of grassland to scorched earth, and the second destroyed a large fort blocking the mountain pass into Eredor's lands. The final time they fought, they leveled six city blocks, before Eredor met his death, not via a magic spell or even a sword, but being impaled on the iron bars jutting from within a half-collapsed wall. At least twelve iron rods punched through his body along his spine, and out the front of his torso, turning his insides to mush.

And yet he had pulled himself off those rods, walked into the street, still holding his sword as if he intended to continue the fight. He faced Ganondorf, and Khall had been standing on the other end of the street, behind Eredor, and witnessed it first hand when the man threw his arms out to the sides, and his head back, and laughed.

As inhuman a laugh as it could be, louder than possible, echoing across the entire city, his chest rocking with laughter, and then it suddenly stopped, and he fell onto his back, and would never rise again.

Ganondorf had been in worse condition than Eredor after the fight, with several broken ribs, his left arm broken, and bleeding from a dozen different slashes across his body, and that was all after he was too exhausted to heal himself on the spot.

That image was burned into Khall's mind forever, and regardless of what Tharkus might think about Link, Khall knew Ganondorf was the ultimate threat to them, simply because of that. He may have been human once, but no mortal being could live through that kind of punishment, and the fact he could fight through the intense pain of such injuries and stay conscious was the stuff of nightmares. He would never stop until his heart did, and even that was iffy.

But as dangerous as he was, the wrath of Minerva would be far worse, and with unquestioning loyalty to Ganondorf, he had to take the utmost care when dealing with these parallel worlds.

A week after Eredor's death, they had discovered the source of his power. A necromancer had created a blood channel beneath his capital city, along which flowed power, in its purest form, pure blood, from a source beneath the city, to Eredor's throne, where once a month, mechanisms of needles in the throne would inject it directly into his own bloodstream. Without the treatment, his power would have faded. In discovering this aspect of his throne, Khall had accidentally been pricked by one of the needles and a small amount entered his own bloodstream.

For a short time, he felt a rush of energy, incredible like he'd never known, but just a few weeks later, the reason for Eredor's repeated treatments became clear. He began to sicken, and the disease resembled what old texts described as a sickness created by swallowing, or having open cuts exposed to demonic blood. First a rush of power, followed by a wasting away of the body. There was no cure, and the only way to fight it off was repeated doses of the demonic ichors. With the demonic beasts wiped from the face of the world, and the blood channels nearly dried up, Khall had resigned himself to a slow death. Because of his very limited exposure, his wasting was slower than the legends claimed, but it would eventually kill him. There was no doubt of that.

It was a short time later that Minerva entered the picture, and the blight started to spread across the world, and everything changed. One way or another, Khall was going to die, but the least he could do was use what remained of his life to make a difference for her, and the others left behind.

* * *

With a sigh, Link steeled himself, and knocked on the door. A moment later, it creaked open, a single eye peeking around the corner before it opened wider, and Ilia stood in the doorway.

Link started to speak, but was interrupted when he found her arms around him, and her head down on his shoulder. "Ilia, what's wrong?" he asked, even as he held her.

With a growl, she shoved him back, suddenly looking at him with anger on her face. "What's wrong? I was terrified! I thought you were going to die!" she said.

"Ilia, I'm hardly helpless," Link said, and gestured with his thumb at the sword hilt visible over his shoulder, "You think I wear this for looks or something? What brought this on, anyway?"

Ilia looked like she was going to shout, then suddenly deflated. "I don't know," she said quietly, "It's me. This place. Everything, I guess. I don't even know how I got here, and the first thing I remember is waking up," she paused, and her glare returned, "and you saying you were going to let me die."

"Didn't anyone tell you what was happening?" Link asked, "There's more to it than that."

Ilia turned, walking further into the room and sitting down on the bed. "Princess Zelda tried to explain it, but all I understood was something happened back in Hyrule, and now we're here, and this kingdom is at war with some kind of monsters, and we can't go home until it's over."

"Well, let me try to explain," Link said, following her into the room, "That night, do you remember, when everyone saw something coming toward the village?" When she nodded, he went on. "It was a magic spell, called the Silencing. It hadn't been used on any kingdom for over eight thousand years. It turned everyone, every person, animal, and plant in the kingdom, to stone. Including you and everyone at the village. This," he lifted his left hand, showing her the faintly glowing triangles, "is what protected me. Zelda has another piece, and it protected her the same way. That was about seven or eight months ago, I think. We came here to find a way to fix it.

"We found a way, but outside interference caused us to have to go all over these five countries to gather up the pieces of the spell to save everyone. We have four of them right now, and once we get the last one, we can go home and return everyone to normal."

"What's this about a war, then?" Ilia asked.

"That's more complicated," Link said, "The one responsible for what happened to Hyrule is a wizard named Khall. He is the leader of the enemy forces. I don't know exactly what his scheme is, but he knew Zelda and I would come here. The entire reason he used the spell on our home was to draw the two of us here. That's the first reason we can't go home until it's over. We need to know why he brought us here, and I'm sure that if we just go, he'll catch up to us eventually. Better to meet the problem here."

"Link, listen to yourself for a moment," Ilia said, "What kind of person talks like that? Grand schemes like you're talking about don't happen in real life. This isn't one of the stories they tell the children, Link, it's real life!"

"That's the problem, though," Link said, "It's all clicking together too perfectly. This is a problem that has to be solved."

"Why does it have to be you, then?" Ilia asked, her voice rising again, this time not in anger, but pleading, "Can't we just get that last thing you need, and go home? I don't want to be here."

"I wish we could," Link said, "I really do. But it's not that simple…"

"Stop saying it's not that simple!" Ilia said, "I don't see any reason we can't…"

"Listen to me!" Link shouted, cutting her off, then took a breath and calmed himself, "Ilia, there were five kingdoms in this land when we arrived. This is the only one left. The only way back is across the ocean, and this country is landlocked. We couldn't escape right now if we wanted to. Second, I came here to save my friends, including you. They called me a hero after what happened last year, but what would it say about me if I turn my back on this?"

"What difference can one person make in something like this?" Ilia asked.

The first thing to come to Link's mind in response was his journey last year, pushing back the darkness that had spread across Hyrule, and finally the assault on the castle, with Rusl and the others drawing most of the fire away from him while he infiltrated the throne room. Midna had been with him the whole way, and yet if either one of them had not been there, none of it would have happened.

"One person in the right place can make all the difference in the world," he said, "He doesn't do it alone, but if he's not in that right place, it won't happen. That's why I have to be here."

She was hanging her head now, and Link realized wet spots were spreading on her skirt, tears falling from her face. "I wish I could shut if off as easily as you do, Link," she said, "But I'm terrified. Terrified that I'm going to lose you."

"I just spent the last week in a very dark place," Link said, lifted her cheek with one hand, "It was more dangerous there than anything some wizard can muster. Especially one that isn't nearly as dangerous himself as the one I beat last year."'

"Stop lying to me, Link," Ilia said, "You doubt. I can see it in your face. You haven't been able to lie to me since we were six."

"Okay," Link said, "I can't be sure about the future. But one way or another, I'll make sure you get home. I promise that."

"Why do you do it to yourself, Link?" Ilia asked, her thoughts going to the way he had leaped into the fight against those creatures again, "Why do you put yourself in danger so quickly?"

"I don't know," Link said, "I don't even really think about it when it happens. I just see what I need to do, and I do it."

Ilia sighed. It was obvious she was not going to convince him to abandon this reckless endeavor. "Link," she said, "Do you remember the promise you made to me, before the darkness came to Hyrule?"

"I believe I promised you that I wouldn't do anything out of my league," Link said.

"Just please remember that," she said.

"I will," Link said, "And I'm sorry I can't be more help. Just please be patient, and we'll get home."

She shook her head but didn't argue, and he turned to leave. Pulling the door shut behind him, he saw Midna move toward him from where she waited across the hall. She had waited outside at his request, and as he turned to walk down the hall, she fell in beside him without a word, only giving him a soft smile when he glanced at her. After a few minutes, they emerged into the entrance hall, and Link paused a moment, to decide where exactly he was headed. Kilishandra emerged from the hall on the other side of the room, and lifted one hand in greeting.

"So, how about that drink?" she asked as she came closer.

"Yeah, how about that drink," Link replied with a sigh. Monsters and killers he could handle, but for some reason Ilia could manage to make him depressed every time.

* * *

The sun was setting in the courtyard by the time the prince's funeral had been arranged. Zelda had been surprised by the number of nobles that had appeared, and now stood solemnly in the snow as the priest, concluding the last rites, stepped aside as King Rigdar laid a torch to the pyre, the oiled wood leaping into flames even through the wetness of the falling snow.

Lines of soldiers on either side of the pyre saluted, their fists over their hearts, not a word spoken.

The king stepped back as the flames grew hot. His eyes were red from tears, though he held himself upright and strong in front of the gathered noblemen and women, some of whom waited in silence while others gave a salute the same way as the soldiers.

After a few more minutes, the crowd began to disperse, the nobles beginning to speak amongst themselves, some going into the castle, others moving to waiting carriages outside the courtyard gates. Zelda had wondered how such things could move through the snow, and a glance out the gate showed her the wheels held them nearly five feet above the ground, still clearing the snow with the axles. She felt sorry for the horses pulling those things, though.

She realized she'd seen some of the nobles in the castle, though only in passing. She thought it odd that none spoke to the king, to offer condolences, and as she moved to do so herself, a hand caught her shoulder, pulling her short.

She turned to see a dark skinned man with blonde hair, barely taller than she was. "What would you say to him?" the man asked her.

"Why's it matter to you?" Zelda asked.

"Look at the guards," the man said.

She did, and realized they were not longer at attention, and were assisting in ushering the nobles out of the courtyard. "He doesn't want their comfort, or yours," the man went on, "and offering it won't help."

The king was still watching the fire, at last lowering his eyes, and Zelda could see his chest shaking with silent sobs.

"Is there anything worse than a parent forced to mourn his own child?" the man asked.

Zelda could feel the king's sorrow, through the empathy granted by her Triforce, and was forced to blink by tears herself.

Changing the focus of her attention, she turned to the man, shrugging his hand from her shoulder. "We haven't met," she said. More of a statement than a question, but the man shrugged as he shifted his cloak on his shoulders.

"Sorry," he said, "My name is Maylow. Former king of Whitos-Neiki."

"Former king?"

"I'm hardly a king without a kingdom," Maylow said, "And who might you be?"

"I am the Princess Zelda," she said, with a nod of her head, "From Hyrule."

The friendliness vanished from Maylow's face with remarkable speed. He glanced at the funeral pyre, and back to her, keeping his voice level to not disturb King Rigdar. "So you're the one who convinced the judge to spare the witch who destroyed everything I held dear."

That was right, Zelda realized. She had nearly forgotten. Kilishandra had destroyed the capital city of Whitos-Neiki, and fewer than twenty survivors, the king among them, had reached Darimar. It should have clicked when he told her who he was, but perhaps she'd been too distracted.

"I wasn't aware," Maylow went on, before she could respond, "that Hyrule's policies involved allowing war criminals to walk free."

"Hold your tongue," Zelda said, putting an edge on her own tone, "I know full well what she did, but there are two reasons I did what I did for her. The first being that she is earnest in her desire to repent."

"How can she make up for killing so many people?" Maylow asked, "Do you realize that city had a population of eight hundred thousand men and women?"

"And this one has eight million," Zelda said, "Which is the second reason: She's more useful to us alive. I've taken responsibility for her while she is here, and by the laws of my kingdom, she is a citizen under my sovereignty. She won't be getting off free, but if we live long enough to return, she will be tried for what she's done, but under the laws of my land."

"I saw what she did with my own eyes," Maylow said, "Men next to me vanished into a hellish light that razed my city. I seriously wonder if you can control her like you think you can."\

"Maybe you'd rather hear it from her?" Zelda said, "Let's go talk to her."

"No thanks," Maylow said, stepping back from her, "I just wonder how we're going to survive this war with vipers in our midst. Good day, princess."

He turned, walking toward the castle. Zelda sighed. She certainly couldn't fault his reasons. As she turned away, she found a guard standing just a few feet from her. He jumped, somewhat startled as she turned. "Sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to listen in…"

That voice was familiar, and as she looked at the face, the name came to her. "Arthur," she said, and smiled, "I didn't realize you were here."

"Well, the last time we spoke was before the battle, when the undead attack the city," Arthur said, "Excuse me, but the king wants everyone out of the courtyard. May I escort you inside?"

Zelda nodded, and walked with him as he moved toward the castle entrance. "I remember our last conversation wasn't on so pleasant terms," Zelda said, "I am glad you're alright, through."

"I was on the wall," Arthur said, "The monsters never reached it, at least itself, and I wasn't caught in the middle of it when they infiltrated the city. That was where the worst casualties were." He paused, shaking his head, and added, "I joined the army almost as soon as I got into the city, and the training here is good, probably saved my life, but nothing really prepares you for that first real fight. Almost funny now, how much of a nervous wreck I was before, and toward the end I was there when the king was wounded, and everything was like reflex at that point. Just did what I was told, and managed to get out alive."

"I've never been in something like that," Zelda said, "But I have been involved in quite a few fights lately, and I can agree, the first time was by far the worst. I suppose after a while, one becomes desensitized to the threat and the violence itself."

"Look," Arthur said, "I'm sorry, but I did hear the conversation between you and Maylow. And I want to apologize about last time we spoke."

"Oh?"

"I saw Kilishandra in action, from the wall," he said, "Between her and that tar stuff you had them making up, the brunt of the horde was probably delayed from entering the city for a good twenty minutes. If they got into the city that twenty minutes earlier, we'd have lost a lot more people before they just died. I assume that was something she did?"

Zelda remembered. For that brief time, she had seen the events from Ganondorf's eyes, and had her first taste of the Triforce's true power. It was her, her father, and a dark elf named Mur'neth. They broke the necromancer's connection to the horde, and without his driving force, they simply stopped. Mur'neth even gave his life for that reason."

"I'd heard something," Arthur said, "Something about dark elves in the castle, but I've yet to see one."

"They do keep a low profile," Zelda said, "Considering they were also allied with our enemy, it's probably for the best. People do seem to be nervous enough around Kilishandra and Ganondorf."

"I have seen him," Arthur said, "That's Kilishandra's father, right? Always has a scowl on his face. I never spoke to him, but the one time he actually looked at me… I swear, he could turn water to ice just by glaring at it. Creepy guy."

"If there's anyone I don't trust, it's him," Zelda said, "But he's done nothing so far to impede or harm our cause. So long as we have a common enemy, I think he'll be all right."

"And about that apology," Arthur said, "I can't pretend to understand everything you're doing, but after what happened at that battle, and thinking about it for a good long while since, I trust you. King Maylow might not be happy about it, but I trust your decisions."

"Good to know someone does," Zelda said, "Thank you, I do appreciate it."

They stopped before the entrance, the massive double doors still open as some of the nobles were still on there way in. "I have to get back to my post," Arthur said, turning to her, "Though I do have one other question. When we first met, and you saw through my act from the start, I remember that I asked a very awkward question."

"You asked how you could become a man worthy of me," Zelda said, "I remember."

"And you said that by finally speaking honestly to you, I was closer to that than ever before," Arthur said, "I'm just curious, what if I were to ask how close I am now?"

Zelda smiled, chuckling softly. "You are tenacious," she said, and patted him on the shoulder, "I'll tell you what. Keep trying, and maybe we'll see."

His face brightened. He quickly excused himself, with a quick bow at the waist. The way he was grinning, one would think she had just promised him the world.

Zelda smiled again as he left, shaking her head softly. It was almost strange, a man like that. She knew he'd spent much of his young adulthood seducing women to his bed with no thought of return, and in the one who had defeated his act, he saw something that even now caused him to desire to pursue her.

Well, no harm in letting him try. She didn't expect it to, but if something did come of it, Hyrule didn't have a law that the princess must wed a noble. Her own grandfather had been a peasant, a chandler if she remembered correctly.

But for now, she turned toward the castle, steeling up herself. She intended to check on Sheila, who had not emerged from her bedroom since the guards had escorted her there after the prince's death. Zelda had expected her at the funeral, but she had not appeared.

Shaking snow from her coat as she entered the entry hall, she marched quickly through the corridors to Sheila's bedroom, and upon arriving, knocked on the door. "Who is it?" came the call from inside.

"It's Zelda."

There was a sound of a wooden chair sliding on stone, and a moment later, the door slowly opened.

"What is it?" Sheila asked.

Zelda was taken aback for a moment. Sheila's face was covered in blood, drying out but for the streaks of tears down her cheeks. "Are you okay?" Zelda asked, then added, "That sounded stupid, of course you're not. Can I come in?"

Sheila turned away, leaving the door open as she walked away, and Zelda followed her in, closing the door behind herself.

Sheila sank down in the seat by her desk, where she had likely been since she was left here by the guards. "I suppose you want me to repeat everything again for you too," she said.

"I'm more worried about you," Zelda said, "I thought you would be at the prince's funeral. And now I see you sitting up here, with blood on your face."

"He died, right there in front of me," Sheila said, "I saw it happen. It was like the entire world just turned red, and then his eyes, staring at me…"

"You've never seen someone be killed before, have you?" Zelda said, and then immediately wished she hadn't said that, it sounded so harsh.

"No," Sheila said, "Not like that. I saw the fight in the mountains, where Link killed so many trying to get to us, but that was so different."

It was, Zelda knew. Seeing a friend die was very different than a nameless stranger, especially when they are hostile. "I can't think of an easy way to say this," Zelda said, "I've been in this spot before. I told you what happened last year, in my kingdom. The first night, when the attack came, I saw my friends and family being cut down in front of me. It was horrible, worse than any nightmare I'd ever had, all the more because I knew it was real. I still sometimes dream about that night."

"What are you trying to get at?" Sheila asked.

"I'm not really sure," Zelda said, "I'm not any good at this, that's for sure. Maybe if I could just ask why you weren't at the funeral?"

"I thought about it, but what difference would it make?" Sheila said, then looked up, "Could Link do it again? What he did to bring Midna back?"

She was grasping at any straw, Zelda thought. "I'm afraid not," she said, "He's not sure how he even did it the first time. And nothing matches like before. Only a few minutes after the event, Midna had seemed to be dead for hours. And Richard… I'm sorry," she added as Sheila turned away from her.

"It's strange," Sheila said, "Just when things seemed right, they fell apart. And then… I don't know what I did. But I killed it." She looked up at Zelda again, "What did you do? After that night you were attacked?"

"I gave up," Zelda said, "I sank into depression and despair. It seemed there was nothing I could do. Until Link appeared. Like a single ray of light through the darkness, he came to me. But he brought me something better, and that was hope. I don't think I'm doing quite the same for you, am I?"

"Is that how it's going to be, then?" Sheila asked, "We're all going to die, one by one if we have to?"

"Of course not," Zelda said, "We're not going to let it end that way. If I have to uproot every person in this country and take them to Hyrule, I will."

"That would be quite a feat," Sheila said, "Taking millions of people across the ocean would be very difficult."

"I'll do it, and you'll be there with me," Zelda said.

"I will be, huh?" Sheila said, then asked, "Why are you doing this? Right now, with me, I mean."

"Because I've been through what you're teetering on the edge of," Zelda said, moving toward Sheila, and resting one hand on her shoulder, "I can tell you that nothing good comes from going down that path. If you do, the only thing that would happen is that we would all lose two friends, instead of one."

"So what should I do?"

"There's still time," Zelda said, "Go up to the funeral. Say a prayer for him. There's nothing wrong with mourning, but don't just sit here in this room and let it go like this."

For a moment, Sheila didn't respond. As the silence began to drag out, and as Zelda started to speak again, Sheila said, "Okay. I'll go down there."

"Let's just clean you up a bit first," Zelda said, "Blood isn't a good look for you."

* * *

A few hours later, the sun had set, and darkness had settled over the city, as snow fell once more in earnest, filling the streets again.

Kilishandra had not been able to find a tailor, but she, Link, and Midna had managed to locate an inn that was still serving drinks for a time, and now settled in at a table in the corner of the room near the fire. The other patrons were quiet, most of them likely refugees from the other kingdoms that were able to afford rooms, instead of having to use the barracks that had been made available throughout the city. They had drawn some odd looks due to Midna's presence, but now the other patrons were back in their mugs and ignoring the trio.

As the waitress delivered the second round to their table, Link's own curiosity finally got the better of him as he watched Kilishandra. "You're just Ganondorf's adopted daughter, right?" he asked

"Depends on what you mean by 'just,'" she said, "If you're asking if I am his blood, then yes, I am 'just' adopted."

"I'm not trying to offend," Link said, "Just trying to make sense of it. It's the fact that you're very tall for a woman, and he's a giant, and your hair color is identical to his. But I have a hard time believing something as good looking as you could come from him. If you were his blood, your mother would have to have been gorgeous."

"A bit of a back-handed compliment," Kilishandra said, "But no. I was nearly fifteen when I met him, after my mother was killed. The story is somewhat longer than it seems, but I can tell you the short version if you like."

"I'm more interested in more recent things," Link said, "I know you're from a parallel world to this one. The question is why come here? I'm trying to understand what Khall is after, more than anything else."

"Well, I was lied to about it," Kilishandra said, pausing to take a swallow of her drink, "I was told we were going to move our people here, to this land. But after I changed sides, Tharkus told me the truth, that he and Khall are after the total destruction of this world."

"But why?" Midna asked her, "If you kill everything, what's the point? It's not like they'd rule the world. There'd be nothing left to rule. Even Ganondorf only tried to conquer Hyrule and my kingdom."

"I honestly don't know," Kilishandra said, "Our own world is rapidly dying. The blight spreads across our countries, and wherever it touches, it's as if the land itself dies. Crops won't grow and standing water, like lakes, become poisonous. When I left, there was only about five hundred square miles of usable farmland left in our known territory. In the ten years since, it has no doubt receded even further.

"And as I understand it," she added, turning to Link, "The blight has begun to appear in this world as well."

"I saw it once," Link said, "Wasn't even sure what it was. Some kind of totem was stabbed into the ground, and around it, the earth was black, and it was pulsing, as if it were forcing it to spread. Ralthas destroyed the totem, but where there's one, there's no doubt more."

Kilishandra nodded. "It can only be Tharkus then. I'm starting to think he engineered this entire thing. It would make sense, with his odd behavior toward the end. I just wonder why."

"I can answer that," Link said, "Thakus' real name is Thalandril Arkanus. He is over eight thousand years old, and originally from this world."

"How do you know that?" Kilishandra asked.

"The Sage of Light, in the Sacred Realm, where I spent a week recently," and noted that Kilishandra nodded, she was aware, "He is Darius, the wizard hero of the same era who fought Tharkus back then. For some insane reason, Tharkus intends to take revenge on all of humanity for what he thinks Darius did."

"That seems impossible, even for him," Kilishandra said, "No one could be that crazy. And yet, knowing Tharkus…"

"Ganondorf has held a grudge against Hyrule for four thousand years," Midna said, "Not so impossible for someone to go twice as long when you look at it in that perspective."

"What I'm not seeing in all this is Khall's goal, however," Link said, "What does he gain by going through with this insane plan?"

Kilishandra's eyes lit up suddenly. "Maybe he doesn't know," she said, "Maybe Tharkus is lying to him, too."

"If that's true, we might have another potential ally in him," Link said.

"And Minerva," Kilishandra said, "If we could gain her help, Tharkus wouldn't even have a prayer."

"Who is she?" Midna asked.

"It's complicated," Kilishandra said, "Suffice to say, she's a sorceress, and makes both myself and my father look like hedge-mages. And she and Khall are fairly close, intimately."

"Did she come with him?" Link asked.

"No," Kilishandra said, "She stayed behind, to try to hold off the blight from our last lands as long as possible. But even she can't last forever, if she's lasted this long."

"And how is it complicated?" Midna asked.

"Well, she's not human," Kilishandra said, "It would be a long story to explain it in a way to help you truly understand."

"I'm curious about it too," Link said, "We'll get another round. We've got pretty much the whole night, after all."

"Might as well, I guess," Kilishandra said, "If you'll tell me something first."

"What's that?"

"I've heard several times about the 'grudge' my father has against Hyrule," she said, "Would you tell me why that is?"

Link glanced at Midna, who merely shrugged, wiping foam from her drink from her mouth. Link turned back to Kilishandra. "As I understand it, it's because he lost," he said, "From what I hear he's overcome everything he's ever challenged, except Hyrule. I just happened to be the one in the right place to stop him this most recent time."

Kilishandra leaned back, and actually chuckled. "That actually doesn't sound too far off," she said, "All right. And I guess I'll tell you about Minerva."


	87. Chapter 86

This is another one of those chapters that seemed like a good idea, and once I was partway in wish I hadn't already set the plot with no way around it short of blowing something up near the characters. Ended up revising it twice, and the second time was when I broke up the flashback with bits of our current characters, and to me that made it seem so much better. Also ended up cutting it short, because the last part of the little story centers on Khall, so that would be good to save for later.

Anyway, this chapter is basically a heavily abridged version of what was going to be the final arc of the prequel that I have tossed out the door, and was originally going to be a good 20 chapters or so, since it wouldn't have such drastic time gaps.

Next chapter, we're getting back to the real plot. I think everybody's ready for that, and if you check my profile (provided it's not months past this update: 7/9/11), I do have a fair bit to say about this story and my other works that I'm not going to cram in here.**  
**

**Chapter 86: Daughter of Darkness**

"Let's see, where should I start," Kilishandra said, more to herself than Link and Midna, as she swirled what remained of her drink in the mug.

"I think the obvious place would be whether this 'Minerva' is someone we need to worry about," Link said.

"I'm not sure," Kilishandra said, "I hope not, because I was on the receiving end of her anger once before. Not something I'm eager to repeat."

"So who is she?" Link said.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out how to phrase it so you'll understand it," Kilishandra said, "Let's see… She's a sorceress, in a sense."

"Like you?" Midna asked.

"Not like me," Kilishandra said, "Not even close. She doesn't cast spells like me, or other magicians. It's like she can create magic with her imagination. She does things like you'd never believe. And all without words or even waves of her hands."

"I've never heard of magic like that," Link said.

"You become an authority on the subject while I was gone?" Midna asked.

Link laughed, and gave her shoulder a small shove. "There's that wicked sense of humor finally coming back," he said.

"You two need a room or something?" Kilishandra asked, glancing from one to the other, "We are at an inn…"

This returned a small chuckle from Link, while Midna merely turned a quiet glare on her. "Anyway," Kilishandra said, "The real point about Minerva is that she's not human. I don't know this world's history too well, but where I come from, but until about a thousand years ago, the mortal races of the world were enslaved by creatures that can only be described as demons. Not in the sense of fire and brimstone and devouring men's souls, but in the sense of fangs and wings, terrifying intelligence, and very powerful magic. But they were relatively few in number, and a great rebellion overthrew them. Most of them were killed in the war, but remnants survived through the years."

"So Minerva is a demon?" Midna asked.

"No, she is a remnant from well before the rebellion, something even the demons feared," Kilishandra said, and continued slowly, carefully picking her words, "I'm still not sure, but my best guess is she is a result of a coupling, between a demon and a human being."

"So you mean a woman, or possibly a man, had a child with one of those monsters?" Link asked.

"It's just a guess," Kilishandra said, "What I can say is that she looks human, but her blood is black, and has the same properties as demon blood."

"It's acid or something?"

"No, it has some kind of weird effect, when it's ingested, it causes a massive rush of energy and strength for several days to weeks, depending on the amount, but at the cost of a irreversible wasting of your body, that will kill you eventually."

Midna was leaning forward over the table. "And you know this because…?"

"That's probably why I need to tell you the whole story," Kilishandra said, "It would be easier to explain it that way, because there was a lot that happened in that month. I didn't drink it, if that's what you thought."

Link lifted one hand, motioning to the barkeep. "Hey! One more round over here. Thanks," he added as the barkeep nodded in response.

"Okay, let's see," Kilishandra said, "It started after my father killed a man named Eredor. Eredor was the emperor of roughly half the world at the time, while we controlled the other half."

"Those are some big stakes," Midna said, "How does it even get into that position?"

"Two powerful leaders, start with small kingdoms at roughly the same time on opposite sides of the world, and meet in the middle," Kilishandra said, "It wasn't exactly fast going. I was about fifty or so when we really started, and closer to ninety when Eredor died."

"Sorry to interupt, but how old does this make Khall?" Link asked, "He's human, isn't he?"

"There are means with which to extend one's life through magic," Kilishandra said, and leaned back in her chair, thinking, "Let's see, I was fifteen when we met Khall, and I think he was about the same age, maybe a little older. I'm a hundred and seven now, so he's about the same, I'd think. He still looks about twenty though. Depending on how careful he is with his rituals, he might extend himself another fifty years or so.

"Anyway, we'd attacked Eredor's capitol, trying to corner him in his palace. The maniac just kept sending his troops out with no real plan other than try to overwhelm us. Right into our lines they ran and died by the hundreds. When we finally had Eredor within reach, he lit his own palace on fire, and he and his honor guard attacked us themselves.

"I didn't stay for the whole thing," Kilishandra went on, sighing somewhat, "I had something personal to deal with. I didn't see most of the fight either, because I went into that burning palace to kill a man named Reaper. I couldn't let him escape again. And when I came back out, even after the insane feats of strength I'd see Eredor, I couldn't believe what I was seeing happen…"

* * *

The titans smashed together again, the impact of their bodies colliding shaking the ground beneath them, and the shockwave of the impact sending shattered stone of the street and rubble that a few moments ago had been buildings lining the street flying away from them, forming a circular crater.

Khall ground his teeth and took a step back, bracing himself against the force of the wind that washed over him, sending his cloak billowing out behind himself, and lifting one arm to shield his face from chips of stone.

Ganondorf and Eredor stepped back from each other, their swords flying, and the weapons crashed together rapidly, each blow with enough force to break a normal man's arm. With his free hand, Eredor snatched hold of his blood red cap and swept it forward, the threads of the hem turning sharp as steel needles as they raked across Ganondorf's face.

Growling in response to the pain, Ganondorf stepped further back, and Eredor moved quickly forward, pressing his attack. As Eredor's sword came down, Ganondorf went straight up in a leap nearly eight feet in the air, and Eredor's sword struck into the stone where he had been standing, sending stone chips flying into the air.

Khall became aware of Kilishandra and Mur'neth, running toward him from his left, but his eyes were riveted on what was before him.

Ganondorf's own sword fell to the ground, lodging its blade between two stones in the street. Dark shapes were appearing around his hand, converging together on his fingertips, and as he descended from the jump toward Eredor, the Wizard's fist seemed to move in slow motion as Eredor tried to step away.

The deadly punch connected with Eredor's face, and sent the man toppling over backward, his head striking the stone street with enough force to bounce, and in a tangle of limbs, sword, and his red cloak, tumbled backward across the street, punishing his form against the stone, and striking into a pile of rubble where his momentum bounced him upward, over the pile, and slamming his back into a half-standing wall to a sudden stop, the wall shaking and dislodging what was left of the ceiling, crashing to the ground nearby.

Kilishandra stopped at Khall's side, catching her breath, and Mur'neth appearing at her far side. Ganondorf was climbing to his feet, his left arm hanging limp, the broken bone making it useless, and he retrieved his sword, his eyes, the same as the others, were locked on Eredor.

The iron supports, like a metal skeleton within the mortar of the wall, had previously been exposed in the brutal conflict, and where Eredor had landed, a number of them were visible, protruding from his torso, the iron dyed red by his insides.

"That's it, I guess," Mur'neth said, "He's finished."

Just as the three started to relax, Eredor lifted his head, and with a growl, pulled himself forward and off the iron spikes, spilling blood across the ground, and started moving back toward Ganondorf.

"You can't be serious," Mur'neth said.

"Come on, you two," Kilishandra said, "My father needs help."

Ganondorf watched as Eredor moved toward him. Ganondorf was bleeding from numerous wounds, his left arm was broken, and he was fighting for breath, too exhausted to heal himself, and barely on his feet. Eredor stumbled, staying on his feet, but trailing blood every step he took, his eyes locked with Ganondorf's, and stopped about six feet away from the wizard.

"Wait," Khall said, putting one hand in front of Kilishandra to stop her, "It's over."

Eredor finally broke his gaze from Ganondorf, turning his head to look at the destruction that surrounded them, and back at his palace, the flames still leaping high into the air from the half-collapsed building. When he turned back to Ganondorf, he was smiling.

Ganondorf bared his teeth in response, taking a step toward the man, but Eredor threw his head back and laughed. Kilishandra had heard only one other person truly laugh maniacally, and that had been Reaper, but this was on a whole other level. Eredor's low voice turned it into a guttural sound, yet it was impossibly loud and echoed all around as his chest heaved with the laughter.

Then as suddenly as it started, it stopped, and Eredor toppled onto his back, splashing in a pool of his own blood, empty eyes staring toward the sky, his face still locked in a silent laugh.

"The hell was that?" Mur'neth muttered.

"He was completely insane," Kilishandra said.

"You three," Ganondorf shouted at them, "Stop standing around like bottles of piss. Go help our men put the rest of his troops down."

* * *

"Just like that?" Link said, "Just sending three people to help with, what, hundreds?"

"We were already winning the battle," Kilishandra said, "And in the right circumstances, Khall and myself are each far more effective than even several hundred. And Eredor's troops were ready to surrender after he went down. The real work happened over the next few days, as we organized the rebuilding and relief efforts. We'd gone to take Eredor's lands, not kill his people."

"Sounds awfully different from what you were doing to these people," Midna said.

"And you think I don't regret that?" Kilishandra snapped back, "I've already explained it. I was lied to. I was told we were moving our people here, and it was quite simply the only option to reduce the population, otherwise moving in several million people would just result in straining the world's resources and widespread starvation."

"It's okay," Link said, hushing Midna before she could retort, "There's no help for it now. Now, what about Minerva? When did she enter the picture?"

"About a week after the battle," Kilishandra said, "clearing the rubble was finally starting to show real progress, and we uncovered in the ruins of the palace that the throne room was largely intact."

* * *

"The rest of the palace was destroyed when the supports burned through," Ganondorf said as he, Kilishandra, Khall, Mur'neth, and Tharkus entered what remained of the throne room, and other than a missing ceiling which now allowed sunlight to fill the chamber, the room was almost entirely intact, "But this was built with good, solid granite."

"And that matters why exactly?" Mur'neth asked.

"Look under your feet," Ganondorf said, "No gaps in the stone. The walls are bricks and mortar, like most any construction, but the floor is one solid piece, and look there," he pointed toward the throne, "There's no division between the stone and the floor, as if it were carved directly from it."

The group gathered around the throne, finding what he said was true. The throne itself was intricately carved from solid rock, with tracings of patterns along its surface, yet also featured no source of comfort, lacking any padding on the arms, seat, or back, and was polished smooth as glass. Along the arms, back, and seat, different patterns were carved in shallow trenches, which would follow the contours of a man's body as he rested upon it.

Tharkus shrugged. "There's not much to learn by staring at a stone seat. Maybe if you told us what you thought to find here?"

"Think about it," Ganondorf said, "No man has the kind of strength Eredor did. So where did he get it? I know where mine comes from, and suffice to say it's not easily duplicated. And this chamber was better built than anything else in the city. Eredor was not one for vanity, so what is significant about this place?"

"So you think there is something hidden here," Kilishandra said.

Khall had closer to the throne, and was running a finger along the carved trenches on the right armrest, down to the end, where his finger encountered a small circular groove exactly where Eredor's fingertips must have rested when he sat upon the throne. Experimentally, he tested it by inserting his finger, and found the stone gave, and there was an audible click.

The throne transformed in an instant. Thousands of needles erupted from the carved trenches, causing most of the members of the group to jump in surprise, and Khall hissed, pulling back quickly, turning his hand over, seeing the red dots on his wrist where several had caught him. The pricks weren't bleeding, but they were more than skin deep.

Thousands of needles projected from the throne, and the person sitting within would have been pierced all along the bottom side of his arms, his back and along his spine, and in his seat. "That's a throne?" Kilishandra asked.

"Looks more like a slow, painful death," Mur'neth muttered.

Ganondorf kneeled down, leaning closer to the needles. "Look at that," he said, gesturing to them to lean closer, "It's some kind of injection device."

They leaned closer, and at first saw nothing, but Mur'neth spotted it first. "There's something coming out of the needles," he said, "They're hallow!"

A nearly invisible stream of liquid was running from the tip of each needle, and was starting to fill the trenches carved into the throne, turning the lines black.

"So, kids," Ganondorf said, rising to his feet, "What liquid is black as coal, and when injected into the human body, grants superhuman strength?"

"Demon blood," Khall said before anyone else could respond.

"I thought that would kill you," Mur'neth said.

"Eventually," Tharkus said, "Odd thing, how the corruption works. Depending on the amount ingested, the rush of power would last longer, and regular doses would keep the corruption at bay for longer, due to the strengthening of the body during the strong phases. If he did it right, Eredor could last for nearly fifty years at the level he was, with only monthly doses."

"How do you know that?" Kilishandra asked.

"I'm a necromancer," Tharkus said, "It involves more than the study of dead bodies. Blood is another frequent area of interest."

"Where would he get this stuff, though?" Mur'neth asked, still watching the needles.

"Well, a demon would be the first likely place," Tharkus said.

"That's my point," Mur'neth said, "They've all been dead for nearly a thousand years, haven't they?"

"Not all of them," Kilishandra said, remembering the cut she had scored on Reaper's cheek during the fight against him, and the black ichor that had eked from the wound.

"If he was getting monthly doses, it wouldn't be something we've seen," Ganondorf said, arms crossed and tapping one fist against his other arm as he thought, "The shots would have been in such amount to weaken his benefactor considerably, and it would need time to recover."

"So this stuff coming out of these needles is coming from a demon somewhere close, then," Khall said.

"Hang on," Mur'neth said, leaning closer to the needles, "Hey, some of these are stopping."

"They're drying up," Tharkus said.

"That worries me," Ganondorf said, reaching down to where Khall had found the switch to extend the needles, and pushed it in. With a click and a snap, they retracted into the throne. "Now, let's see if I'm right," he said, running his fingers under the front end of the other arm, and with a smile, clicked the second button he found there.

The floor shifted, nearly throwing Khall and Kilishandra off their feet, and loud grating filled the chamber as the walls began to move toward the back of the chamber. A second later, Kilishandra realized it wasn't the walls moving, but the floor, shifting toward the front of the room. After several seconds of grating, it stopped.

In the back of the chamber, the shifting floor had uncovered a stairway, leading down, beneath the palace grounds. Ganondorf motioned for the others to follow, and started down, into the darkness. Kilishandra waited as Mur'neth and Khall headed down after him, and glanced back at Tharkus, who seemed to be waiting on her, and she took a deep breath, steeling herself as she started down into the darkness, hoping to keep her claustrophobia under control.

The stairway kept going down, turning at right angles every fifteen feet, forming a square descent beneath the throne room. A good ten minutes later, the group emerged into a chamber a good distance down, and the hope of discovery was immediately dashed when they saw the rubble in the center of the chamber.

The room was just under fifteen feet square, fitting within the descent of the staircase, but the ceiling was much higher than expected, and the room was dominated by a pile of broken rocks.

Ganondorf glanced up toward the ceiling, and seeing only darkness, conjured a globe of light in his hand, and sent it flying upward. The light revealed a large gouge in what had been a smooth carved ceiling, and Ganondorf cursed softly.

"Must have dislodged the rock when Eredor and I were shaking the place," he muttered.

"So whatever he had down here is buried then," Mur'neth said.

"Hang on, look here," Khall said, moving toward the rock pile.

On one side of the rock pile, something else was visible. Still stone, but clearly carved, and perfectly square. The end of a stone sarcophagus was visible, broken away from the rest of itself that was buried under the pile of rock. Khall leaned around the fractured end, looking inside, to find nothing but dust within.

"Look here," Tharkus said, kneeling down, tracing a visible line on the ground with his finger, "Blood channels. Most likely these would carry the blood f whatever was in here up to the throne."

"Quite a feet, to get blood to flow straight up," Ganondorf said, "Must come from the sarcophagus. Question is, what was in there?"

Khall had moved around the end of the piece of the sarcophagus, and dusted it off with one hand. "There's something written here," he said.

"Can you read it?" Ganondorf asked.

"Maybe," Khall said, brushing more dust away, "Looks like an old language. Looks like some kind of elven… no. This is demonic writing."

"Don't keep us in suspense," Mur'neth said.

"Hang on," Khall said, "It's worn, and I can't make out all of it. Let's see… Something about a sleepless child and waking dreams. '…locked away for all eternity, to protect all the exists. The union must never again come to pass, and the child must never awaken, lest the world be swallowed in blackness.' This must predate the rebellion by some time. The rest of it is totally illegible, though."

"So," Ganondorf said, "It's something even the demons feared, and they locked away. And now it's loose."

"No, it was killed by the cave in," Mur'neth said, "It had to be."

"Something that even demons couldn't kill, crushed under some lousy rock? Don't get your hopes up," Ganondorf said, and chuckled, "Well, now we know why Eredor was laughing. He knew we'd turned this thing loose."

* * *

"Last call!" the bartender called from across the room, causing a stir in the inn as many tables called for their final round for the night.

"One more?" Link asked, and Kilishandra nodded, while Midna merely shrugged, turning her empty mug over on the table as Link lifted his hand and called for another round.

After two mugs of ale each, Kilishandra was only feeling slightly buzzed, but Midna was learning back on the seat, a content smile on her face as she stared somewhat absently across the table. _Looks like she's at least a happy drunk,_ Kilishandra thought, considering how much of a knife edge the little thing could put on her words alone just a few minutes earlier.

She glanced at Link, who was still trying to get the bartender or waitress' attention among the crowd of patrons. Now he was hard to read. This was a man who had defeated Ganondorf in single combat, yet she still could not fathom how. He had held his own against her in a sparring match just earlier this day, but such a fight was nothing like real combat, and it was hard to make a real judgment of ability based on such.

He was stronger than he looked, and so damned fast. She'd never seen anyone move as fast as he had, and because of that, had a doubt of her chances against him in a real fight, at least without resorting to magic. He was in the end a normal swordsman, and would have little defense against a lightning bolt.

But then, how had he beaten Ganondorf? Ganondorf made a habit of bending the known rules of magic, and what she saw him do to the flesh golem outside the city… Everything she knew regarding the invocation of the natural elements, and limits of human control of them had been shattered in an instant by what he had done.

Part of it had to be the Triforce, she knew. Link had a strange presence, an aura of power, so to speak, that one could feel just being near him, and the same could be felt when near Ganondorf or Zelda, the other bearers of the gold triangles. Ganondorf had never explained to her what it was, and she merely knew it was a source of power, and after what she had seen Zelda do to Zero in Tyr, she was willing to believe it.

But Link had something else around him, that the other two did not. Merely being near him, and knowing he was an ally was strangely comforting, and she couldn't fathom why. Maybe it was the quiet confidence with which he carried himself, or the look in his eyes that shone with intelligence far beyond what one would expect of a farmer turned swordsman. Or maybe it was something else entirely, some intangible that she wasn't sure how to describe, but he was certainly more than he appeared at first glance.

Having finally gotten the waitress' attention, Link sat back with a sigh, turning back to Kilishanda, and noticed she was staring at him. "What?" he asked, "Something on my face?"

"Oh, no," Kilishandra turned from him, "Anyway, where was I?"

"I think you'd just found a tomb under the palace," Link said.

"That's right," she said, putting aside her thoughts about Link for the moment, "Anyway, it was another week before we found what had been in that tomb, though it would be more correct to say she found us…"

* * *

"You're up late," Kilishandra commented when she saw Khall standing just outside the door.

He turned at the sound of her voice as she emerged from the inn that had been claimed as their residence while they remained in the city. With a shrug, he said, "Can't sleep."

"You feeling okay?"

"Actually," he said, "I feel great. Just too much energy to sleep."

It was nearly midnight, with a full moon hanging high over the city in the clear night. The reparations had been going well, and the majority of the rubble had been cleared from the battle, and rebuilding had begun. Ganondorf had been being behaving strangely, though he had told Kilishandra he was making plans for a trip he had to make alone, but he was going to make sure everything was in order before he left them.

Eredor's people seemed relieved the tyrant was gone, though it was likely they feared Ganondorf just as much, but volunteers had thrown themselves into the rebuilding efforts with little urging, but Kilishandra's mind was on other things.

"You find anything about that tomb yet?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Khall said, "Most likely, any documents Eredor kept went up when he lit the palace on fire. He was probably trying to destroy all the information so we'd be in the dark like we are now."

"I should have taken Reaper alive," Kilishandra said.

"What good would that have done?" Khall asked.

"He would have known," Kilishandra said.

"He was just a grunt in the end," Khall said, patting her on the arm as he turned to go into the inn, "I doubt he knew much of anything about this."

"No," Kilishandra said to herself as he disappeared inside, "He was something else…"

A raindrop struck her on the face, followed by more. She looked up at the sky that had been clear just a moment ago, and found the stars to be hidden behind heavy blackness, the clouds rapidly drifting over the moon. Lightning leaped between the clouds, flashing light in the dark sky, the rain rapidly becoming a downpour.

"That came up awfully fast," she muttered, stepping back just inside the doorframe, out of the rain.

Lightning leaped across the sky again, this time with a loud, almost immediate crash of thunder overhead, and for half a moment, Kilishandra didn't believe what she saw in front of the flash of light, silhouetted against the sudden luminescence. In that short second, the shape of a person hung there in the sky.

Suddenly, she was backing away from the door, and shouting Khall's name.

Another crack of thunder, and the front of the inn exploded.

Shapes flew by her vision, and with a sudden hard thump, Kilishandra found herself on her back against the back wall of the front room, sitting on the floor. She looked up, and couldn't even swear at what she saw. The entire front wall of the inn was simply and utterly gone, not even any rubble remaining, and the wooden tables and carpets that half-heartedly attempted to burn were being put out by the pouring rain with sizzling hisses and steam.

Supports creaked as the building, unbalanced, threatened to collapse entirely. Kilishandra rose to her feet, screaming Khall's name. They had to get out of here fast. Khall had the same idea, appearing from above, landing in the street outside as he leaped from the second floor, and turned his eyes upward. Kilishandra quickly moved across the room as the supports groaned, and reached the safety of the street as with a shudder and the sound of splintering wood, the building finally came down behind her.

"What the hell was that?" Khall was shouting at her over the rain.

Kilishandra pointed upward, where she had seen the figure. "I saw something up there! A person, I think. And they yanked a lightning bolt right out of the sky and threw it at the building."

"That can't be right," Khall said, looking up, "There's no magic that works like that."

Lights were coming on in other nearby buildings, and people glancing out their windows, searching for the source of the din. Lightning flashed again, and the resulting thunder was painful on their ears as Kilishandra and Khall searched the sky for the figure.

Kilishandra saw something in the corner of her eye, and turned, stopping dead in her tracks. Standng less than twenty feet from them in the street was the figure they searched for.

"Dear gods," she said, "It's a child…"

A girl no more than nine or ten years old watched the pair of them. The rain was pouring harder still, yet seemed not to touch her, or to pass through her, as she stood in the street, her clothes and hair completely dry. Her skin was chalk white, contrasting sharply with her coal black hair and dark red shirt and trousers.

Khall had turned, and the pair of them watched the child, not sure how to handle this situation.

The street suddenly came to life, bricks flying up between her and them, and the stone beneath their feet rose suddenly, tossing them into the air, both shouting in surprise, the flying bricks halting above them, and suddenly zoomed back down toward them like massive bullets.

It was pure reflexes on Khall's part that saved them. Wrapping one arm around Kilishandra's waist, he struck his other hand forward and with a shout of "_Daem!_" and nothing bracing them, the explosion of pure concussive force hurled them backward through the air to land on their backs on the street as the flying stones crashed together, shattering into tiny chips.

They quickly climbed to their feet, facing the girl over the wreckage, where she stood exactly as she had before the explosion. "No incantation," Khall said, "Not even any movement or sign of effort out of her. It shouldn't be possible, but it happened!"

"It won't happen again," Kilishandra growled, stepping forward, clear of him.

She lifted her hands, sparks already crackling between her fingertips. Ganondorf had always said she had a natural talent like he'd never seen, and magic came more easily to her than anyone he'd ever known, including himself. "_Ast namor kal drumaan…_" she said, her voice echoing all around as she spoke the language of magic, "_Spirits of the air, unleash your fury and bring forth the lightning to strike down…_"

The girl smiled at her, not moving an inch. Kilishandra growled. _See if you're still smiling after this, you little bitch…_

"_Thunderstuck!_"

A single bolt stuck down from the sky, perfectly centered on the child. Thunder crashed, shattering windows of buildings all along the street, the flash of light blinding, stone of the street flying into the air, glowing red hot, turing rain into a trail of steam as they hurtled in all directions.

Kilishandra swore loudly. Standing exactly where she had been was the girl, the faint shimmer of a magical barrier visible around her body.

"What the hell are we fighting…" Khall said.

* * *

"So you just loosed everything you had at a child, without any hesitation?" Link asked, the disapproval clear in his voice.

"That was no child," Kilishandra said, "You would know it if you saw her. We were all very lucky to survive the night."

"But why?" Link asked, "Putting aside everything else for a moment, why was she attacking you? There must have been a reason."

A snore from Midna interrupted them from where she lay back in her seat, the final round too much for her, and they both glanced toward her before Kilishandra turned back to Link.

"There wasn't one, as she admitted herself before it was over."

* * *

Kilishandra and Khall had dashed into a nearby alley, trying to put some distance between themselves and the girl, while they came up with a plan. As they emerged into the next street, bricks came flying from the walls on either side of the alley, the buildings shaved in half as the force of an invisible blast nearly sent them sprawling.

Khall gestured one direction, and they started moving up the street. "You have a plan?" Kilishandra shouted over the rain as they ran.

"Maybe," Khall said, "At least an idea. If you can get her attention away from me, I'm going to try to blindside her, get her before she can raise that barrier again."

"You better come through," Kilishandra said, "You get me killed and I'll haunt you!"

She stopped running as he move on, turning to face the alley behind them. The girl had already emerged, and was moving up the street after them, her feet hovering a few inches off the ground.

Kilishandra drew her sword, the purple blade appearing black in the darkness of the storm. "This is our element, Nui," she whispered, "Let's go."

With a roar that crashed like thunder, the sword came to life as Kilishandra ran at the girl. Lightning struck from the sky, perfectly striking the blade, which glowed brightly with white electricity. The girl reached one hand forward, a nearly invisible shimmer flashing between herself and Kilishandra.

Kilishandra hurled the sword upward. The girl's eyes went up, following the spinning, glowing weapon as Kilishandra stepped around the projected barrier, and lightning began to gather around her hand as she charged with the Wizard's Fist, and struck forward.

The girl's gaze turned to her at the last second.

Kilishandra found herself flying backward, and invisible wave of force sending her hurtling through the air to crash into the front of a building, then onto the sidewalk. It wasn't over, and with another roar like thunder, the glowing sword, still airborne, transformed into the great thunder spirit that it truly was, and crashed down on the girl with all of its weight, a crushing ton and a half.

Then Nui was flying again, against its own will, colliding with the same building as Kilishandra, its enormous weight carrying it through the front wall inside. Kilishandra couldn't believe her eyes, as the girl stood there, unharmed.

Where was Ganondorf when you needed him? He would have been able to figure something out.

There was a flash on a rooftop behind the girl, drawing Kilishandra's gaze up.

There was Khall, amidst casting a spell. Blue light swelled from his body, turning the limitless raindrops around him to icy needles, hanging in the air all around, and more and more were building up around the edges of the light. The storm this girl had conjured had played directly into his element.

Suddenly, all the shards of ice turned in the air, pointing their sharp ends toward the girl, and Khall thrust one hand forward with a final shout lost amidst the noise of the storm. Thousands upon thousands of razor sharp needles of ice fell upon her.

What Khall had just done would have left nothing of a normal man but a pile of ground meat. But as Kilishandra watched, she swore again as the needles all shattered against the same near invisible shimmer that had blocked her spell previously.

The girl turned in place, looking up toward Khall. Then without a word, lifted from the ground, flying toward him. "Shit!" was all he managed before she was there.

She stopped in front of him, her face only a few inches from his own. She was smiling, and then he lost sight of her as another invisible wave of force sent him tumbling backwards across the rooftop to stop with a harsh crash of his back on the foot high wall surrounding the roof.

As the stars faded, Khall saw her hovering there just above him.

"What did we do?" he managed to ask, "Why are you attacking us?"

"Nothing," she said, "Because I can."

Even her voice was strange. It certainly sounded like a young girl, yet even in the soft tone she spoke in, it was clearly audible over the noise of the storm, and had the same strange echo that his own voice took on when casting his magic.

Khall was still reeling from the impact, and couldn't get to his feet, and knew he was completely helpless. The few seconds he was there felt like an eternity, waiting for the blow that would finish him.

Then something moved in the darkness. The shine of wet leather, and the flash of steel. The girl suddenly lunged sideways, evading the blow from Mur'neth's sword as he appeared behind her. She went skyward as the sharp blades of the ninja's throwing knives whistled through the air after her, and she evaded further as more ninja appeared on the rooftops, hurling their own up after her.

There was a flash of lightning, and Khall realized there was another silhouette in the air, above the girl. The hurled blades ceased as Ganondorf came down on top of her, wrapping his arms around her neck and chest, and dragging her down toward the ground with his weight.

She cried out in terror, and with a flash of light, Ganondorf was dislodged from her, crashing into the street, rolling and bouncing nearly ten feet before landing on his feet off the final bounce. Khall was pulled to his feet by Mur'neth, the two of them moving toward the side of the rooftop where they could see.

The ninja had surrounded the girl, both on the rooftops and the ground, though Khall doubted it would matter, and Kilishandra was on her feet behind her, but the girl was now focused on Ganondorf. Her expression, which had been nothing but calm and smiles before, was contorted in rage, grinding her teeth. Perhaps the fact Ganondorf had managed to get close enough to grab her had unnerved her.

With a wordless roar, Ganondorf ran for her. She responded with more force than she had shown Khall or Kilishandra, lashing with her arms toward him, generating invisible waves of force that carved foot deep trenches in the street. Ganondorf moved with remarkable agility for his size, sidestepping around each blast without breaking his stride or slowing down, rapidly closing on her.

With a scream, the girl shoved both hands forward toward him. The bricks of these street and the front walls of buildings on both sides were wrenched from their homes as a massive wave carried them, a dozen ninja, and Ganondorf himself through the air away from her.

Ganondorf landed on his feet, and was running toward her again. She must have changed her mind, for with a scream, was hurtling down the street toward him, her body laid out horizontally behind her. Gold light sparked on Ganondorf's right hand as they closed, which exploded as they collided together, forcing those watching to shield their eyes. When the light cleared, both had vanished from the street.

"What did he do?" Khall said.

"Up there!" someone shouted, causing eyes to go skyward.

"No way…" Kilishandra said.

The two hung in the air about twenty feet above the street. The girl had one hand at Ganondorf's throat, hanging him there in her grasp, his hands on her arm, trying to break her grip. Then Kilishandra realized the girl's hand was not there, at his throat. A twisting of skin by her wrist made it all too clear and horrific, as the girl's hand had passed through his flesh and her hand was inside his throat, and doing gods knew what to him.

A wicked smile was on her face. Then, as if tossing aside a piece of garbage, she hurled him away from her, and he fell to crash down on his back in the street, laying still. Kilishandra rushed forward, kneeling down next to him, to find that whatever the girl had done, his neck was apparently undamaged, but he wasn't moving.

"I think that's enough fun for one night," the girl's voice said from above them, "And it is safe to say that none of you can stop me."

All eyes were turning upward, toward her where she hovered in the air. Kilishandra started to rise, intending to use the Harrowing, if that was what it took, when Ganondorf shifted.

With a groan, he sat up. "You clearly have no idea who you are screwing with," he growled, getting onto his feet, and pushing himself up to a standing position.

"Father, what are you doing?" Kilishandra asked.

He ignored her, his attention on the girl in the air. "I am Ganondorf Dragmire," he said, "Rightful king of the Gerudo, the most powerful wizard alive, and the conqueror of this world."

The Triforce on his hand was glowing brighter than Kilishandra had ever seen, and gold sparks trailed from it across his body, growing rapidly until he was nearly glowing. He certainly had that girl's attention again, as she turned down to him.

His hands clenched into fists, he turned up toward her. "I will not be toyed with!" he screamed, and both his hands shoved upward, directly toward her, unleashed the energy built up. A blinding golden flash turned night into day, instantly evaporating the rain around them, and Kilishandra could feel the sheer heat of the blast from where she stood.

The light gradually died away. The night was clear, all trace of the storm clouds gone, the moon and stars shining down upon them.

The girl was still there, the shimmer of her barrier around herself, though she had lifted both her arms to shield her face.

"Gods damn you," Ganondorf growled, then fell to his knees, and toppled forward, laying still as he lost consciousness, the massive discharge draining him completely.

Those around them were starting to open their eyes, and as Kilishandra looked up, the girl was looking back down at them now, her expression one of total shock and disbelief. Black blood was visible on her right cheek, from a long, thin cut from her upper lip nearly back to her ear. It was hardly a fatal injury, but more than Kilishandra and Khall had managed.

Then she was gone, fading from sight without a sound.

* * *

Kilishandra had been forced to stop the story as the bartender closed down for the night, and the patrons began to drift up to their rooms or out to their homes, and she and Link made their way back to the castle, with Link carrying Midna, who had not awoken when he picked her up.

"I'm a little buzzed, but not near that," Kilishandra commented as they made their way through the castle halls toward their rooms.

"Well, this thing has all the constitution of a flea," Link said, "She thinks she has to keep up with me, and the only person I know who can out drink me is Bo, back home. Of course, that man makes some of the most vicious home-brew I've ever tasted, and that's all he's drank for longer than I can remember."

"Is it any good?" Kilishandra asked.

"Certainly is," Link said, "More than one cup will knock you right on your ass, though."

"By the way, your little friend here," Kilishandra said, "What is she? I've never seen anything like her."

"Well, she happens to be a princess," Link said, "I guess I could say that, like you, she's not from around here."

"That's great," Kilishandra said, "How many parallel worlds are tied up in this?"

"I count at least five," Link said, "This one, yours, the Sacred Realm, the Twilight Realm, and the Void."

"Well, the Void wouldn't exactly be a world," Kilishandra said, "It's the gap between them, so to speak."

"Does it matter?" Link asked, "Anyway, how about we call it quits with your story for tonight. Got an early start tomorrow."

"I suppose," Kilishandra said, coming to a stop before the door that led to her room, "This is my stop."

"Sleep well," Link said, and without stopping or looking back, kept going toward his room.

Kilishandra stopped with her hand on the knob, and looked up, watching him go until he turned a corner. She need more time with him, she decided, because she still hadn't been able to see just what it was about him that made him so special, and yet, for some reason, she couldn't help but feel there was _something _there…

As Link entered his own room, he lay Midna down on the pillow, where she stirred but did not wake, as he turned away to unbuckle his baldric, standing his sword up within arm's reach of the bed, and as he pulled off his tunic, Midna sat up.

"Link," she said.

He turned to her, where she had sat up on the edge of the bed. "Yes?"

"When you talked to Ilia earlier today, what was it about?" she asked.

This came out of nowhere, Link decided. "She wants to go home," he said, "Can't say I blame her. I tried to explain that we can't yet."

"She's afraid, isn't she?" Midna said, "Afraid that none of us will make it out of this place."

"What's going on here?" Link asked, sitting next to her, "This doesn't sound like you."

It happened suddenly. Midna turned and kissed him. Link nearly jumped in surprise, but found himself with his arm around her smaller form. Midna suddenly pushed back, as quickly as she had gone forward. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," she said.

"That can't be what you were thinking when you put your tongue in my mouth," Link said.

Midna squirmed out from his arm and moved away from him. "No, damn it, I'm not thinking right," she said, "I shouldn't have drank so much. I mean, look at me!"

"I am looking," Link said, "What's wrong?"

"Stop it!" Midna said, "Stop encouraging me! I love you too much to ask you to…"

She stopped herself, her face suddenly growing hot.

A smile grew on Link's face. "It's okay. I love you, too."

"That's…" Midna started and hesitated a moment, "That's the first time we've actually said that, isn't it?"

"I think it is, at least while we've been awake," Link said, "Is that okay?"

They were just words, and yet hearing them from him now did something to her. She had to be close to him, moving quickly back toward him, wrapping her arms around his neck with a sob as he responded, holding her close.

No words were spoken, but none were needed. Midna might have been half-drunk, or completely smashed, she wasn't sure, but she was sure that she was exactly where she wanted to be, and she didn't want to be apart from Link ever again, regardless of what came.

Her sobbing finally quieted, and Link gently eased her back from himself, only to find her asleep in his hands. He sighed. Between the late hour, and the drink, she might not even remember this in the morning, and he gently laid her back down on the pillow, pulling the blankets up over her, and easing back from the bed.

Then he took stock of his own predicament. There was no river nearby, and the water pitcher in the room was empty, but there was plenty of snow outside, and that would do the trick just fine.


	88. Chapter 87

**Chapter 87: A Quiet Duel**

Midna woke at the sound of the door creaking open, looking up to see Link coming back into the room. He was fully dressed, including the padded cotton undershirt and chain shirt beneath his tunic, the telltale white sleeves of the undershirt and ends of the chains sleeves visible in the morning light shining through the window.

"Time to wake up," he said as he crossed the room, "It's finally not snowing for ten minutes or so, and our ride is coming."

"What time is it?" Midna asked, rubbing her eyes with one hand.

"About three hours past dawn," Link said, "Sorry I can't just let you sleep it off."

"I've never had a hangover. I don't think Twili even get them," Midna said, then suddenly looked up, terror in her eyes, "Oh, gods. Link, last night, about what happened…"

"You remember?" Link asked.

Midna stopped what she was going to say, her brow furrowing. "Remember what? Oh, gods, did we…?"

"No, you passed out," Link said, "And you were drunk. I'm actually surprised you'd actually think me the kind of person to take advantage of that."

"I'm sorry," she said, "I just feel like such a fool. I remember kissing you, and then…" She paused, and a slow smile spread across her face. "You said you love me."

Link smiled back. "I think I did."

Midna would later look back and think how silly she must have looked, but with what could only be described as a happy squeal, she shot from the bed like a rocket, hooked her arms around Link's neck, and spun around past his right shoulder, landing on his back, nuzzling her head against his. He laughed, but did not reproach her beyond telling her to be careful of his sword.

"I don't know how you do it," she whispered in his ear.

"Do what?"

"Look past this… what I look like," she said, "I see it when you look at me. People as good as you shouldn't exist."

"Can't be genetic, since I recently found out my distant ancestor is a giant bitch," Link said.

He turned toward the door, and started moving toward it when Midna whispered again. "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked.

"For last night," she said, "And for not… you know. I… I wouldn't say no, but I don't want it… I don't want me, like this."

"I know," Link said, then laughed, "I'm sorry. I'm so terrible at this. This gushy stuff isn't something I'm good at."

"I think I'm happier with you not attempting poetry," Midna said.

"I'll just warn you, though," Link said, pulling the door shut behind himself as they emerged into the hall, "Don't kiss me like that again, at least not unless you're serious. I'm sure the night watch thought it was funny when they saw me shoving snow down my pants, but it was a bit unpleasant on my end."

* * *

The sky darkened, causing eyes to turn upward as the dragon descended on the courtyard, the beats of his wings to slow himself causing snow to spray into the air as he settled to the ground.

Those gathered in the courtyard moved toward him as he turned, glancing over them quickly. "Link," he said, "Good to see you're alive again. Can't have someone who owes me money dying on me."

"You still remember that?" Link said, shaking his head.

"Fifty gold sovereigns is a hard amount to forget," Roxim replied.

"What would he spend it on?" Midna muttered.

"That's none of your business," Roxim said, "And don't bother whispering. It just makes it even more obvious you're trying to slip something by."

The dragon's enormous head lifted, to see the others gathered behind Link. Zelda and Sheila stood directly behind him, Kilishandra slightly to the side, while Ganondorf stood further back, with his back to them.

"I understand there was a problem while I was gone," Roxim said.

"The prince is dead," Sheila said.

"I see."

"'I see?'" Sheila said, suddenly stepping up past Link, "That's it? And where have you been? If you'd been here, you could have burned those things before they reached the castle…"

A growl that shook made the earth beneath their feet rumble silenced her. "Could have, would have, should have," Roxim said, "It's already happened and getting mad at me isn't going to change it, child."

Link put one hand on Sheila's shoulder, pulling her back. She turned her head to look at him, and when he shook his head, she sighed, turning and moving away from them.

"In any case," Roxim said, "Unless I'm mistaken, you lot are wanting me to play horse for you again."

"Oh, lord," Zelda said, "Getting everything else ready, I completely forgot you weren't even here to tell."

"Well, you're lucky I came back when I did," Roxim said, "I was checking on our frost giant reinforcements. Those big lumbering oafs take their sweet time getting around. They're just crossing into Nigel's territory. Won't be here until nearly spring."

"We have plenty of time then," Link said, "We need to get up to the temple in Metallicana, where the last fragment of our spell is."

"Which one is that?" Roxim asked.

Link turned to Sheila. "It's about eighty miles west of the capital city," she said, "It's the temple dedicated to the Twins."

"Oh, old time and space," Roxim said, "Who's going, then? I can only safely carry five of you."

"Don't count me," Midna said, "You won't even notice I'm here."

She sank into Link's shadow, vanishing from sight. "Okay, that's creepy," Roxim said, "But that leaves four of you that I see."

"I'm going too," Ganondorf said, turning toward them, and walking toward the dragon.

"I told you once before, wizard, I will not carry you," Roxim said.

"Who said I need you to?" Ganondorf asked.

His feet lifted off the ground, some invisible force carrying him directly in front of the dragon's nose. "Will this satisfy you, reptile?"

"If you can keep up," Roxim said, "I understand high mobility flight magic is draining on the user. Can you last longer than an hour?"

"If a decrepit old beast like you has more endurance than me, I'll be embarrassed," Ganondorf said, lowering himself to the ground.

"I've been bugging him to teach me that one for decades," Kilishandra muttered.

"Are we set then?" Roxim asked, turning back to Link and Zelda.

"I was expecting Silviana to be here," Zelda said, "We're not supposed to leave with a judge escort, remember?"

"I remember," Link said.

"Wait," Sheila turned to Zelda, "I only just found out she was a judge yesterday. How long have you known?"

"I had my suspicions ever since Ralthas didn't bother questioning her that night he arrested us," Zelda said, then shrugged, "That and the way she insisted on accompanying us. I was sure she wasn't telling us everything."

"Lying never was my strong point," Silviana's voice said from behind them.

They turned to see her, accompanied by Alex and Ralthas. "Father," Sheila said, "You shouldn't be out of bed yet."

Ralthas waved her off. "I'm not so decrepit yet," he said, "I can stand up without the world turning upside down, and that's much better than yesterday. I won't be out long anyway."

He turned to face Link, and Link could see him holding something under his arm, wrapped in a cloth. Ralthas moved closer to him, examining Link's face as if looking for something. "I didn't quite believe it when they told me," he said, "But here you are."

"Is that a problem?" Link asked.

"I'd say the bigger problem is the rumor going around that you are bringing back the dead," Ralthas said, "If people actually believe that, you'll never have a moment's peace. You realize that?"

"I didn't bring back the dead," Link said, "It's more complicated than that. I highly doubt I could do it again, anyway."

"You think that will matter to those who have lost loved ones already in this war?" Ralthas said, glancing obviously at Kilishandra.

"There's nothing that can be done for it right now," Link said.

"Suit yourself," Ralthas said, "Where's your little friend? I have something of hers."

"You're talking about me?" Midna asked, materializing from Link's shadow.

"That is scary as hell," Ralthas said, watching her, but then lifted the parcel he had under his arm and began pulling back folds of the cloth. Within was one piece of the Fused Shadow, the piece she had regularly worn as a mask. "I confiscated it after your… death," he went on, "Princess Zelda warned not to let anyone touch it without some kind of protection."

Midna moved toward it, and with a slight twitch of her head, the red hair circling her face came to life, extending and shaping into a large hand that lifted the mask from the cloth, and held it above her. "Yes," she said, "It has a terrible effect on humans who do so. Thank you."

She leaned her head back, and the magical hand swept back into her hair, pulling the mask into place, the horns standing tall the face covering one eye. She took a deep breath, and let out a relaxed sigh. "That's better," she whispered.

Ralthas folded the cloth, and turned to Sheila, moving closer to her. "Are you okay?" he asked, "If you want some time, I can make them wait a few days."

She shook her head. "I'll be fine," she said, "I'd rather get this done sooner than later."

Ralthas squeezed her shoulder with one hand. "Promise me you'll come back in better shape than last time," he said, "I don't think my heart could take it right now."

"I'll try," Sheila said, allowing a smile.

"You'd best decide who isn't going, then," Roxim said, "I can't carry the lot of you."

Silviana and Alex had moved up to the group. Link turned to them, and then glanced at Zelda. She glanced over the group. "I suppose the only ones not strictly required are myself and Alexander," she said.

"Don't use my full name, please," Alex said with a groan.

"Is it even truly wise for all the magic users to be going?" Ralthas asked, "What if we need one of you here, if more of those golems appear?"

"Extremely unlikely," Ganondorf said, "Tharkus is a very cautious man. He will pull back his assets for now. This shouldn't take more than a week, round-trip, and Tharkus won't be ready for another move that quickly. And any living troops can't march in this snow."

"Plus, Archmage Riven is here," Sheila said, "All things considered, his own abilities are not insubstantial."

Zelda realized Alex was watching her, as if waiting for her to say something. "I'll stay," she said, "I'm not as talented as Ganondorf or Kilishandra, but if something should happen, I have other means to deal with creatures like those golems."

"That's right," Alex said, "In Tyr, you nearly blew that bastard in half."

"Yes, thank you," Zelda said, shaking her head at his eloquent wording.

"If everyone is quite finished, can we get underway?" Roxim asked, "I'd like to get moving before Darimar summons a blizzard."

As Link and the others gathered their bags of supplies, Silviana moved beside Ralthas. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked, "I don't like leaving you holding the bag like this."

"You didn't do anything wrong yesterday," Ralthas said, "King Rigdar is understandably distraught for his son, but all you did was make a decision with a given situation. We're very fortunate there was only one casualty at all. I'm not intending to sound callous, but I'd have hardly done better in your position."

"I know you're right, but it doesn't make me feel much better," Silviana said.

"Don't worry about what's already over, focus on what you can do now," Ralthas said, then added with a smile, "Isn't that what you told me, all those years ago?"

"You remember that?"

"I'll never forget it," Ralthas said, "Because I can't forget how that terrified, abused girl grew into a strong, beautiful woman, who won't let anything get in her way."

"Are you flirting with me?" Silviana asked, turning a mischievous look his way.

"What?" Ralthas' almost shrieked the word, "Of course not! You're barely older than my daughter!"

Silviana smiled. "Oh, you're too easy sometimes."

"I will leave without you!" Roxim said, turning them both to see Roxim sitting low enough for the others to get onto his back, and Link climbing up just behind the stems of his wings.

"Get going," Ralthas said, "I'll still be here when you get back."

Silviana moved toward the dragon as Link reached down, offering a hand to help Kilishandra onto the dragon's back, and with a quick glance at him, reached past it, grabbing hold of the ridges along the dragon's back and heaving herself up behind him. Link shrugged as he settled his own bag, filled with dried beef and biscuits, along with a shaving razor he'd made sure to pack this time, on his lap so he could keep his arms around it while holding onto the hard ridges of the dragon's back, and adjusted his cloak so it shouldn't be slapping Kilishandra in the face as the dragon flew.

Sheila and Alex were the next up, and after Silviana climbed up behind them, Roxim made one last check they were ready before heaving himself into the sky with a leap and enormous beats of his wings, the rush of wind sending snow flying into the air, leaving those in the courtyard shielding there eyes against the flying white.

"Don't get into to much trouble while I'm gone," Ganondorf said to Zelda as he readied himself to follow.

"I'm more worried about you lot," Zelda said, "Do me a favor. If you run into Zero, put that monster in the ground."

Ganondorf glanced back at her with a wry smile, then his feet were off the ground, and he shot into the air after the dragon, though with considerably less spraying snow.

"That's how he crossed the city so quickly that day," Ralthas said, the thought suddenly dawning on him.

Zelda turned to him, and the pair started back toward the castle. "He's done it several times before," she said, "From what I can tell, it requires constant concentration, and he can't use any truly big magic spells while airborne. I don't think we'll be witnesses to any flying wizard duels."

"Pity," he said, "Would make for a good story."

* * *

The first part of the flight was uneventful, though the passengers on Roxim's back were very grateful when he touched down that evening and they were able to stretch their legs. They were quite hungry as well, because trying to eat dried beef with the wind of the dragon's speed in their faces was a trial itself.

"You tired already, dragon?" Ganondorf asked as he came down beside them, "I could go for another hour or two yet."

"When did I agree to a competition?" Roxim asked, "I stopped here for a reason."

He lifted his head, indicating to his left. They had gone steadily northwest, over white covered hills and valleys, but the location he had selected to land was near the base of a lone peak that rose above the surrounding lands. As they had come down, they'd had a clear view of the top of the mountain, the wide crater visible even in the fading light of a dormant volcano.

What Roxim was indicating was an opening to a cave in the base of the mountain, which would allow the group to be out of the weather. It was too small for Roxim himself to fit within, but with the fire in his own lungs, the temperature would have to decrease quite a bit more than it was before he became uncomfortable.

Link was the first to the cave entrance, handing his pack to Alex and loosening his cloak so he could draw his sword if need be. His real worry was if they stumbled onto a hibernating bear. It didn't smell like a bear-cave, though, and this was proven out as they made their way in.

"You feel that?" Link asked as the group moved further in.

"Yeah, it's humid in here," Alex responded.

"A lot warmer in here than I'd expect, too," Kilishandra said.

With a globe of light held aloft by Ganondorf, the interior of the cave came into view. It wasn't expansive, but with a good twenty feet from the entrance to the back wall, and nearly ten feet across with a fairly level floor, the group would be able to spread out comfortably for the night.

In the back of the cave was another sight. The source of the humidity was a natural hot spring, likely heated by the dormant volcano's molten core, faint steam visible in the air over the water. The pool had a nearly eight foot diameter, and the water itself was crystal clear, though looking down in did not reveal its source, though Link guessed it would be an underground river, and the water fed in through cracks in the stone beneath it.

"This isn't going to be the most comfortable place to sleep," Silviana commented.

"There's enough room from the entrance that if we keep a fire going, that shouldn't be too much of a problem," Link said.

"Think that water's safe to drink?" Sheila asked.

"It might be, but I wouldn't risk it," Link said, "We've got some cooking pots in one of these packs, so when we get a fire going, we can just melt some snow if we have to."

"Who's getting the firewood then?" Alex asked.

All eyes in the cave immediately turned toward him. He rolled his eyes, and muttered, "Why did I even ask?"

"I'll go with you," Link said as the group started dropping their packs on the floor, "Let's hope it doesn't take long."

As the pair moved toward the mouth of the cave, Ganondorf turned after them. "I'll be outside if anyone needs me," he said as he walked away, snuffing the light in his hand as he did so, leaving Kilishandra, Sheila, and Silviana in darkness.

"Gods, he can be a jerk," Sheila muttered, now unable to see what she was doing, trying to get the blankets out of her pack.

Another light flashed into existence, this one over Kilishandra's palm, and with a gesture, she sent it up to the roof the cave, casting light over them. As Sheila renewed her efforts, Kilishandra moved over to the hot spring, kneeling down and testing the water with one hand.

"Hey, that's not too hot at all," she said, a smile appearing on her face, and her hands immediately went to the clasps binding her breastplate, undoing them and lowered it and her shoulder plates to the floor.

Sheila paused glancing over at her, now in the padded undershirt, her sword on the floor by the breastplate and working at the straps of her greaves. "Wait," Sheila said, "You're not going to do what I think you are…"

Kilishandra didn't respond, laying the greaves next to her breastplate and stepping out of her boots. Then the padded shirt came off over her head, and Sheila quickly looked away as the shirt dropped on top of her armor, followed quickly by a leather breast-strap. "You realize," she said in the other direction, "That Link and the others will be back any minute…"

"And?" Kilishandra asked, pants hitting the floor and kicking them onto the pile, "I'm reasonably sure I haven't got anything they haven't already seen. Well, maybe Alex hasn't," she added as an afterthought, "He's awkward enough at times."

There was a soft splash as she slipped into the water. Sheila finally managed to get the blanket in her pack loose, spilling several travel biscuits onto the cave floor. "Great," she muttered as she started to pick them up.

"Oh, gods," Kilishandra said with a sigh, "Now that's what I needed. Haven't even had a real hot bath in weeks."

Sheila focused on what she was doing, attempting to ignore her, when a pile of white leather hit the floor in the corner of her eye, and she glanced up to see Silviana walking to the pool, already completely nude. There was another splashed as she slipped into the water.

"You might as well come over here and join us," Kilishandra called, "Unless you think it's so vital you get that dried beef and rock hard biscuits unpacked."

"You can't be serious," Sheila said, "I'm not about to bathe with another woman, much less two."

"You'd do it if Link were here, then?"

Sheila's face instantly turned bright red. "Of course not!" she said, almost shouting in her denial.

Kilishandra shrugged as she turned her head to see Silviana seated a few feet to her side. "Well, he is fairly good looking, I'll give him that," she said, "Maybe you'll give me a straight answer. What's so special about him?"

Silviana turned to Kilishandra and shrugged.

"More and more I'm convinced this is like a game to you people," Kilishandra said, "The lengths people have gone to, all to bring him back from being turned to stone, and the best answers I get when I ask why are cryptic nonsense."

"Maybe you're not asking the right person," Silviana said, "I've heard it said the measure of a man can be gauged by the quality of his enemies." She paused, and glanced over at Kilishandra. "I just wonder if that is more of a compliment to Link, or the man you call 'father.'"

* * *

"Just a couple more and we'll head back," Link said as he pried a branch from a fallen tree.

He and Alex had split up, searching for wood in different directions from the cave, and Link and Midna had come upon a small grove, winter-dead trees all around, and fallen one, likely only recently felled by winter winds. With help from his sword, he'd cut or broken off a small pile nearby, intending to take all he could carry with him.

As he went to work on the next branch, he suddenly asked, "Midna, how much do you trust me?"

She wasn't sure how to respond at first, the question seemingly coming from nowhere and catching her off-guard. "Is something wrong?" she asked at last, "You know I trust you."

"I want to try something," Link said, pulling at the branch with both hands, the wood creaking and splitting with each tug, "I won't do it if you say no, though."

_Oh, gods,_ Midna thought to herself, _He can't be about to ask what I think he is…_

The branch snapped, and Link tossed it onto the pile. Then, with a sudden wave of his hand, the snow before him melted instantly, turning into water running along the ground, hissing steam and rapidly refreezing to solid ice.

"I've got this thing," he said, holding up his left hand to see the image of the Triforce upon it, "I'm learning how to use it, gradually. I did make you a promise a good while ago that I'd find a way to help you, and I think I'm ready to try."

"Oh," Midna said, quickly forgetting what she had thought he was going to ask.

"'Oh?'" Link repeated, "That's the response I get?"

"Sorry, no," Midna said, "That's not what I meant, I was thinking about something else. Besides, can you even do that? Ganondorf said even he might not be able to. It could even be dangerous."

"That's why I intend to go slow," Link said, "I'm not saying it would happen tonight, but if I'm careful, maybe I can get a feel for it and figure it out."

Midna materialized from the shadows around them, moving into his field of vision before setting her feet down on the freshly froze ice. "That's why you're asking if I trust you," she said, not as a question, but a statement of understanding.

"That's right," Link said, "Will you let me try?"

Midna nodded slowly. "Of course I trust you," she said, "I know you'll be careful."

"Okay," Link said, moving toward her and sitting down on his knees in front of her, "Let's see what I can do. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

Link gently took her hands in his, closing his eyes. A second later, the Triforce symbol on his hand flashed a bright gold, forcing Midna to shut hers as well. "Now just stay calm," he whispered, "Let me see if I can figure this out."

It started at her hands, a soft warmth that gradually spread up her arms and down her body, accompanied by a tingling sensation. "Link, I feel something," she said.

"Yeah," he said, "I can see you, but more than that. That's… interesting," he added.

"What is it?"

"It's like I can see your essence, or soul, or something," Link said, "There's all these moving lines, like blood moving through veins, but at the same time they're wrong. They're twisted up into knots, and going the wrong way."

Midna slowly opened her eyes, seeing that the light from the Triforce of Courage had gradually dimmed. Link's eyes were still closed, and he had and intense look of concentration on his face.

"Your mask is partially blocking me out," he said, "I can't see it all. It's just black there."

"Should we stop?" she asked.

"Hang on," Link said, "I'm going to do a little poking. I want you to tell me if anything feels wrong, and I'll stop, okay?"

"I will."

Link attempted to reach out, not with his hands, but something else he felt welling up within him. It seemed as if he was trying to reach her soul with his own. In his eyes, his own hands, gold in color, reached into the blue lines he saw before him, and tested the knots and lumps in her essence. She didn't tell him to stop, so he picked one, near the bottom, and gently pulled it apart, allowing the lines to straighten out, and the color brightened as her essence began to flow faster and more smoothly. He moved to the next, and started to work at it.

"Link, what are you doing?" she ask, "I feel something."

"Are you okay?" Link asked, hesitating.

"It doesn't hurt," she said, "It's just strange."

"I'm trying to undo the twists," Link said, "But I can't keep this up much longer. Let me try to get a couple more…"

He worked at the knot, finally turning it loose, and moving to a third. As he pulled at it, something changed in what he saw. What he had already turned loose began to disperse. He swore as he moved back down, attempting to corral it back together.

"Link, what's wrong?" Midna asked, then suddenly said more urgently, "Link, that hurts!"

"Hang on, hang on," he said, "I can fix this…"

He worked frantically, trying to pull it back together as Midna hissed through her teeth. He wasn't sure what he was doing, and it was made all the worse by the fact trying to corral the dispersing aura was like trying to keep water on a tabletop from spreading with his hands, as yet more and more was poured on.

He was sweating, even in the cold, grinding his teeth together as he focused. The knots he had undone were forming again in his mind's eye.

And then it was done. His efforts to corral the dispersing essence had succeeded, but the lines had once more knotted together exactly as before. With a sigh, he relaxed his efforts, opening his eyes to look directly into hers.

Without a word, he reached out and pulled her toward him, holding her gently against his chest. "Are you okay?" he whispered.

"I am now," she said, "What happened?"

"I think I tried to go too fast," he said, "Oh, gods, what I almost did…"

There was a crunch in the snow behind them, and Ganondorf's voice. "Not as easy as it looks, is it, kid?"

Link turned, releasing his hold on Midna, to see Ganondorf about ten feet away from them. With one motion, Ganondorf undid the clasp holding his cloak in place, allowing it to drop to the snow. Link's eyes moved to the white sword blade, glowing faintly in the night.

"Shit," Link said, rising to his feet and reaching for his own weapon as he released his cloak, so it wouldn't slow him down, "I should have seen _this_ coming."

Ganondorf chuckled, lifting his weapon and spreading his feet apart as he readied himself. "Too bad you're the kind who wants to trust."

"You bastard," Midna said, floating up to Link's side, "After everything else, you pick now, of all times."

"It was why I came along in the first place," Ganondorf said.

"Why now?" Link asked as he pulled his weapon free, "You saved my life just two days ago."

"Think about it this way," Ganondorf said, "For four thousand years, I've been trying to get that Triforce that you, by sheer chance, now possess. When its carrier dies, it only remains in the body for a few moments, before passing out of existence, where to I don't know, but it is well beyond my reach for that time. It returns in the possession of a newborn a generation or two later.

"If Shaklator had killed you, it would have gotten in my way far more than help me. I thought I had time, that it could wait until we returned to Hyrule. A fitting place for a grand final battle, since that was where it all began so long ago. But I'm afraid I'm not going to take the chance of losing you to another's blade again."

Ganondorf started walking to the side, keeping one eye on Link, who matched his stride, circling the other way. Like a pair of predators, they watched each other. "If you do kill me, you won't be able to hide it from the others," Link said.

"Who will do something about it?" Ganondorf said, "Kilishandra will side with me, not to mention you gave her the only weapon that would give one of the others even a ghost of a chance against me. No, Link, your fate is in my hands alone now."

"Link isn't alone," Midna said, hovering just over Link's shoulder and behind him, "and I am far from powerless."

"You can't even slow me down," Ganondorf sneered, "Stay quiet when your betters are speaking."

Midna snarled, but Link spoke before she could retort, lifting his sword toward Ganondorf, "You know I won't give it to you, so if you intend to take it, come on already!"

Ganondorf rolled his head, his neck popping loudly in the still night, then growled through his teeth. "Last time I was foolishly spoiling for a fight. You won't be walking away this time."

With a shout, Ganondorf swung his free hand toward Link. Snow kicked up as a wave of force washed over him. It was not strong enough to force him back, but the thick snow filled the air and his vision. Then a flash of white that was something else entirely. He barely managed to lift his sword to block in time.

The blades clashed together, sparks flying as the two enchanted blades discharged against one another. The force of the blow forced Link back a step as Ganondorf cut through the snow still hanging in the air. Another blow came down, and Link was able to guard himself, but the force of the blow staggered him back and nearly ripped his sword from his hand. As it was, his arm had absorbed the impact, feeling like it had turned into rubber.

_Damn! I can't just block like that!_ Link thought as Ganondorf pressed forward again, _He hits like a gods damned battering ram!_

Ganondorf's superior strength was obvious as he struck another blow, and yet another, holding his weapon with one hand while Link was forced to grip his with both hands just to keep a grip on it against the inhuman strength of the giant he was fighting.

As Ganondorf came in with an overhead swing, Link saw his chance. He dodged to the side, parrying the strike instead of blocking it, and with the swords tangled, charged forward with a shoulder block into Ganondorf's side.

He'd have had more success getting a stone wall to move. Ganondorf saw it coming, planting his feet and shoving back, nearly toppling Link onto his back. As Link staggered back, their weapons untangled, and Ganondorf turned after him. A flash in the corner of his eye caused Ganondorf to quickly use his Triforce to raise a barrier as red arrows of light struck harmlessly against it. Midna growled, red light growing from the top of her mask once again as she redoubled her effort. More red arrows struck the invisible barrier, glancing harmlessly away from his body.

Ganondorf's Triforce flashed brightly, and with a shriek, Midna was thrown backward to land in the snow. "Take a nap, pest," he muttered.

A white flash brought him back to the task at hand, and he backpedaled as he parried Link's stroke. Link was on the offensive now, striking rapidly, and Ganondorf was forced to keep backing up as he defended himself. Ganondorf spotted an opening as their swords came together, and he quickly followed through with a counter aimed for Link's head. The blade whistled, so fast it was moving, only to miss Link entirely as he stepped out of reach and rebounded with a roar, the tip of his blade moving forward.

Ganondorf, off balance, was unable to move in time, and turned halfway to the right from his swing, felt the swordtip piece under his right arm, into his flesh, agony searing through him. Link expertly twisted the blade, to maximize the damage, and pulled back out of reach, dragging the weapon, coated with blood, with him.

Ganondorf fell to one knee, growling through his teeth. Link hesitated for just a second, and then his chance was lost. With a sinister chuckle, Ganondorf rose back to his feet, the wound vanished as if Link had never struck him. "Should have kept the Master Sword, kid," he said.

"Maybe not," Link said, "I know how tiring that healing of yours is. If I have to, I'll take you one piece at a time."

Ganondorf charged suddenly, and Link was forced back again, their weapons striking together again and again. Finally, Ganondorf caught Link with an overhead strike that Link was barely able to guard, the hilts of the weapons locking together, forcing them into a power struggle. Link was holding his own weapon above him as Ganondorf pressed down. Even though the wizard was holding his weapon with one hand, and Link with two, the difference in their strength was obvious as Ganondorf pressed down and forced Link onto one knee.

Link's hands were shaking as he pushed back against Ganondorf, grunting with effort through his teeth. "Give it up," Ganondorf growled.

Link saw his chance, knowing he'd only have one, released his right hand from his sword, and as the blades came down, struck his right fist directly into Ganondorf's groin. Ganondorf's eyes suddenly went wide, and the force on his sword lessened, Link quickly pushing back up and forward, toppling the wizard onto his back. Their weapons came apart, and Link quickly pressed the attack, aiming for Ganondorf's head as the wizard fell. Ganondorf hit the ground on his back, and with a loud crash, blocked Link's strike, cocking one foot back and kicking Link in the chest, throwing him back.

Link barely stayed on his own feet as he staggered back from the impact, and Ganondorf rolled onto his feet. Link raised his weapon again, but this time, as Ganondorf turned to him, the large man made no move toward him.

"Where is it?" Ganondorf suddenly demanded.

"Where's what?" Link retorted.

"The last time we fought, you were nearly frothing at the mouth by this point!" Ganondorf said, "Why are you still so calm?"

He was right, Link realized. Link was known for his short temper, and during fights, he tended to become very mad. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it kept him swimming in adrenaline.

"It doesn't matter," Link said, "I've beaten you before, and I'll do it again."

"No, you won't," Ganondorf said, "because we're stopping here."

"What?" Link said, not exactly sure what Ganondorf was up to now.

"I knew there was something different about you when I brought you back," Ganondorf said, pointing at Link with an accusing finger, "I thought it was just the Triforce, and you learning how to use it. But there's something else different. It's as though you're in much more control of yourself than before.

"It looks like you've finally accepted what you are," he added with a sinister smile.

"What are you even talking about?" Link said, still holding his sword ready.

"In the end, you're just like me, and you're finally ready to move to the next phase," Ganondorf said.

Link shook his head. "No," he said, "I'm nothing like you. I never wanted this power I have, and the only reason I keep it is to keep it from you."

"You think that's what I'm talking about?" Ganondorf said, "It's not that black and white, I'm afraid. Answer me this, Link, one question, and then you can go back to the others. What is the difference between a soldier and a warrior?"

"What kind of idiotic question is that? A soldier is a warrior!" Link said.

"No, Link, he is not," Ganondorf said, "And I'll tell you the difference. It's quite simple really. You see, a soldier can become very good at what they do. And a warrior, well, he does what he's good at.

"Kilishandra, Silviana, even that Alex back there," he continued, "They're soldiers. They're trained to fight, and they're good enough. They fight for what they believe in, but at the same time, they're more than ready for it to end, so they can stop fighting. You and me, Link, we are warriors. Fighting is what we are. It's what we live for. Look inside yourself and tell me I'm wrong."

The last sentence came as more of a dare. And the more Link thought about it, the more he knew Ganondorf was right. He had thought he wanted to stay in the village, be a farmer, but when a chance for adventure had reared its head, he had leaped at the chance. And he had finally accepted it, and it just felt right. This was where he belonged.

"I see it in your eyes," Ganondorf said, "You know I'm right. I had to be sure myself."

"That's why you attacked me?" Link demanded.

"You're too kind a person," Ganondorf said, "If you didn't believe I was trying to kill you, you would not have given me everything you have."

"If you hurt Midna, I will make you regret it," Link said, returning his sword to its sheath, and turning to run toward where she had fallen.

"I didn't hit her hard, just enough to keep her out of the way," Ganondorf said as Link dropped down next to her.

It didn't take much nudging before Midna's eyes opened, and seeing Link above her, the first thing she asked, "Did you kill him?"

"No," Link said, "Though I'm still sorely tempted to."

Midna leaned up to see Ganondorf standing some distance from them. He made a kissing face at her. She growled through her teeth as she rose into the air. With a laugh, he turned from them and started walking away.

"Hold it," Link said, "You got what you wanted from me. It's high time you answer something for me."

Ganondorf stopped, but did not turn around. "You think so, do you?"

"What's in all this for you?" Link asked, "Don't give me that crap about not needing to justify yourself, either. What are you really after for helping us?"

Ganondorf leaned his head back, looking up into the sky. "I've lived for four millennia. Your problem, Link, is you still want to see things in black and white. Throughout history, I've experimented, Link. When I first claimed the Triforce, I gave them a chance to accept that I was their rightful ruler. But they wanted a villain they could fight. So I gave them one. This is the real reason I refuse to have to justify myself. Because I'm trying to teach the people who ask to think for themselves. So few people truly learn to look past imaginary concepts like 'good' and 'evil' to see the big picture.

"After I was cast through the Twilight Mirror, I traveled through a multitude of worlds and countries within. To some I came as a conqueror. To others, a liberator. In some I was considered a tyrant, and in others a hero. I've seen it from both sides of the coin, Link. I've learned far more than mortal men should learn in their lifetime. Sometimes a ruler must be harsh, just as a parent must discipline their child.

"You're not fighting story-book villains here, Link. Khall and his followers do not shout 'For the glory of evil!' as they attack. They believe they are right, just as you do, and Khall is revered as a hero, just as you are in your own lands. This is the tragic reality, that one side can only survive by victimizing the other. The history books, unfortunately, will only remember the winner as the 'heroes.' I've learned this well.

"Just as I've learned that sometimes, to accomplish the greatest feats, the hand of fate must be forced."

He turned his head looking at the pair over his shoulder. "You want to know what I'm truly after? I'll make you a deal. If we make it to the end of this, when we are standing over Shaklator's broken corpse, I'll tell you."

Without another word, he turned away, and started walking, disappearing into the night.

"That man is insane," Midna said.

"Maybe," Link said, thinking that just a short time ago, he'd agree, but now wasn't so convinced.


	89. Chapter 88

Seems I underestimated my own ability to drag things out. I estimated just under 100 chapters, but looking at what there is still to do, I think I'm going to overshoot it, maybe by as many as fifteen or so.

Anyway, this one's kind of short mainly because it's an example of me adding in stuff that wasn't planned, just to give Sheila and Zelda both some development, since they've both kind of fallen by the wayside lately, and with doing this, I've got to be careful what goes in so I don't give away what is still planned too early. There was also going to be additional scenes with Link and Midna, and Alex and Silviana after what the end of this is, but I couldn't decide what to do so I didn't move things too fast without it being completely stilted and pointless.

And I wanted more of the hot spring, for completely obvious reasons. I promise this time, things will get moving in the next chapter, because we'll be jumping ahead to the temple.

**Chapter 88: Personal Decisions**

Straw erupted from the impact of the dull training blade, the helpless victim slouching as Zelda stepped around the post and smacking the straw man again. It was getting late, but she couldn't sleep. The training courtyard was nearly empty, and the sound of her weapon on the straw practice dummy echoed in the massive chamber with each hit.

She was sweating with the exertion, and paused a moment to catch her breath. Her right arm tiring to the point she could barely lift the sword, after a moment, she switched hands and attacked the dummy again. Her left-handed blows were clumsy and awkward, but it was primarily for the weight training. She had sent the others off, and now couldn't stop thinking about it. She wanted to be there with them, to finish what she had started.

Between her strikes, she could hear distant footsteps, as the late-goers moving about the chamber, many finally ending their own workouts for the night. She tried to focus on what she was doing, and keep her thoughts from wandering. One way to sleep would be to work herself to exhaustion, she had decided.

One set of footsteps came closer behind her, and she noticed it stopped between her strikes. Panting for breath, she paused her strikes, backing off from the dummy and glancing back to see Arthur standing a few feet away. When he realized she had noticed him, he instantly turned scarlet, glancing away from her.

She couldn't help herself, laughing at him as she pushed her bangs out of her eyes. "Can I help you?" she asked, "Or did you just come to watch me sweat like a mule?"

"No," he said, "I mean, you look great. Not that you don't always. I mean…" He trailed off, cursing under his breath.

"Calm down," Zelda said, "I wasn't being serious."

He looked up at her, an almost pleading look in his eyes. "I used to be good at this," he said.

"Would it be easier if I asked if this makes my butt look big?" Zelda asked.

Arthur shook his head, suddenly laughing. "Of course I know the answer to that one."

"So what are you doing up this late?" Zelda asked, turning back to the straw man and switching her sword back to her right hand, and going back to work on it.

"Guard just changed, I was let off for the night," he said over the impacts of her weapon on the dummy, "Got tomorrow off, too, so I came to work out a little bit. Guess I wasn't the only one with that idea."

"I've got too much going on in my head to sleep," Zelda said, giving the dummy one more half-hearted smack before turning away from it. A second later, with the sound of tearing cloth, the bottom of its torso opened, spilling its straw guts onto the floor.

"So you murder a helpless dummy," Arthur said, "Better him than me, though."

"I'm sure it was already worn out," she said, glancing back at the mess.

"I don't know," Arthur said, "Looks like you could do some damage. You know, I don't think I've seen you in something without sleeves before."

Zelda glanced down at herself. She wasn't wearing what most would considering a complete outfit, just a short sleeved riding shirt and a pair of trousers. "Look at that," she said, noticing for the first time as she lifted one arm, and flexed it at the elbow, "I'm getting a little meat on my arms."

In fact, her biceps had nearly doubled in size since she had left Hyrule. She was nowhere near the amount of muscle on Kilishandra, and especially not Link, but she was a far cry from the pampered princess she had been. Out of curiosity, she lifted her shirt to see her belly. "Nope," she said, "No abs. That's still smooth."

"You're in incredible shape compared to most of the women I've known," Arthur said.

"I wasn't," Zelda said, "The first day when we left, coming out this way, my feet were bleeding by evening, I wasn't even used to walking like that. The very image of the pampered princess."

Zelda paused to pick up her towel from the floor, wiping the sweat from her face and neck. "Where are you from?" Arthur asked, "I don't think I've ever heard that part."

"The other end of the world," Zelda said with a sigh, "Across the ocean to the east, through the coastlands and a desert hot enough to bake your head during the day and freeze it in the night, and then a mountain range, and you'll come to Hyrule."

"Oh, wow," Arthur said, "That sounds like a long way."

Zelda started walking toward the courtyard entrance, and he fell into step beside her. "We had to come all this way because Khall, the man leading the enemy here, used a magical curse to seal every living thin in my kingdom in stone."

"Wait, "Arthur said, "That sounds familiar…"

* * *

"So, anyone know what we're walking into with this temple?" Kilishandra asked.

"Not my part of the would," Silviana said, sinking into the hot spring so only her face was above water.

Sheila, seated in the water on the other side of Silviana from Kilishandra, looked up at the ceiling. "What I do know is that the temple is built to honor Eternity and Infinity, the twin gods of time and space. It was also extensively rebuilt following the ancient war. This was so it would be part of the massive circle that would prevent uncontrolled magic from creating catastrophe again. Compared to the other temples, it is a massive complex, and heavily trapped. Beyond that, I don't know much."

"Why would someone put traps in a place of worship?" Kilishandra asked.

"It wasn't a place of worship," Sheila said, "Like I said, it was built to honor the gods, but as for worship, that's what the church in the city would be for. Historically, it was also the site where the ancient war began, where Darius and Arkanus had their first duel, and Arkanus unleashed the Silencing, turning every living thing in Metallicana, whether plant, animal, or human, to stone."

"That's the same thing that was used on Hyrule," Kilishandra said, "The whole reason we're going out here now, right?"

"That's right," Sheila said, "It was the only time in history the Silencing was ever used. Darius wasn't able to find a way to reverse it until after the war."

"If he was in the temple when it went off, how was he able to escape it?"

"That I don't know," Sheila said, "What I do remember is that he was the only survivor of the troops that went in after Arkanus. And the ones that the spell didn't take, Arkanus' allies did."

She paused, thinking for a moment. "I'm trying to remember… There was something else mentioned in the stories, some monster or something." She suddenly snapped her fingers with her recollection. "Cain! That was it. Arkanus had allied himself with a creature named Cain, who slaughtered Darius' soldiers. This is probably something legend has warped considerably from what the reality was, but the story speaks of a ten foot beast with the face of a man, but a body made of shadow. Swords and arrows passed through him as if nothing was there at all, but he could rip a man apart with his bare hands. Like I said, I doubt it has that much basis in reality. Much like the story of how later in the war, Darius sank an entire city beneath the earth just to kill Cain. It's hard to believe that it was feasible, even with the level of magic back then."

"I don't know," Kilishandra said, "My father would say that it's better to give it the benefit of the doubt until you find proof otherwise."

"Anyway," Sheila said, "I'm not sure what we'll encounter in there, other than it's dangerous. The altar that we need to reach will be in the centermost chamber."

"Well, traps are what we have Link for," Silviana said.

"Speaking of which, they're taking a long time to get firewood," Sheila said, glancing over to the cave entrance.

"That eager to show off?" Kilishandra asked with a grin.

Sheila glared at her. "I shouldn't have let you talk me into this," she said as she turned and moved to climb out of the pool.

"Hello!"

Sheila looked up at the source of the voice to see Alex just inside the cave, a bundle of wood in his arms and trailing snow across the cave floor. And he made no effort to avert his eyes. She suddenly backpedaled, falling into the water with a large splash and sinking up o her eyeballs, which still managed to glare at him.

"Hey, watch it!" Kilishandra said, wiping her eyes, "There is something in this water that burns!"

"Forgive me if I'm not an exhibitionist," Sheila said, "Kill that light, will you?"

Kilishandra sighed, but snapped her fingers, causing the globe of light at the ceiling to vanish, darkness filling the cave. "Oh, come on!" Alex protested, as he dumped the wood on the floor, "How am I supposed to build a fire now?"

"Be creative," Sheila growled, followed by another splash and the sound of bare feet on the stone floor, moving to where she had left her clothes.

"Don't get dressed until you're dry," Silviana's voice called in the dark, "It's humid enough in here that even with the fire you might not get them completely dry, and going out in winter air in damp clothes is just asking for it."

There was a soft curse from Sheila, then, "So what am I supposed to do then? We didn't bring any towels, just the blankets."

"Well, I'd say you can start by growing up a bit," Kilishandra said, "Then when the fire's lit, sit next to it until you're dry."

"Should have guessed a woman like you would have no sense of modesty," Sheila muttered.

"If modesty involves being embarrassed for no reason, I'm glad I have none," Kilishandra said, "Hey, how's that fire coming?"

"Give me a second, the wood's wet," Alex said, "and I'm trying to find my damn tinderbox."

With a growl under her breath, Sheila's bare feet padded back across the floor, and the water splashed as she re-entered it to escape the wet chill. A second later there another splash with an audible gasp. "Why'd you move?" Silviana said, "I thought you were giving me an invitation."

"Shut up," Sheila said in a low voice.

"What just happened?" Alex asked, "I've got to hear this."

"I was floating innocently on my back," Silviana said, "And she came right down on my face with her-"

"Shut up!" Sheila shouted, her voice almost a shriek.

"Sorry I asked," Alex said, "Now my imagination is running wild."

There was a brief spark as he struck flint on his knife, followed by more. A tiny flame came to life on the tinder piled next to the wood pile, and he hunched down to blow gently, trying to make it bite the wood. The flame fizzled out a second later.

"Dammit, this wood's too wet," Alex said, "I don't think I've got enough tinder to get it to burn."

"I'll get it," Kilishandra said, and lifted herself from the water, her bare feet audible on the floor as she moved toward him.

She knelt down, finding the wood with her hands. "Good lord, who taught you how to build a fire?" she asked, and started dismantling the stack.

"Sorry, I kind of had to teach myself," he said irately.

She finished rearranging the wood, and with a single word, caused flames to leap into life on the wood, steam hissing from the wet as it dried rapidly in the heat, and the light of the flames flicked across the cave. "Now look there," she said pointing at how she had arranged the wood, with one branch straight on the floor, the others each with one end stacked upon it in a circle, "You build a house and the fire lives in it. Build a grave pile and the fire dies. Get it?"

The fire wasn't where his eyes were.

"Get a good look," she said as she stood up and moved back toward the water, "because that's all you're getting."

Silviana sat up with her back against the edge of the pool and her arms propped up over the side. "Actually, I think this lighting makes this even sexier," she said.

"Yeah, I think you're right," Kilishandra said as she settled back into the water.

"I hate both of you," Sheila said with a glare.

Alex used one of extra branches he had brought to stir the fire somewhat, helping it into life, then as he laid it aside, rose back to his feet, turning his back to them.

"Where are you going?" Silviana asked over her shoulder, "There's still plenty of room."

"I think it's better for my health if I wait outside until you are finished," Alex said as he walked away, "Don't let the fire go out."

He disappeared from sight. Silviana turned back and sat up, gathering her hair to wring the water from it as she stood up. "Don't stay in too long," she said as she climbed out and moved toward the fire, "You'll get all pruney."

Sheila started to retort, biting off what she had started to say when she saw it. The fire-light made the mark on Silviana's right shoulder stand out in harsh contrast to her dark skin. It wasn't a scar, it was a brand.

A moment ago Sheila had felt like a target, with all three of them making fun of her. They were, to an extent, but it had been friendly, and she had been acting like a complete heel. She normally had a thicker skin than that, she knew, even Link liked to poke fun at his friends every now and then, and what he gave to most was nothing compared to the barbs he traded with Midna, yet the two of them were so close…

She sighed. She knew why she was acting like this. It was because of Richard, and seeing him die. She had relived it the previous night, as she slept. It was by far the worst nightmare she'd had in her life. The blood and then his empty eyes staring at her.

At yet, it was _nothing._ Nothing compared to the horrors that dark elf had lived through when she was nothing more than a child. The very fact Silviana could smile at all, and was so comfortable around people, was a miracle in itself.

Sheila turned to Kilishandra, who had stretched out in the water, floating on her back with her eyes closed. Even in the dim light, Sheila could make out scars on her body. Many were faded to be barely visible, but a prominent one was visible just below her right collarbone, a line running from just above her breast to the side and under her arm. There was another on the left side of her abdomen, not as visible as the first, but still evidence of a sword or knife cutting into her flesh. There were more on her thighs and arms.

The only scar Sheila had was on her left index finger, where she had cut herself when learning to cook, so many years ago. No, it wasn't the only one, she corrected herself, looking at the scars on her forearms where just recently, her own bones had torn through her skin. Yet both of these women had been through so much more than her. She might be the eldest of the three, but right now she did feel like a child in comparison.

She turned back to Silviana, who had seated herself cross-legged in front of the fire, stirring it as she waited to dry in the heat. _I've got to be stronger than this,_ Sheila thought, _Like her._

Sheila thought she finally understood why Zelda had been concerned about her. Subconsciously perhaps, she had wanted people to feel sorry for her, for what she had seen. What she need to do was stand up and look forward. Losing Richard hurt, and it was going to hurt, but she had to set it aside and move on. If anything, these two women were both examples of what she had to become.

With a sudden decision, she stood up, climbing out of the water, and moving over to the fire to dry, sitting down next to Silviana. They sat in silence, watching the fire, and Sheila planned what she was actually going to do about it.

* * *

"That's what actually started the war?" Zelda said, "Arkanus used the Silencing on Metallicana?"

"That's the way I remember it," Arthur said, "I'm no history expert, I'm afraid, but I do remember that he and Darius then had a big magical duel, which neither actually won."

The two of them were seated on a bench near the entrance of the training courtyard, now empty and silent, the torches along the walls dim and some guttering as they approached the end of their lives. The braziers used to light the central area had already expired, casting much of the enormous chamber into pitch blackness.

"The more I hear about this war, the more I'm convinced what's happening now is directly connected somehow," Zelda said.

"I thought they said the enemy came from a parallel world," Arthur said, "Though I didn't really understand it all, I think."

"That is true, but it sounds like they're keeping part of it from the general public, and for good reason, I guess," Zelda said.

"You know more?"

"Can I trust you to keep this quiet?" Zelda asked.

"Of course you can," he responded.

"Okay," she said, "What we have been able to gather from what has already happened makes us think that Khall and his followers, the 'Lords of Chaos' as they call themselves, are attempting to ressurect or release a being called Shaklator."

"The traitor hero? I thought Darius killed her at the end of the war."

"He wasn't able to, according to Link," Zelda said, "But he did imprison her in the Void, basically the gap between dimensions. Link and Ganondorf have both encountered her firsthand in that very place. They weren't able to do any lasting harm, and were lucky to escape with their lives."

Arthur shook his head. "I saw what that Ganondorf could do at the battle with the necromancer's horde," he said, "And you're telling me he couldn't beat her?"

"Didn't even scratch her," Zelda said, "I'm not sure if she's truly a goddess or not, but if she is released into the world, as Khall is trying to do, I doubt we'll be able to stop her."

"How would you even do that?"

"They took something from us when they attacked Hyrule," Zelda said, "It's called the Twilight Mirror. It works like a portal to other dimensions. I think they need more than that to reach her, however," she paused, reaching into the front of her shirt and lifted something on a chain, "This ring is something else they were after. I still don't know why, but the person they sent died trying to get it. It has not left my person since. So whatever they want it for, they don't have it yet."

Arthur leaned closer to get a better look at the ring in the dim light. It looked like a man's ring, with a wide platinum band, and set with an amethyst the size of his first fingernail. In the platinum, around the gem, black letters he didn't recognized were engraved. "You don't know why it's important?" he asked.

"Not a clue," Zelda said, tucking the chain back into her shirt, "But Khall even tried to butter up to Link some time ago, and I can only assume it was about this ring."

"So then we still have a chance!"

"There's always a chance."

He turned his head toward her with a questioning look. She leaned back. "I didn't tell you what happened to my kingdom last year, did I?"

"I don't think you have," he said.

"I've told this story several times, so I think I'll keep it short," she said, "We were attacked, much like now, by beings from a parallel world. They came so far as cornering myself and my royal guard in the throne room. And I gave up. I surrendered, and my kingdom was covered in darkness, my people imprisoned in shadows, with nightmarish beasts stalking them at every turn."

"What happened?" Arthur asked.

"He happened," she said, "Link happened. The one person who didn't quietly vanish into shadows, fighting it every step of the way. He came with the princess of the shadow realm, Midna, to me, and from there restored essence to the guardian spirits of the land, which pushed back the darkness, and finally confronted Zant, the usurper who had stolen power from Midna, within his own realm.

"Before they reached that point, however, Midna nearly lost her life. Zant had cast her completely into our world. Light itself, even starlight, is fatal to the shadow beings known as Twili. Link came to me, with her. She had fully expected to die then, begging me to help Link finish their quest."

"What did you do?"

"It's hard to explain. I shared my soul with hers. My own body fell lifeless as hers gained strength, my essence protecting her from the light of our world. To this day, even without that protection, she is unharmed by light. But I was with them in the end. I saw what she saw, and heard what she heard. I experienced all of her emotions, her hope, her fear, her hatred, and her love."

She paused, glancing over at him, but he seemed quite content to listen without interrupting. "Zant's death was not the end of it, however. The real mastermind behind the invasion was Ganondorf, who had sealed the castle, and my body, away from us. I could do nothing to make myself heard to them, but they did not need me. Once Zant was dealt with, they went to the castle and used the Fused Shadow, a dark treasure the Twili had once used to attempt to enslave our world before Hyrule had even existed, to force their way in. They confronted Ganondorf, and were able to restore my spirit to my body, and then Link fought Ganondorf in single-combat, and won.

"The most important lesson I gained from this was from watching Link," she continued, "He's not a person given to speeches, or issues of morality like heroes of stories. He decides what he needs to do, and he does it, and gods help anything that gets in his way. He is a good person at heart, but at the same time, he can easily be described as the worst enemy you could possibly imagine. As much as he claims otherwise, he's also a natural leader, and completely unshakable.

"He was always confident before, and now that he's come back from that experience of his, he's got a look in his eye like I've never seen. He might have hoped we could win this war before, but now he knows we can. And I can guarantee, people will follow him."

"If you're that confidant, why are you so worried about them now?" Arthur asked.

"I'm not," she said, "I'm just tired of sitting still. I'm tired of being the helpless princess. I want to be part of this. When I go back to Hyrule, I want to be the leader, the queen, my people deserve."

"Well," Arthur said, leaning back against the wall beside her, "I can't say I'm an expert on this either, but I'd think sometimes a good leader can't be in the thick of things. They'd have to stand back a bit so they can see the big picture."

"That's true, too, I suppose," Zelda said, and smiled at him, "Thanks, by the way. It does feel good to talk about these things sometimes."

"If you just want to talk, I can do that on-duty," Arthur said, "It would just have to be at my post. And you'd have to live with me not looking you in the eye."

"I could live with that," Zelda said, "You know, when I left you in Whitos-Neiki, this isn't quite where I'd expected we'd end up."

"I didn't either," he said, and reached over, squeezing her hand gently in his, "But you are still the most incredible woman I've ever met."

She turned her head, smiling softly at him, to find him turned directly toward her. His expression was deadly serious, almost frighteningly so. She sat up, starting to ask what was wrong. The words didn't make it past her lips, as he leaned in and kissed her. She started in surprise, but found her own hand moving as if with its own will, under his arm and around his back, pulling him closer. His other arm came around her shoulders, holding her against the warmth of his body.

As the surprise faded from her mind, she suddenly realized what was happening, and suddenly released her grip, pushing him away. "No!" she said when she had breath again.

His expression was terrified, and he started to stutter, standing up and backing away from her, trying to apologize. "No," she said, cutting him off, "It's okay, but I'm sorry. I can't do this. Not yet."

"I should have known better," Arthur said, "I'm so sorry."

"It's not you," Zelda said, and with a sigh, "I can't because I've never been with a man. And I must think these things through. Like I said, I have to be a leader, and in the future, a political marriage may be needed to secure a more permanent alliance between my kingdom and another. If I am not… unspoiled… it can make that impossible."

"I thought you were in your twenties," Arthur said, "I thought things like that only applied to princesses between sixteen and eighteen."

"I've put it off longer than I should have, that's true," Zelda said, and looked up at him almost imploringly, "Believe me, I've been tempted, but I've always held off because of my responsibilities."

Arthur was calming down, and was scratching his head, then shrugged. "I know about responsibilities, but why would being a queen have to mean punishing yourself? I mean, there have been plenty of kings throughout history that had concubines even after being married. Not that I'm trying to convince you of anything," he added hastily, afraid she'd get the wrong idea.

"No, you do have a point," Zelda said, "But still, I can't now. Give me some time to think, okay?"

She stood up, turning and walking toward the courtyard entrance, turning back to him at the passage. "Please, try not to get your hopes up. This is something of a big decision for me."

"I'm sorry," he said, "I shouldn't have even done anything."

"It's all right," Zelda said, "I'm not mad. But I've got a lot on my mind and this is one more. I'm not going to be here forever. I will have to go back to my own kingdom eventually, and what I do here can have ramifications there."

Arthur's eyes were on the floor, but now he looked up, a small smile on his face. "Maybe I'll go with you, when you go back to Hyrule. After everything that's happened, I think starting over somewhere else would be the best thing for me."

Zelda paused, then smiled. "I think we can arrange that. Goodnight, Arthur."

"Yeah, goodnight," he said as she moved out the passage. A second later, the last torch sputtered and died, leaving him in darkness. "Son of a…!"


	90. Chapter 89

I have been utterly obsessed with Divinity 2. That's my excuse for this chapter taking so long. Because I was playing a video game. I don't think you can really hold that one against me.

**Chapter 89: Shadows of the Past**

It was mid-afternoon, two days later when the group arrived at the temple. The massive structure sprawled nearly a mile from end to end, and as the dragon circled downward, passing the snow-capped tower roof that rose at least thirty stories from the center of the main block of the building.

"No windows," Link observed as they circled lower, "Short of knocking down a wall, looks like the main door is the only way in."

Kilishandra was seated behind him and shook her head at the sight. "Look at the size of it," she said, "It's bigger than the castle in Darimar, and that's already ridiculously huge."

"Yeah," Link said, "I thought the Temple of Time in Hyrule was big, but this is just excessive."

"Considering the size of the city we're staying in, I'm not surprised," Kilishandra said.

Link leaned forward, slapping Roxim's shoulder behind his wings. "Hey!" he shouted, "Can you take us down by the door on the next pass?"

"Hold on to your lunches," the dragon called, rolling onto his side and diving.

With one more circle, the dragon descended rapidly, until with a single beat of his wings, sending snow spraying away, halted himself suddenly with a lurch that did make his passengers queasy, before settling gently onto the ground.

One by one, the party slid from the dragon's back. Ganondorf had apparently arrived first, and was already examining the door blocking entry. Link paused to take the sight in. The door was two massive blocks of granite that clearly opened in the center. On the left hand door, a single symbol was engraved, the shape of a tome and quill carved directly into the rock. The right hand door was adorned with a single star. The symbols of the twin gods of time and space.

"You know," he remarked as the others moved up beside him, "I just had a thought. The Temple of Time in Hyrule was only dedicated to one god. If they're twins, I wonder why the other wasn't enshrined there, too."

"If I had to guess, it's because Infinity has never interfered with mankind," Sheila said from his left, "He's just done his thing, what with his cloak being the night sky. According to the old tales, Eternity once granted a weapon to mankind capable of slaying gods, and the world suffered for it. But that's ancient legends that predate even the war eight millennia ago. Who knows if it's true?"

Link suddenly became acutely aware of the sword on his back. _Oh, it's true,_ he thought, _Now I wonder why she did it._

Ganondorf looked up at them as they approached him, rising from where he had crouched by the doors and turning toward them. Link suddenly came to a stop as he drew near, and the rest of the group did as well. He looked at his hands, shaking them instinctively against the feeling washing over him. He felt as though he'd just walked through a wall of molasses, and it was clinging to his skin. Judging by the way Alex, Silviana, and Sheila would shaking their arms, they felt the same. Kilishandra was looking at her hands, but not reacting the same.

"What is this?" Alex demanded, now rubbing his arms and chest, as if trying to rub away the invisible feeling.

Midna materialized by Link. "I wasn't even in the open and I feel all sticky," she said, "What's happening?"

Ganondorf laughed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Kili, you remember this feeling, don't you?" he asked.

"It's residual magic," Kilishandra said, "Left by recent casting of powerful spells consecutively, or a massive magic circle requiring enormous amounts of energy."

Link glanced from her, then to Ganondorf, and hoped he didn't look as lost as he felt.

"For those uneducated in this sort of thing," Ganondorf said, clearly seeing it on his face, as well as the rest f the group, "When you strip away to the words, echoing voices, and flashy explosions, magic is at its basest form nothing more than energy. In this state, it is usually referred to as mana, but the name doesn't really matter. Spellcasting gathers this energy from all around to a central point, shaped by the magician's will into the form it will take, like a lightning bolt of a fireball. Once expended, the energy disperses, returning to its original state.

"Repeated casting of high level magic spells by one or more magicians over a short time in a concentrated area, however, results in the energy becoming 'sticky,' so to speak, and creates a dense pocket of residual energy that takes longer to disperse than normal. The only other way for it to occur is for a magician to deliberately draw excess energy to a single point, and tether it, usually with a magic circle, for whatever reason. Perhaps to create a source from which to draw. Even minor wizards can cast surprisingly powerful magics within a dense pocket of energy."

"That's what this feeling is?" Link asked, "A pocket of magic energy?"

"Exactly," Ganondorf said, turning to the temple and gesturing to it with both arms flung out wide, "This entire place is a giant magical battery." He paused, turning back to them with a smile on his face, "And what's more, it is the biggest concentration I've ever felt in my life. This much energy in one place, one spark might be all it takes to set it off."

"Spark?" Sheila asked.

"Set it off?" Link asked at the same time.

"Yes," Ganondorf said, "A spark, a spell of any kind, might be all it takes to send the whole place up in a glorious blaze of magic fire."

"Great, we're gonna die," Alex muttered.

"No, it's completely harmless right now," Ganondorf said, "We just have to refrain from spell casting within, and rely on our swords if there's anything nasty within."

He spun, leveling one finger directly at Midna. "That goes double for you," he said, "The fact your little hovering act hasn't already set it off makes me thing that's safe, but I don't want any of the black lightning or the giant red hand."

Midna was, as typical, hovering with her feet just about two feet off the ground next to Link. She huffed, crossing her arms. "Why single me out?" she asked.

"Because, while my knowledge of Twili magic is limited, I know more than you do, I think," Ganondorf said, "It is the exact opposite of what I just described. While our magic utilize surrounding energy to create our effects, Twili, or 'Shadow' magic, instead drains it away. That black lightning you've tossed from time to time is actually a void of energy that sucks energy out of what it connects to. In effect, it erases what is there, rather than blasting it apart. In an energy pocket like this, it might harmlessly slice through the field with no effect. Or it might make and explosion even bigger than anything the rest of us can do. There's no way to tell until it happens."

Link glanced at Midna. She knew what he intended to ask and jus shrugged. "He may be right," she said, "I'm afraid I'm not sure."

"Yes, that tends to be the way with magic these days," Ganondorf said, "People use it without bothering to understand it. That's more dangerous to themselves than anyone else."

He turned back toward the building, smiling where the others couldn't see him, and took a deep sniff of the air before going on. "Just think of it," he said, "We're about to walk into a giant magic bomb that even the slightest spark could set off, and, worst case scenario, there won't even dust left of us when someone comes here next." He paused, and suddenly slammed his knuckles together in a fist-clap, then said, "Gods, this is turning me on!"

This caused several awkward glances among the others, then Alex recovered and asked, "What's the best case scenario?"

"You lose your eyebrows," Ganondorf said.

"Anything else we should worry about?" Link asked, intent on getting this underway.

Ganondorf shrugged. "No, just no magic, at least until I can figure out what's causing this effect."

"Then let's get that door open," Link said, stepping past Ganondorf toward the stone blocks of the entrance.

Link ran his fingers over the engraved star on one door, then the quill and tome on the other, hoping to find some form of switch to a mechanism to open them. Finding none, he sighed, and estimated there must be half a ton of granite forming each door. "I'm going to need some help," he said over his shoulder, "I think we're just going to have to shove these open."

"What about the dragon?" Ganondorf said asked, glancing back at Roxim, where the great beast had lain down in the snow, crossing his front legs and resting his head on them.

"Too small," the dragon said without looking up, "I'm bigger than the doors and won't be able to get a good push without taking out part of the ceiling. And with a building almost as old as me, I doubt the structural integrity will stand up to it."

"Just get over here and help us, wizard," Alex said as he moved toward Link.

Link set his shoulder against the stone of the left hand door, leaning low and digging his feet into the ground, while Alex moved next to him, turning his back against the door and shoving back. The stone groaned, but did not visibly shift. As the pair continued their effort, Ganondorf moved to the center of the door, placing one hand on each side of the split between the stones, and shoved.

The sound of grinding stone filled the air, and Link and Alex both fell as the stone slid away from them, the doors sliding back as if they were on oiled hinges, opening inward and sliding to a stop at a nearly ninety degree angle from their start.

"I thought you said no magic," Link said as he picked himself up, dusting the snow from his cothes.

"That wasn't magic," Ganondorf said, "That was four thousand years of strengthening my body to levels you can't possibly imagine."

Shaking his head, Link stepped into the doorway, Midna slipping past Ganondorf to follow close behind him, and the others moving in after them. The main entry was a long hall, and as the group moved from the snow onto the stone floor their footsteps echoed down the length.

Link had expected the interior to be fashioned of granite, like the outside, but instead found polished white marble forming the walls and floor. Every six feet, a pair of statues were placed against either wall, all of incredible craftsmanship, unweathered by time. The statues were themselves fashioned of black marble, polished to a shine. On the left hand, the statues were of a beautiful young woman in loose fitting robes and long, flowing hair, and in her hands, crafted of white marble, were the tome and quill, the symbol of Eternity, the Goddess of Time. The statues on the right hand side were a man, his arms crossed and a cloak obscuring most of his form, and a hood that hid his hair and cast a shadow over his face. Fitted directly into the black marble of the cloak were white marble stars that dotted his form. This was Infinity, God of Space, and Eternity's twin brother.

Sixteen statues in total, eight of each, lined either side of the hall, down to the fair door, which thankfully looked like wood, not more stone. But Link paused even so, realizing something as they walked.

"It's too bright in here," he said.

The room was well lit, and with no windows, there was no way the light from the doorway behind them would light the room like this. Link looked up, spotting hanging braziers on the ceiling, all of which were burning.

"Is someone else already here?" Alex asked.

"Even if there were, who would go to the trouble of lighting those?" Kilishandra said, "No, something else is going on."

"It's the residual magic," Ganondorf said, "It has to be. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to set it up. The fire isn't burning fuel, it's feeding off the dense magic, and will never go out."

"At least we won't be in the dark," Sheila said.

"Well, lead on, hero," Ganondorf said, motioning to Link, "This is supposed to be your area of expertise."

"I really hate that man," Link muttered as he moved to the far door, which opened with a push, and stepped into the next room.

This chamber was more open than the first, and abandoned the marble architecture to return to the expected granite. It was just as brightly lit as the first, hanging braziers casting light through the room, which was barren compared to the entry hall, only one door in each wall leading away from the chamber in each direction.

Link's experienced eye immediately noticed the floor was constructed of separate bricks, and adjusted his steps accordingly. "Everyone, make sure you step on the cracks between the stones in the floor. Less likely to set off a pressure plate that way," he said.

As the rest of the group entered the room, Link noticed the only one not suddenly staring at their feet was Silviana. Of course, she had enough experience with avoiding stepping on twigs and the light in the woods so as to move silently, this would be easy for her.

Watching the floor as he moved, Link paused, kneeling down next to his discovery. "Looks like there is at least one pressure plate in here," he said.

"What did you find?" Kilishandra asked, moving up next to him.

Link indicated by running his fingers along the odd cut of the stone. A line of stone, apparently in one solid piece running from one corner of the room to the opposite, the stones of the floor cut to fit around it. Looking up further, now that she knew what she was looking for, it seemed incredibly obvious, and she even spied another line, running from each of the other corners, the two lines crossing in the center of the room. Yet a casual eye would mistake it for merely being a design on the floor, in spite of each line being six inches across.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Either it's a collapse into four separate chambers, or maybe a close-off," Link said, "Like if someone steps on the plate connected to it, this X rises out of the floor, turning this one room into four, and it looks like the only way to go would be through the door in the room area you're caught in. Not immediately lethal, but getting locked in without any food or water could be lethal enough after a few days."

He stood up, stepping across the line, moving toward the left-hand door. Kilishandra followed him, through slower as she watched where she put her feet. "Fortunately, pressure plates under stone floors usually need a bit of give to them," Link said, "It's because heavy stone needs strong springs to hold it in place, not like under a wood floor, where you could step on one and still not realize it, under a floor like this they'll usually give three inches or more before they go off. That's why we step on the cracks, so you can be sure to have at least one solid stone under your foot at all times."

"So what now?" Sheila asked, "There are three ways to go."

Link paused by the door, turning around. "Probably have to check them all one at a time. I don't want to split up if we can avoid it. The trap here isn't too dangerous, but they will be as we get further in."

There was a click as Alex opened the door on the right hand wall, peering down it into the hall beyond, then the grinding of stone. Link swore, moving forward as the stone X in the floor shot upward, becoming a wall, and Link fell short.

A second later, and it was over. Link looked back to see Kilishandra and Midna the only ones with him, trapped now by the door in the left hand wall. "What just happened?" Kilishandra demanded.

"It wasn't a pressure plate, it was in the door!" Link said, "Probably all three of them, too."

Ganondorf's voice shouted through the stone, "Link, can you here me?"

"Yes!" Link shouted back, "Is everyone all right?"

"Sheila's here with me," Ganondorf shouted back, "The dark elf girl and the other one got locked off from us."

Further away, Silviana's voice could be heard, "We're both here! I saw it happening and jumped over with Alex."

"We can still go further in from here," Alex shouted, "We can try to meet up further in."

"Wait a moment," Link shouted back, "Ganondorf, can you smash through this wall?"

"Sure," came the response, "Maybe I should just save time and directly bring the ceiling down on our heads. Or how about a simple 'Go to hell?'"

"Oh, just knock down the wall already!" Alex shouted, "You can't pretend we didn't already see the doors."

"Shoving stone blocks on hinges is not the same thing as punching through_ solid stone_!" came Ganondorf's response.

"Not to mention the wall is six inches thick," Kilishandra said.

"So we go with the first plan," Link said, turning away from the wall, "Try to meet up further in."

"Kili!" Ganondorf said, "Keep an eye on that Twili. Make sure she doesn't set this thing off and turn us into charcoal."

"And you better keep Sheila safe!" Link said, "We can't do this without her!"

"We probably could, but I'll take care of your pet elf," Ganondorf said, "You go do your hero thing now."

"Gods, he can be a jerk," Link muttered, then shouted, "Alex! Remember what I said about walking on the cracks. And don't touch anything. No statues, wall torches, anything!"

"I get it," Alex said, "If I lose a foot, I won't blame you for not warning me."

"I'd be more worried about your head," Link said as he turned to Kilishandra and Midna, "Well, might as well get going, I guess."

He stepped past them, pushing the door open, listening and noting the audible click as it moved. The trap had been tied to all three doors, designed to separate groups like this. "Okay, safest way to do this is for you to walk directly behind me," he said to Kilishandra, "Step where I step, and you shouldn't set off anything that I haven't already."

"You trust me to walk behind you?" she asked.

"I'm watching you," Midna said as they stepped through the door into the hall beyond.

The hall beyond was much the same as the previous room, granite bricks forming the walls and floor, and it was brightly lit, as the previous rooms had been, without a single visible shadow in the corners. Other than that, the room was quite plain, excluding a solid wooden door at the far end.

As they passed through the hall, all three were unaware of what was watching them from above, and as the far door opened and they passed out of sight, the shape dissolved, becoming a thick brown liquid that pulled upward, spreading itself thin to pass between the bricks in the ceiling, where the mortar had been worn away by hours of effort, into the chamber above, where it slid across the stone, into the heel of the figure crouched there, dissolving into his flesh, and reforming a moment later, filling his empty eye socket and becoming a dark blue eye as he blinked several times, making sure it was in the correct position.

"He's here," Zero said as he rose to a standing position.

He was standing in the center of a magic circle, drawn onto the stone floor with chalk. The lines of the circle illuminated a deep red color as another voice emanated from the air. "Then remember the plan. Concentrate on Link. Get him mad, as much as you can. All it will take is one spark from his Triforce to turn the entire building into an inferno. Kill the Twili if you can. That will really set him off. Do not fight him directly until I tell you."

"I don't understand why you're still so obsessed with seeing him perform," Zero said.

"Your own performance has been less than impressive so far. This is your last chance, Zero. If that building doesn't go up in a big flame of glory, you might as well let them kill you."

"I'll be fine, just make sure those things of yours are ready to go."

* * *

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Alex groaned.

Silviana turned back, her eyes almost immediately going down to his feet, where one brick had sank almost four inches into the floor.

The sound of sliding metal caused her to turn back. The hallway before them had transformed. Enormous metal discs swung from narrow gaps in the walls and floor in swift rotations, the metal hissing as it slid in its notches. At least eighteen of the menacing metal discs were visible intermittently within six feet of the pair.

Silviana laughed. She nearly doubled over, slapping her knee. Alex looked past her, toward the hellish gauntlet, then back at her. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said a moment later after catching her breath, and glanced back down the hall, "That's just incredible."

"So how do we get through this, if it's so funny?" Alex asked.

"We don't," Silviana said, "We go over it. I have some rope in my pack, could you dig it out?"

"I'm not sure what good this is going to do," Alex said as he flipped open the top of her pack, finding the coiled rope and lifting it out.

A second later, he swore, as a loud clang overpowered the sliding metal noise of the blade discs. This was due to the rope actually being a grapnel hook, and the metal hook had dropped on his foot.

Silviana scooped it up, and took the rope from him, letting enough length through her hand to allow her to spin the hook, and before Alex could ask, she threw it upward. He watched the hook arc to cross one of the hanging chains holding a flaming brazier from the ceiling. Once over it, she pulled back and the hook snatched hold of the chain.

"Now watch me," she said, "I'm only going to do this once."

Before Alex could protest, she darted to the side, toward the wall, and as he watched, ran three steps up the wall before pushing off, securing a high grip on the rope, and sailed through the air, the hanging brazier swinging with her weight, over the range of the spinning discs, and landed softly on the other side.

She stood up, turning back to him, wadding up the rope, and tossed it back over the blades toward Alex.

Alex caught the rope, stared at it for a moment, then looked back at her. "You've got to be kidding me," he said.

"It's easier than it looks," Silviana said, "You've just got to get a good takeoff from the wall."

"That's only part of the problem," Alex said.

"Hey," Silviana said, getting him to look at her, "You can do it."

Alex swore again, looking down at the discs, then at the rope in his hands. "Ah, to hell with it," he said, "Roll the dice!"

He ran, leaping up toward the wall, attempting to copy her moves, and found his boots merely sliding on the slick stone, and trying to reach higher on the rope. A very loud utterance of "Shit!" echoed in the hall as he found himself swinging away, suddenly tucking his knees into his chest and heard the whistle of the blades less than a few inches away.

The next thing he knew, he crashed into Silviana, the rope slipping from his hands as they tangled together and crashed to the floor. "I'm alive?" Alex asked.

"And you're heavy," Silviana said.

Alex sat up, letting her off the floor, and pulled his cloak around where he could see it. Slashes six inches in length dotted the hem. "Never again," he said.

"You need better boots," she said, "The soles are too hard, that's why you didn't have any grip."

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"A desire for silence is not the only reason I wear soft-soled boots," she said, "Now, maybe we can get moving without setting off any more traps."

"Yeah," Alex said as she stood up, and he pushed himself up, only to find one hand sink into the floor, and there was an audible click.

Silviana looked down at him, and Alex chuckled. "Found one," he said in a weak voice.

There was a moment of silence, then the floor gave way. The pair found themselves spiraling downward amidst the cascading stone. Even before Alex could scream, he was jerked to a halt, finding his right arm nearly pulled out of its socket. He was staring into the darkness below, and looked up to see Silviana with one hand holding him by the wrist, his own hand reflexively gripped on hers, and her other hand on the rope, which she had quickly twisted around her wrist several times.

"Oh, gods," Alex said with a large sigh, looking back down, seeing nothing but blackness below himself.

"Doesn't look to me like they're here," Silviana said, "But my arms feel like overstretched leather. You mind climbing up and taking the weight off them?"

With a grunt, Alex managed to get his other arm around her waist, then quickly got the other around her neck, then tried to reach up to the edge of the pit. "I can't reach it," he said.

"Grab the rope," she said, "Get your feet up on my shoulders."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"I'm already holding all your weight," she said, "Now get your ass up there! My hand is going numb!"

Alex grabbed the rope with one hand, dragging himself up until he was standing on her shoulders, then was easily able to step onto the solid stone past the pit, and turned around, pulling the rope toward him. When she lifted her free hand, he caught hold of it and drug her up onto solid floor. They sat there on the floor, catching their breath for a moment, and finally Alex said, "I'm not cut out for this lifestyle."

Silviana patted his shoulder as she rose to her feet. "You just need experience, that's all. I'll whip you into shape sooner or later. Now come on, step where I do."

They moved further down the hall, not hearing the sound from about thirty feet down in the freshly opened hole. A sound that was entirely wrong, only describable as a skittering, but was far too loud and came from a shape far too large to "skitter."

A single red eye, nearly a foot across, turned up to the light above itself. It knew something was in the building. This was no animal, and was already plotting a course through the tunnels of the sub-basement to head off the intruders.

It hoped at least one of them was an elf. It had been so long since it had feasted on elf flesh. But first, the entertainment. The traps already in the temple were substantial, but it had added a few of its own deeper in that should proved very entertaining.

* * *

Link was stopped short by a locked door at the end of the hall. "Well that's great," he muttered, and shoved it with his shoulder. It was a wooden door, but was constructed of thick, heavy oak. He could likely break the lock before the door itself would give.

"So how are you at picking locks?" Kilishandra asked.

"I usually end up hunting for the keys, actually," Link said, "Hey, Midna, you wouldn't happen to have a battering ram in that hat of yours, would you?"

"Sure, and while I'm at it, I'll pull out the Fifth Hylian Cavalry," Midna said.

"Oh, don't worry about that, I'll just take the stuffed pigeon in the sauce," Link said, then sighed, "Gods, I'm sick of dried beef. I swear, that's been the majority of my meals since we left Hyrule."

Midna leaned one arm on his shoulder from behind, leaning her head close to his. "You know, I would kill for just some scrambled eggs and sausage," she said, "Oh, and some of that cantaloupe from Rusl's garden! That was so good."

"We're in a dangerous area, surrounded by traps, and cut off from the others, and you two are talking about food?" Kilishandra demanded, interrupting them.

Midna glanced back over her shoulder at Kilishandra. "You have something better to talk about?" she asked.

"Oh, don't pick on her," Link said as he drew his new knife from its belt holster, "She doesn't seem to have a sense of humor."

Kilishandra sighed, shaking her head. She watched as Link took the knife and made several attempts at digging the blade into the wood of the door at the edge of the metal plate that formed the door handle and lock. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"When you have no key and no way to pick a lock, a good stout blade is great for opening doors," Link said, "Let's just hope this one's stout enough against this damned oak."

Link angled the blade toward the lock, digging it into the wood, trying to get the blade behind the metal plate. Bit by painful bit, he worked the blade into the wood until the four inch blade was halfway in, the hilt sticking out at an angle from the door. Link motion the two of them to stand to the side, away from the latch.

He testing the blade, making sure it was firmly in place, then stood up, lifted one foot, and delivered a solid kick to the side of the knife's grip. There was a loud crack, and a clanging as the hilt of the dagger hit the flour, with only two inches of the four inch blade.

"Gods damned oak," Link muttered, "That was a nice knife."

He turned, examining the door handle as Midna and Kilishandra moved back up behind him. "Did that accomplish anything?" Kilishandra asked.

"Not exactly," Link said, pushing on the door, "It's still good and solid."

He stepped back and gave it a good shot with his shoulder. It refused to budge. There were no other passages along this hall, and with the added restriction of no magic, he couldn't get Kilishandra to just blast it open. It seemed they were stuck.

As he stood up and turned away from the door, there was an audible click that echoed down the hall. All three turned back, eyes on the door. When nothing happened for another moment, Link reached out, taking the door handle and giving a push.

With a loud creak on its hinges, the door opened.

* * *

Ganondorf and Sheila walked in silence, their passage uneventful until, about ninety yards from the entry hall, they came upon a collapse. A large hole in the floor, reaching about fifty yards distant, into the chamber past a wall section that had likely held a door. Ganondorf moved to the edge of the hole, looking downward, only to quickly step back when one of the bricks he stepped on gave way, falling into the darkness to clatter on the stone floor some thirty feet down.

"What could have done this?" Sheila asked.

Ganondorf shrugged. "Shoddy masonry, maybe a bad pitfall trap that collapsed, previous entries, or something else."

He glanced toward the far end of the hole, then down into the darkness again. "Looks like we're going down."

"How?" Sheila asked, moving up next to him to look downward.

"Like this," he said, and Sheila suddenly found herself falling, a shove sending her flying over the edge.

She couldn't help herself, and screamed as the air rushed past her face. There was a jerk against her stomach, cutting her off as the wind was suddenly squeezed from her, and the world spun, blood rushing to her head, and then she found herself on her back on cold stone.

She realized he hadn't shoved her from the edge, but had leaped himself, with one arm around her waist, and had managed to land with a roll, carrying her the entire way, keeping both of them from harm, then deposited her on the floor as he stood up.

"You scared me half to death!" she said.

"A very easy sentence considering everyone else who slapped me in the face ended up dead," Ganondorf said, and laughed to himself, "One was a Davler, I guess you could call them half giants. She slapped me, and I slapped back with a mace. Turned her head completely around on the spot. Twisted her neck apart. Was actually rather funny, she stayed standing nearly six seconds before falling over."

"You've got a sick sense of humor," Sheila said, getting to her feet, "I can't believe you're still mad about that."

"I told you I'd remember it," Ganondorf said.

"You're hardly blameless," Sheila said, "Grabbing me like you did…"

"I was trying to make a point," Ganondorf said, "You were just the closest woman handy."

"You're such a pig," Sheila said, "It's too dark to see anything down here. Do you have a light?"

"Just wait a moment, I don't think it's that dark," Ganondorf said, "Let your eyes adjust."

He was right, a few moments later, and she was able to make out his shape in front of her, and see the passages around them, leading further into the temple subbasements, and the pile of debris formed when the floor above collapsed.

"Shall we?" Ganondorf asked, motioning to one of the passages.

She followed him, a moment later her curiosity about his comments got the better of her. "You know, for all you brag about your prowess with women, I haven't seen a bit of it yet," she said.

"You don't believe me?" he asked.

"Acting like a chauvinistic pig doesn't help your case," Sheila said.

"Except that's exactly the kind of man that most women want," Ganondorf said.

Sheila laughed. "It's too dark to see, but there's no way you said that with a straight face," Sheila said.

"Except it's true," Ganondorf said, "You might like to see most women as being as intelligent and discerning as yourself, but there is a reason the stereotype of the air-headed bimbo exists. They exist, as do the women who are attracted to men with power, be it physical, magical, or political. Often believing that by sleeping with such a man, they can gain some amount of control over him. These women have no respect for themselves, and thus get none from me. They think they can use me for their own ends, and in turn are used by me."

"They bring it on themselves, then," Sheila said.

"Exactly," Ganondorf said, "I can be a gentleman if I wish, but when you do that, the real backstabbers always assume you have an ulterior motive for that behavior. There's really no point in the effort."

"I would assume it would make things easier with the genuinely honest people," Sheila said.

"No one is that honest," Ganondorf said, "Everyone has secrets and their own agendas. It's naive to pretend otherwise."

"So, you've never had someone you've really trusted?" Sheila asked, "Four thousand years of life, and there was never anyone you truly cared about? Even loved?"

Ganondorf didn't immediately respond. They walked in silence for a few moments before he finally said, "You'd make a good politician, they way you mislead the subject and bend words."

"I'm afraid I'm too honest," Sheila said, "But I'm not hearing a 'no.'"

"There was one," Ganondorf said with a sigh, "A woman I knew a long time ago. I'd have gone to the ends of the earth for her."

"What happened to her?"

"She betrayed me."

* * *

The door creaked open, into a much more dimly lit chamber than they had seen thus far. Link eyed the corners, one hand on his sword as he moved slowly into the room. This almost seemed to be a duplicate of the entry hall, lined with similar statues of the twin gods on either side, though a great double door was visible at the far end.

It wasn't dark enough for his night vision to work, and he eyed every shadow suspiciously. Kilishandra moved up behind him, her hand on her own sword, with Midna behind her, backing up as she watched behind them.

"I don't see anyone," Kilishandra said.

"Someone unlocked that door," Link said, "And they have to be in this room."

They advanced slowly, keeping their eyes moving, watching for anything that moved.

Suddenly, movement. Link drew his sword, turning toward it, Kilishandra right behind him. They stepped back when they realized they were facing not one person, but twenty.

A full squad of heavily armed soldiers in perfect formation facing the double doors leading further in. Two other figures were standing in front of them, one of them with a captain's markings, and the other dressed in a heavy cloak over a chain mail shirt, armed with a battle axe at his belt.

"Where did they come from?" Kilishandra asked as they backed away.

"Wait a minute," Link said, watching the man at the front, "I know him!"

The soldiers were not paying them the least bit of attention. The captain was speaking to the other man at the front of the group. "…all the other exits are sealed. Arkanus can't escape without going through us."

"That's good," the other said, "But in his state, there's no telling what he might do. I need to try to talk to him first."

"Lord Darius, he is most likely to be in the central altar chamber," the captain said, "Just give the word and we'll move in."

The entire group suddenly faded from sight, vanishing into thin air.

"What was that?" Midna asked, "Did you notice? You could see right through them!"

"Ghosts?" Kilishandra asked, though her tone said she wasn't sure herself.

"No, it can't be," Link said, "I've seen ghosts before, they were nothing like that. And that one at the front, Darius… I know for a fact that he's not dead!"

"Wait a second, you mean Darius as in Ancient War Darius?" Midna asked, "How can he still be alive? He'd be eight thousand years old!"

"Well, 'alive' isn't really the term I'd use," Link said, "It looked like he was half-rotted, but he was still on his feet and talking to me. He's the Sage of Light."

"When you met the Sages in the Sacred Realm," Kilishandra said, "Why didn't you mention that part before?"

"Because you'd look at me like I was crazy," Link said, "Kind of like you're doing now."

"So what now?" Kilishandra asked, "What does this mean?"

"I don't know," Link said, turning to the double doors, "But I think if we keep going, we'll find out."

The double doors swung open easily, opening into a grand chamber, wide open, grand stone columns supporting the ceiling, lined up about six feet apart, with another six feet beyond each side to the walls. More statues of the twin gods were lined up between them, and at the far end of the chamber, a pair of considerably large statues depicted the twins on either side of another large door.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say this was the main hall," Kilishandra said, "But it should be more centralized, and closer to the entrance."

"Maybe it was before the rebuilding we heard about," Link said.

Footsteps. They turned suddenly, heavy running feet coming up behind them.

"Them again?" Midna said as the same soldiers they had seen before poured into the chamber, quickly spreading out and checking behind the columns and statues for any threat.

Darius and the captain entered after them, marching directly up the center of the room. As they passed within reach, Link reached out and tried to grab the hem of Darius' cloak. His fingers passed through with no resistance.

"Thalandril!" Darius shouted, "I know you're in here! Come out and we can resolve this peacefully!"

It suddenly dawned on Link. "This is an event from the past!" he said, "We're seeing an event when Thalandril Arkanus betrayed the five kingdoms and started the rebellion!"

Midna shook her head. "How would that even work?"

"The magical energy," Kilishandra said, then with a shrug added, "I'm not exactly sure, but if there was a great battle between the wizards here, maybe it left some sort of imprint on the bubble of energy, and that's what we're seeing."

"So a wizard did it?" Link asked.

Darius interrupted them, turning to the soldiers with him. "I can't take any chances. Split your men into two teams, one will stay here in case he slips past us, the rest will come with me."

"Yes, sir!" the captain said, and butted the haft of his spear on the floor.

With the kind of precision only military men are capable of, the squad spit in two, ten of the men leaving the chamber with Darius through the far door, the other ten and the captain taking up positions in the chamber to lie in wait.

When nothing moved for a moment, Link started toward the far door, only to stop when he spotted movement out of the corner of his eyes. "What is that?" he said, turning toward it.

It was like a soft ripple on the floor, like something moving just under the surface of water. More appeared from corners of the room. Each moved toward a soldier, before vanishing behind him. Then it was sudden and fast. Hands emerged from shadows, clapping over a soldier's mouth, the other driving a knife into his throat. As he collapsed with a gurlge, the process repeated it self several times before the soldiers could react.

One managed to catch the hands and pull them out from the shadow, dumping the attacker on the floor. He quickly spun his spear over and impaled it in the person's chest, pinning him to the floor as he struggled.

More of the figures emerged from the shadows as the three survivors moved toward the door Darius and the others had left through.

"Link," Midna said with a sharp hiss through her teeth, "Those are Twili."

Indeed they were, their pale blue skin of their faces now clear, surrounded by black clothing as they moved toward the survivors, each armed with knives six inches long, many wet with blood.

The captain turned to open the far doors to flee. He stopped suddenly and was thrown onto his back. Another shadowy figure had appeared from the door. The two soldiers turned driving their spears into its body. They passed harmlessly through the shadow, as if there were no flesh to strike. A blue hand appeared, striking its palm into one of the soldiers' face, sending him sprawling back were three of the assassins fell on him with their knives.

The other turned to run, and another hand shot out. A blow across the back that sent him sprawling into the assassins, who quickly finished him off. The captain was trying to crawl away. The dense shadow moved over him, and he found himself unable to move. The blue hands came down, gripping his chin from either side. With a swift twist and a wrench upward, his head came off, tissue and sinew snapping as blood spilled onto the floor in gushes.

The shadow dropped the head, moving away from the body, and for the first time Link was able to see its face. Like a person's face barely peeking above water, it was barely visible in the darkness that was not truly flesh, but apparently a living shadow. The same pale blue as the hands attached to nothing but shadow, coated with blood. It was a Twili, but like none he had ever seen.

"It's Cain," Kilishandra said, "He was real."

Link knew it was just an image, but his hand reflexively clenched on his sword as the figure passed by them, paying them not the slightest attention.

"Who's Cain?" Midna demanded.

"Sheila told us the other night, at the hot spring cave," Kilishandra said, "You weren't there when she did. All I remember is that he was a monster. Like a living shadow, no weapon could harm him."

"And the Twili were here, eight thousand years ago," Link said, "And they were following Tharkus…"


	91. Chapter 90

Just a little to say. Ganondorf's dialogue in this chapter is essentially a much shorter version of the idea I had been toying with for a prequel after I finished this. Though that idea isn't happening, like the follow up I also wanted to do, so that after this I can work on The Dragon's Daughter, so I can have a story to my name that's truly my own. The follow up's plot and a large number of characters got merged with that story's outline, but my vision of Ganondorf's origins isn't exactly something I could exactly alter to fit a character in that world, due to it being so tied to OoT, so I'm happy to put it in here, even if in a much briefer form.

**Chapter 90: The First Silencing**

"If this is really an image from eight thousand years ago," Link said, watching the shadowed figures as they moved through the inner door, passing further into the temple, "Then the Twili didn't first appear in Hyrule."

"I'm more interested in how they came out of the floor and walls," Kilishandra said.

"Well, that's relatively easy to explain," Midna said, "You've seem me disappear and return from shadows. That's what they were doing. I'm thinking this is why the outer area of the temple was so well lit. We can move invisibly through shadows, but can't pass where there are none. It may have been deliberately set up that way because of what happened here."

Kilishandra shook her head, looking at the still visible, but intangible bodies of the soldiers. "How does that even work?" she asked, "Even the ninja can't disappear entirely in darkness."

Midna sighed. "It's not just crouching in darkness. We can pass through the shadows, they are tangible to us…" she paused, shaking her head, "This is like trying to describe color to a man blind since birth. I can't think of a way to state it that you'll understand."

"So let's go with the disappear entirely idea," Link said, moving to the double door at the end of the room, "What about this Cain? Do you know anything about him?"

"I'm afraid not," Midna said, "I suppose… That is, eight thousand years is a long time, and my people have been isolated from this world for… I don't know how long. But at the same time," she sudden turned to him with her realization, "This shouldn't be possible at all! Remember what happened to me when Zant cast me out of the shadows the first time? Even the starlight that night felt like it was burning me alive. I didn't even have the strength to crawl back into your shadow. If it weren't for Zant's mask, he'd have been in the same situation."

"The weakness to light has to be something more recent," Link said, "Remember what we found out about your ancestors trying to use the Fused Shadow to conquer Hyrule… Though I guess that was long enough ago Hyrule didn't exist yet. The Light Spirits pushed them back, and then the Twilight Mirror was used to move them to the Twilight Realm itself. Maybe with the Twili's already strong affinity for shadows, accompanied by living in darkness for so long had an unexpected effect."

"I thought you didn't know anything about magic," Kilishandra said.

Link snorted, turning back to her. "I'm just using my head and thinking logically. The what is the easy part. The how and why, I don't have a clue about," he paused for a moment, crossing his arms as he thought, "Actually, now that I think about it, we should have realized the Twili were here before now."

"What do you mean?" Midna asked.

"Don't you remember? Back when we first met Roxim," Link said, "His cave's walls were covered with tapestries of all kinds. One depicted a 'shadow people' fleeing east, over the sea, after the war. He told us that they had sided with the usurpers, the rebellion, and after they lost…"

It clicked in Midna's memory. "You're right!" she said, "And since the Twilight Mirror is a relic of our history, that would also explain why it was here during the war!"

"Right," Link said, "We've also had more than one reference to these 'shadow people' since we've been here, but just never put it together. And it also explains…" his voice softened, "why Darius told me to not trust you."

Midna blinked. "Not trust me? Why?"

"Don't worry," Link said, "I told him right where he could stick it."

"Good."

"But this does fill in a lot of blanks," he went on, and turned back to the door, "and I get the feeling we'll be finding out even more as we go."

He started toward the door again, pausing and gently easing it open, watching through the crack as he did so before opening it wide and motioning for them to follow. There was still the inexplicable opening of the previous lock, and he was doubly cautious as a result.

Kilishandra wasn't privy to what he had been explaining, so had kept her mouth shut for most of it, but if he had figured out something as quickly as he seemed to…

_He's a lot smarter than he looks, I'll give him that much,_ she thought to herself.

* * *

Ganondorf and Sheila's progress was slowed as they came upon a half collapsed passage in the sub-basement. Her eyes finally adjusting to the dimness, Sheila was able to make out the pile of bricks fallen from the ceiling as Ganondorf moved forward, examining the gap on the right hand side to see if there was a way around.

"So this woman, who betrayed you," Sheila said, filling the silence more than anything else, "What happened to her?"

"You pick the strangest time to press a subject like this," Ganondorf said, giving the pile a push, testing its stability.

"I'm just trying to keep myself calm, more than anything else," Sheila said, glancing back over her shoulder down the dark passage.

Letting his breath out, Ganondorf was able to step sideways, past the pile of brick, and around it, his back and chest barely scraping on either side, and motioned for her to follow. Sheila wasn't able to make it in one step, but carefully stepping along the bricks at the bottom edge of the pile, was able to move through behind him.

Once through, the hall continued on, and Ganondorf started walking without a word, and she moved quickly to keep up. After another moment of silence, he said, "Her name was Nabooru."

"Oh?" Sheila said, moving up beside him.

"Yes," he said, "I suppose I have to explain a bit for you to understand. I am a member of a now extinct race of people called the Gerudo. We were desert dwellers, near Hyrule's western border. And even I have to admit, it was a very unusual race of people, consisting entirely of women."

"Yeah, right," Sheila said, "I've seen you naked, remember? You're definitely a man."

"Once a generation, a Gerudo woman would give birth to a single male child," Ganondorf said, "I don't understand how it works myself, but they would take men from the surrounding lands as husbands, and yet the children would be full-blooded Gerudo girls. Except for the one male. It was a law, prophecy, or something, that the male child was destined to become king of the Gerudo, uniting the separate nomadic tribes under a single banner. Most of the boys didn't live to reach adulthood. Each tribe wanted the child to come from one of their own women, and some were more insistent than others, warring with each other, their main goal to kill the rival tribe's son."

"That's horrible," Sheila said.

"That's human nature," he corrected her, "Men and women are inherently selfish, and will kill for what they desire."

"Did someone try to kill you?"

Ganondorf laughed, and Sheila had to look again to make sure it was him. It was not the sinister, maniacal laughter she had heard several times, but a laugh of genuine amusement. Finally, taking a breath, he answered, "I can't count the number of times someone has tried to kill me. And that's a lot, I can count pretty high. You're of course asking about the first time, though. The answer is yes, and they nearly succeeded.

"It was about a month after my sixteenth birthday, I think. I remember the day quite vividly, even now. You see, Nabooru was born of the same tribe as I was. We grew up together, and were inseparable, even then. The chief of a neighboring tribe, a woman named Aveil, had learned of my existence, in spite of my tribe's efforts to keep me a secret, at least until I was an adult. Her tribe was much larger than ours, and they attacked just after dawn, as we were packing our camp to move for the day.

"The attack came completely by surprise, and they were in the middle of the camp before I knew that we were under attack. They were attacking on horses, which was also a surprise, as deep in the desert as we were and how little oasis grass could be found to feed them. I managed to get my sword, and took a few of them down before I was surrounded by Aveil and her guards. Without even a word, Aveil took her scimitar and sliced me open from behind. You have to look really close to make it out, but the scar is still on my back, from my right shoulder nearly to my left hip."

"I have a very hard time picturing one cut bringing you down," Sheila said.

"I was a normal man back then, not like I am now," Ganondorf said, "I couldn't stand any longer, falling to the sand. I could still hear the fighting around me. They slaughtered the tribe, and left me for dead. I thought I was going to die, until the witches appeared. Koume and Kotake were their names. The twin sisters, who lived apart from the tribes and practiced their black magics far from us all. They came to me, taking back to a lost oasis across the Haunted Wasteland, a bleak area of the desert that is impossible to cross unless you already know the path. They healed my wounds, nursing me back to health, and I spent the next five years learning the black arts from them, growing and strengthening myself for what was to come next."

He paused as they came to a split in the path they were following. With a shrug, Ganondorf picked the right hand path seemingly at random, and kept walking.

"If they killed your entire tribe, what happened to Nabooru?" Sheila asked.

"I'm getting to that," Ganondorf said, "There were a small number of survivors, who were taken prisoner by Aveil. She was not above enslaving members of other tribes, you see. So long as I was dead, she was satisfied. Nabooru didn't have it as bad as most, having to care for their horses. I noticed her when I arrived. Hers wasn't the only shocked face when I strode into their camp and demanded that Aveil face me.

"Aveil had kept in place an older tradition of the tribes, and that was the right to challenge for leadership in single combat. It was how she had gained the position of chieftess, after all. And the tradition allowed any Gerudo, even those of other tribes, to issue the challenge. She had no choice but to face me, one on one. It wasn't revenge I was after, not really, but the right of my destiny that she had tried to deny me that day five years ago. I even gave her a chance to yield when it was clear she couldn't defeat me."

"Let me guess," Sheila said, "She didn't."

"I'll admit, she looked every inch a warrior as she lay there, choking on her own blood, and even managed to spit at me when I made the offer," Ganondorf said, "But she wouldn't give, so I crushed her skull under my boot. She had left me for dead, and I'd come back. I wouldn't make the same mistake.

"Now, I was the chieftain of Aveil's tribe, and Nabooru and the other survivors of my own returned to me. I started the long, arduous task of uniting the other tribes. Some came willingly, others required a show of force. But as the numbers that followed me grew, fewer such shows were required. Four years later, the witches returned to me, with advice on how I should move next, since all the tribes were now united and I had fulfilled my destiny to become the King of the Gerudo."

"So why did Nabooru betray you?" Sheila asked, "Were all those women too much to resist?"

Ganondorf chuckled. "Let me just point out that I did have a certain promiscuity, but it wasn't simply tolerated, it was encouraged. I was the only man of the Gerudo until one was born of the next generation, and it would be even better if he were my son. The mother of the child would have been effectively elevated to royalty.

"With most of them, it was nothing but sex. They offered themselves and I took advantage of it. What I shared with Nabooru, though, was different. She was the only woman who shared my bed as I slept. The others were shown out after we were finished. And I suppose you could say she had my ear. If she wanted something, all she had to do was tell me, and I'd have fought through an army of Gorons to get it for her. She was the only one I wanted by my side at all times…" his voice had grown softer as he spoke of her, and Sheila hid a small smile. Even after all this time, it seemed she held a place in his heart.

"In any case," he said, shaking free of the memory, "The witches advised me that as I had been uniting the Gerudo, another man who fancied himself a king had been uniting the different races of Hyrule. He might turn his eyes toward me next, and unfortunately, all the tribes of Gerudo were no match for the combined armies of the Hylians, Zora, and Gorons. But they also advised me of the secret that lay within the Temple of Time in the capital city of Hyrule. The gateway to the Sacred Realm, and the Triforce, the power of the Golden Goddesses themselves. If I could claim it, even armies wouldn't matter before the power I would command.

"I'm actually still somewhat proud of the scheme I concocted even now. In case of the worst coming about, I ordered the construction of a fortress to block the mountain pass from Hyrule into the desert, which would give us a choke point to defend ourselves if I incited a war. I left Nabooru in command of the tribes and I then went to the Hylian capital with only a small attendance of guards and offered my services to the king as a potential vassal of his kingdom," he paused, snorting derisively, "That man was so eager to avoid further fighting, he was more than happy to negotiate. I was able to draw those negotiations out for months while I combed the castle's extensive library under the pretense I was learning all I could about his kingdom so I could be a good vassal."

"You were really looking for information on the Triforce," Sheila surmised.

"Yes," Ganondorf said, "I gathered all the information I could on the Triforce, the Sacred Realm, and of course, the Temple of Time itself. Mostly useless legends, but I did find information on the door sealing away the gate in the temple. Four keys I needed, three magic gems and the Ocarina of Time, one in the hands of the royal family, one held by the Gorons, one by the Zora, and one by a spirit of the forest deep in the Lost Woods. I secretly met with the leaders of the other two races, and the spirit in the forest. Obviously, the ocarina held by the royal family was useless without the other three, and stealing it too soon would ruin my chances.

"When they refused to negotiate, I resorted to threats. Using what magic I had learned from the witches, I closed the Goron mines, cutting off their food supply, and I summoned a disease upon the Zora's river god. Lacking anything to urge the forest spirit with, I devised a curse that would gradually turn his flesh to stone. Even this didn't budge them. I was starting to panic. I couldn't drag out the negotiations much longer, and nothing was working. I was thinking I would have to resort to force before long, but the first time I went to acquire one of the gems would alert the others to my intentions, when they had previously kept to themselves, trying to fix the problems on their own.

"And then a gift from the gods themselves. The final time I visited the King, to give my oath of loyalty, I saw them in the castle garden. The princess, and a young boy. The princess I knew was Zelda, and she is the ancestor of the one you know. As for the boy, he would later become the Hero of Time, though I did not realize it yet. And they already had the gem from the forest spirit.

"I couldn't believe my luck, but as I waited and watched, he went to Gorons, managing to undo the damage I had done, and was gifted their gem as a reward. I realized then what was happening. Those two, still children, had somehow figured out what I was intending to do, and were trying to beat me there. I'll admit, the boy had potential. He couldn't have been older than ten or twelve, and was managing to undo the threats I had set in motion. I gave him a gentle hint, a letter in a bottle, to help him solve the threat I had given to the Zora. As expected, he was gifted their gem as a reward. But time was running short now.

"I turned my eyes back to the royal family's key, the Ocarina of Time. I intended to slip into the treasury and take it quietly. Unfortunately, the princess had beaten me there. I caught her and her bodyguard in the act of taking it from the vault. I knew right then that my cover was blown, so I tried to take it by force. That woman, the princess' bodyguard, knew what she was doing. She blinded me with some kind of flash bomb, took the princess and ran. And she was fast. By the time I made it to the courtyard, she had already gotten a horse and was fleeing the castle grounds. I quickly got my horse and gave chase, though the guards were catching on at this point. I lost them at the city gate. I saw them go through it, but by the time I reach it, they had vanished into the hills beyond.

"Right then, I was furious. All those months of work, and kissing the boots of that ignorant king, wasted, because the ocarina had been taken beyond my reach. Then I saw the boy. He must have been on his way back to the princess when she fled. A new thought occurred to me. They were both children, and perhaps didn't think their plan through entirely. I put on a good show, posturing and threatening the boy before riding off into the hills. I stopped just out of his sight, and waited. When I looked back, he had retrieved something from the moat, and was heading into the city. As I had hoped, she had tried to throw him the Ocarina as she fled, still trying to reach the Triforce before I did. Little did they realize they had played right into my hands.

"I crept back into the city, following the boy to the Temple of Time. I waited in the shadow of the doorway as he unlocked the door, and then drew the final lock, the Master Sword, from the altar, opening the gateway. And something even I had not expected happened. The boy was too young to be a hero, I assume, because as he passed through the gateway, the sword encased him in ice. I passed by him as I entered, and I couldn't help myself, giving in to a little gloating, explaining how he had led me all the way in.

"I made my way to the Temple of Light, and fought past the guardians to the Triforce. In spite of everything, I had made it, and as I grasped the triangles, the blood of the guardians still on my hands, I knew that it had all been worth it. The Gerudo would not merely by desert tribes anymore. Following me, they would spread across the entire world, and I would be the master of all."

"No offense," Sheila said, "But I don't think you've managed that part too well."

He looked down at her and snorted. "Unfortunately, there was one legend I hadn't found regarding the Triforce. It seems that when it is claimed by one whose heart is not in perfect balance of the three philosophies of the goddesses, power, wisdom, and courage, it splits, leaving only the piece that the claimant most believes in, the other two choosing hosts of those who would oppose him. To gather all three, he must then find and either kill those other two, taking their Triforce by force, or it must be freely given, which is unlikely.

"And fate has a sense of humor, because those two would be none other than the Hero of Time and the Princess Zelda. I didn't even realize the boy had it as I passed by him, back into the Temple of Time. I found a platoon of armed soldiers waiting for me. I informed them that I had claimed the Triforce, and they would bow before their rightful ruler. Instead, they attacked me. Call me every sort of name, 'villain' being the kindest. So, they wanted a villain to fight, and I gave them one.

"Using its power was new to me, but the Triforce gave me abilities like I had never imagined, even with only one fragment. I'll spare you the details, but I slaughtered them like animals. The gutters in the streets ran thick with blood, I demolished entire buildings, and the bodies just piled up. And it exhausted me. I was fortunate they ordered a retreat, pulling back into the inner city, when they did. I wouldn't have been able to keep it up much longer.

"That was also when Nabooru came to the city, with a compliment of Gerudo. It seemed she had become worried after so long without word from me and had come to find me, though foolishly bringing so many with her for a social call. I instantly thought this could play to my advantage. It wasn't enough to siege the castle, but a runner could be sent back for more, and when I recovered, I was better than any army.

"But when I called to her, she didn't answer. She just stared at me," he paused a moment, causing Sheila to look up at him. His eyes were still alert, watching there surroundings, but he fell silent for a moment. "I suppose," he went on after a moment, "It was a shocking sight anyway, me standing there amidst that carnage, covered in blood. When I moved toward her, she screamed. Told me to stay away, turned her horse and left at a full gallop. The other Gerudo remained, and I put it out of my mind. I had more important things to worry about, and she would be back later.

"Even after the city fell, she didn't return. Weeks past with no word, until the witches returned again, to congratulate me on my victory, and it was they that informed me Nabooru had appeared again. She had managed to cross the Haunted Wasteland, seeking the temple there, where they practiced their magics, intending to disrupt their casting any way she could, to indirectly attack me. They told me she had been killed in the process."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Sheila said.

"It was a lie," Ganondorf said.

"What?"

"Seven years passed," Ganondorf went on, "I searched every inch of Hyrule, trying to find the princess, but she was well hidden. Back then, I had not learn to trace the other Triforce's location with my own, and was relying on more conventional means. I ground the kingdom and the people beneath my heel, promising to stop when she came forward and surrendered herself. She never did. Either she was too much of a coward, or she was holding out against hope for a miracle. Then the boy returned, a grown man, and the Hero of Time. I knew the instant he stepped out of the Temple of Time, and realized he was the key. I kept a very close eye on him, knowing that just like he led me to the Triforce, he would lead me to the princess if I left him on his own. He went to every corner of Hyrule, seeking out the sages of the elements. I knew it was a danger if he united them all against me, but my own strength had grown significantly in that time. Without all six of the sages and both of the other Triforce pieces, he wouldn't be able to defeat me.

"It was watching him that I learned the witches had been lying to me. He found Nabooru, alive, her mind dominated by their magic. He not only freed her from their grip, but helped her become one of the six sages. The witches were lucky he killed them. I had grown far beyond them in the past seven years, and wouldn't have made it nearly as quick when I got my hands on them.

"But there was no helping it. She was now my enemy, and though he did finally lead me to the princess, she didn't show herself until all the sages were gathered. I was in a foul mood by that point. I took her prisoner and challenged him to come find me. The sages helped him break the defenses on my castle, as I knew they would, and I had hoped that by isolating the princess, I could defeat him in single combat and take his Triforce first.

"I underestimated him."

"So, Nabooru played a part in your defeat," Sheila said, not a question but more of a statement.

They had come to another split in the path, this one with three different directions. Again, Ganondorf picked one without hesitating and kept walking. "She did, but it was more than boy than any other," he said, "It's an incredibly overused cliché from children's stories, but I've come to believe there is some truth to the hero who fights for what he believes in, with no hesitation and no doubts. I underestimated him, I hesitated, and probably the worst mistake, I doubted the path I had taken, because she had turned against me. The Hero of Time did not hesitate, and he had no doubts of his path. Neither did Nabooru. She was with the other sages, no hesitations as they cast me into the Sacred Realm, sealing the gateway behind me."

He fell silent, and the continued walking in silence for several minutes before Sheila finally asked, "Do you think if you had done things differently, it would have ended differently? That she wouldn't have turned on you?"

"It's possible," Ganondorf said, "But there is no point in dwelling on it. It was a long time ago and I've made my peace with it."

"Are you sure?"

"I've said it before: I don't regret a single thing I've done in my entire life. I've seen men drive themselves mad asking what would have been different if they had chosen differently. Regrets are unhealthy things, and one has to accept what they've done, mistakes included, and move on toward the future, learning from the mistakes but not dwelling on them. Anything else is slowly killing oneself. I suppose most men just don't live long enough to learn this lesson."

Sheila sighed. She couldn't really argue with his logic, cold as it was. And he was right. It was a similar conclusion she had reached the other night, thinking about what had happened to Richard, though her thoughts hadn't been quite so expansive and final. It was the kind of thing that could break her if she let it, or it could make her stronger.

"Well," she said, "Thank you for telling me."

"Glad you asked?" Ganondorf said, "That was the last I saw of Nabooru. Even as long-lived as the sages can be, by the time I was able to return to Hyrule, she was long dead."

"I see. I'm sorry."

"It's nothing you need to be sorry about. It has nothing to do with you."

Sheila was glad for the dark, for a small smile had appeared on her face. In spite of his efforts, every time she spoke to him, he managed to say something that convinced her he wasn't the villain he pretended to be.

* * *

Alex and Silviana came to a stop as the hall they were in opened into a large chamber, and found themselves facing down rows upon rows of stone statues. Not like the marble statues of the gods previously in the temple, but granite statues depicting armed and armored knights, standing at attention, and all facing toward them.

"What is this?" Alex asked.

Silviana shook her head. This was unlike anything she'd encountered before. Statues were one thing, but this many, and this bizarre arrangement, all facing toward the entry door, lined up in rows like soldiers in formation. Something wasn't right. She counted twenty in the first row, and there were just as many in each row beyond, down the length of the room. She corrected herself. There were unevenly set open spaces, seemingly at random in the further rows.

"More traps, most likely," she said, moving forward.

Alex moved behind her as she approached the front line. Each of the statues was depicted in the "at rest" position, drawn swords with the point on the ground, hands resting on the pommel. One, near the center of the first line, had instead a shield, resting in the same manner, with the lower end on the floor and hands resting on its top. There were letters engraved in the face of the shield, and Silviana crouched down to get a better look.

Alex leaned down, looking over her shoulder at the shield. He recognized letters, but they didn't even seem to be words, arranged in fashions he could pronounce, but had no meaning to him. "What language is that?"

"Ours, actually," Silviana said, "It's a very old dialect, I think. Unfortunately, ancient dialects wasn't something I had time to study at length, what with all the study of laws and survival when I was younger."

She ran her finger along under a line of the engraving, mouthing the words as she did so. "Languages change that much?" Alex asked.

"Yes," she said, "Slang and mispronunciations become accepted and then regular, and then new slang and mispronunciations emerge, and the language gradually changes, the various spellings going along with the new pronunciations, in spite of the school teacher's best efforts."

"Okay, a judge and a scholar," Alex said, "What the hell were you doing living in a forest?"

"Staying out of the way for the most part," she said, "The rest, I was protecting travelers from bandits, the forest, and themselves."

"But why?" Alex said, "It doesn't make sense."

Silviana sighed. He wasn't going to let her try to decipher this, apparently. "There was a time in my life when I had a very difficult time trusting people. And at the time, people still gave me very dark looks just because of my skin."

"You know, I know it was that way once," Alex said, "but I've lived most of my life without seeing any of that kind of… well, I can't think of better word, racism, toward dark elves."

"Probably because I'm two centuries older than most everyone else in the world, and my race was dying a long time before I was even born," she said, "It's hard to discriminate against something that doesn't exist. Now, I just get looks because of old legends."

"That the Dra'thul were demon worshippers," Alex said. He had heard a few of those stories.

"That they sacrifice goats, drink their blood, dance naked round fires and such," Silviana said.

"I've heard much the same about the barbarian tribes north of the mountains bordering the artic," Alex said.

"Well, I've never taken part in the first two, at least," Silviana said.

"So, you're not going to tell me about the forest, are you?" Alex asked.

"I already did," she said, "Being accepted as a judge didn't fix things. So I went to somewhere I could do some good and stay out of the way. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say."

"What about those ninja?" Alex asked, "They're dark elves."

"And are a dying breed themselves," Silviana said, "Didn't you notice? There's not a single woman among them. Not good for the future of the species. Now are you going to let me get back to this?"

"Just one more," Alex said, "While we have a moment, I think I just want to know. Why did you leave the forest now?"

"Because of Link, and Zelda," she said, "Even Ralthas, kind as he was, had a strange look in his eye when he looked at me. Those two were the first ones who ever looked me straight in the eye with no second glances or misgivings. In fact, I think that when this is all over, assuming we're all still alive, of course, I want to go with them. To Hyrule, and see if it really is the land of every kind of race, with no discrimination like they claim."

"Really?" Alex asked. This was the first she'd mentioned this.

"I'm sure you'll be welcome to come as well," she said, "If you want."

"I might have to take you up on that," Alex said.

"Now, if I can get back to this," Silviana said, turning back to the shield, "I do recognize a few of these words. This one here means 'stone,' and this one here…"

She trailed off, silently mouthing the words for a moment, working down the shield.

A moment later, she went back to the top. "Let's see," she muttered, "'Beware the creaking of stone, like the snapping of your bone, two move among the rows, steel blades your flesh will not slow.'"

"Ugh, verse," Alex groaned, "I should have just kept talking about the unrelated stuff."

Silviana stood up, eyeing the rows of statues. "So, two move, then," she said.

"Moving statues?" Alex said.

"Stone golems, if our luck is bad," Silviana said, "Come on, stay with me, and be quiet."

She moved forward, between the statues, her steps falling as silently as ever, walking slowly and carefully. Alex moved behind her, his steps falling on the stone floor and echoing through the chamber, with one hand on his sword. Silviana's eyes kept moving, glancing over the statues. If the verse was as she surmised, the dangerous ones would be armed with steel weapons, rather than the stone featured on most of the statues.

She suddenly stopped, motioning for Alex to be still. She had heard something, off in the distance, and strained her ears to hear it again, the room falling silent when Alex stopped moving. Then, there it was again. Like stones grinding together, and closer this time.

She turned to Alex, motioning with one finger to her lips, then started forward again, keeping her eyes open for movement. Alex moved behind her, as carefully as possible, his own steps quieter as he mimicked her steps, stepping down on his heel first and slowly lowering the rest of his foot to be as quiet as possible.

Silviana lowered her hands to the weapons sheathed along her thighs, and in one smooth motion drew the weapons silently and spun the grips in her hands to lay the blades flat against her forearms. More and more rows of statues they passed through in silence, watching and listening.

A glint of metal, and the blade came down. The ring of steel was like a thunderclap in the silence as blades came together. Silviana spun and backed away, to see Alex had inserted himself to her left and stepped in front of the sword blow, his own weapon catching the attacker's weapon. A stone knight wielding a steel weapon between the statues, drawing its weapon up as it stepped back from Alex.

Stone grated loudly as it moved, sidestepping around a statue, and Alex moved to intercept it. With a victorious shout, his sword slammed into the stone neck, and bounced off with a loud ringing sound.

"Alex, wait!" Silviana said as he raised his sword for another strike, "That's not it!"

He stopped, and realized he had struck a stone statue, armed with a weapon of stone, not steel. "Where did it go?" he asked, turning and looking between the lines of statues that surrounded them.

"I lost it," she said, "Be careful, there are supposed to be two of them in here."

They moved together, putting their backs together as they watched the lines of statues, straining their ears to hear the thing move, but the room had fallen silent again. "I hate wizards," Alex hissed, "Give me bladed discs again over this crap…"

"We need to move," Silviana whispered, "I don't think they'll follow us out of the room."

Moving slowly, back to back, they edged toward the far end of the room. They were barely a third of the way there. There was a more distant grating of stone ahead of them, and Silviana spotted it as it moved, darting between the statues before vanishing again. It made the purpose of the gaps in the rows abundantly clear. If the golems stood perfectly still, only a keen eye could tell them apart from the statues.

Several minutes passed as they moved, watching for any attack, and they were halfway across the room when, with the sound of grating stone, steel flashed again. Silviana spun, managing to catch the blade from the left with her own, quickly spinning the blade in her right hand to the point forward and thrust for the head. The point hit the stone, jarring her arm and doing no visible damage as the golem stepped quickly away, around another statue and vanishing from sight despite her efforts to following.

Steel rung again as Alex knocked away another blow from the other golem, which moved around them, into the far half of the room before vanishing among the statues again. Alex started to grumble a complaint when suddenly both appeared from either side, striking fast.

Steel rang, along with another sound that caused Silviana to turn even as she defended herself, in time to see the flying metal and hear Alex's cry of pain, the metal shards of his broken weapon tinkling onto the floor, and the larger piece of the blade landing with a crash.

Still holding the broken pommel in his hand, Alex had reacted quickly, moving his arm to catch the golem's wrist, and now pushed it back with a grunt of effort. There was barely a spot of blood on the weapon's edge. The golems turned to flee again, and Silviana let hers go, turning to help Alex, only to see him drop his broken weapon, both hands snatching hold of the golem's wrist, and pulled on it, not slowing it but bringing himself closer to it, and pushed up its arm while slipping his left foot in front of its own, and kicked back. Lifting its arm while tripping its feet sent it into a nearly perfect flip, landing directly on its head with a loud crash. Before it had even completed its fall, Alex was stepping back, and smoothly slipped its sword from its hand, replacing his shattered one. The stone form bounced against the floor, and cracks appeared in the abused head, which then crumbled as the last of the body fell flat and lay still.

"Did I kill it?" Alex asked.

"I doubt it," Silviana said, turning back in the direction the other had disappeared, "How badly are you hurt?"

"It barely broke the skin," he replied, "Scared me more than it hurt."

"In that case, keep moving," she said, "Lets speed this up."

They quickened their pace, moving as fast as they dared, watching for the other golem. Alex glanced back once at the damaged one to see that it had vanished, only a few fragments of stone remaining on the floor.

"When they strike again," he whispered, "I'll try to knock one down again. Then we run for it."

He barely finished speaking before, with a grating of stone, a headless golem stepped around a statue, going for him with its bare hands. Alex stepped back, accidentally knocking into Silviana, sending her stumbling, and he suddenly found two stone hands locked on his wrists. Reflex propelled his next action, rather than trying to free himself, he twisted sideways, pulling his attacker toward him as he stepped forward and driving his shoulder into its chest with all the force he could manage in the short distance. Cloth ripped as its hands slid off his wrists, and stumbled back.

Silviana stumbled a few steps from Alex crashing into her, and managed to regain her balance, only to look up and see a steel weapon hovering over her, two stone fists holding it high. The tip whistled as it descended. Silviana dove. Her cloak jerked at her neck as the blade caught the hem, and a loud ripping sound followed as she hit the floor beside the golem's feet. She rose partway to her feet, spinning in place and striking the back of its knees with one weapon, causing them to buckle and it fell forward onto the floor, catching itself with one hand.

Alex had pressed his attack, delivering forward kick to his golem's torso, sending it crashing to the floor onto its back, then spun to see Silviana's going down. As it landed on one hand, he moved quickly, and with a sidestepping spin, smashed the heel of one foot into its head, knocking it off balance and crashing into the floor, spinning onto its back.

"Go!" he shouted.

Both of them turned to the far side of the room and ran. Silviana started to outdistance Alex very quickly, but the door was already within sight. Crashing sounds behind him told him the stone golems were in pursuit, and as the sounds grew louder, he knew they were gaining.

_Don't be locked don't be locked don't be locked_, he prayed as Silviana reached the door. She didn't bother with the handle, and slammed her shoulder into it, the door crashed open easily as she passed through.

Alex was out of the statues, a mere ten feet from the door when he glanced back to see the golems nearly upon him, and that sword glinted as the running golem drew it back to one side. Alex swore, and dove. The single syllable of his curse was given an entire breath and near five full seconds as the blade whistled and his feet left the floor. It seemed like he was in the air for an eternity, the door just ahead, the whistle of the swinging blade roaring in his ears like a windstorm.

He hit the ground suddenly, fully on his stomach, sliding and rolling through the door, which Silviana slammed shut behind him. Alex rolled onto his back, gasping for breath. Silviana checked the door for a lock, finding none, but after a moment it was clear the golems would not follow, she moved over to him.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"No, I'm not," he groaned, "I'm stuck in the middle of a sadistic story where the maiden is faster and stronger than I am."

She patted his shoulder with a smile. "Oh, we're not even done yet," she said, pointing ahead of them. Alex rolled over so he could see, and found an empty room before them, excluding a single statue a few feet away, once again depicting a stone knight resting his shield on the ground, and more lettering visible on the shield.

Alex groaned again.

"How's your foot, by the way?" Silviana asked, "Kicking stone statues doesn't do well for the bones."

Alex sat up, lifting his foot and examining the heel of his boot. The tough leather on the end of the heel was somewhat shredded, but his foot itself was fine. "That," he said, pointing to the damage, "is why I wear hard-soled boots."

* * *

Alex would have been even more frustrated if he had known the relative ease with which Link, Kilishandra, and Midna were making progress. It became evident as they progressed that when the temple had been rebuilt, it had actually been additions built around the original structure, which they seemed to have found. After what had first appeared to be the main entry hall, they had passed into a network of chambers, finding bedrooms, likely for priests and handmaidens, and a cafeteria, though all the wooden furniture had long since deteriorated in barely identifiable heaps.

Now they entered a large, open chamber, and like the old entry hall, it was not lit like the rest of the building, instead being fairly dark, with heavy shadows in the far corners. Heaps of wood on either side of a center walkway were likely the remains of ancient pews, and a stone dais was visible at the far end of the room. One either side of the dais were two enormous statues, weathered with age, but still identifiable as the gods of time and space, which extended nearly to the ceiling.

"This must be the altar chamber," Kilishandra said.

"Strange, isn't it?" Link said, "These rooms aren't as well preserved as the areas where we first entered. I thought it had something to do with that magic pocket thing, but now I'm not so sure."

"You're right," Kilishandra said, "The statues before we were separated aren't nearly as weathered as those, and eight thousand years is enough time that if any are weathered, they all should be."

Midna had been silent a long time, but she suddenly moved up behind Link, putting one hand on his shoulder. "There's something by the altar," she said.

Now Link saw it too, and reached up to draw his sword as he moved forward. It was a person, kneeling down by the stone dais. As he drew closer, he realized it was transparent. "It's another one of those 'imprints,'" he said, "Not real, at least not anymore."

There was a crash behind them, causing all three to spin, and there were the images of Darius and the soldiers he had brought with him, marching into the room with determination. The three reflexively stepped aside as the image of Darius marched past them.

"Thalandril!" he shouted as he came to a stop, pointing one accusing finger at the kneeling figure, "One chance is all I can give you. Surrender yourself now and I can appeal for you, perhaps get you an easier punishment for your crimes."

"My crimes," the kneeling figure said without turning, "That's funny, coming from you, the man with the blood of my daughter on his hands."

"I tried to tell you before, I didn't kill your wife or daughter," Darius said, "A burglar broke into your home and I killed him. I'm sorry, but I was just too late to help your family."

"Even if that were true, you were waiting for me," Thalandril said, standing upright and turning to face, "Why didn't you just wait at my home? Why didn't you protect them? You can't deny your hand in their fate, regardless of the circumstances."

"Thalandril, I'm sorry, but evidence was found that you were practicing necromancy," Darius said, "I was trying to find you before you went to them. They didn't have to know."

Kilishandra had edged closer, trying to see Thalandril's face, in the dim light it was difficult, but she could swear it was familiar. Now she hissed through her teeth. Link was right, it was Tharkus.

"You don't get it," Tharkus said, "I went to necromancy out of necessity, not desire! I wanted to help people, but no one would trust it until I had results! That was why I had to be secretive…"

"You were experimenting on the students in the academy!" Darius shouted, interrupting Thalandril, "No amount of good intentions can justify that!"

"Bah!" Thalandril waved the accusation off, "Other than my office during daylight hours, my chambers were off limits to the student body. That was nothing new, all the preceding holders of the archmage position held the same standard. I just had more reason for it. And when those idiots came snooping around in the dark, and made their way through my _locked and trapped_ laboratory door to find what I was working on, I couldn't just let them go, knowing what they knew. If I was found out too soon, everything would be ruined, so I had to engineer their disappearances and 'accidents.' A lot of trouble because some students can't keep their noses out of places they don't belong."

Darius shook his head. "Thalandril, please," he said, "My friend, please listen to me. I can help you, but the queen will expect justice for the things you've done…"

"The queen," Thalandril sneered, "So you're that whale's lapdog now, Darius? I couldn't care less what she expects, or the other four kingdoms for that matter. No, you listen to me. I've been thinking long and hard about what happened that night, and why it happened. If you killed my family… it doesn't even matter. What matters is what I've learned from it. The only problem with my practices are the laws in place regarding the use of magic, which were put in place centuries ago by men who had likely never even witnessed magic, let alone used it. The way I see it, we need to be unrestricted in our research. Necromancy may be used for evil, but so can anything even so simple as a cantrip that causes rashes. We have to understand something to learn how to control it, and forbidding research doesn't help in any way.

"These laws, and by extension, the world, needs to change."

"You intend to rebel," Darius said, "You're talking treason!"

"Someone has to take the first step," Thalandril said, "And it won't be treason when none of the current kingdoms exist any longer. I will establish a new order, a single kingdom, encompassing the entire world, led by magicians like you and me. Who better to regulate the mages than the mages themselves?"

"Other than the fact this path leads to tyranny and abuse of the very magic you so treasure," Darius said, "It won't work. One kingdom cannot rule the entire world. There are too many different cultures and beliefs. Far to much foolish hatred for it to work. You won't just be fighting the five kingdoms, you'll be fighting the entire world."

Thalandril laughed, and threw his arms out in a gesture of challenge. "Why not? If all the magicians of our generation and the next unite, there would be no force in the world that could oppose us!" he said, then he took one step forward, away from the dais, and offered one hand toward Darius, "Come with me, my friend. Together, we will shake the foundations of the world, and reshape humanity as we see fit!"

"Sorry, friend," Darius said, without a second's hesitation, "But your scheme is not a grand revolution, it's merely the beginning of a black tyranny. If I'm going to change the world, I'll do it the right way."

"So be it then," Thalandril said, "I had hoped… But in that case, I have a challenge for you."

"What are you talking about?"

Thalandril produced a small object from the inner pocket of his robe. A blood red emerald that glinted in the dim light. "My research has not been fruitless," he said, "And considering Metallicana is in range, I think a little repayment for my family is in order, seeing as how your better half and three young boys reside there."

Darius stepped forward. "Don't you dare!"

The gem fell from Thalandril's fingers. It flashed brightly as it hit the floor, and blue light flooded the room, fading away almost as fast as it rose. Screams filled the room. The soldiers behind Darius were screaming in fear as they looked down at themselves.

"No way…" Link said.

Starting at their feet and rapidly climbing their flesh, they were petrifying, gray stone replacing their flesh, though their clothing and armor was untouched. Darius looked at them, then down at himself, finding his feet rooted, a scream rising in his throat as the stone climbed up over his chest and engulfed his head.

Thalandril was affected just as the others were, but rather than scream, he was laughing, right up until the stone covered his face and all fell silent.

Link remembered it as if it were just last night. When he had seen as much happen to everyone in the village. How Ilia and even he had screamed as the spell rose over them. "Tharkus…" Link growled, "It's all because of him…"

"That's the spell that was used on your home?" Kilishandra asked, "That we're here to reverse?"

"Yes," Link said, "And to think, I'd nearly forgotten about it, with everything that has been happening."

A cracking sound interrupted them, drawing their attention back to the images. Cracks were forming in the stone forms of Darius and Thalandril. The stone forms suddenly exploded in a shower of paper thin stone chips raining onto the floor, and Darius and Thalandril both fell to their knees.

"How…?" Darius started as he pushed himself up.

"Ironic, isn't it?" Thalandril said, rising to his feet, "The first thing I did was enter the golden realm to take the Triforce, hoping it would give me the power to lead this revolution on my own, only to have it shatter in my grasp, and who should receive one of the other two pieces but the man who will oppose me?"

"It's not ironic, it's just coincidental," Link said, mimicking Zelda's tone when she had explained it.

"You did what?" Darius said, and suddenly glanced down at his right hand, growling, "What's burning me?"

The Triforce of Wisdom glowed with a golden light on the back of Darius' hand. Thalandril moved another step toward him. "Even the gods themselves mark us as enemies," Thalandril said, "Fortunately, it won't last the night."

Darius looked up, his eyes narrowing. Suddenly, he lifted his left hand, putting two fingers on his forehead, quickly muttering something under his breath. The chamber suddenly filled with blinding light and shrieks of agony. Link and the others shielded their eyes. The light was coming from Darius himself, and after a few seconds faded away.

Bodies surrounded Darius, lying on the stone floor were the Twili assassins, though the skin of their faces and hands was charred black. Thalandril was unaffected, but the Twili had has been slain by the light of Darius' spell, like a miniature sun, as they attempted to approach him in the shadows.

"You missed on," Thalandril said.

"What…?" Darius started, and was interrupted as a pair of hands snatched him under the chin, lifting him up into the air.

He struck at the figure holding him, but his hands and feet passed through its shadowy flesh like air, and he found himself lifted up face to face with Cain, the monstrous Twili that was more shadow than flesh.

"Why?" Darius asked, "Why join him?"

Cain's voice was low, and his lips did not move as he spoke, his words vibrating from his entire being. "Three decades we have waited on you to return us to our home," Cain said, "and three decades you have produced nothing. We are tired of waiting on you. We will build a place for ourselves here, in your world. And your other friend turned enemy has promised us that place."

"Why didn't his spell turn you?" Darius asked.

"Interesting side note," Thalandril said, moving up behind Darius, "It seems the Twili are immune to it, as well as any other known transmutation magics. See? You've been spending time with them for thirty years, and you barely know anything about them."

"I know one thing," Darius growled, and shot his right up upward, shouting "_Daem!_" With a boom, a hole appeared in the ceiling, sunlight pouring down in, directly onto the three.

Cain dropped Darius, crying out in pain as he moved backward, into the shadows. Darius' hand shot into a bag on his belt, producing what appeared to be a piece of chalk, and dropped to the floor, spinning in place and drawing a circle on the floor even as Thalandril backed away, raising his hands and beginning a spell.

The chalk line started to glow the instant Darius finished the circle, and he looked up at Thalandril. "I'll be seeing you again," he said.

Then with a flash, Darius vanished. Silence fell over the room, and a moment later, Link realized that Thalandril and Cain's images had vanished as well. "Is that it?" he asked.

"Did you hear that?" Midna said, moving around in front of him, "Twili are immune to transmutation magic!"

"And?" Link said, "What's transmutation mean?"

Kilishandra sighed. "It is the term used to describe magic that turns one thing into something else. Turning flesh to stone, lead into gold, water into wine, or one creature into another, that kind of thing."

"What about me?" Midna said, "If I'm supposed to be immune to the stuff, how did this happen in the first place?"

"Easy," Link said, "You know this isn't something I'm good at. Let's see, looks like our original guess that the spell that petrified Hyrule was wrong, the spell doesn't travel through the ground, we all saw the flash of light, and it still didn't effect you, so that much is true. It must have to do with the Triforce, considering Ganondorf wasn't even sure he could do it, remember? And then he transformed the rest of the Twili, too."

Midna groaned. Kilishandra was staring at her, wondering if Midna's true appearance was closer to the assassins, or something like Cain.

"I think now we know where the ancient war started," Link said, "Looks like even Tharkus might have had somewhat nobler intentions back then."

"He told me himself that he's out for nothing less than the destruction of all life," Kilishandra said, "How does one get from trying to improve the world to that?"

"Eight thousand years is a long time," Link said, walking toward the stone dais, "and he seems to have a lot of hate these days."

"Except that utopian kingdom, led by magicians," Kilishandra said as she followed, "That's exactly what I had thought we were trying to build with our invasion."

"The idea has its merits," Link said, "But mankind is a vicious, hate filled monster, and it would be a lot of work to make everybody live together happily. Probably impossible."

"Since when are you such a pessimist?" Midna asked.

"I'm just being realistic here," Link said as he stopped at the dais, "Mankind has been at war with itself since we figured out throwing rocks at each other hurts."

He paused at the dais, and blew on it, sending dust flying into the air. It wasn't the altar they were looking for. That had to be further in. There were only two things on the dais besides the dust. One was a book, with a plain leather cover, and he opened it to find hand written pages in a language he didn't understand. What surprised him was the condition. Everything else around them was rotted to the extreme, but these pages were still crisp and white, as if fresh.

As he leafed through it, he found the writing stopped two thirds of the way through the pages. It was a diary, left here by gods knew who.

The other object on the dais was a single arrow. Link picked it up, and nearly dropped it. His fingers slid on its shaft as though there was no friction at all, and he rolled it into his palm, lifting it to give it an eye. The shaft was straight and balanced, the feathers in perfect condition, and the head sharp.

Then he realized where he had seen this before.

It was the silver arrow he had been gifted in the Sacred Realm. What it was doing here, he had no clue.

As he turned it over in his palm, he noticed something he hadn't seen before.

Engraved on the shaft were four words, barely visible in the dim light. He lifted it to his eye to try to make them out. They were barely readable, even like this. "When time runs out," they said.

This was a weapon, blessed in the same way as the Master Sword. It neutralized the Triforce, rendering everything from physical increases or rapid healing to any form of magic it could muster. An antithesis left by the gods for when their own power went awry.

And now that he thought about it, it would be just as effective against himself or Zelda as it would be against Ganondorf, just like the Master Sword.

"What is that?" Kilishandra asked.

"Nothing special," he said, "Just an arrow. And what looks like a diary that I can't read."

Kilishandra shrugged and turned away, then pointed to the back corner. "I see another door over there."

Link tucked the arrow inside the side of his boot while her back was turned, then handed Midna the diary so she could tuck it into the pack on his back.

This arrow and the Master Sword both deserved more research when they returned to Darimar and he had time, and possibly getting Ganondorf to show him how to return to the Sacred Realm for a chat with Darius, but for now, he put it out of his mind as they walked toward the far door.


	92. Chapter 91

This chapter got two overall rewrites before I was satisfied, and I was constantly fiddling with some of the events. The Alex and Silviana scene was literally the last thing done this time. Didn't help that I realized a line I wanted in there just a little bit ago and rewrote the entire scene just to accommodate it. Also working some more of my lore into the blanks Ninty left.

Also, during the time lapse since the last chapter, I did put up a couple chapters to a new story, essentially intending it to be a fan-novelization of FF6, though I started it pretty much on a random whim (and playing FF6 Advance), not even sure if I'm going to keep going with it, though if I actually get some reactions that want to see more of it, I might. /shameless plug

**Chapter 91: Obstacles**

"Do you even know where we're going anymore?" Sheila asked.

"I was expecting to find a way back up by now, to be honest," Ganondorf said, as they paused at yet another dark intersection of tunnels, "This makes no sense for a temple basement. It should be made to store food and the like, for the priests, or in some cases, at least have torture chambers. But this was deliberately built as a maze."

"That's just great," Sheila muttered, "At least it's not as cold down here."

"Wait just a second," Ganondorf muttered, moving forward to one of the passage, then stopped, and moved into another, then laughed, "You're onto something, girl. This way."

She moved after him. "I'm onto what?"

"It is warmer down here, and after you pointed it out, I realized something," he said, "Can you feel that? It's getting warmer as we move this direction. It might not be a way out, but this should lead us to some kind of landmark."

She couldn't feel it as minutely as he apparently could, but as they passed another intersection, she realized it was getting warmer. After two more intersections, the passage suddenly opened into a wide open room before them. Ganondorf stopped, halting her with one hand on her shoulder as he watched the dark room.

Sheila could only make out silhouettes, but there was something in the room. Large piles of objects, and she realized that while it was small, they were moving. Ganondorf reached to his sword, drawing the blade from the leather wrapping, and Sheila shielded her eyes as the glowing white blade flared light into the chamber.

"You could have pulled that out at any time!" she growled.

"I could have, but I didn't," Ganondorf said, holding the blade higher, "And I'm thinking you wouldn't have wanted me to if you knew what was in there."

Her eyes adjusted to the sudden light as she looked back into the room. "What are those?" she asked with a shudder.

"Eggs," Ganondorf muttered.

Large slimy piles of white eggs filled the room nearly to the ceiling. It was all that could be seen, save for a narrow pathway between the piles to the far end of the room. Ganondorf stood up on his toes, trying to see over the stacks. "There's light over there," he said, "I think it's a way up."

Sheila looked at the eggs, and the slime, slowly moving down the sides of the piles, and fought back a shudder of revulsion. "We have to go through there," she said, not asking a question so much as stating it to herself.

"That's right," Ganondorf said, and patted her shoulder, "Don't worry about your clothes. Best to be more worried about Mom coming back while we're in here."

Sheila swallowed, and glanced up at him, waiting for him to lead the way. Instead, he gestured for her to go first.

"You're smaller than I am, so go ahead and try to find a path through," he said, "I'll follow behind you."

Sheila groaned, turning back to the disgusting stacks before her. If it weren't for the fact they couldn't use magic here without killing themselves, she'd rather just burn the whole lot before stepping through. She stepped forward, over the edge of one pile to a clear spot within reach, trying to not touch the stacks on either side of her, searching for the next step.

Gods, the sound was the worst part. The eggs were barely moving, almost undulating, and the slimy slopping noise on both sides of her was absolutely horrendous. If someone had told her she'd be doing this just six months ago, she'd have called them crazy.

The shadows of the disgusting piles were moving as Ganondorf stepped behind her, holding his sword so the glow cast over the small gap in the center. "Hold it!" he suddenly said.

She stopped, nearly losing her balance as she got her front foot back under her, in the small spot. "What?" she asked.

"Just be quiet and look," he said, pointing at the stack no more than six inches in front of her, standing sideways in the gap.

Some of the eggs were shaking faster than the others. As the two fell silent, the shaking eased and fell into the slower rhythm of the others. Sheila turned to Ganondorf, who held one finger of his free hand to his lips, then motioned for her to move forward.

Sheila carefully lifted one foot, stepping to the next somewhat open spot. Her foot came down with a wet squishing sound, and then slipped. Unable to stop herself, she screamed, falling face first toward the pile of eggs. She stopped suddenly, feeling Ganondorf's hand on the back of her collar. Her cry echoed off the walls of the room.

Then there was a new sound, like the cracking of an eggshell, but far too loud. Sheila realized one of the eggs right in front of her face had split down the center. As the edges parted, a small red eye appeared, looking up at her.

Ganondorf quickly jerked her upright as more cracking sounds filled the room around them, over top one another, and more and more red eyes appeared. "They were just waiting for live prey before they hatched," he growled.

"What do we do?" Sheila asked.

"Shut up and run!" Ganondorf said as the tiny creatures began to emerge from the eggs.

Like a swarm of red eyes on tiny black bodies, they crawled down the piles as Sheila tried to pick her way past the piles as quickly as possible, and Ganondorf just elbowed through the sides, sending eggs and mucus flying as thousands of tiny legs crawling over the eggs filled the room with a sinister clacking sound.

Sheila cried out as she felt something crawling on her legs, stomping her feet as she moved, shaking some off, others turning into a terrifying tickling sensation as they tried to crawl up underneath her leggings. Ganondorf felt one crawling up his sleeve, quickly slapping his other hand down on it with a satisfying crunch of the exoskeleton, followed by a sickening wet feeling as its insides spread across his arm.

Sheila managed to clear the egg piles, leaning down and swatting at her legs, crushing the things crawling up her legs, still moving forward toward the light from the ceiling. "It's a dead end!" she shrieked as she looked up.

A hole in the ceiling, fifteen feet up, with no access, and bare walls on all sides. She looked back to see Ganondorf moving toward her. Behind him, the piles of eggs had turned into a solid mass of red eyes on tiny black bodies, like the walls and floor themselves had come alive. Ganondorf glance up once as he came up beside her, and then sheathed his sword.

"Here!" he shouted, putting his hands together and holding them low for her.

She stepped onto his hands with one foot, looking up. He did not lift her as she had expected. He threw her upward, and she felt herself flying through the air, managing to snatch the top of the hold with her hands, quickly getting one elbow up over the edge and fighting the weight of her cloak and pack, driven by the strength of fear, pulling herself up as Ganondorf shouted at her to hurry up.

No sooner had she managed to pull her legs up over the edge than there was a grunt from below, and Ganondorf's hands appeared on the edge of the hole. She moved to help him, but he pulled himself up with ease, clearing the hole and immediately looking around them for something to block it with.

The chittering of thousands, if not millions, of tiny legs echoed from the hole, red eyes visible on the floor and swarming up the walls. Sheila turned to a sudden grating noise. Statues on either side of the room were on pedestals not directly attached to the walls, and Ganondorf was sliding one toward the hole. Its wide square base fit over the hole, blocking it off easily as he slid it into place.

Silence fell over them as the hole was covered. Sheila felt her hands shaking, her heart pounding, and her breath was ragged. She forced herself to slow down, taking deep breaths before she hyperventilated.

"What were those things?" she managed after a moment.

"One red eye," Ganondorf muttered, then turned to her, "I've encountered a kind of creature like that, sort of like a large spider, referred to as Gohma. Its eggs were much larger, though, and not nearly so numerous…"

He was stopped as Sheila suddenly cried out, clawing at her back. He rushed over, grabbing her by the shoulder and spinning her over, tossing her cloak up over her head, and then pulled up the bottom of her shirt. A red cut, bleeding from her back just to the right of her spine, and near it was a lump in her flesh, moving up her back.

"That's a new one," he muttered, pulling a knife from the back of his belt.

"What is it?" Sheila nearly shrieked, then screamed as the point of his knife pieced her skin.

Ganondorf twisted the knife sideways and gave it a flick, dragging it and the lump out of the slit, sending the red-eyed little monster sailing through the air. It landed with a splatting sound, its body covered in blood as it righted itself, and started skittering back toward them.

Sheila managed to get the cloak off her head, looking over in time to see Ganondorf crush it under his heel. "What the hell?" she groaned as he lifted his foot, looking down at the remains.

She was standing up as he leaned back down, stopping her. "Just in case," he said, and she felt his lips over the cut in her back. He sucked on the cut, then spit a small amount blood onto the floor, shaking his head. "No poison at least."

He pushed aside her cloak, reaching into her pack, finding a roll of bandages, and set about dressing the cuts. The slit of his knife was bleeding worse than the creature's attack point, due mainly to dragging the blade out sideways, but it wasn't bad enough to be dangerous.

"Now you'll be able to tell your lover you've got a knife scar on your back," he said, "Make you seem dangerous."

Sheila remained silent, just letting him finish, and letting herself calm down. One more time someone else had saved her life. It was almost depressing, how much she needed help in these situations.

* * *

"How much further do you think we have to go?" Kilishandra asked as the trio moved into the next hall beyond the door.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark," Midna said.

Kilishandra glanced at her, then looked up at the ceiling. This hall was much smaller than the last, barely eight feet high, and she and Link would not have been able to walk side by side down the passage without their arms touching. She took a deep breath, muttering, "Creature that thrives on the dark telling me not to be afraid..."

They came upon the next door, and Link tried the handle, finding it unlocked, and slowly eased it open, the hinges creaking loudly, as he watched through the widening crack. The room beyond was dim, and Link stepped out, clouds of dust stirring from his feet as he moved, checking each corner. It nearly looked like the altar chamber they were just in, but instead of wooden wreckage of the seats, stone columns lined the sides of the room, and only a door on the far side of the room, no statues or altar.

Kilishandra and Midna moved in behind him as he moved further in the room, glancing between each of the columns. A movement in the shadow sent his hand for his sword as a figure stepped into view.

"So? What do you think, now that you know the entire truth of the start of the ancient war?" Darius said as he moved into the center of the room ahead of them.

Link didn't respond, instead watching Darius move, making note that his feet did not stir the dust as their own did. Kilishandra moved up beside Link and Midna on his other side. "Who are you?" Kilishandra demanded.

"Depends on who you ask," Darius said, "Some will say I'm the greatest hero the world ever saw, and others," he leveled his gaze on Link, "will call me a coward, a weak man who couldn't finish what he started. I suppose both could be right, in a sense."

"I thought you would die if you left the Chamber of Sages," Link said.

"I am merely an image," Darius said, "I have no truly left the chamber. I will not wither just yet, but I cannot affect the world, either, beyond my words."

"Who is he?" Kilishandra said, turning to Link.

Link glanced at her, with a small smile. "He's Darius, hero of the ancient war," he paused, turning back to the old man, the smile vanishing, "and Sage of Light, and also the man who tried to talk me out of what I had set out to do."

"What?" Kilishandra said, turning back to Darius, "That's impossible! He'd be over eight thousand years old!"

"Think of how old the man you call 'father' is, then call it impossible," Darius said.

Kilishandra gave him a dark glare, but did not retort.

"What are you doing here?" Link asked.

"I'll admit, it's a bit spur of the moment even for me," Darius said, "When I realized you were in this place, I knew what you were going to see, and I wanted to see your reactions. Especially yours," he added, turning to Midna.

"You mean about Cain," Midna said.

Darius turned his head away, then walked toward the side of the chamber, glancing back at them, turning to move back, speaking as he paced. "The Twili do not originally come from what you know as the Twilight Realm, that much you know. How much of your own history has been lost in the time since your banishment? Do you have any idea where your own people come from?"

"What is the point of this?" Link asked before she could respond.

Darius shrugged. "Before I say what I intend to, I think I need to find out a little more about this girl that you would risk unraveling time itself to save."

"Says the man who once encouraged the Hero of Time to do the same thing," Link said.

Darius stopped his pacing, pointing one finger directly at Link, and his voice echoing off the walls around them. "He did as he was instructed! He did not alter history, merely appearing at his appointed time to do as he must! And he did not question the guidance of those older and wiser than he!"

Link crossed his arms, smiling. "If you want to get me angry, you're going to have to try harder than that. Telling me I think for myself is more of a compliment than an insult."

Darius growled, but lowered his arm. "If you will let me sate my own curiosity, I do have some information for you, that you will find useful, both about this place, and how to win the war."

"Are you serious?" Kilishandra said, incredulous, "Just win it, like that?"

"It won't be that easy, but, if I may continue?" Darius said, and when Link turned his head away, Darius turned back to Midna, "Well? Do you know where your people originally come from?"

"I'd always assumed it was from this world," Midna said, "Though considering how even starlight was enough to nearly kill me, I'm doubting that."

"That wasn't always so," Darius said, "Your people were exiled almost immediately after the war, eight thousand years ago. That much time in a world of darkness only further weakened you kind to what they were vulnerable to before.

"As you saw in the images, bright light could kill Twili, and relatively fast. The flash of light was modification of the basic light spells I had devised, purely on the chance the Twili might turn on me. Rather than burning long and just bright enough to see, as typical light spells did, it burns as brightly as the surface of the sun for only a few seconds. Direct sunlight as well could kill them, though it would take a few minutes, but they could move freely at night, provided it was less than a half-moon, otherwise they would be uncomfortable, and on a full moon, basically felt as a human man would in about a hundred and ten degree heat.

"By now you've undoubtedly heard stories of my hand in the creation of Travel spells, and eventually using them to cross between dimensions. Well, it's true, in a way, though the dimension traveling was more of an accident, and I spent most of the time during that little adventure trying to find a way back. In that time, I saw quite a few strange worlds. Usually I moved on as quickly as possible, and many were quite hostile environments to a human being.

"One world I stumbled into was called Necera by the locals. It was engulfed in a war that had gone on as long as anyone there could remember, between two different species. Neither could be called human, at least in the sense we usually think of it, but I found myself a 'guest' of the Nizu, or Light Elves, for ease of understanding. They literally glowed in the dark, their eyes were filled with blue light, and for as long as they could remember, they fought creatures of the dark. The closest equivalent in our tongue to what they called them would be 'vampires.'"

"I see where this is going," Link muttered.

"It was the Twili, then," Midna said.

"Yes," Darius said, "And much as I would have liked to leave the world entirely, the Nizu made sure I never had time to work the magic. Such travel magic takes hours to prepare, and I was their prisoner, and I made the mistake of demonstrating some of what I was capable of. They intended to use me as a weapon against their enemy, regardless of what I desired.

"My salvation came in the form of a surprise attack. The Nizu were always at their defense during the night, because the Twili could not move in the sun, so it came as complete surprise when their vampires tunneled into the palace in the middle of the day, coming up right in the middle of the throne room floor. I was very fortunate they did not mistake me for one of the Nizu.

"I was taken back out through that tunnel in the ensuing chaos, and when their attack was either pushed back or they decided to retreat, it was collapsed, and I was taken to meet Cain. I had to explain to him what I was, and my desire to leave the world. And he believed me, just as readily as the Nizu had, and then he showed me the key to my returning home, ceasing random world hopping.

"He showed me the Twilight Mirror, which he told me was a relic of his people, and the last artifact of their true home, and the gateway through which they desired to return, but had lost the 'key' to its operation, and with the constant hounding of the Nizu, they did not have the time or means to create a new one. So, they were not even from that world originally."

"You brought them here," Midna said, her eyes lighting up with realization.

"Yes," Darius said, "I made a deal with Cain. I would find a way to use the mirror as a focus for my spell, and take him and his people with me back to my world, and once that was done, I would find a way to create a new key to the mirror, and send them back to their home. I was successful in bringing them here, but you saw what eventually occurred when I failed to live up to my end of the deal."

"They got tired of waiting," Link said.

"Yes, though I was eventually successful in creating a new key, in the form of a ring, with a silver band and amethyst gem, that when worn allows the wearer to manipulate the destination of the mirror's portal. But without knowing the destination, the only option would be to try every possible destination until the correct one was found."

Kilishandra snorted. "The way I understand it, there are a near infinite number of realities. Trying to find a specific one like that could take millennia!"

"Or even longer," Darius said, "which is why I was forced to select one of the early finds that seemed appropriate, when I banished them. Now, I must ask another question," he looked directly at Midna again, "Now that you know the truth of what happened to your people, do you hate me, because I was the one who inflicted their fate upon them?"

Midna sighed. "I suppose this means I need to apologize to Ilia," she said, "But that's really all your worried about? Whether I would hate you now?"

"It's not all, but it's a start," Darius said, "And?"

"And… no," Midna said, "I suppose it could be very easy to hate you, but I also know my ancestors attempted to use the Fused Shadow to enslave Hyrule. Maybe it's best they were locked away, but my people are different now. They're not used to fighting because we don't fight anyone." She smiled slightly, "In fact, there are virtually no natural dangers in the Twilight Realm to us, so maybe it was for the best all around."

"A very reasonable attitude you have there," Darius said, "Shame you weren't their leader back then, instead of Cain."

"That's something more recent," she said, and glanced at Link, "I think I'm a lot more patient than I used to be, thanks to a certain influence."

Darius did not miss the glance, and the look between them when Link looked back. He couldn't help but smile a bit himself. "I see," he said, and turned away from them, "I had my doubts, but I think I see it now."

"What happened to Cain, by the way?" Midna asked.

Darius turned back. "Cain is dead," he said, "I eventually killed him myself. An act that I regret the necessity of. It took an entire city and several thousand lives with him."

"The Harrowing?" Kilishandra guessed.

"No, something much worse," Darius said, "Make no mistake, regardless of what the Twili are now, or what they seemed back then, that creature was a monster in every sense of the word. He didn't just move in shadows, he was a shadow. And his strength, the things he could do to a man with nothing more than his hands. Not to mention no sword or arrow could even touch him. He was something straight out of nightmares, and it took submerging an entire city in thick, liquid light, hotter than the core of a volcano, to kill him, and the city itself sank beneath the surface of the world."

"Are you even sure it killed him, then?" Midna asked.

"Of course," Darius said, "After all, you're wearing a piece of his corpse on your face."

* * *

"So what does this one say?" Alex asked after he had collected himself, and Silviana moved to the lone statue in the seemingly empty room.

She didn't even kneel down to the statue's shield to read before turning back. "Come see for yourself," she said.

Alex moved over, but didn't have to look close to see. The stone surface of the shield bore no letters, though the surface was deeply scratched. All the marking had been scratched away, and clearly intentionally. "At least we don't have to read more bad rhymes," he said, "'You're near the end now, so close to the goal! Too bad I've decided to feed you to a troll!'"

Silviana snickered. Alex shook his head. "You've got a warped sense of humor," he added.

"Oh, don't worry," she said with a smile, "Trolls are just kid's stories. Nothing like that really exists."

Alex stepped past her as she stood up, moving past the statue, only to stop when his footstep was accompanied by a crackling sound. He looked down to see hairline fractures forming in the stone under his foot, and spreading rapidly. He quickly pulled his foot back. With louder cracking, the stone began to crumble as he moved back past the statue, and the cracks continued to spread, more and more of the stone breaking off, in even larger pieces, falling into rapidly expanding opening.

A loud hissing rose from below, causing Alex's hand to reflexively go for his sword. The crumbling at last slowed, leaving a large hole about ten feet across in the floor before them, and as the pair leaned closer, a single shape was visible beneath them. A large red eye, larger than a human head, saw them from the dark, and was growing larger, loud thumping that vibrated through the floor as the creature crawled out of the darkness.

"I think I'd have preferred a troll," Alex muttered as they backed away from the hole, and Silviana pulled her bow from her shoulder, and drew an arrow from her quiver.

Enormous black legs emerged from the whole, sharp points digging into the stone of the floor, causing more to crumble away, the magical light of the chamber glinting off the black chitin armor of the exoskeleton. Eight legs gripped all around the hole, hefting the bulk of the creature into view, and the massive red eye turned directly toward them, focusing in with clear intent, and just beneath it, a mouth large enough to swallow half a man opened in a large square shape, a massive fang at each corner, and the flexible lips covered with rows of shark-like needle teeth, overlapping one another in a vicious pattern.

A high pitched hissing sound issued from the mouth, saliva spraying and splattering across the floor. Posturing that was suddenly interrupted as an arrow imbedded itself in the pink interior of the mouth, causing it to snap shut with a surprised screech, and Silviana was already drawing back a second arrow. The great red eye snapped shut, black plates drawing across it quickly, and the arrow bounced harmlessly off.

The beast turned, moving away from them, stepping to the far side of the hole. Comforted by the floor holding the creature's weight, Alex skirted the side of the hole in pursuit, trying to head it off and get a shot at the eye with his blade.

It began to turn back, the red eye facing toward him. Unable to completely turn to face him in time, it swatted out with one leg the size of a tree trunk. It caught him directly in the chest, throwing him back through the air. Even as he fell, he heard the whistle of an arrow zipping by. Again, the red eye snapped shut, the projectile bouncing harmlessly of the exo-skeletal plates.

The enormous legs moved, vibrating the floor with each step. Alex was starting to his feet when the sharp tip of one filled the air over him. He rolled to the side quickly as it stabbed down where he had been. He found himself directly under the open mouth, a horrific portal aiming straight for him, and thrust his sword up quickly into its jaw.

The blade glance off the armor, jarring his wrist. Another arrow struck into its mouth, causing it to start in surprise and pain, lifting up away from him. He glanced to his left, seeing the hole less than a foot away, and a large pointed leg blocking his movement to the right. Only one option available, he sat up, rolling forward, directly under the creature. Praying for a soft underbelly, he stabbed upward, his blade glancing harmlessly off the exoskeletan. It shifted its weight suddenly, lifting itself higher in the air. Alex swore, diving between two legs as its body slammed into the floor, sending spider web cracks out from beneath it in the stone.

He rolled on his landing, getting straight to his feet as he turned back toward it. He spotted Silviana on the far side, her bow ready, trying to get a shot at the enormous eye, but the creature kept it shut, instead turning away from her, only opening the eye when out of her line of sight. It spotted him and turned more fully toward him, its back to her. Alex backed away several steps, and suddenly stopped. His foot sank into the floor about an inch, and he glance down to see the stone had shifted as he triggered a pressure plate. He heard a loud clank, and a creak as something started to move. The creature moved toward him, its vicious mouth open wide.

He threw himself backward as the jaw snapped toward him. A massive pendulum axe emerged from the wall, swinging from the ceiling, and stuck the creature on its left side, between the first and second leg. Dark ichors flew through the air, along with black chitin chips, and a loud screech filled the room.

The enormous axe blade was imbedded in the beast's side as it shifted, struggling to dislodge it. Alex saw his chance, and with a sinister smile, charged the beast. The red eye snapped shut, shielding itself, and he aimed his thrust lower, striking straight into the screeching, open mouth. Dark fluids burst from the stab wound, spraying over him, a hot and sick sticky sensation, far more disturbing than the clinging thickness of the magically charged air of the temple.

But he was focused on his task, dragging his blade out and stabbing again, causing even louder screeches. He drew his blade out, the mouth trying to close to protect itself. Standing where he was between the front legs, he spied a structural weakness. On the inside of knees of the armored legs, a gap in the plates to allow it to move. He spun, using his momentum into the swing, and struck the inside of the right front leg. The flesh cut away, and the creature howled as the leg was severed at the knee, the lower half falling to the floor, fluids gushing from the upper half. Her turned to do the same to the other, when the beast shifted.

With colossal effort, it dragged itself from the axe blade, more of its fluids spilling onto the floor, and Alex back up to avoid the shifting legs. The red eye opened, and he charged. It spun away, faster than he expected, his blow falling harmlessly on the plates as it turned, and even as Silviana lined up her shot, dove straight down the hole in the floor, howling back at them as it vanished into the darkness below.

"Get back here!" Alex shouted as he ran to the side of the hole, looking down after it, "I'm not done!"

Only silence returned from the opening. Silviana approached from the other side of the hole, still holding an arrow at the ready as she looked down into the darkness. "Looks like it's had enough, though," she said.

Alex sighed. He looked down at himself and the sticky black ichor on his clothes. He sighed, then with a shrug, used the shredded tail of his cloak to wipe the mess from his sword blade. Silviana moved around the hole toward him, returning the arrow to her quiver.

"What the hell," she said with a smile, and stood up on her toes, giving him a swift kiss on the cheek. When his eyes widened in surprise, and she smiled again, adding a pat on the arm before moving past him toward the far door.

Alex couldn't help himself, and found he was grinning as he turned to follow her.

* * *

Midna was dumbstruck by Darius' statement. "His corpse?" she repeated, one hand touching her mask, a piece of the Fused Shadow.

"Yes," Darius said, "He couldn't even just die like everyone else does, he had to leave a great deal of his power behind. That was what would come to be called the Fused Shadow. When the Fused Shadow is worn by a Twili, they take on a form much like his own, more shadow than flesh, their body impervious to physical and magical harm. Though simply knocking the mask off is enough to revert them to normal, making them more vulnerable than he was."

"I've worn the whole thing!" Midna said, her voice suddenly rising, "Nothing like that happened! It just seemed like it was spilling energy everywhere! The best I could do was try to aim it the right way!"

"That I believe is because of your current form," Darius said, "Whatever Ganondorf did to you to change your form also interferes with your abilities. I think you will find that the small amount of magic you used to rip Zant asunder, if you were in your natural state, would be enough to raze an entire room."

She didn't respond, so he took a breath, turning and pacing back and forth before them. "We had a saying, back before the war. That the real mark of a master wizard was the will to not use what he possessed. Ganondorf is a unique oddity these days, a man capable of the single handed destruction that he is. In my age, there were at least fifteen of that caliber, and without the use of the Triforce to achieve it. And Tharkus was the only one who turned it against the very people we were supposed to serve. And there was a time we thought he was the best of us. It's why he was elected arch-mage, after all."

"Power corrupts," Link quoted, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"True, in a sense," Darius said, "Though I think it is human nature that corrupts, more than the power itself. Hatred, ignorance, paranoia, fear… All of these exist in every man to an extent, and they can corrupt a man just as surely as greed and lust for power."

They all turned suddenly as Kilishandra interjected. She spoke slowly and softly, her eyes not on any of them, or the surrounding, seemingly staring far off at something they could not see.

"Hatred, ignorance, gluttony, greed," she said, "All these things are at the very core of human nature. Mankind excels at hating and killing itself. Disagreements, misunderstandings, then revenge, mistrust, racism, and simple exertions of who is the strongest. These cause needless wars and violence, and if no reason can be found, one will be created. The history of the world is a litany of blood, and so shall be the future. You can't change that.

"At least, that's what my father, Ganondorf, always told me," she added, her eyes suddenly focusing on them.

"A tragic outlook, but a truthful one," Darius said, shaking his head sadly.

"What a crock," Link said.

All three of them suddenly turned to him. He turned to Kilishandra. "You really believe that?" he asked her.

"I don't like to, but more and more I see the truth of what he said," she replied.

"Let me tell you something," he said, and then pointed to Darius, "And this goes for you too, old man. That kind of belief is nothing but an excuse for someone who wants sympathy, who wants to believe the whole world's against him. It's easy to generalize and say it's hopeless. The exact same way someone will blame all the misfortune of his life on fate, when in truth he was just too much of a coward to work to change his lot.

"No one is inherently good or evil," Link went on, "It's our choices, what we do, that matters. If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You stand up and make yourself heard. You don't back down from those who oppose you. There will be opposition, possibly even violence, but if you back down for even one second from what you believe, you've already lost."

"What you're talking about is impossible," Kilishandra said, "I've tried to think that way, I really have. And I was betrayed by my own. I wanted to build a utopian kingdom here, that would never face war, discrimination, or any part of the dark side of humanity. And the people I thought I could trust were lying to me."

"And you've given up. That's why you fail. When you find something you can truly believe in," he paused a second, glancing at Midna, "you can't give up, ever. The worse things get, the harder you have to fight. No matter how close you are to losing your grip, you can't ever let go. The right path is never the easy one."

He stepped forward, brushing straight through the image of Darius.

"By the way," Link added, interrupting Darius as he was about to speak, and Link turned back to Kilishandra, "That utopia you want to build. It already exists. It's not perfect yet, but it's well on the way, so long as people like us are willing to keep it going the right direction."

"You can't be serious," she said.

"I am," Link said, "because I've lived there my entire life. Its name is Hyrule. And right now, it's in danger. We've wasted enough time here. Let's go."

He turned and started walking, not looking back.

The others remained silent for a moment, then Midna smiled. "He's right," she said, turning to Darius, "Whatever Cain was and whatever the Twili did, it doesn't matter right now, regardless of how much you want to try to make me doubt. What matters is what I do now. And I know where I need to be right now."

She moved past Darius, hovering in the air as she always did, giving him and amused half-smile as she did so, then quickly caught up to Link, moving along beside him. She moved just a bit higher, putting one arm over the back of his neck and hugging his shoulder as they disappeared through the far door.

Darius turned back to Kilishandra, who watched Link and Midna go in silence, a furrow growing in her brow. Then she glanced back at Darius once, then moved past him, following them. Once the door shut, Darius turned away from it, somewhat disconcerted.

Link's line of thought paralleled that of Tharkus, and caused the ancient war in the first place.

But Tharkus had be out for his own revenge, while Link lifted his sword in defense of others. Perhaps that was the difference maker. He had no choice but to trust Link right now.

He relaxed his effort, his consciousness returning to the Chamber of Sages, with its flowing blue walls of light surrounding him. He waved one hand, and an image appeared in the air before him. A globe, representing the world, all the land masses and oceans visible, and wrapped around it, in the same location and yet not, the image of the Sacred Realm. Two realities in nearly the exact same location in existence.

And through it all, the interwoven barrier that protected them both from the return of Shaklator.

The barrier continued to fade, silently ebbing its light away. Four thousand years it had taken to weaken to this point, and he realized now that it was beyond repair. Even returning the Triforce now would not restore it to the point needed to survive the next alignment.

Every one thousand years, the stars aligned perfectly between all the realities, and resulted in weakened shells between them, making travel between them much easier than normal. And this next alignment, during the next Summer Solstice, the barrier would still be too weak to prevent Shaklator's passage even if it were repaired.

She was coming through. Even if they won the war and prevented the use of the Twilight Mirror to ease her passage, she would still be there, and it would take all three of the Triforce Bearers to even have a chance against her. He was sure of that now.

Perhaps he should have done something more before now, to make sure Ganondorf was killed and the Triforce returned, during the numerous incursions into Hyrule. There was no help for it now though, and the man whose own lust for power had led him to lay his blood stained hands on the Triforce, eventually causing this possibility in the first place, was one of only three that had the slightest chance of stopping it.

Fate had a sense of humor, it seemed.

* * *

Link, Midna, and Kilishandra emerged into a large, open chamber, and found themselves on the left hand side of the enormous room. Across the room to their right, a stone dais rose from the floor. Standing atop it were two statues, back-to-back, of Eternity and Infinity, the gods of Time and Space. Link's spirits rose when he saw the glowing red lettering across their shoulders. The last piece of the restoration spell, at last within their grasp.

"Okay, we just have to wait for the others…" he started, and a door to the right slammed open.

Ganondorf and Sheila emerged into the chamber. Even as Sheila turned, noticing them, Ganondorf's eyes went elsewhere. Link turned to his gaze. There was something on the right side of the altar, mostly hidden from his view.

Ganondorf's sword flashed into view. A third door, further down the chamber opened, Alex and Silviana stepping through. Link was moving, trying to see what was around the altar. Ganondorf's heavy footsteps echoed across the chamber as he charged it.

A hunched figure kneeling on the floor, sitting in a circle drawn in chalk. Link recognized the points of the star within the circle that the figure knelt in the center of, adding the final lines with the chalk in his hand. It was a magic circle.

Link swore, going for his own sword. Everything seemed to be moving slowly, and each of Ganondorf's steps seemed minutes apart, the rising roar of his voice seeming to go on indefinitely. Link's own steps echoed loudly in his ears. He wouldn't make it in time.

Zero looked up for a moment, the scarred flesh sealing over his left eye trembling as he smiled. His left arm, right shoulder, and a good part of his torso were solid black, where Zelda had previously struck him with the Triforce of Wisdom's power.

He turned back to his work as they moved, tossing aside the chalk. On four corners of the pentagram were four bowls, each one filled with a different substance. One had a handful of earth, and another was filled to the brim with water. A third housed a small rubber bladder filled with nothing more than air. The final one was filled with one shavings. He snatched up a piece of flint and his black sword, and struck the flint against the blade, creating sparks that fell into the shavings.

Fire leaped up from the bowl, and the elemental circle was complete, and Zero dove quickly from the center, running for the far side of the room. Ganondorf skidded to a halt, shouting for everyone to run, and turned to race back toward the door.

There was no time. Link saw the sparks rise from the four bowls of elements, and more from the lines of chalk as they began to glow. White sparks danced through the air, rising and spreading ever higher and wider.

Midna was at his side. Link simply reacted. He wrapped his arms around her, diving to the floor, putting his back toward the sparks, between her and the circle.

Then the sudden ignition, as the air around them exploded in fire, the ceiling vanishing and the walls ripping away in all directions, flames leaping higher and higher into the night sky, spinning rapidly in a great tornado of fire, ascending to the heavens, carrying stone fragments of the temple with them.

Link felt warmth, but did not know how he was spared the blast, looking up quickly, and saw Kilishandra motioning for him to follow her. He looked around for the others, and saw them as well, moving back from the center of the explosion. He turned and looked, seeing a great column of red light where the magic circle had been, shooting infinitely high into the sky. The walls of the temple had vanished, and now only spiraling walls of flames surrounded them, as vicious wind whipped through the area, and threatened to throw Link off his feet as he tried to stand.

Midna suddenly grabbed at her mask, the wind threatening to lift it right off her head. Her motion caught the chain necklace she wore, and she felt it snap. The emerald green star pendant, her gift from Link only a few days earlier, was in front of her eyes, and she grabbed for it with one hand.

The motion was too much, sending Link off balance and the wind toppled him, his own grip slipping, and Midna's small body was lifted away from him. She screamed his name, and he saw her rising through the air, carried on the wind, even as he tried to climb to his feet, and she rose higher and higher, spiraling out of sight among the spinning flames.


	93. Chapter 92

_"Here comes the finale, time to pay your dues._

_ A law without mercy, you have to take the truth._

_ No worldly powers could force the fate,_

_ Universal judgement of the highest grade._

_Time's right to find out if you're wrong or right._

_ Time is running short now, beware the law will strike._

_ Evil souls are fading in the flames,_

_ No more lies and no more games._

_ Into the fire!_

_Blackened hearts will burn!_

_Into the fire!_

_The flames of no return!"_

**-"Into the Fire," Written and Performed by Running Wild**

**Chapter 92: Mirror Image Devil: Zero**

It was nearly midnight in Darimar. The stars shone clearly in the sky, as at last the seemingly never-ending snow had abated. In the next few weeks, the sun would at last come out to warm the air and melt it away, as the first days of the new year and spring approached.

Arthur was dozing at his post, on the east side of the courtyard wall when footsteps on the stone woke him. He fumbled his spear, blinking his eyes to wake himself as the steps came closer. He wondered how long he'd been half-asleep, and if the guard was changing already.

It was not the change of guard, as he turned his head, he spied Zelda as she came to a stop a short distance from him.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked, turning his attention back to the city beyond the wall.

"I couldn't sleep," Zelda said, "You mind some company? Or do you have enough already?"

Arthur glanced at her, a questioning look on his face. Zelda smiled, and said, "Come on out."

A dark clad figure emerged from the shadow of the wall crenellations, standing up where he could be seen in the moonlight. Arthur jumped, taking a step back as the ninja rolled one arm, his shoulder popping rather loudly, followed by the ninja sighing with relief. "Been waiting to do that for nearly an hour now," he said.

"What is this?" Arthur demanded.

"It's okay," Zelda said, moving up next to him, "They're on our side, remember? They've got their own sentries all over the city, just out of sight. Extra eyes never hurt."

"I didn't even know he was there," Arthur said.

"As out of it as you were, there could be twenty of us here and you wouldn't know it," the ninja said.

"That's enough," Zelda said, stepping in before Arthur could retort, "Go take a break, or something. Give us a little privacy."

The ninja turned, took two steps, and leaped off the wall into the courtyard. Arthur moved to the back of the wall, looking down after him. There was no sound from a landing, though a moment later, the ninja appeared again, moving across the courtyard at a relaxed jog.

Arthur turned back to the front of the wall, shaking his head. "Those guys make me nervous," he muttered.

"Why's that?" Zelda asked.

"Well, aside from the fact they move like ghosts and you won't see one until it's too late, I can't believe the king is just letting them run loose over the city like this," Arthur said, "They were the enemy until just a few months ago."

"That's understandable," Zelda said, leaning against a raised crenellation, looking out of the city, "But part of being a soldier is that you sometimes have to take your superior's decisions on faith. You realized that when you joined, didn't you?"

"Yes, I suppose," Arthur said, "But hell, there could be another one listening to us right now for all we know."

"There isn't," Zelda said, "It's complicated, but suffice to say, they couldn't sneak up on me if they wanted to."

"Well, surely you didn't come up here to discuss the city's guests," Arthur said, "What's bothering you?"

"Nothing's really bothering me," Zelda said, "At least, not in the sense you're thinking. I guess I'm getting restless. Too long in one place after spending most of a year traveling. That, and I keep thinking about my kingdom."

"What happened to it, you mean?"

"No, not like that," Zelda said, "Or at least, not entirely. I keep thinking about the faces, mainly. The people I know, the people in the city every day…"

"You're homesick," Arthur said.

"I suppose I am," Zelda said, "But I know I can't go back until things are finished here. And if Darimar loses this war, there won't be much point in going back anyway. Khall will just keep coming, and in our current state, we wouldn't be able to hold him off."

"I'm just trying to put the war out of my mind for now," Arthur said, "I think I'd go mad, if I sit here thinking about it every day until we're actually able to march."

"It's nearly time, isn't it?" Zelda asked.

"If there isn't a late storm, I think in about three weeks, it will be time," Arthur said, "and I guess whatever will be, will be."

Zelda glanced up at him. His eyes were focused on the buildings beyond the wall, no her. In the dim light, he looked oddly stoic, compared to what she expected of him. It was suddenly broken, however, when he looked up suddenly, and asked, "What the hell?"

She turned to where he was looking. On the far northeastern horizon, a light appeared, and was rapidly growing. A red funnel reached toward the sky, dark shapes carried in the glow, spinning rapidly, like a great red twister, reaching ever skyward.

"Isn't that the direction of the temple your friends were going to?" Arthur asked.

"Yes," Zelda said, unable to take her eyes of the spinning red column, "What is going on over there?"

* * *

Link struggled to stay on his feet as the winds grew ever stronger, looking up where Midna had disappeared. The spinning flames surrounding them on all sides continued to expand, increasing the area within the circle, stones of the ceiling and walls being carried upward, spinning around the red column of light directly in the center, where the elemental circle had been created by Zero.

"Dammit!" he said, barely able to hear himself over the roaring winds, "I can't lose her again!"

He turned, searching for Ganondorf. The wizard was to his right, apparently trying to shield Sheila from the winds with one arm, while his eyes focused upward on the spiraling flames. Link started toward him, forcing himself through the violent winds.

He spotted movement in the corner of his eye to the left. Link stepped back, his sword coming up, and white blade met black as he blocked Zero's strike. Link staggered back, the force of Zero's blow immense, jerking his wrist and making his entire arm numb.

Zero pressed in, intending to end it right there. Link stepped to the side, letting his second blow pass by, lifting his sword to counter, only to have his wrist scream in agony and his grip nearly fail. Link pass the opportunity to strike with the blade, instead spinning back the other way, and sweeping Zero's feet from beneath him with one foot, sending the dark image of himself toppling face first onto the stone floor.

Link passed his sword to his other hand as he backed up, Zero already climbing back to his feet. Link shook his left hand, trying to work the pain out of his wrist. He couldn't take hits like that. It seemed Zero's boasting at their last encounter wasn't purely ego at work. As Zero turned toward him, Link spotted Kilishandra moving up on Zero from behind. She lifted her free hand, and Link saw her mouth move, though he could not hear the words over the wind.

Then she was looking down at her hand, as if unsure about something, then shoved it toward Zero's back again, shouting into the wind. Link realized she was attempting to cast a spell, and it wasn't working. That was when he realized how significant the pain in his wrist was. The magical regeneration of his wounds that he was barely becoming accustomed to should have eliminated the pain by now.

But he had no time to focus on the matter as Zero swiftly crossed the small distance between them, forcing Link to give more ground, their blades rattling together with Link's clumsy right-handed parry, turning the force of Zero's strike to the side, and pulling Link's right arm across to the left. Not wasting the chance, he pushed back with a shoulder-block to Zero's chest.

Zero fought for balance as he staggered back, and Link quickly passed his sword back to his left hand, and press forward again, with and upward slice from the side. Zero leaned back, the tip of the blade passing within an inch of his face, as a second blade struck down from above. The Master Sword cleaved into his shoulder, and twittered, sending Zero stumbling to the side and Kilishandra's foot swept his own out from under him, depositing him on the floor as the Master Sword was pulled out of his back.

This was the first time Link had seen Zero struck, and hesitated at the sight of a perfect split down his chest, like wet clay, with no blood, bones, or innards visible in the wound. It was almost hypnotic, watching as the wound began to pull itself closed, small tendrils of flesh bridging the empty gap and pulling it back together.

But not about to let this chance slip by, he moved forward, secure in the knowledge his sword could slay Zero, just as it had the other golems before. Even as he struck, Zero rolled, his own blade coming up, and sparks flew as metal grinded on metal, Link's blow turned to the side harmlessly. Zero's free hand snatched at him, causing Link to step back quickly. With that strength, he dared not let Zero get a hold on him.

Kilishandra moved in to try to cut Zero down again, hoping herself that Link's sword could slay him. She was forced back as Zero spun, aiming a wide, sweeping cut toward her, before turning back to Link. It was clear where his interest lay.

Link backed away again as Zero pressed his attack. Again and again their blades struck, and each time, Link turned the force of his strikes away. He thought to himself again that Zero was learning fast. He was far quicker to recover than the last time they fought, and he wasn't overextending himself as much. But Link, at first unbalanced by the roaring winds around them, was finding his rhythm now, and each of Zero's blows was easier to turn away than the last, and all he had to do was wait for his opening.

Kilishandra watched for her own chance to strike, moving slowly closer to the pair. Their blades never ceased movement, like a hypnotic dance of steel, the clashing of metal drown out by the violent winds. She readied herself, gripping her sword as she lifted it higher, when suddenly the dance shifted.

Link suddenly pushed back, thrusting his weapon toward Zero's midsection. The other moved quickly, the weapon passing harmlessly under his arm as he sidestepped. Link moved a foot, attempting to get it between Zero's legs and drop him to the ground, and Zero quickly stepped around it. For a brief instant, they were standing back to back, and Kilishandra could see both of their faces, in perfect profile, against one another. Then they were moving apart again, spinning back toward their opponent, the fight going on.

It was almost startling, what Kilishandra had seen in that moment. Zero's good eye had been toward her, and in that moment, she had truly seen how identical the two were in appearance. Yet it wasn't even Zero's white hair that made them startlingly different, despite the faces. The expressions, Link with a focused frown, concentrating on his task at hand, while Zero wore an almost maniacal grin with his teeth bared, as if he were enjoying every second of it.

Both of them extremely dangerous, yet in completely different ways.

Across what remained of the chamber, Ganondorf had risen back to his feet, gazing upward the twisting tunnel of fire, one arm around Sheila as fought the hood of her cloak against the wind.

"Why aren't we dead?" she shouted over the wind, almost directly in his ear.

Even though his responses were shouted at her, he was barely audible. "The hell if I know," was his response, "I've never seen anything like this before! Might as well get a good look, because if we do live through this, you'll likely never see it again!"

The winds were carrying the stones of the ceiling and walls up, spinning around the funnel at ever growing velocities. Sheila spotted Alex and Siliviana moving up next to them, fighting the winds for every step they took. As they drew closer, Ganondorf turned, glancing at the wet black ichor staining Alex's clothes and face.

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked, and before Alex could respond, the stone floor beneath them groaned and shifted.

Link and Zero paused their conflict as the floor shook beneath their feet, making balance even more precarious. Then, with a grating sound loud enough to hurt the ears, the floor started to rise. The individual stone blocks of the floor began to drift apart as it rose further in the air, the mortar cracking and flaking away into the wind.

"What's going on here?" Alex shouted over the winds, then quickly jumped from one stone black to another, before he drifted from the group, "The wind should carry us off before the floor!"

"You're talking physics," Ganondorf shouted back, "In this situation, physics don't mean a damn thing! This place has been absolutely saturated with magic energy for the better part of eight thousand years."

"I thought you didn't know what's happening!" Sheila said.

"I have a theory!" Ganondorf said, "Feel how dry the wind is? It's not an actual dry wind. All that built up energy is being drained away by this fire. It's literally sucking the magic right out of the air and everything else. The stones of the building are far more saturated than we are with the magic, and they respond more readily."

_Which also explains why it carried off Midna so quickly,_ he added silently, _With that curse she's been carrying for two years now, she's practically a magical battery herself, and that's not including that mask of hers._

The floor continued to deteriorate, larger and larger pieces breaking away. Link found himself isolated on one as it split away, drifting from Zero and Kilishandra. His face contorted in a primal roar, Zero took three steps and leaped, sailing across the gap. Their weapons clashed, and as Link stepped aside, he felt the ground give way beneath his foot, quickly stepping back as a smaller piece of stone gave way and crumbled to dust.

He found himself trapped on a small piece of rock with no maneuvering space, his weapon locked with the dark mirror image of himself, and silently cursed, knowing full well how much stronger Zero was than himself.

Zero turned his head just enough to glance down at the constantly more distant ground beneath them, and his smile grew even more venomous as his eyes returned to Link's.

A spinning shape struck into the side of Zero's head, knocking him off center. Kilishandra's shoulder plate, its blade embedded into the side of Zero's face, was directly in front of Link's face. Taking the opening, Link gave Zero a shove, sending him toppling off the side of their small platform.

Zero snatched the edge of the platform with his free hand, his weight on the side causing it to rock violently, nearly sending Link off the side as well. The odd motions caused it to begin to rotate, drifting back toward the larger platform where Kilishandra stood. Link glanced down, seeing Zero hanging on by his fingers, and even so lifting his sword to swipe at Link's legs.

Link quickly leaped from the side of the platform, easily avoiding the slice, and coming down on the larger platform, turning back to see Zero pulling himself back up, the spiked armor plate still jutting from the side of his head. Link glanced at Kilishandra, seeing her right shoulder now bare.

"I can't believe you threw that at me in this wind!" he shouted at her over the roaring winds.

"I didn't miss!" she responded.

Link shook his head, simply groaning his frustration. Then motioned for her to back away from the edge, giving a bit of room as Zero pulled himself onto his feet.

"I am seriously tired of this son of a bitch," Kilishandra shouted to Link.

"Let him get over here, then we take him together," Link shouted back.

Zero pulled the spiked armor piece from his head with his free hand, letting it drop away to disappear below them. Kilishandra couldn't help but sigh. First the left arm, now the right shoulder. It was frustrating, considering her armor was one of a kind and made specifically for her.

Zero took one step and leaped toward them, his sword high and ready. An enormous black shape suddenly collided with him from the side, carrying him sideways despite his screaming protests. Link could make out a lot of flying black legs spinning around the object, and a gigantic red eye, filled with panic, and one of the legs cut off at the knee, still oozing black blood that splashed on nearby stones in the air.

"_That's_ what happened to me," Alex shouted at Ganondorf as they watched it pass overhead.

* * *

Midna was in a panic. The winds were vicious, yet she was sure they couldn't be enough to carry her through the air like this. The little bit of magic she used to levitate herself was hardly all she was capable of, yet as much as she struggled, with all the force she could muster, she could not stop her ascent, or the spin that carried her around the bright red column at the center of the spinning ring of fire.

And what was most frightening was that every second brought her close to that red beam of light.

She struggled, trying to force herself away, even attempting to swim against the air, to no avail.

Finally, in a last fit of desperation, she grit her teeth, and drew them out. The pieces of the Fused Shadow, hidden away in the magical pocket dimension every Twili possessed. They vibrated in the air, attempting already to form themselves to the mask she wore, as if sentient themselves and desiring to be in one piece again.

She dreaded what might happen each time they came together, even more so now that she knew what they truly were. After Ganondorf's defeat the last year, she had hoped she never had to use them again. But now, she needed their strength, and her life, as well as Link's and the others, might depend on it.

She relaxed her grip on the pieces. They slammed together with her mask, violently, hiding her entire face, and the completed mask began to glow and vibrate. Midna felt the warmth of the ancient power flooding her body and limbs.

Suddenly she was yanked sideways, with a startled cry, and found herself enveloped in red light, pulled directly into the red column of light.

Pain flooded her senses, and she screamed.

* * *

An explosion above them drew all eyes upward. Link could see it, and he immediately knew it had to be Midna. _I have to get to her,_ he thought, _But how?_

The platforms of stone were still rising, but far too slowly, and they were still fracturing into smaller and smaller pieces. They wouldn't last long enough.

He had only one option left. He started running. Kilishandra was startled, then started after him. Link leaped the gap between two platforms, and kept running for the next. Another easy jump brought him down less than ten feet from the other four. He dashed over to Ganondorf, who was still looking upward at the glowing bulb of light in the red column, which was slowly coming closer to them as they rose further yet.

"I have to get up there!" Link shouted to Ganondorf over the winds, "Help me!"

Ganondorf lowered his gaze, toward Link. He had heard Link, and his brow furrowed, either in frustration or anger, Link couldn't tell.

"Please!" Link shouted as Kilishandra came up behind him.

A smile appeared on Ganondorf's face, and without a word, he turned back to the light, and shrugged.

Link started toward him, ready to grab him by the shirt and scream it in his face if he had to. Kilishandra caught his shoulder with a shout of "Wait!"

Link turned to her. "There's nothing he can do!" she said, "I tried used my magic a minute ago on Zero. Nothing is working!"

"That's right," Ganondorf said, "This cyclone of fire is burning off all the energy in the area. In the center, where we are, it has created a null zone. Think of it as an ani-magic field. Magic doesn't work, because there's no energy to fuel it. Until the fire burns off its energy, we can't do a thing."

"Wait one second," Alex said, "What happens when it burns off all its energy?"

"The fire dies, and we go down," Ganondorf said.

Alex glanced over the edge of the platform. The ground had to be at least a hundred feet below them by this point. He started swearing, quite loudly and repeatedly.

Sheila looked up at Link, and growling through his teeth, he looked back up at the light above them. She started to say something, then stopped when he suddenly took one step away from them, turning his head, then back the other way, as if searching for something.

A smile appeared on Link's face, and he turned back to Ganondorf. "You're wrong, old man," he shouted, "There is _always_ a way!"

Before anyone could respond, Link was running. His sword went into its sheathe, and even as Kilishandra called him an idiot, he leaped from the edge of the stone platform, in the direction of the column of light, where no other platforms were visible.

The next thing she knew, he had snatched a spinning stone block, a large single brick of the former floor, about a foot across in any direction, and was pulling himself onto it even as it rocketed to the side, spinning around the center of funnel at nearly four times the speed of the platform they were on.

He pulled himself up onto his feet, steadying himself against the wind and speed of the block, and suddenly performed a standing leap from it, toward nothing. Then another block appeared under his hands as he snatched hold of it as it rocketed by.

Kilishandra couldn't believe what she was seeing. She glanced back at the others, who were watching with similar disbelief written on their faces. Except for Ganondorf.

He was smiling.

* * *

Midna could see anything. She couldn't hear anything. All she was aware of the pain that burned in her veins like fire. She ground her teeth until they ached, yet this was lost in the greater pain. Her arms clutched over her chest, doubled over in the fetal position, yet nothing reduced the agony. A half-hearted thought went through her head, wondering why she had not blacked out.

"Help me," she whispered, barely able to get the words out, "Someone… please…"

Around her, just out of side, the pieces of the Fuse Shadow spun in a circle, surrounding her body, pulsing a dim blue light against the bright red that surrounded her.

* * *

Link managed to snatch the next block, pulling himself ever so gradually higher. He tried not to think about the logic of what he was doing, for fear he would lose focus and miss. One mistake would be the end of him here. Staying focused was all that mattered, and he leaped once more, snatching hold of another spinning block of stone, moving ever higher.

"Good thing he's not afraid of heights," Silviana remarked as the group watched him.

The round black form of the enormous spider rolled around into their view again, rising higher with each pass. Alex watched it spin past, its legs flailing futilely in the wind. Then started when he saw another shape climb from it. Zero stood up on the large beast, then leaped up, grabbing one of the spinning stone blocks, pulling himself up. With ease, he rose to his feet, and leaped again with no hesitation, snatching the next.

"We have to do something about him!" Alex shouted.

"I can't shoot in this wind," Silviana said when he turned to her.

"Well then, after him, boy!" Ganondorf pointed after Zero, "If you're so eager, do something about him!"

Alex looked back to Zero, who was moving swiftly from block to block, and gradually gaining on Link. He sighed and shook his head.

"No?" Ganondorf asked, then turned back to Link and Zero, "Then just be quiet and watch. Link is on his own."

Link could see the bulb in the red column of light coming closer. He still had no idea what he intended to do once he reached it, but that was all that mattered right now. He waited for the right moment, and made the leap to the next brick. They were getting closer together now. The bulb of light seemed to be drawing them in closer around itself.

He was able to make the next leap and land directly on the block, rather than having to pull himself up. The bulb of light was only about another fifteen feet above him. He looked about, searching for his next platform in the spinning mess.

Unusual movement caught his eye, and there was Zero, pulling himself onto a flying brick about twenty feet to Link's right. Their eyes met, and then Zero turned to the bulb of light. A sinister smile appeared on his face as he turned back to Link.

"Like hell you will," Link growled.

The race was on, each moving from block to block, trying to fight the route through the spinning nightmare to move higher and closer to the center of the vortex.

Ganondorf suddenly turned toward a small movement in the corner of his eye. The flames in the spinning funnel were slowing down. And there it was again. A sputtering, along with a visible hole in the fire wall. It closed again quickly, but he had seen it.

The energy was running out, and everything was about to come crashing down. He guess another five minutes were all that remained. He had Sheila close, and could hold another under his other arm, but looking at Kilishandra, Silviana, and Alex, he knew he couldn't save them all, even if he could catch himself once the fire came down, which he was having his doubts about. It depended on how long the null zone would actually last. He would likely have to resort to direct energy from the Triforce of Power. Well, best not to tell the nonessentials ahead of time, he decided, turning back to Link and Zero.

* * *

The pain was only getting worse. It felt like something was trying to tear her apart from the inside out. Midna could taste her own tears, though she could not feel them on her cheeks, so much her flesh burned in agony.

She had given up asking for help, and silently praying for anything that would just make the pain stop.

"You would give up your life, just to stop the pain?"

The voice startled her. Like a ray of light piercing through the wall of agony, she opened her eyes. All she could see was white all around her. "Who's there?" she managed to ask.

"A friend."

A shape whipped past her. She couldn't make it out, but it left an odd blue trail in the whiteness surrounding her. The voice itself was low, a strong male voice, yet soft and tender, and oddly comforting.

"Help me…" she whispered through the pain.

"I can't do that," said the voice, "I'm afraid the only one who can save you right now is yourself."

"It hurts…" she said, "I can't even think…"

"First of all, stop feeling sorry for yourself."

"What?" Midna looked up. Another shape she couldn't make out whipped past her eyes, leaving a thin blue trail that faded away.

"It hurts, certainly," said the voice, "The pain is the mana in your body being forcibly pulled from you. If you don't stop it soon, you will perish. Mana isn't just magic, it's the energy of life itself. The emptiness that drains you drew you in when you donned the mask. You have to get yourself out, and soon."

"How do I…?"

"Just focus," the voice said, "Will is the force that controls mana. Sheer force of will can keep you alive through what seems impossible."

Midna tried. The pain was like a knife stabbing into her skull, keeping her from clearing her mind enough to focus her thoughts.

"Find something precious to you," the voice said, "Something that gives you reason to fight, reason to live."

"A reason?" Midna whispered, searching for something, anything, that she could focus on.

For the first time, she became aware of the pressure in her right hand. She slowly opened her fist, turning to toward herself. The small green emerald, cut in the shape of a star, was there in her palm.

As if she had been transformed, she suddenly changed, her face hardening and her eyes narrowing as she snapped her hand back into a fist around the gem. "Link…" she whispered.

The thing that had kept him going through impossible odds was his thoughts of her, he had said. And for his sake was a better reason for her to live than any other he could imagine. She could focus, and realized the pain was fading away. She was able to relax her body, uncurling from her pained position.

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" the voice asked.

"What do I do now?" Midna asked.

"Now you're on your own, I'm afraid," the voice said, "You've got a reason, now the next logical step is what you're going to do about it."

A shape whipped by again, leaving a blue trail of light before her. She turned to follow it, and realized it was a piece of the Fused Shadow. All the pieces were hovering, spinning in a circle around her in the empty white space, pulsing with dim blue light.

* * *

The bulb of light was just out of arm's reach to Link. Now that he was here, he hesitated. Would leaping into it actually accomplish anything? Would it just kill him? Or would he just pass out the other side?

Zero was further to his right, stepping up onto a stone block less than ten feet away. Well, that was one problem he could deal with. The stone blocks were really close together here, and not moving nearly as fast as they were further out. He could literally step from one to another with ease, and drew his sword as he started moving toward Zero.

Zero turned, saw him coming, and gripped his own sword tighter.

More than a hundred feet in the air, their weapons clashed together, a tenuous dance of steel where the first misstep was a plummet to the ground below. The flaming wall of the funnel surrounding them was showing more and more gaps in the flames, some lasting several seconds before closing, a patchwork of holes in the fiery hell on earth.

As their weapons clashed together, Zero backed off a step, to a block further from Link. He motioned for Link to come after him.

"What the hell do you want from me?" Link finally screamed.

"Nothing more than to kill you," Zero said, "I represent a new dawn for the world! But I can't achieve it so long as you, with the same soul as me, exist!"

Link moved after him. Their weapons clashed again, and again Zero backed off to another block, circling around the bulb of light.

"And why exactly does the world need this new dawn?" Link asked.

"Humankind has had their chance, and look at what they've accomplished!" Zero said, "All this death and destruction came about because of human weakness! The history of this world is a litany of blood, wars fought over ideals, religion, and even simply for land!"

He blocked Link's strike, and shoved back, and Link found himself fighting for balance, barely stopping himself from plummeting to his doom.

"Shaklator shall bring about a new order to this world," Zero went on, "and I shall be the first of the new dominant species. But in order for this to be achieved, you and all the rest of mankind must be purged!"

Zero leaped back to avoid Link's next strike, and Link swore in disbelief as he did a back flip through the air to land on a stone block even higher above him. It drifted lazily in a small circle directly above the bulb of light.

"And you're expecting us to just go quietly, is that it?" Link asked, his eyes searching for a path to Zero.

"I'd hope not," Zero said, "It's so much more fun this way."

"Strange you think you're the one who's going to bring about a better world," Link said, "when I can look at you and see so many of the worst elements of mankind distilled into you."

"She gave you your chance to aid her," Zero said, waving his comment off, "and you threw it back in her face. Now, I'm afraid you have to live with the consequences of your actions."

Link was suddenly moving. A standing jump landed him on another nearby stone block with one foot, and not even stopping, leaped straight to the next. A third jump landed him higher, and the fourth even higher.

Far beneath him, Link and Zero were barely silhouettes to the group watching below, squinting to make out the shapes as they moved. As Link started his sudden ascent, Ganondorf's took a step toward the center light, as if it would help he see better, his eyes riveted on Link's path.

"Go…" he whispered, then, with his smile growing, said louder, "Go."

Link made his next to final step, onto a stone block the same level as Zero, turning and leaping directly toward him. "Go!" Ganondorf's shout echoed even over the winds.

Zero's face was contorted in surprised anger as he turned toward Link, but did not even have enough time to make that small movement. His left hand clutched tightly on his sword, his right side turned to Zero as he pulled the blade back, to spin the force of his entire body into the blow.

The fires all around them died away suddenly, the spinning walls of the funnel collapsing even as Link sailed through the air toward Zero. The stone platforms drifted down from under feet, and eyes that had been riveted on Link and Zero turned down, and screams filled the suddenly still air.

Link felt his sword connect with flesh, and Zero's voice, for the first time in this reality, howled in pain. They collided, twisting over one another in the air. Link kept his grip on his sword, and it was suddenly jerked as it slid free of Zero's chest as Link rolled over him in the air, sailing past.

Red filled his vision, and he felt himself collide with something that was firm, yet gave just enough to not hurt. He realized he was no longer falling. "What?" he whispered turning to see five red fingers of an enormous hand, in which he lay in the palm of. Past the fingers, enormous red arms stretched down, more hands grasping in the air. The screams stopped as the hands wrapped themselves around the falling figures, halting their descents.

Link turned further, looking up the red arm of the hand that snatched him, and spotted its source, as all the arms emerged from a single point, at the top of the Fused Shadow, in its complete form. He couldn't help but smile, a smile which grew more when he spotted Zero's rapidly shrinking form beneath himself, and he lay his head back, breathing an immense sigh of relief.

A moment later, and the red limbs deposited them all on the ground. Kilishandra, Alex, Silviana, and Sheila were all intensely focused on the form descending before them, the Ruse Shadow pulsing with blue light around the body of their savior. Ganondorf deliberately crossed his arms, turning away from it and moving away as another form descended toward them, that of the dragon, Roxim, who had been circling the cylinder of fire for some time.

As the figure's feet reached the ground, there was a sudden flash of blue light, and then the Fused Shadow was gone, vanished into the grip of a red hand that was itself vanished into nothingness.

"Link…" Midna said, smiling softly.

Link moved toward her, his legs nearly numb. He could hardly believe it.

Midna held out one hand to him as he drew near. She opened her hand, showing him what she held. The small star cut emerald, from the necklace. Link could suddenly no longer stop himself. He wrapped his arms around her. He was laughing, and crying, at the same time.

"What's wrong?" Midna asked, though she did return his hug.

Alex didn't realize his mouth was hanging open until Silviana reached up and pushed it shut with one finger. Sheila found herself with her mouth flapping, yet could not force words out to express her reaction.

"Nothing," Link said, still holding her, "Absolutely nothing."

It was only then that Midna realized her feet were on the ground, yet Link's head was level with her own chin. She lifted her hands, and he stepped back as she did so. The soft blue tone of her skin, laced with the green tattoos along her fingers and arms, and she suddenly reached up, touching her own face, a smile growing that she couldn't control.

"It's me," she said, "It's really me!"

She turned to Link, who was wiping his eyes, a smile still there on his face.

"Am I so beautiful you're at a loss for words?" she asked.

Link started laughing again, unable to stop himself, even as he undid the clasp of his cloak, and careful not to hand it on his sword, pulled it off to wrap around her shoulders, to shield her bare skin against the chill that was creeping back into the air.

"Sorry," he said, "I don't think we brought any extra clothes. That'll have to do until we get back to Darimar."

"It's all right," she said, then as he started to turn, caught one arm around him, pulling him back into another tight hug, "I love you, Link. So much it hurts."

Link returned her embrace. "I love you, too," he whispered.

"So, she was… the whole time…" Alex said to Silviana, finding himself unable to put complete sentences together.

"It seems so," Silviana said.

Kilishandra was shaking her head as she turned away, moving to where Ganondorf had stopped, and was standing a short distance from the dragon who had landed not far away.

"What's wrong, Kili?" Ganondorf asked as she came closer.

She looked up at him. "You were watching the same thing I was, right?" she asked, "The flying stone, the fighting, and everything?"

"Of course," he said.

"Sounds like I missed something fun," Roxim grumbled.

Ignoring the dragon, she went on, "I can't believe he did that," Kilishandra said, "One wrong step and he'd have killed himself."

"You should know better than that," Ganondorf said, "Courage to the point of reckless disregard for his own safety. It's do or die moments like that which the common people use to tell the difference between soldiers and heroes."

"He's either a genius, or completely insane," she said, looking back at Link.

"The difference is measured only by success," Ganondorf replied.

"And this," Kilishandra said, looking at Midna, "I had thought their behavior was a little strange, considering she looked more like an animal than a person, but…"

She trailed off. Ganondorf sighed, and asked, "But what?"

"What kind of a man can see through a visage like that?" she asked, "To this point?"

"I can't answer that one, I'm afraid," Ganondorf said, "though it might depend less on the man, and more on the woman in question." He shrugged and added, "Besides, I liked her better the other way."

"Hey, Kilishandra!" Link shouted at them, snapping her attention back to the present.

"Yes?" she called back.

"Bring the Master Sword!" he said, "We've still got to collect what we came here for!"

"Oh, that spell," she said, "I completely forgot."

The wreckage of the temple was piled high all around them, the stones having rained down over the entire area, filling in the basement level and scattering for the better part of a mile. Miraculously, the statues upon which the letterings of the spell appeared were undamaged, and had not even lifted from the floor.

Sheila swiftly extracted the spell fragment, the letters emblazoning themselves upon the blade of the Master Sword, and now red runes extended the length of the blade, from the hilt to the tip. At last, they had what they needed to free Hyrule from the grip of the curse that had so long ago sent them on this journey.

"Now, back to Darimar," Link said as Kilishandra slipped the sword back into its sheath, "We've got a war to win."


	94. Chapter 93

Hard to stay focused on writing when Mass Effect 3 is all I can think about. It just needs to come out already so I can play it, complain that Bioware sold out and their games are all ruined, and move on with my life.

Quick note about the chapter, though: I did think about adding another scene with the hot spring to make it longer, but I'm deciding that doing stuff just to make it longer really only drags it out unnecessarily, especially when it's what a lot of people would call a filler chapter already.

**Chapter 93: Ancient History**

"I'm telling you, the thing was like at least three hundred feet long, and fifty feet wide in any other direction," Link said, holding his arms wide for emphasis, "and it was so dark, I couldn't see the whole thing at any time, even when I was latched on its back."

"You're so full of shit!" Alex said with a laugh, "Look, okay, I saw you climb the inside of a tornado, essentially, but fighting a giant whale or whatever, and doing it _underwater_? I'm not that gullible, you know."

"Ask Midna, she'll tell you it's the truth," Link said, pointing back into the cave where their campsite was located.

The pair of them were standing just outside the cave mouth, watching the sun set. Roxim had brought them back to the same cave in the base of the dormant volcano they had stayed the night in on the way to the temple. Three days back to even come this far, and they had another three before they would be back in Darimar, and this was the most comfortable campsite they had along the way.

"Okay, let's say I believe you, which I don't," Alex said, "How do you even kill something that big? Its skin would be two feet thick or something, and its heart would be the size of a house!"

"The eye," Link said, "It only had one eye, incredibly. On its back. It could extending it, like a giant tendril or something, but I got a hold on the edge of its skin plate around the eye, and started stabbing."

"And then you crawled down the socket and started chopping at the brain directly, right?" Alex asked, shaking his head but smiling at the same time.

"No, but I did hit something vital," Link said, "Maybe the brain was right underneath it, because there wasn't nearly enough blood for it to have bled to death."

"Uh huh," Alex said, "Now let me tell you about the time I killed the storm giant Endekar with only a corn cob and my big toe…"

"Fine, be that way," Link said, scratching at his week-and-a-half growth of beard, which was getting to the point of being irritatingly itchy, "Besides, if you want to impress me, you'd have used your pinky toe."

"Actually, I'd rather talk about that girlfriend of yours," Alex said, leaning closer and lowering his voice.

"What about Midna?" Link asked, a somewhat defensive tone in his voice.

"Come on," Alex said, "A tall red-head, perfect skin and proportions… Only thing that's stopping you is the five other people around, isn't it?"

"And I'm sure you're not dying to get Silviana alone," Link countered, "Provided she'd even settle for a vagrant like you."

Alex started to retort, but the words died as he started to laugh, leaning back against the rock wall by the cave mouth, next to Link. "I don't even know," he said at last, "She's so hard to read, sometimes."

"What do you mean?" Link asked.

"I mean, sometimes she's so flirty," Alex said, "and then she gets so serious. It's like that sense of humor of hers. You'd think she's crazy, the weird kinds of stuff she says, but then when the pressure's on, she's like steel."

"Most people would think that's a good thing," Link said.

"She told me about her son," Alex said.

"I see," Link said, putting his arms behind his head as he leaned against the rock wall, looking up at the stars, "She never mentioned a kid to me. How old is he?"

"Older than you or me," Alex said, "You know elves. He's probably at least two centuries."

"He's a grown man, then what's the problem?" Link asked, "Unless it's the fact she's an older woman that bothers you."

Alex decided to not go into the details of Silviana's son being taken from her, out of respect for her privacy. "I don't know," Alex said, "She's never told me her age, but that puts her at least at three hundred. And even then, she's going to outlive me several times over."

"I get it," Link said, "You're worried about what will happen to her when you pass away. You're thinking awfully far ahead."

"I know, war, death or glory, rawr and stuff," Alex said, "Might not live past the next few weeks, let alone years. Forget it, it's silly to worry about right now."

"I wouldn't say that," Link said, "It's something to hold on to. A reason to keep yourself alive. That way you can worry about stuff like that later."

"Maybe," Alex said, "Why, are you worried about something to do with Midna?"

"So much it hurts," Link said.

"Can I ask what it is?" Alex asked, "Not if you don't want to talk about it, of course…"

"It's okay," Link said, "You see, she's a princess."

Alex barked a laugh. "That's all? Gods, and I thought you hit the jackpot before. Should I be calling you 'your highness?'"

"I don't think it's funny," Link said, and Alex stifled his laughter before Link went on, "Someday soon, if we make it though all this, she has to go back to her people. She has responsibilities. I would love to go with her, but it would mean leaving everyone I know, everything I care about. And then I'd spend my life in a castle. The more I think about it, the more I realize that kind of life isn't for me. And on top of that, she will be expected to produce an heir for her position. Humans and the Twili are different species, I'm not sure that she and I could ever have a child.

"But I also could never ask her to just turn her back on her people for my sake."

"I see," Alex said, and after a moment of silence added, "Sorry. Guess I shouldn't be complaining too loud. The vagrant trying to win the heart of a bi-polar dark elf has it easier than the hero who actually won the princess."

"We're both blessed," Link said.

"And too much of gentlemen for our own good," Alex said, pulling his cloak tighter against the cooling air.

* * *

Inside the cave, not far from where the small fire had been built, the natural hot spring was in use once again. Midna nearly groaned as she sank into the steaming water, savoring the sensation of it running over her bare flesh, without the thin layer of hair that had covered her body previously.

It was a moment before she realized she was the subject of intense scrutiny from three pairs of eyes seated in the water around her. Sheila, Silviana, and Kilishandra all watched her in the dim light, but did not speak, and at last Midna just had to break the silence, asking, "What?"

"Sorry," Sheila said, glancing at the other two, then back at Midna, "This just seems weird."

"Oh, believe me, this is an intense relief," Midna said, leaning her head back and sinking further into the water, "Two years. Two years I've been waiting for that spell to be broken."

"You never said anything about it when I met you and the others," Sheila said.

"It wasn't exactly the priority," Midna said, "Though it wasn't exactly far from my mind. I guess it never was."

"You're still not human, though," Kilishandra said, then added, "Well, not really," and deliberately looked away from Midna when she found her eyes wandering downward, as if looking for some evidence of her point.

But the only proof that might have been found was her pale blue skin, and possibly the fact she was incredibly slender for her height, yet one couldn't call her skinny either. Her skin and muscle tone were perfect, and she was unmarked by any visible scars. For some reason Kilishandra couldn't place, it made her extremely aware of her own relatively large arms, and hard, visible abs. It was hardly the first time she'd seen another woman naked, yet none of them made her feel so insecure about herself before.

She was just too damn perfect. Tall, probably just as tall as Kilishandra herself, legs a mile long, perfect smooth skin, and those tattoos just added to her exotic nature. They were the same markings as had been on Midna before, but this was the first time Kilishandra cared to notice them in detail. The way they seemed to glow with a green light, yet vanished in the dark, and stood out well in the flickering firelight. But they were beautiful in their own way, not like the ugly disfiguring scars on Kilishandra's own skin.

"Of course I'm not human," Midna said, "I never claimed otherwise."

_Gods damn it, she has nothing I want!_ Kilishandra silently roared, _Why am I so jealous of her?_

"Back to the subject," Sheila said quickly, noticing the rapidly darkening glare on Kilishandra's face, "What happened in there, I mean, what turned you back to normal?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Midna said, "I didn't even realize it had happened until after it was finished. I suppose I should have realized, considering how easy it was to direct the energy of the Fused Shadow." She paused, looking over at Kilishandra, "Looks like the old man was right, about my form interfering with my control."

_I wonder how many other things he was right about,_ Kilishandra thought, _Like whether or not you can be trusted._

For some reason, the thought of Midna turning on them, giving her an excuse to cut off that pretty head, gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling.

"That mask, you mean?" Sheila asked, and when Midna nodded, "It didn't look like the one you were always wearing before."

"That's because the one I was typically wearing before was just a smaller piece of the complete one," Midna said, "You see, a long time ago, long before any of us, the mask was shattered and the pieces scattered across Hyrule, the kingdom Link and Zelda are from. Only one piece remained with the Twili, which was the one I had. It is treated as the symbol of royalty, like a crown in your kingdoms.

"Link helped me recover the missing pieces last year, when he and I first met. It was to be my secret weapon against Zant, the usurper who had stolen my throne and damned both my people, and the people of Hyrule."

She sank further into the water, resting her head back on the edge of the pool, with an almost nostalgic smile. "I was so foolish back then," she said, "Even with the mask, I was no match for Zant, and especially not for his master, Ganondorf."

Kilishandra was suddenly broken from her ever darker thoughts. "What? What does he have to do with it?" she asked.

"He was behind it all," Midna said, her tone saying it should be completely obvious, "I thought you were told what had happened."

"Apparently not all the details," Kilishandra said, and indeed, she had been told something had happened last year, but not the specifics.

"In fact, if it weren't for Link, I'd likely be dead, and Hyrule and my kingdom would both likely no longer exist," Midna said.

And there it was with that _boy_ again. Okay, he'd managed something impressive, but try as she might, Kilishandra had yet to see why so many people she was meeting practically worshipped the ground he walked on. Even Ganondorf spoke very oddly of him, like behind the face of disdain that he had for most people, there was a spark of admiration.

It had to be luck, she had decided. Pure blind luck was why he had managed to scale those flying bricks of stone, and pure blind luck had saved him in the end. That kind of luck did not last forever.

Silviana scooted closer to Midna, her eyes fixed on the tattoos that decorated her skin. "I'm curious about these tattoos of yours," she said, changing the subject, "Do these have any significance or meaning? Or power, like the one you gave to Link?"

"Well, some of them," Midna said, lifting one arm so Silviana could better see the markings. Her index finger, thumb, and pinky each bore a single line that traced the bone in her hand back to end just before her wrist, while her middle and ring finger each bore a line that went up and turned at the top knuckles, connecting between them. The center of the back of her hand bore a T shaped mark, the top toward her fingers, and the tip pointing toward a V shape aimed at her wrist. Past the wrist, another V pointed back, with the point of a triangle inserted into the open end of the shape, the opposite flat side the starting point for two lines that wove up her forearm, intersecting other shapes and lines in a pattern that was difficult to follow with one's eyes, due to the seeming glow that caused them to meld together and even appear to dance in the viewer's vision.

"These on my arms are a mark of coming of age," Midna said, "Though no two Twili's marking are exactly the same. Just past my elbow, near the end of them, see the circle with all the lines moving into it? That is the symbol of a new moon, marking me as being of the royal bloodline. They're also supposed to provide some kind of protection, though they don't seem to do anything. These on my legs," she lifted her left leg, indicating the markings on her left calf, and then the markings on her right thigh, "Do have real power. They are the means by which I can levitate myself, providing channels for the energy required. It is a form of magic, and I can bypass the channels to use the magic directly, but I have much less control over it that way."

"What about the ones on your ears?" Silviana asked.

"Oh, those," Midna said, remembering the zigzagging lines along the tops of her ears, "I thought they would look good. My ears were sore for nearly a month, even a slight wind made them hurt."

"So what is that one you gave to Link, then?" Sheila asked, "I notice you don't have any on your face."

"That particular one is a special kind," Midna said, "Among my own people, it has the power to cure blindness, by essentially feeding the images the marking can see directly into their senses. In Link's case, it allows him to see in the dark better than any normal human. He still most likely can't see as well as I can, be he should be able to make out a lot more than just silhouettes."

"Yeah, but even in this amount of light, it doesn't do squat."

Link's voice caused a stir in the pool, as Kilishandra and Silviana both turned suddenly, and Sheila, her eyes going wide, splashed Midna in the face in her quick motion to cover her chest. "What are you doing in here?" Sheila asked, "You said you'd wait outside!"

Link had stopped by the pile of their packs, crouching down near them. "I'm not looking," Link said, "At least not there, though I am sorely tempted. Ah, here's what I'm after." He pulled a metal flask from where it had been hidden at the bottom of his pack. "If we're going to be standing in the cold for this long, need something to warm us up."

"You snuck alcohol in your pack?" Midna asked, "And didn't tell me?"

"You never could hold your drink anyway," Link said, standing up.

"I ought to hit you," she said, "Bring it over here, I've got something to celebrate after all."

She was apparently determined to make it awkward, or at least more so, Link decided. "Yeah, but I told Alex I'd share it with him, and we can celabrate when we get back to the city…"

"Just tell him to come in too, then," Midna said.

Sheila turned Midna, feeling her face burning hot, yet the Twili woman did not seem the slightest bit bothered by this. "Just let him go back outside!" she hissed.

"What?" Midna asked, turning to her, "You got something to be ashamed of?"

Link still had his back to them. He knew where this was coming from, having seen many Twili in the brief time he'd been in the Twilight Realm, and understood why Midna was so relaxed. In their culture, clothing was for warmth, or a symbol of office, and among the typical populace, optional. "I think I'll be healthier if I just walk away right now," Link said.

"You shut up, come here, and give me a drink of that, or I'm going to tackle you out in the snow," Midna said.

"Tell you what," Link said, giving in, "I'll back up over there, and will keep my back turned while I hand it to you, okay?"

"Fine," Midna sighed.

Link stepped backwards, moving slowly so he didn't trip over shifts in the uneven cave floor, and when his heels hit the rock rim off the spring, offered the flask back with one hand. He heard movement in the water. A hand suddenly grabbed his belt and yanked backward, and he shouted as he came down in the water with a splash getting a mouthful and choking, the heat of the water felt like searing on his skin after being in the cold air outside for so long.

As he came up, he heard Midna laughing. He coughed up the water he had tried to inhale as he righted himself. "Not funny!" he managed to say.

"You're right," Midna said, "It's hilarious."

"That's great," Link said, shaking water from his arms, "Now my clothes are all wet and I can't go back outside."

Midna had found the flask, its stopper still in place, and put one arm around his waist as she lifted it out of the water. "Well, you've got no excuse now," she said, "Stay here, share this with us. Better get out of those clothes and lay them by the fire so they'll be dry by morning."

Rapid footsteps echoed through the cave, turning all their heads to see Alex running in with his sword drawn. "I heard screaming…" he started to say, then stopped when he saw Link, soaking wet and fully clothed, standing in the spring with Midna's arm around him. Kilishandra had moved herself to the far side from them, just shaking her head at the childish antics, and Sheila had sunk down so low her nose was barely high enough above the water to breath, and if her face turned any redder it would likely catch on fire. Silviana seemed the most relaxed of the group, just laying back with her eyes closed, as if completely ignoring what was happening.

It took Alex a moment to process what he was seeing, then his eyes went to the metal flask in Midna's hand, and his sword fell until the tip rested on the floor. "What the hell, man?" he asked, "What the actual hell?"

"She's the one trying to drown me," Link said, pointing at Midna, "Ask her."

Midna shook the flask, as if tempting him. "There's plenty of room left. This spring could hold twelve people."

Alex seemed hesitant. "And then nobody's on watch," he said, "What happens if something tries to sneak into the cave on us and we're all unarmed?"

"Where's our guard dragon?" Silviana asked.

"Looking for a cow to chew on, I think," Alex said.

"So if someone does try to sneak in on us, I beat them into a bloody pulp," Midna said, as her long red hair lifted away from her shoulders, rising above her head, and then shaping into the form of an enormous red fist, "with my giant hand!"

"You better give that back," Link said, reaching for the flask, "I think just holding it is getting you drunk."

She held it out of his reach. "Come on, Link," she said, smiling, "I've got every reason to be on top of the world right now. And tomorrow we can go back to bracing ourselves to descend into Hell, when the fighting really starts. Let's just celebrate a bit and have some fun."

"Well, there's not enough there to get everyone smashed," Link said, "So what else do you have in mind?"

"Tell them the one about the three hundred foot leviathan," Alex said, "They'll like that one."

"Three hundred?" Midna said, turning her face to Link, "It was closer to one hundred, the way I remember it," then suddenly sparked with realization, "Wait, you're talking about that giant fish thing. I was thinking about the giant skeleton in the desert prison."

"What," was all Alex said in response, not exactly a question, but more of a blind reaction as his brain rejected what it heard.

"What's this about a giant skeleton?" Kilishandra asked.

"Well, it was about a year ago," Link said, turning toward her, "We were looking for the Twilight Mirror at the time, and… well, it got in the way."

"I have to hear this," Alex said.

Midna pulled the stopper from the flask. "I hope this is enough to get through it. We were in there three days."

* * *

Ganondorf was, at that time, a short walk from the cave, by himself. His cloak and shirt both discarded on the snow, and he stood half-naked, with his arms crossed over his chest, hands as fists on the front of his shoulders, and his eyes closed as he focused his thoughts.

The sound of beating wings nearby signaled the landing of the enormous form of Roxim. Ganondorf did not turn at the sound, and the gold triangle on the back of his right hand began to slowly pulse with light. With a sudden shout, he flung his arms out in both direction, hands open, and snow was sent into the air, away from him as an invisible wave of energy expanded from his body, leaving the ground bare for a ten foot radius out from where he stood.

"How much do you charge to clear out a front yard?" Roxim asked, settling down into a sitting position.

Ganondorf relaxed, letting his arms fall back to his sides, inhaling deeply and deliberately and letting it out as a long sigh before turning to the dragon. "You'll have to do better than that to get under my skin," he said, "I didn't call for you, so obviously you want something from me. Out with it."

"I don't want anything from you," the dragon said, "At least, nothing you can provide, I don't think."

"Then do you mind backing off so I don't reduce you to a cinder? Accidentally, that is?"

"Ah, that's it," Roxim said, "You're exercising yourself. Four thousand years you've had that Triforce, and you still haven't mastered its power?"

"I'd like to see you do better," Ganondorf growled, crossing his arms over his chest again, to build up another burst.

"And that means you're afraid," Roxim said, "Afraid of what is coming."

Ganondorf sighed, and turned to the dragon, relaxing his arms. "I'm just putting together what's happening," he said, "And what I already know."

"You always do have an air of knowing more than you're letting on," Roxim said.

"Before I say anything, I have one for you," Ganondorf said, turning and walking a few steps toward Roxim, "From what I hear, you were there, during the ancient war, before even my time. So you must have seen it, the final fight with the woman named Shaklator."

"I did," Roxim said, "What about it?"

"Consider this then," Ganondorf said, "In the time she has been locked away from this world, in the Void, she has only grown stronger. I have enough power to level a city in seconds, should I so choose, and yet she is stronger. So much so that I know if I fight her alone, I will lose. Whether a quick death, or a battle of attrition, I cannot defeat her.

"Knowing that, and knowing that Kilishandra is the only other person in this world who even comes close to my power, though she has nowhere near my stamina during its use, and she also lacks my ability to survive wounds that would kill a normal man a hundred times over. Knowing all of this, do you actually believe we have a chance at winning this, if Shaklator becomes directly involved?"

"Gods, you're depressing to talk to," Roxim said, "But you're also assuming that nothing but raw power will decide this, and in single combat at that."

"I'd have to," Ganondorf said, "A hundred men… hell, a thousand men are no threat to me by myself. How many could she kill before she even began to tire?"

"Ah, but there's the wrinkle, and you should know this well," Roxim said, "This isn't the first time the world has stood on the brink of destruction, and last time, all it took was one man. One man, in the right place, with the determination to do what had to be done. So that's my answer to you. So long as one person continues to hold on, there's always a chance."

"Is that a vote of confidence, then?" Ganondorf asked.

"In you? No," Roxim replied.

Ganondorf snorted. "Another one practically ready to worship the ground Link walks on, then."

"I didn't say that," Roxim said, "Time will tell if he lives up to what some of the others think of him. But the severe difference between you and him is simply your limits."

"I am so far beyond him, it doesn't even matter," Ganondorf said.

"Your problem is that you have a fair grasp of the limits of your ability, your endurance, and so on," Roxim said, "Link not only doesn't know his own limits, he doesn't care about them. You will hesitate out of fear of overextending yourself. He will keep pushing until his body is torn apart by the effort, if need be."

"A lot of people would call that stubborn," Ganondorf said.

"Sometimes stubborn is what it takes," Roxim said.

Ganondorf turned, walking a few steps away, then suddenly turning back, "Funny how you seem to be capable of judging this, seeing as how rarely you're even around."

"I'm not blind, and I listen," Roxim said, "Surely you remember that I am, in fact, a Judge, chosen for my ability to observe and be impartial about quite a few matters. I am also the only surviving member of the original eight, but that goes with my lifespan compared to humans and elves."

"What, Judges never retire?" Ganondorf asked.

"In the sense of becoming too old and decrepit to fight, yes," Roxim said, "I did, in fact, when I removed myself from humanity some time ago. But I never stopped watching. You see, I made a promise, way back then, to Darius, that should Shaklator threaten the people of this world again during my lifetime, I would do what I could to stop it."

"And that somehow makes you a perfect judge of character and ability, huh?" Ganondorf remarked.

"I think I've always been fairly good at reading people," the dragon said, "Which is why, the first time I saw you, I could see your own darkness, lingering around you like a haze that smells of rot and blood."

"Oh, yes, I remember," Ganondorf said, "'You reek of death, wizard.'"

"Some people say anyone can be redeemed," the dragon said, "In your case, the more time I spend around you, the more I believe that you would resist any such effort to redeem yourself. I wanted to ask you why, since I've answered you several times over."

"Because there is nothing to redeem," Ganondorf said, without a second's hesitation, "You see, dragon, I am at least honest about what I am, with myself as well as others. I'm a killer, yes. I'm a tyrant, certainly. I am strong, and I will take what I want from the weak."

"And yet now, you intend to fight for people you do not even know," Roxim said.

"Reasons within reasons," Ganondorf said, turning and starting to pace, "I'm not stupid. This is an alliance of convenience for the Princess Zelda and Link. They need my help just to survive this, and that much is likely true. But they watch. They expect me to betray them at any moment. I don't blame them, I'd do the same in their place. But if we do survive this, do you actually think they would let me, the man who has been the bane of their kingdom for four millennia, walk free? Of course, that's assuming we even survive this ordeal."

"Sounds like you're thinking you chose the wrong side," Roxim said, "Weren't you the one responsible for bringing these 'Lords of Chaos' together in the first place?"

Ganondorf nearly laughed. "What happened to the good villainous names? Masters of Shadow or Lords of Bones or something."

"Answer my question," Roxim said.

"I wish it could be different," Ganondorf said, "But the thing is, the entire reason I left them and came back to this world was that Shaklator had contacted me. Intended for me to enact the same plan as they're now doing, to try to bring her back so she could destroy the world or some shit like that.

"Difference is, I am nobody's tool. Considering where I was going next, I decided that killing something so close to being a god would send a message to certain individuals of interest, by which I mean the gods themselves. I intended to take Hyrule, and build a defense there, just to basically stick my thumb in Shaklator's eye. I would need the Triforces of Wisdom and Courage to build my strength for the battle as well. But things with that kingdom never seem to go as I plan."

"Are you actually serious?" Roxim asked, "If you're saying what I think you are, you were intending to go after the gods themselves after her?"

"Depending on how things turn out, I still am," Ganondorf said, "Isn't that was cliché evil wizards do? I've got a long way to go yet, but as I've found, taking a kingdom and ruling it for all eternity gets dull fast. Besides, the point of the whole thing is, I'm not on Khall's side because he chose the wrong one. I was able to save Kilishandra and Mur'neth, though Mur'neth lost his life protecting her later. If there was a way for Khall to survive this, I would take it. But the problem is, he's stubborn, in exactly the same way Link is. Once he's set on what he thinks is the right course, there's no convincing him otherwise.

"So you see, while Link and Zelda might think they're using me, I'm in fact using them for what was a goal of mine all along," Ganondorf finished, "Without their help, I'd be without an army, lest I take one by force. And of course, willing soldiers fight so much better than conscripts."

"But you still do not favor our odds," Roxim said.

"No, I don't," Ganondorf said, "Khall maybe, but Tharkus won't hinge everything on one bet, that being the Twilight Mirror. He's got a back up plan somewhere. And I seriously hope that Zero creature is dead, since we couldn't find him in the rubble, because I'm seriously thinking that plan is him. If Link…" he paused, shaking his head, and sighed, "Link is only barely learning the first things about his Triforce. If he were at my level, he could do it. Beat Shaklator, I mean. You might think all it takes is courage and determination, dragon, but I know all too well that courage without strength to back it up is just suicide."

He waved Roxim away. "Now, that's enough ancient history out of me," he said, "Why don't you go bother someone else. I won't be done here until after midnight or so."

* * *

Some hours later, as bedrolls were spread around the fire in the cave, and deep, steady breathing marked the slumber of those that lay around it, Link was still awake, watching the fire, and the cave mouth, just in case. The story and the drink had only gone on so long, and now, his clothes laid out by the fire to dry, he sate with a blanket over his shoulder, watching the dancing flames.

Midna sat up behind him, in what had been his bedroll, since they had not thought to bring her one when they came. Link winced as she leaned against his back, her arms coming around underneath his own, hugging him from behind.

"What's wrong?" he whispered, acutely aware of the soft pressure of her breasts on his back.

"I just wanted to do this," she whispered back in his ear, "I've never been able to get my arms all the way around you before."

"Well, this is a tad uncomfortable in this position," Link lied, "Sit beside me here."

Midna somewhat reluctantly released him, moving around his left side, sitting upright next to the fire. Without a word, she moved up against him, getting one arm up across the back of his shoulders. Link responded with his left arm across her back, holding her close. They sat like this for several moments, no words spoken, and none needed.

After everything they'd been through together, it seemed almost unreal. Especially the way they had met. Link could remember that dark day in the castle dungeon, and the way she had treated him. In fact, back then, if he could have been rid of her, he would have, but he'd needed her help to fight the creatures of the Twilight Realm back, and he couldn't deny that he'd become somewhat fond of her even through that. And then, that fateful night, when she had nearly died, the moment that had changed everything.

It seemed like so long ago now, yet he could still remember it vividly. The rainstorm that battered them with winds and heavy drops that stung even through the coat of fur covering his body. She clung to his back, holding onto his hair with what little strength she had left, and he was running. He had run until his lungs burned, and all his limbs ached with the effort. The natural hazards in Hyrule, the indigenous moblin tribes, all of them had seemed so unimportant as he barreled past them, their spears and arrows not even coming close to touching him.

Then finding a way into the castle that his animal body would allow, and silently cursing every time he had to slow down. Every second wasted was one second too many. And finally, the ascent up the tower steps, to reach Zelda's chamber, only to watch as Midna and she spoke. Link had felt utterly helpless in that moment, convinced Midna was going to die, and when it was over, he couldn't believe what had happened. Not only had Midna been saved, but whatever Zelda had done had left her immune to the previous effect the light of the world had had on her. At the time, they had thought it had occurred by Zelda giving up her own life, and while sorry it had to be that way, Link would admit that his relief far outweighed his regret at the time.

And then, so much more recently, when he had seen her actually die by Khall's hand. At the time, he had been so enraged that he couldn't think. But now, looking back on it, he realized just how much it had done to him. And yet, there was the lingering doubt. The unnatural way her expression had shifted, and even Khall's bizarre reaction. Though he didn't think too much on it, he had known something was wrong even then.

And it had been her, the ray of light in the darkness that enveloped him, that had guided him through that hell, that had kept him going where, by all rights, he should have collapsed under the weight of it all.

And now, just days ago, when he had seen her snatched away, and like a knife in his own heart, the fear of losing her again. Link gave a soft pull, holding her closer, her skin against his own. Love tended to be an odd thing, coming up when one least expected it, and out of the most peculiar circumstances. Even before he met her, he knew it was something that couldn't be forced, and it either happened or it didn't.

And it had happened, and then some. Out of the most impossible of situations, and refusing to go away, even though he had tried, during the time they spent apart after Ganondorf's defeat. He'd gone back to his relationship with Ilia, thinking that was what would be the right thing to do. Yet now, as he sat her, holding Midna, he couldn't imagine himself living without her. And he was certain that he would not survive losing her again.

"Link, what's wrong?" Midna asked.

He shook his head, realizing only then why the fire begun to distort even more than normal, his eyes full of tears, and reached up to wipe them with his right hand. "Nothing," he whispered, "Just thinking about us, when we met, you know?"

"Not exactly encouraging when you start crying over it," Midna said.

"No, not like that," Link said, "I just… I don't even know."

He searched for something else to say, yet was drawing a blank. With her beside him like this, it felt so right, and like somehow saying more would just get in the way.

Midna, however, apparently didn't need words. She used her arm on his shoulders for balance, and lifted herself up a bit, scooting over around in front of him, and Link suddenly found her sitting on his lap with both arms around his neck, and those ruby eyes staring directly into his own.

For some reason, what came into Link's mind now was everything they had talked about, reasons why it couldn't work between them, with her being a princess, and her duty to her people, and his own desires to not live in what was effectively a gilded cage, and yet, at that moment, looking at those deep red eyes, all those reasons seemed so unimportant.

"Just let me warn you," he said, "If you kiss me right now, I'm never going to be able to let you go."

"The way I see it, you had your chance to be rid of me already," she said, smiling, "Now you're stuck with me, for life."

And she kissed him. Link found his arms moving as if on their own, under hers and around her back, pulling her closer. It sparked through him, like fingers on his spine. A kiss was just a simple touch of the lips, yet for the two of them, it sent a sensation through their bodies, more intoxicating than any drug or drink, and for that moment at least, the world truly was perfect. There was no war, no violence, and no encroaching doom drawing closer each day.

When they finally party, Midna couldn't help but smile. "Feels like someone else wants to say hello," she whispered, a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Oh, damn," Link said, realizing the way she was sitting on his lap, she was all too aware of his state now, "I didn't mean to…"

She silenced him with a finger on his lip. "I love you, Link," she said, "and I would dearly love to share myself with you like that. But there's just too many eyes for that here."

Link nodded. "Yeah, I know," he said, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asked, and gave him another quick kiss, "Just wait until we get back to Darimar and can have some privacy. I promise, it will be worth the wait."

"Just one request," Link said.

"What's that?"

"Please get off my lap, because that's not helping."

* * *

A few days of travel behind them, the ruins of the temple they had left behind were showing signs of movement. The enormous spider creature, Gohma, had landed some distance away, and was only now limping back into the area. Missing one of its legs, and the fractures from the impact lining its exoskeleton, it was on its last legs, so to speak, as it was. And now, it found its nest destroyed, and the young likely obliterated.

Yet even it would be surprised when, from the rubble, a sudden movement, and a brown tendril of sticky substance leaped from between the rocks, latching onto one of its legs, and more and more emerging like a sickly brown ooze from the rubble. The creature tried to move back and shake the gunk from its leg, but the substance held on, climbing upward with its own will, completely enveloping the leg and beginning to spread across the creature's body.

Then it started to seep into the cracks in its exoskeleton, and suddenly the spider began to lash about wildly, shrieking in agony. It drove itself into piles of rubble, trying to dislodge the oozing substance, but it was already dissolving the creature's innards. The beast's struggles began to slow, as its strength rapidly waned. It collapsed onto its stomach, and the single red eye slowly rolled upward, even as the brown ooze began to emerge from within the eye socket, enveloping the eye, then collapsing it as it devoured the flesh from the inside out.

The brown liquid poured from the now empty eye socket onto the ground, leaving behind it a completely hollow exoskeleton, and the liquid began to pool a few feet way. The nearby rubble shifted, and a black sword emerged, drug from the rocks by a tendril of the brown substance, now pulling it across the ground toward the puddle.

The pool began to rise upward, forming shapes as it did so, splitting into arms and legs, and a head forming on top of shoulders, the black sword being drawn up into its right hand. Zero opened his eyes, the left side of his face, where his eye had previously be scorched away by Zelda, now occupied by an enormous red eye nearly three times the size of the other. The areas of his body that had previously be scorched black were now a dark gray, still standing out in harsh contrast to the skin tone of the rest of his body. His white hair had grown to over shoulder length, hanging raggedly down his back and chest, and his fingernails emerged instead as sharpened claws.

He leaned his head back and roared his frustration into the night sky, and his jaw split open, a vertical slash down his chin to his neck, and each corner of the now square mouth opening showed a large, vicious fang, with hundreds of smaller sharp teeth lining the walls of his mouth.

His cry died away, the horror of his face closing away, and he turned from his frustration to a smile. "Next time, Link," he said, "Next time."


	95. Chapter 94

Got to try to get one more chapter at the least up before Mass Effect 3 comes out, because that is definitely going to cause a delay on my writing. I've been trying to get one up every two weeks, damn this stupid Dwarf Fortress addiction… So this time, at least I've given a bit of warning. Yeah, I know, how dare I stop writing video game fanfiction to play a video game.

But at the time of posting this chapter, I've put a poll up on my profile that those who follow me should go look at if they haven't seen it already. The explanation will be there, so I don't clog up this spot with too much.

**Chapter 94: Interference, and Plans**

Zelda shielded her eyes from the sun with one hand as she watched the dragon descend toward the courtyard. He had been sighted nearly an hour ago and word had been quickly spread through the castle, and now a crowd gathered to watch as he arrived.

Amazing how quickly one could become accustomed to the sight, she realized as Roxim's mighty wing beats send waves of wind over her as he slowed his descent. She was relieved, however, when he was close enough for her to see Link, Alex, Silviana, Kilishandra, and Sheila all on his back in a row.

"See?" she said to Ralthas, standing on her left side, "I told you they would be fine."

When the column of fire had appeared on the horizon, panic had spread rapidly through the city, and the city guard had been tripled in order to maintain order that night. Doomsayers always managed to appear at the smallest notice to shout that the world was ending, inciting panic in the populace.

"I don't see Ganondorf," Ralthas said, "Maybe it's not too much to ask that he was killed, at least."

"I hope not," Zelda said, "We still need him."

Roxim touched down in the courtyard, landing remarkably softly for a creature so large, and allowed the riders to dismount. Link had scarcely slid down the dragon's side and had his feet on the ground before Midna appeared from his shadow on the ground, rising upward like a mythical water spirit from a lake. This caused an immediate reaction in the gathered crowd of soldiers and castle staff, some stepping back and crossing themselves, others turning to whisper to those nearby, the latter being the more numerous. Perhaps the way she had appeared had less to do with the reaction than the fact she was still completely nude.

Link quickly undid the clasp of his cloak, throwing it back around her shoulders and pulling it closed in the front, motioning for her to hold it. He had needed it to protect against the still cool wind as they flew, and now hoped they could find a tailor without causing too much of stir. Midna was being little help, her return at last to her natural shape seeming to give her an enormous jolt of confidence, not to mention the lack of a nudity taboo among her own people. He was wondering if he'd have to beg Ralthas not to lock her up for indecent exposure. Not that he'd let the Judge do so anyway.

As the others dismounted, Link turned to see Ralthas and Zelda walking toward them. "Already," he muttered, "That's just great."

"Where is the wizard?" Ralthas asked as he came closer, before Zelda could speak.

Link shrugged. "Not a clue," he said, "He sheared off from us some distance outside the city. I'm not sure what he's up to."

"And you just let him go?" Ralthas said, looking up at Roxim.

The dragon snorted, flaring his nostrils. "He and I had a discussion a few nights ago," he said, "and I am in fact going back to meet him as soon as I dropped off everyone else."

"I told you that man is not to be left on his own…" Ralthas started. He was interrupted by another snort from the dragon, this time spraying two small jets of flame from his nostrils.

"And I will not be second guessed by a child like you," Roxim said, "It will be fine. Now be quiet before I put you in the corner."

Though the dragon's usual habit of a joke was still present, his tone of voice was deadly. Link almost didn't believe it when Ralthas backed down, though the man did growl under his breath.

"I would ask about the giant pillar of fire we saw on the horizon a week ago," Zelda said, drawing Link and Midna's attention, "But I'm getting the feeling, both from knowing you and seeing you," she indicated Midna, "that all I'll get is that it's complicated."

"It is," Link said, "And I don't have all the answers yet, anyway. I think I know who to ask, though."

"And who would that be?" Zelda asked.

"A certain old man hiding in the Temple of Light," Link said, "I assume that since you and Ganondorf were both there, there is a way we can get back again?"

"I think so," Zelda said, "Did you at least get the spell fragment?"

Link turned, calling Kilishandra's name. She turned, and he motioned her over. "Show her the sword," Link said when she came close.

Kilishandra wordlessly drew the Master Sword from its sheathe, and turned the blade to hold it flat in her palms. The red runes in the white blade flowed from the guard to just an inch short of the tip. "That's it," Zelda said, unable to stop herself, she reached out to touch the blade, running her fingers along the shapes, "We can finally go home."

"We might be able to arrange something to get you back," Link said, "But I at least do intend to stay until this war is over. Khall has made this much too personal," he added, with a glance at Midna.

"It's only six days to the first day of Spring," Zelda said, "At least that's what I've been told. After that, the king intends to take his forces and attack Khall before the city can be seiged. If only we had more time…"

"What do you intend?" Kilishandra asked, returning the sword to its sheathe.

Zelda looked up at her. "Khall attacked my kingdom. I'm still not sure precisely why, but we're as much a part of this war as Darimar. If we had enough time, I would return and bring troops back to aid them. But it seems all I can contribute is the two of you," she said, indicating Link and Kilishandra.

Link looked up at Kilishandra. "That's right, you did swear into Zelda's service, didn't you?"

"I'm still not convinced we won't regret that decision," Ralthas said.

"She has given us no reason to distrust her," Zelda said.

"Yet," Ralthas said, "Now, if you'll excuse me.

Without waiting for a response, he turned and moved away from them, toward Sheila and Silviana.

"Prick," Midna said as he retreated.

"It's been his job for centuries to watch for these kinds of things in people," Zelda said, "Honestly, I'm having a hard time hating him, even with the way he's treated us. Not to mention he's making a remarkable recovery after what happened a few weeks ago when he suddenly decided to stop drinking."

"Okay, change of subject, but this is really bugging me," Link said, "You aren't reacting nearly like I expected to Midna here."

"And what should I do?" Zelda asked with a shrug, "Squeal and be giddy? Poke her to see if she's real?"

"And here I thought you didn't have a sense of humor," Midna said.

A voice cut through the air, shouting to make way, catching their attention and they turned to see the crowd parting. Two of the king's personal guard, easily identifiable by the polish and gilding of their armor, stepped through, followed by King Rigdar himself.

The king paused at the front edge of the group, turning back to them. "The New Year's celebration is in six days. Don't you all have work to be doing?"

There was grumbling, but the crowd began to dissolve away, back into the castle. The king turned back to Link and the others, and even as Zelda gave a bow of her head and started to speak, he held up a hand to silence her, and moved directly to Link.

"I've read Ralthas' reports of the locations you visited before he brought you to Darimar," the king said, "And then everyone in the city saw that flaming pillar on the horizon. Tell me, do you just destroy every place you visit?"

"Now wait a minute," Link said, "The one in the forest is the only one that could really be said to be my fault. And this one definitely wasn't."

"But things seem to explode around you," the king said.

Link shrugged. "Okay, I'll give you that one."

The king started to say something else, but suddenly stopped, his gaze turning to Midna, noticing her for the first time. He started to speak again, and tripped over his own tongue, before clamping his mouth shut and shaking his head sharply, and tried again. "Who is this?" he managed.

"Excuse me," Kilishandra said, and moved away from them, rolling her eyes once her back was to them.

"Oh, this is…" Link started, before Zelda quickly stepped in.

"Your majesty," Zelda said, "This is Midna, princess of the Twili, the denizens of a kingdom known to us as the Twilight Realm."

"My lady," the king said, holding one hand out to her.

"Uh…" was the best Midna could manage.

"Give him your hand," Zelda hissed.

Midna did so, putting her hand in the king's, who then brought it to his lips, gently kissing her fingers. "Is this normal for human royalty?" Midna whispered to Link.

"You're asking me?" Link whispered back.

"Both of you shut up," Zelda hissed, though there was no possibility the king hadn't heard them.

"I apologize if I made you uncomfortable," the king said, releasing her, "I tend to reflex to formalities if when I'm nervous. But I feel like I should know you, but can't imagine how I could forget a face like yours."

"We have met," Midna said, "I was there for the rather informal 'trial.'"

It clicked in the king's head. "Midna! That name! Of course! Then you were that little creature?" he asked.

"Yes," Midna said, "Over a year ago, I was the victim of a magical curse, and it's finally been broken."

"That's very good to hear," the king said, snapping his fingers, "But we can't have you walking about like that." A woman appeared at the king's side, and Link realized she had in fact followed him the entire way. A personal servant of some sort. "Send for the royal tailor," the king said, "Tell her to bring her measures and an assortment of uncut fabrics. After all, a visiting princess deserves the best."

This last statement felt to Zelda almost like a slap in the face. Here she had been wearing what was provided, and he was going to have a tailor make new clothing for Midna, whom he barely remembered until now? She bit her lip, knowing that complaining would accomplish nothing beneficial, but it was irritating, especially now as she stood there in a tunic and trousers. Though she did secretly smile at the thought of what she knew about women's fashion in Darimar so far, with all lace and frills and padded shoulders. They'd dress her up to the point she looked ghastly.

Though it was oddly pleasant to think about, she shouldn't take so much pleasure in it, especially after everything Midna had done for the sake of Hyrule.

"You don't have to fuss over me," Midna said, "I'm actually quite comfortable…"

"Thank you," Link said to the king, interrupting her, "I was going to try to find a tailor, but I think that will work."

"Sorry to interupt if you were planning to move onto shoes next, but I need the king's ear for a moment," Roxim said, his heavy footsteps moving up behind them.

"Yes?" the king said, looking up at the dragon.

"Actually, I think it would be better as a surprise," Roxim said, "If you have about an hour to spare, there is something north of the city that you would really want to see."

"Are we under attack already?" the king asked, though his tone indicated clear sarcasm.

"Nothing so dire," Roxim said, "Though if you'll select a few of your guard to come with us, I will carry you out to see."

The king shook his head. "If it were anyone else wanting to 'surprise' me, I'd tell them right where they could stick their surprise," he said, then smiled and added, "But the castle staff is a mess right now, and I could use a break. Let the chamberlain earn his pay for a bit."

"Of course," Roxim said, "Let me know when you're ready, and we'll be off and back before you know it."

The king excused himself, and followed by his guards, moved away from Link and the others, after the dragon.

"What's this about a celebration?" Midna asked Zelda once the king was gone.

"They have a celebration of the new year on the first day of Spring," Zelda said, "The preparations started a few days ago. As I understand it, there is going to be an open market in the square all day, with food and gifts for sale, performers and like, and a mention of games, which I think will be a tournament, since I heard something about jousts. Then in the evening, all the nobles have their own feast in the castle ballroom, and there will be music and dancing as well."

"And they are going to do this right before marching off to war?" Link asked, "That's just strange."

"Actually, it makes perfect sense," Zelda said, "Morale is a powerful thing. If they were to cancel the celebration for the sake of the war, and the fighting isn't already inside the city, it would decimate morale compared to the troops leaving on a high note, with such a recent reminder of what they're fighting to protect."

"Well, the king certainly seems to be in high spirits," Link said, "I didn't expect that, especially after the prince was killed."

Zelda shook her head. "That has nothing to do with it," she said, "The king must always appear confidant. As I said, morale is a powerful thing. The king's behavior directly impacts the morale of not just his soldiers, but all his people."

"Is he just putting on a brave face then?" Midna asked, "Could have fooled me."

"Remember," Zelda said, tapping the Triforce symbol on her right hand with the other, "I've been blessed with a form of empathy. He can't hide his real emotions from me. He doesn't grieve like he did the first few days, but he still carries a heavy sadness, along with fear, probably about what is yet to come for the war. And yet he smiles and walks confidently for his men. He is so strong."

The last words were spoken almost with a tone of awe in her voice. Link knew she was comparing herself to the king, and how she had surrendered to Zant out of fear, rather than rallying her men and fighting on. Even though in the end it could be said to have saved so many lives, if Link and Midna had not come when they did, that would have been the end of it, and Zelda still blamed herself for it.

Link turned as Roxim's mighty wings could be heard, lifting him clear of the ground and sending blasts of wind over those still in the courtyard. The king and his two guards were visible on his back as he turned in the air, and started northward over the city. He wasn't sure he liked the dragon being so secretive about things, but the king was hardly in any danger with the dragon.

Link turned back to Zelda, but stopped what he had been about to say when he saw movement over her shoulder. Ilia emerged from the castle entrance, scanning the courtyard, and seeing him, started walking toward them.

"Oh shit," he muttered.

"What?" Midna asked.

"Ilia's coming over here," he said in a low voice, "Look, there are some things I need to explain to her, but for now, just don't antagonize her, please."

"I don't think I'm actually going to have to do anything," Midna said, seeing the rapidly darkening expression on Ilia's face.

"Oh shit," Link muttered again.

"Sorry, Link," Zelda said, quickly stepping back, "I'm not going to get in the middle of this."

"Ilia," Link said, stepping toward her as she came closer, trying to insert himself between her and Midna.

"Who is that?" she demanded, pointing past him at Midna, "Where are her clothes?"

"Ilia," Link said, trying to get her attention and head off this problem, "This is Midna. You remember her."

Ilia looked at him, then past his shoulder at Midna, who just smiled back, then Ilia turned back to Link. "You're kidding, right?" she said.

Before Link could respond, Midna stepped past him toward Ilia. "I think I owe you an apology," Midna said.

Ilia blinked. "What?"

"The last time I spoke to you, I was extremely harsh," Midna said, "And a few things I said to you, I have come to realize were untruthful. So, if we could just put the matter behind us…"

Ilia realized Midna was offering her hand. She hesitated, then slowly reached out to shake Midna's hand. Midna smiled, and thanked her before withdrawing her arm back into the cloak and pulling it tightly around herself against the chill in the air.

Link's eyes were going back and forth between the two, hardly able to believe that had just happened, though the blank look on Ilia's face gave away that she was trying to figure it out herself. Time for a change of subject, he decided.

"Ilia," he said, getting her attention, "Listen, we just found the last part of the spell we need to save everyone in Hyrule. We're going to be going back at the first opportunity."

That snapped her out of her daze. "You really did?" she said, and suddenly with a gleeful squeal, jumped onto him, her arms around his neck and he staggered back a step under the sudden weight he was forced to catch.

"But that's not going to be for a while yet," Link said as he managed to put her back down, "I don't know how to use any magic, let alone this spell, and the only people I know who can are staying here to help with the war."

"You intend to as well, don't you?" Ilia asked, though her expression said she already knew the answer.

"You know me," Link said, "I'm not the kind of person to turn my back when people need help."

"Yes, you're too brave for your own good," Ilia sighed, "Just promise me something, right now."

"What?"

"That you'll be careful, and won't get into something you can't handle."

Link couldn't help but laugh. "I think I've already made that promise at least once before," he said, "Okay, I promise, again."

"Thank you," Ilia said, "Now, I better go before someone misses me."

"Why? You're not a prisoner here," Link said, "If someone said that, point me at him and I'll rearrange his face good and proper."

"No, nothing like that," Ilia said, "While you were gone, the castle staff started taking on extra hands to help prepare for the New Year Festival. I was tired of sitting in my room all day, so I volunteered. I can cook, and it at least lets me earn a little bit of coin instead of depending on everyone else. And it will keep me busy, at least for the rest of the week."

"Oh," Link said, somewhat surprised. He felt like hitting himself, having not paid a single thought to what she was actually doing. She was a farm girl, after all, and grew up where everyone was expected to be productive. Having nothing to do was probably worse to her than being in a cell.

With a final goodbye, and glance at Midna, Ilia left them there, heading back toward the castle.

"That went better than I expected," Midna said.

"She was in a hurry to go, though," Link said, watching the main door pushed from within as Ilia disappeared inside, "I wish I knew what she was thinking right now."

In fact, the reason Ilia had left so quickly was that seeing Link standing with Midna was a trial in itself. The more she saw of them together, the more evidence she had of what Link felt for the creature, and now, to see Midna like that was a shock to the system.

Even as she heard the doors creaking shut behind her under the doorman's hands, she reached up to wipe away the tears from her eyes before they ran down her cheeks. She had known Midna was a princess of some sort, but she wasn't even human, and now…

Well, she had grown up with Link, Ilia had told herself, and she knew him better than anyone. And she cared for him, loved him, or at least believed she had, and believed that he loved her. She had given herself to him, and together they had experienced what it was like to make love, though they had been young, and neither of them knowing what they were doing, it had been clumsy and awkward, but it had been wonderful, and she had believed it would only get better from there.

Then that nightmare last year, no, she corrected herself, it was much closer to two years ago now. The idyllic life in their small village smashed to pieces in front of her, and then she had even lost her memory of everything, including Link. And it had been Link who had come for her. He had helped her with the sick Zora child without complaint, and she saw him fight off the creatures that attacked them as they took the child to Kakariko Village for treatment. And then Link found a way to bring back her lost memories.

She did not recognize it at the time, but Link was doing things that others would have called impossible. Ultimately, saving her was just one step on his path. Rusl had been with Link at the end, in the castle, along with the other few that stood up to follow in Link's path. And even then, Rusl made no claims about the grandeur of their task. He and the others had been a distraction, drawing the bulk of the wizard's servants off of Link so he could reach the throne room and cut the head off the serpent, so to speak.

And though most of the people involved did not realize it until after the end, it had been Midna who was at Link's side the entire way. Even if Rusl and the others had not gone to help, Midna would have been there, and the two of them would have faced whatever came.

Ilia couldn't just make herself let go of Link in her heart. She wanted to hear him say that they were going home, they'd have a house where they could grow old and raise their own children. It was what she had expected since they were teenagers. But seeing him there, the chain armor peeking out from under the sleeves of his tunic, sword over his shoulder, and Midna by his side, ready to follow him into whatever danger might come, it was like someone was trying to tear Ilia's heart from her chest.

"Don't get into something you can't handle," she had said. Not to mention jumping on him like a little girl. She felt incredibly stupid now. When Link set his mind to something, he was unstoppable. But he couldn't win a war all by himself. No man could. But Midna wasn't the only one walking into it with him. This entire city, larger than any other she knew of, was ready to fight, with a population going into the millions, a number nearly impossible for her to comprehend, and what was undoubtedly the largest army in the world, nearly sixty thousand strong.

She prayed Link would just come through it safely. After that…

Well, after that, Link would make his choice, and even if it broke her heart, Ilia knew she would have to accept it.

* * *

"You know, it's really cruel to keep stringing her along," Midna said.

"Yeah, I know," Link said, "But the way she looks at me… Saying it will hurt her too."

"I was talking about me," Midna said, "But yeah, her too."

Link knew she was teasing, but there was truth in it as well. "Sorry," he said.

Midna rolled her eyes and sighed. She just wasn't going to get him to jab back, it seemed. Time to change tactics, she decided. "Tell you what," she said, moving around in front of him, and gently squeezing his arm with her hand, "I'll let you make it up to me. But you're really going to have to work at it…"

That made Link smile. "I thought I was supposed to be the animal here," he said.

"Well, you do make a cute dog, but I think the hair would be too itchy," Midna said, a mischievous grin growing on her face, "and then there's the fleas."

"I do not have fleas!" Link retorted.

Someone coughed nearby, cutting him off before saying more. It was the same woman the king had sent for the tailor earlier. "Forgive my interruption, but the tailor is ready for you, madam," she said, "If you will accompany me?"

"We're in the courtyard, though," Midna said, "I didn't see anyone come in."

"She was already here, madam, on other business."

"Well, I did have other plans…" Midna started.

"She did ask to remind you that this is a request from the king himself," the servant said, "and that she is having to delay several orders from the noble families in order to take yours on such short notice. The week before the festival is very busy for her, after all."

"I think she's saying 'I insist,'" Link said, "Better go with her. Don't want to get on the king's bad side, after all, considering he's doing you a favor."

Midna sighed, though it came out as more of a groan as she started walking with the servant. She glanced back over her shoulder at Link, who smiled and waved. "Have fun," he said.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

Link chuckled, and picked up his pack from where he had dropped it to remove his cloak. "Now, let's see," he muttered, "I know I put it in here… Ah!"

He drew the old, musty journal he had found in the temple. He looked up, searching for Sheila, and spotted her a short distance across the courtyard, speaking to Ralthas.

"You don't know that," Sheila said as he came into earshot, "We've managed to survive here through both of the things that brought down the other kingdoms."

"Just barely," Ralthas said, "And you said yourself what you saw in Tyr. There's still at least one wizard on the other side that can wipe out an entire city on his own."

"And we've got two on ours," Sheila said, "I learned well enough about magic in war back at the academy. If things go properly, for both sides' magicians, we'll see absolutely nothing and force of arms will decide everything, as usual."

"Excuse me," Link said, causing them both to turn, then he added, "No, actually, keep going. This is something I'm curious about."

"It's not something you can do anything about," Ralthas said.

"Doesn't mean I shouldn't know about it," Link said, and turned to Sheila, "How does that work, exactly? With the seeing nothing and all."

"I only know this from the histories I've read," Sheila said, "but during the ancient war, while individual wizard duals tended to be explosive and flashy, during major battles, it was the opposite. Essentially each side would be throwing everything they could at the enemy, while attempting to disarm everything coming their way, to protect their own men. If things worked well for both sides, nothing would happen, essentially, because everything was countered in both directions. Only when one side made a mistake did something actually happen, and it was catastrophic to those on the receiving end."

"I see," Link said, and turned to Ralthas, "You're worried about our chances."

"Someone has to be," Ralthas said, "Everyone else is so focused on this damn festival. I've seen more than nine hundred of them, and it's hardly the most important thing to focus on right now."

"You're right," Link said, and held up the book, "Find someone who can focus on this for me."

"What is that?" Sheila asked.

"Not sure," Link said, "I can't read the language. It might be nothing, but I found it back in the temple."

Sheila took it, and opened it, leafing through the pages. "Well, it's actually our language, just a very old dialect," she said.

"Are you serious?" Link said, "I don't recognize a single word."

"That's what happens over time," Sheila said, "in spite of the best efforts of the grammar teachers, spellings and pronunciations gradually change, and over enough time, becomes almost completely unrecognizable."

"Can you read it?" Link asked.

"No," Sheila said, "at least, not off-hand. I could translate it, using the same spell I used to translate Darius' spell book before…"

"Sorry, but no," Ralthas said.

"I can do it," Sheila said, "I only failed last time because someone tried to take my head off."

"It might not even be anything valuable," Link said.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to put my foot down," Ralthas said, "On the off chance this is something, there are scribes in the castle who can translate it."

"Actually, it might be something," Sheila said, "What I can make out, it mentions the name Darius frequently, and the word Archmage, and… Oh, gods, Link, how did you find this?"

"It was in the temple," Link said, "literally just lying in the open. Why? Is it a journal Darius kept?"

"No, actually, it may be the opposite," Sheila said, "I think this journal belonged to Thalandril Arkanus, the last archmage before the war. And it may even be detailed accounts of the events before he was exposed as a necromancer."

"It was just sitting in the open?" Ralthas asked, "No book should be in this good of condition after eight thousand years just sitting in open air. The pages aren't even yellowed."

"That place was very unusual," Sheila said, "I told you already about the strange aura over the place. The areas I saw were mostly in remarkably good condition, not even any dust gathering. Maybe the aura did something to preserve the book."

She gently closed the journal and handed it to Ralthas. "Go ahead and take it to the scribes to be translated," she said, "It probably won't have anything useful to us right now, but it is a significant piece of history."

"Can I get a copy, when the translation is done?" Link asked.

"I didn't think you were the scholarly type," Ralthas said.

"Look, I'm still figuring it out how it all fits together myself," Link said, "but everything that's happening ties into what happened back then. And this Thalandril's perspective is definitely a piece to the puzzle I don't have yet."

"And what good will knowing that do?" Ralthas asked.

"I don't know," Link said, "Maybe none at all. Or maybe understanding the why of these events is just as important as the how."

"I'll take your word for it," Ralthas said, "I'll take this down to the scribes. In the meantime," he added, turning to Sheila, "think about what I said."

With that, he turned and walked away, toward the castle.

"What a cheerful guy," Link said once he was out of earshot, "Wish I'd met him sooner."

"He's convinced our enemy has held back the worst they have," Sheila said.

"In that case, he's probably right," Link said, "Should I even ask what he was telling you to think about?"

"I should probably keep that to myself for now," Sheila said, "Sorry."

"That's fine," Link said, "You hungry? Wonder what they've got in the kitchen…"

* * *

Ganondorf had landed about fifty miles northeast of the city walls. The snow was turning to slush in the sun and warmer temperature, though he still had to dig nearly a foot and a half down to reach earth. He growled through his teeth at what he found.

Kneeling down, he scooped a handful of the wet earth, letting it run slowly through his fingers, refusing to stick in spite of being nearly mud. With sudden violence, he struck his hand down with force, burying it to nearly the wrist in one stroke, and pulled a large handful, which he hurled to the side. The tainted black earth stood out in harsh contrast against the white snow. And in the small hole left by his blow, the same black taint continued downward. Exactly how far it would go, he was unsure.

"I knew it," Ganondorf said to himself, standing up and shaking the flakes of dirt from his hand.

The strange altar that Link and Ralthas had destroyed was just one of what was undoubtedly a large network by now. The land had been blighted, and come this spring, nothing planted would grow in this earth. It was Tharkus' insurance policy. Even if he lost the war, these people would starve.

It couldn't have reached as far as Hyrule yet, he reasoned. This blight could still be headed off by cutting the head off the serpent. Tharkus would have to die. But even then, it would not be over.

Ganondorf had taken up and stopped smoking numerous times in his life, and as he turned to look at the enormous city built at the foot of the mountains, he found himself wishing he still had the ivory tobacco pipe he'd carried for almost two centuries at one point. Just a long, easy drag to still his tense nerves.

This was a city of millions, and if they were to survive, they would all have to be evacuated. The majority of them were civilians, as well. If they were attacked on the way, it would be a slaughter. No, there wasn't even enough time to get them moving. The defense was going to have to be here, in Darimar. The massive city and its walls were the anvil upon which they would have to beat Khall and his forces. And it had to be fast. A long siege would deplete the city's stored supplies of food, which would be all too necessary to move this massive number of people, especially across the sea.

"Damn it," he said, "Link must be rubbing off on me."

It would be so much simpler to let them die. Sacrifice this city in the defense to destroy the threat, then just leave the survivors here on their own. Yet his first line of thought was to try to save them, to move them… where? Hyrule was the only place he could think of. But a population of this magnitude, suddenly moving into a kingdom that, strictly speaking, was barely back on its feet after his own efforts.

And then he realized it wasn't entirely his own decision. Zelda would have to be willing to accept them, and then there was the king. Ganondorf sighed. It'd be so much simpler if the takeover of Hyrule had been successful and he was the only authority that mattered.

Just so many damn loose ends to deal with.

Ganondorf was a man who appeared unshakable to those around him. He had no fear of conflict, of violence, or the safety of his own person. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He would be the first to admit he had a strange fondness for the sound of clashing steel and the smell of fresh blood.

He did not fear Shaklator, and certainly not Khall or Tharkus, but he could be realistic about the odds of this conflict. There just wasn't enough time. Not enough time to prepare, not enough time to move these people, not enough time to mount a proper defense against the deadliest enemy this world had ever faced.

But there was at least enough time to prepare this city for Khall. With the dragon's help, it would be relatively easy to create a large magic circle to envelope the city, and with that, at least, he would be able to defend against Khall and Tharkus' magic.

"And after that," he said, "what happens, happens."

* * *

Midna was ushered into a room in a part of the castle she had not been to previously, which wasn't saying much considering the massive scale of the building. It appeared to be a sitting room off from a suite of chambers, though the table and seats had been moved to one end of the room to make space for four mannequins wearing elaborate gowns in different colors and fabrics, as well as a multitude of large standing spools with cloth of all manner of colors and textures, and even several large trunks, undoubtedly filled with odds and ends as well as tools and other supplies of the trade.

She had been expecting the tailor to have a few assistants, but there had to be at least twenty people in the room, and she could see more through the open door to the next chamber. "So, who do I talk to?" Midna asked, turning to the servant, only to find she had already slipped away, "Great, thanks."

As she turned back, a young man carrying a bundle of cloth glanced at her as he crossed the room, stopping dead when he saw her standing there in the doorway. He moved quickly over to her. "Please say you're looking for me," he said over the commotion in the room.

"I'm looking for the tailor," Midna said, "and I'm fairly sure she's a woman. Sorry."

"Oh, you're the king's special request, then," the man said, "I'll tell Matilda you're here."

With that he turned and disappeared into the crowd. Midna watched the bodies that seemed to be running all over the place without any sense of reason. How anyone could work under these circumstances, she didn't know, though she did realize as she watched that some were merely acting as carriers of cloths and tools, others with measures were working with men and women both to take down their measurements for new outfits. There was a method to the madness, it seemed. In the open door to the next room, she could see more people cutting fabric and some stitching together. The tailor evidently set her shot up here for this busy week before the festival.

After a moment the crowd parted with two figures emerging to come toward her. One was a woman in a modest blue gown, her hair tied in a tight bun to keep it out of the way, and a measuring strip wound around her wrist, identifying her as one of the workers. The other was a large woman in red, and elaborate hairstyle that tied it up over her head and seemed to have nearly a dozen thin, separate braided tails hanging behind her head. With her size, it was amazing she could walk without waddling, yet every step caused her bosom to bounce fairly violently, though the way she swung her shoulders no doubt had a lot to do with it as well.

_Dear gods,_ Midna thought, _She could suffocate a man under those things. They're bigger than her head!_

"So this is the king's special favor?" the large woman asked as the pair came close to her.

She was nearly two feet shorter than Midna, craning her neck to look up as her.

"Are you… Matilda?" Midna asked, remembering the name the young man had mentioned.

The woman ignored her question, her eyes dropping from Midna's face downward, staring pointedly at her chest. "Tall thing, and some men like that. Fairly lacking elsewhere, though," she said, and smiled as she thrust her own bosom out, "But not everyone can be so blessed as I."

"Oh, yes, I'm sure men are thrilled by the chance to be smothered under those sagging behemoths," Midna growled. The snorted slightly as she quickly fought down a laugh.

"Who are you calling sagging?" the woman demanded, her eyes flashing in anger and her pudgy cheeks trembling.

"My lady," said the other woman, stepping between them, "I'm sure she meant no offense. I have your numbers and your dress will be ready for the ball. If you will excuse us, I have a lot of work to do yet."

The large woman glared at Midna again before stepping out the door into the hall. The other woman pulled the door shut behind her and turned back to Midna. "I am Matilda Jexan," she said, "preferred tailor of the royal family."

"Oh, sorry," Midna said, "I thought she was for a moment there."

"Does she look like a worker?" Matilda asked.

"No," Midna admitted, "She looks more like livestock, actually."

Matilda laughed. "That was the Lady Cloelle Domene," she said, "First daughter of the Domene family. They're a very rich family in this country."

"And… what?" Midna asked, "Is she going to hire someone to kill me now?"

"If she doesn't decide to smother you herself," Matilda said with another laugh, "Now, come over here so I can get a look at you."

"What, no comment about my lack of clothes?" Midna asked, "Seems like every other person can't stop thinking about that."

"The message I got said you had no clothes," Matilda said, "Best we remedy that."

She guided Midna past the crowd into the next room. As Midna had surmised, the people in this room were actually cutting and sewing, using mannequins to support the clothing sets, both male and female, as they came together. Matilda took her through another door into the suite bedroom, closing the door behind them so they were alone.

"Uhh… This is strictly professional, right?" Midna asked, nervously glancing at the massive double-bed across the room.

"Just to give you a little privacy while I take your measurements," Matilda said, moving behind her and lifting the cloak from her shoulders.

She laid the cloak aside and moved back around Midna while uncoiling the measuring tape from her wrist. She paused for a moment. "What is it?" Midna asked.

"Well, I suppose every woman has a moment like this at some point in her life," Matilda said, "when she questions a lot of things she's believed, and wishes she didn't have a husband."

"I wouldn't guarantee that," Midna said, feeling her face growing hot, and silently wondering if it would be easier to escape through the door or out the window.

"You are such an amazing specimen," Matilda said, "Are all the women of your race so perfect?" Then she quickly added, "On second thought, don't tell me. It'll just make me hate my life for how many miles of silk I've wasted on whales like Lady Cloelle."

She was able to do her work quickly, using the measuring tape to take note of Midna's shape, starting with the width of her shoulders, the length of her arms, around her chest, and moving downward. She didn't stop to write anything down, but as soon as she finished at her feet, Matilda went to the door, leaned into the next room and gave someone a series of numbers, and told them to cut one basic set quickly.

"We'll have something basic for you to wear for now in a few minutes," Matilda said, turning back to her, "and from what I understand, you're going to need some sturdy traveling clothes. Those can be ready in a few days."

"I didn't even think of that," Midna said.

"Yes, but there's something far more important to discuss," Matilda went on, "Your gown for the ball."

"Oh, lord," Midna said, "Maybe I'll just save you the trouble and go naked."

"Well, that would certainly cause a sensation," Matilda said, "especially if your man dresses to match. I don't think blue would be a good choice," she went on, completely unfazed, "Too dark and it would make you look pale, and nobody looks good in powder blue. Maybe a red that matches your hair?"

"No, if I'm wearing anything, it's going to be black," Midna said.

"Yes," Matilda said, the look in her eyes as though she could see it just by looking at Midna, "You would look magnificent in black. And unlike the good Lady Cloelle, you've really got nothing to be ashamed of. Something thin-cut, without the inches of layers…"

"No padded shoulders, either, please," Midna said.

"Yes, I think a single layer black silk would be perfect. Though it would be a shame to cover up those beautiful markings on your arms and legs. Short sleeves are easy enough, but I wonder… Would it be too brazen?"

"Where I come from, clothes are for warmth, not to hide something," Midna said, "What do you have in mind?"

"Not sure yet," Matilda said, "Don't worry about it. It'll be ready for the festival, and you will not be disappointed."

There was a knock at the door. Matilda opened it and accepted a bundle from someone. She turned around, and unfolded the top piece of the bundle, revealing a long-sleeved white blouse, then the other hand, a green full-length skirt. "See if these fit, and we can make more alterations if we need to."

Midna accepted the pieces, and Matilda added with a cough, holding up two more pieces. A breast strap and undergarment. "No thanks," Midna said, "I'm itching just looking at those."

The cuts were correct, and though she couldn't agree with the color, Midna was dressed and ready, emerging from the bedroom as Matilda walked with her to the far door. "I'm going to make your dress myself," Matilda said, "Haven't cut and sewed a dress myself in years, but I can't trust someone else to do it right."

"Oh, about those traveling clothes," Midna said as Matilda opened the door for her, "Can I get trousers instead of skirts?"

"Certainly, though we can make quite sturdy traveling gowns," Matilda said.

"They can still get caught on branches and the like more easily than trousers," Midna said.

"Okay," Matilda said, "And, watch out for passing whales."

Midna groaned as the door shut behind her. She hoped she'd never have to see that massive beast again."

* * *

"Look down there," Roxim shouted over the wind at King Rigdar, seated on his back.

They were some distance northwest of the city, and finally, the "surprise" was in sight.

"Tell me they're friendly," the king shouted back at the dragon.

"They weren't under their old leader," Roxim said, "But he's no longer a problem. He was also a tough bastard, but fairly tasty."

"I don't even want to know," the king said, looking down at the figures below.

Each of them between fifteen and twenty feet tall, their massive steps taking six feet at a time, and carrying weapons larger than human men were tall. Fifty frost giants, come all the way from the northern mountains.

"Keep in mind, they're not here to be friends," Roxim said, "They're here because they can't stand up to those 'Lords of Chaos' on their own. But they're not ready for a glorious last stand, either."

"So long as they swing those weapons in the right direction, I don't care what their reason is," the king said.

He was startled when Roxim let out an ear-splitting roar than echoed across the land below them. The giants looked up, and raised their weapons, all of them letting out a wordless battle-cry that challenged the dragon's roar in volume and force.

"Now that's what I call reinforcements," the king said.


	96. Chapter 95

I'm not usually a fan of the "flashback within a flashback" scenario, but finishing up what the Daughter of Darkness chapter started with this one, I had an opportunity for one particular scene that was both horrifying and tragic, and I find so emotionally charged that I was actually in tears by the time I finished writing it, even though it was characters never seen before now and won't be again.

Just had to close up that loose end, anyway, especially since the prequal isn't going to be done, and this stuff with Minerva was intended to be the big final arc of that plot, so doing it all in two chapters at least lets me just race along to the best parts.

I do feel kind of guilty that this one wasn't ready by the time Mass Effect 3 came out, and I spent a week on that pretty much solid. It was great, until the last twenty minutes. At the time this chapter is posted, I'll also have posted a short quickee related to Mass Effect that was written in literally two hours, which will probably give a clear indication of what I thought of it.

**Chapter 95: A Diamond Shell**

"There you are," Alex said as he approached Silviana where she leaned against the wall in the passage leading to the castle kitchens, "Why'd you just take off like that?"

"I didn't want to mediate an argument between Ralthas and Roxim," she said, "Besides, it's not like I'd have much to add to the obvious topic of discussion."

"So why are you just standing out here?" Alex asked, leaning against the wall beside her.

"Waiting a moment," she said, "Someone in the kitchen is making a potato soup, and it's nearly ready."

"That's some of the best news I've heard all week," Alex said, looking up as more footsteps were coming toward them down the passage.

Link was moving toward them, apparently by himself. "Seems like I wasn't the only one with this idea," he said.

Alex leaned to the side so he could see past Link. "That's weird," he said, "I don't think I've ever seen you by yourself. What's going on?"

"Well, Midna was dragged off to see a tailor," Link said, "so I imagine she's getting fitted for some clothes right now. I did ask Sheila to come with me, but she apparently wasn't hungry. Besides," he added, glancing over his shoulder to see if there was anyone behind him, "I think this works."

He moved closer to them, lowering his voice. "Can I trust you two with something, something that absolutely must remain a secret, at least for now?" he asked.

"Oh, Link, of course I accept your proposal!" Silviana said, smiling as Alex choked.

"What?" Alex shouted, even as Link hushed him.

"This is serious!" Link said, "I've got something that can be an effective insurance policy, should the worst happen. Problem is, if word gets out about it, it will be completely useless. It has to be completely secret."

"Then why are you even telling us?" Silviana asked.

"Because if it becomes necessary, you're a better shot than I ever was," Link said, leaning down and reaching his fingers into the top of his boot.

He withdrew a single arrow. From its feathers, down its shaft, and even the tip shone with a metallic silver. "It's an arrow," Alex stated.

"I'm not sure how this came back into my hands, but I found it in the temple," Link said, "Before that, it was gifted to me by a tortured woman, a great fairy, you could say, for one reason and one reason only. To kill Ganondorf."

Silviana reached for the arrow, taking it from Link's hands. She nearly dropped it as her fingers slid across the impossibly smooth surface of the shaft. It wasn't made of any kind of metal or wood she knew of. Nothing should be this frictionless.

"I see what you're getting at," she said, "A secret weapon, should he betray us. A good thing to have, then."

"But it's just an arrow," Alex said, "That guy came back from having his insides pretty much turned to goo. How can this kill him?"

"As I understand it, it carries the same properties as the Master Sword," Link said, "The Master Sword can cause wounds just as real and deadly to Ganondorf as any other sword can to you or me. It does this by neutralizing the magic of his Triforce. Its power is what normally causing him to heal rapidly. I'm nowhere near his level, but I've begun to learn to use mine similarly."

"You're serious…" Alex said, not quite sure he believed it.

"Look at yourself," Link said, indicating the bruises on Alex's arms, "I'm sure you've got more bruises under your clothes as well after going through the temple. Now look at me. I'm completely unscathed, hell, I'm not even sore. More serious injuries, even broken bones, I've been able to recover from in just a few seconds, but it saps my energy. More than one or two and I'd be shot. Ganondorf, on the other hand, has an insane endurance, obviously from his countless years strengthening himself. The injuries inflicted on him by the Master Sword, however, he cannot heal. I can only assume at this point that this arrow will do the same. As soon as I can, though, I'm going to pay a visit on a certain individual, and get this and a lot of other things straight."

"If this can neutralize Ganondorf," Silviana said, reasoning through it, "then it would be just as effective against you. That's why you want to keep it quiet."

"Yes," Link said, "but it's got more to do with, if we have to use it, I'd rather Ganondorf not see it coming. Which is why I'd like you to hang onto it, Sil. He'd expect any number to surprises from me, but I don't think he'd see it coming from you."

With an expert flick of her wrist, Silviana turned the point of the arrow down, and slid it into the quiver at her hip, among her other arrows, the feathers hidden amongst the others. "I understand," she said, "Better to have it and not need it than the other way around."

"Thank you," Link said, and turned to Alex, "You've got to keep quiet about it, too. Not a word to anyone, because we can't let Ganondorf or, gods forbid, Kilishandra find out, or the results cold be disastrous."

"I get it," Alex said, and made a motion of zipping up his lips with his hand, and at the sound of approaching footsteps, quickly changed topics, "So, Link, what about this tournament they're going to have? Will you be entering?"

"I doubt it," Link said, "I've never jousted in my life. I'd just end up on my back in the dirt."

"There's going to be a whole lot of different contests," Alex said, "Swords, spears, archery, you name it. Come on, enter the sword. If I can't win it, then I'll at least get to watch you crush everyone."

"Not my kind of thing," Link said.

"What? Organized fighting, or getting embarrassed in front of an entire city?" Kilishandra asked as she appeared from behind him.

"More the fact that what I know about these kinds of tournaments, they aren't like real fights anyway," Link said, "They're probably going to have some kind of stupid points system in place, and judges who decide who the winner is rather than actual ability."

"Why? Are you going to enter?" Alex asked.

"I might," Kilishandra said, glancing at Link out of the corner of her eye, "if the right opponent was there."

_This woman's out for my head,_ Link thought to himself, _There's no other explanation. I must have pissed her off in a past life or something._

"If you want to fight me," he said, "we can go over to the training yard and do it there again."

Kilishandra tilted her head toward the door to the kitchen. "I thought you were going to get something to eat?"

She was just trying to get a rise out of him, Link realized. She was a lot like Ganondorf, during the times when almost everything he said was a backhanded insult in some way, just trying to get a reaction.

"Come on," Silviana said, motioning to Alex, "That soup should be ready."

Alex followed her as she pushed open the door into the kitchen. Link flashed a smile at Kilishandra, turning and following after them. He heard her footsteps behind him as they made their way to the left hand side of the kitchen, where a wooden table was set up in the corner near the ovens, for the kitchen and castle staff, or the mistimed visitors like themselves.

Silviana got the attention of one of the staff, who shouted her recognition across to them, as they sat down at the table. Link sat down across the table from Alex and Silviana, with Kilishandra seating herself to his left, though with several seating's worth of open space between them.

"I thought it was just going to be you," the kitchen maid said to Silviana as she appeared beside the table, setting down bowls of steaming hot, creamy potato soup in front of each of them.

Link glanced up as she set down his. "Ilia," he said, and trailed off, not sure what he was going to say when he realized who it was.

"What?" she asked, "I told you, I'm working in here for now. What are you looking so surprised for?"

"Sorry," he said, "Just a lot on my mind."

Ilia gave him a wry smile. "I made the soup," she said, patting him on the shoulder, as if to reassure him, "Now, there's a lot of work for people who aren't stopping to eat in the middle of the afternoon."

She turned, moving away from them, back to the line of preparation tables, wood burning stoves, and rapidly moving bodies, all working to prepare the evening meals for both the nobles in the castle, as well as the entire, massive staff that resided in house.

"That's not bad," Kilishandra said, spooning up another bite of the soup and blowing on it.

Ilia did seem much more confident when she was working, Link thought with a smile. She was always like that, even when they were children. He could see her, back at the line, where an older man had her start rolling out dough while he stoked the fire in one of the ovens.

Link turned back to the bowl in front of him, spooning up some and giving it a quick blow to avoid burning his tongue, brought it into his mouth. Kilishandra's assessment was conservative, he decided, as he was immediately caught by the familiar flavor. It was the same recipe Ilia's mother had used, when they were much younger, before she had passed away. Ilia had gradually refined it over the years, experimenting with the spicing, until she had arrived at a flavor that was all her own.

It wasn't just that it tasted good, it was that the flavor reminded Link of those years gone by, growing up in Orden. He had never known his own parents, but everyone in the village treated him like family. In fact, everyone in the village was his family. And right now, this soup, it tasted like home, which he had not seen in nearly a year.

He had thought he'd known what Ilia was feeling, in her homesickness, but now it struck him like a battering ram. A pain in his chest, with a longing to just go home, see the familiar faces, and walk those familiar hills along the river. There was a distant snap in his ear.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked, and Link realized the other three were all staring at him.

"I'm fine," Link said, his voice cracking, and he cleared his throat, then repeated himself.

As he went to take another spoonful of the soup, he realized he'd been gripping the spoon to the point it had snapped in two. With a sigh, he picked up the other half, and resumed eating. Across the kitchen, they were baking buscuits, glazing a large ham, and concocting any number of sauces and gravies for the evening meal.

Let them keep it, Link thought. This potato soup was the best food in the whole damn world right now.

Link jumped when a hand touched his shoulder, pulling him out of his reverie. He looked up to see Midna slipping down onto the bench next to him. "You are too easy to predict sometimes," she said.

"Yeah, right," Link said, lifting his spoon toward her, "Try this."

Midna laughed, and let him feed her the bite. "Oh, gods, that's good!" she said after swallowing, and turned to shout for someone to bring her a bowl.

"Looks like she can put on some clothes," Kilishandra said as Midna turned back to the table, "Nice choice, by the way. When do we get to meet the grandkids?"

"If I didn't know better, I'd think the tin can over there is making fun of me," Midna said to Link.

"Well, that outfit is a lot more conservative than I expected," Link replied.

"I didn't get all that much choice," Midna said as an arm appeared beside her, setting a bowl of the soup on the table.

"I'm getting the feeling it'll be on the floor soon enough," Kilishandra muttered.

"That's it," Midna said, turning toward her, "What did I do? You've been glaring at me ever since we got out of that temple, and everything you've said to me has some kind of hateful undertone."

Kilishandra's head whipped up, her brows furrowed and teeth bared in a snarl, but stopped before half a syllable had passed her lips. "Nevermind," she growled, turning back to her bowl, "I'm just thinking about a lot. It has nothing to do with you."

"Yeah, right," Midna said, but turned to her own meal.

_I thought it was going to be bad with Ilia,_ Link thought, _I better come up with a distraction._

"We've got some free time," he said, "Didn't you promise us that you'd finish a story you were telling?"

"Oh, that," Kilishandra said, then turned to him, "You don't really want to sit here and listen to me go on about people you'll never meet, do you?"

"You can't just stop and never finish a story," Link said, "You're alive, so obviously that Minerva girl didn't kill you, but I want to know how you pulled it off, with what you were describing before."

Kilishandra sighed. "And you want to know she isn't a threat to us now, in spite of me assuring you it's unlikely."

Link shrugged, spooning up more soup. "You have something more important to do right now?"

"Where did I leave off?" Kilishandra asked.

"I think Ganondorf managed to scare her off," Link said.

"Right," Kilishandra said, "Let's see. He was recovering for several days after what he did, while Khall, Tharkus and I were organizing efforts to go through everything that had survived the fire, trying to find some information about the girl. Tharkus guessed, from the system of pumps and tubes between the crypt and the throne, Erador had set up an elaborate system to drain the girl's blood and pump it into his own body. That was the source of the emperor's inhuman strength, and our clue that the child was in fact a demon, creatures that had long since been destroyed as a species. There were survivors, here and there, but they were few and far apart, though when one was encountered, it was always a nightmarish event. But the child was far more dangerous than any recorded in history, even the demonic overlords of old. That's what we came to find out when we discovered the necromancer's hidden study beneath the wreckage of the burned palace…"

* * *

"They only told me this morning about the dungeon," Khall said as he led Kilishandra down the stone passage beneath the palace ruin, "Then they spent most of the day digging it out so we can get down here. Seems the emperor had a typical dungeon after all. And at the end of the hall down here…"

The globe of light hovering above Khall's palm cast long shadows into the cells on both sides of them as they passed. The actual walking space between them was narrow, and the ceiling was low, to the point if Ganondorf were with them, he would have to stoop just to pass through. As it was, Kilishandra could feel the stone ceiling brushing against the top of her hair. It would have annoyed her, had she not been focusing on the globe of light, and trying to block out the confined space, but it did not stop her from clenching her fists until her nails bit into her palms, and the cold sweat running down her neck.

At the end of the passage was a heavy iron door that opened with a loud grating as Khall shoved it, opening into a larger chamber. There were stairs leading down immediately inside the door, and the floor of the room was another six feet down, though thankfully the ceiling remained the same height as the outside passage, at least releiving some of the invisible pressure Kilishandra felt as they descended, though it was soon replaced by a horrid smell.

The room itself was a cliché straight out of a bad adventure tale; the very image of an evil wizard's lair, though whatever occupant it had once served was long since gone. Two walls shelves stuffed to the brim with books of all colors and sizes, and out from there, tables of alchemy equipment, beakers filled with liquids of noxious colors, though all coated with a layer of dust from disuse. Then, the source of the smell, four large cages, easily large enough to hold several each, their bars scorched black, and among the bones littering the bottoms, two held half-rotted bodies, the flesh still clinging to the bones, but too far gone to identify. The smell of old blood and rotten meat hung heavy in the air. It was a smell both of them had become all too familiar with since the start of the bloody campaign against the emperor, and would not likely ever forget. It was the smell of death.

"Sick bastards," Khall muttered as they walked past the cages.

Past that was a semi-permanent magic circle, the pentagram laid directly into the floor with silver, though lacking the additional symbols to control the necessary energies to make it actually usable. It was likely that the additional symbols were drawn in chalk, so they could be changed and the circle used for different purposes. At least, Kilishandra hoped they were drawn in chalk, noting the large amount of old, dark bloodstains on and around the circle.

On the far wall, across from the bookshelves were a large rack, in which the hapless prisoners of this sick magician would be bound at the wrists and ankles and stretched by the mechanics of the machine, and next to it, two iron maidens, both of which sat with large, dark bloodstains at their bases. They both decided to not open the sinister devices, for fear they weren't empty.

"What could someone even accomplish with methods like this?" Kilishandra asked.

"The only thing I can even think of is necromancy," Khall said, "They need blood and bodies as material supplies for that kind of magic. The rack is out of place, though. Probably there for his own sick amusement."

There were plenty of people in the world who considered Ganondorf a villain at this point, Kilishandra knew, due to his brutal methods of war, and utter lack of mercy, though that was more of a selective nature. He was merciful when there was reason to be, but if sparing an enemy's life did not benefit him, he did not do so. But he never resorted to torture to get what he sought. And certainly not blood sacrifices, she added when her foot bumped something, and looked down to see a sinister curved dagger, long dull and rusted, laying in the center of a large dark stain.

"Maybe Tharkus would be able to tell us more about what was going on down here," Khall said, "He'd be the one to know, after all."

"He's got enough ways to disturb the dead," Kilishandra said, "I'd rather not risk him getting new ideas that involve live sacrifices."

"Good point," Khall said, "Let's look at those books. Grab anything you find about demons, and anything that looks like a diary or notes. This necromancer had to help set up those blood channels, so he had to know what was in there."

They spent a good three hours combing the shelves, stacking anything that looked like it may be helpful to one side, and soon had a stack of books too large for the pair of them to carry out on their own, but neither were they willing to read them in that sinister room. Picking up what they could manage, they made their way out of the dungeons, and Khall sent several workers to retrieve the rest of their stack of books, while they sat on the grass in the courtyard and began leafing through what they had carried.

Most of them were useless, and the number of discarded books began to pile up, as more and more were brought from the dungeons. A text that described demonic biology, nearly identical to a human's, aside from drinking human blood basically being a drug for them, like alcohol to men. A book on theories of their origins, all of them vague and pointless. Trying a hand-written diary next, constant inane raving about everything being taken from the writer, and that the time was growing close when he would return and exact his revenge by turning the entire world to a barren, silent wasteland.

Hours rolled into days. Kilishandra began to seriously worry about Khall when he had been going for three days without sleep, but he assured her he was fine, and in fact, had never felt better. He showed no signs of fatigue, no circles under his eyes and he was able to focus on the task.

Finally, they found something. One of the diaries, older than the other Kilishandra tried, spoke of the crypt beneath the city. It seemed even the emperor hadn't realized it was there when he built his own palace over it. Then a reference to an ancient cache of information, and a hand-drawn map to its location, just two weeks' travel from the city.

* * *

"We had to make arrangements for the trip," Kilishandra said, "But Khall, there was a fire in his eyes. I don't think we could have talked him out of the trip, but I think he was beginning to suspect what I hadn't guessed, about his condition."

"Never sleeping," Link said, tapping the table, "You said something last time, about that throne. Didn't Khall get stabbed by a needle?"

"Barely pricked," Kilishandra said, "And on his finger at that, with what little of the blood that was left in the needle itself. Yet he was showing the first stage of ingesting demonic blood, a rush of energy and strength that can last from weeks to months.

"I can't believe I didn't see it back then, honestly. Especially after reading that book about demon biology. See, the demons of my world had a taste for human blood. It had a similar effect on them that beer, wine, and the like have on us."

"And just try to pry an ale out of my hand after I have it," Alex said with a chuckle and elbowing Silviana's arm.

"In the reverse case," Kilishandra went on, ignoring him, "a human ingesting demonic blood, it is far and away the opposite effect. The emperor had been injecting it into himself for years, and grew in strength to the point he was able to stand in direct blow-for-blow combat with my father. But we think he was also requiring more and more frequent injections to avoid the second stage of ingesting demonic blood: the slow poison and deterioration of his body. In a sense, it's comparable to a hardened alcoholic trying to quit drinking, except in this case, there is no way to survive the damage. And even the small amount Khall had taken purely by accident, while it may take years or even decades, it will eventually kill him."

"What about this two week trip?" Link asked, "Weren't you worried the girl would attack the city again?"

"We decided it was a chance worth taking," Kilishandra said, "My father gave us leave, while he and Tharkus remained in the city with our men, just in case. Khall and I took only Mur'neth and a small compliment with us, and it turned out that what we found in that cache was instrumental in what would come next."

* * *

The location indicated by the map in the diary turned out to be the ruin of a large fortress, which was placed with its back to the mountains, on the inside of a bowl shaped valley. It was a defensible position, due to ground troops being unable to approach in number from any direction but straight up the valley toward the walls.

No defenders waited for the group as they picked through the ruin, however, finding that the rather impressive architecture had kept the majority of the structure standing through the centuries. Within, they found that the fortress had been fitted for everything needed to withstand a siege, from amble housing for thousands of people, to enormous storerooms, though the stockpiles of food had long since rotted away.

When they found the extensive library, they knew it was what they were looking for. The dust on the shelves and floor had been much more recently disturbed than any other area of the fortress, and many shelves were empty, which they surmised was where many of the books in the necromancer's chamber come from. There were more than eight times as many still remaining, however.

The attention quickly focused when Kilishandra found a back area, where a single tome lay on a stone pedestal. The cover was bound in tanned human flesh, and the binding was bone, and the image of a single great black eye adorned its surface. The same eye that was visible on the red background of the banners the demon troops had carried eons ago when mankind had risen against them. It was a thin volume compared to most of the other books, and looked like barely fifty pages at the most. It was around this pedestal that Khall, Kilishandra, and Mur'neth gathered.

Khall gently opened the cover to the first page, using only two fingers, as if afraid the flesh would begin to crawl, or worse, grab hold of him. The pages were written in blood on yellowed parchment.

"In this volume, crafted in the violence that wrought its necessity, do we mark the first law of the True Race to be enforced since the first," Khall read aloud, "Mankind and the True Race shall never be as one. The foolish mistakes of two individuals have set the world on its ear, and naught shall come of their transgression but a harsh warning to those of the future.

"This law, to be enforced by both the True Race and mankind, is as thus: Should any member of the True Race lay with a human, both shall be put to death, without hesitation. The creature in the female's womb will be cut free and destroyed in fire, and the ashes buried at least thirty feet down, with a stone foundation laid over the resting place to ensure escape is impossible."

Khall turned the page.

"Here do we lay down the necessity of this law, made essential by the mistakes of two foolish individuals. A devil prince that allowed his heart to soften toward a human serving girl, her foolish acceptance of his offer, and the abomination that grew in her womb.

"The child, when born, had skin pale as chalk, as we of the True Race do, and bled as we do, black as volcanic glass, yet possessed eyes like a human, and the shape of her features was human."

"That sounds like our girl," Mur'neth said.

"A woman actually gave herself to one of those monsters," Kilishandra said, thinking of Reaper and shuddering.

Khall turned another page, and continued reading. "In her first years, it seemed there was no danger, and the child was even welcomed into our fold. At the age of ten years, when the human race takes the first steps of their metamorphosis into adults, her power manifested.

"The laws of magic were shattered by this mere child. She required no words of enchantment, nor even any sense of focus or time to gather energy. And she is able to perform acts like no magic, from men or the True Race, is capable. Whatever she can imagine becomes reality. There is no other way to define what she does.

"Given enough time, she might have been melded into potentially the greatest overlord the True Race had ever known. But her power was too much for her childish mind. She abused it, like a toy, and did not understand the havoc she wrought on others. It was a game to her. With entire cities in ruin in her wake, action was finally taken.

"The twelve overlords allied for the first time since the beginning. Though they could not challenge her power directly, even in union, they forged an elaborate trap. Waiting at the next city in her path of destruction, they constructed a web of magic, and when she arrived, the child walked directly into it."

* * *

_Long ago…_

The sky raged as lightning leaped between the clouds, and rain pelted the ground in a vicious torrent. The city had already been evacuated of all but those essential to the task, but still the child came, more intent on destruction and chaos than calculated evil.

The mightiest demon overlord, Narosha, stood alone in the central square, the rain rattling noisily on her black armor, her eyes on the sky as she waited. A distant crash, and a three story building came down at the far end of the city. One by one, more followed suit, gradually moving across the skyline, closer and closer to the central square.

Over the rattling rain and crashing thunder, delighted laughter gradually became audible. Then, in an instant, the child was over the square, hovering in the air about twenty feet up. Narosha lifted her eyes to the child.

"One chance, Minerva," she shouted over the rain and thunder, "Stop what you are doing now and return with me."

"But I'm having fun," came the response. It was clearly audible, even over the noise around them, though she did not shout. "Will you play with me?"

A bolt of lightning struck, passing over Narosha's head and reducing a building behind her to wreckage in seconds. Narosha did not flinch, and slowly reached to the swore hilt above her right shoulder. With one hand she drew her enormous great sword, its red blade hissing loudly and seeming to smoke as the rain that struck it instantly turned to steam.

"Twelve overlords, and three hundred warlocks," Narosha said, turning the weapon over so that the blade pointed toward the ground, "Let us hope it is enough."

She stabbed the blade into the cobbled street, sending a spider web of cracks out around the blade, followed by a glow appearing on the ground. Within the square, a circular shape glowed beneath them, growing rapidly brighter. More visible lines extended down the streets away from the square. The genius of the overlords' plan was rapidly becoming visible, in a city that was built as a giant magic circle.

"What are you doing?" Minerva asked.

She suddenly vanished, only to cry out as a white light flashed in the air, and she was floating back toward the center of the square, shocked by the invisible wall created by the glowing lines on the ground.

"What is this?" Minerva demanded, her voice now tinged with fear.

The trap would not hold her long when she really started trying to force it. With practiced precision, the other eleven overlords appeared from the side streets, and warlocks were pouring out of the buildings surrounding the square, rapidly moving to positions surrounding the circle which now held Minerva in place. Their chants began to fill the air over the pounding rain and lightning.

"What's going on?" Minerva cried, her voice growing to a scream.

"You are simply too dangerous," Narosha said, "Lacking the power to destroy you, we have only one choice: to confine you."

The ground within the glowing circle beneath Minerva shattered, the stone of the street falling into blackness, and seconds later, shapes emerged from the new opening. Large tendrils like plant roots lanced from the hole upward. Minerva lashed out at them, and they sliced away or burned, but did not relent. More and more appeared from the hole, reaching upward. Minerva screamed as one managed to slip past her strikes and wrap itself around her arm, then with it holding her, more snatched around her legs and other arm.

Her resistance collapsed as she panicked. She screamed as the tendrils dragged her downward, and yet more wrapped around her body. She was pulled down under the street level, the chanting of the warlocks and overlords never ceasing.

"No! Please! I'm sorry!" Her screams fell on deaf ears as the tendrils dragged her even further down, toward the waiting stone sarcophagus below. Dragged into the confining space, she saw more warlocks, waiting in this lower chamber, as they magically lifted a massive stone lid above her. Tears streaming uncontrolled down her face, her screams became even more hysterical. "No! I don't want to be alone in the dark! Please!"

The stone lid came down, muffling her cries beneath it, and the warlocks swiftly set to work, sealing the sarcophagus and laying down the magic seals which would prevent her escape, and those that would hopefully send her into an eternal sleep, so that she would not try.

Had any looked up, they would have seen Narosha, standing at the opening above them, beneath the rapidly clearing sky, her sword still in one hand. A single tear would run from her onyx eye for her granddaughter, as she whispered, "I'm sorry."

* * *

"With the child sealed away, repercussions were sought against those responsible," Khall read on, "The child's parents were both put to the sword, by the order of Narosha, greatest of overlords. To ensure the circumstances cannot be replicated, mankind is no longer permitted to live in the same homes with the True Race, and those who are permitted entry will be slaves, not servants, who will never look their betters in the face. And any who are found to be defying these laws will be put to death."

Khall turned to the final page, where only a few lines were visible.

"I loved my son. But the creature that spawned from his loins is an abomination. I did what was necessary to protect both the True Race and mankind. And I will not hesitate to do so again," Khall paused, then added, "Signed in blood, Narosha, Overlord of the Southern Reaches."

The final words, instead of the red color of the rest of the book was written in the black blood of a demon.

"A cross-breed between man and demon," Kilishandra said, "I'd have never thought such a thing possible."

"Well, most of what we know about demons is old legend at this point," Khall said, "It makes sense that many of the details were lost."

"I've seen at least one with my own eyes," Mur'neth said.

"They were not all killed during the rebellion," Khall said, "but this child who attacked us certainly predates even that. Let's take this tome and go back. Ganondorf will want to see it."

* * *

"Our suspicions were right, of course," Kilishandra said, "The emperor's capital city was the very same the girl was sealed beneath. The palace had been built directly over her tomb, to facilitate the draining of her blood and feeding it into the emperor. During the battle, the ground shaking magic unleashed caused part of the tomb to cave in, breaking open the sealed sarcophagus, and releasing Minerva into the world."

"So knowing what she was helped in some way?" Midna asked.

"Yes, actually," Kilishandra said, "Like the book said, she could create virtually any magical effect just by imagining it. Knowing you're up against a being of near limitless power has a way of just making a person angry, and search all the harder for a weakness. We found it in the same book, in fact. That being that while she was nearly godlike in power, her mentality was still that of a child. She frightened easily, and was the type of child who would try to hide rather than fight in the face of fear.

"There were several encounters with her over the next few weeks, though she never revealed herself during them. She sent strange monsters made of crystal at us, though they were easily destroyed. We were nearly prepared to begin actively searching for her when she returned to the capital."

* * *

The shaking had started in the middle of the night. The entire city awoke as the ground violently quaked, sending shelved items crashing to the floors, and furniture scooting across rooms, though the buildings held.

The ruin of the old palace was split, as a blade as sharp as any sword rose from the ground beneath it, and a massive structure of crystal rose high into the air. It continued to rise, more and more coming from the ground as the shaking continued. When it finally died away, a giant tower with walls of gleaming crystal stood in the center of the city, towering over of the surrounding buildings, with sharp crystal spikes adorning its surface.

As men gathered in the courtyard around the tower, Ganondorf, Khall, Mur'neth, and Kilishandra appeared from the crowd, moving toward the tower. The only opening in the structure was a doorway on ground level that more resembled a cave entrance, lacking real doors and apparently carved from the rock rather than built.

"I don't understand this," Khall said as they walked toward it, "What is she trying to do? This may as well be a blatant challenge."

"That's exactly what it is," Ganondorf said, "She thinks she's ready for us."

"Let's hope she's wrong," Mur'neth said.

Without even stopping, Ganondorf started into the tower's entrance, the other three following close. Within, the tower was remarkably simple in design. A single room on ground level, and on the right side, a stairway started up, spiraling around the walls of the chamber, extending upward further than the eye could see, fading into darkness.

"Minerva!" Ganondorf shouted, "There's no point in hiding! We know what you are!"

"Do you?"

The child's voice came in a flat tone that was somehow more terrifying than any raging beast or fighter they had ever encountered. She faded into view, from out of the air above them.

"I'm giving you one warning, kid," Ganondorf said, "Just come down here and give yourself up and things won't have to get ugly."

"You are impossible to understand," Minerva said. Though she spoke softly, her voice was clearly audible through the entire room. "Demons and men both give me nothing but threats, when all I wanted was to have some fun."

"Your fun is nothing but pure chaos!" Kilishandra said, "Destruction and death for no reason!"

"Why do you seek such chaos, child?" Ganondorf asked, "Why do you take joy in the suffering of others?"

"Why do you seek war, conqueror?" Minerva responded, "Why do you take joy in the suffering of others?"

"I asked you first," Ganondorf said.

"I do not intend to destroy, not anymore," the child said, "When I did, I was punished. So much time, alone in the darkness. I don't want to be alone anymore. But you! When I create friends for myself, you destroy them, time and again. So… that must be wrong as well."

"What the hell?" Mur'neth whispered, "Is she acting like this is some kind of life lesson?"

"What are you going to do?" Khall asked.

"If making friends is wrong, then I will just take them from those that already exist," Minerva said, "Everyone in this city will be my friends, forever."

_I can't believe I'm hearing this,_ Kilishandra thought, _But then again, she is just a child…_

"You can't force people to be your friends," Ganondorf said, in a surprisingly soft tone, "You have to earn it, through mutual respect."

"I can, and I will," Minerva said, "They won't be able to leave this city so long as I don't desire it. Neither will you. The crystal of this tower is already starting to spread and cover the streets. All within will be in my power, including you."

"You'd best not try it," Ganondorf said, "No one controls me, not man or god, and certainly not you."

"I will not be denied!" Minerva suddenly shouted.

Tendrils lashed out from the walls. The same crystal color and shine, though as flexible as bullwhips. Swords appeared in Ganondorf, Kilishandra, and Mur'neth's hands as they instantly reacted. The tendrils shattered under their blows, as Khall quickly recited a short spell, blasting many of them into pieces in an instant. More lashed out, and more were struck down. The four moved in perfect synergy, an experienced team, falling with their backs together in the center of the room. After a moment, the assault stopped as quickly as it began.

"That was a mistake," Ganondorf said, looking up at Minerva, "It's past your bedtime, child."

The look in his eye caused an instant reaction is the girl. Her eyes went wide, and a sudden intake of breath hissed between her teeth, her face contorting in fear. "No…" she said, her voice shaking, "I'm not going back in the dark. I won't!"

She shot upward, flying rapidly away from them toward the top of the tower. "After her!" Ganondorf shouted, starting for the stairway, the other three following after him, "We won't get another chance at this!"

The stairway was wide, nearly six feet across, though there was no guard on the inside edge, but they charged up the stairs as quickly as they could.

"Stay away!" Minerva's voice screamed at them, echoing through the tower.

Humanoid shapes ripped themselves from the crystal walls of the tower, attempting to block the group's progress. Ganondorf shattered the first with a single blow of his sword. The group cut through them quickly, barely slowing their ascent. More crystalline tendrils lashed out at them, but these shattered even more easily than the crystal golems.

"Stay back! Don't come here!"

An enormous shape ripped itself from the wall. A fifteen foot crystal golem, shaped like a massive gorrilla, barred the path. Ganondorf leaped forward, crashing into it even as it raised its club like arms to strike, the force of the impact toppling it back and shattering it on the stairs.

"This is easier than I expected," Mur'neth remarked as they resumed their climb.

"She's panicked and losing her focus," Ganondorf said, "Keep going!"

The floor beneath them kept falling further away, yet there was no end to the tower in sight. More crystal creatures attempted to bar their way, and more were stuck down. Minerva's screams of protest were growing increasingly hysterical. "Stay away!" she wailed, "I don't want to go back in the dark!"

Finally, the chamber ceiling came into sight. The stairs lead to an opening that rapidly sealed itself over in crystal. The Triforce on Ganondorf's hand flashed as he passed his sword to his left hand, and drew back his fist, his voice rising in a wordless scream. Without even slowing down, he shattered the crystal blocking passage with a lightning charged punch, sending fragments flying into the chamber beyond.

The group emerged on the top room of the tower. Minerva was in the center of the room, and her head shot up toward them as they entered. Her tear streaked face was a mask of blind terror, unable to even voice words now.

More crystal shapes rose from the floor, but these did not even have definable appearances, writhing like blobs of thick liquid, several sinking back into the floor before they could even move. Minerva tripped over her own feet, falling onto her back and trying to scoot away.

"This is where it ends," Ganondorf said, passing his sword back to his right hand, and reversing his grip so the blade was pointed down, and leaped toward her.

Over the crystal blobs he flew, raising his sword high for a downward strike. Minerva screamed.

Her scream suddenly fell silent, the crystal blobs dissolving back into the floor, and a single sound echoed through the chamber, before it fell deathly silent. It took a moment for Kilishandra to realize the sound was not that of a blade striking flesh. In fact, it had sounded more like skin slapping skin…

Ganondorf was kneeled down on the floor across from them. The tip of his sword was visible, where it had pierced the cloth of the girl's skirt, and rested on the floor. There was no blood visible.

The three of them moved closer, where they could see Minerva. There were tears in her eyes still, and her breath came in sobs, but she was looking at Ganondorf with an expression of shock, more than genuine fear. There were four red lines on her right cheek, where the fingers of his left hand had struck her in an open slap.

"You said you wanted friends," Ganondorf said, his voice soft, "But acting like this is no way to get them. If you'll calm down, and promise not to use this power of yours without asking me first, I'll be your friend. How does that sound?"

Minerva suddenly sat up, and had her arms around his neck, leaning into his shoulder as the tears kept coming, though now for a different reason. "I was so scared," she whispered, "I thought you were going to put me back in that dark place…"

"No, I'm not going to," Ganondorf said, returning her hug with his free hand over her back, "But you're going to have to listen to me, okay? Last time, they told you what you did was wrong, and punished you, but they didn't tell you why. I'll tell you why, but like I said, you have to ask me before you do something with your power. Can you promise me that?"

"I promise."

"Good," Ganondorf rose to his feet, lifting the child with him, her arms still around his neck, and she buried her face in his chest, her tears soaking his shirt.

"I'll be damned," Mur'neth said as the other three approached them, "I never would have thought of that."

Khall and Kilishandra both remained silent, looking at the child in Ganondorf's arm. The sight was somewhat nostalgic for them both. Kilishandra could remember when she had been in not much better a state when she had run up to him, grabbing his cloak and shrieking about the attack on her village, and her mother. He hadn't spoken such reassuring words to her, but looking back, she realized that she hadn't needed them, or wanted them. She had cried herself to sleep, and he had carried her in his arms as he kept walking the rest of the day.

And Khall remembered that moment that had changed his life. When his parents were killed in a barbarian raid that had razed their farmstead, himself barely nine years old, and he had sat there, staring at the burned wreck of his family's home, only surviving himself because he had been in nearby forest when the attack came, collecting insects. He had run out of tears to shed, and sat in silence for so long, he had lost perception of time and how long it had been. Then there was the crack of gravel underfoot, and he looked up to see the enormous man in black with a young red haired dark elf girl sitting on his shoulders. And saying nothing, the man offered Khall his hand.

But this child was different. Kilishandra and Khall had both been tormented, but they had not truly broken. Minerva had faced something that to her was more terrifying than anything else she knew. She had broken under the pressure not once, but twice now. She was far more frail than she originally appeared.

Saying nothing, Ganondorf moved to the stairs, and started down, and the others followed. By the time they reached the base of the tower, Minerva had fallen asleep in his arms.

* * *

"I told him later that I had thought he was going to kill her, the way he jumped at her," Kilishandra said, "He told me he had intended to. But at the last second, he simply couldn't do it."

"The man actually has a heart," Midna said, "I'd never have guessed."

"Maybe about the size of my thumb," Link said, "But it is there, it seems."

"Regardless of what you may think, my father is a good man," Kilishandra said, "I can understand, though, with him being your enemy for so long-"

"No, you don't understand," Midna said, turning a dark glare at her, "Don't pretend you do just to try to butter me up. You saw what he did to me, but not what he did to my people. You do not understand, and never will."

"So what happened to Minerva?" Link asked, before Kilishandra could retort.

Kilishandra glared at Midna, then looked past her to Link. "She kept her promise. She wouldn't use her magic without permission, and we educated her as to why it had to be that way. I guess you could say we taught her responsibility. Last I remember, she was still there in the capital. She had to stay behind the rest of us so she could use her power to protect the last farmlands from the spreading blight. She can hold it back, but not retake the lands that it had already taken. Her power is not nearly as limitless as it first appeared, but she is still amazing.

"She was sixteen the last time I saw her. It seems she didn't age while she was sealed away. She'd be in her twenties now, though."

"This is the same blight people have been talking about here?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Kilishandra said, "I heard what Ralthas and Link saw. I didn't realize someone could forcefully spread it, though Father did say the blight shouldn't spread on its own, in fact it should recede."

"What is it, exactly?" Link asked.

"I don't know," Kilishandra said, "All I know is it is a plague on the land itself. Nothing will grow, and standing water turns to poison in blighted lands. That was why we came here, to find a new world to move our people. At least, that's what I believed. I still can't believe Khall would actually intend to release a dark goddess to destroy this world, even if it meant She would then save our own."

* * *

The part of the story that Kilishandra herself did not know, could not know, due to the secrecy involved, when as the blight pressed closer and closer to their borders, and Ganondorf had long since departed to gods knew where, was when Tharkus had asked Khall to come to his chambers one dark night, to introduce him to a new ally.

"I've found the solution to the blight," Tharkus said as he closed the door behind Khall, "But it involves making a deal. A trade if you will."

"Is it a devil that wants my soul?" Khall said, "Another week and I might be willing to consider it."

"Nothing so dramatic," Tharkus said, pulling the thin cloth that covered his crystal ball away, revealing the shining orb. Perhaps a little cliché, but it was an effective scrying tool, though Khall was partial to a bowl of water. Worked just as well, and was easier to replace. "Let me introduce you," Tharkus said, "to Shaklator."

The ball changed as Tharkus waved his hand over it, and it darkened, then filled with white stars. Two shapes appeared among them. The night sky was not truly black, and neither was this backdrop, shown perfectly as two black circles appeared, like holes in the universe, as the edges shifted, like silhouetted eyes. A woman's voice emanated from the crystal, strong and dark. "Do you wish to save your world from the blight that threatens its destruction?" it asked.

"Yes," Khall said, "Do you know how I can do it?"

"You cannot," said the voice, "But I can. But I require a service from you first."

"What is it?"

"Long ago, I was wronged, greatly, by a wizard named Darius," the voice said, "He took everything from me. And I intend to take everything he valued from him, even so. I can help ease your passage into his world, and there, you will ease my passage. It will take years of work, but once I am there, I will have my vengeance, and then you will have my aid in saving those you care for. Without my aid, there is nothing you can do to save them. You know this already."

He did. Everything he tried to push back the blight failed. It was a dark magic like he'd never seen. If only Ganondorf hadn't left them to die like this…

"What do you intend to do?" Khall asked, uneasy about the way this was going.

The dark eyes narrowed, and the voice did not respond for a moment. "All the world," it finally said, "will fall silent."

Khall's knees gave way at the knowledge of what the voice intended. Even holding onto the table, he fell to the floor beside it.

"Gods help me," he whispered, "To save my world, I have to help a devil destroy another…"


	97. Chapter 96

Yes, this one's short, but I'm going to celebrate anyway. Looking at my outline, I think this is the last "exposition" chapter I'm going to have to do at all. All character stuff, action, and watching the threads come together from here on.

**Chapter 96: Holy Trinity**

Night had fallen over the city, the streets emptying even before Ganondorf finally finished his work. He stamped the earth down well over the buried stone, one of five identical pieces scattered around the enormous city with the aid of Roxim, once the dragon had finished wasting time.

It had begun with finding the stones, and placing a small enchantment upon them that would link them together and enable mana to more freely pass through them. Now, taking a few steps back from where he buried the final one, he lifted his hands in front of him, placing his index fingers and thumbs together in the shape of a triangle.

This was not a difficult enchantment, as far as magic went, but he had never created a network of this size before. Even before he said the first words, he felt the warmth of magic gathering around him as he focused.

The elemental circle Zero had created to set off the massive pocket of magic back in the temple had been simple, using actual forms of earth, water, air, and fire to provide energy for it. It had just enough real power to ignite the magic around it, but it was actually insulting that it had worked at all. Such a circle was little more than a toy for teenagers wanting to pretend they were witches. Any wizard of real ability would call the attention of the elements directly.

"_I call you to me, holy spirits of the world's veins,_" he said, his voice echoing all around him in the form of magic, as an unnatural wind began to blow his cloak out behind him, "_Spirits of the air, soaring endlessly on wings of light, come to my aid._"

The wind picked up even more strongly, like the prelude of a storm, ruffling his clothes and hair, and he shut his eyes against its force.

"_Spirits of the life giving water, capable of eroding mountains and changing the world, find your path here._"

The wind grew heavy and damp, as droplets of water began to ride it, pattering against his face and clothes.

"_Spirit of earth, immovable and eternally patient, grant me your audience._"

A groaning rose over the sound of the wind, the sound of stone grating against stone.

"_Spirits of fire, merciless and filled with wrath, give me your service._"

Sparks appeared in the air, growing into dancing flames, surrounding him and spinning around him in the air, like slithering serpents.

"_To this circle I lock you, and let all within know your protection against those without._"

Faster and faster the wind and fire raged about him, the water droplets becoming a swirling prism that twisted his image and the light of the flames and the groaning of the earth overpowered the sound of it all.

"_Obey me!_" he shouted, thrusting his hands forward. In an instant, it all came to a stop, the wind dying away, the fires vanishing, and the earth falling silent as the water in the air pattered onto the ground around him.

A light appeared on the earth before him, where the stone had been buried. Two white lines emerged from it, growing rapidly in the direction of the city, and vanishing under its walls. The same would be happening at each of the other buried stones surrounding the city, each one forming the point of the star in the center of the magic circle. The lines grew bright, flashing several times, then disappeared, the enormous circle entering its dormant state, where it would remain until he activated it to defend the city against hostile magic, provided Khall and Tharkus did not find a way to unravel it quickly. Of course, if they did, it would be a more severe blow to his ego than to himself.

There was nothing else he could do at the moment, he knew. The final conflict was drawing near at last. It would at least be interesting to see Link and Khall at last confront one another. Each one was considered a hero by their followers, and both held the exact same stubbornness and commitment to their chosen paths.

It would be an interesting show, at least.

* * *

Link sighed, leaning back against the wall, glancing up the passage, waiting for Zelda to make her appearance. He scratched idly at the growth of hair on his face; it was just reaching the point of being aggravatingly itchy, after having not shaved since leaving for the temple. Every time he considered letting it grow, this was the point he gave up and shaved it off.

Midna was waiting next to him, attempting to stifle a yawn, and blinking her eyes to stay awake. "It's well past midnight, Link," she whispered, leaning down toward him, "She probably forgot and went to bed."

"What's wrong?" Link asked, "You tired? You're the creature of the night, remember?"

"I blame you. You were always the one who insisted on sleeping at night," Midna said, "And then you can go three days without sleep and not even slow down. That's just inhuman."

"No, that's just habit," Link said, "With enough time, I could train you to do it too. It's just like how military recruits get broken down with late nights and early mornings until they get used to it."

"And how do you get used to three nights straight without sleeping?" Midna asked.

"You remember my horse, Epona?" Link asked, "She was born right there in Orden when I was about fourteen, from one of Rusl's mares . He'd promised me that the Lucy's, that's the mare, would be mine to raise." He paused, laughing softly with a nostalgic smile. "I think I slept in the stable more than my bed those last couple weeks, watching Lucy most of each night. And of course, I had chores to do the next morning, so I had very little sleep at all during that time.

"And in the end, it was worth it. I saw her birth. Some people might think birth is a nasty process, but frankly, I'm a pessimist when it comes to a lot of things, but seeing new life coming into the world… That's a genuine miracle."

"That's a little off track from my original question," Midna said.

"Well, after that, I found myself staying up later without any real difficulty, and getting up earlier just fine," Link said, "It was just a matter of not letting myself get lazy and sleeping in too much."

Midna sighed, leaning over against him, laying her head over to the side so it rested on his.

"I'm not a pillow," he said.

"You're right," she said, "Your head's harder than any rock."

"You could just slip into my shadow like before, can't you?" Link asked.

"Yes," Midna said, "But I'm tired of hiding there all the time."

She lifted her arm, draping it over his shoulders, her hand hanging down on his chest on the other side of his neck. _Or maybe,_ Link thought, _You want to be in the open and make it very clear to anyone else who might be watching us._

He wouldn't argue, though, as he pulled her closer with one arm around her waist. He was rapidly coming to understand that he hadn't truly understood love before he had met her. Sure, he was raised on the same stories as any other child in the village, tales of heroes and monsters, knights rescuing maidens and the like, supposedly tales of love that would raze entire kingdoms for the sake of her smile.

But this, no story had ever explained to him. He cared about her, certainly, just as he did anyone else he considered a friend. But there was something else that he couldn't describe or grasp. Standing here with her just felt right, like it was the only way to be. And unlike the tales where the hero would woo the maiden with epic poems and ballads, there were no words needed here. And the fact they had crossed the line, actually accepting a relationship, rather than trying to find reasons they shouldn't, it was like the weight of the world had been lifted from his back.

Ultimately, it was selfish, but there was no way love couldn't be. It meant dedicating one's emotions entirely to a single person. It didn't cut away ties to other relationships, but that one was more important than any other. Link was able to accept this, already knowing he was a selfish person. For all the ways the people of Hyrule called him a hero, it wasn't for them that he had accomplished the feats that had saved the kingdom. It had been to protect his closest friends, and that included Midna.

Maybe that was the real secret, though, he thought. The storytellers might like to say that those like the Hero of Time had always had the greater good of all in their mind, but in reality, was it impossible to believe he and others had their own reasons for what they did? The greater good, for the sake of all the people in the world, that wasn't possible for Link to imagine. It was a mass without faces, without attachments. It would be too easy to lose sight of what one was fighting for.

But for his friends, his family, back in Hyrule; he could fight for their sake. And this woman standing next to him now…

He'd tear this entire castle down with his bare hands, one stone at a time, if he had to, for her sake. And remembering what Khall had done, or rather tried to do, after the solution Link had found, it enraged him still. It wasn't even as if it could be considered just an attempt to kill her, because in a way, he had succeeded.

_I'm going to tear his gods damned face off,_ Link thought, _and feed it to the rats!_

"Link, you're squeezing a little hard," Midna said.

This instantly broke his dark line of thought, and realized he had been tightening his grip on her steadily as his temper rose. "I'm sorry," he said, releasing her quickly, "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No, thought I was nearly asleep," Midna said, "Come on, Zelda isn't coming…"

Footsteps caused her to trail off, and they turned to see the princess marching up the passage toward them, a dark expression on her face. "Ganondorf isn't coming," she said, "He's not even in the city yet."

"How'd you find him, then?" Midna asked.

Zelda flashed the Triforce on her hand at Midna. "These can be used to locate the other two, remember?" she said, "I had to resort to it to figure out where he was. Suffice to say, it's the time of night the gate will let us through, though I'm not sure I can manage it without his help this time."

"So that's what this is all about," Midna said, glancing at Link, "You intend to go back in there to talk to the sages."

"And given it has something to do with the alignment of the stars, there's no telling how much longer we'll have such access," Zelda said.

"Given that our friendly ancient wizard made an appearance at the temple, we might not even have to go through," Link said, "Let's just get down there."

The trio made their way through the castle passages and down through the dungeons, to the formerly hidden chamber. Upon entry, they found the magic circle that sealed the gateway to the Sacred Realm glowing brightly, shimmering walls of light projecting upward from its lines, as it was when Zelda and Ganondorf had stepped through in search of Link.

"You won't be able to go through," Zelda said to Midna, "Ganondorf said only those with the Triforce can pass, even like this."

"Let's try something else first," Link said, then shouted, "Darius! If you can hear me, show yourself! I have questions, and for once, you're going to give me the answers I need!"

Nothing changed. As Link took a breath to shout again, however, a faint shimmer appeared in the center of the circle. It grew outward, taking a shape like a white silhouette as it moved toward them, then the light rapidly faded, revealing the aged and tired face of the Sage of Light.

"I hear you well enough, Link," the ancient wizard said as he stepped out of the light toward them, "Though I thought by this point you'd be weary of my exposition."

"Believe me, I intend this to be the last time I have to talk to you," Link said, "But I've set my mind to fixing the problem you created eight thousand years ago, and I need what you know."

"I may have the solution you seek," Darius said, "But you have to understand something first. You cannot slay her with a mere weapon. And you will not survive confronting her alone. Your first encounter with her is evidence enough of both of these facts."

"What's the point of this sword I have if it can't kill her?" Link asked.

"I have no doubt that sword can give her a killing blow," Darius said, "But you cannot."

"What's so special about that sword anyway?" Zelda asked, "Where did you even find it?"

"I told you before, Link, that the Master Sword and Black Razor were two sides of the same coin," Darius said, "A balance, as it were, blessed by the goddesses that created our world. What I didn't tell you is that there was a third."

"So you didn't lie to me, but you didn't tell me the whole truth," Link said, "Whose side are you on?"

"It was a balance of three," Darius said, "Like everything else in this world, the three goddesses built a balance of three. Three pieces of the Triforce, three entrances to the Sacred Realm, and three weapons capable of countering the gifts we squandered with the misuse of the Triforce. When I took the Master Sword and Black Razor back to our world to combat Shaklator, I left the third behind, or at least I thought I did.

"The Master Sword only allows those of just and righteous hearts to wield its power, and Black Razor will consume the minds of all but the darkest, most iron-willed villains. The third sword, which has no name, will allow any to wield it, and shape itself to their own soul. It is the ultimate weapon, and in a way, the ultimate responsibility. Draw it now."

Link did so, holding the white blade before himself.

"This world and the Sacred Realm are inextricably linked," Darius went on, "That is the way the gods willed its creation. In a manner, there is a connection between every force in this world to one in that world. The dagger you found in the vault beneath Hyrule Castle was a fragment of this weapon that passed from hand to hand throughout the generations, none truly comprehending its power. Until you.

"Look at the sword's appearance. The way it seems to glow, yet sheds no light. This is a reflection of yourself, Link. You have a good heart, a soul of light, yet it is closed in. When the time comes, you are ready to do the dark deeds you must to ensure your victory. In addition, your motives are focused inward, to the things you care about, rather than strangers around you. You will fight to the death to defend those you care about, but would not hesitate to leave a stranger to death if it was too much of a risk to yourself or your companions."

"That's not true," Link said, "I wouldn't let someone die if I can help them."

"You misunderstand," Darius said, "Let me explain with a hypothetical situation. Take your Twili companion here. Imagine she is in dire straits, and you can save her. But in doing so, one hundred people you have never met will die, when you could have saved them, by letting her die. Who do you save?"

"What kind of sick…" Link started to say.

"Who do you save?" Darius asked again, with more force.

Link gave him a dark glare, and said nothing.

"Your eyes tell me all I need," Darius said, "You are of the same thinking that Shaklator was, back when I knew her. She wanted to do good, but in the end chose her own desires over the greater good. That was the difference between us. When she thought I had betrayed her, I saved countless lives more than she lost. I loved her, and chose to let her die for the sake of people I did not know."

"And look where we are now as a result," Link said, "I never said I don't make mistakes, but at least I own mine. Now, are you going to help me fix yours or not?"

Darius smiled. Link was still determined at least. Sheer willpower had carried him this far, now if it could just take him far enough.

"The theory of the balance of three extends beyond those swords and the Triforce itself," he said, with a wave of his hand an image of the three golden triangles appeared in the air before him, "We all know that in possession of a single being, the Triforce turns that being into a god among men. Not truly immortal, but so close it makes no difference to most. However, the lengths Ganondorf has pushed his single piece far outstrip any that even should have been possible for a single piece. I did research and little experimenting with the theory of three…"

The three golden triangles moved apart, and sparks shot between them, growing larger the further apart they were.

"And what does that mean?" Link asked.

"The original tales of the Triforce state that in order for one to obtain its true power, he must slay the possessors of the other two pieces, claiming it for himself," Darius said, "But the pieces react to each other far more strongly when separated, to the point just having all three in the same room causes the three wielders to sense the energy between them."

"There is certainly something in the air when Zelda, Ganondorf, and I are all together," Link said, glancing at Zelda, who nodded her agreement, "I always just wrote it off as discomfort, due to our history."

"Ultimately, the Triforce is limited by the physical strength of the one who possesses it," Darius said, "If the energy they attempt to control is too great, it tears them apart. But I believe now that in the hands of three different individuals, in close proximity, can safely produce energy far greater than one with all three pieces. Due to Ganondorf's history with Hyrule, and the fact the Triforce of Power has not changed hands in thousands of years, this has never been tested."

"But since we're working together, you think this might be something we can do," Zelda surmised.

"I know you are both inexperienced in the use of your Triforces," Darius said, "But I think with Ganondorf's aid, the three of you may be able to stand up to Shaklator in direct combat."

"But we're not ready to pack up and jump in the Void after her," Link said, "Right?"

"Exactly," Darius said, "You'd be fighting her on her terms there. We would need to draw her into a trap. The Sacred Realm would suit the task best. It is there that the Triforce wielders are most powerful. But you saw the creatures roaming the land, Link. They are her influence, seeping through the cracks of the barrier holding her at bay for now. She will have an army when she arrives, and you will need one as well, to keep the beasts away from you while you deal with her."

"And in just over two weeks, we're going to have Khall throwing his men against Darimar," Zelda said, "By the time that's done, there might not be much of an army left."

"There is only one place that is undamaged so far and has the aid you will need," Darius said, "And that is back in Hyrule."

"Do you have any idea how long we have before Shaklator will get into this world?" Link asked.

"Khall and Tharkus have the Twilight Mirror," Darius said, "If they use it to ease her passage, as soon as mid-Spring. If that attempt can be stopped, the soonest any of her allies can try again will be late summer."

"That just leaves us a couple of months to find the mirror," Link said, "At least we have a general idea where Khall and Tharkus are."

"And even less time to get home and ready ourselves afterward," Zelda said, and sighed, "I seriously hope these past two years are the only exciting years of my life."

"We should all be so lucky," Darius said, "I, for one, never expected to see the day Hyrule's defenders and Ganondorf would be fighting together."

"Do you think we can trust him?" Midna asked, "I mean, he hasn't betrayed us yet, but at the same time…"

"I do not believe he will," Darius said, "At least, not until Shaklator has been slain. He entered the Temple of Light, something he would never have been able to accomplish before. Evil is not permitted within its halls, by the blessing of the Goddess of Time Herself. That alone speaks of a change in his character since I last saw him."

"One more question," Link said, "I also found an arrow, silver in color, that I was told bears the same blessing as the Master Sword, that it can defeat the power of the Triforce. Do you know anything about that?"

"I never received an arrow," Darius said, "Just the three swords. Where did you find it?"

"It was given to me," Link said, "by a fairy in the Pyramid of Power."

"Do not trust it, then," Darius said, "Such a creature would be driven mad by time and the forces at work within that structure. Even if it was well intentioned, there is no way a mere fairy could create such an artifact."

"If things get desperate, I can't guarantee I won't try everything," Link said.

"And that is why I believe more every day that you can do this, Link," Darius said, "Sometimes the knight in shining armor isn't enough, and the world needs someone like you as its leader, someone who is willing to fight dirty."

"Forget fighting dirty; if I can figure out how, I'm just going to cheat."

"Is there anything else?" Darius asked, though he did not hide the smile at Link's comment.

"Actually," Midna said, "I'm surprised Link didn't ask this already, but what was the point of that whole giant magic bubble at the temple before?"

"To preserve history in the form you saw it," Darius said, "And besides that, you seem to have benefited from it, in some form."

"How exactly did it even work?" Midna asked, "I'm still not sure what happened to me in there."

"And what makes you think I would know?" Darius said, "I think Ganondorf would have a better theory than me about it. He was the one that gave you your curse after all."

"I guess that's all, then," Link said, "Thank you for being straight this time."

"I have never lied to you, Link," Darius said, "But I will promise you this: When you face Shaklator, I will be there. I've thought a lot about what you said to me, and you were right. This is my mistake, and I will have a hand in correcting it, as the last thing I do with this life."

"Glad to hear it," Link said with a nod, and started to turn away.

"Rest well," Darius said, "It might seem like we are close to the end, but the hardest part is yet to come."

The image of the wizard vanished and Zelda and Midna both turned to follow Link.

"You don't show much deference to anyone," Zelda commented as they walked, "Even ancient wizard heroes, it seems."

"Should I?" Link asked, "You've never complained that I don't bow and scrape like the people in your court."

"Yes, but you know I would never look down on you, either," Zelda said, "I'm just wondering if there is anything you could encounter that might actually give you a moment of pause."

"Plenty of things do," Link said, "I'm just good at thinking on my feet."

"Your brain does work a lot faster with immanent pain and death right in front of you," Midna said.

"What about this arrow?" Zelda asked, "You never mentioned that before."

"I'll tell you the whole story tomorrow," Link said, "For now, I need to put my princess to bed. She looks ready to keel over any second."

"I am not about to-" Minda was interrupted by a yawn.

"That sounds like a good idea," Zelda said, pausing as they emerged into the upper level hall, and gave Link a covert wink, "Try not to have too much fun."

She started off toward her room without waiting for a reply. Link and Midna made their way to his room. A servant, at the king's request, had earlier in the day shown her to a room for her own use, but even now, without a second thought, she walked into Link's room with him, collapsing on the bed as he pulled the door shut.

There was a pitcher of water and a bowl on the nightstand, long since cold, but Link moved to it first as he unbuckled his baldric and leaned his sword against it, and found the soap and lather brush along with a provided razor.

"Do that in the morning," Midna complained, sitting up on the bed to watch him.

"If I don't do it now, I'm going to be scratching at my face all night," Link said.

"And if I give you some incentive?" Midna asked, unbuttoning the top two buttons of her blouse.

"Sorry, not looking," Link said as he pulled his tunic off over his head, then dumped the weight of his chain mail shirt on the floor with a thump. "Give me a little credit for self-control, will you?"

Midna sighed, laying back on the pillows. All day, nothing but obstacles. Well, maybe she was trying to push a little too hard anyway. Her first time with Link, she wanted it to be special. And as tired as she was now, would she even last through it?

She wouldn't say no to him, though, she thought as she watched him lather the soap onto his face.

Link finished his task, wiping away the last of the suds and checking the mirror to make sure he didn't miss anything before finally turning to the bed. He moved up on the opposite side from Midna, leaning low over her to find her eyes were shut, and her breaths deep and even.

He smiled to himself as he pulled the blanket up over her, then crawled in beside her, careful not to wake her, and lay down to sleep.


	98. Chapter 97

Lyrics in this chapter are from the song "Dance Away" from the Project A-ko soundtrack, because I still can't write original lyrics to save my butt.

**Chapter 97: The New Year Games**

The days in the castle passed quickly. In spite of the impending war, all focus was on the New Year's celebration on the first day of spring. When the day came, Link almost couldn't believe what he saw when he ventured out into the city that morning.

The constant presence of the sun had nearly driven away all that remained of the snow from winter, and what remained had been swept from the streets by willing hands, which now were filled with market stalls and people, street upon street, with banners strung between the buildings, and in spite of the horrors the city had already seen just a season ago, the people were smiling and laughing.

"Amazing, isn't it?" he said, turning to Midna and splitting the meat roll he had purchased, handing her half, "You'd never think we're planning for a war."

Midna just shook her head as they walked through the streets. Link may have been comfortable wearing that same green tunic everywhere, but compared to the colorful festival clothes the people around them wore, her own outfit seemed dull in comparison. Matilda had come through with the traveling clothing. It was good sturdy leather, breathed well and was flexible, but the light brown tunic and trousers didn't look good at all next to the bright reds and blues surrounding her.

And maybe she was part of what he was talking about, worrying about something like that. She was still drawing plenty of stares from men and women both in the crowds, though the looks from the women were much darker than those from the men.

They came upon an open area of the street, where the crowd stood in a circle around where a troupe of performers were acting out a show for those watching. One strummed a lute and sung about the acts of a hero, slaying fell beasts in the name of the maiden he would woo, while the rest of the group acted out the events in greatly exaggerated motions, and each beast he struck down staggered about, gasping out its last breaths in a highly melodramatic way, only to roll away and move to a member of the troupe waiting at the edge of the circle to trade his mask for another.

Some members of the crowd were clapping along with the merry tune of the lute, and children cheered with each monster the hero slew, though after just a moment of watching, Link was fairly sure this hero had slain more giants and leviathans than he had ever himself seen, or even heard of. Then he was fairly sure at least two of them were repeats in less than five minutes.

The tale ended with the hero striking down the lord of devils, then climbing the mountain sized corpse to the tower where his true love waited, and they lived happily ever after.

"What, they lived in the prison tower?" Midna asked in a low voice as the troupe stood to take their bows, and coins from the crowd were collected by the lute player in his hat which he held upturned to the audience.

"Either that, or they built a house out of the devil lord's rib cage," Link said, dropping a few silvers in the hat as it passed by.

Midna made a disgusted gagging noise, and immediately followed it with a bite from the meat roll. The crowd was beginning to disperse, and the pair turned and started walking further down the street. "Though I'll give him this," Midna said once she could speak again, "A man who can slay a thousand foot monster with that paper sword might even make you pale in comparison."

"Tell me where he is so I can point him at Shaklator," Link said, "Problem solved."

Even on this bright day, with so much cheer around them, it was like a weight pressing down on them both, like they would feel guilty if they enjoyed themselves.

They became aware of a loud cheering in the distance, in the direction they were headed, though they were moving fairly aimlessly. Link knew it had to be the tournament Alex had been talking about. Started this early in the morning, though he realized that unless they had a fairly sizable arena, only one event could occur at a time. The jousts would be the center of attention, and would likely be going all day, but he wondered about the other events.

He steered their progress toward the rising and falling cheers, stopping only once to buy Midna and himself a pair of honey-glazed ham skewers. Regardless of anything else about the day, it was good food at every turn.

There was no real arena, just a clear area within the massive city walls where temporary wood bleachers and private boxes had been erected in a circular fashion around the jousting lists, and even as they came upon it, two men in full armor astride their horses were charging down the center toward each other. The blunt wooden lances shattered across each one's chest, though only one stood firm, and the crowd rose in a deafening roar as the other rolled off his horse, crashing to the ground. Link winced at the thought of the enormous weight of that armor added to a fall of even that height.

"See, that is why I won't wear that kind of armor," Link said as it took three men to help the fallen one to his feet, "I don't think he's really hurt, but flat on his back in all that steel, he can't even pick himself up."

The armored man raised a hand to wave to the crowd, to show he was okay, though their attention was already on the next two men lining their horses up for the charge. A moment later, another cheer erupted as a lance shattered, and the other's glanced off his opponent's shoulder, and they moved back around to line up again.

"How exactly is this game played?" Midna asked, "Does it keep going until someone is dismounted?"

"If the rules are like in Hyrule, then it is decided by points," Link said, "A match is three lances, that is three charges. Breaking a lance on your opponent's chest is worth one point, and two for upon his helmet. The most points after three charges is the winner. I believe that dismounting the opponent is in effect an instant victory."

"So it really is just a game," Midna said, "Nothing like a real fight."

"Nope, not at all," Link said, "Though I bet if someone's armor doesn't stand up, broken ribs are all too real."

"Looks like they're still registering people over there," Midna said, pointing to a set of seats and tables near the end of the bleachers where a line was waiting, and those seated were writing quickly, and sending those in the line on their way as quickly as they could.

"Maybe the sword and other tournaments haven't started yet," Link said, and when he saw Midna turn to him with a smile, added, "No. I am not entering anything."

"Come on, you'd win the sword easy," Midna said.

"If they actually let me fight, which they won't," Link said, "It'll be just like the joust. There will be some stupid point system in place, all kinds of rules and fouls and so on. Besides, I don't have anything to prove to anyone here."

"Oh, really?" Midna said, pointing back to the line.

Link saw who she was indicating. The red hair standing head and shoulders above even the men, now leaning down over the table to speak to the men taking names.

"She made a point to me a while ago," Link said, "She'll probably just withdraw when she sees I haven't entered. Or," he added without even pausing, "she'll win the whole damn thing and make a point of rubbing it in my face, because she's got it in for me for some reason I'm still not sure of."

"Well, it won't exactly be a real fight, but suppose you put her in her place, even with their stupid rules?" Midna asked, clearly taking delight in the thought.

Link groaned, and started toward the lines. "I'm going to regret this," he grumbled.

There were not simply soldiers waiting in the lines, but an amalgamation of all the classes, as Link took his place he spied the clean, fancy clothing of nobles as well dusty, dark colors of commoners. It seemed the kingdom allowed any who wished to enter, though Link had no doubt many of the younger men, still looking like they were in their teens, would be knocked from the running early.

The lines at least moved at a decent pace, and as he came closer to the tables, could hear them declaring events they would enter. Besides the sword, he could hear events for archery, javelins, and even quarterstaffs and wrestling.

As he moved closer to the tables, Kilishandra appeared, walking back past him, stopping when she spied him waiting. "Well, you showed after all," she said, stopping near him, "I had my doubts."

"Why's that?" Link asked, "Worried I wouldn't show up to play this game with you?"

She chuckled, giving him a smile like a lion about to pounce. "Just don't get knocked out before I draw your name," she said, "I'll be very disappointed if that were to happen."

"Same to you," Link said as she started walking away.

"Careful there, or people are going to think you're married," Midna said.

"Don't even joke about that," Link said.

As they reached the front of the line, Link was motioned forward by one of the men seated at the table. Without looking up from his papers, he asked with no preamble, "Name?"

"Link," Link said.

When Link didn't say any more, the man asked, "Family name?"

"I don't have one," Link said.

The man looked up now, clearly annoyed. "Don't waste my time."

"Just put 'of Hyrule,'" Link said, "I'm sure that will suffice."

The man sighed, scratching it down onto his paper. "Which events will you be entering?"

"Just the sword," Link said.

More scratching. "Go to the north side of the arena. Be ready when your name is called. Matches are single elimination and go quickly, because there are hundreds entering and the final will be held this evening in the main arena. If you do not appear when your name is called, you will be disqualified, no second chances. A blunted weapon and basic armor will be provided for your matches, to ensure everyone is on equal footing with no special advantages. Any questions?"

"Who do I talk to when I get there?" Link asked.

"I don't know. Find someone who looks like they know what they're doing."

"That's real helpful," Link said as the man scratched out another sheet of paper, stamped it, and handed this one to him. Link took it, glancing over it as he moved away from the table and the man called for the next in line. The paper was a simple certificate of permission, with his name and event upon it, and stamped for authenticity, he assumed. There was also a written time for the start of the event, in less than an hour. "Well, I guess I need to go get this sorted out now," he said, and sighed.

"Let's go then," Midna said, "Looks like we don't have long."

"I blame you for this," Link said.

"You talked yourself into it," she said, "I just gave you a little nudge. Besides, there's supposed to be a dance at the castle tonight. Imagine when I show up on the arm of the tournament champion."

"If I do win, I'll just be the winner of the sword," Link said, "'Tournament Champion' goes to the winner of the joust. Besides, I never said anything about a dance. I'm not the type to hobnob with nobility."

"There's just a certain whale I want to snub," Midna said, "You won't have to dance if you don't want to."

The north side of the arena had a division of smaller fenced off areas. There were many there already, most fiddling with the training armor provided by the staff. Fortunately, there was easy direction, as someone had thought to erect a large sign painted with large red letters "New Entrants Here" which Link made his way toward.

It was situated by a makeshift smithy and another table where men were going through papers. Link moved to the table, and without a word one of the men reached up with one hand, waiting. Link handed him the entry document, and the information was copied onto another sheet. These guys apparently loved their forms, Link decided.

Then the man tore off a small piece of another sheet, writing "Link of Hyrule" on it, and stuffed it into a box full of other similarly torn pieces.

"Come to the rings when your name is called," the man said, "Go to the smith to get your armor and weapon."

"Not much for talking, these guys," Midna said as they turned toward the smith.

"I'm not going to blame them for that," Link said, "Think how many people they've likely gone through by now."

The smithy was not a heavy work setup by any means. The lone smith working was heating pieces of armor over an open fire, just enough to bend the metal back into shape rather than perform detailed work. As they approached, he was examining a large crack in a breastplate, which he casually tossed aside as they approached.

"I'm going to have to wear that stuff?" Link asked as the smith picked up a breastplate.

"Blunted weapons can still break bones," the smith said, holding the plate up to check its size. Satisfied it was the right size for Link, he picked up a matching back piece, handed them both to Link, and found a set of arm guards and gauntlets, which he piled into Link's arms before going looking for a set of shoulder plates and a helmet.

All added together, it was a fairly heavy mess of metal plates and leather straps. It wasn't heavy enough to even be considered half-plate, but Link was grateful to put it down before he started sorting through it.

"I've never seen you before," the smith said as he did so, "You new here in town?"

"You could say that," Link said, examining the mess of straps on the biceps of the arms, wondering how he was supposed to put it on.

"How does a man get a woman like that on his arm?" the smith asked.

"Excuse me?" Midna asked incredulously, not entirely liking the tone of the statement, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"He wasn't insulting you," Link said, "Just help me with this. I don't even know how to put most of this crap on."

"Breastplate first," the smith said, "The other stuff attaches to it."

"Okay then," Link said, taking his hand back out of the gauntlet he had been trying.

Link unbuckled his baldric, slipping his own sword from his shoulder. He paused a moment, looking around for someplace to sit it, then motioned Midna over. Before she could protest, he whipped the belt over her shoulder and was pulling it together across her chest. "Hold onto this for me," he said as he buckled it in place.

"I guess I can do that," she said, though there was a nearly an extra foot of the belt hanging loose.

"Nobody's explained how these fights are even going to work," Link said as he picked up the breastplate, the heaviest piece of the lot, "You mind telling me while I figure this out?"

The smith nodded. "A match is two rounds. The first round, one fighter is on offense, the other on defense. The offence gets ten blows. Each blow that lands on the defender's armor is worth a single point. Each blow that is blocked is worth nothing. The second round, the roles switch, and the process repeats. The winner is the fighter with more points at the end of the second round. In the event of a tie, there will be two more rounds. A single match usually takes less than a minute."

"Told you it wasn't like a real fight," Link said as Midna helped him tighten and buckle the straps that held the breastplate and back plate together.

"There's more," the smith said, "If a fighter loses his grip on his weapon, he is disqualified. If it becomes clear he cannot win, this is a way he can surrender gracefully. Keep in mind, though, if you strike your opponent after he drops his weapon, your own score will be docked five points, and in that case he may still win as a result. And whatever you do, don't strike at his legs. That's an immediate disqualification."

"I think I get the idea," Link said. This was going to be a frustrating day.

The number of people present gradually increased, and people other than competitors began to appear as well, gathering around the eight fenced rings that would be the center of attention. Link saw coins changing hands already, bets being placed on fights before they were even begun. Names began being called, and fighters entered the rings, leaving almost as quickly. Single-elimination meant one loss was all it took to remove someone from the running.

He was still fighting with the armor when he heard his named called.

"Come on," Midna said, "Time for your debut."

Link was trying to turn his arms, and found his shoulder caught wit his hand barely even with his forehead. "Something's still wrong," he growled, "If they come at me from above, I can't block!"

"No time for it," Midna said, pressing the provided sword into his hand and then putting the helmet onto his head, making sure the chin strap was in place.

And there was another aggravation to Link. He could barely see through the slit in the visor as Midna guided him through the crowd to the rings. It was almost a shock when he found himself in a small clearing of dirt with another armored figure across from him, and ringing through the metal of his helmet was a voice shouting, "Link of Hyrule faces Trevor Galeal. Sir Trevor to strike first!"

And with a roar from the other helmet, the figure dashed toward him, raising his sword with both hands. Link raised his weapon, his shoulder hanging, unable to get his guard up, and tried to sidestep instead. He felt the stinging blow on his arm, and a wordless shout from the official. Already he was one point down.

Link managed to block a blow from the side, but this Trevor was aggressive, already coming around for another swing. Link felt the blow crash on his ribs. If not for the armor, the bones would have shattered under the blow. And worst of all, Link had to force himself not to counter attack, or he would be disqualified.

He managed to parry the next two strikes, before Trevor got a lucky two blows on Link's arms. _If this blasted helmet wasn't in the way…_ Link silently fumed.

But that was the worst of it, as Link turned Trevor's next strike and sidestepped, sending the aggressive fighter dashing past him. His spinning strike, and rapid blows after were easily blocked. "Ten!" cried the official at last, "Sir Link to strike!"

"My turn," Link growled, and pressed his attack quickly. He surrendered two strikes as high as he could manage, both easily blocked by Trevor, before aiming low and fast. One blow struck home in Trevor's abdomen, and not wasting strength on the heavy blows his opponent had used, Link instead used speed in his favor, turning about and aiming for the other side, delivering another relatively light tap. His next two swings were parried, but Trevor was struggling already to keep up with Link's speed.

Link feinted to the right, and Trevor turned, trying ready his defense. Link sidestepped to the left, striking Trevor across the back, twice, and a third time, staggering him halfway across the ring before Trevor managed to turn back and block the final blow. The official's voice called a halt.

"Link of Hyrule prevails, five strikes to four!" came the call, "He advances to the next round!"

There was groaning and enthusiasm both from the onlookers as more coins changed hands.

"Gods," Link groaned as he left the ring, pulling the helmet from his head. He found Midna waiting for him as the next fighters entered the ring.

"Closer than I was expecting," Midna said, "Harder than you thought?"

"The hard part is holding myself back so I don't get disqualified," Link said, "Now, before the next round, let's fix these damn shoulders."

Link sat down on a wooden bench and Midna went to work on the straps under the shoulders. Link looked up as someone approached from the crowd, and saw Alex, in similar armor, coming toward them.

"I saw that," Alex said, sitting down next to Link, "Not all that graceful, were you?"

"It's a bit of an adjustment, having to fight fair," Link said, "I think you'd be having trouble too. I still remember the beating you gave my shins way back when."

Alex laughed. "Seems like ages ago, doesn't it? I had a nice lump on the back of my head after to you planted me face down with your heel, too."

"At least tell me you won your first match," Link said.

"I did," Alex said, "Three points to his one. With my luck, I'll draw you in the next round."

There was a call for Kilishandra Dragmire from an official. "Or her," Link said, motioning Midna off her work as he stood up, heading back to the rings.

Midna and Alex followed him, the three arriving at the rings just in time to see the tall woman among all the men facing her opponent in the ring. She was given the first strike, and her opponent didn't even make it to his strike, as she landed a near-crippling blow to his side that sent him to his knees. Having several strikes remaining, she had lifted her sword to continue the assault, stopping short as he fell onto his hands, dropping his weapon and giving her the win before he could even strike back.

"He's going to have a nice bruise in the morning," Alex commented as two men helped Kilishandra's opponent stagger from the ring.

"Yeah, from his armpit to his hip," Link said, "Maybe she'll tire herself out early, fighting like that."

They returned to the bench, and Alex assisted Midna with the shoulder straps on Link's armor, and in a few moments had them properly adjusted so that he could lift his arms over his head without difficulty, just in time as the officials began calling names for the second round of matches.

With easier movement and beginning to adjust to the narrow slit through which he had to see, Link won his second match with a score of six to three, and Alex advanced with a five to two win. Link's third opponent he managed to step around, finding his back completely exposed and his seven remaining strikes would strike home with ease, only to stop himself as the man dropped his weapon in surrender.

The more matches he fought, the more he started to see that real combat tactics, particularly footwork, did apply to these fights more than he had thought, though they were still hardly a representation of what one would find in a real life-or-death situation.

He also had to remind himself just how many people lived in this city at the seventh round of matches. Each round dropped half the remaining number from the contest, yet even that far in there were still at least a hundred competitors waiting for their turns.

"I'm surprised Silviana's not here to watch you," Link said to Alex as they awaited their next matches on the bench near the rings.

"My fault, I guess," Alex said, "I convinced her to enter the archery event."

"Oh, that'll just be unfair," Link said, "I've seen her shoot."

"We'll see her before it's done," Alex said, "After enough people are eliminated from each event, they'll move everything to the main arena for the finals."

"Well, I've got this one to thank for costing me the rest of the day," Link said, nudging Midna with his elbow.

"You love it," Midna said, then added, "Give me some of that money horde you're carrying around and I'll go get you something to drink. Will that make you happy?"

"I'm not carrying everything with me," Link said, though he fished out three silver coins that he dropped into her palm.

"You could buy a feast with that," Alex said as he saw the silver, "How rich are you?"

"I think I've got a twelve gold left, with a couple handfuls of silver and copper," Link said as Midna stood up and moved away from them.

"Have I ever mentioned how glad I am we're friends?" Alex asked.

Link turned his head slowly, looking at Alex out of the corner of his eye. "Don't even think about it," he said.

Alex laughed, clapping Link on the shoulder. "I'm just messing with you. You're not that rich."

Link's name was called and he stood up to go to his next match. Midna returned before he was finished, and sat down on the bench near Alex. Fortunately, the drinks she returned with were not alcoholic, instead being a sweet nectar that Alex guess was made from peaches. It was cold, at least.

They could see Link in the ring from where they sat, watching him face off against his latest opponent, and just to break the silence, Alex spoke, "You mind if I ask you something a little personal?"

"That depends on how personal," Midna said.

"How does a guy like him," Alex pointed at Link, "get a woman like you?"

Midna smiled. "And just what do you mean by a woman like me?"

"I mean, well, beautiful, smart," he paused, glancing at her, and added, "exotic?"

Minda had him pinned now. He was fishing for advice about Silviana. "He does it by being who he is," Midna said, "That's all."

"Yeah, I believe that, sure," Alex said, "Okay, how about this. You're not human, and I've seen you naked, so I know you don't have any extra parts or anything, but is there anything…" he paused, as if searching for a word, and finally tried "Special?"

Midna decided she had two options here. Her first instinct was to tell him to shut up, but then she thought of something that was likely to be much more fun. "Well, I can put my ankles behind my head…" she said, trailing off as if there was more as he choked on his drink.

Link returned to the bench to see Alex choking and coughing, and Midna laughing at his discomfort. Before he could speak, however, the official called Alex for a match. Alex managed to stop choking as he stood up, glancing at Link as he walked by, and saying, "I hate you so much."

Link watched him move toward the rings, then turned back to Midna with a questioning look. She shrugged innocently.

* * *

"Feel the energy flowing through you," Ganondorf said, "Bend it to your will. You are not requesting it, you are its master, and it is the slave."

Sheila fought the hold on to the force gathering around her, as red lines of light danced in a circle around her. Even in the still air, her hair and clothing whipped like in a windstorm. Ganondorf called it delaying the spell, and each second she held on would increase the force of release. Concentration required for spell casting as she was used to was nothing compared the sheer effort this required. Her hands clenched into fists, her nails biting into her palms, her teeth clenched so tightly they ached, and passersby would not have difficulty seeing the vein on her forehead.

If she lost her focus, the energy would bleed away even faster than it was conjured up, and Ganondorf warned that if the energy was great enough, it could even be explosive in that fashion. This was the reason they were outside the city walls, about fifteen miles out.

"When you can't hold it any longer, finish the spell," Ganondorf said, "Even a second too early will reduce its effect. But you are its master. You will make it wait until you are ready."

That was easy for him to say. Finally when she was sure she couldn't last any longer, she hurled her hands toward him, and shrieked, "_Helion!_"

Fire erupted from the ground around Ganondorf's feet, devouring him in an inferno that leaped nearly twenty feet in the air. Sheila was forced to take a step back against the sudden blast of heat, shielding her face with one arm. On and on the fire burned, until finally a flash of gold light sparked from within, and the flames parted, and Ganondorf stepped out of the fire, a transparent globe of golden light surrounding him.

"Better," he said as he moved away from the flames, the gold light around him disappating, and the flames beginning to die away, "Though you're still far from even singeing my clothes."

This had been how they had spent the past several days, since arrived back in Darimar. They would go out of the city, where no one would be accidentally hurt, and he would have her throw spell after spell at him. At first she had been hesitant, but he had been adamant that if she actually managed to hurt him, it would be his own fault.

Then he worked her to exhaustion. The first day, she had collapsed in the field, and awoken some hours later still there, but a fire built to keep her warm, and Ganondorf sitting not far away, watching the camp of giants off in the distance, by the north gate of the city. The second day, she had fared better, managing to ride back to the city and stagger into her own room before collapsing.

Now, several days in, she had lasted longer in a single stretch than ever before, and the sun was beginning to sink into the afternoon as she rested with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. The exercise he was putting her through was just as demanding on her strength as any amount of physical activity she could imagine, but even she was shocked at how much more stamina she had now than just days ago. He had described her as having all the endurance of a gnat when they began, but that was rapidly changing, as she was now finally beginning to feel the exertion hours into the act, rather than minutes.

He had taught her the words and actions of several new spells, most prominent being the hellfire conjuring Helion spell, but even others that she had already known were showing more power and impact than before. A lightning bolt that would have previously left a five foot crater in the earth she had found now capable of blasting through the side of a hill and out the other.

"Take just a moment, then we'll do it again," Ganondorf said, reaching into his shirt and retrieving his new pipe and a bag of tobacco that he set about readying for use.

Sheila gratefully sat down, leaning back on her hands as she inhaled the brisk air. She was amazed at her own progress. In terms of sheer power, she felt she had likely doubled her ability in just under a week. Though it was still somewhat disappointing that she was unable to even make Ganondorf flinch as she cast at him.

"You're four thousand years old," she said, looking up at him as he produced a flame from his fingertips to light the pipe, "Did it take you all that time to reach the level you're at?"

"Closer to two thousand," Ganondorf said, "I don't have a natural talent for magic like Kilishandra does. You're not bad, but she was the type that needed training lest she set things off accidentally. She was a danger to herself and everyone around her until she learned to shut it down. You've never actually seen her angry, have you? She literally gets little sparks of electricity in her eyes and across her body when she's really mad."

He paused, taking a drag off the pipe, closing his eyes and holding it for several seconds before letting it out in two streams of smoke from his nose. "Gods, I missed that," he said, and sat down cross-legged a short ways from her, and continuing where he stopped, "You're not nearly her degree of talent, but you're improving a lot faster than I did."

"So you think I could be as powerful as you one day?" Sheila asked.

"In about eight hundred years or so," Ganondorf said.

Sheila groaned.

"You should be relieved," Ganondorf said, "In five hundred years, if you and Kilishandra both keep improving, you still won't have to fear what she will be in mortal terror of every day."

"What's that?"

"Destroying the world by accident," Ganondorf said, "You see, think about a fire. It needs air to burn. The hotter the fire gets, the more air it needs, and the more fuel it can consume. Imagine being capable of producing a spell so powerful it ignites the world itself, and burns all the air away. In then end, a charred black lump would be all that was left of everything and everyone. It's the very fear that caused so many of those ancient laws on the wizards eight thousand years ago restricting research of different magics."

"Why would anyone even want to be capable of such a thing?" Sheila asked.

"The thrill," Ganondorf said, "Knowing you have the power to end all life in an instant, and choosing not to."

"I'd be having nightmares," Sheila said.

"So would Kilishandra," Ganondorf said, "After this is done, she'll probably stop her exercises and just let it be. Even letting her ability wane."

"And you?"

"Let me tell you something about me. There is a feeling of exhilaration on the field of battle. The sound of clashing steel and screams in the air, the smell of blood in the air, and the rush of the kill-or-be-killed moment… It's better than sex. And then that on a global scale…"

"You really are insane."

"You're not the first to tell me that, and probably won't be the last," Ganondorf said as he lay back on the ground, looking toward the sky.

"And what will you do when this is over?" Sheila asked, "Conquer the world yourself?"

"Violence is all I know, girl," Ganondorf said, "I've tried to stop more than once. My hands itch and my blood boils. And when the clash of steel is heard, its like a great hammer upon the anvil of creation, the most glorious sound in existence. Not to mention I've tried every approach one can think of. I've been a conqueror and I've been a hero. I've been ruthless and benevolent. I've faced down tyrants and beloved kings both. And in the end, it makes no difference. The mortal being is a sick creature, filled with hatred and ignorance, and if no excuse to kill one another is available, it creates one."

"I've seen the way you act around Kilishandra," Sheila said, "You can't deny that you know there is good in people, too."

"That's the shame of it all," Ganondorf said, "Genuinely good people are the exception, not the rule."

Sheila sat up. "What about you? Everything I was told about you before we met was that you were a despicable villain, yet here you are, helping people against an enemy they're lucky they even knew was coming. Are you one of the good people, or the sick ones?"

Ganondorf did not respond for a moment. "I don't even know anymore," was what he finally said, and sat up, "But let's take another look at you. You lost your boyfriend not long ago, didn't you?"

The sudden remark, and so callous in the way he brought it up, may as well have been a slap to the face. The work she had been doing with him had distracted her, let her put it out of her mind for the moment. In spite of her conscious decision to put it behind her, thinking of Richard instantly brought that horrifying memory to the surface, of his head spinning through the air, spraying blood over the snow.

"What about it?" she asked, trying to keep the impact from showing in her voice.

"The usual way the 'good guys' like to talk is that the many are more important than the few," Ganondorf said, "Let's say a hundred people, just for an even number. You have a choice now. You could have saved him, or them. The one or the many. Which choice would you make?"

"There's not point in this," Sheila said, "He's already gone."

"Just answer the question and I'll drop it," Ganondorf said, "Him or them?"

Sheila sighed heavily. "The only right choice is to let him die, and save the hundred."

"Well, that's not what I expected," Ganondorf said, "Just to let you know, though, thirty of the hundred were criminals, including murderers, thieves, and at least one child rapist, who will continue their lives as before, causing pain to others unabated."

"That's not fair!" Sheila said, the depression of her memory replaced with anger, "You didn't tell me that before!"

"And in the moment, how would you have known it anyway?" Ganondorf asked. "With a blade at the prince's throat, and the decision on the spot, how would you know what those hundred people were? That is the weakness of the altruistic desire: You do not know who you are saving."

"So, what you're telling me is that I'm damned either way," Sheila said.

"If only you realized how much pain and suffering caused in the world was from the best intentions," Ganondorf said, "Even a warlord who comes as a liberator to an oppressed people does so by crushing his enemy beneath his heel. And then what of the people he 'saves?' A lot of them likely deserved the torturous treatment they were deserving." He paused, and chuckled to himself. "A warlord comes to a city in which a sadistic king tortures his subject for his own pleasure. 'Why do you do this to your people, king?' the warlord asks, 'Why do you take joy in the suffering of others?' The king looks at the warlord and the army he has brought to seize his city. 'Why do you seek war, conqueror?' the king asks, 'Why do you take joy in the suffering of others?'"

"I'm afraid I don't get the joke," Sheila said.

"It's no joke," Ganondorf said, "It's reality. Perspective is everything. Do you remember what I said the first time you met me about perspective?"

"I think it was something along the line of 'Evil is merely a perspective of which I am no longer concerned," Sheila said.

"And the reason for that is because it doesn't matter what your intentions are, someone opposes you, and they believe you are the wrong one and they are the right," Ganondorf said, "Good and evil are just perspectives applied by misguided fools to justify their actions, and the application is often after one is dead. And the dead one is always the evil one."

"So what's your answer, then?" Sheila asked, "To ignore it all?"

"No, just to ignore the idiots and their perspectives," Ganondorf said, "I make my choices, and I live by them, and don't give damn what anyone else thinks. If they want to stop me, they're more than welcome to try.

"If you want to try to do what you think is right, then do it. Just don't expect everyone to like it."

"Well, I know what I think," Sheila said, "There's a good man in you after all, despite all your efforts to hide it."

Ganondorf snorted, and rose to his feet, dumping his pipe on the ground and stamping out the embers. "That just cost you your break. On your feet. Two more hours before we're done today."

Sheila groaned, but did as he said. Maybe she'd at least make it back to see the tournament finals.

* * *

As the competition went on, Link found himself against more and more skilled opponents as the field continued to narrow. It was a strange stroke of fate, perhaps, that he managed to draw neither Kilishandra or Alex, and as he claimed his latest victory by his opponent surrendering, the official called a halt to all proceedings.

"The final four have been decided," the official shouted over the on looking crowd, "In two hours, the final three matches will occur in the main arena, in front of king and city. The matches shall be as follows," he paused to draw two slips from a box offered by another official, and unfolded them to read the names, "In the first match, Alexander Ragefaust shall battle Antonio Galwese. The second match shall be Link of Hyrule against Kilishandra Dragmire. The winners of these matches will fight for the prize in the final match."

"Well, I guess fighting Kilishandra in the championship would have been too convenient," Link said.

"Who cares," Midna said as they walked away from the rings, "I just want to see you plant her face first in the dirt, then win the whole thing."

"Is that so?"

They turned to see Kilishandra less than four feet away, moving toward them. Even though the armor she was wearing was designed for a man, and nearly identical to Link's, she walked with ease accustomed to the weight. Her hair was wet and matted with the sweat from her exertions, and face already covered with dirt and grime of the arenas, yet Link couldn't deny it all came together to give her a strange aura that made her oddly attractive.

From Kilishandra's perspective, Link was in much the same condition. Sweaty and tired, and covered with the dirt of the rings, and yet Midna was still hovering only inches away from him, and again she found it infuriating. There he was, just as dirty and smelly as any of the other fighters around them, and this exotic woman clinging to him like he was the most wondrous man alive.

"Planning my downfall, are you?" Kilishandra asked.

"Only so much as you're planning mine," Link said, "Or have you finally had enough of this stupid game?"

"The more I think about it," she replied, "the more delight I find in the thought of humiliating you in front of the entire city."

"Okay, seriously, I can't take this anymore," Link said, "What did I do? You've got it in for me, for some reason I don't know. What is it?"

Kilishandra looked down at him in silence, then glanced up at Midna, who had a dark glare aimed back, before stepping closer to Link, looking down to make the size difference very obvious, so that he had crane his neck to see her face. "Your friends talk about you like you're some kind of monster, or even a god," she said, "Even my father, a man of unparalleled intelligence and ability has nothing but praise for you. But all I see is a man. A very small man."

Without another word, she turned and started walking, leaving Link and Midna watching her back as she moved away.

"I think she's doubting your ability, Link," Midna said, "in spite of what she's already seen."

"Maybe," Link said, watching Kilishandra's retreating figure, and added silently, _It's weird, but it's like she's deliberately trying to be openly hostile to me. For some reason it's actually kind of… cute._

* * *

The sound of trumpets blasted over the arena grounds, bringing a halt to activity on the field, and the men and women of the bleachers to rise to their feet as King Rigdar arrived on the premesis and made his way into the royal box, accompanied by two bodyguards and his guests, among them Princess Zelda, Judge Ralthas, and Matilda, the royal tailor, though some would be questioning her presence later, it did not bother the king as every competitor on the field moved at the official's direction to line up in front of the royal box.

When the trumpets at last died away, the king moved to the front of the box, leaning his hands on the wooden railing as he looked over the competitors before him, from the polished armor of the jousters, to the dirty dented breastplates of the swordsmen, down to the archers and staff fighters in their own clothes and uniforms.

Zelda was a little surprised to see Link and Kilishandra both standing in the line, partially because she had thought them both above this kind of contest, but more so because Link was standing at perfect attention, as the other competitors were, his helmet under his left arm, his other arm straight at his side and bowed his head with the others. At least he could observe protocol when it counted, she decided.

"You have all fought hard to reach this point," the king said, the crowd quieting so his voice could be heard by the entire arena, "As far as I am concerned, you are already champions. But the people of this proud city desire to know who is the greatest of all. Fight well, and your name will join the champions of the past, and the greatest warriors in the city."

The king took his seat, as did all the people in the bleachers, and the competitors returned to their areas as an official moved to the center of the arena to call the first event. Long spear on foot was the event, and the competitors in the event moved to the center area. This was an event the tournaments back in Hyrule never had, Zelda noted, though it seemed to be a simple contest of which man could hurl a spear furthest downfield, though for the throw to count, the spear must stick in the ground. One that fell flat wasn't counted.

"I see two of yours waiting for the sword," the king said, leaning over so she could hear over the growing sounds of the crowd.

Zelda was seated on the king's right, while Matilda was on his left, and Ralthas further down past Matilda.

"I'm afraid I didn't know they were going to enter," Zelda said.

"Well, there's no rule against it," the king said, "Though if one of them wins, you could present the prize, if you like."

"I'd like that," Zelda said, and added silently, _Just the way those two get along, I hope they don't do something embarrassing._

Three throws each from the five competitors ended the spear competition, and the winner decided. Next came archery, with five targets lined up on the field, and the competitors being shown to their spaces. Silviana was quite visible among the other four, her dark skin and white hair standing out like a beacon. At first the crowd greeted this with jeering and boos, until the first shot was fired. All five archers shot at the same time, and the one furthest off the bulls-eye was eliminated.

After the second shot, and Silviana remained on the field, the king leaned away from Zelda to speak to Ralthas. Zelda couldn't make out what they were saying, but the third shot eliminated another, and only Silviana and one other remained. The crowd's jeers had died away, and now they seemed more confused than hostile.

"She's going to cause a sensation if she wins," the king said, sitting back into place.

_I've seen her shoot,_ Zelda thought silently, _There's no way she can't win, unless she loses on purpose._

The final shot was fired, and the officials moved up with measuring tapes to the targets. They seemed to be at it for a good long time. Finally, they reached an agreement, and one of them stepped away from the others to announce to the arena, "The winner by one eighth of an inch…" he paused, and lifted his arm closest to Silviana, "is Silviana Anthress!"

_She used Ralthas and Sheila's family name,_ Zelda thought as the crowd exploded, _I wonder how that's going to go over._

She glanced over as the king rose and moved to the front of the box to see Ralthas. Even in the din of the crowd, the old elf had a faint smile on his face. Well, at least that's one good reaction.

The crowd was not so pleased by the dark elf winning the contest, it seemed, and when his shouting failed, it took the king signaling for a blast of the trumpets to quiet them enough to be heard.

"That is enough of this mindless hate!" the king shouted, "The woman standing before us is a dark elf, yes, a race that is all but extinct on the face of the world. Her ancestors fought against our heroes in the ancient war, but she did not! This woman is a citizen of Darimar, and a Judge in good standing. And today she is our champion!"

He started clapping his own hands, nodding to Silviana, who bowed at the waist in return. The crowd exploded again, this time in cheers. "They changed sides in a hurry," Zelda remarked as the king returned to his seat.

"Of course they did," he replied, "Their king told them to."

_I guess I have a thing or two to learn about working crowds,_ Zelda thought as the archery targets were cleared from the field.

The field staff rushed back out with poles in their hands, and started drawing a large circle in the ground to serve as the dueling ring for the other weapon contests. First came the quarterstaffs, which Zelda quickly learned was a fairly brutal competition, due to the lack of armor and stout, heavy weapons. Then was the wrestling. This was a contest Zelda had always looked at as a little odd, seeing two muscular sweaty men rolling over and over each other, each trying to hold the other down. It caused disturbing, yet also intriguing, images to come to her mind.

Finally, the contestants of the sword were brought to the center ring. Zelda watched as Alex entered the ring first against a man she did not know. It was a fast contest, though close, as Alex managed to edge out the win three strikes to two. Then it was time for Link and Kilishandra to enter the ring.

* * *

"Are you ready for me, Link?" Kilishandra asked as they stepped into the circle drawn in the dirt.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," he replied.

He put his helmet on, making sure the chin strap was in place and he could see, and took his sword from the official waiting beside him. Once Kilishandra was ready, the officials stepped back.

"Ten blows by sword!" the official shouted, "Link of Hyrule to strike first!"

_Let's get a good lead,_ Link thought, moving toward her.

He struck high, aiming to raise her guard so he could come in from the side. She blocked, as he expected, and he started his sidestep, only to find her foot in the way. Her ankle was behind his and before he could react, she shoved with her weapon forcefully, sending him toppling backward onto his back in the dirt. The crowd rose in boos of disapproval.

"Penalty!" came the shout from the official.

Link was on his back, looking up, and Kilishandra's helmet appeared in his line of site. "That's strange," she said, her voice strange as it came through the metal of her helmet and that of his, "I thought you were going to plant _me_ in the dirt."

"If that's how you want to play it," Link said, "that's fine by me!"

He rolled onto his stomach, pushing himself up and snatching his sword, running at her without even waiting for the official's signal to resume. Their weapons clashed as he bowled into her with his full weight in a powerful shoulder-tackle that caused her to stagger backward as he kept pushing. The official screamed for a penalty even as she managed to step off Link, moving sideways trying to regain her balance as he stopped and turned.

The crowd, confused at first, seemed to rally, and started cheering for what was a far more exciting match than they usually got.

Their weapons clashed together, neither one paying attention to the strike rules. Link managed to get a blow in across her shoulder that got a half-hearted fair point call from the official before Kilishandra leaned in and punched with her free hand, a powerful hook into the gap under his right armpit, and then a second time, the official screaming for penalties as Link used the moment to strike the pommel of his sword into the side of her helmet.

This caused Kilishandra to stagger back, raising one hand to her head as if to stop the ringing, and Link charging again, she barely got her sword up in time to block, when a furious scream erupted over the arena: "You are both disqualified!"

The crowd erupted in disapproval, hurling food and drinks at the officials as more men charged into the ring to drag the two of them apart. In the royal box, Zelda simply sighed, shaking her head as she watched them both be dragged from the ring.

"I knew something would go wrong with those two," she said.

She looked up to realize the king was laughing. When he realized she was looking at him, he pointed at the pair out there, still struggling with the men trying to hold them down. "If you're going to throw a match, that's how to do it," he said, "Do you think they were planning this the whole time?"

_Not a chance in hell,_ Zelda thought, then said, "Once they're under control, I'll need to have a good long talk with them both."

"Rules are rules, and they're disqualified," the king said, "but I'm going to make sure they're both invited to the party tonight. Wonder what would happen if we try to get them to dance together…"

* * *

"What the hell were you two thinking?" Zelda demanded, a short time later when she had managed to get Link and Kilishandra away from the arena, and now in the practically deserted area where the sword preliminaries had occurred.

"I wasn't even in it for the contest," Link said as he attempted to undo the straps on his armor, "Just to fight her."

"So this was just a grandstand personal vendetta?" Zelda asked.

"Look, you weren't even a part of it, so what's the problem?" Link asked.

He was suddenly interrupted in his task as Zelda grabbed the top of his breastplate and jerked him toward her, to the point his face was nearly in hers. "My problem is that you embarrassed me in front of the king," she hissed, and when he started to speak interrupted him, "Don't talk. We had this discussion about my leniency with your behavior, because of who you are and what you've done for me. But there are certain political meanings that I have to maintain. We are in a foreign kingdom. This is not my sovereignty and we have been granted a lot of leeway by King Rigdar. But ultimately, you are part of my company, my kingdom, and what you do reflects on me in this place. Not to mention you made a mockery of their entire tournament. You're extremely lucky the king took it in such good humor, or you might be in prison right now!"

"I thought we had diplomatic immunity," Kilishandra said.

"There is only so far that can go," Zelda said, releasing her grip on Link, "If the king decides we are unwelcome here, he can throw us out, without supplies or means to get back to Hyrule. And I am blaming you for this as much as Link."

This was actually a strange experience for Link. He had never seen Zelda this forceful before, and though he was used to speaking to her as an equal, he suddenly found himself hesitant to do so, like he should be looking up to her not just because of her birth, but because of something he couldn't quite grasp.

"So what are we going to do about it now?" he asked, "You want us to apologize to the king?"

"No, the king was not offended by your display, as I said, you are extremely lucky," Zelda said, and a sinister smile crept onto her face, "He also wanted to make sure you knew that you are both invited the royal party this evening, along with the event champions."

"That's not really my kind of thing," Link said.

"I'll pass too," Kilishandra said.

"You are going, both of you," Zelda said, an icy tone entering her voice, "You will be there. You will be dressed appropriately. You will meet nobles, you will shake hands, you will be polite. And after dinner, when the music starts, the two of you will share the first dance."

This last pronouncement caused both of them to surge from their seats in protest, stopping short when another figure entered the area, heavy footsteps moving up beside Zelda, and Ganondorf looked down at them both.

"As entertaining as the show was, I think it would be best if the two of you just did as the princess orders," he said, and turned to Kilishandra, "You swore to her service, did you not?"

Kilishandra's former protest was gone, and she said evenly, "Yes."

"And you," he turned to Link, "Regardless of your typical view of nobility, you do respect and would follow this one, correct?"

Link glared at him, then glanced down at Zelda, and back at Ganondorf, then finally answered, "Yes."

"Then you know what you must do," Ganondorf said, "Now go, and get ready for the party. I'm eagerly awaiting the conclusion to this epic comedy."

Link and Kilishandra glanced at each other, then turned and started walking away in opposite directions. Zelda turned, looking up at Ganondorf. "Thank you," she said, "Though I'm wondering why you'd help with something like this."

"Are you kidding?" Ganondorf said, "This is funny as hell. I can't wait to see them actually try to dance together."

"Kilishandra I understand, but how did you cow Link so easily?" Zelda asked.

"You were doing a good job," Ganondorf said, "Pretty much had them broken already. All it took was a little reminder of their loyalties and that ultimately, you are their authority. If you hadn't stood up to them, I wouldn't have been able to budge Link."

"I just hope this doesn't make things even worse," Zelda said, "Gods, I feel like I'm punishing children."

"Sometimes, that's what being a ruler feels like," Ganondorf said.

* * *

Link tugged at the collar of his shirt for the hundredth time, the high collar irritating his neck and uncomfortable. As soon as he and Midna had arrived back at the castle, he had practically been kidnapped by tailors, no doubt on Zelda's pay, he guessed, and in two hours been bathed by far more hands than he was comfortable with, fitted and dressed in a blue jacket with a high collared white shirt, blue trousers, and black boots, all embroidered with the most ridiculous designs in red.

He felt like he was about to be mounted on the wall all through dinner. Midna had disappeared beforehand and wasn't seen throughout it, while he had to suffer through what seemed like hours of toasts and dedications to the tournament champions, and then a special thanks to the "wonderful diversion" he and Kilishandra had provided. And he was very disappointed at the lack of strength to the wine served with dinner, realizing he'd have to drink a gallon of the stuff at least to make the evening easier to get through.

Now servants had entered the hall to clear the food from the tables, and the tables themselves from the room, while a group of minstrels set up their instruments in one end of the hall. This was the part he was dreading most of all. Link barely knew how to dance, what he knew being self-taught at village festivals, not the kind of stuff for nobility. He knew a basic one-two-three slow dance, but that wasn't the kind of thing he could picture himself doing with Kilishandra. Gods, the fact Zelda was actually insisting he dance with that amazon…

He hadn't been able to see her from where he was sitting at the table, and was wondering if she was as frustrated by this as he was.

Now, as the room was cleared of obstructions, the nobles and champions mingled, exchanging small talk, nothing he could hear was worth noting, and fortunately none approached him, until Alex appeared at his side. Alex, at least, was dressed in a more respectable green outfit, Link noted.

"So, I've got to ask," Alex said without preamble as he approached Link, "Did you two plan that from the start?"

"No," Link said, "She pulled the first dirty trick, and I answered in kind."

"Well, I'm not going to complain," Alex said, "Made me the winner by default, without having to fight either of you."

"And I'm still getting penalized," Link muttered.

A few notes rose from the minstrels, which immediately died away as they began to tune their instruments.

"So where's Midna?" Alex asked, "You two are usually attached at the hip."

"She disappeared before dinner, haven't seen her since," Link said.

"Well, there's someone for me at least," Alex said, "See you in a bit."

He made a beeline toward Silviana across the room, whose face showed she apparently felt as out of place as she looked among the nobles, though she did look remarkable in the white leather outfit she was wearing that matched her hair perfectly.

The sound of footsteps to his left drew Link's attention from them, and he turned to see Kilishandra approaching him. His irritation was suddenly replaced with shock. She was wearing a blue gown with red sequins, clearly made by the tailors to match his outfit, probably at Zelda's insistence. It was sleeveless, with a modest cut, and seemed to be a single layer skirt, unlike the monstrously huge things some of the noblewomen were wearing.

Kilishandra's hair was normally in a tight braided tail, more for practicality than look, but now her hair was down, draped over her shoulders and framing her face in a somehow perfect offset to her skin. With no sleeves, the perfectly toned muscles of her arms were clearly visible and how they flexed as her arms moved was almost hypnotizing. The scars on her arms were also clearly visible, but they did not take anything from her.

He almost couldn't believe his eyes, but while he knew her, she looked almost like a completely different person. And she was gorgeous.

"They're almost ready," she said as she approached, "Last chance to run away."

"Zelda would be positively unlivable if we did that," Link said, "Better to just get it over with."

"I thought you would have argued with my father when he showed up," she said as they turned to watch the minstrels.

"I'm surprised you didn't," Link said, "But I guess we're in it now."

"So we can just do this, then put it behind us, never talk about it again, right?"

"Right."

"Good."

A few more notes rose, and one of the musicians signaled they were ready, and asked what kind of song would be preferred. Link did not know any of the terms that were being tossed about by the room, but would have preferred "silence" to keep going. It had been a good choice so far.

Finally, a choice had been made, the group began to play, starting softly, and gradually rising in volume. It was a fairly slow tune. At least it would be easy to dance to. Link spotted Zelda turn and look at him from across the room, tilting her head as if to say "Get a move on."

As he and Kilishandra moved into the dance floor, he kept thinking "I can't believe I'm doing this," over and over, with an occasional bout of "What does she think I am, twelve?"

He took her hand with one, and put the other on her side, which she immediately reached down to adjust slightly lower, so it was just above her hip, before putting her other hand on his shoulder. This surprised him, as it showed that she at least knew what she was doing.

They were not the only group already on the floor, at least, so perhaps no one saw when he nearly tripped over her feet on the first few steps. "Haven't you ever danced before?" she hissed under her breath at him.

"Not like this," he whispered back, "And especially not with a woman so much taller than me."

"Just listen to the beat, and keep to the timing," she whispered.

Link nearly tripped again.

"Do you mind letting me lead, at least?" Link whispered, "I might trip less."

"Gods, fine, just get on with it," Kilishandra whispered.

The music started to pick up tempo, and without her attempting to force it, Link managed to find the right pacing, and Kilishandra was able to match him easily He was aware that most of the room were watching them, but gradually he was able to spend less time focusing on where his feet were and more on the rest of the activity.

Over on the side of the room, Zelda watched them with a small smile on her face. At least they were trying. Seeing that pair together and not fighting was a miracle. King Rigdar appeared at her side, leaning over as he whispered to her, "How did you do that? You didn't magic them, did you?"

"We had a talk," she replied, "And a deal was made. Hopefully they won't be any more trouble after this."

More and more couples joined the dance floor and the music continued. Link decided that one song would likely be enough to satisfy Zelda. His neck was getting stiff though, looking to the side to avoid staring directly into her chest, and had to turn it, so did so by looking up at her face.

"Wait a second," he said as he did, "Are you wearing makeup?"

Kilishandra quickly averted her gaze, turning her head to the side. "Of course not!" she said, "You're imagining it. It's nothing."

"I didn't know 'nothing' came in that shade of red," Link said, but he found himself smiling. It had likely been forced on her by the people who dressed her, just like had happened to him. "It looks good," he said, "You really do look amazing."

"Don't try to butter me up now," she said, though she did turn back toward him, "I'm not interested."

It was actually a surprise to Link when the first song ended. She immediately pulled from his grasp and started moving across the room away from him.

"Hey, wait a second!" Link said, starting after her.

He caught her by the door to the room, grabbing her arm to keep her from leaving.

"If you take off now, you're never going to hear the end of it," Link said, "You know that."

"Let go of me!" she said, jerking her arm from his hand, "How stupid do you think I am?"

"What are you even talking about?" Link asked, "You can't take a compliment or something?"

"You're suddenly trying to get on my good side," Kilishandra said, "What are you after?"

The second song had started, this one faster than the first, and Link silently thanked the gods he didn't have to dance to it. Instead, he focused on the woman in front of him. "Are you seriously such an ungrateful bitch that I can't even give you a compliment?" he asked, "What next, are you going to try to stab me in my sleep tonight?"

"I have never gotten a compliment from a man who wasn't trying to get something from me," Kilishandra said, "Usually into my bed."

"I'm spoken for, in case you've forgotten," Link said, "But I'm starting to see why Zelda actually did this in the first place. Look at us, at each other's throats when we're supposed to be on the same side."

Kilishandra glared at him, but she did respond, "I suppose you have a point."

"All I'm saying…"

Link was interrupted by the sudden intrusion of an enormous noblewoman declaring "Here they are!" and practically inserting herself between them.

Link took a step back instinctively, or possibly out of fear of the woman falling on him. "Good gods, woman!" he said, not quite able to bite his tongue fast enough.

The woman was possibly wider than she was tall, rolls hanging from her arms, and what seemed like miles of red silk had been sacrificed to make her dress. Link had thought he'd seen fat before, but this woman redefined the word. She was more focused on Kilishandra in any case, who had her back to the wall, her expression one of pure horror at the sight before her.

It was in fact the infamous Lady Cloelle, who had suddenly taken in intense interest in Kilishandra. "So this is the woman who entered the sword competition, only to be disqualified!" she was saying, "My, such an interesting specimen!"

"What the hell are you…" Kilishandra started to said, only to stop cold when the woman grabbed her arm.

"Look at these muscles!" she declared, "They're so hard and heavy, just like a man!"

"Let go of me!" Kilishandra said, reflexively raising her hand to strike her.

This only made it worse, as the woman snatched Kilishandra's wrist to examine her palm. "And look at all this cracked and calloused skin! My, I must ask the king what he was thinking! This isn't a woman, it's a monster!"

Link grabbed the noblewoman's shoulder. "Excuse me, miss," he said, his voice even but heavy, "I think you should go. Now."

"Unhand me, peasant!" the woman said, jerking out of his grasp and backing away, "The nerve!"

Thankfully, she turned and moved away from them, hopefully to complain to someone else. Link turned back to Kilishandra. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Like a whale like that could hurt me," she said.

Link realized she was staring at the palm of her own hand, slowly running her thumb over the rough calluses. This was not something he had expected, yet for some reason the woman's comments had apparently struck a nerve in her.

He slowly reached up and took her hand in his own. She looked up suddenly, as if startled. "I think your hands are perfect," he said, "Back where I grew up, all the women have rough hands. It's a sign of hard work. Something that idiot woman has no idea of.

"And…well… mine certainly aren't any softer."

Kilishandra nodded slowly, then pulled her hand free of his. "I need to go," she said, turning to the door and stepping out of the room. It looked as if she were fighting back tears.

Link sighed as he turned back into the room. To think something like that could strike someone like her so deeply, he never would have imagined.

"I hope that whale's proud of herself," he muttered, picking up a glass of wine from a passing tray being carryed by a member of the staff.

Alex came over to him, a curious expression on his face. "What was that about?" he asked.

"It was nothing," Link said.

"The way that fat noblewoman's ranting, it wasn't nothing," Alex said.

"Okay, it's none of your gods damned business," Link snapped, "That better?"

"Take it easy, I was just curious," Alex said.

"I probably won't be here much longer either," Link said, and swallowed the rest of the wine from the glass, "I need to find something stronger."

"Just one of those days, huh?" Alex asked, turning back to the now crowded dance floor.

"More like one of those years," Link said, starting for the door.

He was stopped in his tracks as the door opened in front of him, with two figures revealed. One was Matilda, the royal tailor, and the other was Midna. Link felt his jaw drop, and there was nothing he could do to recover it. The music suddenly stopped, and everyone in the room turned to see.

Matilda had taken Midna for the final fitting of her gown, and the end result was something that for one, no noblewoman in the country would dare to wear, and yet was one of the most amazing outfits they had ever seen, and would take a very special kind of woman to fill it correctly.

The entire outfit was of thin black silk that in the right light and angle, had a shine that could blind someone staring directly at it. The top was actually extremely modest, starting at her neck, going down the shoulders, but sleeveless, and the cloth stopping just below the bottom curve of her breasts, leaving her midriff exposed, with strips of cloth on either side under her arms to connect to the waist, suspended just above her hips. Both sides of the skirt were split, about halfway down the hip, to the bottom, leaving her legs and tattoos fully exposed from the sides, and resulting in the skirt looking more like two square pieces of fabric, one in front and one in back, stopping at her ankles. She was barefoot, though with three gold bracelets around each ankle that jingled together softly as she walked.

Her hair had been left loose, allowed to fall across her shoulders and down her chest and back as it would, and it only added to her appearance. Link struggled to get his jaw working as she moved toward him.

"Midna…" he managed, "You… That is… uh… you…"

"Do you like it?" she asked, stopping in front of him.

"Uh… yeah…" he said, "I like it. I think I like it a lot."

There was a loud screech and crack as one of the musicians crushed his violin in his hands.

Link and Midna both turned toward the sound, and the musicians started playing again as the former violinist picked up a lute instead.

"Do you… uh…" Link hadn't felt this lost since trying to get his first kiss when he was seven.

"Do I what?" Midna asked.

"Do you…"

Link was interrupted as a well dressed young man appeared as if from nowhere. "Excuse me, miss," he said, "May I have this dance?"

Midna glanced back at Link, who turned to the man. "Hell no!" Link said, "Get out of here!"

Midna laughed as the man slowly backed away. Recovering his composure, Link finally took a breath. "Would you like to dance?" he asked.

"I think I would," Midna said, taking his offered hand.

All eyes were on them as they moved out onto the dance floor. Link still didn't know that many dances, but he no longer cared. As they started to move together, he was completely lost in those ruby eyes and that wonderful smile.

The music was soft and gentle. As it went on, the one woman in the minstrel group, playing a harp whose melody filled the room above and beyond the other instruments, began to sing, her beautiful voice accompanying the soft, beautiful melody.

_Your imagination _

_Is all you really need,_

_When you start believing_

_Love is just a kiss away._

_Life is what you make it,_

_There's no guarantee._

_It's you who has the power,_

_Love is just a dance away._

_When you start believing,_

_You can do anything._

_Let the magic fill you,_

_Take you above the highest star…_

_Dance away your sorrow_

_Dance away, tomorrow_

_In your heart, you will find the answer…_

_Dance away your heartbreak_

_Dance away, you might make_

_All your dreams turn into reality._

_When the world around you_

_Has got you feeling down,_

_Don't go on forgetting,_

_Love is just a touch away._

_When someone has found you_

_Don't let him get away._

_Don't go on regretting,_

_Because love is just a dance away._

_When you start believing_

_You can do anything._

_Let the music take you_

_And let it dance you away._

_Dance away your sorrow_

_Dance away, tomorrow_

_In your heart, you will find the answer…_

_Dance away your heartache_

_Dance away, you might make_

_All your dreams turn into reality._

_Dance away the night._

_Dance into the light._

_Dance away the night._

_Dance away._

The singer's voice fell away, though the haunting soft melody continued, and more and more couples joined Link and Midna on the dance floor, but the two only had eyes for each other.

On the side of the room, completely unnoticed, one of the doors opened, and Kilishandra entered, her eyes scanning the room. She stopped when she saw Link and Midna together on the center of the dance floor.

She watched in silence for a moment, then sighed, and just as quietly as she had come, left the room again.


	99. Chapter 98

Quick info: This chapter wasn't going to exist. I was going to jump right into the war effort, but decided to put it off one more, due to an idea for a scene with Sheila and Ralthas that would work better than just explaining it later.

And even though it's one of the shorter ones, I'm interested to see reactions to this chapter, due to one of the scenes. It's one of those moments where I don't think I've pushed passed the PG-13 limit on this story, but other people may think differently. Like with the torture scene involving Kilishandra's mother, which got several strongly negative reactions. I didn't change it, and I doubt I'll be changing this one, because honestly, it's only as graphic as your own imagination.

About 4 hours later: Remembered that I hadn't replaced the placeholders with line breaks when I uploaded this morning, so it's done now. I am the dumb.

**Chapter 98: The Final Night**

The party went on until after midnight, though in the hours before it ended, individuals and couples began to trickle out one by one, the crowd gradually thinning away. Some of the nobles had housing in the castle itself, while others departed by carriage to their own estates within the city.

Sheila had not gone to the party, having collapsed in her own chamber upon her return, sleeping most of the afternoon. Now she stood on a high rampart, above the courtyard, watching the departures as they moved into the city, many windows still brightly lit even at this hour.

The king was right, of course. The people needed this. When morning came, the only thought would be of the coming battles, and readying to march on Khall and his forces before they returned to the city, though the way some acted, they seemed to think the enemy would be at their gates come dawn. But armies did not march that quickly. Even if Khall had begun moving men as soon as the snow began to melt, they would still be weeks away.

"You're up late."

Sheila turned to find Ralthas had come up behind her. He was still dressed in his party clothes, a deep blue color, though his sword still hung at his side. She knew that blade as well as any other, with the engraving of a hammer and anvil on the blade just above the guard, depicting a bolt of lightning toward the tip. In dim light, the engraving glowed a soft blue when the blade was charged and ready. The Hammer of Justice it was called, named for the sound of thunder when the hammer of the gods struck the anvil of creation, upon which the first living creatures were forged. At least, that's what the myths said.

"I just wanted some fresh air," Sheila said.

"Have you thought about it?" he asked, moving up beside her, looking down over the city.

"I have," Sheila said, "And I keep thinking there has to be someone more appropriate. What about King Maylow?"

"I did consider him," Ralthas said, "But he has already lost one kingdom. It wasn't his fault, but I'm afraid to the common populace, that won't matter. They won't trust him, though the one who took his kingdom is among us even now. Most of the nobles in this city have no idea how to be leaders. I even went through the files of every officer in the army, and couldn't find a better choice than you."

"I wouldn't have any idea how to be a ruler!" Sheila said, "I mean, besides my magic training, my primary study was theology!"

"I'm not saying it will happen," Ralthas said, "But with Richard's death, there is no direct heir. If something should happen to the king in the coming battles, he needs a successor. Without it, there will be no leadership, and the crown with fall into clawing hands and squabbling families. There's no doubt that once the war is over, there will be a civil war following it."

"It doesn't feel right," Sheila said, leaning on the stone before her, "Richard and I… I don't know if I would have called us that close yet, but we could have been. And then to just step into his place now…"

"The king has already given his assent," Ralthas said, "Your decision is all that is needed now. And time is running out. If the king should fall, these people will need a leader. And the High Elder, while it may have been a meaningless title before, is something they will respect."

"This is worse than asking me to be a Judge," Sheila said, "At least a Judge can retire. Well, most of them anyway," she added with a sideways glance at her father.

Ralthas smiled. "You know, when I became a Judge, I thought I'd spend my life hunting criminals, murders and the like, and making sure they were properly punished," he said, "Youthful excitement. I've done that, certainly, but I've spent far more time in my office, dealing with paperwork and trying to keep everything in order. I've also seen some absolutely terrible things. Things that I still have nightmares about. Things that no man should be capable of."

Sheila felt she could safely guess that he was speaking about that horrific torture chamber, where he had found Silviana when she was just a child. "No," she said, "There are things that only men are capable of. No animal in the world would torture another for days on end for no reason other than its own sadistic pleasure. The problem is, by the time you find out, it's usually too late for the victims."

"That's awfully grim for you," Ralthas said.

"I've been thinking," she said, "And speaking to Ganondorf quite a bit. The more I do, the more his views make sense to me."

"We both knew from the start that man couldn't be trusted," Ralthas said, "If even half of what Link and Princess Zelda say about him, he's a villain rivaling even the worst legends."

"If even half of what they say is true, then he is a man who knows the darkest pits of humanity, because he has experienced them," Sheila said, "He told me how he reached those depths. Early in his life, how he nearly died because someone refused to accept him as a ruler, though it was his birthright, and then how the woman he loved betrayed him, and even helped in his defeat. In fact, with what he's gone through, it's amazing that he's not raving mad."

"Are you so sure he's not?" Ralthas asked, "He's intelligent, no doubt of that. But genius and madness are two sides of the same coin. Like you said, we might not know the difference until its too late."

"The difference between madness and genius is measured only by success," Sheila said, "He said that himself."

Ralthas glanced at her. "That's true enough, in a way. It sounds like he's gained a great deal of your respect."

"In a way," Sheila said, "He's not a good person, but I don't believe he's a villain, either. In fact, the more I talk with him, the more I think he's just lost his way."

"What do you mean?"

"It's like the entire time he's been with us, he's been searching for something," Sheila said, "A reason, or a drive. He's probably the most dangerous man alive, and right now he's searching for a purpose, something to fight for. He holds such dark views of humanity and the world, and in a way, he is completely correct. But I think he wants to be proven wrong."

"Searching for his own soul," Ralthas said.

Sheila laughed. "I suppose he is at that."

"And you're not afraid of him?" Ralthas asked.

"Are you?"

"I'm terrified of him."

"I was at first," Sheila said, "But now, no. He has my respect, but I don't fear him." She sighed, and added, "And I suppose if I'm not afraid of the arguably most dangerous man alive, I should hardly fear ending up on the throne."

"Or maybe you should fear it much more," Ralthas said, "But is that your answer?"

"I think so," Sheila said, turning directly to him, "But only if I have to. If the war is over and the king is alive, we never speak of it again, okay?"

"Okay," Ralthas said, "I'll make the arrangements in the morning."

"Fortunes have certainly changed since you dragged me here in a prison trolley," Sheila said, "Now you're going to put me on the throne."

"Well, I could hide a golden needle in a haystack and make you find it, if you like," Ralthas said.

"No thanks," Sheila said, "I had my fill of haystacks back in school."

Ralthas raised one eyebrow at the comment, but decided he'd rather not have those details. Instead, he reached down to take her hand in his own, lifting it to hold with both hands and squeezing gently. "No matter what happens in the next weeks, I want you to know that I am proud of you," he said, "and I'm sure your mother is, too."

It seemed to come out of nowhere. She wasn't even sure why, but Sheila suddenly found tears in her eyes, and moved closer to Ralthas, embracing him in a tight hug, burying her face in his chest. For a moment, she felt like a child again, just needing to be close to her father as he held her close.

He hadn't always been around for her when she was young, but he had been a rock in her life. He was always somewhere, and she had genuinely believed that nothing could have happened to him. The child's belief that her father was the greatest hero in the world, completely invincible and always defeating the villains in his shining armor, swinging a sword that sang through the air as it struck down his enemies.

But she was grown now, and she knew that he intended to be by the king's side through the coming conflict, and if something did happen to the king, it was likely Ralthas would not survive either. He would either fall first, or would fight to his last breath defending the king where he fell.

And even worse, she knew there was nothing she could say to change his mind. Part of the Judge's oath was to defend the innocent and uphold justice, even to their dying breath. So she held onto him, crying quietly as he held her, waiting in silence. And he knew there was nothing he could say that would comfort her now. False promises were something neither of them wanted.

* * *

There were others that night whose thoughts could not be further from the coming conflict.

Kilishandra had located the wine celler and while not sure of the exact year of this world, absconded with a bottle of something she estimated was at least three decades old. It certainly had a stronger flavor than what had been served at the party, and she guessed it was considerably stronger all around as she found it more difficult to connect the bottle with her mouth, spilling it down her chin and chest, and she wasn't halfway down the bottle yet.

"That's cold!" she cursed herself, attempting to wipe the wetness from the front of her dress, which only soaked it in faster.

"Kilishandra?" came a voice from her side, "What are you doing out here?"

She looked up to see Zelda standing over her. She hadn't even noticed her approach. Kilishandra lifted the bottle. "Getting thoroughly besotted. You want some?"

"Why?" Zelda asked, "Especially out here."

"Did I not make it to my room?" Kilishandra asked, looking past Zelda, then turned the other direction, "Oh. I'm sitting in the hall, aren't I?"

"On the floor," Zelda said, "Looks like you didn't wait to uncork that. Look, I know you two don't get along that well, but a dance really pushing you to this?"

"You don't get it," Kilishandra said, and managed to lift the bottle to her mouth this time, taking a deep swallow, "Hell, I don't get it. What am I doing? Why am I so damn depressed?"

_Oh, gods,_ Zelda thought, _Tell me she isn't falling for him. This is the last thing I need right now._

"It's that damn girl's fault," Kilishandra spat, "Look at me! Muscled like a damn man, scarred until my skin is leather, and I can cut someone open with my open palm! And in she walks, with that perfect face, perfect skin, perfect…"

She cut herself off as she lifted the bottle to her mouth again.

"Oh, that's it," Zelda said, breathing a sigh of relief, "You're just feeling insecure."

"I am not insecure!" Kilishandra retorted, "It's her! So full of herself, and so completely shameless! I mean, I'm relaxed compared to some women, but that dress… it was even worse than just showing up naked!"

"Look, Midna has been through a lot in the past two years," Zelda said, "And what with just now getting herself back to normal, I can't really blame her for wanting to show off a bit."

"And she's the only one who has it hard?" Kilishandra asked.

Zelda sighed, this time in exasperation. She was seriously wishing her empathy extended to thoughts instead of just emotions, but even now she could see through this mess. "All right, this can't be all about her," Zelda said, "You're not the type for this kind of petty jealousy."

Kilishandra didn't respond. Zelda moved closer, turning around and sitting down next to her. "It's Link, isn't it?" Zelda said, "He's the one you've got a problem with. Though after the performance at the arena, I think everyone in the city knows you have a problem with him."

"I don't even know anymore," Kilishandra said with a sigh, "Just looking at him… I don't know. I like to think I know fairly well how to judge a person's ability. When he fights me, he seems to be on the same level as me, factor in my ability with magic and he'd barely be worth my notice, and yet, what I saw him do at the temple, when it went up in fire…" She paused, turning to look at Zelda. "No sane person would do what he did. And then, even though I saw it, there's no way he should have survived. It was pure luck that Midna saved him when she did."

"He's very good at what he does," Zelda said, "And sometimes very lucky. That bothers you?"

"What he did goes far beyond just being good," Kilishandra said, "I could never do something like that. Plus, remember who I am. I don't believe in luck."

"But you just said it was pure luck that saved him," Zelda said, pointing out the obvious flaw in her point.

"All the more reason he should be dead," Kilishandra said, "But there is something… Something I can't describe. I know it's why I find him so infuriating. There is something special about him, but I have no idea what it is."

Zelda reached over, taking the bottle from Kilishandra, taking a drink from it herself. "You'll figure it out," she said, "I thought the exact same thing when I first met him. And that was before he had accomplished any of the feats you've heard us talking about."

"You know what it is, then?" Kilishandra asked.

"No, I don't," Zelda said, leaning her head back against the wall, "Let me try explaining it this way. Our history is positively packed with stories about heroes. Many from my own country. There is no doubt that over the centuries, their tales have been exaggerated. I mean, the Ballad of the Hero of Time claims that in the final battle against the King of Shadows, the sheer force of their weapons colliding caused the castle around them to collapse on their heads. Then they pulled themselves from the rubble and kept fighting. And Link is the type of person that one day, the tales of his accomplishments will make what actually happened seem boring in comparison.

"And yet, I have nearly as much disbelief at what he's actually done as you do. All I can really say is that Link has some kind of strange intangible surrounding him. I don't think it's just luck, either. If you stop trying to fight it, if you just trust him, you begin to realize how much of a calming effect his presence has on everyone nearby. It's like so long as he's around, you just know everything is going to turn out all right."

"We can rest easy then," Kilishandra said, "He's going to save the world all by himself."

"I never said that," Zelda said, "No hero ever saved the day all by himself."

Zelda stood up, and helped Kilishandra to her feet.

"You'll understand what I mean before long," Zelda said, "For now, I can't let you fall apart for no reason like this. Regardless of Link, you're one of our heavy hitters, and we need you at your best."

"You're right," Kilishandra said, "I think I just need some sleep."

Zelda guided her down the hall to her room, and as she showed her in, slipped the bottle from her hand. "I'll take that," Zelda said, "Not that I don't trust you, but I think you've already had enough to regret it in the morning."

"Wait," Kilishandra said as Zelda started to turn, "I can't reached the lacing on this dress. Could you just… uh…"

"Turn around," Zelda said, and when she did, Zelda quickly undid the lacing, allowing Kilishandra to slip the dress from her shoulders.

Zelda started to turn away, but stopped when, even in the dim light, she saw a particular scar on Kilishandra's bare back. Most of the scars she wore were small, faded, and evidence of little more than flesh wounds. This one was long and jagged, evidence of a deep injury, running from her right shoulder blade down nearly a foot in length, just to the right of her spine. Another inch to the left, and it would have likely severed her spine and paralyzed her from the waist down.

"Where did you get that scar?" Zelda asked.

"On my back? You remember when I told you about Reaper?" Kilishandra asked.

"You told me you killed him," Zelda said.

"That scar is from an earlier encounter with him," Kilishandra said, "He got me good with his scythe. Nearly cut my spine in two. He left me to bleed out, but I was found before that happened."

"I'm starting to think you've got some of that impossible luck, too," Zelda said.

"Sure. But instead of saving everyone around me, I watch my friends die while I somehow survive."

"For what it's worth, I am sorry," Zelda said, "About Mur'neth, and your mother."

"There were a lot more than that," Kilishandra said, "Maybe I'll tell you those stories someday."

"Someday," Zelda agreed as she backed out of the room.

Zelda pulled the door shut behind herself, and started down the hall toward her own chamber. She passed the door to Link and Midna's room along the way. She wondered if they had retired yet, though the way they were looking at each other while they danced, even if they had she doubted they were asleep yet. The thick oak doors and stone walls kept any sounds from within from being heard in the hall though. She put it out of her mind as she made her way toward her own bed. She was up too late already.

* * *

Link and Midna in fact did not arrive in the room until shortly after Zelda had entered hers, taking their time, dawdling in the halls, just enjoying the quiet of the castle as it settled for the night, and the last shift of the guard went on duty, and would remain until morning.

When they did arrive in the room, Link paused long enough to lock the door behind him before stripping off his jacket and undoing the buttons of the awful shirt choked up around his neck. Before the shirt was off, he found Midna's arms around his neck as she leaned her head down to kiss him, pressing her body up against his own.

Link held her with his hands just under her arms, pushing her back just slightly, breaking the contact to ask, "Are you sure about this? I mean really sure?"

"This might be the last night we have together for some time," she whispered, "And if something should happen… I love you, Link. I have for so long. I want to be with you."

"I thought I was stuck with you for life," Link said with a smile.

"Well, if everything goes as planned, you are," Midna said, "But if something should happen, if I should have to leave you behind when I go back to the Twilight Realm, I don't want any regrets. I don't want to have to live my life wandering what if we had."

"I don't know what's going to happen, but I'll find a way to make it work," Link said, "I can't just turn my back on Hyrule at this point, but even if I have to use the Twilight Mirror to jump back and forth, I'll figure something out."

"Let's worry about that later," Midna said, "Because right now, I know what I want. Do you?"

"Well, I did warn you about kissing me like that, and this is the third time," Link said with a smile as he reached under her arms, up to the lacing on the back of her bodice, pulling it free.

Midna kissed him again as he slid it gently down over her shoulders, then reached down to the lace holding the waist of the dress, which was undone as the garment fell to the floor, allowing her to step out of it and kick it to the side. Meanwhile, her hands had fallen to his belt. In just a moment, the clasp was undone, his trousers dropping to the floor and she steered him toward the bed, pushing him onto his back.

Link quickly shed his shirt, tossing it to the side as Midna crawled onto the bed, looking down at him from above. With a smile, she leaned to the bedside table and blew out the lone candle that had lit the room. In the dark, the Twili tattoo on Link's face did its work. In just a few seconds, his eyes had adjusted, as formless green light within his own eyes highlighted every contour of her face above him, and he reached up to run his fingers along her delicate lines, and down her neck to her shoulder, all the while her soft hair hung against the back of his hand, almost tickling as he moved.

"Gods, you're beautiful," he whispered.

"It's almost strange for you to do that," she said.

"Do what?"

"Look at me like you haven't seen me every day for the past two years," she said, "And then I remember that you haven't. Not really."

She leaned down, kissing him again, then moving lower to kiss his neck, and down his chest. Link felt her weight against him, the warmth of her body against his own. He jerked as she ran her fingers along his abdomen. "That tickles," he complained.

Saying nothing, Midna sat up, taking her weight off of him, then sank back down. Link groaned as he lay his head back. Midna just smiled knowingly, not a sound coming from her other than sharper breaths as she moved. Link ran his hands up her legs toward her hips, but she stopped them with her own hands on top of his wrists, gripping them gently.

Time passed as only the faint sound of their coupling in the chamber, until Link suddenly clenched his teeth and groaned as he reached his limit. There was still no sound from Midna, but he felt her grip on his wrists tighten as her motion ceased, and he looked up to see her eyes screwed shut, and biting her lower lip as she trembled, then sank forward to lay down on him with a contented sigh.

"I thought it was going to take more work on my part than that," Link whispered, holding her with his arms around her shoulders.

"Link, that took nearly ten minutes," Midna said.

Link blinked. "You're serious?" he asked, "I guess I lost track."

"I was starting to think I wouldn't last," Midna said, then playfully nibbled his ear, "You got any more?"

"Actually, I think I do," he said as he gently rolled her onto her back and sat up.

Link surprised himself with his stamina. Later, when he thought it through, he would attribute it to the Triforce he carried becoming so active. Just as it was mimicking Ganondorf's healing abilities, though to a lesser degree, so was it gradually enhancing his physical endurance, which counted in more areas than just combat exertions.

But at the moment, he was occupied with the task at hand. And as their bodies mingled, Link came to understand something he had never realized before. He was no virgin, yet what he experienced that night made all his previous experiences pale in comparison. It was not because either of them were truly skilled at the task, or the sudden discovery of his near ridiculous staying power, but something else altogether.

Particularly religious types liked to claim that sex was sinful, unless the correct circumstances were met. But something like this, Link decided, could never be a sin. The experience, as two individuals who truly loved one another with every fiber of their beings, was nearly ten-fold more amazing than his previous experiences. As their bodies mingled, it felt as if their souls did as well.

Sinful? Hardly. It was the purest and most beautiful experience of their lives.

Exactly how much time went by, they both lost track. Their exertions finally complete, they lay in the bed, Midna with her back to Link with his arms around her, just enjoying each other's presence and warmth. Midna could feel Link's heartbeat against her back, and each time he took a breath. It was a closeness that she hoped would never end, though she knew it would, as soon as morning came. Then their minds would turn back to the task at hand.

But for now, she was exactly where she wanted to be. There was no telling what the future yet held, but at the moment, she was satisfied. She took the advice Sheila had given her months ago, and treasure the time they had. Come what may, this moment could never be taken from her.


	100. Chapter 99

**Chapter 99: One Day Remains**

Dawn light peeked through the windows, as the sun rose over the city. Alex's eyes fluttered open as the warmth spread over his face, and immediately clamped them shut against the splitting pain in his head. He groaned, wondering how he got a hangover like this from the weak wine they were serving last night.

He turned over, away from the light, and slowly dared to open his eyes again. He blinked at what he saw, and rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was still asleep. Nope, there was still a nude woman laying across the bed from him, asleep. She was a pretty blonde, somewhat pale from spending most of her time indoors.

"Who the hell are you?" he whispered.

Then what it meant sank in. "Oh no," he said, turning and jumping from the bed, desperately searching for his clothes, "What have I done?"

Still pulling on his shirt and carrying his sword belt in one hand, he charged out into the hall. He nearly collided with a man in a similar state, carrying his sword as he fought with the chin strap of his helmet. Alex grabbed his arm before he could charge off. "Listen, have you seen Silviana, the dark elf judge?" he asked, "I need to find her right now!"

"If she's a judge, she'll be with the king," the soldier said, pulling his arm free and continuing on his way.

"Wait, where's the king?" Alex asked, but the man had vanished.

The hallway was packed, men and women going both directions at high speed. The noise made Alex's head split, but he turned and pushed through the crowd. With this much activity, something was happening. The courtyard was wear men would gather before moving out. Maybe the king was there.

He moved quickly through the castle passages, managing to get his belt and sword buckled in place as he went, before emerging into the sunlight from the main hall, squinting against the glare that seemed to want nothing more than to make his head explode, and looked quickly over the yard.

Formations of soldiers were gathering, many still shoving into their armor with assistance from their comrades. Alex grabbed a passing man and asked for the king. He merely waved in the direction of the wall. Groaning, Alex moved between the formations and started up the stone stairs onto the top of the wall. At the top, trying to shield his eyes from the sun, he nearly collided with one of the royal guards who motioned that he should stay back.

He spied the king past the guard, with a whole crowd gathered around him, all looking to the north, shielding their eyes against the morning light. He spotted the white hair near the king and shouted Silviana's name. Her head turned and he waved.

"Let him in," Silviana said, and the guard reluctantly stepped aside as Alex moved past him.

"Sil, about last night," he started, only to be interrupted as she shoved an spyglass at him, "What is this?"

Several others of the gathered had similar devices, and were using them to look at something to the north, and were involved in an intense discussion. Alex lifted the tube to his eye, peering northward, searching for what they were looking at.

"Higher," Silviana said as he scanned the horizon.

He lifted his view higher, and something flitted past his view. He quickly moved back and found it. "What in the name of…" he started, trailing off as he saw the silhouette against the sky. A round base, rising up to the shape of towers. Five towers, he counted, above a structure in the sky.

Silviana had started to move away, and he snatched her sleeve. "What is that?" he asked.

"Roxim says it's the black citadel," she said, "The lair of Khall and the Lords of Chaos, and it's headed this way."

"How is that even possible?"

"After what you've seen, you're surprised by a flying building?" Ganondorf asked, moving up behind him.

The crowd parted as he approached, with Zelda and Kilishandra on either side of him, and he leaned down on the wall crenulation, gazing out to the north. The king moved up behind them. Alex spotted Ralthas and Sheila here as well.

Without a word, Ganondorf held out his hand to the side. Someone placed an spyglass in it, and he lifted the device to see. After a moment of silence, he said, "Thirty hours, give or take two or three. Then they will be here."

"You can tell that from this distance?" the king asked.

"No, just doing the math," Ganondorf said, "If we can see them from here, they're already past the halfway point. They've been coming this way for days already. And even something the size of a castle can move through the air faster than a horse can run, plus it doesn't need to rest."

"You are the most expert on magic that we have," the king said, "Do you know how they did this?"

Ganondorf lowered the spyglass, turning around. "I can levitate myself with just a little effort," Ganondorf said, "Doing so with a building is the same principle, though it becomes exponentially more difficult as the total mass increases. Something that size would require an enormous magic circle, in the foundation, supported by magic quartz crystals as focus points." He paused, turning around and looking through the spyglass again. "They'd need some big ones to move that pig. At least eighty-pounders. Not to mention something of that size would break itself apart in a light breeze unless…"

"Unless what?" the king prompted.

"Unless it had a hard magic circle," Ganondorf went on, "Constructed of suitable material. Silver works best, so I'd guess that. Chalk works for quick stuff, but not sustained spells like this. And then it would have to encircle the entire foundation. Such a task would be nigh-impossible after the construction was complete. Which means most likely, they did not build it. It was already in the building when they claimed it, and they simply got it operational."

"Pardon me, your majesty," Ralthas said stepping forward, "Not that this isn't fascinating, but I'd like to skip to the end. How do we fight it?"

Ganondorf turned around, handing the spyglass back to the soldier who had given it to him. "Well, that's the part that's easy to understand. You've got to get men up there, and then you clear it, room by room, exactly like any other structure."

"And just how do we do that?" the king asked.

"That shouldn't be necessary," Ralthas said, "I've seen the destruction outside the city left from your battle with the necromancer. Can't you just blast it out of the sky?"

"Too big," Ganondorf said, "If I raze a city with magic, I'm basically skimming the buildings off the earth, like an open palm. Trying to take an object like that would be more like blasting a clenched fist. And if it did succeed, rubble would rain down over hundreds of miles, including this city."

"Not an option, then," the king said, glancing at Ralthas to reinforce his point.

"What about an anchored travel spell?" Sheila offered.

"Good girl," Ganondorf said, "You are learning. Yes, I can set up something fast, a magic circle here on the ground, then connect it to another on the citadel, and create a portal through which troops can travel."

"Sounds like a plan, then," the king said.

"It's not quite that simple," Ganondorf said, "What I set up will be fast and dirty. I'll have to draw the circle on the citadel in chalk, and if so much as one line gets scuffed, if it starts to rain, it'll close down. Not to mention their troops will be able to jump down here if they take it. So I'll have to find a defensible position, and the room will have to be held after I return to the city."

"You're not going to help us take it?" Ralthas asked.

"Somebody has to defend your city against magic assaults from Khall and Tharkus," Ganondorf said, "Everything else will mean nothing if the Harrowing kills everything you're trying to save. Kilishandra can handle it until I return, but then she will help you take the citadel."

"Can we trust her?" Ralthas asked, glancing at Kilishandra.

"I've got personal reasons for wanting Khall and Tharkus dead," she replied, "But if we can end this with minimal casualties on both sides, I would prefer it."

"One last thing," Ganondorf said, "Once the portal is ready, because of the materials used and lack of time in doing so, it will only have an effective range of about three hundred yards. Right now, that thing is too high up. I don't suppose any of you have ideas on how to bring it down closer, do you?"

"Won't they have to bring it down to attack?" the king asked.

"Not if they just decide to rain magic and siege weapons down on you," Ganondorf said.

The king sighed. "Well, then we're going to have to evacuate everyone we can and have you try to shoot it down."

"Wait!" Zelda suddenly said, moving toward the king, "A few months ago, I saw you talking to a man in your throne room. I think he was an inventor or something. And you said something about punching through solid stone."

"That was my chief engineer," the king said, "He was working on some kind of high powered ballista. What are you thinking?"

"Can we go see what he has?" Zelda asked, "If it doesn't live up to what I'm hoping, then what I'm thinking will amount to nothing."

"Down to engineering!" the king said, "While we're at it, we'll see if he's got that self-slicing bread, too."

Almost as one, the group turned and started down from the wall. Alex caught Silviana's arm as she moved. "Wait, can we talk for a moment?" he asked.

"I don't think we have anything to talk about," she replied.

"Okay, you already know," he said, "At least I don't have to explain that part."

"That part?" Silviana asked, turning to fully face him, "What part is that? The part where you got drunk and had your hands all over that blonde bardess?"

"Oh, that's who she was!" Alex said, remembering the woman's identity now.

"Gods, you're an idiot," Silviana said, turning to follow the group.

"Wait, please!" Alex said, "Listen, I was so drunk I don't even remember what happened last night!"

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"

"No, what I'm saying is, I was so drunk, I don't think I could have even gotten it up!" Alex said, "So you see, I don't think anything actually happened!"

"And yet she stayed in your room all night," Silviana said.

"No, listen to me…" he started again.

"No, you listen to me!" Silviana said, whirling on him, "You are just so incredibly stupid! Honestly, it was endearing. It's part of what I like about you."

"Okay, I'm stupid, and I'm sorry," Alex said.

"I'm afraid that's not going to cut it," Silviana said, "Let me tell you something. I told you about my son before, that was taken from me. You do not understand what it took for me to even get that far. My first sexual experience was when I was nine. I was raped. More than once. Do you understand that?"

"Oh, gods, I'm sorry," Alex said, "I didn't know."

"No, you didn't," she said, "But that's beside the point. I know the experience can be wonderful, instead of painful like it was back then. But let's just say I take it very seriously. It is the ultimate sign of trust between two people, sharing one another like that. And I like you. I really do. But you've made it clear that I can't trust you."

She turned and walked away from him, down the stairs. This time he did not try to stop her. He stood in silence, watching her, a stabbing pain in his chest far worst than the one in his head, and his soul utterly crushed.

* * *

The engineering wing of the castle was an area Zelda had not been previously. It consisted of a single massive chamber, stocked with everything from looms to forges, dozens of tables stocked with bizarre devices, and endless rows of glass beakers. When the group arrived though, and explained what they wanted, the chief engineer himself had shown them to the latest model of his device.

"We had to completely abandon the ballista design," he was explaining as his aids set up the unwieldy looking device, "We needed more force behind it, and had recently discovered a certain mixture of elements that, when ignited, explodes in an amazing way."

"You found Goron powder," Zelda said.

"Well… wait, what?" the engineer asked.

Zelda couldn't help but smile. "The Gorons are a people native to my homeland," she said, "I'm afraid they discovered explosive powder as long as four thousand years ago."

"That's true," Ganondorf said, "I'll give them that. Goron explosives are still decades ahead of what human engineers create. And this stuff," he paused, picking up a dish of the black powder from a table, "It's so coarse. It'll work, but you'll find that the finer the powder, the better it burns."

The engineer cleared his throat. "Well, I'm sure that they've never created something quite like this! Are you guys ready?" he turned to the men arming the contraption.

One pulled the stick he had been using to pack the powder from the device's barrel, and another loaded the haft of a solid metal javelin into the pipe. It was a fairly snug fit, Zelda noted, as they shoved it back into the device. Then one gave a thumb's up to the chief engineer, who moved over to the device.

"Now, your majesty, observe!" he said, pulling a lit torch from a nearby stand, and applying the flame to the back end of the tube.

Thunder struck the room, causing the group to step back, several covering their ears as an enormous cloud of smoke erupted from the front of the device, followed by a screeching crash at the far end of the chamber.

As the smoke cleared, the engineers were moving to the far wall, where it was revealed that the metal haft of the javelin, scorched black by the explosive, was jutting out of the wall about four inches. Nearly three feet of it was buried in solid stone, and was surrounded by dozens of similar metal protrusions of varying size.

"What do you think, your majesty?" the engineer asked.

"Well, I think you should stop blowing holes in my castle," King Rigdar said, and turned to Zelda, "What do you think?"

"Can this device carry something on the projectile?" Zelda asked, "Something like a strong rope or chain?"

"Theoretically, yes," the engineer said, "Though it would undoubted reduce the effective range."

"What is the effective range?" Zelda asked, "With said attachment, and still lodging in the stone?"

"If we used the maximum safe charge, I would estimate an absolute maximum of five hundred yards."

Zelda turned to Ganondorf. He looked up at the ceiling, apparently going over it in his head. Then he nodded. "That should be enough."

"In that case, we need more of these devices," Zelda said, turning to the king, "At least a hundred, more if we can get them."

"What is your plan?" the king asked.

"I've found a use for those giants camped outside the city," Zelda said, "We're going to attach ropes and chains to that flying fortress, and drag it down."

The king immediately saw what she envisioned. "It's a long shot, but it's the best plan so far," he said, then turned to an aid at his side, "Get every spare hand we have to building these devices. The engineers can show them how. We need a lot more."

"Should we pull the castle staff as well?" the aid asked.

"I want everyone who knows how to hold a hammer building these!" the king said, "Time is something we do not have to spare!"

Ganondorf had moved himself over by Zelda. "Looks like you've got a little bit of military genius there," he said, "Makes me wonder how your castle fell to Zant in the first place."

"I was still a frightened girl back then," Zelda said, "I've grown up, because I have to."

"That you have," he said, "I'm proud of you. You might survive this after all."

Zelda turned back to the group, which was suddenly filled with energy, as several of the guards and officers that had been following the king assisted the engineers in readying to mass produce their new weapon.

"Where did Link get off to?" Zelda asked, "He should be here."

* * *

"Thanks for the ride," Link said as he and Midna slid off Roxim's back, about twenty miles west of Darimar's walls.

"Anything that might give us an advantage," Roxim said, "Should I move back while you do this?"

"If I can keep it under control, there shouldn't be any danger," Midna said, "But that's why I wanted to be out of the city. In case something goes wrong."

"That's the 'in case' I'm worried about," the dragon said.

Link caught Midna's hand as she moved away from him, causing her to stop and look back at him. "You be careful," he said.

"Don't worry," Midna said, "It's not the first time I've done this, after all. Just the first time it wasn't a desperate emergency."

She slipped from his hand and moved further away, raising her hands up to her hand, running her fingers through her hair to make sure it was free. Then of its own volition, it lifted away from her shoulders, opening with a red glow, and five objects emerged from within the glow. The pieces of the Fused Shadow rose over her head, spinning in a slow circle over her like a dark halo.

She took a deep breath. She knew she had heard a voice from the mask before. Was there some part of Cain's consciousness that still waited within? And if there was, was he on their side? She had to know, and more importantly, she had to know she could control it, before lives depended on it.

With the slightest urging from her, the pieces slammed together over her head, forming the complete mask. It glowed with blue like and shook on her shoulders. In the next instant, her clothing fell away as it passed directly through her body to land in a pile on the ground. She could feel the energy coursing through her, as if she were suddenly conscious of the blood in her own veins.

Her skin faded away, turning to a dim glow of blue before fading into a black color that seemed to move on its own, flowing like smoke, with only her hands remaining solid, and presumably her face behind the mask did as well.

"Are you okay?" Link asked with a bit of concern.

"Better than okay," Midna said, "I feel incredible!"

She lifted herself from the ground, trailing a black stream of smoke through the air as she moved. Then she reached out with one arm, finding she could stretch it far beyond her normal reach. It was so easy to direct, not like before, when she used it in her cursed state. Back then, she was overflowing with energy, and the best should could do was try to aim it. Now, it bent to her slightest whim with ease.

"I'm going to try something," she said, "Both of you stay back."

While she was certain the mask was already demonstrating incredible power, it was not connected to her own magic. She wondered how much more powerful it would be under the mask's influence, without the interference of her cursed form.

As Link and Roxim watched, a red hand emerged from the top of the mask, followed by a second and third, and them more and more, which reached down wrapping around her like a great spiraling cocoon. In the next instant, it pulled inward suddenly, and something else stood before them.

"Let's see those giants compare to this," Midna said.

"That's insane," Roxim said as he stepped back.

Midna stood thirty feet tall, the red light of her magic having reformed her body into a glowing red mass that perfectly mimicked her normal appearance in every detail.

"That's amazing," Link said.

"It feels amazing," Midna said, "I feel like I could smash that fortress right out of the air! I can…"

She suddenly spun around, the ground shaking with her steps, causing Link to step further back as well.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I heard something," Midna said, "Did you not?"

"I didn't hear anything," Roxim said

"Me either," Link said.

Midna turned slowly, scanning the area around them. Link found himself with his hand on his sword, similarly searching what was around them.

"It's the mask!" Midna suddenly said, raising her hands up to her head, "It's talking to me! In my head!"

"Midna!" Link shouted, "Take it off! Now!"

Midna shrieked, as the red body collapsed, dissipating into the air, a cloud of dust rising where she fell. Link quickly ran to her, finding her lying on the ground, the pieces of the Fused Shadow scattered around her. He fell to his knees picking up her head and shoulders.

"Come on, talk to me," he said, "I can't lose you now…"

She was breathing, and after a moment, her eyes fluttered open. "Oh, gods," she whispered, immediately grabbing Link with both arms and holding him, "I heard it. Cain's voice. He's still in there."

"Are you okay?" Link asked.

"I think so," Midna said, "I don't think he can actually do anything. It just startled me."

"The Fused Shadow was sealed away for a reason," Link said, "I think it's best that we don't use it."

"Maybe," Midna said, "At least, not until we really have to."

"Come on, let's get you dressed," Link said, "We need to see what everyone else is doing right now."

Midna quickly scooped the fragments of the mask with her magical hand, the pieces vanishing into the orange light once again. As she dressed, she felt an odd tingling in the base of her skull, and a ghostly whisper in her ears.

"_The more you use my power, the more strength you will give me…_"

* * *

"So this is the best plan we have?" Ralthas asked as the group reconvened in another chamber, this one the very image of a war room, with a grand central table covered with maps, brightly lit, and they each took a place around the center table, "Drag them down to us, then board the flying structure with the help of the wizard?"

"Unless you've got some other way to get our men in there, we don't have a choice, do we?" the king said.

"What if they kill the spell holding them aloft and just drop the bloody thing on our heads?" Ralthas asked, "What parts of the city that aren't crushed will likely collapse in the resulting earthquake!"

"Unlikely," Ganondorf said, leaning on his hands on the table, "They wouldn't have gone to the effort to get the thing aloft solely for a suicide attack. It would be far easier to sneak into the city and detonate a destructive spell from within. Though if we do gain the upper hand, they may try what you suggest as a last gasp effort."

"And what will we do then?" Ralthas asked.

Ganondorf laughed. His laughter made several of those gathered fidget nervously, until he at last stopped himself with a deep breath, and looked up at Ralthas with a smile on his face. "We'll die," he said, "By that point, nothing short of a miracle would save this city."

A figure stepped out of the corner of the room, his footsteps causing several to go for their weapons as he approached the table before Zelda called them off. The ninja, Vargus, stepped up to the table, pulling away the mask and throwing back his hood, revealing his wizened face to them all. "I've seen the circle that likely created this effect," he said, "It is engrained into the foundation, miles upon miles of pure silver. The amount of energy flowing through it would undoubtedly be painful, if not lethal, to even approach, let alone touch."

"If they intend to disrupt it to drop the thing on our heads, there's only one feasible way," Ganondorf said, "As I said, they would need focus points, massive crystals at each point of the star, to keep that energy from erupting. Destroying one would likely disrupt it enough to fall, without destroying the structure entirely. Two or more, and it would likely tear itself apart before falling."

"Would it be possible to find the crystals and take them?" the king asked Vargus, "To hold the rooms and prevent such a thing from happening while it is over the city?"

"Perhaps," Vargus said, "My ninja and I are familiar with the structure's layout. We would be able to get to the rooms before anyone else. We will all be needed to hold the five chambers, however, and not be able to participate in the main battle."

"There are only about three hundred ninja left at this point," Zelda said to the king, "But their skill is in stealth, not in direct combat. They should be able to slip past the enemy lines and ambush any who would try to disrupt the circle."

"It is as she says," Vargus confirmed when the king turned back to him, "In the main combat, we would just be more men with swords. But when we move separately, and get behind the enemy, we will be true terrors to their ranks."

"All right, once we have the portal open, the ninja will go in with the first wave," the king said, "You'll separate from the main group and take the crystal chambers, and do anything else you can to disrupt the enemy troops."

"I hope we can trust them," Ralthas said.

"As much as you can trust me," Zelda said, "They've given me their oath of service. And remember that it is impossible to lie to me."

"Yes, a most useful ability for a monarch," Ralthas said, "But leaving our men to absorb the brunt of the enemy attack… The enemy will be in defensive positions, and know the terrain. We're going to lose a lot of people, no way around it."

"That's why you need a distraction."

Heads turned as Link and Midna entered the chamber, moving toward the table. "Where have you been?" Zelda demanded as they approached.

"Scouting," Link said, "A second attack, from another direction is what I'm suggesting. Doesn't have to be a lot, just enough to draw attention. I've already spoken to Roxim, and he believes he can land a small group on the roof of one of the towers. They can make their way down through the building, doing whatever they can to pull enemy troops away from the main battle. Basically buying time and trying to make them think there are more of us than there are."

"Are you volunteering?" the king asked.

"Yes," Link said, "I'm not a line fighter in any case. I can do a lot more damage when I'm not crammed shoulder to shoulder with others."

"I'm also going," Midna said, "I'm a lot more dangerous than I look, and we need to find the Twilight Mirror. If it has to be destroyed, I'm the only one who can do it."

"It's not there," Ganondorf said before anyone else could respond.

"What are you talking about?" Midna asked, "We know Khall and Tharkus have it."

"It's the center of their whole plan to release an angry goddess on this world," Ganondorf said, "They would not risk it in an attack like this. Time is on their side, and yet this is an effort to buy more. This entire attack is purely an effort to make sure that we can't march on where it really is in time." He paused, a sinister grin appearing on his face as he looked at Ralthas, "They might drop the whole thing in a suicide attack after all…"

"Then we have to end it quickly," Kilishandra said, and turned to Link, "I'm with you. You'll need someone who knows the layout of the building in any case."

"And your magic will certainly come in handy as well," Link said with a nod.

"Then we are without a magician to assist our frontline troops," Ralthas said, "Ganondorf needs to be on the ground, to defend the city. We're going to need you to help the advance."

"I'll do it," Sheila said.

"What?" Ralthas said as all eyes turned to her, and his voice rose to nearly a shout, "No! Absolutely not! You need to be somewhere safe!"

"I can do it," Sheila said, her own voice perfectly level.

"She has improved significantly since I started giving her instruction," Ganondorf said, "She would not last in direct combat against Khall or Tharkus, but they will be more concerned with Kilishandra once her presence is known, as well as my own presence on the ground." He chuckled and added, "Being feared does have an advantage when you want to draw attention."

"Not to mention that nowhere will be safe if we lose here," Sheila said, "I'm going, Father."

"No you are not," Ralthas said, "I will lock you in a cell if I have to."

"Then do it after we survive," Sheila said, "Because I need to be up there."

Ralthas started to retort, but stopped when the king put a hand on his shoulder. Ralthas glanced at him, then lowered his gaze as he deflated on the spot. "Fine," he said, turning back to Sheila, and while he looked like he wanted to say more, he fell silent.

"So, we have our plan," the king said, "We will use the devices constructed by our engineers to spear the citadel, and with the aid of the frost giants, drag it into range. Then Ganondorf will board himself and set up a portal through which we can move our troops, while Kilishandra defends the city from magic assault. Then he will take her place as we begin moving troops, and you," he turned to Link, "will take the dragon and a small group to attack from above." Link nodded once in response.

"Let's just hope the harpoon guns work," Kilishandra said, "If they fail, we're screwed."

"I wouldn't say that," Ganondorf said, "Necessity is the mother of invention, after all. Speaking of which, I'll need to go set up some anchors right now. We need those giants in the city if we're going to pull this off, and don't have six days for them to march up the streets. Sheila, come help me."

As they departed, Midna turned to Link. "Do you believe it?" she asked, "About the mirror, I mean."

"It makes sense," Link said, "Darius said we still have months before they can use it. Why risk something like that now?"

The rest of the group was breaking up, and Kilishandra moved over to them. "It'll be in the tower," she said, and when they turned to her, "Not on the citadel. West of the mountains where it was situated, in what these people call the Desert of Death. It was where we originally came through into this world, and Tharkus sort of claimed it. No idea what he's been doing out there, but that would be where they've taken the mirror."

"It still doesn't seem right," Midna said, "The mirror by itself is useless to them. They need a massive block of obsidian to actually operate it. When it is used, it projects the portal onto the obsidian. It needs to be at least twenty feet high and ten feet in diameter to work."

Kilishandra's eyes went wide. "Are you serious?" she asked.

"Yes," Midna said, "There was such a block in the prison where the mirror was hidden, but with the sheer weight, it would take hundreds of men to move, and weeks to get it even a short distance."

"They have a block," Kilishandra said, "I didn't think anything of it at the time, but on the top floor of that tower, there is a block of that kind of size. It was there when we arrived, before any of us even knew."

"Tharkus knew," Link said, turning to Midna, "And we have our destination. As soon as this battle is over, we go over those mountains."

"You can't go over them," Kilishandra said, "They reach elevations where the air is so thin, you will suffocate. You have to go under them. There is a network of caverns under where the citadel was. Provided its liftoff didn't collapse them all, they go all the way through to the other side. It was how we crossed them."

"There's always a way," Link said, "We'll figure something out."

As he started to turn away, Kilishandra asked him to wait. "You said Tharkus knew," she said as he turned back, "But how would he have known? He crossed to this world for the first time with the rest of us."

"I guess it's something I have kept to myself so far," Link said, "Not intentionally, anyway. Look, Tharkus' real name is Thalandril Arkanus."

"The ancient wizard Darius spoke of? That's impossible," she said, then added, "He'd be even older than my father."

"Exactly," Link said, "From what I understand, Tharkus extended his life by turning himself into a flesh golem. He certainly didn't bleed the last time I cut him. This whole scheme, everything he led you and the others into was for the sake of revenge on Darius. And with this blight showing up north of Darimar, it wouldn't surprise me to find out he's responsible for what is happening to your world. He intends to wipe out all life on this world, because of what one man did to him."

"That's insane," Kilishandra said.

"Exactly," Link said, "He is beyond reason, and yet he has so much patience and subtlety, even pretending to be subservient to Khall all this time. Of the four 'Lords of Chaos,' one of whom is dead and one has changed sides, he is far and away the most dangerous of those that remain. And if I see him tomorrow, he will become my priority target."

"Well, you'll have my help," Kilishandra said, "To think he was at the center of this all from the start." She suddenly clapped her fist into the opposite palm. "He's responsible for it all. I'll crush his heart."

"All things considered, I don't think he still has one," Link said.

"Khall is the one the men follow, though," Midna said, "We'll have to deal with him as well."

"I might be able to talk him down," Kilishandra said, "Knowing what Tharkus is, maybe I can convince him to listen."

"You'd better find him first, then," Link said, "Because I don't intend to give him a chance to talk."

"You're serious," Kilishandra said, noting the hard look in his eyes.

"He killed Midna right in front of me," Link said, "I managed to beat him and get her back, but I can't just forget that. I am going to kill him."

* * *

As evening approached, the engineering wing was already turning out the harpoon guns at an astonishing rate, and men where working quickly to bolt them down on the walls and streets. Hundreds of miles of strong rope was being procured and divided among the guns, attached to the spears, and hoping that the lengths were cut long enough to allow the harpoon to stick, as well as reach down far enough that the men and giants could grab hold of them. The giants were an odd sight in the courtyard and streets, but Ganondorf and Sheila had created several quick chalk circles to serve as portals for them to enter by. They were just as industrious as the rest of them, assisting with moving the guns into place and holding them while they were secured, as well as carrying the barrels of black powder needed with ease.

All the while, the silhouette in the sky grew ever larger.

Link's squad had swelled by two more, as Silviana and Alex both volunteered for the assignment, though Link noted they seemed very distant from one another. He decided it must just be nerves, putting it out of his mind.

Midna had gone into the castle to get something to eat, and Link had kept working, assisting with the securing of one of the guns to the ground, as six foot iron bars were hammered into the earth through its feet to ensure it didn't shift when fired. Once it was in place, he considered going to join Midna, but stopped when he saw a lone figure standing on the courtyard wall, looking off into the distance at the growing silhouette. The red hair made it easy to identify who.

She had been assisting with the preparations a few minutes ago, and he wondered why she had gone up there. Maybe to just be alone, but almost without realizing it, he was moving up the stairs toward her.

She turned at the sound of his footsteps, and immediately turned away again. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Nothing in particular," Link said, "Just wondering if you're feeling all right."

"Oh, I'm just dandy," Kilishandra said, "I'm about to fight my own people to save a world that isn't my own. Couldn't be better."

"There are times for sarcasm," Link said, "I don't really think this is one of them. But I do understand."

"No you don't," Kilishandra said, "But I've made my decision, and I intend to stand by it."

"Look, I know nothing I can say will make this situation better," Link said, "But just hold on. I know we can win this, and when we get the Twilight Mirror back, we might be able to help your people by bringing them over here."

"Midna was talking about destroying it," Kilishandra said.

"Last resort only, if there's no other choice," Link said, "If it's destroyed, she won't be able to get back to her home."

"And what would you suggest, if it is destroyed, that can be done to save my people from the blight?" Kilishandra asked.

"I don't know," Link said, "But there has to be something. There's always a way."

"You're asking me to take a lot on faith," Kilishandra said.

"Zelda showed a lot of faith in you, or you likely wouldn't even be standing here," Link said, "You can't just keep taking and not give anything back. I'm afraid that I can't make a solid promise here, but I will promise that I will try."

"The choices we make," Kilishandra said, "Even the most basic ones, like who we trust. That's what you like to talk about, right?"

"If you're trying to make fun of me, you're going to have to try harder," Link said.

"No, just trying to figure you out," Kilishandra said, and motioned to the yard behind them, where men still worked feverishly on more of the guns, "Look down there. How many of these people are worried that they are uselessly struggling against fate? I understand that's a big concept in the religions of this world, that your purpose and time of death are decided before you are even born."

"Hopefully not many," Link said, "I was never terribly religious. I believe the gods exist, sure, there's too much evidence that direction. Hell, I think I might have spoken to one at some point. But the thought of a higher being controlling my destiny is something that has been drilled into me ever since I discovered I had this damn triangle," he turned his left hand so she could see the faintly glowing mark on the back of it, "That I was chosen for a great destiny beyond normal men. And I despise the idea. No god helped me when the children of my hometown were kidnapped. I went after them because I chose to. No god saved me when I was bleeding from a stab wound after a fight on the great east bridge in Hyrule. Midna couldn't even come out into the light to help at that point. I stitched myself up.

"I'm where I'm at because of the choices I've made, not some all-knowing deity guiding me. And yes, I find that people who like to blame fate for misfortunes to be cowardly and weak. I'm not here, about to fight for the fate of this entire world because I have to be. I'm here because I choose to be."

"I guess I am too," Kilishandra said, "Ever since I was a little girl, my father taught me to assume the worst about people, that way you're never surprised when they turn on you. I did the same with you. And to be honest," she turned her head to smile at him, "I'm glad I was wrong. I think I'm starting to understand why everyone respects you so much. You really do have the makings of a hero."

"So do you," Link said, "And so does everyone else here. All it takes is standing up for what you believe in, and refusing to back down no matter the odds. But you have to choose to do it. No goddess is going to descend from the sky and give you her blessing. You have to want it. Find your own reason to fight."

"And if you're against impossible odds, like a vengeful goddess?" Kilishandra asked.

"You just have to fight even harder," Link said, "There's always a way. You just have to find it."

"You really believe that," Kilishandra said, more of a statement than a question.

"I do," Link said.

"I guess I fit into your idea of a coward, then," Kilishandra said, "I've always let others make my decisions for me, to be honest. I don't like being a leader, and would rather follow."

"But in the end, you did make the decision to join us," Link said, "No one made it for you. And now it's up to you to live up to it."

"Actually, no, I didn't," Kilishandra said, "I changed sides because of my father, because I couldn't fight him. I know now that in spite of everything else, I'm on the right side. But it's because of him, not myself."

"Well then, I think it's high time you decided at least whether you want to be here," Link said.

"All right, you win. I'll try it your way," Kilishandra said, turning fully toward him, "I'm with you till the end. But because it's what I choose."

"That's all I wanted to hear," Link said, and looked up toward the approaching citadel, "Big day tomorrow. I hope we're ready for it."


	101. Chapter 100

It's funny, when I find myself really attached to a character that I never realized I was. I'll just say here that after finishing a certain scene in this chapter, I was listening to "Return of the Dragon" by Running Wild on loop for a half-hour straight before I managed to actually start working again.

Also, I think I said something before about too many important things happening simultaneously. Obviously, I didn't learn my lesson.

**Chapter 100: March of the Final Battle**

The midday sun vanished as the dark shadow spread across the city, creeping up the city streets light a silent ghostly breath. Further in it came, as the streets swiftly cleared of civilians, and the Darimar army readied for what was coming. No sound of movement came from the great flying fortress itself, and the silence over the city pressed down on those below like a crushing weight.

Those of the first wave were gathered in the castle courtyard, surrounded by the harpoon guns that the engineers had diligently worked to build on such quick notice, and all encircled around a cleared area where a pentagram had been drawn into the earth by digging the lines into the ground itself, then filled with salt. It was not as effective as a metal form, but Ganondorf assured them it would work for the task at hand.

The frost giants crouched in the streets outside the courtyard, waiting for their signal, while each of the one hundred forty-three harpoon guns were aimed upward toward the approaching shape, and burning fires in hand ready to ignite the black powder charge in each. More squads waited, lining the streets, watching the colossal structure above them creep ever more slowly over the city, weapons held in sweaty hands, some praying silently, others just watching in silence.

Ganondorf stood alone, in the center of the magic circle, his eyes on the sky, keeping his mind clear as he waited for any sign of magical attack. The ancient dragon, Roxim, waited some distance away, behind the formations of soldiers filling the area, with Link, Midna, Alex, and Silviana ready to mount his back for their move when the first wave attacked from the front.

In addition, for the first time for most in the city, Vargus and what remained of the ninja forces gathered in one place, their black leather armor and hoods making them stand out clearly among the other soldiers, and they interspersed themselves among the squads that would make up the first wave, to move in with them, then split off individually for their mission.

But all eyes turned as King Rigdar emerged from the castle, with Ralthas, Sheila, and Zelda behind him. He was clad in his own armor, heavy plate, polished to a mirror sheen, that rattled as he walked. His bearded face set in grim determination, Link had to admit he at least looked the part of a warrior as he ascended the stairs of the courtyard wall and turned to the men gathered before him. He took a moment, looking back and forth across the yard before finally speaking to his men.

"I see in your eyes the very fear I hold in my own heart. Our enemy has come to us at last, and we are all that remains of the five kingdoms that once made this great alliance. All our leaders, myself included, were lax, and did not believe these foes were a genuine threat. And then they struck suddenly and quickly, bringing kingdoms down one by one with ruthless efficiency.

"But we held against their first strike," the king went on, raising his voice to a clear shout, "In all its history, this mighty city has never fallen. It was the haven from which Darius launched his counter-strike. It held against the barbarian hordes from the artic lands, and we held it against the necromancer and his undead monsters.

"This is not a battle for material gains. Our enemy is not after our land, our homes, or even our resources. They seek nothing less than our total destruction. This is a battle for our very survival."

He paused, reaching to draw his sword. It sang as it lifted free of its scabbard and he held the blade aloft where all those gathered could see.

"We stand on the precipice of a new era in history," he said, "If we fall here, today, it is the first step in the total destruction of our world. More kingdoms will fall before this enemy, and they will become unstoppable. The entire world will fall silent, as all life is wiped away.

"But if we succeed, if we stand strong today, we march into legend! Future generations will sing of us like the heroes of old, and our names will live forever as the saviors of not just our kingdom, but the entire world! Stand with me, my brothers and sisters, and we will send these devils back to the hell they crawled from!"

A voice rose from the crowd, a wordless warcry, which was joined by more. Weapons held aloft, the primal scream filled the air, beating back the oppressive silence. Even the voices of the waiting giants and the roar of the dragon pierced the air over the city.

"Now let's just hope this plan of yours works," the king said to Zelda as he sheathed his weapon.

"It will," Zelda said, "It has to."

All eyes returned to the flying structure above them. The gunners waited for the command to fire, as Zelda urged the king to let it come closer. Ganondorf reacted to something they did not see, activating the defenses he had in place and muttering under his breath, though all those watching saw was a faint sparkle high above them as he unraveled a spell cast down at them.

"Fire!" the king shouted at last, and the air filled with the explosive sound of the guns going off. Above the resulting smoke, an amazing sight as over one hundred harpoons trailing miles of rope rose through the air at incredible speeds.

It took several seconds for them to cross the distance, and just when it seemed they had to slow and fall back down, they struck the bottom of the citadel's foundation, and remained.

"Now, drag them down!" the king gave the order.

The giants emerged from alleys and streets, snatching ropes and twisting them around their arms, some taking more than one. Even the city's men grabbed hold of ropes that the giants did not, and as one began to pull. The ropes stretched taut, groaning loudly at the amount of weight being put upon them. Zelda watching with baited breath, praying that the ropes didn't break, and the harpoons held in the stone.

It seemed impossible at first, as men and giants alike lifted themselves from the ground, but as more and more weight was applied, they sank back to the earth, and the giants reached up again for another handful of the rope and dragged down again.

"Now it's my turn," Ganondorf said, "Kili, take over here!"

As she approached where he was standing, Ganondorf simply lifted away from the ground without ceremony, and was rising up between the ropes, faster and faster, the wind beating against him as he circled away from the foundation to reach the upper side of the structure.

The stone walls of the building came into his view, and without preamble, he changed his angle of flight into a steep dive toward the front wall. Those inside were startled when he crashed straight through the wall, cracking the floor with his impact. Even as Ganondorf rose to his feet, he saw men drawing weapons, encircling him in the chamber in which he had landed.

He casually drew his sword, tossing the wrapping aside, then rolled his head, his neck popping loudly before finally looking directly at the men in front of him. "All right then," he said, "Who dies first?"

Perhaps the bravest of the men surrounding him was the first to try, striking from behind. Ganondorf easily parried his clumsy, desperate strike, only turning enough that his left side was to the attacker, and snatching hold of the man's hair with his free hand, yanked it down as he lifted his knee. There was an audible crunch as the man's face connected with Ganondorf's knee, and in the next motion the wizard tossed him aside as more of them descended upon him. With a vicious swing of his blade and roar of his voice, Ganondorf's immense strength sent three flying from him with a single swing, creating an opening into which he turned, dropping his next attacker with a swing that send his head spiraling through the air. Continuing his spin, he blocked a sword blow from the right at the same time he stepped around a thrust from his left, moving closer to the attacker on the left, and wrapped his left arm around the attacker's neck in a headlock. Ganondorf then flexed the muscle of his arm, tightening the grip until there was a vicious cracking sound of his victim's neck snapping under the pressure, and then dropped the paralyzed form to the floor.

Without waited for them to regroup, Ganondorf thrust his now free left hand forward, toward the bulk of the group, and shouted, "_Daem!_"

A crash of thunder mixed with screams of agony filled the room as an invisible wave of force tore through the group, shattering their armor into shards that ripped back through their bodies and those behind them, even as the blast wave itself ripped the flesh from their exposed faces, leaving naught but grinning skulls as the bodies collapsed to the floor.

Those that remained turned and fled the room, screaming for help, even as the blood barely started to pool around the heap of corpses. Ganondorf took a moment, inhaling the smell of fresh blood from the mutilations before letting out a sigh, and whispering to himself, "Damn I'm good."

Taking stock of his location, he'd landed in what merely seemed to be a passage around the edge of the structure, existing merely as a passage to other areas. It explained the light guard, but would hardly serve to set up the anchor point, so he reaffirmed his grip on his sword as he started walking at a steady deliberate pace up the hall.

"So it has come to this after all," came a voice from further down the passage as he rounded the corner, "You will fight the very men who called you their lord, without so much as an explanation on your part."

"Don't be so melodramatic, Khall," Ganondorf said, locating the figure further up the passage, without slowing his pace in spite of the swirling energy of a delayed spell that he sensed emanating down the passage, "You knew this was coming, and so did they. It's what you get for listening to Tharkus, after all."

"You left our world and all of us to die!" Khall said, "He gave me the only solution available."

"Except for killing him and letting the blight recede," Ganondorf said, "You can't tell me you still don't see the connection. The blight is there, you come here, suddenly it shows up here. Do you even realize that the land beneath us, and probably all the way to the northern kingdoms, has been blighted beyond recovery? It will be thousands of years before anything will grow in these lands again. And not even content to let the people starve, you bring a great flying citadel to their home. I'll admit, I'll give you credit for that last one."

"You act as if I should be you, that I should see five steps ahead of everyone else," Khall said, "Not all of us are blessed with that kind of intellect, I'm afraid. Yes, I know Tharkus betrayed my trust, but I'm too far on this path to deviate now. Time is running out, both for my people and for me."

"Minerva's blood from the needle," Ganondorf said, "It's finally running its course, is it? Too bad. It'll break her heart to find out that is what killed you."

"It doesn't matter anymore," Khall said, "I will be remembered to my people as a hero. You will be the traitor. On this day, I will kill you, my former master."

Ganondorf suddenly moved, snatching the man attempting to sneak up on him from behind by the hair, and smashed his head against the wall with a sharp crack, smearing blood, bone chips and other matter across the stone before turning back to Khall. "Look at that," he said, "and rethink this decision fast. You know what happens to my enemies, Khall. Are you absolutely certain you want to be counted among them?"

"Is that how you turned Kilishandra and Mur'neth?" Khall asked, "Fear? Because I'm already dead. You can't intimidate me, I'm afraid."

"I did not scare them into obedience," Ganondorf said, "I saved them from you. And I want to save you from yourself. It does not have to end this way."

"The hands have already been dealt, and we have no choice but to play them as they stand," Khall said, lifting one hand toward Ganondorf, and completed his spell, "_Freizin!_"

A blast of icy wind filled the hall, coating the floor and stone walls with ice, spreading rapidly as the temperature dropped impossibly fast. The ice climbed rapidly up Ganondorf's legs, spreading across his body, and in seconds, he had become an icy sculpture of himself. Khall began to turn away when a splintering sound echoed up the passage. He looked back to see cracks rapidly forming along Ganondorf's arms and legs, and then suddenly shattered, shards of ice raining away from his body like broken glass to the ice covered floor.

"If that is how you intend to kill me, we're going to be here all day," Ganondorf said.

Khall did not respond, and even as Ganondorf finished speaking, the sound of heavy boots in great number were echoing from the hall behind him. In seconds, the hall filled with armed soldiers, inserting themselves between Khall and Ganondorf. Without a word, Khall began to move away.

"I warn you, Khall, if you turn your back on me now, this will not be over until every man and woman in this building is dead," Ganondorf said, "This is your last chance."

"Keep him busy," Khall said to the soldiers, "We're going to have more guests soon, I'm sure, and I need to be ready."

"This is on you head, Khall," Ganondorf said as he vanished up the passage, "Every death this day is your fault." He finally turned to the soldiers themselves, who seemed cautious about venturing onto the icy floor to come after him. "And as for you. You know me. Are you going to throw your lives away for his sake?"

"You left us to die," one said, "Khall is the last hope for my family, back home."

The others murmered assent, still holding their weapons ready. "So be it, then," Ganondorf said, "Can't say I didn't try. Now let's see… I could kill the lot of you with a single word, but I already did that today. Let's see what else I can come up with…"

* * *

"Are you ready for this?" Link asked as his group watched the sky, waiting for Ganondorf to make his return.

"If I say no, can you call a time out or something?" Midna responded.

"Not this time, I'm afraid."

Kilishandra seemed to be serving her purpose, in at least she looked busy, though those watching saw little in the way of reactions from above, excluding one that had exploded in a very brief shower of snowflakes, which was assumed to be a broken ice spell, something that Link admitted he had seen little of compared to fire and lightning so far.

"I hope she's not exhausted by the time we get up there," he said.

"You have a plan for when we do get up there?" Alex asked.

"Find Khall, then find his heart by going through his rib cage," Link said.

"I like it," Alex said, "Easy to remember."

"I'll just say that you better not get yourself killed," Roxim said, causing them to turn to see him looking down at Link, "You still have something of mine, you know."

Link patted the horn hanging from his neck. "I haven't forgotten," he said, "But I'm going to use it to create the distraction for our men. Taking down a wall or two ought to do the trick."

"Just remember it only has one blast," Roxim said.

"It's so terrible that back then already seems like the 'good old days,'" Midna said, and looked up at the floating fortress as the giants slowly dragged it even closer, just a yard or two at a time, "I hope I don't miss this in another six months."

"Get ready for the first wave!"

This was a call from Kilishandra, who was backing out of the center of the magic circle as the lines of salt began to give off a dim blue light.

"This is moment, men!" the king shouted from his position on the wall, "Hold onto your courage, and know that you are all already heroes!"

The first lines of troops readied themselves, watching the slowing increasing light from the circle, and waiting for the signal to move in. Link climbed onto Roxim's back, and Midna, Alex, and Silviana took their positions behind him.

Zelda watched the activity from her position on the wall beside the king. Sheila had moved to join one of the squads that would be moving in, so she could provide support in the battle. She spotted another familiar face in the ranks. Arthur was in one of the squads going in first. He looked incredibly nervous, and she could hardly blame him. This moment, right before the fighting actually started, was the absolute worst on one's fears. She crossed her fingers and silently hoped he would come through all right.

The light from the circle suddenly erupted upward, becoming a circular blue wall nearly fifteen feet high and ten feet across. "It's open!" Kilishandra shouted.

"There's no telling what is on the other side!" the king shouted, "Be ready! And Godspeed!"

The officers gave the signals, and men began moving into the light. Kilishandra was already climbing onto Roxim's back with the others, and the dragon stood up to brace himself for takeoff. In the next moment, among the men stepping into the circle of light, Ganondorf emerged from it. His hands and arms were covered with blood, but none of it seemed to be his own. He glanced over at the dragon as Roxim spread his wings, readying for takeoff. "Watch yourselves!" he shouted at them, "I ran into Khall, and he knows you're coming!"

"Then we'd best go quickly," Roxim said, crouching down, then leaping into the air, his passengers holding tightly to the spines on his back as they were jerked in their seats.

"Any idea where we're going to land?" Link shouted over the wind, looking back at Kilishandra, seated furthest back.

"The northwest tower," Kilishandra shouted back, "It has the fasted route to the main keep, and we can see what we can do to assist the frontline along the way."

"Khall will be in the keep?" Silviana asked.

"He'll likely be on the roof, to best use his magic against the ground," Kilishandra said, then shouted to Roxim, "Be careful on the way in! I don't want to get shot down before we reach it!"

"Have a little faith," Roxim said, "And hope I don't have an arthritis attack."

The dragon was making a wide circle away from the flying citadel as he gained height, gradually turning back toward it. It was going to take several minutes for him to get enough altitude to make an approach. Link watched the structure as they began to rise above the rock foundation and were able to look over the walls. There was no movement at all in the building's open courtyard within the outer walls, so Ganondorf must have found an indoor area to ready his portal. From the outside, he could see no signs of battle.

* * *

The location Ganondorf had chosen was a side room near the east passages. With only one entrance, it made an ideal choke point for defenders to hold the room, and if necessary, fall back through the portal. As the Darimar forces advanced, they caught the defenders completely off guard. Such a force within the citadel was unexpected, and the troops spread rapidly and efficiently through the rooms, taking them one at a time and ensuring the enemy would be unable to flank them.

The ninja had split off from the troops as soon as they arrived, vanishing down side passages and even up into the rafters, but every so often the Darimar soldiers would find entire rooms filled with bodies, their throats slit and no signs of struggle.

Sheila moved with the main unit, toward the center of the structure. Enemy troops finally halted their advance near the entrance to the main keep. A grand stairway, nearly twenty feet high, led to the tower in the center of the structure. Khall's forces had erected hasty wooden barricades on the stairway itself, and the walkway at the top was lined with archers, using the stone railing on the edge of the walkway as cover. The center of the room was a killing zone that rapidly filled with bodies and blood, riddled with arrows, as the first to enter were shot down in seconds. The rest of the unit backed into the hall they had entered from, moving out of sight of the archers.

"Can you get them off that ledge?" the officer asked Sheila.

"Maybe," Sheila said, "But I'm going to need cover. I won't be able to shield myself and attack at the same time."

"Didn't bring the means for that with us," the officer said, and turned to one of his men, "Send a runner back to the king. We need heavies in the second wave. Best plate, and tower shields."

The soldier clapped his fist over his heart in salute, and turned to run back the way they had come. "That's going to take time," Sheila said, "They can't move fast in that kind of equipment."

"That's how you break archers in superior position," the officer said, "Put up a shield wall, with a slow but unstoppable advance. Until they get here, though, we're stuck unless you've got a better idea."

"I can put up a barrier," Sheila said, "A group can move in with me while I shield them from the arrows. I might be able to take ten men in with me."

"Ten's not enough to take the position," complained one of the soldiers.

"No, but it's enough to force them to their swords," the officer said, "Then the rest of us charge. Let's do it. I need ten volunteers."

A few moments later, Sheila had her group, ten men surrounding her as she readied her spell. Once complete, it formed a shimmering blue sphere, with her as the center, extending out about three feet in all directions. The group was forced to crowd close as they moved out into the central chamber, stepping over the bodies of those killed by the first entry.

The arrows hissed down from the ledge, striking against the barrier where they bounced harmlessly away to clatter on the floor. The group moved slowly and steadily toward the stairway as more and more arrows hissed down toward them. The archers were shouting at each other, though Sheila could not make out the words, she could hear the anxiety in their voices. At the base of the stairs, the edge of the barrier touched the first waist-high barricade. Three men used their swords to cut their way through. The hastily erected barrier crumbled easily and they threw the fragments out of the way and the group began to slowly advance up the stairs.

There was a grinding sound above, and then a crash. Sheila looked up in time to see a sharp triangular blade angled down toward them.

"Ballista!" one of the soldiers shouted.

The war machine had been pushed onto the stairs so it would angle down toward them, as the men operating it pulled it to a stop so its wheels would lodge between the stairs. Sheila could see the tension on the mechanism. "Back up," she said, trying to not be heard by those above them, "I don't think I can stop that."

Before they could react to her warning, one of the men above pulled the release lever. The monstrous bolt hissed through the air, and Sheila screamed at them to move. Her barrier shattered as the enormous arrowhead pushed through, and men dove every direction. She felt an arm around her waist, jerking her to the side, and Sheila hit the stone floor at the base of the stairs, sparks flying past her head as the ballista bolt crashed into the stone next to her. In the next instant, warm liquid splashed over her back, and a second later the body of the man in front of her hit the stone in two pieces, ripped completely in half by the weapon.

It was in almost fascinated horror that she watched as he lifted his head up, trying to stand before realizing his legs were completely gone, screaming in pain and horror, then finally going limp as his lifeblood poured onto the floor in a rapidly spreading pool.

Shouting all around her finally snapped her back to reality, as arrows clattered into the stone around her, and she started to push herself to her feet amidst the shouts to fall back. The soldier who had pulled her out of the way of the ballista grabbed her arm, pulling her up and clearly intent on dragging her back to the entry hall if she didn't move. They were barely able to make three steps, when as he turned his head to look back, she heard the hiss of an arrow move past her ear, and red exploded in her vision as it punched through his throat.

He didn't let go of her, instead he dropped his sword and reached up to his neck, gripping tight as he pulled her out of the chamber, out into the hall where more hands grabbed her, pulling her well back from the archers' field of vision, as the one pulling her stumbled, falling to his knees.

"Let me help him!" she said, trying to get back to him, intending to work her healing magic.

Even as she reached him, he had been turned onto his back, his eyes rolling up into his head as he choked, unable to breathe, life rapidly draining away. It was already too late for him.

"Lost all but two," the officer said.

"Oh, gods," Sheila whispered, staring down at the body, and heard cheers and insults being shouted at them from the archers, "It's my fault."

"No, it's not," the officer said, "There was no way you could have known they'd have a ballista up there. Even if we waited for the heavies, we'd have lost at least as many as that to that thing. And besides, it was my call. Now get a grip. We're a long way from being finished here."

He was right, of course, she knew. She couldn't fall apart now, she told herself, focusing instead on the task at hand. And she knew that once they did manage to break this line, the fight inside the keep itself would likely be far bloodier than this.

* * *

Roxim at last circled back toward the citadel from the north, about a hundred feet above it, making a beeline to the northwest tower. "Hang on, you lot," he said, "Going in fast!"

The passengers gripped tightly to his spines as the wind picked up speed, whipping against them as he accelerated. Link knew that at this speed, it was going to be a rough landing. Suddenly the dragon leaned to the side, turning away from his direct approach, and something whipped by their right side, a shapeless roar, and seconds after it passed, they could feel the icy chill it had left behind, though it had not actually touched them.

"It's Khall!" Kilishandra shouted, though she could barely be heard over the wind.

A few seconds later the dragon whipped back the other direction, and a second blast of icy wind passed them on the left. "He's a lousy shot!" Roxim shouted, leaning his head forward for even more speed.

Link squinted against the wind, trying to see Khall on the roof of the keep. But the dragon's shifting made it hard to see anything other than the five towers moving back and forth in his vision. Then he saw something coming toward them. "Incoming!" he shouted at Roxim.

"I see it!" Roxim said, and leaned to the left, moving away.

A different kind of roar from the first two passed on the right, as an enormous spike of ice whipped past them, and for a brief instant, Link could see their reflection in its surface as it passed.

"Not going to get me with those old tricks!" the dragon said, beating his wings to move even faster.

They were close to the tower now, only a hundred yards to go. "Everybody hang on!" Link shouted back as it came closer at an uncomfortable speed.

"That's a new one," Roxim said, Link barely hearing him over the wind. Before he could respond, the air filling with hissing, like hundreds of arrows sizzling past them, for only an instant, the air on both sides of them darkening like a swarm of insects had surrounded them, then it cleared as fast as it had come, and the dragon started to lean to one side.

Then Link saw the holes in the membrane of the dragon's wings. Hundreds of tiny, bleeding holes, and unable to hold the wind, they were rapidly losing altitude. The tower shot toward them, and in seconds, the outer wall was all Link could see.

They collided with the wall of the tower, below the roof, the stone shattering under the force of the impact, and they hit the floor on the inside, skidding across the stone as bricks rained around them. In seconds, it was over. Link could feel his heart trying to jump out of his chest, and his hands were shaking as he released his grip on the dragon's spine. Without waiting for the others, he jumped from the dragon's back, rushing around in front of Roxim.

Hundreds of shards of ice were sticking from the dragon's face and neck. Like icy cold needles in a pincushion, they covered his features, though they were already melting away under his intense body heat. Where Roxim had slide across the floor, an enormous red streak was smeared, small flames jumping from the incredibly hot blood every few seconds. Where the needles of ice had struck his belly, the impact had jammed them deep, piercing even the dragon's tough flesh.

"Roxim?" Link asked as the others came around beside him.

The dragon's eyes slowly opened. His eyes moved, looking directly at the small group, and his draconic lips curled in a slight smile. Then his eyes slowly closed on themselves, his lips going slack, and like a great sigh, his breath brought trickles of blood from his nostrils, and he did not inhale again.

The last of the ancient dragons, fearsome and noble beasts of fire, had passed from the world.

And then came the realization. Roxim had seen what Khall was doing before it had struck, and had known there was no way he could have evaded it. If he had even tried, those on his back would have been exposed as he turned, and he had instead taken it head-on, shielding them all with his own body.

Link reached out with one hand, touching the dragon's snout, running his fingers along the tough scales. Once gleaming silver, countless centuries had worn them to a dull grey. The single oldest living creature in the world had died in front of them, and even more than losing a friend, to know that the last of an entire species was gone, the moment bore down on them with soul crushing weight.

"Thank you," Link whispered, "Khall will answer for this. I promise."

He turned to the other four, and Kilishandra silently gestured to the stairs leading down into the tower. With a nod, Link started toward them, and the others fell into step with him.

The fight was only just starting.

* * *

On the ground, the second wave had begun its entry into the gateway, trading out the fast moving troops in chain mail of the first for heavy plate and enormous shields. When the runner came, it had been a mix of spearmen and archers, but the situation inside called for a quick reshuffling of the formations.

The structure attempted to fly back up if the giants released their grips on the ropes, so a hasty squad was put together to hammer anchors into the stone streets to which the ropes could be secured, and the giants be able to rest.

Ganondorf kept himself out of the strategies, instead focusing on his task of shielding them from spells from above. When the dragon had begun his approach, Ganondorf's efforts were made considerably easier, to the point he was ready to launch a counter attack. Nothing drastic, since allies were in the structure, but enough to keep Khall and Tharkus on their toes.

But then something else caught his eye. A dark shape falling from the flying structure toward them. It was no spell in itself, Ganondorf knew immediately. Perhaps a body pushed from a winder or rooftop? Men pointed as they saw it, moving away from where it would impact. It was completely shapeless, Ganondorf realized, like a heavy glob of thick liquid.

It made a disgusting noise as it hit the ground, spattering over a wide area, and men leveling their weapons toward it as it began to pull together in the center of its own mass, rising up from the ground, taking a new shape.

"Zero again?" Ganondorf muttered, crossing his arms over his chest, "No, something else."

It was a flesh golem, no doubt, rising nearly eight feet from the ground before it began to define its features, its arms and legs separating into true limbs from the central mass, and the features of the head began to take shape, a wicked grin appearing as it lifted its newly formed eyes to Ganondorf.

"What kind of childish game is this, Tharkus?" Ganondorf demanded, though his own gaze stayed riveted on the figure before him, "Do you think I will blanch at an image of myself?"

But he knew immediately this was not the same kind of creature as Zero. Its eyes were empty, no mind there, and the smile quivered with the effort of maintaining it. This was a golem of the lowest form, forced into a specific shape by Thakus. It was not even Ganondorf's own tissue used in its creation.

"All of you stay back!" he warned the soldiers surrounding it, "You can't harm this creature. Tharkus is trying to distract me from my task."

Many eyes glanced up, as if expecting the sun to drop on them at any second. With a wordless inhuman roar, the golem charged at Ganondorf. It crossed the distance between them faster than any man could possibly move, and several men cried out, but Ganondorf remained motionless, waiting with his arms crossed. The creature reached for him, wrapping its arms around his shoulders.

Its motions stopped suddenly, and an explosion of brown ooze splattered across the ground as Ganondorf's fist erupted from its back. His other hand on its neck, he jerked his arm free and snatched its head in both hands, pulling down as he lifted his right knee. The mirror image of his own face exploded on the impact, brown liquid flying in all directions as the body hit the ground face down at his feet. Yet in seconds, the spatters began to flow, or more accurately, crawl back toward the body, as the arms began to pick itself up, with the hole in its gut and no head.

Ganondorf turned up, raising his arms, quickly shouting an incantation, flashes of light over the city, and with a crash of thunder, a bolt of lightning struck down toward them. With a roar of effort, Ganondorf completed his spell in the split second before it struck, and the lightning struck down upon him. Directly into his hand, white sparks shooting rapidly over his fingers as he closed his fist over the energy that had been redirected into his own body.

The golem's head was reforming as it picked itself up to its knees. "Let this be a lesson, Tharkus," Ganondorf said, lowering his gaze to the creature, "You still know nothing of power."

With a wordless roar, Ganondorf swung his still sparking fist into the creature before him. A crash of thunder echoed over the city, and the men in the courtyard were left deafened for several minutes, all they could hear a high pitched ringing in their ears, when the force of the lightning bolt caught by Ganondorf unleashed into a single point, the creature exploding into thousands of instantly blackened fragments that crumbled to ash where they landed, and a scorched ditch in the earth nearly six feet long left where it had been.

Ganondorf shook his hand, smoke rising from his fingertips as he looked up at the men around him. "Well?" he said, "Get back to work. I happen to be doing my job here."

The formations started to reform, readying for the third wave. Ganondorf's gaze returned to the sky above them. Provided everything went well up there, this would likely be over in less than an hour. Remarkably fast, all things considered.

* * *

Link's group found more opportunities to hinder the enemy troops than they had expected, primarily by ambushing enemy squads from behind as they moved to reinforce the lines in other areas. Thanks to Midna and Kilishandra's magic, they were able to take down groups that the five of them would have been otherwise hopelessly outnumbered.

Link also realized this was the first time he had seen the darker aspects of Midna's magic at full effect since she had killed Zant. Devastating red light from her hair that pierced armor and flesh like they were paper, and the black lightning from her hands that was even more terrifying, rather than strike or cut, it simply erased what was there in paper-thin strips that it lashed across. Lancing a single such strike across a hall filled with soldiers effectively cut them all in two, actually leaving them nearly a full minute of life as they bled out, not even in pain as it severed the nerves in their bodies so smoothly.

It only had any effect on the living, though. Where the black lightning had dragged across the walls, just like when she had used it against flesh golems before, it had utterly no effect.

With Kilishandra guiding them, they progressed quickly through the halls. There were four courtyards, one in each compass direction, surrounding the main keep, and passing through the western of which would be faster than following the halls around, and soon they emerged back into the sunlight onto the stone paved floor to a sight they had not expected.

There was a magic circle etched into the ground in the center of the yard, nowhere near the size needed to elevate this building, and other than that, the yard was completely bare of decoration, save the spatters of blood across the stone. Numerous sets of clothing were cast about, each and all stained with red. On the far side of the yard, a horrific sight that was evidence of what had occurred.

Tharkus stood with one other person, facing each other, and as Link moved closer, he saw the wizard's hand, at first seeming to be held against the other's abdomen, was actually struck directly through the other's flesh.

"What in the hell?" Alex whispered.

Tharkus' victim turned to them, just as brown tendrils of flesh that wasn't his own crawled up his neck from under his shirt, quickly enveloping his head, then in seconds, began to collapse as his body melted within their grasp. In seconds, the empty clothing, stained with small patched of blood, fell to the ground, and only Tharkus remained. He turned to face the group.

"Hello, Kilishandra," he said, "So nice to see you again."

"I knew you were a monster," Kilishandra said, and gestured to the piles of clothing and blood around them, "But what is this? What are you doing here?"

"I need more strength," Tharkus said, "For all our hopes, Ganondorf is still far beyond my ability. If I can't match him in magic, I will have to do so in raw physical strength."

"It's just like in Tyr," Silviana said, "Zero consumed the bodies of people frozen there to heal himself, and came back even stronger than before."

"So this guy's a freak like Zero?" Alex said.

"Oh, no," Tharkus said, "I am something else entirely."

Link readied his weapon, knowing that it at least would be able to kill this man, when Kilishandra moved up next to him. He nearly jumped back as sparks of electricity danced across her skin. Her eyes had gone nearly completely white as dancing sparks filled them. It was like she was readying a spell, but had spoken no words.

"I know the truth, Tharkus," she said, her voice almost a growl, "I know that you're at the center of everything."

"Certainly took you long enough," Tharkus said, "You certainly didn't inherit Ganondorf's inhuman intellect."

Kilishandra's voice rose to an angry shriek. "Just shut up and die!"

She flung her left hand forward, and an arc of electricity leaped between them, followed by a dense thud that seemed to hang in the air for several seconds, then at last the effect was seen, as the wall behind where Tharkus had been exploded inward, stones falling across the floor.

Tharkus remained where he had been, unharmed.

The sparks in Kilishandra's eyes died away instantly. "What? But you didn't even defend yourself," she said.

"You see, that's what's disappointing about you," Tharkus said, "For all the power you have, you're slow on the uptake. Your father would have already known, and Khall would have figured it out at this point. Link provided me previously with the means to create a flesh golem completely immune to magic, though as it turns out, only up to a point, as Ganondorf was able to destroy it with a monstrously powerful spell that he required two of the Triforces to control.

"Do you think I'd be so foolish to lose all of the material just like that? I kept just enough to grow another, just in case. But then I decided, why spend time on another? Its flesh has bonded remarkably well to my own, wouldn't you say?"

"You're immune to magic," Kilishandra said.

"Give the way the first was destroyed, not entirely," Tharkus said, "But certainly immune to yours. Now Ganondorf is the only one I fear. Make this easy on yourselves and me. Perhaps when I feed on you, Kilishandra, I'll inherit that incredible magical talent you've always had."

"You won't touch her," Link said, stepping forward, leveling the white blade of his sword at Tharkus, "Fight me instead."

"I don't recall giving you that choice," Tharkus said.

Not even bothering with his spells, the wizard rushed toward them. He moved remarkably fast, and even before Link could strike had dropped a low punch into Link's stomach that lifted his feet from the ground with the force, and before Link had even touched the ground again, a backhand with his other fist that send him flying to the side to hit the ground rolling.

Kilishandra lashed out with the Master Sword and felt the blade connect, cutting into Tharkus' shoulder, but the wizard did not even slow down, catching her wrist with one hand and twisting sharply. Kilishandra cried out, but did not lose her grip on the sword as it twisted in his body. Not wasting his blows against her breastplate, Tharkus turned, putting his back against her, twisting the blade out of his body in the process, and dragged her by her arm over his shoulder to crash against the stone floor on her back, knocking the wind from her lungs.

Alex struck Tharkus from behind, stabbing his sword into the wizard's back and immediately pulling upward, slicing out the top of his shoulder. The wizard's shirt fell to the ground in tatters, but other than that, no damage was done, his flesh rapidly melding together as Tharkus spun toward him. Tharkus turned his next strike with the back of one hand, the other striking forward with the heel of his hand directly into Alex's chin. Alex was sent crashing onto his back.

Even as Tharkus turned to look for his next target, Kilishandra was on her feet, rushing toward him, the lightning of the Wizard's Fist building rapidly in her hand, and with a roar, struck Tharkus from the side with everything she could muster. The explosive force sent Tharkus reeling, staggering several steps to the side as he tried to keep his balance.

Midna and Silviana had quickly backed off, full knowing there was nothing they could do to harm this monster, but Midna was now rapidly deciding to use the Fused Shadow, when Link's white blade split Tharkus' flesh from behind, striking down through the wizard's left shoulder nearly to his groin in a single stroke.

And Tharkus screamed.

A howl of pain and agony, far louder than he should have been capable of, echoing through the air. Even the forces on the ground below heard it as if it were on top of them, and a smile crept onto Ganondorf's face as he identified the voice.

Alex was smiling as he climbed to his feet. "That sounds like it hurts," he said as the scream died away.

Tharkus' body began to collapse, dissolving into thick brown liquid. At first the group breathed a sigh of relief, but then it began moving with direction, rapidly away from them, to the far end of the courtyard, faster than any of them could move to keep up, and began to reform into a pool, rising from the stone.

Tharkus' face contorted in rage as it formed before them, then twisted in pain again as his left side split away, the long cut trying to fall away from him. He quickly snatched his left shoulder with his other hand, holding himself together, literally.

"You actually made me feel pain," he growled at Link, then fixed his gaze on Link's weapon, "That's not the same sword you had when we last met!"

"No, it isn't," Link said, "Now just stay still and I'll cure all your ills."

"No thank you," Tharkus said, "I've had enough for today. But I hope you live long enough that we meet again."

Link ran toward him, but the distance was too great. Tharkus' body dissolved into the thick liquid again, and by the time Link reached him, it had slipped away, directly through the gaps between the stones of the floor.

"Damn it!" Link said, "If he gets away…"

"We're in a flying castle," Midna said, "Where's he going to go?"

"He's going to find bodies," Kilishandra said, "Feed on them and heal himself. Then he'll likely use a travel spell to escape. To the tower west of the mountains."

"Exactly where we knew he'd go," Link said as he turned back to them, "I was so close to ending it right here!"

"Well, we'll get the coward next time," Alex said, "Don't we have something else to do?"

"That way," Kilishandra said, pointing to the eastern exit to the courtyard, "We need to get to the keep."

"Are you all right?" Midna asked Link as the group started to move again.

"I'm fine," Link said, "Bruises are already gone. I'm kind of worried that I'm getting so used to this rapid healing, though. Don't want to get dependent on it."

"Let's just finish this quickly, then," Midna said.

* * *

Sheila and the squad with her had waited nearly twenty minutes before they heard the heavy steps coming up behind them, the heavy reinforcements of the second wave marching up the hall in twos. The squad leader moved up beside the first officer, asking for the situation.

"Archers on the upper level," the officer said, "Can't get close to the stairs, and it's a long way up. Got a ballista up there, too."

Nodding, the heavy squad leader turned to his men. "Line up and lock shields. Standard shield wall, up the stairs."

The first two moved to the end of the hall, crouching low behind their shields, holding the massive planks together so the edges touched. The next two split, moving to the outside and setting their shields to make it four wide. Four more moved up behind them, lifting their shields over the first line's heads, setting the bottom edges of their shields on the tops of the first, and holding them at an angle to make a ceiling. Arrows were already rattling against them, but odds of actually breaking through were next to impossible as more heavies lined up behind them, holding their shields directly overhead to complete the ceiling, and also ready to move up in case an arrow did find a gap and bring down one of the first line.

It was something else to watch, Sheila admitted, as they moved with precision out of the hall and into the central chamber. Also amazing they could see where they were going through the wall of wood and metal, with the arrows striking harmlessly against them.

"As soon as they break the line, we move up behind them," the officer said to the rest of the men, "We'll have that keep within the hour."

There was the sound of splintering wood as the second barricade on the stairs was smashed through. Then the familiar sound as the release on the ballista was pulled. A scream and the sound of shattering wood, splinters flying across Sheila's small field of vision of the room beyond the hall. But there was no order to retreat, and the slow but steady steps of rattling metal continued. There was shouting from the far end of the hall, and a call to hold arrows.

"Now!" the officer said.

The squad moved out into the chamber, Sheila with them. There were the heavies, nearly at the top of the stairs, the arches moving back to either side, as if readying to strike them from both sides.

Then she spotted it, behind the unloaded ballista, a figure emerging from the doorway of the keep. The figure lifted one hand, palm flat toward the line of shields.

"No, back up!" Sheila shouted.

"_Daem!_"

Too late, an explosion rocked the chamber. Bodies and shields and flying stone filled the air above them, screams only becoming audible as the sound of the explosion died away. The line of shields had been destroyed in an instant, along with several feet of the stone ledge and the entire upper half of the stairway. Even as the screaming men struck against the far wall and fell to the floor, their blood running hot across the stone, Sheila's primary realization was that it was now impossible to reach the keep from this direction.

Without another word, the figure turned and walked back into the keep.

"Damn it, fall back!" the officer shouted as the archers on the upper level moved back to their original positions.

The squad quickly moved back out into the hall, taking cover from the arrows.

"No getting in that way now," the officer said, "We'll have to find another way around. If there is one, that is."

"There must be another way onto the upper level," Sheila said, "I'm sure I saw side passages up there…"

She was interrupted as another explosion ripped through the room, along with screams from the far end. It then fell to silence. The officer moved forward slowly, and cautiously peeked around the corner, ready to jump back in an instant. Then he turned, stepping away from the wall. "It's okay," he said, "Friendlies."

The squad followed him into the room. Dust was settling on the upper ledge, the bodies of the archers strewn about, both down on the floor and some hanging halfway over the upper railing. On the ledge, coming in from the west side, were Link and his group. Sheila shouted at them, causing them to pause and look down.

"There you are," Link said, and took stock of the stairway's state, "Looks like you can't get in this way. If you can get to the western courtyard, there's a way in from there. It's where we came from."

"Thanks for that," the officer said, "We'll make our way around that way."

"Watch out for the necromancer," Kilishandra said, "We ran into him, and he managed to escape. There's no way you can beat him in his current state, so just retreat if you see him."

"I think I saw Khall," Sheila said, "He went into the keep after he destroyed the stairs."

"Good, then we've got him cornered," Link said, glancing over at Midna, then turned back to the men below, "We'll head in and deal with him. Join us as soon as…"

He trailed off as a dark figure dashed into the room from behind the soldiers. It was one of the ninja, who moved immediately to the squad officer, and dropped to one knee, his head down as the officer and Sheila turned to him.

"Sir," the ninja said, "Enemy troops are pressing hard at the south-eastern crystal chamber, and we are not enough to hold them. We need reinforcements as quickly as possible."

"They might be trying to destroy the crystal," Sheila said, "Ganondorf warned us, if even one of those is destroyed, this entire building will fall on the city."

"Dear gods," the officer said, "The destruction that would cause…" He turned back to Link's group. "I'll send reinforcements to you as soon as they're available, but I have to take my men to deal with this."

"We'll make do," Link said, "Just keep us in the air."

"Good luck," Sheila said as the squad began to move back into the hall, away from the chamber.

"You too," Link said, and she turned to move with the squad, being led by the ninja toward the battle.

"It's just us, then," Alex said as Link turned back to them.

"Khall is mortal, though," Kilishandra said, "He won't be shrugging of sword blows like nothing."

"So I put an arrow through his throat and we're done," Silviana said.

"Exactly," Kilishandra said.

Link turned to Midna. "Are you ready?" he asked.

Midna nodded. "It's time to finish this."

With a nod, Link turned and started into the entrance of the keep.


	102. Chapter 101

**Chapter 101: Wizard Hero of Ice: Khall Dragnir**

"Minerva?"

The girl looked up from where she sat, cross-legged in the center of a pentagram etched into the floor. The lines of the magic circle pulsed softly as her energy flowed through it, supporting the protective bubble surrounding the city and nearby farmlands. The circle which was shrinking by the day, less than an inch each day, but inexorably shrinking as her fatigue grew.

"Khall," she said, smiling as she rose to her feet.

Khall did not match her happy expression. "I came to tell you that we're going to be leaving tonight," he said.

"Why do you look so depressed?" Minerva asked, "We'll all be waiting for you here."

"You might not be," Khall said, "I didn't tell the others, but I'm expecting this to take years, maybe even decades. It might take too long, for me."

Minerva's smile faded as she slowly moved to him. Without a word, she put her arms around his waist, moving close and leaning her head against his chest in a quiet hug. Khall put one arm over her shoulders, resting his hand on her head.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"It's not your fault," he said, "Never was."

"How bad is it getting?"

"When I tax myself, I start coughing up blood," Khall said, "I'm fine if I don't push myself too hard, but it's only going to get worse from here. From the books on the symptoms, and the relatively slow rate of my progression because of the small dose, I think I've got another ten years at the most, if I'm careful."

She looked up at him. Khall couldn't help but smile as he looked down at her face. Six years and she had grown so much from the girl he had first seen. The seal placed on her long ago must have prevented her from aging even as it locked her away, because she had grown like any other child in the time since. She looked like she was perhaps sixteen now, just truly beginning to blossom as a woman, and it was clear she was going to be a stunning figure when she matured. Her raven black hair in such a sharp contrast to her pale skin gave an almost exotic beauty to her soft lines and large blue eyes.

It wasn't just physically she had grown, either. She was so much calmer than when they first met. Ganondorf's influence the first few years no doubt, but since he had disappeared, Khall had effectively stepped in as a father figure to her. While the rule had been at first that she would ask permission before attempting anything with that incredible power of hers, time had shown her to learn great discretion, and could be trusted to make decisions on her own now. It had been her idea to form magic circle for her to use to hold back the ever spreading blight, but even her strength would eventually fail from such constant effort.

But at the same time, he couldn't bring her with him, as much help as she would be. The difficulty in using magic to leap between parallel worlds grew exponentially the more powerful the traveler in question was. Perhaps some safety put in place by the gods at the time of reality's creation to prevent beings like Shaklator from crossing between worlds for the exact reason she now intended. Minerva wouldn't be as difficult as Shaklator to help cross the line between worlds, but the effort was beyond his current ability.

"I'm going to find Ganondorf," Khall said, "He might be able to come up with something we missed to stop this thing. Failing that, I'll do everything I can to find a solution I can bring back. I promise, I won't forget about you."

"I know you won't," Minerva said, "I'm not going anywhere."

The memory was just as strong now, fifteen years later, as it had been that day. Still, as Khall leaned on his arms, watching out the window to the north of the citadel keep, his heart screamed in protest to the lie he had told her. He had already had the solution, his deal with Shaklator. One of the conditions was Ganondorf, dead, though preferred alive so that she could deal with the wizard herself, after his open defiance of her when she offered him the same deal. Instead he had left them all to die, just to resist her, and that was a plan that fell through at the hands of the man he was now allied with.

There was another pain in his chest, causing him to cough harshly, tasting the blood in his mouth and splattering it on the stone windowsill in front of him. He had estimated he had ten years left fifteen years ago. Even the relatively simple effort of destroying the stairway to buy a little more time had taken so much out of him. Bringing down the dragon before even more so. As the fit came to an end, he stood upright, fighting for breath, and wiped the blood from his mouth on the back of his hand. He had no strength left to spare, and likely only still drew breath because he refused to let go just yet.

"Sheer stubborn refusal to die will keep you alive longer than any weapon or armor," Ganondorf had told him once, "That's because after those things have already failed, and you're bleeding out your life, sheer force of will can keep you going for some time longer, if you just refuse with every fiber of your body and soul to let go. That kind of strength goes far deeper than any amount of muscle or magic, and simply can't be duplicated by any such means."

Khall believed those words now more than ever.

The sound of running footsteps approaching from behind caused him to turn away from the window, toward the entrance of the keep.

"I can't die yet," he whispered, "Just a little more time…"

* * *

Distant explosions could be heard from the ground, where King Rigdar watched his men moving into the circle that took them aboard the floating structure. Ralthas and Zelda waited by his side, occasionally glancing at Ganondorf, who seemed to have nothing to do after the golem in his own image had fell upon them.

"That's making me nervous," Ralthas commented, "If he's got nothing to do, what are they planning that they're holding back so long?"

"Maybe Khall and Tharkus have already been dealt with," Zelda suggested.

The king turned, looking up at the structure hovering above them, held in place by hundreds of ropes anchored to the street below. "I wish I could see what was happening in there," he said.

"The fact they haven't closed the portal, or tried pushing back through it is a good sign," Ralthas said.

"There hasn't been a runner since before the second wave," the king said, "I hate throwing men into it when they might just be going to their deaths."

"Have a bit of faith," Zelda said, "I don't think it is going to take much longer."

The sound of thunder came from overhead. This caused quite a few heads to raise, looking for some form of descending attack. It was merely a warning from the gathering clouds, high above even the flying citadel. The weather was turning bad. Zelda silently hoped that wasn't a bad sign.

* * *

Sheila and her squad were forced to stop with just one hall, about twenty feet long, between them and the crystal chamber. About fifteen enemy troops were in the hall, watching the far door, poised and ready to strike, but seemingly unwilling to step beyond. There was a thick pool of blood slowly running from the open doorway, and at least two bodies Sheila could see beyond. Whomever stepped through that door first would be a dead man, though if they rushed it all at once, they would likely force their way into the room and even the odds, in spite of the cost.

As the squad officer ordered his men to move quietly, to try to get the jump on them, Sheila halted him with a hand on his arm. Stepping past him, directly into the hall behind the men, she took a deep breath, lifting her hands before her.

She gritted her teeth, steeling herself for what she was about to do. She had seen people die, been in combat, and more, but she had never deliberately and intentionally killed someone before. The golem she had destroyed hadn't truly been alive, but these men were. She forced herself to start the spell, before her courage failed.

The nature of casting a spell immediately alerted the enemy soldiers to her presence, but their reaction time would be far too slow. Even as they turned and started to raise their weapons and move toward her, she completed the words, and unleashed her magic. Hellish fire swept through the hall, and men screamed as it engulfed them.

Magical fire was always an unnatural sight. It did not move like fire should. It swirled and ran, almost like a liquid, but the voracious way it wrapped around the men, clinging to their flesh and sweeping into the gaps of their armor and down their throats as they screamed, it more resembled a living creature with no real shape. The screams rapidly died away as the fire sucked the air from their lungs and in seconds their struggles ceased, and the smoldering corpses collapsed to the floor.

A moment later, something glinted at the doorframe, and Sheila was able to see two fingers holding a small shard of glass, or possibly a mirror, just past the side of the door. It was pulled back and the black clad ninja leaned around the frame where she could see him, and silently motioned for her to approach.

"It's clear," Sheila called back to the squad, "Come on."

She surprised herself with how easily she moved passed the smoking corpses, full knowing that this was entirely her doing. It had been so easy. She had cast her magic, and their lives were over in a flash. She was far from the greatest magician in the world, and she had so much power over life and death already. And she knew she could do it again, and it would be easier. That thought was far more disturbing than the act itself she had just committed.

"Someone's coming up behind us!" came a call from the back of the squad.

"Move, into the crystal chamber!" the officer said, speeding them along.

Sheila stepped through the doorway just in time to see the flash of a sword, and a spray of blood as a soldier's head rolling on the floor, the ninja responsible swinging his blade again to flick the blood from it onto the floor as he moved back into position. There was another door to the left of where Sheila entered, the ninja in question standing about three feet from its side, his weapon ready. The one she saw first was in a similar position by the door through which she and the squad entered, and three more on the far side of the room from the doors, their swords in one hand and a throwing knife each held ready in the other.

"There's only five of you here?" Sheila asked, moving closer to the one by the door from which she had entered.

"Used to be more," the ninja said, gesturing to several of the bodies on the floor, "Every so often they get the courage to charge as a group and we lose one or two pushing them out."

The officer split his squad in two, moving them into positions near the doorways. There was no cover in the room to speak of, and the doors themselves were little more than splinters hanging from hinges.

The center of the room was dominated by the massive crystal, nearly ten feet high and at least three feet wide at the largest point. It was largest near the top and tapered to a point toward the bottom, the tip of which hovered about an inch above the floor. The crystal gave off a dim blue light, which matched the color of the lines on the floor. Sheila followed the lines with her eyes, two straight lines out from beneath the crystal's point which ran along the floor and vanished beneath the walls. A curved line also passed beneath the point of the crystal, touching the end of the other lines, and it also vanished beneath the walls, though in different locations.

Ganondorf was right. This was a gigantic magic circle, built directly into the foundation of the structure. And this crystal, this focus point, was larger than any she had ever seen. And there were four more in the building, holding it aloft.

"All right, men," the officer said, "Our job is to hold this room until they stop coming. Lady Anthress, you should move back from the door. Keep them from the crystal if they get past us."

Sheila did so, but something was bothering her. This made no sense. There was no way they could destroy this crystal with what they were throwing at it. A sword strike might shatter a much smaller crystal, but this thing had so much energy flowing through it, trying to smash it would result in a static discharge that would not only prevent any damage to the crystal, for the attacker it would be like being struck by a bolt of lightning.

Perhaps they feared the Darimar forces intended to destroy the crystals? No, even as she thought it, she dismissed it. That would drop the fortress onto the city below. What wasn't crushed would likely collapse under the resulting earthquake.

There was something else going on, Sheila realized, and was suddenly deathly afraid that the attack on this crystal was nothing more than a ruse to draw them away from the other four.

* * *

"I can't take this anymore," King Rigdar said, "I need to know what's happening up there."

"Your majesty, I must insist that you do not go up there," Ralthas said as the king started moving for the stairs, to climb down from the wall.

"I'm not an idiot," the king said as the judge and Zelda turned to follow him, "Just a quick jump up and back. Even the men guarding the portal on the other end will know more about what's happening up there than me."

"Then I will go," Ralthas said.

"Your majesty, if I might suggest something," Zelda said before the king could respond, "Simply send a small group of volunteers. I agree with Judge Ralthas, and you shouldn't risk yourself, even for a moment."

"So why don't you go?" another voice interjected.

The three turned to see Ganondorf watching them.

"Me?" Zelda said, "I am not a trained soldier. I'd just be in the way up there."

"Even the best strategist can't do anything if he can't see the battle," Ganondorf said, raising his gaze to the structure above them, "But a real leader won't ask his men to do anything he isn't willing to do himself."

"Exactly," the king said, "I'm going to have a look myself. My guard will be with me, of course, but I need to see it."

Even as Ralthas started to protest again, Zelda said, "I'll go."

"That a girl," Ganondorf said with a smile.

Zelda shot him a glare as Ralthas spoke to the king, "I will go and see what there is to see. It will only be a few minutes, I'm sure."

The king growled, but finally nodded. "All right, you win," he said, "I'll stay here. Come back as quick as you can."

Ralthas and Zelda moved toward the portal, which men were still filing into.

"You can stay here," Ralthas said, drawing his sword as they approached the portal.

"No," Zelda said, glancing back at Ganondorf, "I can't. Not if I want to have any respect for myself after this is over."

Stepping through the glowing barrier of the portal brought a faint tingling sensation to the skin, and the world around them instantly shifted in every way, with no real warning.

They were suddenly indoors, and Zelda nearly tripped over a body on the floor, and found herself standing in a pool of blood. The air filled with noise, the sounds of screams and battle cries, and the echo of clashing steel. Men rushed rapidly from the chamber to reinforce the lines. Zelda drew her sword, hoping that what she had learned would pay off as she and Ralthas moved after them to see the situation first-hand.

Even as she started to step out into the hall beyond Ralthas snatched her arm, dragging her back as arrows whipped past the doorframe, two of the men in front of them going down immediately. Another doorway across the hall had several men crouched out of the archers' line of fire, all of them in Darimar colors.

"What's happening here?" Ralthas shouted across the hall.

"They're pushing back hard!" one of them called back, "We almost made it to the keep, but got flanked from the west passages. Not to mention the attack on the crystal chamber to the southeast. Had to move men there to defend it!"

"Are we in danger of losing this position?" Ralthas asked.

"No, that wizard picked a good spot," the soldier said, and gestured in the direction the arrows were coming from, "No way in here except from that direction. But it also means that the teams that went to the crystal chambers are isolated."

"If they're attacking the crystal chambers, we have to evacuate the city," Zelda said, "They might be intending to drop it on our heads, exactly as we expected."

"If they are attacking them now, we've got only a few minutes to evacuate almost eight million people," Ralthas said, "It's impossible. Those teams need reinforcements. Soldier, if I stop the archer fire, can your men charge their position?"

"Yes sir, but how are you going to do that?" came the response.

"Just watch," Ralthas said, lifting his sword and moving closer to the corner into the hall.

He suddenly stepped out into the hall, pulling his arm back as if to thrust with the blade. He saw the archers at the far end of the hall, using overturned tables as cover. He saw the bow lift and the sharp arrowhead aimed his direction. Thumbing the white gem set into the guard of his sword, he thrust forward.

Pain shot through Zelda's ears as a crash of thunder erupted within the hall. A flash of light, and the makeshift barricade at the end of the hall vanished, splinters flying through the air and smoldering wreckage. Zelda couldn't even hear any screams, as the crash of thunder died away it was replaced by a ringing in her ears. Ralthas was shouting and pointing down the hall, and men were moving out, though she doubted they could hear what he was saying any more than she could.

Ralthas turned to her and said something that she still couldn't hear, and started up the hall. "Wait!" she shouted, moving after him. She hoped he didn't intend to join the fighting. The king would not wait long for their return.

There were more groups of Darimar soldiers joining the new squads further ahead. The enemy had effectively split them before, dividing them into pockets isolated from reinforcements. Zelda caught up to Ralthas. The ringing in her ears was finally starting to dim, and she could hear shouting, though it was still muffled in her ears.

"How far are you going?" Zelda asked Ralthas.

"I want to see what's happening at the main keep," Ralthas said, "And I need to find Sheila."

Before Zelda could respond, there was a shout from up ahead. The necromancer had been sighted, moving to the southwestern crystal chamber, and a runner from the ninja there was asking for reinforcements.

"It won't do any good!" Zelda said, "I've met that man before! Conventional weapons won't even faze him! You'd need a wizard to deal with him!"

_Go with the reinforcements to him. I'll be there in a minute._

Zelda blinked, turning and looking for the source of the voice. "Ganondorf?"

_I'm speaking through your Triforce. This isn't the time for shock, especially since this isn't the first time I've done it. Just go there and I'll track you by your Triforce,_ said the voice, this time she was sure it was coming from within her own head.

_But what about the city?_ she asked silently, hoping he could still hear.

_There are only two wizards up there, Tharkus and Khall,_ the voice said, _Link's team is in the central keep, and Khall is about to be very occupied, which means I'm free to deal with Tharkus directly._

"Ralthas!" Zelda said, getting his attention, "I'm going with the reinforcements after the necromancer. You need to get back to the king and tell him what's happening."

"And what exactly are you going to do to him?" Ralthas asked.

"Ganondorf is coming, and I'm going to lead him there," Zelda said, "Just trust me, because we only get one chance at this."

She turned and started moving away from him, with the troops moving to the southwest passages. A moment later, Ralthas appeared at her side. "I sent a runner back to the king," he said before she could protest, "I'm not going to sit on my hands through this any longer."

Bad knees and all, the man was acting like a soldier, Zelda thought with a smile.

They hadn't gone far when another squad joined them from a side passage, and a familiar face appeared at Zelda's side.

"Princess!" Arthur said, "What are you doing up here?"

The young man had seen combat. His spear and arms were covered with blood, though fortunately none of it seemed to be his own. He was covered in sweat and his chain mail shirt was torn in several places, but he fell into step with the rest of the squad easily.

"Going after the necromancer," Zelda said, "Ganondorf is coming to help as well."

"I know he was spotted in this direction, but where is he going?" Arthur asked.

"To the crystal chamber," Ralthas said, "He must intend to destroy it, and drop this entire building on the city below."

"Dear gods," Arthur whispered, then gripped his weapon with renewed resolve, "We can't let that happen."

"No, we can't," Zelda said.

* * *

"Link."

"Khall."

The two words were the only break in the silence as the group came to a halt across the chamber from the wizard. Then there was the faint sound of Silviana sliding an arrow from her quiver and notching it to her bowstring.

Khall did not have the image one expected of a wizard, now that they had come face to face. He looked much too young, though Link knew he had to be nearly a century old. Clean-shaven and blonde hair cut short, and dressed in a powder blue outfit, with a matching cape. He was unusually pale, as if he had not seen the sun in some time.

When Khall saw Midna among their number, his hands involuntarily clenched into tight fists. She looked different, yet he knew it was her. He'd killed her himself, and yet she stood there in front of him. He had known something was wrong back when he did it, and yet…

Kilishandra stepped out in front of the group. "Khall, order your men to stand down," she said, "It doesn't have to end this way."

That caused Khall to smile and let out a single laugh. "You think so?" he asked, "We've already wiped out four of their kingdoms, Kili. You had a hand in two of them, if you don't remember. You actually think they'd be willing to sit down to a peace talk now?"

"Khall, Tharkus lied to us," Kilishandra said, "We were supposed to take these lands for ourselves, but he intends nothing less than the destruction of all life in this world!"

"I know," Khall said, "That was the deal, after all."

"So you did know," Link said, "Why would you do this?"

"You've seen Tharkus' blight spreading in these lands, Link," Khall said, "Imagine it spreading over the entire world. Entire countries starving because nothing will grow. Lakes and ponds turn to poison. Life being slowly choked from the world. That is my world. That is what I came from, with a deal made with a dark goddess. I help her destroy this world, and she will save mine."

"You're talking about Shaklator!" Link said, stepping up by Kilishandra's side, "She's lying to you, you idiot! She's not going to do a thing to help you after she gets what she's after!"

"And you would know this?" Khall asked.

"She tried to turn me," Link said, "Get me to join her. I was actually tempted for a while. But I didn't trust her, and that mistrust was true in the end. She had been lying to me, trying to stop me from my goal. That monster is completely insane, and she will betray you!"

Khall shook his head sadly. "You might be correct," he said, "But I don't have enough time left to try again."

Realization flashed over Kilishandra's face. "Your sickness," she said, "That's why you attacked like this. You're out of time."

"What sickness?" Midna asked.

"Khall's dying," Kilishandra said, "Has been for just over two decades. I'm only surprised it took this long."

"And what does that mean?" Alex asked, "We came here to kill him, didn't we?"

"I did," Link said, not taking his eyes off Khall, "And I've no intention of turning back now."

A smile crept onto Khall's face. "You remind me a lot of myself, when I was young, Link."

"I don't kill children," Link said.

Khall's smile faded, his expression sad. "Unfortunately, I do," he said, "and everyone else that I have to. Genocide is ugly and terrible, and it leaves a foul taste in my mouth. But this is the path I have chosen, and I will not be swayed from it now. I have come too far, lost too much, including my own soul, to turn back now."

"Don't make me do this, Khall," Kilishandra said, lifting the blade of the Master Sword toward him, "I don't want to kill you."

"Then let Link do it," Khall said, "What do you say to this, Link? You and I, in single combat. I know you're dying to get your hands on me, after all."

"Fine," Link said.

Alex stepped up beside him. "Wait a second, if this guy's even got half of what Kili here has, he'll just wipe the floor with you."

Link shook his head. "I'm going to fight him. All of you stay back," he turned to Kilishandra, "Assuming that's all right with you?"

Kilishandra growled under her breath, but returned her sword to its sheath. "So be it."

Silviana took Alex by the arm, pulling him back, just shaking her head when he started to protest. Midna moved up beside Link. "Be careful," she whispered.

"You know me," Link said, flashing her a smile.

"That's why I'm worried," she said, "From the sound of it, Khall literally has nothing to lose at this point. There's nothing more dangerous than that."

"I'll be fine. Just trust me," Link said.

"I do," Midna said, then whispered, "I love you."

"Forevermore," Link whispered, quoting the final word of the song she had sung what seemed like ages ago, as they left Hyrule, and realizing what he referred to, Midna smiled as she stepped away.

Link faced Khall, pulling his shield, which bore the emblem of Darimar, into a better position on his right arm, and tightened his grip on his sword.

The others moved back to the wall, out of the way as the two faced off against each other. Alex was clearly displeased with this decision, scowling and standing with his arms crossed over his chest. Kilishandra moved next to him. "Relax," she said, "If Link dies, you'll get your chance at him."

"He's not going to," Alex said, "I've seen it in him. Link has an intangible in him. He's the stuff legends are made of.'

"Then why the angry face?" Kilishandra asked.

"Because he gets to show off in front of his girl," Alex growled, glancing at Midna.

Kilishandra snorted and shook her head. "By the way," she said, leaning down toward him, "Don't call me 'Kili.' You haven't earned it."

* * *

"What the hell is _that_?"

Tharkus turned to the voice as a large group of soldiers poured into the courtyard. Zelda stopped when she was able to see the mass before her. Tharkus had been feeding on every corpse he found on his path, healing his wounds and increasing his strength. It had also begun to have a drastic effect on his appearance.

He still held a vaguely human shape, though it now towered at about twelve feet tall, and five arms protruded from its torso, and not all from the sides, with one coming out either side of his chest, and two from his right shoulder. He also had four legs, though Zelda then corrected herself, three legs, and shivered with revulsion at the other shape, hanging flaccidly from his body nearly to the ground, and the way it swayed when he moved.

"It's a flesh golem!" Ralthas said, "Spread out! We have to buy time until the wizard gets here!"

"No," Zelda said, still able to identify the face she had seen before, "That's the necromancer. He's turned himself into a monster."

"Monster? Me?" Tharkus shouted, turning toward her, "You know nothing! Nobles never change, sitting in their ivory towers, passing judgment on those they think are beneath them. I saw pain and suffering in the world, and my efforts to improve the lots were rewarded with betrayal and murder! Pain that I will visit on all of you!"

In some kind of bizarre symmetry, his legs began to move, in a running charge toward them. Ralthas shouted to move, and bodies scattered, Zelda moving quickly out of the path. As fast as he could move, his new shape did not allow much maneuverability, and Tharkus' attempt to turn sent him toppling over, crashing onto his side on the stone floor.

"Everyone stay back!" Zelda shouted, but too late, as one of the soldiers stabbed his spear into Tharkus' side.

In the next instant, brown sludge was crawling up the spear as he tried to pull it loose. The man screamed as it crawled onto his arms, even as Tharkus rose to his feet. The man struggled, and his comrades hesitated, unsure if they even could help, let alone should try, and he was pulled off his feet and slammed into the mass of Tharkus' body. His screams muffled as his face was buried in the soft flesh, which then wrapped around his body and he vanished from sight.

"Goddesses almighty," Zelda whispered in horror as the spear and an empty suit of chain mail dropped to the ground beneath Tharkus.

The flesh on Tharkus' torso shifted, and she realized in horror that she could see the man's face on his abdomen. There were more faces there, but indistinct and congealed together. How many had this monstrosity taken already?

"None of you deserve to live," Tharkus growled, "That one was one of the lucky ones. He gets to be part of something much greater than himself."

Ralthas was very much wishing he had not used his one lightning strike on the archers before. His weapon was just an ordinary sword until the enchantment recharged itself. Arthur put himself in front of Zelda urging her further back from the creature.

"What do we do?" Arthur asked Ralthas.

"I don't have a gods damned clue!" Ralthas said.

_Ganondorf, where are you?_ Zelda silently screamed.

There was a crashing sound, and the ceiling above them gave way. Soldiers shouted and moved quickly away from the falling bricks, then realizing the entire ceiling was not falling, but just a section in the center of the room. As the bricks rained down, another figure fell through the opening to land on his feet in the room.

"I really hate that man," Zelda groaned in complaint of the wizard's timing.

Ganondorf turned toward Tharkus, then his eyes went wide, taking a step back. "Woah, ugly!" he said, then squinted, "Wait a second… Tharkus? What the hell did you do to yourself?"

"You," Tharkus growled, "Sooner than I'd hoped. But I have been preparing for you."

"I'll say," Ganondorf said, "Finally your outer beauty matches your inner."

"I'll break you in two and feed on your carcass!" Tharkus roared as he charged Ganondorf.

Ganondorf stepped just out of reached of Tharkus' grasping hands, circling around him. "_Daem!_" An explosion rocked Tharkus on his feet, sending him staggering sideways, his three feet shuffling to keep the top-heavy monster upright.

Tharkus turned back toward Ganondorf, a smile on his face. "Wasted effort," he said.

"Oh, I see," Ganondorf said, "Using the same trick twice."

"Too bad you won't be using the Senen Serat in this tight space," Tharkus said, "Now just stand still for a second…"

_Give me a hand,_ Ganondorf's voice said in Zelda's head, speaking through her Triforce again.

_And what exactly am I going to do? _she asked, _I know a bit of magic, but against this guy…_

_You're going to use your Triforce,_ Ganondorf said, _Just like when you blasted Zero to pieces. I'll help you, and we're going to turn Tharkus into a smear on the floor._

Ganondorf's white sword flashed as Tharkus moved toward him again. The creature's arms stretching like elastic, reaching for him, and the blade striking the shifting flesh as Ganondorf dodged just out of reach, and Tharkus' limbs fell to the stone floor without blood or even cries of pain. They instantly dissolved into liquid, flowing across the surface back toward Tharkus, and absorbing into his legs as his hands and arms reformed as if no damage had been done.

Zelda still was not sure how she had done what she had to Zero, but she readied herself, waiting for a signal from Ganondorf, and hoping she could pull it off again.

"Your problem is you focus too much on brute power," Ganondorf said to Tharkus as he again evaded the grasping hands, circling around Tharkus in the process, "The strength to level a city is good, but against a single man, you're basically trying to swat a fly by dropping a mountain on it."

"And you know so much of restraint," Tharkus growled, "Just wait until I get my hands on you."

"I know that you're underestimating me, though in a completely different way than last time," Ganondorf said, and passed his sword to his left hand.

The snarl vanished from Tharkus' face in an instant, replaced with fear as gold sparks began to dance around Ganondorf's right hand, the golden triangle beginning to glow brightly for all to see. It was impossible for him to react in time, and with a single finger, Ganondorf sent a streak of gold through the air that struck Tharkus in the chest.

A hole was blasted through Tharkus' chest, sending blackened bits of flesh flying through the air as the monster howled in pain. Immunity to common magic provided no protection to the power of the goddesses themselves, as he found in that moment.

_Now,_ Zelda heard Ganondorf's voice in her head, _Just remember. The Triforce reacts to your emotions, and necessity. Don't worry about the 'how,' and focus on the 'why.' You __**need**__ to do this._

Zelda knew it. They had to put this monster down, and it had to be done now. She moved toward Tharkus, who was rapidly regaining his composure, no longer reeling from the blow. "Don't worry about how," she whispered to herself, "Just do it!"

Still not knowing exactly where it came from, she felt the warmth spreading from the Triforce in her hand throughout her body as it reacted to her desire. Tharkus turned his head, seeing her coming, and saw the gold light that appeared in her eyes. He tried to move away.

Zelda thrust her hand forward. Like a lightning strike with no sound, a dull thud in the air, and Tharkus screamed, a foot wide chunk of his left shoulder was blasted away, turning black and crumbling to ash before it struck the ground.

The feeling of discharging the power was just as amazing as the first time she had used it, a wave of excruciating pleasure washing over Zelda's body. Even if she did not have a reason to continue the assault, she'd have wanted to. Another shot from Ganondorf caused Tharkus to cry out a third time, staggering back from the shock of the blast.

Zelda blasted him a second time, this time crying out herself, though in a much different tone from Tharkus. She was having difficulty keeping her thoughts in the euphoria caused by the attacks, and with her third shot, she could barely remember what she was doing beyond the effort itself.

More than half his body mass destroyed in the assault from the two, Tharkus staggered back, screaming in fury instead of just pain. He saw Ganondorf's sneer, and in it, his own end rapidly approaching.

Then the rhythm was suddenly broken, a coming attack did not appear. With a long, throaty cry, Zelda had sunk to her knees, the glow fading from her eyes, and fell back on the stone floor. In the second he regained his balance, Tharkus turned, Ganondorf's next strike only grazing him as his body collapsed into liquid, and vanished rapidly into the floor, escaping through the gaps between the bricks, and was gone in seconds.

"Damn and hellfire!" Ganondorf growled, "Ten seconds! Ten seconds and we'd have had him!"

He turned to Zelda, where she had fallen, the energy sapped from her body by the unusual strain and effort. Arthur and Ralthas moved to her side, kneeling down next to her as Arthur hesitated, unsure if he should touch her.

"What happened?" Ralthas asked as Ganondorf came over to them.

"She just didn't have enough to finish the job. She's exhausted," Ganondorf said, kneeling down to get a better look, she was breathing heavily, and noticing her blank eyes and the thin trail of saliva from her mouth, added, "And I think she just had an orgasm."

"You can't be serious," Arthur said, looking up at him, then back down at Zelda.

"Using the Triforce feels good, I'd never deny that," Ganondorf said, "I never had that kind of reaction, though. Maybe she's more sensitive to it than I am, or maybe any female user would have the same result. Or it might even have to do with her still being a virgin. Can't say I've had an opportunity to find out."

"She's no good here now," Ralthas said, and turned to Arthur, "Can you get her to safety?"

"If the way to the portal is clear, I think I can carry her," he replied.

"Take her and go back then," Ralthas said, and turned to Ganondorf, "Do you know where that monster went?"

"About one floor down," Ganondorf said, "After that, not a clue."

"Funny," Ralthas said, though his tone clearly indicated otherwise.

"He'll turn up," Ganondorf said, "In the meantime, we need to reinforce those crystal chambers, because that's likely where he will."

Arthur scooped Zelda up in his arms as Ralthas gave the order to move out. Zelda was limp in his grasp, her head falling against his chest as he turned back the way they had come. More Darimar troops were coming up the passage, so it had to be clear, and he started back toward the portal.

* * *

Link charged at Khall, intending to close the distance between them before the wizard to use his magic, only to be forced to slow and move to the side as the wizard loosed a burst of artic wind that left a trail of ice along the floor, and a star of ice spread along the far wall where it impacted.

It wasn't as though he'd just loosed it with no warning, but it wasn't a single word casting like Link had seen Ganondorf and Kilishandra do either. Khall sent out a stream of words of the incantation, so quickly Link couldn't even discern the individual syllables in a stream of gibberish. Dying he may have been, but Khall was still extremely dangerous, and seemed to have somehow conquered the greatest weakness of magic, the lengthy setup time.

Link dodged around another icy blast, trying to move closer as Khall brought his hands together, and pulling them down to his side, already shouting the next spell. Link was two steps closer when Khall thrust his hands forward, and a flash of blue light materialized a great spike of ice, roaring through the air toward him. Link spun to the side, feeling the wind as the enormous spike passed by him.

With another shout, Khall threw his arms out to the sides. Link swore as ice spread outward from Khall's position, crackling loudly as it covered the floor. Unable to escape any direction, it spread under Link, and the next instant, crawled up over his feet, stopping just past his ankles, rooting him in place.

Khall brought his hands back together, taking aim at Link as he started his next spell, but was interrupted as he suddenly choked, his words dying and a spatter of blood hitting the floor as he clutched his chest in agony. Not about to waste his chance, Link aimed his sword at the ice around his feet, and with two quick slashes, cut away the front of the growths, and was able to pull one foot free, then the other.

Footing as tenuous on the ice, however, and he wasn't able to move fast enough, as Khall recovered, and sent another enormous spike of ice flying his direction. Link used his shield as he stepped to the side, smashing the side of the icy spear and causing it to glance away just enough.

Khall tried something else next, crossing his wrists with his thumb and first finger on each hand extended, held so that his thumbs were touching, and as the words, again too fast for Link to discern, poured from him, blue light filled the wide triangle between his fingers. Then he drug his hands across each other, to their correct sides, and the light spread and then took shape.

Pulling moisture from the air surrounding him, needles of ice, each about six inches long, appeared around him. First just a few, then rapidly more and more, until the air was filled with thousands of the needles.

"That's what killed the dragon!" Alex said, watching from the side of the room with the others, "Link can't get around it!"

Kilishandra turned at the sound of Silviana's bowstring stretching, seeing the dark elf lining up her shot on Khall. She reached over and snatched the bow's haft, forcing it down to toward the floor.

"What are you doing?" Silviana demanded, trying to pull it from Kilishandra's grasp, "He's going to be killed!"

Kilishandra started to respond, but Midna interjected first, "No he isn't. Just trust Link. That's all you have to do."

Kilishandra turned to her. Midna was watching with a smile on her face. She had far more confidence in him than the others, that much was clear. "She's right," Kilishandra said, "Just wait and see."

With a cry, Khall thrust his hands forward, and thousands of needles of ice shot like arrows through the air. Link raised his shield, though it was nowhere near large enough to shield his entire body. His left arm moved, an upward motion that passed his hand along its side.

What happened next was something even Kilishandra wouldn't have believed if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. The gold triangle on the back of his left hand flashed, and ice leaped from the floor, like a sentient liquid, attaching itself to his shield and reshaping, expanding rapidly, and in seconds, Link held a tower shield of ice, larger than his own body, and the needles from Khall were shattering against its surface, and Link pressed forward through the storm, closing the final gap between himself and Khall.

Khall shouted again, this time in pain, and the room fell silent. Link's shield had been discarded to the side, and his right hand gripped Khall's shoulder, and his sword stabbed into the wizard's body just under the rib cage, Khall's cape forming a kind of triangular tent as the tip coming out his back lifted it away from his body.

"Destiny calls," Khall whispered in Link's ear, "and our empire will fall at last."

"You knew this was going to happen," Link said, "You knew I was going to kill you here."

"As I said, genocide has left a foul taste in my mouth," Khall said, putting his right hand on Link's shoulder to support his rapidly failing knees, "I'm going to Hell, I have no doubt of that. But I chose to die on my enemy's sword, rather than let my sickness claim me. Surely you, Link, of all people can respect that.

"Weapon in hand, the taste of blood in my mouth," he leaned closer, until his face was merely inches from Link's own, "and looking my enemy in the eye. There is no greater death than this."

"You want something from me," Link said, reading it in Khall's own eyes.

"Kilishandra," Khall said, "Tell me one thing before I go. Have you truly abandoned your own people?"

"I have not," came her reply from behind Link, "I won't let you and Tharkus destroy this world. But I still intend to find a way to save our people."

"Their time is rapidly running short, if it hasn't already expired," Khall said, "But you, Link. You could help her."

"I intend to try," Link said.

"You will have to defeat Tharkus," Khall said, "To the west of the mountains bordering these lands, in the Desert of Death, you will find his tower. It is there that the Twilight Mirror is hidden. If he survives this conflict, he will flee there. You can't let him be, if you intend to save your world."

"We'd already guessed as much," Link said.

"When you find her," Khall said, pausing as he choked, a small amount of blood bubbling from his mouth onto his chin, "When you find Minerva… Tell her I'm sorry. Sorry that I lied to her.

"Now finish it."

Link twisted his sword. Khall cried out, then was muffled as he coughed, blood spattering onto Link's chest as Link pushed him away. Khall landed on the floor on his back, the icy remains of the battle slowly turning red. His chest stilled as his breath ceased, and empty eyes stared up, and yet he seemed to be smiling.

Link turned to find the others just a few steps behind him. He swung his sword through the air, flicking the blood from the blade onto the floor, then returned it to its sheath. "We're done here," he said.

He left his ice covered shield there on the floor as he started walking, though Alex glanced back at it, wondering exactly how Link had done that.

_I can't create something from nothing, but I can alter what's already there,_ he had told Midna before.

Before Alex could ask, however, the floor shifted beneath them, and started to tilt to the side.

* * *

Ganondorf and Ralthas arrived too late, as the floor started to shift. They saw the bodies of the ninja on the floor of the chamber, and the disfigured monster that was Tharkus by the crystal. Lines of electricity jumped through the air from the necromancer's many hands to the crystal, and a single large crack had appeared down its side.

Even Ganondorf could not move fast enough, launching toward Tharkus with gold sparks flying around his own hand, and the crystal shattered. Shards of it ripped through the room, embedding themselves in the walls and floor. Ganondorf felt a stab of pain as one pieced his stomach. Not nearly enough to kill him, but the impact tossed him to the side, missing his strike at Tharkus.

And just like that, a wicked grin on his face, Tharkus backed up to a wall, and vanished, his inhuman flesh seeming away through the cracks. Ganondorf pulled the crystal shard from his abdomen, his own flesh melding rapidly around the wound as he stood up. The building began to tilt, the area they were in sinking as the other side rose.

"This whole thing is going to lay over on its side," Ganondorf said to Ralthas.

"Will it stay airborne?" the judge asked.

"No."

* * *

"Gods save us," King Rigdar whispered.

The ropes holding the fortress within reach of the portal were going slack, and as he watched, the entire massive structure was laying over on its side as it grew even larger in his vision. He was surrounded by screams as the men around him realized what was happening. Formations dissolved and panic took hold.

There was a flash from the central keep of the structure, an explosion, and something flying out from it. Then in a swirl of red, a new shape appeared in the air.

Midna, bright red and enormous, landed with her feet on the streets. The king recognized her, but she must have been at least thirty feet tall now. She put her hands up, and the lowest part of the enormous structure descended into her palms.

She looked like a single straw trying to hold up a mountain, but she fought the weight. Growling in effort, her elbows buckled, and she quickly turned, catching it on her shoulders. Her face contorted in the effort and her knees shook, not trying to hold it up, the king realized, but just trying to force it to the side. Damage from the impact was unavoidable, but she was trying to not let it land on the city itself.

But like a straw trying to hold up a mountain, her knees gave way, and she was able to do little more than slow it, and that was only barely noticeable.

On her knees, and the fortress pressed inexorably down, she let out a scream of frustration and agony. Her red body shattered, vanishing just as quickly as it had appeared, and a small streak of light shot away from where she had been.

King Rigdar turned to the courtyard, where men had fallen to their knees, praying and begging for salvation as they watched their doom descend upon them.

The king clapped his fist to his heart in salute. "Gentlemen," he said, "It has been an honor."

The bottom tip of the structure struck the first rooftops. A second later, the shaking started. Screams filled the air as the shaking itself toppled buildings and walls. Men and women were crushed in the wreckage, and still it went on. The citadel itself began to collapse as it fell, creating not one single impact, but an ongoing eternity of carnage and destruction.

Some distance away, high in the air, Link could only watch in horror at what was happening. Suspended in Midna's magical hands, he, Kilishandra, Alex, and Silviana had escaped unscathed. They could hear the screams over the rumble of the shaking and impacts.

Link had once thought the sight of innocent people, trapped in darkness and surrounded by monsters during Zant's attack would be the most terrible thing he would ever see.

This was so much worse. And none of them could do anything but watch.


	103. Chapter 102

**Chapter 102: From the Ashes**

When the dust finally settled, what followed was even more dreadful than the sight of the massive structure crashing down onto the city. The gigantic city, with its population of nearly eight million, lay in ruin. The citadel, while a fraction of the size, had crashed down just outside the castle courtyard. The earth shook violently for what seemed like an eternity, yet in reality was about five minutes. The castle had crumbled into the courtyard, and the tunnels carved directly into the mountain behind it collapsed, causing the entire face of the mountain to shift and spill down in a massive rockslide.

It was from atop this enormous pile of rubbled that Ganondorf and Ralthas surveyed the destruction. The wizard's ability to fly had saved the two of them. Even Ganondorf was surprised that he had snatched the judge during his escape.

What hadn't been destroyed under the crashing fortress had been shaken apart by the resulting quake. Standing on the ground level, the city had seemed to reach past the far horizon. Now it was piles of rubble, dotted only mildly with still standing buildings. Survivors began to slowly pull themselves from the wreckage, and the initial panic fading, many sank down where they stood, as if unable to believe the level of destruction, either crying or just staring in silent despair. Many more, however, either through denial or desperate hope, began searching the wreckage for their families and other survivors.

It was relatively easy for Ralthas and Ganondorf to organize groups to begin combing the wreckage, though Ganondorf claimed one group for his own use as he explored the destruction of the citadel itself, finally selecting a location and telling them to dig, and assuring them that the one he was looking for was alive.

As they dug into the wreckage of the citadel, they began to discover rooms, passages, and even entire sections that were largely intact. Survivors of both sides were pulled from the destruction, the fight sapped from them. Lacking the real means or even desire to restrain Khall's men while the rescue went on, they were instead deposited in a cleared area, where several Darimar troops were stationed to watch them, but it was not long before they were up and assisting with the rescue efforts.

But for every survivor that was pulled from the rubble, ten were found dead. It was a soul crushing experience to pull aside a piece of rubble and find an arm or foot sticking through, only to then find it cold, or even worse, torn from its owner entirely. To find a victim who had been utterly crushed, or impaled.

"It's amazing," Ralthas remarked, watching men dig in the rubble, "When we were talking of the possibility of the building falling on the city, I never thought for an instant it would actually happen. I didn't imagine that they would actually be able to do it."

Ganondorf was standing beside him, his arms crossed, the giant of a man seemingly undisturbed by what lay around them. "I hope you mean you thought them above such an act, not that they were physically incapable," he said, "But in the end, that's all evil needs, that good men 'can't imagine.'"

Ralthas glanced at him, as the wizard retrieved the small bag of tobbacco from his shirt pocket, loading it into his smoking pipe. "Evil, huh?" Ralthas asked, "What about that whole 'evil is merely a perspective' you were always on about."

"It is," Ganondorf said, "Khall will go down as the villain in this affair, most likely, and history will forget his perspective on the story. But Tharkus…" He paused, taking a pull on the pipe, holding it for a moment before letting it out with twin jets of smoke from his nose. "He has fallen so far beyond even what I can tolerate. Not just the slaughter, but the fact everything ties into him. He used Khall, Kilishandra, and all the others for his own ends, with no care of what would become of them."

"How do you know that?"

"He's the one who dropped the building," Ganondorf said, "Intentionally, I might add. Remember that sneer he had when he noticed us, and shattered the crystal? Now you can honestly tell people that you have seen the face of true evil, perspective or no."

"And you wouldn't have done the same?" Ralthas asked.

"What I would have done is irrelevant," Ganondorf said, "Though I'll admit you're taking this well. Not worried about your daughter?"

"I'm trying to not think about it," Ralthas said, shaking his head, "Breaking down now won't help anyone. What about Tharkus, though? He's in this mess somewhere, and I doubt it would kill him."

"Nothing we can do but listen," Ganondorf said, "If you hear screaming or explosions, let me know. But I think he's already gone anyway."

"We'll have to deal with him eventually," Ralthas said.

"Everything in time."

After two hours of working into the citadel, and ensuring the intact passages would not collapse while the worked, the team reported finding another intact chamber, where one of the crystals was, and nineteen survivors, soldiers and several ninja, that they were already pulling from the room and guiding out of the passage.

Ralthas felt his heart skip when Sheila emerged into the sun. She was dirty, covered in dust, her clothing torn, and bleeding from several scratches on her arms and face, but walking on her own. She looked around at the destruction with a dazed expression, as if not quite believing what she was seeing, in spite of riding through it first hand. She stopped a short distance from her father, looking as if she was searching for something to say, but wasn't sure what it should be.

Ralthas reached out with one hand, taking hers and pulling her toward him, and wrapping her in his arms, holding her in a tight hug. For some reason, the thought that she might not have made it didn't really sink in until he saw her climb from the rubble, and he suddenly realized how close he had been to losing her.

Ganondorf moved away from them and descended into the opened passages, to make sure the diggers were still going the right direction.

* * *

Zelda finally regained consciousness, finding herself in the dark. When she stirred, someone else moved, and she realized she was lying on another person's legs. "Who's there?" she asked.

"It's Arthur," came the reply.

"Where are we?" was her next question.

"Not exactly sure. I kind of lost track when the place started falling apart. I'm surprised you slept through it."

"What happened?"

He started at when she passed out, telling her about his attempt to get her to safety when the structure started to turn beneath them, and then the chaotic moment of impact and the passages collapsing around them. Zelda was herself amazed that she hadn't awakened during that chaos.

"This room we're in now held up," Arthur said, as she sat up, "But I can't find a way out that isn't blocked by rubble."

"We're incredibly lucky we weren't crushed," Zelda said, climbing to her feet.

Nothing hurt when she moved, and a quick check assured her that all four of her limbs were still attached, so that was a good thing. She still felt exhausted, though, both physically and mentally. She silently called out, hoping Ganondorf could still hear her.

There was no response. Perhaps she was too tired, or something else was interfering. It was then that she realized that he was likely caught in the falling structure as well. At this point, it was nearly impossible to think of him as dead from something so mundane as being crushed under rubble.

"Gods," she whispered, suddenly realizing what the structure falling on the city meant, "The damage to the city will be catastrophic…"

"Yeah," Arthur said, "It looks like they got all five kingdoms after all."

Not willing to give up just yet, Zelda closed her eyes, focusing on her Triforce. She tried to reach out with it, to feel for the other two, but again, she found no response. The effort did take an effect on her, as her knees shook and she was forced to sit down. She was just too exhausted.

"Are you okay?" Arthur asked, concern in his voice.

"Just tired," Zelda said, "I need some sleep. Then maybe I'll be able to talk to Link or Ganondorf through the Triforce, try to guide them to us."

"You think they'll be able to dig us out?" Arthur said, "Assuming they're not trapped as well, that is."

"We're not going to starve in one day," Zelda said, "We've got a little time." She paused, then added, "Not even hunger that will get us, it'll be thirst."

"That doesn't make me feel better," Arthur said.

"Sorry," Zelda said, reaching one hand out searching for him, "Do you mind?"

"Go ahead. Not like I have somewhere to be."

He had already removed his armor, though she did not know where it was in the room, leaving him in the padded clothing worn under the chain mail and plates. She scooted closer, leaning against him and resting her head against his chest.

Even her empathy that she had become so used to was barely there. She realized that she hadn't been able to feel anything from him until now, in this close proximity, and it was difficult to make sense of. A mixture of fear and anxiety, which was to be expected given their situation, and yet a small amount of happiness.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I suppose, all things considered," he said, "I don't have any cuts and nothing's broken, so it could be worse."

That was all, and silence filled in around them, pressing down hard.

"I'm sorry," Zelda said, more to break the silence than anything, "This is the second time you've seen your home destroyed."

"Well, I didn't really see it this time," he said, "But I suppose. I guess it hasn't really sunk in yet."

"I've lost my own home twice as well," Zelda said, "About two years ago, I saw my kingdom covered in darkness, and my people were taken by that darkness. They were saved, only to lose them again to a magic spell that turned everything and everyone to stone."

"That's why you came here," Arthur said.

"Yes," Zelda said, "Though I guess I'm not helping. My people at least still have a chance. The people killed here don't."

"There have to be other survivors," Arthur said, "No way we're the only ones."

He lifted his arm, allowing her to move closer and get more comfortable as he put it around her shoulders. After a moment of silence, he changed the subject of discussion. "So, when you use that thing, that Triforce of yours," he said, "does that always happen to you?"

"Do I always pass out?" she replied, "If I push myself too hard. It drains my strength incredibly fast."

"That wasn't what I was referring to…" he said, and paused to clear his throat, letting it fall at that.

"You'll have to be more specific," Zelda said, "The last thing I remember is firing it at Tharkus."

"Nevermind," Arthur said, "Don't you need some sleep?"

"Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing, I just… Don't worry about it."

He was embarrassed about something. It wasn't something that could be hidden from her, just as it was impossible to lie to her. But as usual, she hit a wall in the fact she could not read his actual thoughts. It was actually kind of cute, in a way. It was amazing, how much of a character transformation he had gone through since she first met him.

She remembered that day. It had almost been amusing, the womanizer attempting to seduce a woman who not only was not the damsel he was used to fooling, but also able to see through his attempts from the start. And apparently, in the course of a single afternoon, he had fallen in love with her, because of the fact she was immune to both his charms and his supposed skill in the matter.

She did not believe love could bloom so quickly, but he did certainly act more mature now than back then. She had had and impact on his life, though watching the city burn around him was a much harsher wake-up call. It had been Kilishandra that burned the city as he watched.

It had been so much easier with Zant. She had been able to see the world in black and white then. But Kilishandra and Ganondorf working with them now… Tharkus was definitely still the black, the evil that needed to be destroyed. But in spite of what they had done before, Kilishandra and Ganondorf were so much harder to decide on.

Black and white was easy. But there was so much grey now, and that was something she didn't know what she was going to do with.

At the least she could say that she had put a spark of light in Arthur's life, and it had certainly grown. When they first met, she would never have lowered her guard near him, but now she felt perfectly safe with his arm around her.

And that odd spark of happiness she felt, she was sure what it was now. It was because of her.

"I can't sleep," she said.

"Do you want to lay down?" he asked, "I can was my shirt up for a pillow."

"No, I was just thinking about something," Zelda said, "It might not be the best time, but do you remember that night, when you kissed me?"

"I'm sorry about that," Arthur said, "I kind of got ahead of myself, I guess."

"Are you still hoping to become a man worthy of me?" Zelda asked.

"_How can I become a man worthy of you?"_ That was the question he had asked before they parted ways, when she had been leaving the city with Link and the others. He had been in bad shape at the time, having been roughed and beaten by a pair of thugs, in addition to being robbed.

He had grown so much since then, as a person. Probably just saved her life. And now, just the two of them, trapped here together.

"I don't think I've done much to do that," he said.

"More than you know," Zelda said.

What harm could it do? Those wretched advisors insisting she marry for an alliance, and maintain her virginity until then, were thousands of miles away, and not even conscious. She was already planning some serious changes when she got back anyway. She had done so much growing as a person as well, on this journey. She was supposed to be a leader, and yet throughout her life, she had let others guide her, from the nobles of Hyrule, to Link, to Ganondorf. It was time she took matters of her life into her own hands.

Being royalty shout not be a punishment just for being born to her mother. She did have a responsibility to her kingdom and her people, but her own love life should not have an impact on that. If she did have to endure a political marriage, kings throughout history had often had mistresses and consorts, so why could a queen not do the same?

Her thoughts were interrupted as a sound emerged from the silent darkness, making her ears tingle.

"Do you hear that?" she asked, sitting up.

"I do," Arthur said, rising to his feet, taking a few steps from her and paused, listening for it, and added, "Over here."

Zelda moved after his silhouette. There was a definite sound, though, and as they neared the rubble blocked passage, it was louder. Zelda leaned her ear against the wall.

"Sounds like scraping," she said, and couldn't help but smile, "Diggers!"

Arthur let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank the gods," he whispered, "We're not the only ones."

"Where's your sword?" Zelda asked.

"Oh, it's over here," Arthur said, moving back to where he had piled his armor.

"Bring it over here," Zelda said, and when he returned, "Just stand with your back to the wall and tap the pommel against it. If we can hear the scraping, they'll be able to hear it. When you get tired, I'll take over."

"I get it, try to guide them to us," Arthur said.

The sounds of digging grew steadily louder, but it was still another three hours before the rubble blocking the passage out crumbled, and the flickering light of a lamp pierced the darkness of the chamber through the resulting hole. Hands appeared, pulling large pieces of stone aside and out of the way, expanding the hole. Once it was large enough for a body to pass, Zelda and Arthur were guided out of the tunnel to the surface.

A light rain had begun to fall, but stepping out of the rubble was like climbing out of their own grave, and all the relief that represented. As Zelda climbed the last few steps from the passage, she found a hand offered to her, and looked up to see Ganondorf standing over her. She took his hand and he pulled her up onto her feet.

Everything she had imagined had not prepared her for the sight of the city, and the sheer amount of destruction that surrounded them. It was far worse.

* * *

Ilia looked up as light appeared from the ceiling, squinting against the sudden flash in the dark room. There had been more people taking shelter here than she had original thought, as she looked around at the faces all suddenly looking up. Most of the castle staff had been evacuated before the battle began, and this group had been taking shelter in the basement of a city guard barracks near the east wall of the city.

As the light grew, and hands appeared to expand the hole, people around her started shouting, cheering, and even crying. It as a few minutes before people were able to be pulled from the room, their rescuers lowering a rope fashioned into a sling and hauling them up one at a time. There was a rush that nearly turned into a fist fight as people rushed to be the first, though a man stepped forward to take charge and talked them down from being idiots fairly effectively.

Ilia thought she recognized him, though had never met him. The dark skin with the blonde hair and beard, and he clearly knew how to speak with authority that made one hesitant to argue. He was Maylow, she finally recalled the name, the king of another kingdom up north, at least until it had been razed. She had seen him around the castle, but he tended to keep to himself.

Finally, Ilia herself was lifted up in the sling and pulled out into the dim daylight and rain. She was guided away from the work so that they could get the next person up.

"Hey, I know you," one of the men said, "You're Link's friend, right?"

She looked at him. "Um, yes," she said, "Who are you?"

"My name's Alex," he said, "You're not hurt, are you?"

"No," Ilia said, "Is Link okay?"

"He's fine," Alex said, "We weren't actually in the city when it… happened. We were about two hundred feet up."

Ilia turned from him, looking at the destruction around them, shaking her head before turning back to Alex. "Where is Link?" she asked.

"He went off that direction," Alex said, gesturing with one hand, then pointed back the other way, "They're getting some shelters set up over there. There will be food and stuff, and if you're willing, they need extra hands to help with the wounded."

"I'll be fine," Ilia said, "I need to talk to Link."

She started moving in the direction he had indicated, picking her way over the rubble. Alex shook his head, watching her go as no one else seemed to take notice of her passing. Well, everyone was stressed to hell and back, he knew. This level of destruction, it was like a bad dream that he couldn't wake up from.

Maybe nobody could really quite believe it yet. He was certainly having a hard time of it himself, and he had watched it happen from above. It was definitely going to be a nightmare he was going to have for years to come, that much he was sure of.

* * *

Stone shifted and scraped on itself under Link's feet as he climbed the tallest rubble mound he could find, stopping at its peak to look to the north, over the city. The city itself reached nearly to the horizon, and it seemed like the destruction reached just as far. Crossing this city on foot took nearly three days, it was so massive. He had made that trip himself. And now it would be three days through carnage.

A city of nearly eight million living souls, crushed in just a few moments. So much life snuffed out in an instant, and as optimistic as he tried to be about the rescue efforts, there was no way to find all the survivors in time. Three days, at the most, then they would begin dying from thirst, buried under the rubble.

"Hero," he said to himself, and kicked a rocked down the side of the mound, where it clattered as it rolled, "Yeah, right."

It had been Tharkus that caused this. Link knew it. And he had let the necromancer escape him, when he could have stopped it all. That thought was haunting him.

Link understood that the kind of things he did were beyond most people, and for that reason they called him a hero in Hyrule. But he knew that he didn't do such things for the greater good, as many liked to believe. It was too easy to forget such things when one tried to focus on so many. The masses became faceless, and one would lose touch with why he fought for what he did.

He'd always focused on the faces he knew, his friends, the people he considered family. They were what he fought for. He would never lose touch with "why" when he thought of them. He had also thought it would protect him from despairing over those he could not help, the faceless mass that were doomed before he even began.

He was wrong.

So many people dying like this, it was not something he could just write off as a number, a statistic in the greater scheme. He found himself envying Ganondorf's apparent heart of stone, considering the pain going through his own. To be surrounded by so much death, it was like walking through a fog of despair, as it tried to eat away at him if he would let it.

He heard the rocks behind him shifting as someone approached. He looked back, expecting Midna to be close. It was Kilishandra instead, and he turned back to the city as she moved up beside him, coming to a stop where she could see the same sight.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Link asked, "This city was millennia old, and it was torn down in just a few moments."

"Nothing lasts forever," Kilishandra said.

"You never expect it to end like this, though," Link said, "At the last second, someone's supposed to save the day, right? That's the way stories always go: Everything builds up to an all or nothing moment, and the heroes have their backs to the wall, but they always pull it off in the end."

"I've never been one for stories," Kilishandra said.

"That's not the point," Link said, "History is like that too. Someone always manages to stop it. You never expect something like this to happen, because someone will stop it. You just expect someone to stop it. Some exemplary person who stands up to the monsters, risking his own life for everyone else.

"People like me are supposed to stop crap like this."

Kilishandra looked down at him. He was staring straight out over the city, his face set like stone, but his voice had wavered on that last statement, trembling just a bit. She remembered her own doubts, after she had razed Whitos-Neiki. She comforted herself by telling herself she had been forced to do it, the curse laid upon her to ensure her loyalty, but remembered she had accepted it willingly. Yet she should have stood up to Khall and Tharkus even then, because it would have been the right thing to do. Maybe she could never make up for it, but she intended to try.

"You mean people like us," she said.

Link turned his head, and she saw a small smile flicker across his face. His eyes, though, betrayed the sadness within, but Kilishandra also saw the anger, the untapped rage that he was holding on to. She smiled, knowing that would be ready when it was time. This was not a moment of doubt, it was a moment of simply taking a breath, taking stock, and preparing for the next step.

This was it, Kilishandra realized. What so many others following him almost religiously for. Even his darkest moments, when he allowed himself to show he was human after all, to show his weaknesses, were not enough to drive him to give in. He truly was unstoppable, once his course was set.

She had already seen it, of course, but hadn't let herself believe it. In terms of sheer power, she was far his superior, and yet for some reason, she knew that if he really set his mind to killing her, she doubted she would be able to stop him.

Even Ganondorf, with his absolutely relentless way of pursuing his goals, did not have this kind of unshakable drive. And maybe, she thought, this was the kind of thing it took to make the real heroes of legend.

And she wanted to be part of it, she realized. Kilishandra cared little for glory and legend, and even less for being one herself, yet looking at him, it wasn't just that he was capable, but she found herself wanting to follow him, to be part of what he would do.

Perhaps it was something even more than that, but she knew that would be too much. She found herself silently wishing Link had not already give his heart to another, not that she would immediately throw herself at him, but under it all, he was such a good man and even she was surprised that she felt oddly close to him…

"I'm with you until the end, whatever happens," she said.

"We owe Tharkus a debt of pain," Link said, "For every person who died here today. That's what will happen."

* * *

Some distance away from Link and Kilishandra, Ilia had stopped short when she saw them standing together. She was ashamed to spy, but she had come close enough to listen in on the conversation.

When Link had said "People like me are supposed to stop crap like this," Ilia had sighed, realizing she was likely the last person who could comfort him at a moment like this, and turned to begin moving away, nearly crashing into Midna, who had come up behind her.

"Where are you going?" Midna asked, looking past her at Link and Kilishandra.

"To the shelter," Ilia said, "See if I can help in some way."

As she moved past, Midna caught her arm. Ilia turned to her, though Midna was still watching Link.

"Answer me just one thing," Midna said, finally turning to her, "Do you love Link?"

The question was blunt, but Ilia had seen how Midna and Link looked at each other, and about the fact Midna had been sharing his room even after assuming this form. And even so, she felt the tears coming to her eyes, her vision blurring as she thought about it.

Her voice, however, was steady and even. "I do," Ilia said, "But I love Link the farmer. Not Link the hero. I can't… I wouldn't be able to go with him, like you do, and the fear that each time he leaves might be the last I would see him… I wouldn't be able to take it."

"I see," Midna said, turning back to watch Link and Kilishandra. Ilia could read nothing from her face, but it was clear that she was deep in thought about something. "Thank you," Midna added, releasing her grip on Ilia's arm, "That's all I wanted to know."

"What about you?" Ilia asked, "Shouldn't you be the one up there with him right now?"

"Maybe," Midna said, "But I think the kind of comfort I could give isn't what Link wants right now."

"Just promise me you won't hurt him," Ilia said, "I mean by getting his hopes up only to…"

"I would never hurt Link," Midna said, "Could you?"

* * *

Evening came, the rain growing stronger, and the rescue teams were forced to stop work and go to the hastily constructed shelters for food and warmth, intending to resume work first thing in the morning. Little more than large tents, they would have to do for the time being.

Link returned with Midna and Kilishandra both in his wake, and seeing Zelda, Ralthas, and Sheila sitting near a low-burning fire sheltered from the rain, moved over to them.

"Are you all right?" he asked, turning to Zelda and Sheila as he leaned under the lean-to blocking the rain.

Zelda looked up at him, nodding. "Tired, but alive," she said.

Sheila smiled at Link, and nodded, just turning silently back to the fire.

"Did you get Khall?" Zelda asked as Link sat down by the fire, Midna and Kilishandra settling down on either side of him.

"Yes," Link said, "Right before the whole thing came down."

"Must have felt good, all things considered," Ralthas said, glancing at Midna.

"Honestly, at the end, when I spoke to him, I had a hard time hating him," Link said, "In fact, I think I pity him more than anything."

"At least it's one more we don't have to worry about," Zelda said.

"How is the rescue effort going?" Kilishandra asked Ralthas.

"At this point, I think we've got about twelve hundred people alive," Ralthas said, "We'll find more tomorrow, I hope, but after that… Well, from the third day on, the odds of finding survivors is going to shrink dramatically each day."

"That's all?" Midna asked, "From a city of eight million, only twelve hundred people?"

"That's all."

"Shit," Link growled, "Tharkus… He's going to pay for this."

"You're planning to go after him then?" Ganondorf asked as he approached the fire, crouching low to get under the shelter and stepping into the firelight.

"Of course I am," Link said, "We know where he'll be. That tower out west of the mountains. And that's where he'll have the Twilight Mirror."

"We can't leave that in his hands," Midna said, "Better to destroy it, if we have to."

"Even if we do know where he is, we don't have an army to assault the tower," Ralthas said, "Not to mention the mountain range you're intending to cross is impassable. I know of know passes that do not go too high. The air grows thin as you go up, to the point you'll suffocate before you cross the top."

"We'll be going under, not over," Kilishandra said, "Where the citadel used to be, there is a passage under the mountains. Natural caverns, the very same path that we used to cross to this side. It goes all the way through."

"We can take a small group through," Link said, "Lightly equipped, able to move fast and carry what we need."

"Meanwhile, these people will need to be evacuated," Ganondorf said, "I'm sure you've noticed the earth around the city has turned black. That is Tharkus' blight in effect. If you stay here, you'll find that no crops are going to grow, and very soon there won't be any game left to hunt either. In a way, it's actually fortunate that it's not going to be an attempt to move eight million people. Such a thing would be impossible. Just over a thousand is actually manageable."

"I don't like your attitude toward this nightmare," Ralthas said, glaring at him.

"He's right, though," Zelda said, "Not to sound cold, but we have a chance to save what people are still alive. We just need somewhere to take them all."

"I'm sure the other four kingdoms of this land are already blighted as well," Ganondorf said, "The best option would be to take them to Hyrule."

"That's a long way," Link said, "Not to mention there's an ocean in the way."

"Maybe Lagress," Ralthas said, and when the others turned to him for clarification, added, "It's a port city in Metallicana. Largest one on the coast, and the only one I know of to have a formal navy. They'll have big ships, military and merchant vessels. If three or four of the galleons survived, it should be enough."

"Going to pack them into the cargo hold like sacks of wheat I see," Ganondorf commented.

"We don't exactly have a choice," Ralthas said, and turned to Zelda, "Would Hyrule be able to handle our refugees?"

"A couple thousand wouldn't be an issue," Zelda said, "Provided the curse that brought us here in the first place is broken. The Master Sword carries the restoration spell, so we'll need to bring it with us, and someone capable of casting it. I'm afraid my knowledge of magic isn't enough that I would trust myself to cast it."

"I could do it quite easily," Kilishandra said, "But I want to go after Tharkus."

"As do I," Ganondorf said.

"That leaves me, then," Sheila said, looking up and turning to Zelda, "I'll go with you, and we'll finish what we started."

"That would be for the best," Ralthas said, "Not to mention the people will follow you more easily than a foreigner, even if you're just doing as she says."

"They'll be following you," Sheila said, then looked up at him, "Won't they?"

"Not this time, I'm afraid," Ralthas said, 'I'm going to be going after the necromancer."

"Father, no," Sheila said, "You don't have to go with them. I need you with us…"

"You'll do fine," Ralthas said, "But you have to understand, Sheila, that I am still a judge. I took a vow to protect the innocent and uphold the law. And failing that, should the worse come to pass, as it has, my duty becomes to avenge those lost.

"Silviana will of course be coming as well," he added, turning to Link, "She took the same vows I did. That is not problem for you, is it?"

"If you can keep up," Link said.

"That won't be an issue," Ralthas said, and turned back to Sheila, "I'm sorry, but you'll understand one day, I hope."

Sheila just shook her head silently, turning her eyes back to the fire.

"How are you going to get back, once it's done?" Zelda said.

"I'll construct a travel spell," Ganondorf said, "We'll leap across the ocean in a single bound."

"Aren't those inaccurate to the tune of thousands of miles at long range?" Ralthas asked.

"Only without a strong beacon to guide it," Ganondorf said, "We're fortunate in that Hyrule is a magical hotspot compared to most of the world. It's like a giant glowing bull's-eye. My error margin when aiming at it should be less than a hundred miles, not thousands."

"So if we can get to Tharkus in time, we'll have time left over when we're back in Hyrule," Link said, and when the others gave him questioning looks, went on, "I have good reason to believe that we've got about two months before Tharkus can use the Twilight Mirror to release Shaklator into the world. If we can prevent that, we've got about five months from now before a more direct gate can be opened."

"Five months," Ganondorf said, and snapped his fingers with the realization, "Walpurgis Night! Of course!"

"What's that?" Midna asked.

"It's a special time when the stars and such are all in perfect position that it thins the protective barriers between dimensions," Ganondorf said, "Magic is also amplified by the effect, to the point even minor spells have drastically increased results. Ancient history and legends say that it was the night when witches, and I mean real ones, not teenagers playing with elemental circles, would practice their blackest arts and broker deals with their demon masters. And it's coming in just five months.

"This makes it extremely easy to plan for the exact time Shaklator will likely be coming through, provided the Twilight Mirror is not used. The fact Tharkus has to wait until just three months before Walpurgis Night, for the barriers to already begin to thin, is indicative of just how powerful Shaklator is, and how important it is we stop this mess. As a being increases in power, it becomes exponentially more difficult for them to cross between parallel worlds. That's the effect of the barriers put in place by the gods when they created reality. Even I have a fairly rough time of it these days."

"So if we can prevent her from coming through, we'll have seven years to find a more permanent solution," Kilishandra said.

"Well, four," Ganondorf said, "Walpurgis Night occurs a bit more often in this reality than your home world, Kili."

"Wouldn't stopping Tharkus be enough?" Zelda asked, "If he's all that's left…"

"No," Link said, "Zero. I think he's still out there, in spite of that hit I gave him last time we met. He's connected to Shaklator as well. And if he does live, we're going to be seeing him again."

Ganondorf turned to Ralthas. "You're going to stop looking for survivors in two more days, you said?"

"I don't want to, but there won't be much point after that," Ralthas said, "Why?"

"Then we can have these people moving, and set on our way by the end of the week," Ganondorf said, "Time is officially against us, and we have none to waste."

Link nodded. "What happened here is terrible, but if we don't move quickly, it's going to happen to the rest of the world as well," he looked up, his face set in grim determination, "There will be time for mourning later. We have too much to do."

* * *

"Aren't you going to sleep?" Midna asked.

Link was still sitting up, watching the fires among the shelters in the dark, after he and Midna had moved away from the others, to a small tent constructed out of a few sticks and a waterproofed cloth against the rain. Link sat in the open end, his back to her where she had laid out the blankets that had been provided.

"In a minute," Link said, "I'm just thinking."

"What about?" Midna asked, moving on her hands and knees in narrow space toward him.

"What we need to do," Link said, "What I should have done. I had a chance to kill Tharkus, and he got away. Then he did this. This is all my fault."

"You know that's not true," Midna said, moving up behind him, "I was there, and there was nothing you could have done that you didn't. Tharkus is the only one to blame for this. And we'll get him, and make sure he can't do it ever again."

"I hope you're right," Link said, and sighed, "There's only so much you can take, so much death you can see before the fight's kicked out of you, and then…"

"And then your princess picks you up and dusts you off," Midna said as he trailed off, putting her hands on his shoulders, "and tells you you're every inch the hero you always were."

Link started to respond, but stopped as she kneaded her thumbs into his back on either side of his spine. What he had been about to say vanished as he gave an appreciative groan as she moved her hands to either side of his neck and worked his tense muscles.

"We're going to make it," Midna said, leaning close to whisper directly into his ear, "I know, because I believe in you, and the others with us."

"I know," Link said, "When we stop believing, that's when we lose."

"Exactly," Midna said, "Gods, you're so tense. Come in here and lay down, and I'll go over your back."

"I'm all right," Link said.

"No you're not," Midna said, "Trust me, you'll feel better by the time I'm done."


	104. Chapter 103

I should seriously get rid of my copy of Fallout: New Vegas. I intend to play for about an hour, next thing I know it's midnight, and I didn't get any writing done that evening. Positive point, though, it seems to be an effective antidote for the depression that sets in after finishing Mass Effect 3, which I was stupid enough to play a second time.

**Chapter 103: Diary of a Madman**

The floor shifted, beginning to tilt as the entire structure turned in the air. Unable to keep their footing, the group was sliding toward the wall that as now beneath them. Link snapped his sword home in its scabbard, snatching Midna's arm as he expertly arranged his feet and used his free hand to control their slide. Kilishandra's armor screeched along the stone floor as she ground her heels into the stone to slow her fall, and Alex and Silviana tried similar means to slow themselves.

The window on the far wall became the floor, and they could see the buildings below, rising slowly up toward them. Among their shouts of surprise and panic, Link shouted, "The whole thing is going down!"

Midna didn't think about it, and simply reacted. The mask called the Fused Shadow snapped into being around her and the pieces slammed into place around her face. Like always, a wave of heat shot through her body. When she had been cursed, trapped in the body of an imp, the power would try to explode out of her, nearly uncontrollable, but now, it wrapped itself around her and responded to her slightest whim with ease.

Link's hand lost its grip on her arm, his fingers leaving trails of black smoke in the air as they passed right through her flesh. A bright red glow appeared in the mask's eyes, and she snatched hold of Link's arm with one hand. The red light in the eyes of the mask moved to its peak, shooting upward and splitting into three red hands, each the size of a grown man, and snatched hold of Kilishandra, Alex, and Silviana.

Movement was so easy now, and all Midna had to do was choose a direction, and she was off like a shot, dragging them with her as she smashed through the glass window, away from the tower. She could hear Link shouting, but couldn't make out the words over the wind. She glanced back to see the massive structure, rolling onto its side as it fell downward. Screams of terror rose from the city below.

A new idea entered her mind, and she changed directions, quickly circling back toward the building. The power of the mask responded with only slight urging, filling her body and spreading around her. In just a moment, her feet touched the street, as she towered above the buildings, Link and the others held safe near her head. She looked up to see the structure coming toward her. Even at this size, it was utterly massive. She couldn't stop it, but perhaps she could turn it away from the city. The earthquake of the impact would still do a lot of damage, but not as bad as it landing on the city itself.

She lifted her hands, urging the mask to give her all the strength it could. The stone touched her palms and she braced her feet. Her elbows buckled almost immediately as it pressed down, not slowing a bit. Midna gritted her teeth, pushing up with her forearms against the stone, and still it refused to even slow.

She shoved to the side, the stone barking her skin, though she knew it wasn't her own skin but the power of the mask. She turned around, catching it on her shoulders and pushing up and to the left with everything she had. She felt it start to turn, but her shaking knees buckled, crashing down on the street as the massive stone structure pressed inexorably down. Midna pushed back with everything she had, screaming in her effort and frustration. The stone of the street crushed beneath her knees and she felt herself sinking into the earth below.

She fled, snapping the gigantic body of energy into nothingness, and streaking through the air away from the coming carnage, stopping about a hundred feet up and several hundred yards outside the city walls. Holding onto the others, she turned, watching as the building came down onto the city, and the screams of the people below was replaced with horrific sounds of destruction.

They watched in silence as a city over eight thousand years old was destroyed in a matter of minutes. A sight both terrifying and awe-inspiring. As the crashing sound of destruction began to die away and the dust began to settling, Midna turned to Link, but he wasn't there.

A completely different face greeted her. Pale blue skin, surrounded by black smoke, shaped into a body, and two blue hands reaching out for her. Midna pulled away, and urged the mask to unleash its force against him.

There was no response. She suddenly realized the mask was gone, looking down at herself to see only her own blue body, hovering high in the air above the ground.

The face was smiling as it moved closer. Its hands snatched her by the shoulders as she tried to dart away, holding her in a firm grip and dragging her back. Midna kicked and struggled, trying to break its grip as she was pulled closer. Her skin came in contact with the smoke of the creature's body, and her struggles stopped for just a moment as she watched in horror as her own skin began to peel away in long ribbons, spiraling into the creature to vanish into the darkness of its body.

She screamed.

Midna sat up with a start, gasping for breath. She was shaking, and covered in a cold sweat. It took her a moment to remember where she was, in the tent she had been sharing with Link. A bad dream, that's all, she told herself, trying to calm her racing heart. Then she realized she was alone.

"Link?" she called.

"I'm not far," came the response.

Midna untangled herself from the blankets and crawled out the open end of the tent, finding him sitting to the left, using a broken piece of glass as a mirror while he shaved. "Where'd you come up with a razor?" Midna asked as she climbed up and moved up next to him.

"Keeping it in my boot," Link said, "I got tired of going weeks at a time scratching my face."

The sun was barely peeking over the horizon, and already the rescue teams were up and moving, returning to their task. Midna watched the movement around them as she stood up, adjusting her clothing, which had shifted as she slept.

"You sound like you're feeling better," she commented as he turned his makeshift mirror to check under his chin for anything he missed.

"Physically, anyway," Link said, and setting aside the piece of glass, he picked up a canteen that was next to him, poured a little water into his palm, and splashed it onto his face to wash away the remaining suds of his lather, then folded the razor closed and tucked it back into his left boot. "Just looking at that," he went on, looking up at the wreckage of the city before them, "It's depressing just to see it. Like it wants to suck all the fire out of me."

"I know," Midna said, leaning against his side and slipping one hand into his.

Link squeezed her hand, then looked down at their hands before turning to her. "Are you okay?" he asked, "Why are you sweating?"

"I just woke up from a bad dream," she said.

Link turned back to the destruction surrounding them. "I guess I can't blame you for that," he said.

"So what do we do now?"

"For now, we have to wait," Link said, "I heard they found survivors in the basement of a barracks yesterday, and there's an intact armory down there, so we might head over that way and see what's available."

"You don't want to try to help with the rescue?" Midna asked.

Link sighed and turned to face her. "No, I don't," he said, "Aside from being just one more set of hands, I don't want to face these people right now."

* * *

"I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't seeing it with my own eyes," Ralthas commented to Ganondorf as they watched the digging team pull another five people from the rubble.

Zelda had pointed them to the location, even telling them how far down they needed to dig. She had been right, and she had simply needed rest, and the empathy she had come to rely on was back in full effect. She walked along in front of the digging team, "listening" for those trapped under the rubble, and telling them where to dig. Morale, at least, was rising, as the team found more survivors in the first hour today than in the first six the previous day.

"Too bad there's only one of her," Ralthas said.

"If I knew how to duplicate that ability of hers, I would," Ganondorf said, "What about the wagons?"

"I've got a group of engineers repairing the ones we found and building new ones as fast as they can," Ralthas said, "We'll have enough to move the people out of here in a few days. I just hope we'll find enough horses to pull them all."

"You'd be better off taking fewer wagons and having everyone who can, walk," Ganondorf said, "There's not going to be any grass for the horses to eat, and you'll have to carry grain. And be ready to butcher them before long."

"If they can just get to the port, they'll make it," Ralthas said.

"So you actually intend to come with us after Tharkus," Ganondorf said.

"Of course," Ralthas said, "I know Sheila would rather have me here, but I look at this…" He paused, gesturing the to rubble around them. "…and I know I can't just walk away."

"You might have some strength after all, old man," Ganondorf said.

"Look who's calling who 'old,'" Ralthas said, "I'm a spring chicken compared to you."

There was a crashing sound that cut off Ganondorf before he could respond, and they looked up to see the digging team quickly backing away from shifting rubble that was falling inward, into whatever open space had held it up. One of the diggers had accidentally cut the support that had held the rubble up, and caused it to cave in.

Once the dust settled, some of the diggers started to move back toward it, to try again, but Zelda stopped them, and in a moment they were following her to the next spot.

"That's the worst way," Ralthas said, "Knowing someone's under there, and then they're gone, just like that."

"There's going to be a lot more before this is over," Ganondorf said.

* * *

Link had built a small fire after retrieving a cooking pan and a few food items from an unearthed storehouse. After remarking his amazement that the cold storage beneath it had survived, and with even chicken eggs intact, he set about making breakfast for himself and Midna, rather than imposing on those cooking for the digging teams and survivors.

Midna sniffed appreciatively as he soon had a mixture of scrambled eggs, beef, and peppers sizzling over the small fire. She certainly wouldn't deny she'd eat just about anything with eggs, anyway. They were something she'd never had before meeting Link, and now, it didn't matter which of the seemingly hundreds of ways they could be cooked, she loved eggs.

As he stirred the mix, waiting for the eggs to solidify, Sheila approached their small camp, and Midna looked up and greeted her as she approached.

"Looks like you two are getting on well enough," Sheila commented.

"You want some?" Link asked as he stirred the eggs, "I might have to make some more."

"I already ate," Sheila said, and produced a leather-bound, plain book from under her arm, "I just wanted to give this to you. One of the digging teams pulled some more survivors out, and one of them was the scribe we had set to translate the journal you found. He had his finished copy on him at the time."

"Anything interesting?" Link asked.

"I've only glanced through it," Sheila said, "But I was right. It's the last diary of Thalandril Arkanus, starting when he became the archmage almost eight thousand years ago."

Midna took the book when she offered it, and Sheila excused herself, saying she need to go check on the progress of repairing what wagons had been found in some usable condition.

Link took the pan off the fire, setting it on a flat stone to cool, and took the book from Midna.

"So what was so important about this?" Midna asked.

"Oh, I didn't tell you, did I?" Link said, sitting down next to her, "Thalandril Arkanus, a wizard who lived eight thousand years ago, is the real name of Tharkus, the necromancer we're about to set out to kill."

"Are you serious?" Midna asked, "Someone living that long…"

"Given the age of Darius, and even Ganondorf, is it that hard to believe?" Link asked.

"No, you're right," Midna said, "So what are you hoping to find in there?"

"I'm not sure," Link said, opening the book to the first page, "Maybe just something to help me understand…"

* * *

4/16/3281

First entry in my new diary. I decided to start fresh, after taking the post of Archmage. The ceremony was held yesterday, with all the pomp and excessiveness one would expect. The queen herself presented me with the ring and scepter that are the symbols of my office. Useless baubles, really. Today I actually started to face the duties of the office, regulation of both the Academy of Magic and monitoring use of magic throughout the five kingdoms. If someone gets out of hand, or a black coven of witches or necromancers is discovered, I'm expected to deal with it, or at least delegate someone else to do so. I just hope it doesn't start to get in the way of my own research.

4/18/3281

I'm on the verge of a breakthrough, I can feel it. I suppose I should detail what I'm doing here, for posterity if no other reason. The element of farming, food production, that is and was always beyond the control of mortal men is the weather. Right now, in fact, Tyr is experiencing a drought like hasn't been recorded in nearly five hundred years. Nearly three years now, and barely any rain. We're having to import a large amount of food from Whitos-Neiki. If I can find a way to control the weather, end the drought, it will be the greatest magical discovery of all time.

It is difficult, however. Controlling an element for a brief moment, usually for the sake of destruction, is easy. Creating a controlled rainstorm is another matter entirely. A specific amount of precipitation is obviously desired. Not enough and the crops will starve, too much and it will drown them. And if it is not spread out over several hours at least, it will cause a flash flood. I'm experimenting with various sizes of magic circles, thinking that perhaps trying to perform a free casting will be too hard to control, so if I root it to a circle, then the circle can simply be erased when I desire the rain to stop. But the standard sizes, up to eight feet across, are simply not enough to restrain the amount of energy required. I must go larger…

4/24/3281

My time as Archmage is destined to be a tumultuous one, it seems. Just a week after my appointment, and who should reappear in the academy but Darius Dalwon. It seems impossible, considering he was believed dead for nearly three decades at this point. He was attempting to create a spell that would allow one to leap large distances in an instant, and had disappeared after an explosion in his lab that left nothing behind, not even wrecked furniture.

It seems, instead of being killed, he had been successful, but had leaped much too far. According to his story, he had jumped into a parallel world, and spent the better part of thirty years trying to find a way back, so inaccurate was his "travel spell," as he called it. I, for one, will never assume someone is dead until I see a body, that is for certain.

The biggest problem, however, is that he did not return alone. He brought with him a race of shadow beings that call themselves the Twili. They lost several of their number upon arrival. It seems sunlight is lethal to them, and even the light of a candle makes them uncomfortable. And then there is the artifact, the Twilight Mirror. Darius assured me that it was not dangerous with proper care. He told me it is a portal to other world, and he intended to study it, and find a way to send the Twili back to their own home, since bringing them here in the first place was an effort to rescue them from a world not their own.

An easy portal to other dimensions, in the form of a mirror. If it weren't for the fact Darius is being regarded as a damn hero, and it would undermine my authority if I tried to stop him, I'd have the thing locked in a vault fifty feet underground, have the door magically warded, collapse the tunnel, and then build a street over it. We know enough about the outer planes to know that some of them are best left undiscovered, and having a magic door right here in the academy makes me nervous. At least he didn't argue when I insisted it be kept under lock and guard to keep the students out.

4/25/3281

I had a long talk with Cain, the chieftain of the Twili. His presence makes people nervous, and I was forced to ask him to stay out of sight for the most part. Surprisingly, he did not argue much, instead stating that even his own people are nervous around him at times. That was not surprising, seeing as how most of the Twili look fairly human, aside from their blue skin and red eyes. Cain is like a living shadow, straight out of a nightmare. I wonder what could have caused such a wild mutation among their people to create a creature such as him. If it were not for my research elsewhere, I'd be tempted to ask if I could study him.

I also asked him to try to enforce that his people should not venture into public without clothing. I can actually understand and even respect the lack of a nudity taboo in their culture, but the number of "accidental injuries" among the students and populace of the city is a rising cause of concern, especially when a horse cart nearly killed several people because the driver was staring at a nude Twili.

* * *

"Well, that confirms what Darius told us before," Midna said.

"Seems like it," Link said, flipping forward through the pages filled primarily with research notes on magic to control the weather, "He brought the Twili here, from some other world, and Cain was among their number."

"It makes me wonder what kind of world we came from originally," Midna said, "Maybe there's still a thriving civilization there."

"Maybe we'll find out someday," Link said.

* * *

8/3/3283

My request for funding was denied again. I'm sure it will work if I can just get the raw materials! Building a circle the size and scope of what I need will not be a cheap process, especially considering when going on this scale, it must be a solid material, and since silver is the most effective, there's no logical reason to not use it. But five years of drought and people starving in the streets obviously isn't enough to convince the nobles that they should donate a piece of their money to my research.

Meanwhile, Darius' research on the Twilight Mirror flounders about, making no discernable progress, but I suppose gets away with it because he needs no extra materials, at least until some kind of spirit horse leaps out of the mirror and starts charging around the academy, terrifying the staff and students, thinking it is a ghost. Took ten of the senior mages, myself included, to erect a barrier to contain the beast and put it back through the portal.

I'm very tempted to go with my original plan for the mirror, and bury it under a street.

8/5/3283

Despite the grandness of my rank and title, I am constantly distressed by how little power I actually have.

I took a walk in the poor area of town today. I knew what I would see, but I wanted to be reminded firsthand why I keep struggling with my research, in spite of the lack of support.

I brought my wagon, and first went to the market, buying all the bread, vegetables, and other foodstuffs I could fit into it. The prices are becoming astronomical, with everything being imported from the other kingdoms, and it's no wonder the people in the poor district cannot even feed themselves.

I did as I always do when I walk the district, giving out the food the people I pass. It may be merely my reputation as a wizard that keeps the wagon from being swarmed, so I try to make sure everyone I meet gets something.

Sunken eyes, drawn faces all around me. A child in the crowd, barefoot and in ragged shorts, I could see every one of his ribs. It's all I can do to keep myself from bursting into tears at the sight, and the adults around him are no better. These people are starving, and the nobles do not care.

And it pains me that these trips are becoming fewer and further between. If the prices keep climbing, I won't be able to feed my own family if I intend to keep making these trips.

I'm going to appeal to the queen directly tomorrow, and if she refuses to aid my research, I'll have no choice but to abandon it. I'll find another way.

8/6/3283

Blast and damnation! My proposal was rejected again!

There's no choice. I can't make any progress without funding for the larger scale project. I have to find something else, some other way to beat the drought and get the farms producing, before that fat bitch on the thrown bankrupts the entire kingdom.

I'm no engineer, but at this point, an irrigation system is all that will work. Magic is no help, and while there is more than enough water in the river Thendores, to the north, redirecting it will require men and time to carve the passage to move it hundreds of miles this direction. I can't afford such workers out of my own pocket, so I'll start digging through the treasurery reports for the academy. The thought of embezzling the money leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but it's for a good cause.

Note to self, keep this journal under lock and key from now on. If I succeed, it will be the diary of a hero. Before then, however, it will just be evidence to get me arrested.

9/2/3283

I've been going through the reports for a solid month, and there just isn't enough money. I can slip a dozen silvers here, a sovereign there, but it will take decades to get the funding at this rate. That is too long to wait, and nature might even show sympathy on us and end the drought by then. No reason to think the kingdom won't have dried up by then, however, and people need help now.

What I need are cheap, expendable workers. Golems are the first thought that comes to mind, but they are expensive to produce. While one is capable of doing the work of ten men, and without food or rest, I'd still need several hundred to get anywhere close to getting the work underway.

I won't deny that other ideas have come to mind, but I'll need to be really desperate to resort to that kind of track.

9/7/3283

Cain scaring students again, this time by a screaming argument with Darius in the halls. The Twili are getting restless, what with his lack of any real progress with the mirror. Darius explained it to me as the simple fact that there are countless realities, and he's having to tune the mirror to go through them one by one until he finds the correct one. I can't fault the reality of the situation. It could take decades or even centuries to find their home reality, if it even can be found. But Cain is going to be a problem.

9/10/3283

A new arrival today. A young woman named Shaklator. She's from up north, past the mountains, where the people still live in nomadic tribes. She looks it, too. Looks like she's barely twenty, but her skin is tough like leather, and has quite a few scars. Dark red hair, about the same color as blood. Gives her an intimidating visage.

Seems she caused a commotion by single-handedly breaking up a slave ring, killed almost thirty men by herself. Darimar might be trying to back it off, but slavery is still legal here, and she's almost certain to be hung for those murders. Personally, I want to kiss her. To escape the situation of the city, people have started willingly signing themselves into slavery, not that life after will be that much better, but they won't starve. I hate to think of anyone having to do that, though. I'm more and more tempted each day to go down the path no wizard should ever approach.

I don't expect I'll be meeting this Shaklator personally. Too bad.

9/12/3283

Looks like ignorance of the law, and Darius' intervention, just saved the barbarian girl's life. For her people, it is an impossible concept that one man can own another, and the court had pity on her for that. They were going to exile her, but Darius, of all people, offered to take responsibility for her. Which means the next time she kills someone out of hand, it will be his head on the block as well. Honestly, that thought doesn't bother me all that much.

One of the slaves she rescued was a dark elf man named Patrick. Looks like with his newfound freedom, he's decided to start following her around as if she bought him. I'll never understand elves, that's for certain. If their numbers keep dwindling the way they are, though, they won't need to be understood.

9/15/3283

I've made up my mind. I am going down into the academy vaults to retrieve a book that was condemned to never again see the light of day. I can't stand sitting on my hands any longer, and this is going to come to an end.

As Archmage, the guards will have no reason to prevent me from entering the vault, and I'll take several books to cover my tracks, but if they see the one I'm actually after, I'll have no choice but to kill them, and then the kingdom will not be safe for me any longer.

9/15/3283 - Entry 2

I made it without issue. The guards are none the wiser, and here I am, back in my own laboratory, this accursed book in my grasp. Black leather, adorned with human bones on the spine, and no title. I suppose I needed a distraction and to shore up my courage before I actually open it. I wonder how many wizards turn to necromancy are as frightened as I am right now. But there's no other way.

9/16/3283

Flying through the black tome. It's remarkable how simple the practice of Necromancy actually is, and the book is written is such a way even a first year student could understand it. I suppose, with the stigma against its practice, the one who wrote it wanted to make sure anyone could access it if they have need enough. Well, I have that need.

9/20/3283

I'm back from a journey to the graveyard outside the city. My first attempt at reanimating a dead body met with remarkable success. It is not truly restoring life to the dead, but animating the corpse by binding an unintelligent spirit of magic to it, and it responds to my will, without even having to speak. I think that with practice, I could easily control hundreds, maybe even thousands of these things. The stories of necromancers commanding vast armies of undead might not be just fiction.

As I get further into the tome itself, the spells become more complex, and difficult, for long lasting binds, and even those that can keep severed body parts moving after they are cut from the body. There is also a procedure for creating a golem, like those we have of stone or wood, but using human flesh as its body. It seems that even a single drop of blood is enough to "grow" such a creature. This may be an avenue worth pursuing, if I am unable to use simple animated corpses for my purpose. To redirect the river to the north, I am going to need hundreds of bodies, and once work starts, I may not be able to hide what I am doing. By then, it shouldn't matter, however, as I will be able to explain my goal and simply point to what I am doing.

9/22/3283

Animated corpses are not going to work. They are extremely frail, it turns out. I had one try to dig a hole with a shovel, and its elbows snapped right off. Fresher bodies would work better, but committing murder to get them would draw too much attention and be too much even for me. People die every day, but by the time I amass the number I will need from fresh graves, the first ones will be well on the way to decomposition. It seems the stories of ancient necromancers are true, and animated corpses are worth little more than shock troops to overwhelm an enemy with sheer numbers.

I will have to pursue flesh golems. At least this means I can use my own blood samples for research, instead of desecrating graves in the night.

9/23/3283

My first samples failed even before I returned in the morning. Not actually that surprising, but delving into the procedure in the black tome reveals that I was mistaken. It seems golems cannot simply be grown from blood. They require other flesh to feed upon, and reshape into their own. This complicates matters. If it takes an entire human body to grow something roughly the same size, I'm going to need a lot of material. The one hope is that these creatures will last longer than the corpses themselves.

9/26/3283

I can't help but smiling. A couple of arms from a dead body and I've got a blob of living flesh about the size of a lapdog on my desk. I had to contain it, however, because when I touched it, a burning sensation made me pull back, and looking at my hand, it had peeled the top layer of skin from my palm in an instant. Prolonged contact and I'd have likely lost the hand.

Fortunately, it responds to my will, and if I focus, I can touch it without it eating my flesh. But the amount of concentration and effort is comparable to some of the most difficult spells I know. Controlling more than one will take effort I'm not sure I can muster. The tome does go into a method of control that involves living souls, or fragments of them, being implanted into the golem. It seems that through a long and fairly complex ritual, I can place a fragment of my own soul in the golem, and it will instinctively respond to my will, without the incredible effort. It also speaks that I can transfer my soul into such a golem entirely, and effectively become the creature, all my knowledge and memories moving over, effectively causing the creature to become me.

The rituals all demand blood as the primary component, however, and a lot of it. Entire bodies' worth, in fact.

That is something I am simply not willing to do, but I've already fallen so far, I'm starting to wonder how far I'll actually be willing to go for this.

10/3/3283

It seems a pair of first-year students thought it would be fun to break into my laboratory on a dare. I'm surprised they managed to pick all six locks without setting off the traps. None of the traps were lethal, of course, but the fact they bypassed them all surprised me, but not nearly as surprised as they were when I saw them and slammed a barrier up over the door to prevent their escape.

I was in the process of "feeding" my growing golem with parts I had retrieved from the graveyard last night, and with that accursed black book wide open on the table, I couldn't let them talk about what they had seen. One of them tried to defend himself, but a first-year's barrier couldn't even slow me down.

I do pride myself in the fact I stayed calm enough to avoid damaging their faces, so that I was able to identify them, and take their names from the roster as if they never enrolled and plant a bit of evidence in the city suggesting they never even reached the academy, and by morning, I will be able to see if my golem grows better on fresh materials than old. I've no doubt some questions will be asked, but they will be forgotten quickly enough. Finally, my position of Archmage is actually good for something.

10/4/3283

I was right! I'd fed the golem nearly five bodies' worth of pieces, and it was barely the size of a medium sized dog, but the two fresh bodies more than tripled its size overnight. Fresh flesh and blood works far more effectively than old and rotten parts. And it also took on a much more identifiable shape, with human arms and legs, rather than a shapeless blob, though it still had no head. But along with the increase in size, the golem has also become much more aggressive. It tried to attack me through the barrier that held it in check, and it was much more difficult to calm it through force of will.

It seems that to keep the golem under control for any length of time, I am going to have to perform the ritual that implants a piece of my own soul into it. But I will need a live blood sacrifice to perform the act. If I snatch up another student, it will draw too much attention, especially with the disappearance of the other two already. But out in the city, there are any number of people who would not even be noticed if they disappeared.

It's time to pay a visit to the poor district. There's no other choice.

10/6/3283

I spent the night in my lab last night. The ritual took longer than I expected, especially with the struggling sacrifice. No wonder Necromancers usually work in groups. It was not a pleasant experience, having to perform the act, but I can't deny the results. Just as with the animated corpses, the golem now responds to my slightest whim, almost no effort required, and I can touch its flesh without danger.

From what I can tell, it's similar to animating a corpse, except the spirit bound in this case was a piece of my own, and the golem is now like an extended part of my own body. The tome warns not to create more than two or three in a month, and that the process leaves my own soul damaged for a time. It seems it will recover, and I have not lost a piece of myself irreversibly, but creating too many at once will cause me to lose myself in the process. Maybe, with careful time and work, I'll have enough to begin work by next summer. That is counting on the faster growth rate of using fresh bodies, however.

Again, I'm wondering how far I'm actually willing to do for this.

10/12/3283

Just finished putting an additional seven locks and several new traps on my lab door. The second time a student sneaks in, and this time I wasn't present to deal with it. When I arrived, I found it unlocked, and upon entering, saw the girl that the golem held restrained, even smartly having one hand over her mouth to keep her silent.

Relieved that I hadn't been discovered by someone in power, I moved up to her, and without a word, took my knife and cut her throat. I decided to see how far a new golem would go on a single fresh body and set that into motion before locking up and going to my office to remove another name from the enrollment.

Turned out she was a second year. That was going to be a problem, so I instead set up a transfer to another school in Darimar. Not something as grand as the academy, but something no one would question at a glance, since it would be closer to her family. She would simply never arrive.

But after cleaning up the lab and creating an illusionary wall to hide the back where the golem and necromantic tools were, I sent for a locksmith to install more locks on my door, of the highest quality, telling him that it was a popular dare for students to break into the archmage's lab, and I didn't want them accidentally getting hurt.

I'll also be warding the door when I leave from now on. These break-ins have to stop.

10/13/3283

Things aren't going smoothly with the cover-up of the girl as I'd like. Seems her friends are asking questions, especially about the transfer, insisting she would never have left without saying goodbye.

I think my efforts to keep people out of my lab were in vain. If a wizard decides to start investigating, any member of the senior staff will notice the illusionary wall in an instant. As soon as I can, I'll need to move everything out to another location. There's an old crypt in the graveyard that should work until I find somewhere better.

Becoming more of the traditional Necromancer by the day, it seems.

12/17/3283

I suppose I should get back to writing in this thing. Can't just hide here and try not to think about it forever.

I was discovered, not two days after the last entry, by none other than Darius himself. He saw my lab, the book, and the golem. A wizard of his power was able to destroy it rather easily, along with the half-grown specimen from the student's body. I had to flee.

That night, when I went to retrieve my family, to take Angela and little Claire away from the city, who should be there but Darius again, standing over their bodies with blood on his hands. I was so enraged at the sight, I wanted to kill him then. But looking back on it now, I know it wasn't him. There was a burned body on the floor, of a man, killed by magic, and my wife and daughter, they had both been stabbed.

He had tried to save them and failed, but in the moment, I was too emotional. And now I am a known Necromancer, hunted everywhere. I don't know where to go from here. Just going to sleep for now.

12/19/3283

Had a most unexpected visitor today. None other than Cain himself, seeking me out. Not after my head or the price on it, but just to ask me why I did what I did.

I told him, about my failed attempts at magic to control the weather, then the idea to turn the river for irrigation, and lacking funds for a real engineering project, resorted to Necromancy to try to create cheap, expendable workers. Through it all, he listened quietly, and after I finished, he said that it sounded like I had done nothing wrong, even with the murders, and the real solution was that society was what needed to be changed.

And he's right. By all the gods in heaven, that's exactly what needs to be done. The current civilization is too lax, too great a divide between the haves and have-nots, and most importantly, too harsh on those like me, who try to do good, that will be branded a monster just because the people fear what he is capable of.

It will mean war. Humanity hates change, and will fight to preserve their miserable existence even against something that would be better in every account.

Tired of waiting for Darius, Cain wants a place the Twili can call their own, and I promised him that after the inevitable war is over they will have a land of their own. That was all it took for him to swear both himself and his people to me.

It will take time, and we'll need to gather people to us. I'll find a few people I can trust, and have them start to spread seeds of discontent through the populace of the five kingdoms, and promise them a better solution. Through that, we will build our army, supplemented by every corpse and flesh golem I can get, and we will tear down all five kingdoms, to build a single grand new empire. A kingdom ruled by wizards, who can use their magic to maintain order, and it will be like a new heaven on earth.

* * *

"That sounds a lot like what Kilishandra thought they were doing this time," Midna said, picking up the last bit of the eggs from the pan with her fork, "How do you go from that to psychotic rage to kill everyone in the world?"

"One could ask how one can so quickly go from being a wizard trying to end a drought through magic to a Necromancer who murders students under him to further his experiments," Link said, and gestured to the city around them, "Not to mention Khall. Trying to save his own world, and as a result leads to this. I wonder how many other villains in history were men with good intentions but decided that the ends justify the means."

"Is there any more?" Midna asked.

Link flipped ahead. "Looks like a lot about the progress of their war effort, getting people together, and more sacrifices to make his flesh golems."

He stopped at the last entry. Not dated, and notes from the translator that it was originally writing in a scrawling hand that indicated it was done in a hurry.

"Here I stand, in the temple of Eternity and Infinity, the twin gods of Time and Space," Link read out loud, "According to the holy texts' opinion on Necromancy, I should have been struck down upon entering. Darius will be here soon, and one way or another, the lines and sides will be drawn. If he joins me, he will see the great future I have planned for the world, and if he refuses, Cain will end him. I will leave this journal here, protected from the ravages of time under the watchful eyes of Eternity, so that if the worst should happen, future generations might have one means to know there was another side to this war than the one recorded in the mankind's histories."

"So he left it right where we found it," Midna said.

"Protected by Eternity?" Link asked, "Everything else we saw in there was wrecked, covered in dust. Why was the journal spared? The pages weren't even yellowed."

"I know you're not terribly religious, but maybe the Goddess of Time did have something to do with it," Midna said.

"If this was worth her making an effort," Link said shaking the book, "Maybe she could make the effort and just come down and tell us everything."

"What about that arrow we found there?" Midna asked, "Any chance it's a sign from her?"

"That's the problem with gods," Link said, tossing the book aside, "Signs and prophecies… I wish for once they'd just speak plain."

He rose to his feet, picking up his baldric and fastened it in place across his chest, making sure his sword was in easy reach over his left shoulder. "I'm going to go have a look at that armory they dug up," he said.

"Hang on, I'll go too," Midna said, quickly getting up and moving after him.

The armory in question was a basement, and a makeshift set of stairs had been built of wood to allow passage down to the more permanent stone stairway below. Upon entering, they noticed that another had arrived ahead of them.

Ganondorf was in the armory, having just finished adjusting the padded shirt he was wearing, picked up a chain mail shirt that he tossed on over his head, and in a series of quick motions, had it adjusted and belted in place with speed even Link could not match. A similar set of chain pants went on, stepping back into his heavy boots before picking up a heavy set of plate greaves that covered the front of this legs, and belted tightly around the back.

"You just going to keep staring or come in?" Ganondorf asked without turning as he picked up a breastplate and slipped his arms through the shoulder straps.

"I thought we were going to be traveling light," Link said as they came down the stairs.

Two quick pulls and the breastplate was tightened to the back half and Ganondorf rolled his arms to make sure he could move freely. "Light for you isn't light for me," he said, picking up a belt of throwing knives and tossing it over one shoulder, tightening it across the breastplate.

Next he picked up his own sword belt, quickly fastening it around his waist with the glowing white blade of his weapon at his hip. He paused, glancing over the other weapons laid out before him, and picked up a mace, testing its weight before setting it back down, and then smiled as he reached for a massive two-handed claymore.

"Now this is a man's weapon," he said, swinging the heavy blade through the air, hearing the 'whoosh' of wind as he did so.

The enormous sword was nearly as long as Link was tall, and the wizard handled it like a normal person would a longsword. With incredible ease, he slipped it into a matching sheath, and tossed it over his shoulder, strapping it into place across his chest alongside the belt of throwing knives. And over that all, he wrapped a large black cloak, tied around his shoulders, and turned around to face Link and Midna.

Every inch of Ganondorf screamed of a clichéd warrior hero of ancient legend, but Link admitted that a chiche only existed because it was at one point a reality.

"You going to be able to keep up with all that on?" Link asked.

Ganondorf started moving, and walked past them toward the stairs. "I'll be more surprised if you can keep up with me," he said as he passed them.

"It's hard to keep up with someone who can just fly around on their ego," Midna commented.

Ganondorf just laughed as he moved up the stairs and disappeared out the opening.

"Well, I'm not taking that much, but let's see what's available," Link said, moving toward the weapon racks.

After a time, the pair emerged from the armory, Link with a new chain mail shirt and shield, as well as a quiver of arrows visible over his right shoulder, opposite his sword, and a short bow in hand, and three knives on either side of his belt. Midna had found a wide belt and wore several knives upon it, though her own abilities were far more dangerous than any such weapon.

They paused there, outside the armory, watching the activity of the rescue teams, still working diligently around them.

"No further," Link said, "Wherever and whenever this started, it has gone on too long, and much too far. I'm not going to let him do this to Hyrule as well."

Midna took his hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I'm with you until the end," she said, and smiled, "But you already knew that."

Link nodded. Very soon, they would set out after Tharkus. The final leg of their journey was finally about to begin.


	105. Chapter 104

I know this one was short, but there's not really a way to extend it without going into the stuff for the next chapter, and I'd prefer it stand apart from this one.

**Chapter 104: Into the Blasted Lands**

The morning of the fourth day after the catastrophe, Sheila braced herself for another. Every preparation that could be made had been, and she looked over the line of wagons that had been salvaged, and a few built from scratch, and loaded with what food and supplies had been found, the people not arguing, but now she was going to have to ask them to leave everything that they saw here behind.

And if she expected them to follow her, she couldn't have her father make the announcement for her.

This was the last thing she wanted, to actually be a leader responsible for the lives of those who followed her, even if it was only until they reached Hyrule. Crossing the ocean seemed like a small feat compared to what she faced now, as countless eyes turned toward her where she stood.

Ralthas and Zelda at her sides gave her little comfort in this situation, though they had spent the past hour schooling her on what to say and how, her heart felt ready to leap out of her chest.

"My friends," she started, the words nearly choking in her throat.

"They can't hear you if you whisper," Ralthas said.

Sheila cleared her throat, taking a deep breath before looking up at the crowd before her, and trying again.

"My friends," she shouted so they could hear this time, "A great tragedy has befallen us, and I fear more is yet to come. You should know that in the final days, before our great city fell, the prince lost his life to an assassin, and I, the High Elder of the five kingdoms, was chosen as the heir of the Darimar crown, should the king lose his life in battle.

"As you all know, the king lost his life, along with so many others, when the city fell to a catastrophe the likes of which has not been seen in nearly eight thousand years, in the ancient war, when the wizard hero, Darius, razed over a thousand miles of land into a desert where life has even yet not returned.

"The difference is that this act, on our home, was intentional. On that fateful day, we were locked in mortal combat with an enemy that seeks nothing less than our complete and utter destruction. And while our enemy was not successful, it saddens me to know that those of us here are all that remain. Were it an option, I would stay here until we dig out the entire city, and find every last person buried in this nightmare."

Men in the crowd scowled at this statement, but none stepped up to interrupt her, and Sheila took a breath, at least feeling a bit of confidence creeping back into her.

"Unfortunately, our enemy was not satisfied with razing our homes and killing our people," she went on, and lifted one arm, gesturing to what lay beyond the outer city walls, "The last judges, as well as our own wizards, are in accordance. A sinister blight has been visited upon our lands. Were we to remain here, we would starve. No crops will grow, water will turn to poison, and soon there will be no game left to hunt. Though it pains me to say it, we must leave.

"This woman beside me," Sheila gestured to Zelda as we spoke, "She is not one of us. She is the ruler of a foreign land, far to the east, come here to save her own people from a disaster created by the very enemy we face. Once she had the key to saving them, she did not simply leave. She stayed with us, to fight to defend our lands, our homes, that were not her own. She was on the front lines during the final battle, and saw firsthand the terror visited upon us.

"And she has offered us her home. We must leave these lands behind, but will be welcomed to the country of Hyrule as if we were their own."

"What about the wizard that escaped?" came a shout from somewhere in the crowd, "What happens when he goes to this Hyrule and attacks it as well?"

"He will not," Sheila responded, and gestured to her father, "High Judge Ralthas Anthress will be leading a small group of heroes to the wizard's dark tower, in the Desert of Death, to put an end to him once and for all."

"That's it?" came the shout back, "A man who destroys an entire city just like that, and you're only sending a few people?"

Ralthas stepped forward. "We have neither the men nor the supplies to wage a campaign against him," he said, "A small group will be able to move quickly, carry all they need, and slip inside his defenses unnoticed. And I will be leading it personally. I promise, even if it costs my own life, he will not escape justice for those he has wronged."

"In the meantime," Sheila said, before the man in the crowd could shout again, "we will be going east, with the wagons we have been readying, to find ships to take us over the ocean to Hyrule."

"And you expect us to just up and leave? What if there are still people alive in the rubble?" came the arguer from the crowd again.

"If there are, they likely only have hours left," Sheila said, "They have been trapped for four days without food or water. I'm sorry, but the chances of finding a survivor at this point are next to nothing. As I said, if we could stay, I would certainly not be saying this. But we must be realistic. If we stay here and starve, then they truly died for nothing."

"And what is this 'blight?' How do we even know it's real?"

"Look down and see, you imbecile," came another voice from the crowd.

Bodies suddenly shifted, moving away from Ganondorf as he approached through the crowd. The wizard was armed to the teeth, in a full suit of plate minus the arms and helmet, his own sword at his belt, with the addition of a belt of throwing knives across his chest and the hilt of a two-handed sword visible over his right shoulder. As they formed a circle around him, he glanced up at Sheila before turning back to them as he leaned down, jamming his hand into the earth at his feet and lifting a handful of it to throw into the air. Black dust fell on the breeze before their eyes.

"The earth has turned black, and will support no life," Ganondorf said, "I've seen the blight firsthand before, and you can take my word that these lands will not support life for a good number of centuries. Those who don't want to leave, however, feel free to stay and find out for yourselves. Or maybe just come to me right now," he paused, pulling his sword halfway from the sheath on his belt, "and I'll put you out of your misery."

"You can't murder us right here because we refuse to leave our homes," someone else in the crowd shouted.

"It won't be murder," Ganondorf said, "It will be mercy killings."

"That is enough!" Sheila's voice rose, finding herself irritated with his behavior, "But he is right. Those of you who do not wish to leave, you may remain, but I warn you that you will die. Those of you who wish to have some kind of future, take what belongings you have and load them in the wagons. I want to be moving before noon."

She turned away from them, walking away with Ralthas and Zelda following her. There was murmering, but the crowd began to disperse, and many rushed to the hastily build shelters, and began taking down the tents and gathering what they could.

"That went better than I expected," Zelda said as the three moved to the rubble of where the city's east wall once stood. The wagons were lined up on the other side of the rubble, in a long line, while horses were being hitched to them to pull for as long as they were able.

"I was convinced that man was going to get them to stay," Sheila said.

"There's always at least one troublemaker in the crowd," Ralthas said, and smiled, "With a little practice, I think you could be a good leader."

"The only relief I have is that once we reach Hyrule, that's someone else's job," Sheila said, glancing at Zelda.

"You don't want me to make you a duchess, then?" Zelda teased.

"Gods no," Sheila said.

"Only thing that remains is to get our other group together, then," Ralthas said.

"Are you really sure about this?" Sheila asked, "I could really use your help here, not to mention that going off like this at your age…"

"You know what my answer is going to be," Ralthas said, "The Judges, including me, are not a part of the government of the five kingdoms. We uphold their laws, but more so, we represent the true meaning of justice, regardless of the context. If I were to turn my back on Tharkus now, I'd be turning away from everything I've been, for my entire life."

"Will you at least promise me that you'll be careful?" Sheila asked, "I don't want to lose you now, after all this."

"I will be careful," Ralthas said, "We all will. That you can be sure of. I'm not dumb enough to go charging into a tower after a likely very prepared wizard without planning it out. And you'll be fine, as well. You'll have the princess to help you, after all."

Zelda nodded, then looked up as another figure approached them.

"You'll of course have my help as well, if you need it."

Sheila turned to see the chocolate skinned half-elf approaching. "King Maylow," she said, starting to bow.

"None of that," Maylow said, "I'm hardly a king anymore."

"But you do know how to lead," Ralthas said.

"Yes, we'll get these people to Hyrule, some way," he said, and turned to Zelda, giving her a small bow of his own, politely adding, "Princess. I feel I must apologize for the way I acted the last time we met."

He was referring to the meeting at the prince's funeral, when he had discovered that she had enlisted the help of Kilishandra, the very one who had razed his own kingdom.

"There's no apology needed," Zelda said, "In your position, I'd have felt the same way."

"It is a difficult time for all of us," Maylow said, "If I may ask, will the sorceress be accompanying us?"

"No," Zelda said, "She is going with Judge Ralthas to deal with the Necromancer."

"Sending her after her former allies," Maylow said, "Are you sure we can trust her, once she is out of our sight?"

"She has had ample opportunity to betray us," Zelda said, "She would have, by now, if she was going to. And if your next question is about the war crime she committed against your people, I have not forgotten. All I can promise is that she will face the Hylian courts once this is over, provided she survives."

"That's enough for me," Maylow said, and glanced over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps approaching from behind him.

Silviana and Alex approached the group. Silviana gave Ralthas a salute, with her fist to her heart as they came to a stop before glancing at Maylow. "I'll leave you to your preperations," he said, excusing himself before moving away from them.

Silviana shifted her backpack and set it on the ground for the moment. "I'm ready when you are," she said.

"So am I," Alex said, turning back to them, having watched Maylow as he left.

"You? Why?" Ralthas asked.

"What do you mean 'why?'" Alex asked, "I want to go, to finish this."

"Actually, I'm curious as well," Zelda said, "The rest of the group makes sense. Ralthas and Silviana have a duty to see this through, Ganondorf and Kilishandra will be needed to fight Tharkus' golems, since they can only be destroyed by magic, and Midna may be needed to destroy the Twilight Mirror if worse comes to worse, and Link at least has a sword that can harm Tharkus and his golems. Why you?"

"Look, I was in Metallicana when it fell," Alex said, "I watched my sister die, killed by one of his monsters. I want to be there when that wizard gets his, even if I can't kill him myself."

"The instant we need something's shins kicked to pieces, he'll be useful," Link said as he approached the group with Midna at his side, "I learned that firsthand."

"Oh, and I thought you'd forgotten when I beat you down," Alex said with a smile as Link stopped near them.

"Hardly," Link said, "It hurt to walk for days."

"I wouldn't brag too loud about beating him anyway," Midna said, "Not unless you want us to bring up how he planted you face-first in the dirt the next day."

"Where's your pack?" Ralthas asked Link.

"She's got it," Link said, pointing his thumb at Midna.

With a smile, Midna cocked her head to the side, and her hair leaped up from her shoulders, growing and shaping into a great red hand that scooped Silviana's pack from the ground next to her, then quickly retracted, the pack and hand both vanishing and her hair falling back to her shoulders.

Alex and Ralthas both jumped back in surprise as she did so, and Link laughed. "I'm still not sure how much she can fit in there," he said, "but since I met her, I've been completely spoiled."

"That incredible," Ralthas said, "Are all of her kind capable of that?"

"Yes," Midna said, "Though the actual weight we can carry varies from person to person. I've actually never hit my limit, so I'm not sure myself what it is."

"We might be able to take more supplies than I expected, in that case," Ralthas said.

"Already taken care of," Link said, "She gathered up seven casks of water and at least that many packs' worth of food. Plenty of essentials like rope and blankets and such, too. So as soon as everyone's here, I'd say we're ready."

A few minutes later, Kilishandra and Ganondorf approached them together. Ganondorf was still wearing the armor and weapons he had seen the wizard put on in the armory, and Kilishandra was in the custom-fitted plate Link was used to seeing her in, though he noticed she was wearing a different sword at her hip, and was carrying an extra belt over her shoulder. As they came closer, he made out the familiar hilt of the master sword peeking over her shoulder.

Without a word, she pulled it from her shoulder and offered the Master Sword to Zelda. "I believe you're going to need this when you get to Hyrule," she said.

Zelda accepted the weapon, pausing to pull the blade a few inches from the sheath, the red lettering emblazoned on the white blade clearly visible to all around them, then returned it and nodded. "Thank you," she said, "I hope you don't need it."

"Where'd you get that sword?" Link asked, indicating the slightly curved blade at her hip.

"It was Mur'neth's," Kilishandra said.

When she didn't offer further information, Link shrugged and turned back to Zelda. Ganondorf waited silently as Zelda secured the Master Sword at her own hip. "This is it," she said, after it was in place, "Are you all ready?"

"As we're going to be," Link said, "I guess we can get going before we lose too much daylight."

"Since we're going to be walking," Ralthas said, picking up his own pack near his feet, and turning toward the rubble of the outer wall, to climb over it and then start north.

The others started to follow him, and Zelda caught Link's arm as he passed. "Make sure you come back safe," she said.

"Hey, it's me, remember?" Link said with a smile.

"Good point," she said, and sighed, "Honestly, I think I rely on you too much, but if things go as I expect…"

"You're not thinking we're going to fail, are you?" Link asked.

"No, not that," Zelda said, "But you yourself said that if you kill Tharkus and get the mirror back, it won't be over. When this 'Walpurgis Night' gets here… Link, I'm going to need you to be around for me one more time."

Link put his hands on her shoulders, giving them a soft squeeze. "You worry about getting these people to Hyrule," he said, "As soon as we deal with Tharkus, we'll be back there, and then we'll figure something out to deal with Shaklator."

Zelda nodded, and smiled. "You're my rock, Link," she said, "I don't think I could do this without you."

"It's what I do," Link said, and released her, turning to catch up with the others.

Ganondorf, who had been waiting for Link to move away, moved up to Zelda. "Don't forget," he said, and when she looked up, tapped his own temple with one finger, "I'm not sure about Link, but since you're getting used to it, you and I will be able to speak to one another even over great distance. If there's trouble, I won't be able to come to your rescue, but I might be able to help you save yourself, like your misadventure in Tyr."

"That's a relief," Zelda said, "Thank you."

Ganondorf nodded, and turned his head to look at Sheila. "Looks like it's time for you to stand up on your own, too," he said, "No more leaning on the rest of us." He laughed when she responded with a gesture involving only one finger, and added, "That's a good start."

And with that he tugged at the cloak over his shoulders, adjusting its position, and turned to start walking after the rest of the group.

Zelda and Sheila watched them go, until they disappeared over the sloping hills beyond the city walls, and passed the gully left by Ganondorf's destructive spell that destroyed Tharkus' so-called "invulnerable" flesh golem.

"Well, they're off to do their job," Zelda said at last, "Now we need to do ours."

Sheila nodded and the pair turned to move back toward the activity of dismantling the shelters and loading the supplies into the wagons.

"You know, after all this, it's too bad none of the giants survived to help," Sheila commented as they walked.

"They were all directly under the citadel when it fell," Zelda said, "It's not surprising, really. Just one more tragedy among it all."

They spied several of the black clad ninja assisting with the dismantling of the camp. It was somewhat strange to see them in the open, and out in daylight, considering the low profile they had been keeping before. Vargus himself had come through the crash of the citadel uninjured, though of the original three hundred ninja, only just over ninety had survived.

"Come on," Zelda said, "It'll make everyone feel better if they see us helping with the loading."

"Lead the way," Sheila said.

* * *

The party walked at a quick pace across the hills outside Darimar, moving north.

What Ganondorf and Kilishandra had stated about the blighted land was turning out to be true. The snow had long since melted off, but not a single blade of grass was visible on the blackened landscape. Whenever they came upon a tree, the branches were bare and lifeless, and they saw no signs of wild animals of any shape.

They came upon an abandoned farmstead by the time evening was falling upon them. It had been untended since before winter, though at least any animals had been taken with the occupants when they fled, or had escaped or been taken by someone or something else afterward. Distant thunder warned that more rain was soon on the way, and they elected to use the house as shelter for the night.

The door of the house was smashed off its hinges, and the furniture inside was a wreck. Link and Alex made their way in first, weapons drawn, and checked room by room, but found it to be long empty, from the layer of dust, and the rotted food left in the cellar.

"At least there's firewood nearby this time," Alex commented, indicating the wreckage to the wooden dining table and chairs, as he and Link returned to the main room.

"Do you think there's anything around that we might worry about?" Ralthas asked, turning to Ganondorf.

"Wolves, maybe," Ganondorf said, "Normally they'd avoid people, especially a group like ours, unless it was a particularly large pack, but on the edge of starvation, even a few will be extremely aggressive."

"This blight seems to have really crept up on us," Silviana said as she leaned her bow against the wall, "I know there was the evidence at the Temple of Night, but how did we not notice more than that?"

"Because it's slow and quiet," Kilishandra said, "We didn't notice it either until it was too late."

"Like a slow poison," Ralthas said.

"Yes," Ganondorf replied, "But we know the snake that makes this poison. Cut the head off, and life will eventually return to these lands, but it will take centuries. Unlikely that any of your people, other than maybe Sheila, will live to see it."

Link moved back to the door, glancing outside, and motioned to Midna. "I'm going to take a look around," he said to the others, "Find out if there might actually be anything around us."

"I'll go with you," Alex said, starting after him.

"You won't be able to keep up," Midna said, producing a small object in her hand that hovered an inch over her fingertips.

The black crystal that had at one point been such a nightmare to Link began to glow, first with a soft blue light, then rapidly turning dark red. Link convulsed suddenly, and Alex stopped where he was when his face began to change, stretching forward, and in his open mouth his canines grew to nearly an inch and a half in length. At that point Link turned away, toward the door, falling forward onto his hands as black hair began to spread across his body, and even more miraculously, his clothing and equipment vanished, as if consumed. In another moment, the transformation was complete, an to several startled eyes, Link had become the largest wolf any of them had ever seen, standing nearly four feet in height at his shoulders, and from nose to tail was almost seven feet long.

With a bound, he was out the door and vanished into the fading light. Midna closed her fist over the black crystal, and then it was gone, vanished to wherever it had come from, and turned back to face four sets of staring eyes.

"That was bigger than I remember…" Midna said to herself.

"What the hell…" was all Alex managed to say.

"I'm surprised you kept that rock," Ganondorf said, the only one unsurprised by the transformation, "I thought it would be a reminder of bad days for your."

"It's extremely useful," Midna said, "Though I doubt Link would trust anyone but me with it."

She turned to the other four, and Kilishandra, managing to put her thoughts back in order, was the first to demand an answer. "So what just happened, exactly?" she asked, an edge on her voice saying she wouldn't take a "don't worry about it" answer.

"It was two years ago, now," Midna said, and glanced pointedly at Ganondorf, "A certain wizard worked with a willing traitor to my people, and filled my home, the Twilight Realm, with a kind of darkness that turned the beings of this world that it touched into spirits, able to see the monsters that my own people had been transformed into, but unable to have any effect on them, if they tried to fight. Link was a special case, and was somewhat protected from the effect, not becoming a spirit, but instead transforming into a gigantic wolf, and he was very much able to fight the monsters of darkness.

"This," she went on, producing the black crystal again, "is a concentrated mass of that darkness. It was inserted into Link's body, causing him to remain a wolf, unable to turn back even by returning to the spirits of light in Hyrule that had previously been able to restore his normal form." She snapped her fingers shut over the crystal, and again it vanished as if it was never there. "The Master Sword, the very weapon you gave to Princess Zelda," she added, glancing at Kilishandra, "was the only source of pure light potent enough to restore him in that state, and force the crystal from his body. After that, I found that the crystal was directly attuned to him, and responded to my own power very easily. So we kept it, and his transformations were directly under our control from then on, making them a useful tool, instead of a spur-of-the-moment aid or nuisance."

"And you're just telling us about this now?" Ralthas asked, "You've never mentioned it, yet seem quite willing to share all of a sudden."

Midna shrugged. "It was never a secret, exactly. I guess I could say you never asked? It's just that if he were to transform in the middle of a crowded street, or in sight of people who don't know him, it might cause a panic. And he was the one who wanted me to do it here. After all, while he is a wolf, he has all the benefits of it, including their remarkable senses of smell and hearing. If there is anything out there to find, he'll find it."

"I've just never seen a wolf that size before," Silviana said, "Even if they don't see the transformation, it could make someone who doesn't know about it panic."

"Honestly, I think he is quite a bit bigger than the first times," Midna said.

"That's because he's growing," Ganondorf said, "Growing in confidence, as a person, and in power. And it is reflected in his form."

"That sounds really strange coming from you," Midna said.

He smiled. "I can respect my enemy. A man who doesn't is a fool."

A crash of thunder interrupted them before the conversation went further. The rain was steadily increasing in strength.

"So," Kilishandra said, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned to Ganondorf, "Then what Link and the princess told me was true, about you attacking their kingdom?"

Ganondorf shrugged. "I'd have told you if you asked," he said, "I did, and more than just this time. Circumstances are different now."

"So what happens when this is done, assuming we're all still alive?" Kilishandra asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Ganondorf said, glancing at Midna.

He could see it there, in her eyes still. If anyone had a reason to hate him, it was her. She tolerated his presence now because she had to. When the dust settled, new lines would be drawn, and this alliance of necessity would end, and new alliances would be forged.

He smiled to himself, as if at a private joke. It would be just as he had told Link that fateful night, when Link bested him in mortal combat in the final moments of their conflict.

_The history of Hyrule is written in blood, and so too shall be its future…_

* * *

It was nearly two hours later before Link returned. In a flash and another dramatic shift, he returned to his normal, human state, though it did nothing to shed the wetness of the now pounding rain, and he moved over to the stove with a now strong burning fire to dry himself, as Midna handed him a cloth to dry his hair.

"Going to be hard going in the morning," he commented, "With no grass anywhere, the whole area's going to turn to mud."

"Did you see anything out there?" Ralthas asked.

Alex, Silviana, and Kilishandra had already retired, to sleep and wait their turn at watch, using the other rooms of the house to lay out their bedrolls, while Ralthas and Midna waited by the fire. Ganondorf had vanished out the door without a word some time earlier.

Link had undone his baldric, and leaned his sword, bow, and quiver against the wall as he moved closer to the fire. Ralthas was about to ask his question again, thinking Link had not heard when Link finally said, "Nothing alive."

In his search, Link had come across several animal carcasses, in various stages of decay, only one of which had been eaten on by a predator. Several hundred yards east of the farmstead, fortunately out of the way of where they would be walking, there was the wreckage of a wagon train, likely refugees from the north that never reached Darimar. What disturbed him was that the wreckage had been burned, and the bodies along with it. Link doubted Tharkus' undead would have performed such an act, and the dead bodies would have been reanimated to swell their numbers. The tracks, or at least what he had been able to make out, had gone back to the north after performing the act.

"Gods damn it," Ralthas growled after Link finished his description, "Wouldn't surprise me that there are people alive out here, and they're turning on each other for food and supplies."

"I have to keep reminding myself that we're going to stop this," Link said, staring into the fire, "That killing Tharkus will keep this from spreading further."

Midna moved up next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, and smiled as he turned his head to her. "You know we're going to," she said.

"Yes," Link said, turning back to the fire, "Doesn't make it any easier to see, though."

"He's trying to wear us down," Ralthas said, "We've somehow survived the worst he could throw at us, barely, but now he's trying a slower tactic, that he was prepared to use. He's trying to kill our will to fight."

Link looked up at him, where the judge leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, and his expression dark. "Why did you come with us?" Link asked, "You haven't exactly been clear on that."

"When I became a judge, I took an oath," Ralthas said, "I swore to protect these lands, and the people that live here. Failing that, my task was to avenge the lives lost by bringing their killer to justice."

"The governments are hardly left to hold you to that," Link said.

"You don't understand," Ralthas said, "Judges do not represent the government, and laws imposed by monarchs and committees. We represent the law itself, imposed on the world by the gods during its creation. We take it upon ourselves to protect the innocent from the blackest parts of humanity.

"My duty is to find Tharkus, and see him punished with my own eyes."

"You didn't answer me," Link said, "I want to know why _you_ wanted to come this way. Not what your code demands."

Ralthas sighed. "I'm tired of watching while others, like you, do the work," he said, "If I had my way, I would have been at the king's side when he fell. I want to see this to the end, for his sake, at least."

Link shook his head. He still didn't understand this man, try as he might. Ralthas had a good heart, that much was certain, but he was the type that let words like "duty" and "justice" cloud his vision. Link had been on the receiving end of such a problem with perspective already

"Let's just hope those knees of yours don't give out on the way," Link said.

Ralthas sighed again, lowering his gaze to the floor for a second, then looked back up. "I'm on first watch," he said, "You two can go get some sleep."

"We're in a big enough group now that we can have more than one person on watch," Midna said.

"Ganondorf is out there somewhere," Ralthas said, "We'll call him my partner, then."

"If you say so," Link said, and stood up, picking up his weapons and moving toward the back room, Midna following close behind.

* * *

Morning came without incident, and the rain had let up sometime during the night, and while the ground outside was muddy, it had fortunately stopped raining before it turned into a sliding mess. Link moved outside as the others worked at getting the fire back up to make something for breakfast.

The sunrise was a blood red orb over a black horizon, a fitting comparison to the state of affairs at the moment, he decided.

Kilishandra had already come outside. She had been on last watch, and Ganondorf had not shown himself all the night, and now Link spotted her about ten feet from the door, her sword drawn, and taking practice swings at the air. And she nearly toppled into the much as she overbalanced herself. Shaking his head, Link moved up behind her.

"You don't know how to handle that sword, do you?" he asked.

She glanced over her shoulder. "What are you, a weapon master now?" she asked.

"No, but you're flailing around like a kid with his first toy sword," Link said, moving around her, "Take a couple more swings and let me have a look from the front."

Kilishandra growled, but did as he asked. Her feet skidding in the mud was no help, and a horizontal slice caused her to take several steps to keep from falling on her face.

"I see the problem," Link said, "It's too light. You're used to the weight of a broadsword, and you're still swinging like that.

"A broadsword is the only thing I see you using," Kilishandra said, "I doubt you'd fare better."

"Let me see it," Link said, moving closer and holding out his hand.

The weapon was similar to the blades carried by many of the other ninja, though Link could tell immediately this one was somewhat different. As he turned the blade over in his hand, the edge glinted with an odd green glow. The weapon was a masterpiece, though, and as he held it up to look along the edge, found it difficult to follow with his eye, as if the edge itself was shaped down to an almost microscopic point.

"This weapon is vastly different from a broadsword," Link said, "You see, a typical broadsword is heavy because its weight itself is the primary attacking force. It can shatter bones to splinters, and its cutting can be more accurately be called tearing. With a strong enough arm, a steel broadsword or longsword can even smash through armor plating made of similar or inferior metal like iron."

"I know that," Kilishandra growled.

"This weapon has no such weight," Link went on, getting to the point, "Instead, the edge is honed to an incredible sharpness. This sword isn't going to shatter bones, it's going to slice right through them like a hot knife through butter. It isn't force that it relies on so much as its slicing edge."

Link turned the blade over, securing his grip, and took a single horizontal swing through the air. The weapons he typically used, even the Master Sword, would creating a "whoosh" sound as they ripped through the air, forcing it aside. This weapon produced a high pitched whistle instead. It didn't force the air aside, it sliced right through it.

"Now look at this," Link said, and reached to his head, plucking a single hair from his own scalp. He turned the cutting edge of the blade upward, and laid the strand of hair across it. The hair snapped in two, where it touched the edge, and the two halves fell past the blade on either side. "No extra force even required," Link added, "A broadsword can't do that. Hell, a broadsword can't cut a hair, period, without a great deal of grinding it against the edge."

"And this is helping how?" Kilishandra asked, clearly not impressed.

"You just need to stop swinging so hard," Link said, demonstrating with a few more easy slices through the air, "A broadsword needs a great deal of force to do damage, but this thing, you could slice someone's belly open by barely touching them with the tip. Chain mail was made to stand up to slicing attacks, but this thing would probably cut right through it with ease. This weapon will be less about force of your swings and more about the proper aim."

"With the right aim, I could probably take someone's head off with one swing," Kilishandra said as Link handed her the weapon back, "That's what you're saying."

"Exactly," Link said, "And it wouldn't be the ripped mess of bones and meat a broadsword would leave. It would be a nice, smooth slice."

Kilishandra tested it, taking a few easier swings like he had, making the blade whistle through the air. Then she turned the grip over and returned it home to the sheath at her hip. "Thanks," she said, turning back to him, "I think I can handle it from here."

"Hey!" called Alex from the doorway, "If you two are done kissing up to each other, we've turned some of the dried beef into a stew."

"Sounds better than straight jerky," Link muttered as they turned to the door.

"I just hope nobody packed any of those hard-tac biscuits," Kilishandra said, "I've always hated those things."

"I think we did, actually," Link said, "Shouldn't complain, I guess. Those things never go bad."

"Find a good stout stick and tie the biscuit to the end, and you've got a mace that can smash through skulls like paper," Kilishandra said, "Much better use than eating it."

Link laughed. "Never thought of that one," he said, "Though at one point I was using one as a plate to eat the rest of the meal from."

Ganondorf appeared shortly later, apparently none the worse for wear after going out in the rain that night, and without a word from him, the party was soon moving north again. They still had a long way to go, and the journey was just beginning.


	106. Chapter 105

This one took a while because of a rather extensive rewrite. I was about three-quarters done with it when I stopped and said "This is terrible." Not the "they'll put it on Topless Robot" kind of terrible, but just plain dull. The first half or so is relatively untouched, but I originally just jumped right into fighting in the second half, and this version, with a much slower buildup, I think is much better. Plus, now I've got one more chance with 106 to try to scare your pants off, and I'm going to make a much better effort than the haunted house sub-plot I wrote eight years ago.

**Chapter 105: Nightfall**

"What do we have?" Ralthas asked, leaning down to where Silviana squatted, and she gestured to the prints, left in mud and now dried in the sun, still clear. Ralthas glanced at them and asked, "Wolves?"

"Not big enough," Silviana said, "Dogs, likely former pets turned wild. If there are survivors out here, they likely chose to horde what food they had left for themselves rather than feed the animals."

"That makes sense," Ralthas said, "The people have to come first."

"No, if they had sense, they'd have killed and butchered the dogs," Ganondorf commented, moving up next to them, "Now what meat they'd have given is lost and there's a pack of half-starved dogs roaming about here."

"Are dogs a meat animal where you're from?" Ralthas asked.

"No, but I'm being strictly logical," Ganondorf said, "By now any town's winter stores are running out, and the farmers are realizing that nothing is growing. Maybe they were hunting for a while, but grazers will already have migrated, looking for food elsewhere, and most of the predators will have followed them. Those that remained will be half-crazy from starvation and very dangerous. Simply put, even the idiots will have noticed by now that they're in trouble. With nothing to feed their cattle, they'll likely slaughter the lot of them before they starve and rot. But they just locked the dogs outside and ignored them. Funny how men can kill their own brothers and sisters with the right provocation, but just can't kill their pet.

"And even this is assuming there are people out there that the war didn't touch. Don't forget that an army marched through here and razed the capital, raided the stores, and so on, right before winter even struck."

"I haven't forgotten," Ralthas said, glancing up to where Kilishandra was standing some distance from them, "I also haven't forgotten who was leading them."

Ralthas suddenly found a hand on his shoulder, jerking him around to look Ganondorf in the eye, to find there was no humor on the wizard's face. "Keep your mind focused on the task at hand," Ganondorf said, "You so much as glance at her in a way I don't like and your boots are going to suddenly become ashtrays. Are we clear?"

"Your threats are losing their edge," Ralthas said, prying Ganondorf's fingers from his shoulder with one hand, "That's what happens when you threaten without substance too much."

Ganondorf chuckled, a smile spreading across his face. "You do have a spine, old man," he said, "But give just give me an excuse and I'll snap it. Go ahead and let your guard down, if you think I'm lacking substance."

"Can you tell how long ago the dogs came through here?" Ralthas asked, turning back to Silviana, who looked back down to the tracks, shaking her head.

"These tracks are days old at least," Silviana said, "It hasn't rained in at least a week here. Probably not since that first night out of Darimar, in fact."

There was a rumble of thunder off to the east, causing the three to look up. "Speak of the devil," Ralthas muttered, "We'll need to find some kind of shelter tonight."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Ganondorf said, "That's not a storm brewing, it's just one cloud with an attitude."

And it was true. The sky was mostly clear, aside from a few thin white, puffy clouds, and off to the east, a single dark cloud on the horizon and blue sky around it.

The group was two weeks out, and as far as they had gone, the terrain refused to change. Blackened earth without a single blade of grass, and any trees they came across were bare, their empty limbs like wizened fingers reaching into the air.

The shape of the land, at least, was changing. Link and Midna had moved further ahead of those examining the prints, and as they crested a hill, something familiar came into sight. A gully, with steep walls about fifteen feet high, and the road leading directly through the middle, wide enough for three wagons to ride side-by-side.

"Remember this?" Link asked as they stopped at the top of the hill.

"I think that's where Sheila was trying to sneak us out and Ralthas headed us off," Midna said, "And he had those copies… Mirage golems, I think Sheila called them."

"The old man seemed much more dangerous back then, didn't he?" Link asked.

"Himself? Not really," Midna replied, "He's smart, I'll give him that, but I think he had an unfair advantage, in knowing how his daughter thinks. If it were just you and me, he'd never have caught us."

"Maybe," Link said, glancing over his shoulder at the others, who were still crouched by the animal tracks, though they looked up as Silviana pointed to the west, likely indicating the direction the pack was going. "If it were just you and me, we'd have covered more ground than this by now, that much is sure."

"You know, it just hit me," Midna said, pointing northeast, "If this is the place Ralthas ambushed us, that means the capital is just a short distance that way, over that ridge."

"I wonder if there's anything left," Link said, "Maybe find some shelter in the city tonight."

"What, you don't like sleeping in the dirt?" Midna asked.

"I'm used to it, but I do like a real bed when I can get one," Link said, and glanced up at her face as he added, "Not to mention the other benefits."

"Oh, and what might those be, I wonder?" Midna asked, though a knowing smile was creeping onto her face.

"Well, for one, I don't have to stand on my toes to kiss the woman I've gone completely crazy for," Link said.

"Poor you," Midna said.

"Yeah, poor me," Link replied, as she intertwined her fingers through his own.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" Alex asked, approaching them from behind.

Midna groaned, releasing his hand from hers, and Link let out a sigh as they both turned to the interruption. "Is something wrong?" Link asked.

"No," Alex said, glancing back at the others, "Well, yes, but not dangerous. They're still staring at the footprints back there." He turned back to Link and Midna, looking from one to the other, before saying, "Um, on second thought, I don't know if I should ask about this with her here."

"I make you nervous?" Midna asked.

"No, I just…"

"It's about Silviana, isn't it?" Link asked.

Alex blinked. "How'd you know?"

"You and she were practically buddy-buddy before," Link said, "You haven't said a word to each other in the two weeks we've been out here."

Alex let out a weak chuckle. "Yeah, I guess it's pretty obvious, isn't it?"

"Did you have a fight or something?" Midna asked.

"In a manner of speaking," Alex said with a sigh, "You remember the party, after the tournaments?"

Link nodded, glancing at Midna, who just smiled. "I saw you two there," Link said, "Looked like you were doing fine."

"Well, you didn't see what happened after the dances," Alex said, "I got drunk that night. I mean really drunk, to the point I don't even remember what happened. The next morning, I woke up next to the bardess that was singing that night."

"I can see how that would be a problem," Link said.

"I went straight to Sil," Alex said, "I tried to explain and apologize, but…"

"She wouldn't listen?" Link asked.

"No, that's the thing, she did, sort of," Alex said, "And then she said she couldn't trust me."

"I'd say she's right," Midna said, "You did comment on how much you love your ale."

"I've beat myself down plenty, I don't think I need you doing it too," Alex said.

"Oh, I disagree," Midna replied.

"Why are you coming to us, exactly?" Link asked, "I mean, I'm not going to walk over to her, tell her to forgive you, and everything will be fine."

"I'm not an idiot," Alex said, "I just hoped… I mean… Dammit, you two make it look so easy! I know I screwed up something good and I was just hoping you might be able to help, advice or something."

"We make it look easy," Link said, glancing at Midna.

"Saving my life and my entire race is easy now," she replied.

"Saving my life and going to places no sane person would go is easy," Link went on.

"Okay, sorry, I guess I misspoke," Alex said.

"Look, Midna and I have been through a lot," Link said, "We've known each other for about two years now. And it wasn't exactly love at first sight," he added, glancing at Midna again.

Alex turned to her. Midna bit her lip as she took a deep breath. "Of course you put me on the spot like that," she muttered, then said louder, "No, it wasn't. I treated him like dirt, and he probably would have abandoned me at the first chance if he didn't need my help."

"Was it that… wolf… thing of yours?" Alex asked Link.

"That was one reason," Link said, "And, I don't know how it actually happened. Maybe it sounds weird, but the way she was so openly hostile, it was actually kind of cute."

"Oh, so you like it when I walk all over you?" Midna asked with a smile, "I'll remember that."

"My point is that you've known Silviana, what, four, maybe five months?" Link went on, "And yeah, I saw you two together, and thought there were sparks there. But drunk or not, sleeping with another woman… That's a surefire way to end it."

"What about you?" Alex asked, turning to Midna, "Suppose Link got really drunk, and made a horrible mistake like sleeping with another woman. Would you forgive him?"

"I'm not sure Link can get drunk," Midna said, "I've seen him drink, but he's never even been tipsy."

"That's because I know my limits and how to pace myself," Link said, "It's just that _you_ have all the constitution of a flea, and try to match me drink for drink."

"In answer to your question, I just don't know," Midna said, "I honestly don't think it's something I have to worry about anyway."

"My honest advice," Link said, "The only thing I can tell you is to not push her too hard. Be friendly, and don't piss her off again. Maybe she'll open up to you again, or maybe she won't. I've only known her a little longer than you have, and about all I can say is she is a very hard person to read. She can go from happy and joking one second to cold and deadly in the next. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact she's so damn smart, I'd think she was crazy."

"The difference between genius and madness is measured only by success."

The three turned to see Kilishandra standing a short distance away.

"How much did you hear?" Alex asked.

"Too much," she replied.

"Oh, gods," Alex groaned, and turned back to Link and Midna, "Thanks anyway."

He turned moving back toward the other half of the group, who seemed to finally be losing interest in the tracks and readying themselves to move on.

"You taking to eavesdropping now?" Link asked Kilishandra.

She moved closer to Link and Midna, stepping around them to see the canyon.

"The difference between genius and madness is measured only by success," she repeated, and turned to look directly at Link, "My father told me that, and he was referring to you."

"Uh, thanks?" Link said, not sure if he was being complimented or insulted.

"One other thing," Kilishandra said, glancing at Midna, "I wanted to ask you in private, but she follows you like your own shadow."

"What would you want to ask me in private?" Link asked.

"About that transformation of yours," she said, "Call me curious."

Link shrugged. "I'm an animal," he said.

"Fine, be that way," Kilishandra said, and started walking into the gully.

"She is acting weirder every day," Midna said as she moved away from them.

"I think the stress is getting to her," Link said, glancing back at the others, who were coming toward them now, "Maybe I'll take her watch tonight, let her rest."

* * *

Sheila sank down with a tired sigh by the fire, and Zelda handed her a bowl of steaming stew. "So, what was the verdict?" Zelda asked.

"Axle wasn't damaged, thankfully," she said, "The wheel was a loss, though. It will be replaced and ready to go in a short while, so we can leave first light."

"Hopefully the driver learned his lesson about falling asleep on the road," Zelda said, "Any idea how much further to the coast?"

"We're making good time, for the number of people with us," Sheila said, "Another week or so, and then we can just follow the coast north until we get to the ports."

Zelda nodded, sitting down across from her. Though to outside eyes, they were the only two seated by the fire, Zelda was constantly aware that no less than five of the ninja were nearby, just out of sight. There were soldiers among the survivors, but Vargus has taken it upon himself and his own to protect the pair of them, just in case there were those, especially among the survivors of Khall's forces, who might try something.

The survivors of Khall's troops had melded with the other refugees remarkably easily, Zelda thought. Perhaps it had something to do with being betrayed by one of their own, and lied to about their true goal. She had been fearful that there would be violence, but it was all quiet so far. Besides, there were less than a hundred such survivors, compared to the nearly two thousand from Darimar. Just a drop in the bucket overall.

The presence of the ninja was oddly comforting, Zelda would admit. In ancient times, the Hylian royal family had personal guards from the enigmatic Sheikah, a nearly tribal race also referred to as people of the shadows. It was said that when you saw a Sheikah standing by a royal's side, there were ten more that you didn't see. The legend of the Hero of Time spoke of one brave Sheikah that had defied both the king's order and the wrath of the Dark Wizard, whom was now known to be Ganondorf himself, in order to save the first Princess Zelda and deliver the Ocarina of Time into the Hero's hands.

There were so few of the ninja left now, but on considering what to do with them when they reached Hyrule, Zelda pondered the thought of giving them the position the Sheikah had once held, as royal bodyguards. There may even be a possibility that, rather than allow their skills and culture to die, they may train Hylians and possibly Zora in the ways of the ninja for future generations. Gorons, unfortunately, simply weren't built for creeping silently and hiding in the dark.

"I hope someone knows how to sail," Sheila commented, waiting for the bowl of stew to cool enough to eat, "I just realized that we didn't consider that part at all."

"I had a talk with Vargus a few days ago," Zelda said, "He says that all his ninja have been trained in sailing, for the very reason of using ships of every size in their infiltration efforts. There are enough left to skeleton crew at least three ships, and they can direct others. I think we'll be all right."

"So what happens when we reach the next continent?" Sheila asked, "Is your kingdom on the coast?"

"No," Zelda said, "We'll have quite a distance left to go. Actually further than when I left, because we can't take this many people through the desert between the coast and Hyrule. But we can circle north, around the desert and the mountains, and come back down into Hyrule from that direction. Once we're there, you use the spell on the Master Sword and restore my people, and then… Well, I guess we start preparing for war."

"You're expecting Shaklator to come through, then, like Ganondorf was warning of," Sheila said, more a statement than a question.

"I'd rather be ready and find that I don't have to worry than the other way around," Zelda said, "The last time my kingdom was in danger… I lost it without even a real fight. I don't intend for that to happen again."

Sheila leaned back, blowing on her spoon before taking her first taste of the stew. "So far I've only heard vague descriptions," she said, "What's it like there?"

"It's like no other kingdom I've ever seen," Zelda said, "Hyrule itself is a melding of five different cultures, though regrettably, two of the races of the original five, the Sheikah and Gerudo no longer exist. I suppose merging them with the Hylian culture and cities gradually bred them out of existence, leaving Hylians as the only human race in Hyrule. The Gorons and Zora, however, are in no danger of that."

"Stronger cultures, then?" Sheila asked.

"Not just cultures. They're not just different races, they're entirely different species from humans," Zelda said, "As far as I know, neither race can successfully cross-bred with humans. The Gorons are mountain dwelling creatures that average between ten and fifteen feet tall, and weigh anywhere between a thousand pounds to a ton. Some of them are even larger, and ancient legends speak of at least one that grew to nearly a hundred feet in height and weighed as much as a mountain. Their skin is also extremely tough, nearly as hard as stone itself. Such natural armor, combined with their immense strength, makes them extremely effective warriors and shock troops. They aren't great in number, but times in Hyrule's past, a line of just twenty Goron warriors has sent entire battalions fleeing the field, without the Gorons taking a single loss."

"Are they frightening?" Sheila asked.

"I think intimidating is a more correct word," Zelda said, "The current Patriarch, that's their chieftain, is an enormous and fearsome fighter. I think he's nearly twenty feet in height and weighs at least a ton and a half. Has a steel war hammer the size of a grown man that he can swing around like it weighs nothing at all.

"But it's not a fear of their prowess that gets Gorons a wide berth in the city streets, it's just their immense size. I don't think there's a single Goron that would deliberately hurt someone who gets in their way in the street, but better safe than sorry."

"So they can just come into the city?" Sheila asked.

"Why shouldn't they? They're citizens of Hyrule, as much as any Hylian is," Zelda responded, "There are always a few in the market, selling their wares. One unique product they always have is water from their hot springs, still steaming hot from the spring itself. Maybe its something in the water, but it seems to have odd healing properties. Wounds treated with the water from the spring seem to heal cleaner and faster than water from any other source."

Sheila finished her stew, laying the bowl aside. "What about the Zora?" she asked.

"You remember the sahaugin?" Zelda asked, "The shark-men we met shortly after leaving Tyr? The Zora are fish-people like them, though the difference seems to be the Zora's preference to fresh water, while the sahaugin seem to be salt-water. They're also not nearly as large.

"The Zora make their home in the pools above and below the waterfall named for their own, and the river extends down to Lake Hylia, in the western part of Hyrule. Unfortunately, it's not an environment that's readily welcoming to human visitors, so I haven't been there myself. Link has, so maybe when he gets back you can ask him about it.

"But there are rivers and streams all over Hyrule, and the Zora patrol them regularly, acting as the kingdom's eyes and ears for fast alerts. They are able to travel faster through water than the fastest horse on flat land, and work with the Hylian military's patrols in that regard, carrying reports and messages.

"In terms of military value, the Zora excel at hit-and-run tactics, ambushing enemy troops near water, literally striking from the depths, and before they can organize a counter-attack, vanishing back into the river or lake just as quickly. Though most Zora's fins are soft, a number of the males develop sharp blade-like fins on their arms, giving them natural weapons that can stand up to any sword or axe."

Sheila leaned back, her eyes going to the stars hanging in the night sky above them. "It's hard for me to imagine," she said, "Such different kinds of people, and they are actually able to live and work together… I mean, here, humans can't even get along with themselves most of the time, and then you have the stories about what happened to the dark elves in ancient times."

"It is possible," Zelda said, "And you'll see it. Hyrule's diversity is what makes it strong, and such a wonderful place. But when it is put to the test, the lines between the Hylians, Gorons, and Zora disappear. We're all Hyruleans, and we will all stand together to protect our home."

* * *

The trek through the gully was uneventful, an the party emerged within sight of the capital city of the kingdom of Nigel, and they had moved into the city itself as night fell.

The destruction was nowhere near the scale of Darimar, but the gates had been smashed down, and evidence of the battle that had taken the city was visible on every building, from the smashed doors and windows, to old bloodstains inside the buildings, and visible fire damage on support beams and furniture, or at least what was still in one piece.

The "one cloud with an attitude" had apparently gathered up a good number of friends, and the starless sky flashed regularly with lighting and thunder crashed around the group as they sought shelter before the rain began. Deciding not to go too far into the city, since they intended to leave the same way they came, instead of passing through the city, they found a clothier's shop that seemed to be largely intact, and more importantly, had no back door. With the likes of Ganondorf, Kilishandra, and Midna, they were not concerned about being cornered by whatever may find them as much as they were about being ambushed from behind.

A swift meal of dried beef and water, and the group laid out their bedrolls, and Link volunteered for first watch. The others lay down as he settled into a seat where he could see the front door and window of the shop, but anyone outside wouldn't be able to see him. As he settled in to wait, Ganondorf moved into view, and without a word, vanished out the front of the building, and turned to move deeper into the city.

"Where's he going?" Midna asked, appearing at Link's side.

"No idea," Link said, "But he's been going off like that almost every night, if you didn't notice."

"You think he's up to something?" Midna asked.

Link unbuckled his baldric, taking it off over his head and leaning his sword against the wall within reach, next to his shield, bow, and quiver. "Maybe," he said, "Not like I haven't been watching him already, but he is acting more suspiciously than usual."

"Hmm…" was Midna's response.

"You can go get some sleep," Link said, "I'm not going anywhere."

Instead, she pulled another seat from the side, setting it next to his as she sat down. "Actually, I've got something for you," she said, "A bit of a surprise. And the best I could manage under the circumstances."

Link turned his head as she drew something from whatever invisible storage she had. It looked like an ordinary waterskin.

"Happy birthday!" Midna said as she offered it to him.

Link looked up at her smile, and after a moment started to laugh. "Today's as good a day as any, I guess," he said.

"I figured the best part of not knowing your birthday is that you can have it whenever you like," Midna said, "And I think you could use at least a few minutes to celebrate."

Link took the waterskin she offered and pulled the cork from the end. Thinking she had come up with some kind of wine, he sniffed the open end. "That's not wine," he said, and sniffed again, "Not ale or beer either… Wait, that's brandy! Where'd you come up with this?"

"There was a small amount in the back of the food storage they dug up back in Darimar," Midna said, "I was waiting for a better time, but I'm thinking we're not going to get one until we're back in Hyrule and… Well, just in case, I'd rather not let it go to waste."

"Don't tell me you're getting worried," Link said, "We've got enough people telling us about the kind of nightmare we're walking into with Ralthas and Ganondorf."

"Humor me, okay?" Midna said, snaking her fingers into Link's free hand.

"Well, this isn't even like the ale we were drinking last time," Link said, "Brandy's powerful stuff, not meant to be drank in pints like ale. And I don't need to get soused on watch, so we'll have to take it easy."

He took a swallow, and handed the skin back to her, and she took one of her own.

"Smooth," Link commented, "Definitely pricy stuff. For the nobles who can't handle drinks with bite."

"And your so layman, are you?" Midna asked.

Time dragged slowly by. The promise of the storm turned out to be nothing more than a light drizzle. Ganondorf did not return, and there was no sign of movement outside. They had seen no one on the way into the city, but Link found himself more and more curious as to what the wizard was doing, even as he sat with Midna, sharing the brandy and joking between themselves, her speech becoming more and more slurred with each drink of the brandy, not to mention her memory of certain events becoming more and more inaccurate.

"I think that's enough," Link said, pulling the skin out of Midna's reach as she reached for it again, leaning heavily against his side.

"Stick in the mud," she said.

"Stick that's going to have to carry you to bed," Link said, "I did warn you about trying to match me."

She leaned her head down on his shoulder with a soft sigh, then asked, "Is it raining?"

"It has been for a good half-hour," Link said.

"That's amazing," Midna said.

"Come on, it's time to wake Alex anyway," Link said, putting the stopper in the skin and starting to climb to his feet.

Midna caught his sleeve, pulling herself up next to him. "Link," she said, turning so he was looking directly at her, "I need to ask you something, completely serious, no lying to me or making a joke, okay?"

"Okay," Link said, his brow furrowing in wonder at what was bringing this on.

"Am I wearing a hat?" Midna asked. Then she reached up with one hand, grabbing at the open air over her head.

Link snorted and started laughing. "Okay," he said between laughs, "Forget 'enough,' you've had way too much."

He picked up his sword, turning back to her as he fitted the baldric around his shoulder. He stopped short, facing the front of the store as something caught his eye. Something across the street, in the opposite building, a shadow that he was certain wasn't there before.

Link leaned down, picking up the bow and pulling an arrow from the quiver. He looked down for only a second to notch the arrow to the string. When he looked up again, the shadow was gone. He watched the building across from them, waiting for even the slightest movement. For several moments he watched, but there was no sign of anything across from them. It was dark, but just not quite dark enough to activate his darkness vision, and raining as well, maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him.

But Link had learned that a good dose of paranoia was very healthy. The instant one started thinking there was nothing, he opened the door to the first time there was.

"Go upstairs," he said to Midna, "Wake up Alex, don't worry about the others just yet. I want him down here."

Midna swayed as she rose to her feet. She mumbled an affirmative, and moved for the stairs, barely able to stay on her feet. Link shook his head, knowing it was his fault for letting her drink with him. She wasn't going to be any good if something was out there.

* * *

Ganondorf knelt down by the body. In a dark alley nearly ten streets from where the others had set up camp, he had found the evidence. A corpse, laid out on the filthy cobbles, in a condition that would likely cause several of the others to lose their last meal.

Bloody scraps of clothing lay nearby, which had been torn from the body, and the amount of blood on them said the victim was dead or at least dying when they had been stripped away. But the body itself, in its current condition, wasn't even identifiable if it were a man or woman. Its flesh had been stripped away, down to the bones, and its innards removed. A hole was visible in the skull where even the brain had been removed.

Other than a few ligaments and scraps, nothing remained but the skeleton. Looking closer, he was certain that it had not been torn or burned away, either. The remains showed they had been smoothly cut in a very deliberate fashion. The blood pool surrounding it was cool to his touch and thickening by the minute, indicating it occurred several hours ago at the least.

He picked up a scrap of clothing. A trail of buttons was intact, of the kind a man's shirt might bear. Spreading it out, to look at the bloodstain, he found several holes in the cloth. The victim had been stabbed several times in rapid succession. No, he corrected himself, they were in a perfectly straight line, and too narrow of holes to be a typical knife. Perhaps a stiletto, but the perfect alignment made him think of some kind of large fork.

There was a scratch on the stone behind him, causing him to turn his head. A shadow vanished behind the wall at the end of the alley. Ganondorf slowly rose from his crouch, straining his ears. He was quite eager to see what kind of creature kills and then devours a corpse in such a precise fashion, though he already had a good idea, and the thought was quite underwhelming.

More scratching, from the other end of the alley. Feet on the stone. They were surrounding him, or at least thought they were. This was followed by more from behind him, where he had first heard the sound. They might actually think they had him trapped in this alley, he thought as he smiled to himself.

A shadow appeared at the end of the alley, a figure leaning around the corner to get a look at him. It was too dark to make out much more than its humanoid shape. And it its hand, another shadow, of a large, four-pronged pitchfork. A farming tool used as a weapon.

"I could just kill you all right now," Ganondorf said, turning fully toward the figure, "But I think I'd rather have some fun with you."

He sneered as he reached up, first to his neck, undoing the clasp of his cloak and letting it fall to the ground, then over his shoulder, pulling the leather string on the pommel of the massive sword on his back, untying in an instant the knot that held the weapon safely in place, then lifted the massive weapon free through the open side of the sheath, bringing it down by his side. With his immense strength, the massive two-handed sword was as easy to handle as a normal man could use a longsword.

Footsteps behind him, from the other end of the alley. Ganondorf glanced over his shoulder to see three of the figures moving into the alley, these armed with swords and one axe he could see. As he looked back to the front, four more were entering the alley from that direction.

Ganondorf leaned his head to the side, and his neck popped audibly over the rain hitting the street and his armor. He smiled at the figures that seemed to hesitate. Lightning flashed in the sky overhead, lighting the alley and for a split second, giving him a clear view of his assailants.

"What in the hell…" he said as the light died, and the first lunged toward him.

* * *

"You're sure you saw something?" Alex asked.

"There was something there, and then it wasn't," Link said.

The two of them watched the building across from them. Lightning flashed in the sky, but revealed nothing beyond the dark shadows of the front window.

"I don't see anything moving," Alex said.

"Stay here," Link said, "I'm going to go across and have a look. You see anything happen, anything that doesn't look right, you shout for the others."

"Define not right for me, just to be sure."

"If something jumps me, or I get shot, that's not right," Link said, "Trust me, I'll be perfectly happy to find out it was my imagination. But I'm not going to take a chance that it wasn't."

Link picked up his shield as he said this, drawing his sword with his other hand.

"Are you sure about this?" Alex asked, "I mean, suppose there is something, suppose it's got a buddy, a sniper on a rooftop just waiting for you to step outside."

"I'll keep my eyes open," Link said, "I know what I'm doing."

Before Alex could protest further, Link jumped the shop counter, and moved toward the front door. He paused to the side of the doorframe, leaning out just enough to scan the street and rooftops on the opposite side, while still being protected by the wooden wall as much as possible.

He then stepped around the doorframe, shield up to protect his chest and face, and stepped out into the rain. No movement reacted to him, and he turned in place, backing away from the door now, to check the roofs on that side of the street. Still nothing.

Link turned back toward the building where he had seen the shadow. It was a bakery, with its front window shattered, and the racks normally used to display the morning's product overturned and empty. The door was smashed off its hinges, just like the other building's had been, and Link slowly entered.

Once out of the ambient light from outside, his eyes began to adjust to interior, and in a few seconds, he could see better than he could outside. Green outlines lined every object and shape in his vision, and in another few seconds, a soft green hue began to fill in the outlines, allowing him to see the textures as if it were daylight. His darkness vision seemed to actually be getting stronger as time went on since Midna had given him the tattoo, he noticed.

The building was a mess. All the racks and shelves were overturned or outright destroyed. The ovens in the back of the shop stood open and cold, ash strewn on the floor, and the shredded remains of old flour sacks were mixed into it. Several of the ovens had their doors pulled completely off the hinges, lying several feet away on the floor, likely destroyed in anger.

Link moved around the counter, where the baker had likely conducted countless sales every morning. There was one door, leading further back into the building, and Link leaned down to check the ash for footprints. He found them, and far too many to count or follow. The ash was too thin to tell if any were recent.

Link moved to the door. If there had been someone here, this was the only way they could have left. The latch was broken and it swung free on its hinges. The room beyond was storage. Several flour sacks, long since empty, and a pile of unburned firewood in the corner, for the ovens. Whatever else there had been was wrecked. Broken bottles and smashed spice canisters on the floor, and likely any food for the baker himself was long since gone.

But that was it. An empty building, and confirmation that what he had seen had just been his imagination. With a sigh of relief, he sheathed his sword and turned to leave. He walked to the front of the store, and carefully checked the street again before moving back across at a jog.

"Nothing?" Alex asked as Link entered the shop.

"Nothing," Link confirmed, "Sorry to get you worked up."

"Well, I certainly won't be going back to sleep now," Alex said, "Go see if you can get some."

As Link moved past him toward the stairs, he encountered Silviana on her way down, bow in hand. "What are you doing up?" he asked.

"Midna woke me when she tried to climb into my bedroll," Silviana said, then smiled, "I hope you haven't been leaving her unsatisfied."

_If I have, then no one in the world can satisfy her,_ Link thought silently, remembering his one surprise at his endurance, though didn't answer her jab with it. "I trust she's in the right one now?" he said aloud.

"Yes, and I hope you put the drink away," Silviana said, glancing at Alex, "That's the kind of mistake we can't afford on watch."

Link nodded. "Maybe it would be better to have two on watch at all times," Link said, "I thought I saw something across the street, but couldn't find anything when I went to look. Still, I'm not convinced there isn't someone else out in the city."

"I was going to stay up anyway," Silviana said, "Go get some sleep, we'll wake Ralthas and Kilishandra for third watch."

"Are you two going to be all right?" Link asked, glancing back at Alex.

"It's just standing watch," Alex said, keeping his gaze toward the front of the shop, "If something does happen, I'll be screaming for you guys anyway."

Silviana gave Link a friendly pat on the arm before moving past him. Link moved up the stairs, stepping quietly to not wake the others. They had laid out the bedrolls in a single room that seemed to once be a dining room for the owner's family. There was only one door in, and the back window was a sheer drop to the alley below that no one could climb, at least not with a great deal of difficulty. The window wouldn't open anyway, and was unbroken, so something coming in would wake them quite effectively.

Ralthas and Kilishandra were still both asleep, and Link found Midna on her bedroll next to his own. Quickly and quietly, he laid his shield and weapons down, making sure his sword would be within reach, and shedded his tunic and chain shirt, and also set his boots where they would be within easy reach. Next was the padded under-shirt he wore beneath the chain, though he left his trousers on as he slipped under the blanket of his bedroll.

Midna had placed hers close to his own, to the point the pads were against each other. As he settled in, her eyes open, and she shifted closer to him, putting one arm over his chest as she pulled up against his side. Link lifted his arm around her, so she could comfortably lay her head in that position, and lay his own head back on the pillow.

Yes, he decided, looking at her face as she drifted back to sleep before him, he could certainly get used to being this close to her every night. He smiled to himself as he closed his eyes. Even with everything surrounding them, all the nightmare inducing destruction, just holding her close, feeling her warmth against his skin, made him relax.

He gradually drifted off to sleep.

* * *

With a roar, Ganondorf swung the mighty sword, cleaving the last of the dark figures completely in half. Seven had come for him, and seven bodies now fell at his feet, along with a great deal of blood. He leaned down, picking up his discarded cloak, and made a face when he realized one of them had fallen on it, and it was soaked almost completely through with blood.

Using what little of it wasn't filled with blood, he wiped what remained from his sword before returning it to its sheath and tossing the ruined cloak aside. It was then that he leaned down to examine his attackers more closely.

They used to be men, likely survivors from the city. But whatever they once were was gone. Their skin had turned a ghastly gray, and pieces of their flesh had rotted away small bits had fallen away, leaving craters through which the muscle tissue beneath was visible, and in still other areas had horrid growths of flesh that hung loosely, completely out of place, as if they had cut patches of skin from others and glued them in place.

Their faces had been the most disconcerting. Even as they yelled and shrieked as they attacked him, the faces had not moved properly. Something was disconnected. Maybe their nerves had been damaged by whatever had done this to them, he thought.

No, something else. As he leaned closer to one of them, he could see a seam in the skin, about and inch behind the eyes, running up across the forehead, just below the hairline, and all the way around under the chin. Using his fingernail, he pried into the seem and pulled.

The entire face came away, revealing not the red under-tissue he had expected, but another, perfectly intact face, aside from small patches of rot like the rest of the body, and covered in sticky half-dried blood. This man had cut the face from another person and worn it like a mask, and the blood from the act had itself been the adhesive that held it in place.

Ganondorf turned to another of the bodies. It had the same seam around the face as the first. Each of the others did as well.

Now, he told himself, the question is, what caused this? He went over the symptoms. Obvious insanity, homicidal behavior, and a decay of the body. The obvious answer was the blight that Tharkus had spread. Standing water turned to poison, poison that killed in less than a day from drinking it, if he remembered correctly.

But what if the blight had been altered? What if the poison in the water no longer killed quickly, but infected the victim, drove them made so that they would go around killing those that weren't infected? Almost like undead, except still physically alive?

Without time to test the water, and a decent lab setup to do so, he couldn't be sure, but that was the most likely answer. These people had survive the war, only to drink from a blighted water source. Some details he couldn't explain, like their pack behavior, instead of killing each other.

Ganondorf had seen so much in his lifetime, it was nearly impossible to surprise him at this point. He had seen and done things said to be impossible, and had very little incredulity left in him. He'd even experimented with School of Necromancy at one point, though he had ceased walking that path do to the price of its stronger magics being far too demanding of the school's primary reagent, that being blood. He'd always been of the disposition that living, healthy servants were far more productive than undead slaves. Not to mention he still had quite a drive for attractive women, and there were some lines Necromancy implied that he flat refused to cross.

He could admire Tharkus' tenacity and the level of viciousness the Necromancer was willing to go to, but this was the kind of violence that Ganondorf was simply not willing to sink to. He much preferred a direct confrontation with his enemy, though in the case of Hyrule, that attitude had always led to his eventual defeat. It was oddly comforting, though, to know the kingdom was still there, his one unattainable goal. So far, that is.

But this was a question of how far these creatures could spread, possibly even beyond the blighted lands, if they survived long enough, and then, could it spread to others?

_Zelda,_ he said silently, making use of the telepathic link between himself and the princess, _You need to know about this._

* * *

Zelda sat up in her bedroll, awakened by Ganondorf's voice in her head. She rubbed her eyes, waking herself up. _What is it?_ she asked, _Did something happen?_

_I need to warn you,_ came the response, _I have reason to believe drinking from blighted water sources doesn't kill, as we expected, but infects victims with a disease. Call it the 'Blight Plauge,' or something. Drives them crazy. They're highly aggressive, and seem to have been cutting people's faces off to wear as masks._

"Oh, gods," Zelda whispered.

_They're easy to identify,_ Ganondorf went on, _Their skin is a sickly gray pallor, and rots off in small patches, leaving open wounds like large sores. I'm warning you so that if you encounter any, you know what to do._

_Can anything be done for them?_ Zelda asked, _If it's a disease…_

_No,_ Ganondorf said, _You don't coddle a plague, you purge it. As soon as we depart, I'm going to use the Harrowing to purge this city, make sure not one of them gets out of here. If you encounter any, they should be killed. Take caution. I'm not sure if it can spread, but if their blood gets into an open wound or accidentally swallowed, keep a close on those in question until we can be sure if that spreads infection or not._

_Why would anyone swallow blood?_ Zelda asked.

_Use your head, _Ganondorf said, _The heat of a fight, people screaming and shouting. Mouths are open, and blood splashes happen. Time to prove you've got the spine you've been wanting to show. Hang on…_

_What is it? _Zelda asked.

_I think I've got another few trying to sneak up on me. Give a second and…_ He suddenly cut off.

After a moment of silence Zelda silently spoke, _Ganondorf, are you there?_

_Shit, one of them had a crossbow, caught me by surprise while the others distracted me,_ came the response, _Poison won't be enough to kill me, but the wound is burning already. Fast acting stuff, and my vision's fading. My regeneration can't keep up with it. I've got to get clear before I go down…_

His voice grew gradually weaker as he spoke, until it faded from her mind entirely. She tried for several minutes to speak to him, but no response came. It was a somewhat shocking realization. Ganondorf's regenerative abilities would undoubtedly keep any kind of poison from killing him, but if it was especially strong, it might cause him to lose consciousness while his body repaired itself, and if something were to cut his head off while he was defenseless…

"Oh, gods, what's going on over there?" she whispered.

* * *

Link sat bolt upright, his sword already out of its sheath. He could feel unfamiliar eyes on him. Midna sat up, rubbing her eyes as he looked around the room.

The empty room, aside from Ralthas and Kilishandra's still sleeping forms. There was nowhere to hide, yet he could feel something watching him. He turned to the door, rising to his feet. Midna, even in her still not-sober state, knew enough of what was happening to stay silent. Link paused at the door, leaning slowly out and glancing both ways down the hall. Still nothing.

Barefoot, he moved toward the stairs, glancing down. He could see Alex and Silviana, still in place, watching for trouble. Link turned and move back through the hall, checking the other rooms of the building one by one. Each of the bedrooms, a kitchen, and a storage. All empty. He came back to the room where the other slept.

"Nothing there," Link said to Midna, "But I still feel something… I swear, something is watching me."

"No, you're right," Midna said, "I feel something too."

Link picked up his sheath, started insert his sword, when he saw it. At the window, looking in at them. A grey skinned face, unnatural looking in a way he simply couldn't describe, with wide, feral eyes, ringed by long, filthy black hair. No idea how it got to the window, but the shout of warning to the others was already on Link's lips, when another howl beat him to it, and a great weight crashed into his shoulders. Hiding in the rafters of the high ceiling had been three more, one of which toppled Link by landing on top of him, and the other pair fell to the rest of the group with animalistic baying in the darkness.

The one outside the window rolled his eyes, his head twitching in an unnatural, disturbing manner that may have been laughter.


	107. Chapter 106

I can't believe how hard this chapter was to write. I usually hit some kind of "breakaway" point when I'm writing, where I just absolutely take off, and almost don't even have to think about what I'm putting down, and in two to three hours I've written a good five thousand words or so. This one, I was lucky to get about a thousand words in an evening. Maybe I was thinking about it too much, or maybe writing horror-esque plots/sub-plots just isn't for me. This was actually intended to go on for one more chapter, but I decided to pull it together and finish it in this one. Only thing that got dropped was a bunch of running around the city, so not like much was lost. I actually do really like the finished product that's in front of you now, but I think I'll stay away from trying to write this kind of stuff in future stories I do.

**Chapter 106: Ruins of Madness**

Howling like animals, the things descended upon them. Link crashed to the floor as one landed on his shoulders with its full weight. He shouted as another landed by Midna, and Link saw the glint of a knife in its hand. A second later, the knife split the pad of her bedroll, thumping against the wooden floor beneath, Midna herself having vanished in an instant into the dark shadows across the room, as if she was sinking directly into the floor itself.

The third attacker landed on top of Kilishandra even as she rose from being wakened by the howling. A rusty, chipped dagger gripped tightly in the figure's fist, aimed for her. In a quick reaction, she caught the attacker's wrist in her left hand, her right hand searching for the weapon by her side.

It was all happening so quickly, and Link felt the weight on his back shift, full knowing it was likely going for the killing blow on his exposed neck. He tried to roll and throw his aggressor off, only to find a dirty hand snatch him by the chin and force his head up. He saw the knife coming in from the other direction, the thing intending to cut his throat.

Ralthas was on his feet, his sword out of its sheath, the silver colored blade flashing in the dim light from the window, but he would not be fast enough. Then Link felt the thing on his back jerk and the dagger fell from its hand, the grip on his chin loosening. He tried to roll again, and was able to toss the weight off his back. He rolled to his feet, quickly turning to face his foe. The figure fell onto its side, its blood pooling around it and life rapidly fading from its eyes, and Link saw the wound in its neck. It was nearly decapitated, the cut even severing its spine and paralyzing it on the spot.

Kilishandra had found her weapon, but was unable to draw it, as she fought with the beast on top of her, the dagger in its hand held at bay with one hand, the blade shaking as they struggled, though it was slowly descending toward her chest. Dropping the sword, she balled her right hand into a fist and struck the attacker across the face. It reeled and she was able to roll it to the side off of her, snatching her weapon as it turned and sprang back toward her, its face twisted sideways, apparently having taken more damage from the punch than she would have expected.

The one that had landed on Midna's bedroll turned toward Link, only to have Ralthas' blade erupt from its chest an instant later. It cried out in pain as Ralthas pulled his weapon free, then with a vicious swing sent its head rolling across the floor, the body collapsing as blood poured from the veins in its neck.

Kilishandra had her weapon drawn, rising into a crouched position as the third lunged at her with its dagger. Her weapon whistled, then the creature howled in pain as the dagger, still clutched in its fingers, fell to the floor, blood spurting from its severed wrist. Kilishandra did not land a followup strike, however, as a pair of hands appeared as it from the air around the creature's neck, and a flash of black darker than any shadow appeared from the blue fingers and the creature's howl became a gurgle, blood erupting from its throat, then it collapsed, its head rolling back, nearly cut completely from its shoulders.

"What in the hell are…" Ralthas started to say, and was interrupted by the sound of breaking glass, as the fourth creature smashed through the window, and one arm over the sill, started to pull itself in.

Link reacted first, charging the creature and thrusting his sword directly into it. The tip of the blade punched into its face, smashing through the bone and cartilage with almost disconcerting ease, the figure going almost instantly limp, and its own weight drug it off the blade as it fell into the alley below.

Pounding feet could be heard from the hall outside the room. The group turned, weapons at the ready. Alex burst into the room, his own weapon drawn, stopping short at the sight of the bodies on the floor. He started to speak, but was cut short by a sound from the window.

More howling from very close by. One voice was joined by more, and they were very clearly moving, coming closer.

"What are these things?" Ralthas asked, moving to the window and looking down into the alley at the one that fell.

"Look like men to me," Link said, then turned to glance about the room, "Anyone hurt?"

Everyone confirmed they were fine, and Link asked for Silviana. She was by the stairs in the hall, watching the store to ensure no more made it in. Alex was leaning down by the one that had landed on Link, as if morbidly fascinated by the way its head was nearly cut from its shoulders, except for the layer of muscle tissue and skin at the back of its neck.

"Amazing how easy that was," Midna said, stepping from a shadow near him, then stuck her arms out as she wobbled on her feet, and had to grab hold of Link's arm to keep from falling.

"Are you okay?" Kilishandra asked.

"She should be in about six hours," Link said, and looking to Midna added, "Maybe it would be best if you just stuck to my shadow for now."

"You're telling me she's drunk?" Ralthas asked.

Another howl pierced the air from the window. "I think that's the least of our worries right now," Link said as Midna sank from view into the shadow at Link's feet.

Ralthas looked out the window again, then with a growl through his teeth, turned back toward his bedroll, snatching up his shirt. "Everyone get your things," he said, "We can't stay here."

"Midna, can you get the bedrolls?" Link asked as he picked up his undershirt.

In just a few seconds, each of the bedrolls was sucked away into darkness, vanishing from sight. Alex shuddered and turned toward the door. "I'm gonna check on Sil," he said, stepping out.

Link dumped his chain shirt on over the padded undershirt, pulling the neck and sleeves into place. He looked up toward the window as another howl pierced the night, closer than the last. As he reached for his tunic, he turned to Kilishandra, who was tightening the shoulder straps of her breastplate. "That father of yours took off on his own again earlier," he said, "Any idea where he'd have gone?"

"Probably further into the city," Kilishandra said as she picked up her sword and moved to buckle the belt around her waist, "He didn't tell me either, you know."

"He's on his own, then," Ralthas said over the howls growing ever closer, "We need to get out of here, rain or no."

Suddenly the howling fell silent. Link paused his response to Ralthas, the sudden silence like a massive weight dropped upon them. Ralthas moved slowly to the window, looking out below into the alley. "The body's gone," he said.

Link shushed him from saying more, straining his ears. He could hear something, he was sure. It was close, but very quiet. Some kind of scraping noise. It wasn't footsteps, as it was constant and too regular. He was very close to having Midna shift him into a wolf, for the enhanced senses when he heard a sudden louder sound, that of splintering wood.

He realized he had been hearing a saw at work. Before he could warn the others, there was another crack, and the floor gave way beneath them as the support beam below split. Splinters of wood filled the air as the floor ripped apart under its own weight, and Link shielded his eyes from the flying slivers with his arm as he fell.

Landing in a mass of debris in the room below, Link lifted himself from the mess, feeling the sharp edges of splintered wood scratching painfully on his arms, and some pulling from his skin from where they stabbed as much as an inch deep. His own wounds would in a few seconds not be an issue.

"Ralthas?" he asked, "Kilishandra? Are you all right?"

The dust was settling. He spotted Kilishandra rolling off a pile of wood and start to pick herself up. Ralthas was nearby and had landed facedown, fortunately not in the mess of splinters as Link had. Link offered a hand and helped the Judge to his feet.

"Where…?" Ralthas started to ask, and was cut off by another howl, this time within the same room.

Swords leaped from their scabbards as shapes leaped from the shadows. Steel flashing from knives, at least one sword, and an axe coming toward the three.

Link's original surmise that these people were not trained fighters held true, as he easily deflected a clumsy blow and delivered a lethal thrust under the ribcage to the first attacker, twisting his blade to maximize the damage, and shoved him back to fall on the floor.

But there were more, as Ralthas found himself fighting off blows from, of all things, a shovel. Dangerous enough if it struck in the head, but hardly something made to be a weapon. On his attacker's third swing, he was able to sidestep, and as the metal head crashed into the floor, Ralthas shoulder-blocked the dark figure, forcing it back, giving him room to deliver a devastating swing across his opponent's unarmored chest. This one's howling turned to a scream of agony as it fell back, writhing on the floor in pain as Ralthas moved up and very deliberately stabbed his weapon between the ribs on the left of its chest and twisted, ensuring that even if he missed the heart, lethal damage was done to the lung.

Kilishandra saw the head of a wood-axe flash in the dim light, stepping back as it crashed down, lodging in the wooden floor. As the wielder attempted to pull it out, she delivered an upward swing, her weapon striking through bone and sinew just as easily as Link had predicted, severing both its arms at the elbows. The figure jerked upward, screaming in pain, and her second stroke took the head from its shoulders with ease.

More shadows were coming, all howling as the others. Link gave one a devastating slice across the abdomen, spilling its guts even as he stepped around the blow from another and hooking its feet with one of his own, sent it sprawling on the floor. He turned to block the blow from yet another as he stepped toward the head of the one prone, which rolled onto its back and started to sit up. Link lifted one foot and stomped down on its throat, its howling immediately silenced with a stunning cracking sound and it fell still, paralyzed and suffocating.

The shadows seemed completely filled with moving shapes, and Link knew that the three had nowhere to run. Kilishandra couldn't use her magic without the risk of bringing the whole place down on them, let alone if one caught her as she cast. Where were Alex and Silviana?

Then suddenly it was over. Perhaps seeing so many of their numbers falling, the figures vanished as quickly as they appeared, back into the shadows, and the trio found themselves alone in the room.

"What was that?" Kilishandra asked as heavy silence fell across them again.

"I think we found survivors," Link said, constantly scanning the shadows for movement, "And they don't seem to be happy to see us."

"Well, they're not terribly tough," Kilishandra said, "It's like they don't have any actual training or experience."

"I see none of them," Ralthas commented.

"Well, they've fled," Kilishandra said, "Probably to get more help."

"No, I mean none of _them_," Ralthas said pointedly, indicating the floor around themselves, "None of the ones we killed…"

Link looked down, and realized he was right. There was still fresh blood all around them, but no bodies. Even the one Link had broken the neck of was gone, and even if it were still alive, it wouldn't have been able to crawl away as some may have before bleeding out.

"I got three at least that couldn't have lived," Kilishandra said, searching around her for the evidence

"So did I," Link said, "So did Ralthas. They must have carried the bodies off when they fled."

"Why?" Ralthas asked, "What reason would they have for that? I wonder… Do we even have any idea what these things are?"

"I got a clear look at one on the floor above," Link said, "They're men, or at least, they look like men. Grey skin, with patches rotting off, like a corpse, but not quite dead."

Kilishandra shook her head. "These are not Tharkus' undead," she said, "Not flesh golems either. This is something new. Could he have summoned something? Something that he put into the bodies?"

The questions seemed to be more directed at herself than anyone else. As she worked through whatever train of thought she was on, Link looked upward, toward the opening that had been the floor a moment ago. He knew he had seen no doors leading down to this area, though they hadn't fallen far, about fifteen feet or so. Just enough for one story, with the high ceilings of this building.

"Alex!" he shouted, "Silviana! Where are you?"

There was no response. After a moment, he called again, to the same result.

"We need to get out of here before those things regroup and come back," Ralthas said, scanning the edge of the cave-in above them. It hadn't been far of a fall, but it was enough to be just out of their reach, even if they tried to stand on one-another's shoulders.

"Only way out is after those things," Kilishandra said, and with a snap of her fingers, produced a small globe of light in her palm, which she sent flying to the far end of the chamber, revealing the dark passage the creatures had fled down.

"Alex and Silviana should have answered by now," Link growled, "Those things must have got them."

He moved toward the dark passage, weapon ready, and upon reaching the doorframe, glanced back at Kilishandra. "Put the light out," he said, "I'll be able to see better without it."

"And what about us?" Kilishandra asked.

"Just stay close to me," Link said, and as she snuffed the light, let his eyes adjust to the dark passage, "They can only come from one direction right now, so I'll give you a warning if I see anything."

"Let's just go," Ralthas said, "I'm more worried about staying in one place for too long."

The passage was short, but it quickly opened into a room that stank of blood other excrement. Link quickly checked all the corners, finding it clear, and glanced up just in case, but this room had no rafters, only a smooth ceiling. In fact, its very existence in this building was odd, as was the placing. It was some kind of secret chamber, but Link could see no way in or out other than the way they had come.

At least, not in a traditional manner. His dark vision was growing steadily, and was now able to make out the trail of blood on the floor, smeared in the manner of dragging a heavily bleeding body, which ceased suddenly at an odd crack in the wooden floor. Link knelt down, running his fingers along the crack, trying to ignore the still warm blood smearing, and found a small indentation just large enough to slip his finger into. A tug lifted the hatch cover and revealed ladder rungs of stone descending downward, and also allowed a strong waft of the same smells to refresh that which was in the room already.

"That smells like a sewer," Ralthas said, moving up beside him.

"Exactly," Link said, trying to see down the hole, and judging it to go down about ten feet. Enough that something could be waiting at the bottom that he couldn't see. "Midna, keep to the shadows, and tell me if anything is waiting for us at the bottom."

There was a sound of affirmation from her, then nothing but silence. A moment later, her voice came almost directly in Link's ear. "It's clear."

"She says it's clear," Link said, sheathing his sword and stepping down on the first rung going down, "I hope nobody has any holes in their boots."

They descended into darkness, the smells around them covering up the smell of smoke from where they had come.

* * *

At the time the floor had gave way beneath Link and the others, a group of the blighted men had struck the front of the building, unloading crossbows toward Alex and Silviana, who had quickly taken cover behind the counter, and the creatures had come at them with kitchen knives and one with a meat hook.

They were not skilled fighters, and were felled easily by Alex's sword and Silviana's twin blades, but they were numerous. Even as the first few fell, more poured in the front of the building and Silviana shouted for Alex to follow her up the stairs as she drew her bow and cut down two with arrows to the throats.

There was more shouting and the sound of clashing steel from the room where the others had been sleeping. As they rounded the corner from the stairs, another obstacle presented itself.

A woman, of the same gray pallor as the men, barred their way to the room, sitting on the floor with her head on her knees. Yet as she lifted her gaze to meet them, it was clear that while she might appear the same as the men, she was something else entirely, and as she rose, this became clear to see. While the men still wore scraps of ruined clothing, she stood completely nude, and her body had not of the rotted sores that dotted their flesh. Her face appeared natural, not with the same out of place expressionless oddities of the men, which was all the more clear as her brow furrowed and her eyes revealed pure malice past strands of greasy hair hanging over her face. Her joints popped loudly as she rose, her elbows and knees sounding like bones shattering as they straightened, causing Alex to wince with each snap, but there was no cry of pain or even shift in her gaze with each.

The one thing she did wear was a knife belt at her hips, with six of the weapons, three on each side, and without taking her eyes from the pair of them, reached down to draw one with her right hand. Alex stepped forward, ready for her to move. Silviana's eyes, however, fell to the knife, and she visibly blanched at what she saw. The blade was stained black by a thick, viscous ooze, and as she watched, a visible globule ran downward along the edge to the tip, where it hung for several seconds before finally falling free to stain the floor.

"Don't let that even scratch you," Silviana warned Alex.

She turned to check behind them, to find the men that had been attacking them had halted at the top of the stairs and were just watching, as if waiting for something. She slowly slipped an arrow from her quiver, notching it to the string as she turned back to the woman, who was still standing completely motionless.

Silviana raised her bow, drawing it back and letting it fly with incredible speed, the arrow whistling past Alex and striking her target perfectly. The woman jerked as the arrow pierced her throat, the force at the short range punching the head out the back, directly through her spine.

And she remained on her feet. Her head had jerked back at the impact, but her eyes now returned to them, then dropped to the shaft protruding from her throat, and she reached up with her empty hand to touch it, then reached around to the back of her neck, where she felt the tip. Perhaps most disconcerting of all was the fact there was no blood from the wound.

"A golem," Alex whispered, "Like Zero!"

"No," Silviana said, "Something else entirely."

Without a sound, the woman suddenly charged. In an instant, she was upon them. Faster than Silviana could react, her hand barely grasping her right arm blade when she heard screeching metal, as Alex barely managed to raise his weapon in time, the poisoned knife dragging along its edge, and the woman's free hand struck forward with the heel of her palm, directly into Alex's chest. With a grunt and the wind knocked from his lungs, Alex found his feet off the floor, wind whipping past his ears, crashing directly through the men waiting at the end of the hall before colliding with the wall and falling back forward onto the floor.

Silviana had her weapon drawn, but the woman was already gone, sprinting with inhuman speed toward Alex as he pushed himself up. Swearing loudly, he dove sideways, past the men's grasping hands, the blackened knife blade missing him by inches, followed by the sound of shattering wood, and he rolled down the stairs to the first floor, landing on his back on the floor. Every bit of him complained as he sat up, but nothing was broken, and he picked up his sword, quickly climbing to his feet and turning around.

The woman's blow had gone directly into the wall that had been behind Alex, and he swore again at the sight of her arm buried directly into the wood, up to halfway between her elbow and shoulder. One of the men moved to assist her, but she pulled, ripping her arm from the wood, and slamming her elbow into his face in the process. The man shrieked, falling onto his back, blood pouring from his face, a crater where his nose used to be.

Paying no attention to him, she stepped over his body and down the stairs toward Alex.

Upstairs, the remaining men turned their attention to Silviana. As she saw the woman disappear around the corner of the stairs, she drew her second blade, spinning the grips in her palms to rest the flats of the blades along her forearms.

Three of them were left, and charged her as one. She saw the wide swing of the knife of the first, and stepped back enough that it missed by several inches in front of her face, and stepped back in quickly, throwing a left-hook that dragged her forearm, and the edge of her blade, along the attacker's throat. He gargled, going down as the second shoved him aside, this one with a true sword. Silviana knocked his thrust aside with her right arm, and spun the left blade around in her grip, so the full length was extended out, and jammed it upward into the base of his skull. Hot blood spilled over her hand as she twisted it inside his head and pulled it free, giving it a swing to throw the blood onto the floor before spinning it back into place along her arm.

The third had been slow to follow the first two, and as she turned toward him, his knife was of no concern. In one move, she sidestepped it as she moved toward him, putting more force into her next blow. A straight right-punch with all her force behind it, which would be capable of laying a grown man flat normally, added to it the destructive impact of the base of her weapon, which created a loud crunching of bone as the metal smashed into his face, and she was past him before he even hit the floor, moving for the stairs after Alex and the woman.

She emerged from the stairs in time to see Alex jump back to avoid a swing of her poisoned knife. He snatched the remnant of a broken chair from the floor in his free hand and smashed it across the woman's shoulder. She barely flinched from the impact and paid no heed to the shower of wood around her. Silviana sheathed her blades, pulling her bow from her shoulder and drawing another arrow from the quiver at her hip.

The knife flashed and Alex cried out, backing away from the woman quickly. Silviana held her breath as he put his free hand to where the woman had stuck. The woman moved in again. Silviana raised and loosed her arrow in one motion. In the next instant, the woman jerked sideways, hitting the floor in a sprawl, the arrow protruding from the right side of her head.

"Alex, are you all right?" Silviana asked.

"She just got my shirt," he said, "Gave me a scare, but I'm fine."

The woman did not stay down, and began to pick herself up from the floor, the arrows still stuck in her head and throat. "Cut her head off!" Silviana shouted to Alex.

He moved, raising his blade to strike. The blow was stopped short as the woman's hand shot up. She caught the blade in her palm, her fingers wrapped tightly around the blade. "Oh shit…" Alex muttered as she looked up at him, her expression completely unchanged from before.

Then a sight that gave him hope. Where her fingers clenched around the sword, a dribble of red blood running down the edge of the blade. Her other hand was reaching for another knife at her belt. Alex seized the moment, and gave her his trademark low kick, his foot striking into her midsection with enough force to knock the wind from any man. It gained a reaction, sending her rolling to the side.

The fingers of the hand that had held the sword blade pattered to the floor, cut from the hand as she jerked sideways. Blood sprayed from the stumps on her hand as she hissed, the first sound out of her. Intending to finish it, Alex moved after her.

He jumped back as flames leaped up before him. "Wha…?" he started as the wave of heat washed over him. Still hissing, the woman was on her feet, and the line of fire led straight to her. She raised her hand with finger stumps still gushing blood, and held it to the side.

"Alex, watch out!" Silviana shouted.

Alex saw the woman move. He dove away from the flame as she swung her hand, sending blood flying through the air toward him. It pattered down onto the floor and old wreckages of furniture, and everywhere the blood landed burst into flame, in a semicircle pattern in front of the woman.

She raised her hand for another strike. An arrow whistled over the flames, striking through the center of her palm. She paused for a moment, looking at the arrow through her hand before turning her gaze to Silviana, who was already drawing another arrow from the quiver. The woman lowered her hand and then pulled it back, as if winding up for an underhanded throw.

Alex leaped the line of flame with a wordless roar, crashing his full weight into the woman just as her hand went forward. Another line of blood flew, bursting into flame, but falling right of the target, that being Silviana, but blocking the stairs with flames. The first lines were already beginning to spread across the wood floors and walls, and smoke was filling the room.

Alex landed on top of the woman, his sword finding the target and burying its edge in her flesh. He stood up, pulling on it to free it for another stroke, and he saw her hand flash toward the belt of knives. He yanked hard on the sword, felt it free as he staggered back, the blackened knife coming free of its and stabbing upward. Alex saw the thick liquid on the blade, fresh from the filled sheath, and the heavy drop that broke free of the blade, and felt it splash against his cheek, and quickly clamped his jaw shut to avoid accidentally catching any in his mouth.

Her foot shot up from where she lay, catching him full in the chest, and Alex found himself with nothing to hold onto as he shot through the air, out the front window of the building and landing hard on his back on the paved street. He choked, fighting to get back the breath that had just been knocked from his lungs a second time. The rain on his face was a small reminder that he was still conscious, and he rolled over onto his hands and knees, then lifted one hand to his aching ribs. Nothing was broken, but he was going to be sore in the morning. Assuming he lived that long, he corrected, looking over his shoulder to see the woman stepping out the door, knife in hand, still bleeding from her severed fingers of the other hand, trailing fire as she walked.

Alex searched for his sword, which had been knocked from his hand when he landed. It was to his left, and he moved to grab it. The woman swung her wounded hand forward, and he saw the spatters of blood block his path to the weapon, bursting into flame an instant later, even in the rain, the sudden heat sending sizzling steam rising from the wet street.

He turned back to the woman in time to see her lower her stance and launch into a sprint, closing the distance between them in just seconds. Just enough time for him to turn toward her, and see the knife flash through the air. He snatched for it, and managed to catch her wrist with his hands, but found himself pinned on his back as she straddled his abdomen, knees on either side of his chest.

There it was, the coated black blade hovering just inches above his chest, as he gripped her wrist with both hands, trying to push her away. The blade shook with the opposing efforts, but it quickly became clear that even with just one hand, her strength was far superior to his own, as the blade crept downward. The woman's face contorted in the effort, her brow furrowing as her lips curled, baring her teeth in a snarl.

Alex's own teeth were grinding as he groaned with effort. He had to free himself quickly, but her position made it impossible to use his legs to do so, and if he took a hand away from her wrist, it would be over in an instant. But the sight of the blade creeping ever closer to him was a good incentive. His groan became a roar of effort as he pushed her hand up with strength born of desperation, moving it several inches higher.

She lifted her other arm, laying it over the top of the arm holding the knife, and pushed down. The blade came downward, even faster than before. There was nothing he could do.

The point of a sharp blade suddenly exploded out the front of her abdomen. No cry of pain, but she lifted her head and her effort on the knifed stopped for an instant. Reacting quickly, Alex took one hand from her wrist, and snatched one of the remaining knives in her belt from its sheath, and stabbed it into the side of her stomach.

That got a reaction. She cried out, diving sideways, as if to escape the poisoned blade already in her flesh. She rolled off Alex, pulling away from the point of Silviana's blade that had been stabbed into her from behind. The cry turned to hissing as the woman writhed on the ground, curling into a ball as she clawed at the knife wound. The weapon had been dislodged by her actions, but she still clawed at the wound, and Alex rose to his feet, wondering exactly what kind of poison it was, when something truly strange happened.

Around the stab wound where the knife had struck, her gray flesh began to turn black, and it spread quickly over her skin, the vicious poison doing its work, and then her flesh began to dry and crumble, flaking away from her body, only to dissolve in the water of the falling rain. In a moment, all that remained of the woman was a blackened skeleton laying in the fetal position in the street, and a knife belt with two empty sheaths and four still intact draped around the pelvis.

"What just happened?" Alex asked.

Silviana was already kneeling down by the skeleton, undoing the buckle of the belt, and retrieved the other that had fallen from the wound, inserting it into one of the empty sheaths. "Some kind of lethal toxin, like I've never seen," she said, "At least, that's what I'll call it for now. Acted more like acid, didn't it?"

The flames from the woman's blood, with nothing to feed on in the paved street, were beginning to die, and Alex was able to retrieve his sword. He suddenly swore as he remembered the others, turning back to the building they had intended to shelter in. It was a blazing inferno, the front windows filled with fire, and smoke pouring out into the air. The rain had no chance of putting it out, and it was beginning to spread to the buildings on either side.

"That's it then," Alex said, turning to Silviana, "We're dead. Without Link's sword or Kilishandra's magic, we have no chance against the Necromancer. Not that we'd make it anyway, since Midna was carrying the supplies," he added as he turned back to the blaze.

"Hold onto this," Silviana said, handing him the knife belt, "We might need it if we run into more of those things."

Alex looked down at the belt, then turned to ask why bother, but stopped when he saw where she was going, and instead asked, "What are you doing?"

Silviana stooped down by a manhole in the street, and was trying to edge her fingers around the cover. "You weren't much for history, I take it," she said, "This city has an extensive sewer system running under its entirety. It was also used for smuggling before our time, and probably still was until it fell. When the others fell through the second floor, they landed in a part of the building you wouldn't be able to find if you didn't know what to look for. Likely a storage area for illegal goods. Which means it would also have access to the sewers, for covert pickups and deliveries.

"This also means, if they're alive, they had one direction to go, and that is down."

Alex was silent for a moment as he processed this, then said, "I get it. That would also explain how those things were able to sneak up on us."

"Exactly," Silviana said, and with a grunt, pulled the manhole cover to the side, then added, "And that also means, if we're going to find the others, we're about to head into their territory."

Alex moved over by the manhole, kneeling down to look into the darkness below. He sighed and looked up at Silviana. "You're sure they're down there?" he asked.

"If they're alive."

"What about Ganondorf?" Alex asked, "Maybe we can find him."

Silviana looked up as a distant howl rose over the rain. "Even if we could find him, I think he's probably got his hands full already," she said, "And besides, you said it yourself: If we can't find the others, we're dead anyway. We'll starve before we get anywhere."

Alex sighed, looking down at the dark manhole again. "So just gird the loins and do it, I guess," he muttered, and turned to put his foot down on the first rung, "Into the belly of the beast and all that."

* * *

"Considering the smell, I'm actually glad I can't see what I'm walking in," Kilishandra said as the group moved, sloshing through ankle deep muck. Kilishandra had to duck her head to avoid hitting it on the ceiling.

"The stuff that smells isn't the bad part," Link said, leading them around a half exposed human skeleton in the sludge, "Doesn't this sewer have a drain somewhere?"

"East side of the city, if I remember correctly," Ralthas said, "It seals up from the inside, to prevent entry, and was probably sealed when the city was attacked."

"And then nobody reopened it," Kilishandra muttered, though clearly taking the point, and choosing to just let it go.

"And those things crept up on us from down here," Link said, pausing as they came to an intersection of the tunnels, "Question now is where did they go?"

"Hey, is that a light?" Ralthas asked.

Link turned to see where Ralthas was looking. Down the right hand tunnel of the intersection, he spotted it. Like a blank spot in what he could see, with a glare at its center. "All right, try to move quiet," Link said, "Let's check it out."

Moving slowly to avoid sloshing in the muck, they made their way down the tunnel, toward the source of the light. It flickered from around another corner, which Link paused at the edge of, to wait for his eyes to adjust and avoid being blinded.

Leaning slowly around the corner, Link gauged what waited. The room was clear of the hostile men, and opened up to a rounded area. Moving around the corner to get a better look, Link realized it was a large intersection, with eight passages attached to it. One moved downhill, while the other seven were at a slight incline. It was a pooling area, to bring flows from different locations together and drain toward a single source. There was also a raised platform in the center of the chamber, and about ten feet up the broken remains of an iron ladder that connected to the surface.

On the platform was a sight that drew the eye with much more force, however. An open fire, creating the flickering light in the chamber. The manhole in the ceiling was open, allowing the smoke an exit. Over the flames was a large roasting spit, and as they drew closer, an oddly pleasant smell among the other smells of the sewer.

"Oh, gods," Kilishandra whispered.

Bound to the spit was a human form. A man, stripped of clothing, his hands and feet bound over the iron bar of the spit, his flesh cooked to an almost golden color. The one mercy was that he was dead, and they did not step into seeing someone cooked alive.

If the sight was not disturbing enough, Link knew the smell would be a source of nightmares for weeks to come. It was actually pleasant, the smell of perfectly cooked meat, with an oddly spicy tang unlike anything he had ever known before.

"Link, it's one of them," Midna whispered in his ear, "The one you broke the neck of."

"So that's why they drug the bodies off," Link said, leaning closer, and sure enough he could see the distortion of the shattered vertebrae in the neck, "I was wrong. These are not men."

"I'd argue that men are capable of acts no animal would commit," Ralthas said, "but something has definitely happened to the people here."

"But where are they?" Link asked, "They drug the bodies down here for… this…" He gestured to the roasting spit and open fire. "They set this up very quickly, considering I killed that one maybe a half-hour ago. Why are they not here?"

"You're thinking an ambush," Ralthas said, eyeing the tunnels around them for signs of movement.

"Maybe not," Link said, "Notice there's nothing else here. No beds, no weapons, no personal belongings. This was left here for a reason."

"An offering!" Kilishandra said with sudden realization, "This is a makeshift sacrificial altar!"

"Question now is, an offering to what?" Link said, turning toward the tunnel that moved downhill away from them.

Except for the crackle of the flames, the room was utterly silent. Link moved to the edge of the platform, closest to the exit tunnel, straining his eyes to see down into the darkness, but with such a bright light so close, he was as blind as anyone else to what may lay down it.

"We need to get moving," Ralthas said, "That ladder's not too high. Maybe we can give you a boost, Link, and you can throw a rope down to us from the top."

Link didn't respond, still watching the tunnel. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something was bothering him. His instinct had been right before, when he had thought something was watching them, though he hadn't been able to find the source. Now there was something else, something that was making the hairs on his neck stand up, and he was sure it was there, in the dark tunnel.

Then he saw the moving silhouette, there in the dark, moving slowly from side to side, and his ears tingled as he heard steps through the muck. Link's hand shot up to his sword, that movement alone causing Ralthas and Kilishandra to reach for theirs. The dark figure moved slowly into the edge of the firelight.

It was a girl, a child no more than eight or nine years of age. Walking slowly, her head down, clutching a teddy bear to her chest. Link let out a sigh of relief, relaxing his grip on his weapon. "It's just a girl," he said.

"Don't relax yet," Kilishandra said, "Look closer. She's infected with the same thing as the men who attacked us."

Kilishandra was right. The skin of the girl's arms and legs was the same gray pallor as the men. With her head down, her hair was hanging to where they could not see her face, but she was walking barefoot in the muck, slowly moving toward them still, not a scrap of clothing on her body, and holding only the dirty, torn teddy bear.

And the hairs on Link's neck refused to lay down, something in the back of his brain warning him not to let his guard down. This girl was more dangerous than the entire group of men that had attacked them. He tightened his grip on his sword, and slowly began to slide it from the sheath.

The sound of sliding metal caused the girl's head to shoot up. Hair flying, wild green eyes wide open, and just as Link's weapon was entirely free of the sheath, she screamed.

There was a legend, handed down as a cautionary tale to children all over the world. The story of the Mandragora plant, that would grow only on the graves of innocent men that were executed for crimes they did not commit. The plant was said to blossom with the most beautiful flowers one could ever hope to see, but if one attempted to pick them, they would be unable to take the flowers without dragging the entire plant, roots and all, from the grave. And then the horror would be revealed, as the roots would have the exact shape and appearance of the innocent man or woman buried there, though in smaller scale. And the eyes would open, and in the next instant, the Mandragora root would let out a shriek so terrible, it would kill the one who plucked it from the earth, as well as any others nearby.

The scream let out by the small girl was what Link always imagined the Mandragora's scream would have been like, though it did not kill him outright. It was a high pitched shriek that pierced through his head like a knife. A pain like a splitting headache shot through his skull with enough force to make him step back and drop to one knee, lifting his free hand to his head as he groaned through his teeth, clenched tight enough his jaw ached with the effort.

If there were any glass nearby, it would undoubtedly have shattered from the sound.

Ralthas and Kilishandra were faring no better than Link. Ralthas had fallen to his knees, and appeared to be screaming himself as he held both hands to either side of his head, covering his ears and trying to block out the sound, and having no success. Kilishandra had fallen to her hands and knees, leaning forward on her elbows with her eyes screwed shut. The pain was gradually causing her to lose her grip on her natural magical talent, causing sparks to shoot from her body at irregular intervals, purely by reflex and not desire.

* * *

The piercing scream carried throughout the tunnels. Not a hundred feet from where Link and the others were, Alex and Silviana were stopped in their tracks when the scream came up the tunnel toward them. Like being punched in the face, Alex collapsed, falling back into the ankle deep muck, hands clutching his head as it felt like an ice pick being jammed sideways through his skull.

Silviana stumbled, falling sideways against the wall of the tunnel, able to brace herself with one hand while the other went to her head, and the strength seemed to be sucked right out of her legs.

In the other direction, past Link's group, about five hundred yards away, different reactions were had to the scream.

The unconscious form of Ganondorf, carried into the tunnels by the men, had been deposited on the stone floor of another intersection of the sewers, and left there, now surrounded by six of the blighted women, gathering around his body, crouching down to pull his armor and clothing away as the one man remaining, the hunter who made the kill, came forward at the beckoning of one of the women.

The hunter drew his knife, a razor sharp blade intended for one purspose, kneeling down by Ganondorf's head. With one hand on the wizard's forehead to hold it steady, he brought the blade down, aiming just to the outside of Ganondorf's right eye, to take his trophy.

When the scream pierced the tunnels, all six women and the hunter looked up. The women were on their feet and practically flying down the tunnel toward the source in and instant, moving with speed no human could hope to match. The hunter sheathed his knife and started to climb to his feet, looking down just once at the face he would be back to claim as his own.

Then the hunter realized Ganondorf's eyes had opened and were looking back up at him.

* * *

"How much breath does this girl have?" Link growled.

The weakness of this tactic was becoming clear. Just like one adapted to an injury or normal headache, putting the pain aside so that one could carry on in spite of it, he was growing used to the agony caused by the scream, and was beginning to wall it off so that it wouldn't stop him.

"Midna, can you hear me?" he asked.

"Barely," came her response, pain in her voice, as if she was struggling just to speak.

"We're no doubt about to have company," Link said, "Can you protect Ralthas and Kilishandra until they're on their feet?"

"I'll try," Midna said, "If we get swarmed like before, I'm going to use the mask."

Link was about to ask if she was sure about that, but decided this was hardly the time to argue. "Do what you have to," he said.

He forced himself onto his feet. As much as he thought he had braced himself, it was barely enough, as he lurched forward, the pain reemerged in his head, causing him to clamp his teeth down and stumble, nearly falling forward as he moved.

On top of that, just the image of what he was about to do was trying to sap his will. The girl may have been infected, but when he looked at her, she looked just like a little girl, screaming in terror of what was before her. Link never imagined himself killing a child before, but if he didn't now, they wouldn't have a chance if more of the creatures came running.

_She's already dead,_ he told himself, tightening his grip on his sword and stepping from the dry platform into the ankle-deep muck, _This is a mercy._

She was almost within reach. The pain in his head grew worse with each step he took toward her, but now he raised his sword.

Suddenly the scream stopped. The sudden relief was almost as bad a shock as the initial pain, and Link slipped, staggering three steps sideways as he tried to keep his balance, only barely managing to do so. It was like finally being able to breath after having someone standing on your chest for several minutes straight, and Link realized he actually was gasping for breath, as were Ralthas and Kilishandra.

The girl, still clutching her bear, was staring at Link, without a trace of fear in her eyes, in spite of how close he had just been. In fact, as he watched, her brow furrowed and her lip curled in a sneer. The ringing in his ears was beginning to fade, and he could hear splashing from behind them. He turned as with loud hissing, gray skinned women emerged from a side tunnel. Ralthas shouted, drawing his sword as one leaped almost ten feet straight up before coming down toward him.

Link turned back to the girl to see only her back as she fled down the tunnel she had come. Swearing, he turned to run back toward the others. Before he reached them, another figure appeared, like a spreading shadow, Midna materialized from the darkness, and practically was a shroud of darkness herself, the Fused Shadow seated atop of billowing cloud of shadow, only two exposed hands visible in the billowing cloud.

Kilishandra slashed at one of the women with her weapon, who evaded with speed no person should be capable of, and rebounding toward her in the next instant. Midna's hand snatched the gray woman by the arm and hurled her back the opposite direction, to slam into the brick wall of the intersection with bone crushing force, though she was quickly on her feet again and moving back toward them.

Ralthas was giving ground as one of the women clawed at him almost maniacally. From six feet away, Midna's hand shot out, wrapping around the woman's neck, dragging her toward the black cloud, then slammed her down into the platform with enough force to crush her skull and splattered brain matter on the floor. Another of the woman leaped at Midna, letting out a cry of fury, only to pass directly through the cloud of her body. The mask turned, and with one hand, Midna reached down, snatching the woman's hair, pulling up and slamming back down, crushing her face on the floor.

Link reached the platform, careful not to slip on the muck clinging to his shoes, moved up toward the group. He could hear more splashing from the side tunnels, and then howling. Not the scream of the child, but the same animalistic howling they heard before, and dozens of the blighted men began pouring from the side tunnels into the room.

One of the women turned on Link, snaking a hand out toward him. He halted his steps quickly, her grasping fingers missing his throat by inches. An upward swing of his sword resulted in the hand not returning with the rest of her arm when she pulled back, blood spurting from the wound. Link moved in for the kill when Midna's hand snatched the top of the woman's head. He'd never noticed the increase in size when she wore the mask, but her fingers digging into the woman's eyes, she lifted the woman straight up and sent her flying through the air to crash into the far wall. Another of the women leaped high into the air, trying to grab at Midna's mask. Midna leaded her head back, pulling the mask just out of her reach, and snatched hold of the woman's ankle as she went up, turning and hurling her into a charging group of the men, sending the lot sprawling in the disgusting ooze surrounding the platform.

Kilishandra struck down two of the men with slashes across the chest as Ralthas cut the legs from under another and stabbed his weapon into the fallen's back, twisting sharply before raising his attention again. Link struck down one as he sidestepped a thrust of a sharpened pole, cleaving the arm from another and carried the motion to take the head completely off a third.

More and more were pouring from the tunnels. Falling back to back, the group was at the center of the platform, completely surrounded, with no escape in sight. Bodies were rapidly piling up around them, and yet more were trying to climb over them. One fell near Link with an arrow through his throat, gurgling as he fought for breath, making Link look up for an instant. Silviana and Alex emerged from one of the side tunnels, and throwing her bow over her shoulder, Silviana drew her blades, joining Alex as they cut into the attackers from the side.

Then flames leaped into life. Where they had come from, Link had no idea, but their attackers were suddenly caught in the flames, which spread rapidly as Link spotted the woman with her wrist cut of, swinging it wilding and sending blood all around her. A few seconds after landing, whether on stone or flesh, the blood leaped into flames, creating new howls from the men as fire consumed their flesh.

Someone bumped into Link from the right, and he spun, weapon striking, to find the blade clashing against Ralthas' weapon, who had reacted to the touch in a similar way. Then the two turned back to the enemy as Kilishandra backed into them, forming a three sided circled that the blighted creatures kept pressing against, climbing over the bodies of the fallen, slavering like animals.

Midna snatched two of the women, slamming them together and then dashing them against the wall as the other two remaining moved toward the group in the center. She was able to snatch the one spouting blood, dragging her quickly to the side of the room before taking a grip on her head and smashing her skull against the brick wall. Alex and Silviana were backed against another wall, practically building a barricade from the bodies as they piled up.

"We're being overwhelmed!" Ralthas shouted, "We have to find a way out of this!"

The men were no strong fighters, and the women, regardless of whatever mutations they had undergone, were no match for Midna wearing the Fused Shadow, but Link knew Ralthas was right. The sheer numbers were going to wear them down.

The only open path that they might reach was the tunnel the girl had fled down. "We get over to Alex and Silviana!" he shouted, "Then move to the open tunnel the girl fled down! We can bottleneck them in there!"

"I'll clear the road," Kilishandra said, passing her sword to her left hand.

One of the women leaped atop the shoulders of the men, walking quickly across them toward the group, and then diving for them.

"_Daem!_"

The single word shook the walls, and in such close proximity, nearly blew Link off his feet, though it was directed away from him. The air was suddenly filled with blood and flying limbs as everything between Kilishandra and the clear tunnel was blasted with the force of a lightning strike.

Midna waded into the crowd as Link shouted to move, using everything the mask gave her to keep them clear as they moved for where Alex and Silviana were pinned. Striking into the men from behind, they cleared the path, shouted for them to move, and as one, the group was able to reach the tunnel. Standing shoulder to shoulder, Link, Alex, and Kilishandra were able to block the tunnel with their bodies, striking back attackers even as they move backward in a slow retreat.

"Midna, come on!" Link shouted as the great shadow smashed another one of the women's heads, putting her down for good.

The mask turned and she started to move, when another shape emerged from one of the side tunnels. It sent bodies flying as it smashed men out of its way with out arm, and rose from the half crouch it had been forced to move down the tunnel in, rising to its full height of twelve feet.

"What in the hell is that?" Ralthas asked.

A great armored knight entered the fire light, black plates of metal rattling as it walked, with clawed gauntlets gripping a sword larger than a grown man with a twisting yellow snake-blade, and topped with an enormous sentinel helmet with two enormous horns of steel. Within the eye slit, a flash of two red lights, and then the giant figure ripped into the crowd of men with its sword, slicing as many as six completely in half with a single stroke. Pressure was taken off Link and the others as the blighted turned to face this new threat.

On the backswing of the enormous weapon, taking just as many as the first, Link saw the glowing Triforce on the back of the figure's right hand.

"It's Ganon," he said.

The legends of the Hero of Time and the King of Evil spoke of Ganon and Ganondorf as if they were two separate entities. Ganondorf being the man, the wizard who took Hyrule by force, grinding it beneath his heel and oppressing the people, and Ganon being the monstrous form he took in the final battle with the Hero of Time, giving up his humanity for the power to destroy those who opposed him. In the end, it was a failed gambit in any case.

Link remembered when Ganondorf had changed before his eyes. He had fought the monster known as Ganon, remembering that it was different than what the tales described, but thinking that either time had colored the memory or it had simply been wrong, especially considering he had faced Ganondorf in single combat only _after_ defeating the beast, Ganon.

But this was different than what he had seen when he fought Ganon, yet he knew without a doubt it was the same entity, Ganondorf's body transformed by the triforce, but this time not taking the form of a monster like one would expect, but the image of a black knight, exactly as the fairy tales would describe him, standing twelve feet tall and wielding a weapon no mortal man could lift from the ground.

He was still a monster, but in a completely different way. And it was rapidly turning the tide, as the men began to flee. The mixture of liquid and waste surrounding the platform was turning completely red, filling with blood as he struck them down en masse.

One of the surviving women leaped at him, going straight for his helmet. She collided with his chest, trying to get her fingers under the base of the helmet, only to find there was no seam. One of the clawed gauntlets came up, the enormous fingers wrapping completely around her head as it snatched hold of her and pulled her way. Then the fingers came closer together, the closed hand slamming shut into a fist and crushing her head, sending chips of bone and brain matter oozing between the fingers. Dropping the body, the hand returned to the sword, and razing through the men.

Then, suddenly, it was over. The blighted men were dead, or had fled. The one surviving woman had fled. The room had become the most brutal slaughter Link had even seen. Even where they stood in the tunnel, the ooze around their feet had turned dark red, no hint remaining of its original color.

The massive figure of Ganon turned to them, and before their eyes, started to shrink. The metal plating pulled away, vanishing as if into the flesh, the horns pulling back into the helmet, which itself began to change shape, taking on familiar feathers, until finally all traces of the black metal were gone, and Ganondorf was standing in the center of the room, dressed in the same armor he had been wearing since Darimar, holding his glowing white sword in his right hand.

"That's one more you owe me," he said, looking deliberately at Link.

"Where the hell were you?" Link demanded.

"They shot me with some kind of poison," Ganondorf said, kneeling down to turn one of the bodies over, and finding a case of crossbow bolts, along with a treated leather bag, about the size of a person's palm. Opening the bag, he found the thick black liquid he sought. "This stuff. Would be completely lethal to any of you. Me, I was out for about an hour. Woke up to some bastard trying to cut my face off."

Midna removed the Fused Shadow, the mask falling to pieces again before vanishing from sight. "Are you all right?" she asked as Link moved over to her.

"I'm fine," he said, taking his own cloak loose and putting it over her bare shoulders.

"Father, what are these things?" Kilihandra asked, "Did Tharkus make them?"

"That's most likely," Ganondorf said, "My educated guess is that he did something to the blight before releasing it here. I think drinking the blighted water is what transformed these people. The men into violent, animalistic hunters, and the women… Well, I'm not sure. They're fast and strong, that's for certain. I'd need a proper lab and weeks of study to figure out exactly what's going on. We don't have either."

"Can we keep this from spreading?" Ralthas asked, the group moving out of the tunnel and into the center of the room with him.

"It's already spread," Ganondorf said, "The blight itself spreads it. The only solution is to purge the living carriers, and wait it out. Tharkus' machines are what spread the blight to begin with and without them, it won't spread further in the land. It will be millenia before these lands are livable again, however."

"And to keep it from spreading, we have to kill Tharkus," Link said.

"Exactly," Ganondorf said, "Now, let's get out of this city, and I'll deal with the part of the problem that we can now."

* * *

Climbing out of the sewer was relatively easy, and the group saw no sign of the "hunters" on the streets as they made their way to the western gate, and out of the city. Taking a wagon trail north from there, they marched until sunrise. Only a few hours out, the city was still fairly close, but Ganondorf declared it far enough.

Ganondorf moved to the top of a small hill, facing the city. Without preamble, he lifted his hands, and the breeze around them fell silent. He spoke, his words coming with the very recognizable echo of a spell in casting.

"_Ast kailon nu drige darmin…_" he said, as his hair began to whip as though in the wind, though there was none, the energy gathering around his body in preperation, "_Han trea bu zeke!_"

"Is that what I think it is?" Ralthas whispered.

"Yes," Kilishandra said, "The second single most destructive magic known to man."

"_Ancient god of death, unleash ultimate destruction upon my enemies, and open the gates of Hell!_" Ganondorf spoke, as visible trails of color began to appear, circling around him and gathering in his palms, which he spread to his sides, keeping his palms flat and toward the city. "_Harrowing!_"

The final word was dragged out, each syllable long and enunciated, as Ganondorf lifted his hands skyward. Upon its actual completion, two white streaks of light shot up from his hands. Silence fell over them as he lowered his hands to his sides.

"Is that it?" Alex asked.

Suddenly the clouds over the city parted, and streaks of white shot down. First only two or three, then dozens, and then hundreds, all moving and raking across the city. From where they stood, they could see the buildings collapsing. They were not catching fire, they were turning molten in an instant. In a few moments, the light ceased, and a molten crater with a few odd walls that managed to escape the lights were all that remained.

Ganondorf inhaled deeply as the breeze rose again, carrying the burning scent from what was previously the city to them. He let it out with a contented sigh. "There's no kill like overkill," he said with a smile, and turned to the group, "Most of you have never seen the likes of that. That spell was the very spell that instilled fear in the monarchs of old. Fear of magic, and those who practiced it, and resulted in the harsh sanctions and limits of its practice. Entire kingdoms would fall in moments to that kind of power. Yet it was only used twice in the ancient war, and never again after."

"What is your point?" Ralthas asked, "They wanted to keep such magic from being abused."

"Abused?" Ganondorf snickered, "Both times it was cast, it was by their 'great hero,' Darius. And it is because it was feared that magic is so nearly dead in this world today. All forms, including healing arts, are nearly lost because of that fear."

He started toward them, and marched right past, moving northward, and as they started to follow, glanced back, turning to Link. "Next time you talk to your sage, ask him about it," Ganondorf said.

_I've never told him,_ Link thought, _But he knows exactly who that sage is. Probably always has._

"Let's get moving," Ganondorf said, starting to walk again, "We're wasting time, one resource we do not have in abundance."

The group fell in behind him. Just a few hours ago, they were fighting for their lives, but there was no time to rest. The longer they waited, the closer the time came when Tharkus would release Shaklator into the world through the Twilight Mirror, and if that happened, one spell wasn't going to be able to fix it.


	108. Chapter 107

Trying to do something vaguely like horror takes me forever to write, but I get Ganondorf talking about philosophy and away he goes, like I can't even keep him under control. Funny how that works.

Quick note about Walpurgis Night, since the term is mentioned again in this chapter, and I got an anonymous review claiming I took it from some anime: The term originates in German folklore, and refers to an event also called the Witch's Festival, which has been modernized in the same way All Hallows Eve became Halloween. So there, I'm not ripping off some anime, I'm ripping off real life. It's a good idea to have your facts straight before you accuse someone of something like that, so that you're at least right about what you're accusing them of. I mean, Wikipedia makes this stuff so easy, or is that just me?

**Chapter 107: Behind the Mask**

The small party made good time, across the more level land between Nigel and Whitos-Neiki. As the sun started to sink lower in the afternoon, a familiar landmark began to creep over the distant horizon. Ralthas pulled a small spyglass from his belt, extending it and using it to get a better look.

Without a word, he handed the device to Silviana, who lifted it to her eye, and whispered, "Gods, I knew it would be bad, but that…"

Link held out his hand for the spyglass, and when she handed it to him, took a look for himself. There were trees on the horizon, but just as the black earth beneath their feet showed no sign of spring grass or any other life, the trees were bare, like clawed fingers against the sky. The entire forest was dead.

"To be expected," Ganondorf said, "I'm more interested in whether we can reach it before nightfall, and if we do, is there some place we can take shelter against the weather."

It was not raining, but a chilly northern wind had been gradually building for the past hour.

"There are several natural caves and hollows I used," Silviana said, "It might be a bit of a close fit with seven of us, but they will suffice."

They'd put the city behind them that morning, and marched straight through the day, seeing little to raise their spirits. As the trees began to gradually creep closer, an image straight out of a storybook, the kind of place evil witches that ate little children were likely to dwell, it didn't help matters as the group walked in silence.

Alex walked in the back of the group, and had not said a word since that morning. His clothing was a mess, after having fallen on his back in the sewer much, and it was now dried and flaking off, and making his skin itch where it was attached. No matter how much he scratched, there always seemed to be more, ready to get caught under his nails in the process.

He glanced at Silviana, ahead of him, a tuft of white hair over the dark gray cloak over her shoulders. She hadn't glanced back once, though she certainly hadn't had any problem working together while in the city. Of course, that was a stupid thing to attach to. When lives are at stake, you obviously had to put aside any personal grievances, and quickly, lest they get someone killed.

Of course, this was a completely idiotic thing to focus on right now anyway. All around him, evidence that the world was coming to an end, and he was with a team on their way to put an end to the one responsible, and here he was thinking a woman that, even to his own amazement, he had come to care for a great deal, and in a very short time. He remembered the way she used to look at him, her eyes filled with warmth and intelligence, with a glint of mischievous humor. Now they were cold and hard when they looked his way.

He had liked her before, but it seems that the saying, about not knowing what was truly important, until it was gone, was very true. And he knew no one was to blame but himself. Maybe he was incredibly selfish, or perhaps just simple-minded, as more than one person had accused him of in his life, but even a legendary quest to save the world seemed of unimportant to just seeing her smile at him again.

So focused on his thoughts, he almost didn't notice when the group stopped. Silviana, Ralthas, and Link knelt down and Alex realized they were looking at tracks.

"Dogs," Silviana said, "Maybe the same group we saw tracks of south of the city."

"Any way to know how many?" Ralthas asked.

"Eight or nine at least," Silviana said, "They're not moving single file, but definitely as a pack. Look here, at the size of this one."

"That's a dog?" Link asked, "That's the size of a horse's hoof."

"Maybe a wolf," Silviana said, "They got pretty big around here, though I've never seen one that would leave prints like that."

As Midna leaned over Link's shoulder to see what they were talking about, Kilishandra moved ahead of the group, evidently not interested in the conversation, and Ganondorf turned, taking several steps back toward Alex, though was not looking at him, but past him.

"No pursuit," Ganondorf said, stopping by Alex, "Must have got all of them. Though that city can't be the only place infected like that."

"Hmm," Alex mumbled, not really a response.

"And what are you thinking so hard about?" Ganondorf asked.

"What are you talking about?" Alex asked, looking up at the huge man, to find Ganondorf looking directly down at him.

"That expression on your face," Ganondorf said, "You're obviously thinking through something of world shaking importance. Or you're trying to figure out how to spell phantasmagorical."

"Leave me alone," Alex growled, moving up past him, toward the rest of the group. After several steps, he did glance over his shoulder, only to see Ganondorf facing the other way, watching the horizon behind them, where a trail of smoke was still visible from the location of the city, reaching up into the sky.

Then Alex did pause for a second, thinking about how one spelled phantasmagorical, and shook his head, giving up at "f-a-n-t."

"Do you think this could be the same group we saw tracks from before?" Link asked Silviana as Alex moved closer to them.

"It's possible, the tracks before were headed in a meandering northwesterly direction," Silviana replied, "and these are going northeast. They're moving in an awfully wide circle, searching for some kind of source of food."

"Probably hungry enough to attack us if they see us," Link said, "It'd be a good idea to keep a fairly large fire at night from now on."

"We'll set the whole forest ablaze if we're not careful," Ralthas said, looking up at what lay before them.

"Then we wouldn't have to worry about wild dogs," Midna said.

"Blighted wild dogs at that," Link said, standing up, "They've no doubt been drinking the same water as those people back in the city."

"You think it would have the same effect on animals as people?" Ralthas asked, "In that case, going into the forest is like walking into enemy territory."

Link smiled and turned to Midna. "What was it we said before?" he asked, "Something like, if it were just you and me, we'd walk into a cursed forest without thinking twice."

"I remember that comment," Midna said.

"Not really time to discuss it," Silviana said, standing up, "We can reach one of my shelters before the sun sets if we hurry."

* * *

Far to the east, a train of wagons rolled to a stop at shouts from one of the drivers near the front of the line. It was not the expected call to stop for the night, and as a result, Zelda and Sheila had to push through the crowd gathering around a particular wagon to see what the commotion was.

"Oh, no," was the first thing Sheila said when they saw the broken wheel. An apparently small rut that the wagons ahead of it had passed over without damage had snapped the outer wheel and several of the spokes.

"We have spares," Zelda said, turning to the driver, "How long will it take to replace?"

"A few hours," the driver said, "We'll have to unload the wagon to safely get the weight off it."

"The sun will be down by then," Zelda said, and motioned with one hand over her shoulder. A ninja that had been waiting nearby appeared from the crowd, moving up beside her. "It's fairly level here, tell them to make the circle, and pitch camp for the night."

Without a word, the ninja nodded and vanished as quickly as he had appeared to spread the word. Earlier that morning, Ganondorf had contacted her again and explained the situation with the blighted men and women his group had encountered. As a precaution, Zelda had the wagons make a circle with the camp in the center, to create a defensive position, and among the surviving soldiers and ninja, there were no shortage of volunteers to stand night watches.

She had hoped to reach the coastline before they stopped tonight. They'd made good progress, all things considered. Moving two-thousand people wasn't an easy task in itself, and they had nowhere near enough wagons or horses for them to all ride. Fortunately, there was no argument when she had set the rule that besides the drivers, only injured, elderly, or small children were permitted to ride, though she then had to amend the rule for a trio of pregnant women reaching the stage where they had difficulty walking for extended periods, and one particularly overweight noblewoman who had nearly had a stroke within the first day. Though in that case, she was made to walk each day until she was nearly ready to collapse, and Zelda would swear that in the weeks since, she'd dropped half her body size. Lady Cloelle, that was the name, if Zelda remembered correctly. The kind of noble she hated with a passion, and a dislike that only redoubled when the woman had complained that the exercise was causing her "glorious bosom" to shrink.

During the day, Vargus kept at least a few of his ninja on hand in case she needed them, though she hadn't had to use the kind of threat he was implying to keep anyone, even that noblewoman, in line, at least not yet. The rest acted as scouts, moving in wide sweeps on either side of the wagon train, and some distance ahead, while a few trailed behind, keeping watch for anything and everything, especially after she had informed Vargus of the creatures Ganondorf and the others had encountered. That knowledge was not spread among the rest of the survivors, to avoid causing panic. It was enough of a trial keeping morale up with what they saw everyday, in the bare blackened earth with no sign of life whatsoever, once bountiful farms now empty and abandoned, and every so often stumbling across a dead animal, or even person, that had been stripped down to the bones.

Their northeast course had meandered around terrain too difficult for the wagons, and Zelda was certain they'd see the coast by tonight, and be able to follow the coast north to the port. Not to mention actually reaching the coast would have been a good effect on morale, as a sign that they were getting somewhere.

"Some things you just can't predict, I guess," Sheila said as Zelda turned from the broken wheel and the other drivers began to maneuver the rest of the wagons into a circle.

"And here comes another one," Zelda said, and Sheila turned around to see.

A black-clad ninja, in such a hurry that he was running in the open, very unusual for them, coming directly toward them. "Princess," he said as he came closer, giving a slight bow, "One of the forward scouts just reported in. We're less than an hour from the coastline."

"Good to hear, but we'll have to get there in the morning," Zelda said, gesturing to the wrecked wheel of the wagon behind her.

"He also saw something on the coastline," the ninja said, "Something he described as standing upright like men, but look more like animals. It's a creature that we have no familiarity with."

Zelda's heart sank. "Was it the men we were warned about?" she asked, lowering her voice so the others around couldn't hear.

"No, they don't fit that description," the ninja said, "Vargus wants to know how we should proceed. Should we watch them and have the wagons avoid them, or something else?"

Zelda knew what "something else" implied. Determining if they were a threat or not, and then removing them if they were. But having a group of ninja creeping around in the dark wasn't exactly the best way to endear them if they weren't openly hostile.

"I need to have a look myself before I decide," she said, "How fast can I get out there?"

"As I said, less than an hour at a walking pace," the ninja said, "We can get you there considerably faster."

"Sheila," Zelda turned to her, "You can take care of things until I get back?"

"It practically runs itself at this point," Sheila said, "But yes, I'll actually try to be in charge like some people expect me to be until you get back."

Zelda checked the Master Sword at her hip and followed the ninja through the crowd and past the wagons. They were able to get out of the camp without drawing much attention, and four more ninja emerged to join them. One stepped in her path, dropping to one knee with his back to her. "What are you doing?" Zelda asked, coming to a stop before she collided with him.

"If we are to get you there in good time, we will need to move faster than you may be capable," the ninja said, "Would you like to try to keep up with us first?"

Zelda sighed and said, "No, that's fine." She put her arms over the ninja's shoulders, and jumped as he reached back to put his hands under her legs, and lifted her up on his back. Then, without a word they were suddenly moving.

It wasn't the speed that was the most startling about her sudden ride, but how smooth the run was. The ninja did not bounce and sway as most runners would, but moved with perfect even steps, that made only the barest sound. The other ninja around them moved in the same way, with the unusual stance. Each had their left hand on their sword, holding it in place so the sheathed blade would not interfere with their legs, and their torsos hunched forward, as if leaning under the wind. The right arm was more reminiscent of how Zelda thought of running, pumping in time with their steps, though the stance as a whole was still highly unnatural. She wondered what kind of training they went through to both train the stance and the sheer speed at which they moved, all the while remaining so quiet. She could hear their steps on the earth, but still far quieter than she could have managed at a full sprint.

The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, and it would be dark in less than an hour. She hoped it wouldn't be too dark to see anything when they arrived.

* * *

"You actually lived in here?" Ralthas asked as Silviana and Link cleared away the bare, scraggly branches covering the mouth of the small cave.

"Two nights out of the week," Silviana said, "I have three others in other parts of the forest. During the summer, this was a good area to hunt stag."

Looking around at the now desiccated landscape surrounding the natural cave in the side of a tall slope, there was little evidence to support that, amidst the bare dirt and dead trees. The branches over the cave mouth belonged to dry thorn bushes that Silviana had coaxed with wires gently pulling on the branches to grow over the cave mouth, hiding it from immediate view. At least while the bushes were in bloom, a casual passerby would be unlikely to notice. Now, with the branches bare and dry, the cave mouth was easily visible through them, but it was impossible to move them aside without snapping the branches.

It was a thorny, scratchy mess that Link was helping her clear away. "You knew she was out here," Link said, "Thought that was part of being the High Judge, keeping track of your subordinates, that is."

"She volunteered to watch this area," Ralthas said, "To act as the local ranger, managing the wildlife and such, in addition to her duties as a judge. I thought you at least had proper camp supplies," he added, turning to Silviana.

"You mean a tent, bedrolls and the like," Silviana said, "I did, but those things are heavy and hard to carry. I found eight natural caves within the first few months I was out here, and made plans to make the ones that weren't occupied by large, angry bears livable for myself." She smiled and let out a chuckle, "There was one particularly large female grizzly. She had a temper on her. The number of would be adventurers and hunters I had to turn away from her territory was staggering. Kids, all of them, without the brains to realize you don't hunt a grizzly with a short bow by yourself."

"I mean that I approved funds for you to hire workers to get a cabin built for yourself up here," Ralthas said.

"Cabins are even harder to move," Silviana said, "I had been trading for supplies in the nearby villages for almost three years before I decided they wouldn't run me off when I put my hood down."

"You actually thought they would do that?" Alex asked.

Silviana looked back over her shoulder at him. "People these days, since they were children, have been told stories of the might Darius and the ancient war that almost extinguished all life," she said, "The dark elves had been slaves even before then, and they sided with the rebels, to fight for their freedom, and according to some accounts, spurred on the attempted genocide Shaklator attempted to commit on the humans and elves. My skin and hair, to these kind of people, would brand me as a villain before they even knew my name."

"Much like the dark elves where I come from," Kilishandra said, "Though there, it was because when mankind rose up and overthrew the demon overlords, the dark elves sided with the demon masters. I suppose, though, it may have been that they preferred the familiar over the unknown."

"That's possible," Silviana said, turning back to the thorny branches she was working at, "Though I suppose in both cases, had their side won, then the dark elves would be the heroes, and mankind the villains."

Ganondorf, leaning against a nearby tree, chuckled. "It's like I said, it's all in the perspective," he said.

"'Evil is merely a perspective, of which I am no longer concerned,'" Ralthas quoted, "I think that's what you said. Unfortunately, people like me have to be concerned with it."

"Oh, there's genuine evil in the world," Ganondorf said, "You know it when you see it. When you lock eyes with true evil, your blood runs cold and your spine starts to tingle. You start to sweat, and your hands shake. And you know, in that single instant, if there is any courage in you, that you have to destroy it, regardless of the cost."

"That's funny, coming from you," Link commented.

"And when you met my eyes, back when we faced each other in Hyrule, did you experience anything like that?" Ganondorf asked.

"No," Link said, "I knew you were dangerous, and had to be stopped, but I wasn't afraid of you."

"You just wait," Ganondorf said, "Your first real time will come, and you'll know it when it happens. It's always so much worse that first time. If not Tharkus, then something else will do it."

"We'll see," Link said.

Kilishandra glanced over at Link. "He's telling the truth, you know," she said, "I saw it the first time I saw Eredor. You should remember what I told you of him."

"The man who was siphoning demonic blood off the girl to strengthen himself?" Link said, and glanced back at Ganondorf, "Sounds familiar."

"I've earned everything I have," Ganondorf said, "Eredor was stealing what he had no right to."

"The first time I met Eredor face to face, I lost someone important to me," Kilishandra said, "Alastor, a warrior who had in fact fought against us for some time. He was unique among anyone I've ever met. Had six enchanted swords, all magical in the sense they were light as a feather to anyone wielding them, but still struck with their full weight. He could actually wield al six at once, holding them between his fingers with his hands in fists. And he was an utter nightmare in combat, and like you, Link, utterly fearless in regard to his own life.

"And I'll never forget what he said when he and I faced Eredor, alone in the center of the mass of battle. Alastor held his weapons ready, looking Eredor in the face, and I could see the sweat coming off him, and his weapons shaking in his hands, and he said, 'What the hell? I'm shaking? What kind of monster are you?' I was shaking as well. I could level a city in moments, and looking at that man sent chills through me. And Eredor laughed. Alastor died that day, on his sword. Father saved me, but Eredor escaped as well. That was the first time, out of all the enemies I'd faced, that I'd ever encountered that kind of fear, that kind of evil."

"I'm sure you, Judge, have seen this kind of darkness as well," Ganondorf said, turning to Ralthas, "Over nine hundred years old, most of that spent as a glorified city guard. You have to have seen the real villains. The serial killers and the like."

"All murderers are evil," Ralthas said.

Ganondorf laughed. "Most murders are crimes of necessity, rather than desire," he said, "The killer will be caught in the act of a lesser crime, and automatically reacts, to remove the witness. Or maybe the victim will be someone the killer hates, someone he thinks needs killing. I can sympathize with both to a degree. But then you've got the ones that kill because they enjoy it. Because it thrills them. Hell, some of them even get off on it. If you knew them as children, you could likely see it coming, as well. I encountered one who got his start when he was three. Just three years old, and he was drowning animals like puppies and cats. By the time he was fifteen, he was catching squirrels and the like alive, staking their legs out and dissecting them. Of course, after his first actual person, the animals didn't cut it anymore, to give him the rush of killing.

"Link over there might like to believe nothing matters but the choices someone makes," he added, "but some people are simply broken from birth. Some may be raised well, and try to fight those urges, but the scary ones are the ones who embrace them."

"All right then, mister dark philosophy," Link said, standing up and turning his back to the thorny mess as he faced Ganondorf, "Let's hear how you separate murder from a just killing. Someone like you, who even brags about the hundreds, if not thousands of people you've killed, it must be an interesting answer."

Ganondrof smiled. "I'll tell you what: You tell me your definition first, and I'll tell you mine."

"All right," Link said, "Murder is the act of killing another, weaker than yourself, who has done nothing to threaten yourself, or that you have wronged first, such as intruding into their home. A just killing is what is visited upon those who have wronged others, threatened or taken lives for no reason."

"So, let's say you're attacked by someone, with no justification from your end," Ganondorf said, "You kill him, only later finding out that he had been convinced, wrongly so, but still convinced that you had stolen from his family, or even better, killed one of them. You have just killed an innocent man who believed, in your own philosophy, that you had wronged him. Is it still a just killing, or are you a murderer?"

Link crossed his arms and simply glared at Ganondorf. "I thought so," the wizard said, "You're still young, and whether you believe it or not, still naïve. My outlook is much simpler: If the person's removal from society improves the situation for those around him, it is just. It's that simple."

"There was a beggar once," Kilishandra said, "Begging for coin in the street. Father took him to a smithy not two streets away. Got him a job assisting the smith. Not two days later, the man was in the street again, begging as before. And Father killed him, right there in the street, in front of everyone there."

"And then I turned to them and told them that society had no use for leeches like him," Ganondorf said, "He was no better than a pickpocket, swindling them out of their coin while refusing to earn his own."

"That kind of policy seems very open for abuse," Link said.

"Indeed," Ralthas said, "It could be very similar to a monarch abusing the crime of treason simply to remove people he does not care for."

"That's humanity for you," Ganondorf said with a shrug, "For all you self-righteous types go on about what's right and wrong, you can't change human nature. No, most people aren't genuinely evil, but things like hatred and ignorance still go right down to their very cores. And those two traits are the source of so much pain in the world, far more than any single murder ever caused.

"Isn't that right, little dark elf?" Ganondorf added, turning to Silviana, "According to that slave brand, you know that better than any of us."

Silviana stopped what she was doing, her left hand reflexively going to her right shoulder. She knew he couldn't see the mark, which showed in a bright red scar on her black flesh, as it was covered by her clothing, a dark grey outfit with sleeves that went to her wrists, and her hands themselves in matching gloves. When she put the hood up and pulled the face-cloth up over her nose, it was the perfect camouflage for sneaking in the dark, due to how the gray would cause her silhouette to blur, making it difficult for someone to follow her movements, not like black which cast a perfect outline of a person's form.

"How do you know about that?" she asked.

"The way you carry yourself, mainly," Ganondorf said, "You might claim it's just polite, but you make a clear effort not to step in anyone's way, and stay to the side or back when you aren't speaking to someone, like you're trying to avoid being looked at. Most slaves with abusive masters develop that kind of habit, and even after they are freed, never truly break out of it. But as for the brand, that was a lucky guess that you just confirmed. Though if it makes you feel better…" he paused, lifting his breastplate away, having undone the straps as he spoke, and lifted the chain shirt and padding underneath, the long white scar on his abdomen clearly visible even in the dim light, "you're not the only one with a mark they with they can be freed of."

Silviana glanced at the scar, then turned back to the bramble, where Link was already working again, carefully trying to pull away branches without getting a thorn. "As I said, people in the world are raised on stories of ancient heroes and villains," she said, "For someone like me, they see my hair and skin and automatically think me a villain. It took three years to earn the trust of the villages near the forest. I did my duty as a judge, dealing with several groups of bandits that tried to make camps in the forest to raid the villages and caravans going south, and the tasks suited to a ranger of protecting the villagers from the wildlife, and in some cases themselves. I would tan animal hides and take them and some of their meat into the villages, and trade for supplies that I couldn't make myself.

"One such trip, I heard a woman shouting for her husband, and overheard that one of their children was missing, and she had no idea where they were. I still had my hood up, but I told her that I would search for her. Their teenage son went with me as their youngest son showed me where he had last seen her. Fortunately, it was easy to pick up her the girl's tracks and trail them into the forest, and I told the elder boy to take his brother home. When I found her, she was dirty, lost, and utterly terrified, but unharmed.

"I took her back to her parents, and as a sign of their appreciation, they asked me to stay for dinner. I refused at first, but they insisted that it had been a bountiful harvest, and if some of it wasn't served up, it would go to waste. I relented, and for the first time, took off my hood and mask where they could see me.

"Their expressions when they saw my face… It's amazing how quickly smiles and total happiness can be replaced by something else. I think it was fear, more than anything."

"And they'd probably never met a dark elf in their lives, had they?" Ganondorf asked.

"No," Silviana said, "As a race, we're all but extinct. Except for the ninja on their way to Hyrule, I might be the only one left in the world, even."

"That's rather my whole point," Ganondorf said, "They'd no experience in their lives other than ancient legends with dark elves, and in their ignorance, held onto beliefs that didn't even matter in what was happening right in front of them. All of humanity is like that."

"They did hold up their offer, though," Silviana said, "They allowed me to eat at their table, and from then on at least, I could walk into that town with my hood down and not fear being driven off, though it seemed I had to earn their trust all over again."

"You'd already conquered their ignorance," Ralthas said, "They knew you were a good person. But even with that, knowing that, and not being able to let go of the feelings… That's what racism is all about. Whether they realized it or not, they had been trained to believe those things. Only time, and a willingness to improve themselves, would change that."

"A victory that came too late for the dark elves, unfortunately," Ganondorf said.

Alex had listened in silence. She didn't tell them about the prince who ended up sharing her winter home, and then her bed, and then took her son from her. The fact she had trusted him with that information, and now the situation he was in with her just made him feel all the worse. He silently wondered if even Ralthas knew about that. Probably, though the old judge didn't mention it either. Very little went through the five kingdoms that he didn't know about. Surely he'd have heard of the Whitos-Neiki royal family turning up a dark-skinned half-elf son, especially if there was any possibility of the child being an heir to the throne…

It suddenly clicked. Like lightning had struck Alex's brain, it snapped into place. A chocolate skinned, blonde half-elf king, in fact., even if they did pretend the dark skin tone came from his human parentage. "Oh, gods…" he whispered. Did Silviana know? Did she even know the child was alive?

The refugees were headed east, to Hyrule. Hopefully they would reach it without difficulty. But even if it didn't win him passage back into her heart, he would make sure they met in person. And he now had a very good reason to make sure they both survived this ordeal to get to Hyrule.

"All right," Link said, pulling away the last of the thorn branches to reveal the open cave mouth, "Let's see what we have in here now."

* * *

The ninja covered the distance even faster than Zelda had expected, stopping short of the actual coast, though the ninja who had carried her motioned silently for her to stay low. There was a small rise ahead, and she guessed it was likely all that hid them from those that were on the coast.

The sun was getting lower, and soon there would be no light left with which to do this. More ninja appeared around her, moving low and coming from the surrounding area. Zelda recognized Vargus when he appeared at her side. She started to speak when he motioned for silence. Then he gestured for her to follow him, and moved toward the rise. She followed, and about halfway up the rise he fell onto his stomach and began to crawl, so she followed suit.

In a moment, they were just peeking over the rise. There is was, the ocean, utterly vast and seemingly infinite from where she was. The coastline was a stretch of sand that ran along its edge, waves riding in and back out, carving its shape into the land. A short distance up the beach, where the waves would not foul them, she spotted a number of constructed shelters. From this distance she couldn't be certain of how hastily they went up, but they did not look even semi-permanent, though they had walls and ceilings of wood, and what looked like animal hides stretched over them to keep the rain out.

There were humanoid shapes moving on the beach, and she spied several standing some distance out in the water with nets. She wondered if the blight had not gone so far out, that there was still edible creatures to be caught in the ocean.

In the fading light, she couldn't make out any of the figures, other than they were standing upright. She remembered the warning from Ganondorf about the women, and searched for a sign of something without any clothing.

What finally caught her eye was an unusual skin tone that stood out even in the dim light, the bearer itself an utterly massive figure with arms bigger around than a man's chest. Remembering the spyglass in her belt, she pulled it out and lifted it to her eye.

"They might see the glint of the glass!" Vargus hissed.

"It's okay," Zelda said, "I know that one."

Suddenly, she was on her feet, and before Vargus could stop her, waving one hand and shouted, "Sledge!"

Several of the figures stopped, turning their direction, including the massive figure she called to. Zelda heard swords being drawn. "Stand down!" she ordered the ninja, "Not unless they attack first!"

There was shouting from the camp before them, and a number were coming their way, including the massive, red-skinned shark-man known as Sledge. Several of the others were armed with spears, but Sledge carried none. Each of his fists were the size of a man's head, and likely to smash a man's skull as easily as a heavy mace.

"I do know you," Sledge said as he came to a stop some distance from them, and waved those with him to stay back, "You were with that group I met in the temple, come seeking some relic or another."

"Yes," Zelda said, "We helped you slay the kraken."

Sledge smiled, an almost terrifying expression on the shark's face, revealing at least three rows of razor sharp teeth. "Yes, that was it," he said, and turned to the other sahaugin behind him, "You can all get back to work. She's a friend."

With some grumbling, the other shark-men turned to go back toward the camp. "What are you doing this far south?" Zelda asked.

"Finding shelter wherever we can," Sledge said, "We were driven from the temple and surrounding lands some weeks ago. Humans, even more insane than usual, attacked us. Too great in number for us to hold off, we fled into the sea, where they could not follow. We gathered our survivors, and have just been surviving since. What about you? I thought you were on some great quest or something."

Zelda smiled and shook her head. "Things got complicated," she said, "Oh, and this is Vargus, leader of the Dra'thul ninja, currently acting as my bodyguard. There are several more about, though they seem to have dropped out of sight."

"Hmm," was Sledge's response as he eyed the black-clad ninja, particularly the long, curved blade at his hip, "If they'll behave, you can come down to the camp, sit down by the fire and we can talk in a bit of comfort."

Zelda glanced at Vargus, who gave a silent nod. Sledge motioned her to follow, and they started walking toward the camp. "How bad has it been for you?" Zelda asked as they walked.

"We lost half our number the first day," Sledge said, "Those humans, they weren't taking prisoners. Even killed our sickly and our children. Even the humans who call us monsters hesitate when faced with one of those, not that we deliberately use it."

"These humans, did they have gray skin and open sores on their bodies?" Zelda asked.

"All humans look mostly the same, but yes, you're right about that," Sledge said.

"A necromancer named Tharkus has released a blight into the land," Zelda said, "What we know about it is that nothing can grow, and standing water turns to poison. Ganondorf, a wizard on our side, believes that drinking the poisonous water is corrupting the people who do, turning them into psychotic killers."

"Good thing my people don't drink fresh water, then," Sledge said.

They moved into the camp, among the makeshift huts. Zelda noted they were drawing odd glances, though some of the shark-men evidently remembered her, as they smiled and seemed to be reassuring the others.

"We pulled together every tribe we could find, and there are barely two hundred of us here," Sledge said, "I'm sure there are more tribes in other parts of the world, but we're going to have to leave if we intend to survive."

He gestured for her to have a seat by the fire. "Are you in charge?" Zelda asked as she sat down, crossing her legs near the flames.

"In a sense," Sledge said, sitting down across from her, "I point out the best course of action, and those with sense follow me. Those that try to get the others to do something idiotic, I slap around a bit. Helps when you're the biggest, toughest one of the lot. Though I do try to keep it under wraps that I was nearly choked unconscious by a tiny human man. Speaking of which, is he not with you?"

"The necromancer I mentioned, Link is taking a small group to his tower, far to the west, to deal with him," Zelda said, "I'm here because all five kingdoms have fallen, and I'm trying to take the survivors eastward, to my kingdom, across the ocean."

"Ah, you need a ship," Sledge said, "I see now, you're head to the port about sixty miles north of here."

"Yes," Zelda said, "You've seen it?"

"It was the reason we were not going to stay here long," Sledge said, "Those gray-skinned psychos, they're crawling all over that town."

Zelda was not usually one to swear, having been through countless lessons on decorum and protocol that discouraged such vulgarity at every turn, but hearing that, she could find no better way to express herself than to just say, "Shit."

"How many survivors are you talking about, exactly?" Sledge asked.

"Close to two-thousand," Zelda said.

Sledge chuckled. "Forget a ship, you're going to need three or four," he said, then scratched his chin, "Though actually, there were three merchant galleons in the harbor that still looked seaworthy. Big cargo holds on things. It wouldn't be the most comfortable ride, but I think you could fit that number of people in there. Wouldn't be able to carry enough food and water for everyone in that case though. Maybe another ship… How many experienced sailors do you have?"

Zelda glanced up at Vargus. "Ninety-four," the ninja said.

"That's not enough," Sledge said, "Not for four ships anyway. You could have just over a skeleton crew on each of the galleons. Maybe you could fit enough water on board, and fish on the way?"

"Then we have a bad day of fishing and everyone starves," Vargus said.

"Hmm," was Sledge's response, as he turned to look at the ocean waves, mulling something over. Then suddenly he turned to Zelda and said, "Two hundred expert fishermen and sailors. What would you say to that? We could take four ships, and fish for enough food along the way. I will personally guarantee there will be more than enough food to go around, and my people don't even drink fresh water like you, so that won't be an issue."

Zelda took a second to register what he was saying. She hadn't expected him to offer to help in the least. "Are you sure?" she asked, "After the kinds of problems your people have with humans?"

"If we stay here, we die," Sledge said, "We're at home in the water, but we can't swim across the entire ocean. There's bigger and nastier things in the ocean than us, and most of them don't have to sleep. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place, as you humans say."

Zelda nodded. "I see. Very well, I agree. Now we just have the problem of getting to the ships."

"How many warriors do you have among that two-thousand?" Sledge asked.

"Other than Vargus' ninety-four ninja, maybe about a hundred and fifty," Zelda said, "We don't have the numbers to storm the town."

"We'll wait until after nightfall," Sledge said, "I'll take our best warriors and sailors, and we'll approach the port town from the water, slip on board the ships one by one, and ease them quietly out of the harbor. We'll bring them down the coast to our camp. Provided a storm doesn't whip up out of nowhere, we should be able to handle that much. Genuine crewing for the open ocean, we'll need your sailors as well, but we can load everything from here on the beach."

"If the crazies don't try to swim out to them, they'll undoubtedly follow them down the coast," Vargus said, "You'll need a distraction. That is something my men can do very well. We'll move into the town from landside, set a few fires, possibly some hit and runs, throw them into chaos and keep their attention away from the harbor, then send them on a pointless chase to the north."

"You can do that?" Sledge asked.

"Soldiers would have a hard time chasing us," Vargus said, "It's because most militaries, or mobs as in this case, move as a group, and expect those they chase to do the same. We don't. We scatter, everyone going a different way, make wide circles and meet up again after we've lost all pursuit. So, we lead them some distance north of the town before scattering, and they'll be searching the area for hours if things go well."

"Sixty miles is a good distance," Zelda said, "Are you sure we can get them down here?"

"We won't be loading until the next afternoon at the soonest, if we enter town just after dusk," Sledge said, "And the distraction doubtlessly won't last forever. We'll have to be ready to move as soon as we get the ships here."

"All right," Zelda said, "Tomorrow I'll bring our people and the wagons up to your camp here, and we can make preparations to load. Would you be able to reach the port town by tomorrow evening?"

"I can swim there and back three times in a single day, thank you," Sledge said, and looked up at Vargus, "Question is can you get your people there when we need them?"

"We'll be there," Vargus said.

"I'll need to explain what's going to happen, and loosen the skulls of anyone who tries to argue," Sledge said, "By the time your wagons arrive tomorrow, we should be ready to go."

"All right, then we need to get back to our camp and explain this to our own," Zelda said, rising to her feet. Sledge did as well, and Zelda paused, "Actually, I do have one question for you."

"What's that?"

"What happened to Hammer? The one that wanted to eat us when we last met," Zelda said.

That caused Sledge to laugh. A deep belly laugh that caused several heads around the camp to turn. When he caught his breath, he said, "Would you believe the idiot is a bloody hero? When the temple was attacked, he stayed behind at a choke point to buy the rest of the warriors time to get the women and children out safely. For all the good it did," he added with a sigh, "Now he's dead and those of us here are all that's left."

"Well, that's too bad," Zelda said, "Need more people with that kind of spirit these days."

"True enough," Sledge said, "I'll walk you out of the camp."

* * *

Link was surprise to find the cave was deeper than he first expected, and when they entered an open chamber further in, he found it was still furnished. A deer skin hung over the "door" of the chamber, and within he found that the walls, ceiling, and floor were completely lined with animal hides of various shapes and sizes. The cave was so deep, however, it kept the act from making it sweltering in the summer, but he expected it would still be comfortable in the winter, with a small fire on the one bare patch of the floor. He looked up to the ceiling, and saw a hole between the skins that opened to the sky, to allow the smoke out.

"Kind of cramped in here, isn't it?" Alex asked, stepping in behind Link and looking over the chamber in the magical light held in Kilishandra's hand.

"Well, I was living alone," Silviana said, "I didn't exactly plan on having to fit seven people in here." She paused, glancing at Ganondorf, who had to duck his head and lean his shoulders forward to avoid hitting the ceiling. "And certainly no giants," she added.

"This is good stuff," Link said, kneeling down and touching the animal furs on the floor, "I don't think we even need the bedrolls tonight."

"I'm amazed it's all intact," Ralthas said.

"Most of these hides are less than two years old," Silviana said, "I did replace them every few years. Quite a task, that."

"If we put two people on watch at a time, I think there will be enough room for the rest to lie down," Midna said, moving around to the far side of the room.

"Sounds good to me," Alex said, sitting down, and immediately rising up again with a cry of "Ow!"

He pulled back the edge of the fur he was sitting on, to find he'd sat down on a sharp edge sticking up out of a hollow in the floor. Silviana moved over and pulled a long box from the hollow. "One of my kits," she said, opening the lid of the rather fine black wooden box. Inside were a large number of wooden shafts, feathers already cut into shape, and steel arrowheads, gleaming in the magical light. There was also a tied length of hemp for replacement bowstrings, and a sharpening stone, either for the arrowheads or her other weapons. "I actually do need to make some replacements," Silviana said, checking her quiver and finding the number lacking.

"I think I'll sleep outside," Ganondorf grumbled, turning to move back out of the cave.

"Hope it rains," Midna said as he moved away.

Ganondorf's response was to hold up one hand behind himself, with one finger elevated. Kilishandra sat down by the wall, sending the small globe of light from her hand to hover near the ceiling. "Can we get some food?" she asked.

Midna produced several packages of dried beef and a pair of waterskins. "Would you like biscuits with that?" she asked.

"I'll use one to smash the skull of the next crazy that attacks me," Kilishandra said, "Other than that, no thanks."

Link took a strip of the dried beef, sighing before biting into it. He was seriously getting tired of travel rations, having each so much of the stuff in the past year. Of course, he hadn't expected to be away from Hyrule nearly this long. As much as he missed the faces of home, he was missing the food as well. He'd pay a fortune just for the smell of bread fresh from the oven at this point. An apple or two would likely make him cry out in joy.

"How are you holding up?" he asked Midna as she sat down next to him.

"Tired, and depressed," she said, "I want to see some green again."

"You're not the only one," Link said.

Link expected, assuming they made it back to Hyrule, that he was going to be having dreams about this landscape for years to come. It was gradually wearing him down, just seeing so much bleakness all around them. How long could someone push through such before the fight was kicked out of him?

"In a moment, could we step outside, so I can talk to you in private?" Midna asked him in a low voice, though he was sure in these close confines, the others heard anyway.

"Sure," he said, "Who's on first watch tonight?"

A short time later, Link found himself at the mouth of the cave, watching the last rays of the sun vanish amidst the trees, when there were no other volunteers. He didn't mind. First watch was the easiest, as it simply involved staying awake for a few more hours, not like the second watch, which someone had to be woken for, stay awake their term, and then get more sleep afterward.

Midna sat down beside him, leaning back against the side of the cave mouth. Link offered her a piece of the jerky he still had, but she just waved it off. After a quick look around that saw no sign of Ganondorf, wherever he had gone yet again, she said, "Link, I need to ask you to do something for me."

"What is it?" Link asked.

"Do you remember when I entered your dreams, to try to prevent you from having nightmares?"

"I remember," Link said, "It didn't work out exactly as planned, if I recall."

"That was because there was another influence, that being Shaklator trying to gain a foothold," Midna said, "Well, not that first time, but that was my own fault."

"Yes, something about my will being stronger, and as a result I was in control," Link said, "What about it?"

"I want to do it again tonight," Midna said, "Share our dreams, that is."

Link turned to where he could see her face. She wasn't looking at him, and seemed to be hesitant to say more. "Why?" he asked.

"Each time I've used the Fused Shadow, since returning to my normal state, I've had a nightmare the following night," Midna said, "I don't know if it is what Darius told me, about Cain, and my own nerves to cause it, or…"

She trailed off. Link remembered what she had said, about the mask speaking to her, and he realized what she meant. "You think Cain is in there, trying to get into your dreams like Shaklator was into mine," he said.

"I've seen that same figure we saw in the images of the temple in my dreams," Midna said, "The dark shadow with nothing but hands and a face visible amidst the rolling cloud of darkness. And every time, he kills me in a horrific way, and I wake up in a cold sweat."

"And you think me being there will prevent it?" Link asked.

"I don't know," Midna said, "I used the mask today, so I'm expecting another nightmare. If it is just my nerves, then your being there should do as the first time, your amazing will should be stronger than mine, and prevent my dream for yours, whatever it may be.

"But if Cain actually is still in that mask, and he is influencing me, you will likely have a fight on your hands, due to him being the third party, like Shaklator was. The stronger will is the one who will be able to dominate, but I have no idea how you'd match up against him in that regard. After all, if it really is him, that will mean he has clung to some semblance of life all these years by force of will alone."

"It'll just be a dream, though, right?" Link asked, "I mean, if I do lose, he won't be able to do any permanent harm, right?"

"Physically, no, he won't be able to harm you," Midna said, "Psychologically, on the other hand, I'm not sure about."

"Okay," Link said, putting one arm around her shoulders and holding her close, "We'll give it a try tonight. Hopefully it'll be nothing, but if it is…"

"If it is, we'll know firsthand exactly why the mask was shattered and hidden away," Midna said, "And when this is over, we'll make sure to hide it in even deeper holes."

* * *

Ganondorf was less than three hundred yards from the cave when he stopped. This place was no different from the places he examined further south. Surrounded by death in the land itself, it was even more bleak than the desert he had grown up in. In the desert, if one knew where to look, they could always find signs of life. When the rains did come, the next few days were a carnival of plant and animal life, come from their holes during the moist, and retreating again as it faded.

But there was something else in the air, something that even all this death could not hide. It had been faint at first, but was growing steadily with each passing day. Most of the world's population were oblivious to it, the scent of magic and power.

Yes, Walpurgis Night was coming nearer with each passing day, the barriers between this world and the next growing thinner with each passing day. In his younger days, he eagerly awaited each passing of the event, when he could manifest magics beyond his normal limits. Now, it was no longer necessary for him to rely on the event for most things.

Perhaps on that night, if things did go badly, and Shaklator came through, perhaps he would have the strength to match her. But his brief encounter with her in the Void had given him little chance to gauge her limits, other than the fact she was indeed mighty. Nothing was sure until he actually faced her in mortal combat, and then, if he wasn't enough, it would be too late.

But the scent of the approaching event also made him somewhat nostalgic. He remembered stories of ghosts and strange events that occurred every several years in the desert. He knew now they were connected to the passing of Walpurgis Night.

"Ghost rider at the edge of the storm, a miracle written in the sand," he whispered with a smile, quoting part of a song he had been taught as a child, referring to the ghost of the first Gerudo king, who according to legend, had the ability to create a rainstorm every four years like the desert never saw at other times, and life would explode in its wake like no other time.

It still happened, in that desert. Every four years, though never on an exactly predictable day, but when the event of Walpurgis Night drew near, there was an enormous rainstorm for a single night, and if one was brave enough to venture out into it, they might see that ancient king, riding near the edge of the storm, herding it where he desired, though the Gerudo themselves were long since gone.

Well, all except for one.

He'd never been in this part of the world at this kind of time before, and wondered if they would see any ancient legends come to life as a result of the increase in ambient mana breathing life into them. Racking his brain, he tried to remember any stories of this part of the world that involved a four year cycle. The only thing that he could find that seemed like it had any actual grounds for belief were a few lyrics to an old poem about an evil spirit that appeared on ships on the ocean at night, in the midst of a dense fog, every few years.

Zelda and her bunch might be in for a surprise if they ever managed to get out to sea.

* * *

The end of Link and Midna's watch came without incident, and they woke Ralthas and Kilishandra to take their place as the two of them lay down in the cave. Link asked if he needed to do anything and Midna reassured him that he only had to go to sleep and she'd do the rest, just like before.

As he lay back on the comfortable furs and closed his eyes, with Midna moving up to his side with one arm over his chest. The shift was sudden, much faster than he expected, as his eyes snapped open and he was standing upright, no longer in the cave.

It took him a moment to recognize his surroundings. He realized he was out front of the Twilight Palace, on the walkway directly in front of where the Twilight Mirror's portal had deposited him the one time he had ventured into the Twilight Realm itself. It was not the same as the last time, however. When he had actually visited the palace, it had been crawling with monsters created by Zant, and unnatural darkness, like a great fog, surrounded the palace, filling the moat and spilling over the walls like water. It had taken the Master Sword's power to pierce that darkness, but even it did not protect him when it touched his skin and he inhaled it, which immediately caused him to revert to his beast form, the one protection the Triforce of Courage granted him, which was at least better than being turned into one of the monsters like the Twili.

Now, the palace seemed empty. The walkways showed no signs of life, and there was nothing moving in the palace's windows. It took Link a moment to get his bearings and remember that he wasn't actually at the palace. This was Midna's dream, or was it his own? Or maybe Cain's?

Link had not expected something so concrete so quickly, especially with being conscious that it was a dream. "Midna? Where are you?" he asked, "Can you hear me?"

His voice echoed unnaturally for no louder than he spoke, but there was no response. He looked up toward the palace again, and this time spotted something. A faint green light, in one of the windows near the top of the structure. With a sigh, Link started toward the palace at an easy jog. He remembered climbing that building once before, and was not looking forward to repeating the process.

He did not have to, it turned out, as the main door opened directly into the throne room. Link stopped, looking back, and saw not the outer walkway behind himself, but the correct passage of the structure as he remembered it. Okay, something he was not fond of regarding dreams, such jarring transitions.

There was Midna seated on the throne, a long flowing robe similar to the one Link remember Zant wearing. In fact, the room was exactly as Link remembered when he and Midna confronted Zant here. He was surprised there were not smears of meat and blood on the walls still after what Midna had done to him.

Midna's head was leaned forward and to the side, her eyes closed. Link called her name as he moved closer. Then he noticed the shackles. Her wrists were bound to the arms of the throne, and her ankles to the front, so she could not move. Link called her again, moving more quickly, and his foot suddenly caught on something.

No, as he looked down, he realized _something_ had actually caught his foot. A single blue hand, rising from the black floor, latched around his ankle and holding him fast. Link's own hand shot up to his sword, snatching the hilt and drawing the blade in one motion. He was not fast enough, however, as the hand suddenly pulled, and Link watched his own feet sinking into the black floor as if it were water, sending ripples across the room.

The hand had vanished beneath the floor, but he could still feel its grip on him. The floor was actually less like water and more like quicksand, as thick as it was, but he was still sinking into it. He shouted Midna's name, trying to wake her, but she did not stir, as the blackness rose over Link's waist and then his chest.

He kicked at the hand with his other foot, trying to loosen its grip while spreading his arms to slow his sinking, though it had little effect. In the distance, or perhaps more accurately in the back of his own mind, he heard a low, bass sounding laugh, slow and sinister.

But words flashed in his own mind, what Midna had told him. In this place, the stronger will dominates all. Link realized he was panicking, and that was weakening his resolve. Grinding his teeth, he focused his mind, trying to push the sudden fear of what was happening aside, and deliberately focusing on what he desired.

The distant laughter stopped, and there was a groan, though Link couldn't tell if it was of pain or frustration, and the hand slipped from his ankle as he rose, as if flying, from the floor. In a moment, he was on his feet again, and stomped one to confirm the floor was solid again.

In the corner of his eye, he spotted a flash of something, and turned toward it, just in time to see the face in the wall, blue skinned like any Twili, which immediately faded from view, as if it had never been there. For one brief instant, Link had locked eyes with the face. They were the same as Midna's, yellow where a human's were white, with bright red irises surrounding pitch black pupils. But in those eyes, for that instant, he saw something completely different. A sinister malevolence like he had never before encountered other than the maniacal Zero.

Midna's fears had been correct, Link realized. There was a third presence in here with them.

As he realized this, the walls began to melt. Like thick black tar, they began to ooze around him, the liquid spreading slowly across the floor. "I can do this," Link told himself, closing his eyes and focusing, making a deliberate effort to exert his own will, and force the walls back into place.

"Don't get distracted," a low bass voice whispered directly into his ear.

Link's eyes shot open. "Wha-" he started to say, when two large blue hands shot from either side of his head, one clamping over his mouth and the other on his forehead and drug back.

Link fell, hitting the floor without any impact and falling directly through it. The hands vanished before he could strike at them, and now he could feel the wind whipping by. Turning his head, he saw something far below him, rapidly coming closer. He was miles above the palace, falling out of the sky. His heart racing, he struggled to regain his focus, and then, and moment later, managed to slow himself through sheer will, and set down on the palace roof lightly and unharmed.

"Come on out!" Link said, turning and looking around himself, "Why don't you show yourself? Unless you're afraid of me?"

"Oh, you I _like_," the deep voice said, this time from a definite direction, causing Link to turn with his sword raised, as the dark figure rose directly from the roof. Its body like flowing clouds of darkness, rising and taking shape, then the shadows opened, revealing two hands and the face, with the same red eyes as Midna, but so unnerving to stare directly into, unlike hers.

"I knew it," Link said, "So you really are Cain, and you're tormenting Midna in her sleep."

A smile appeared on Cain's lips, though his mouth did not move as he spoke. "Tormenting her? I am strengthening her, to face what is to come. She is too soft to save her own people, let alone to face a monster such as Shaklator. She needs me. By extension, you need me."

"Just like Shaklator herself claimed I needed her," Link said, "Let me tell you something, I don't need her. And Midna does not need a monster like you."

"You would condemn every person in this world, everyone you know and care about, to death, just because you fear me?" Cain asked, "You are just as foolish as Darius, to not accept help when it is offered…"

Suddenly Cain appeared behind Link, having vanished and reappeared so quickly. Link spun, aiming a strike at where he thought Cain's face would be. His wrist was caught by Cain's hand, and as he struck back with his right hand, Cain caught it as well. Cain's face leaned down close to Link, where he could just see it out of the corner of his eye.

Cain inhaled, taking a long deep breath. "Especially with such a close connection as you have," Cain whispered, "I can smell it. Shaklator's blood in you, an unholy darkness filling your veins, even after eight thousand years and countless generations. I wonder what it is like, to know you are descended from one of the greatest traitors history has ever known. A 'hero' who fought for years against those who opposed the current order, leader of an attempted genocide of both the Twili and Dra'thul, in spite of taking a dark elf as her husband, only to then turn on it all and change sides, for the sake of her own revenge on Darius, the man she believed had wronged her, and now spreading it to a complete xenocide of all life in the world."

"I don't care what connections we have," Link said, "I won't let her do it."

"And how do you intend to defeat her?" Cain asked, "She is far mightier than you. Your brief encounter in the Void taught you that much."

"How do you know about that?"

Cain chuckled. "Your will lacks the strength to hide your own thoughts from me in this place," Cain said, "I'll admit, it was an amusing idea, with Midna bringing you here to fight me. But I find the fun is going out of it."

"What do you want?" Link asked, "Why are you doing this to her?"

"Revenge is a simple enough answer, and it is the truth," Cain said, "The memory of what she did to the Twili during my era is as fresh as ever. I will spare you the details, but understand that I want her. I want to crush the life out of her with my own hands. If someone else takes her life, well, I suppose I will follow her example and spread my revenge elsewhere. I think killing every one of her living descendents would satisfy a bit. Now that I think about it, I think I'll do that anyway."

"That…" Link started, realizing what the creature was implying, "But that could be tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people by this point!"

"Not to worry, I'd save you for last," Cain said, "Provided you cooperate for now. All I need you to do is not interfere any more. Midna is mine, and as I am no longer a part of the world of the living, as you consider it, will serve as my avatar, the new body to carry my consciousness. Though I do apologize that your relationship with her will have to come to an end, given that she will no longer be anyone but me…"

With a roar of rage, Link created a flash of white light born of his will. Cain recoiled, crying out in pain and releasing his grip on Link, who spun and quickly backed away before the monster could strike back.

"I won't let you have her!" Link said, "Darius was right, you are nothing but a monster."

Cain looked up, smoke rising from his hands and face, as his lips curled in a snarl, gnashing his teeth at being denied.

"Fine," Cain said, "No more games. Come and save your princess, if you can."

Even Link didn't expect what happened when he lunged back toward Cain. As if responding to his will on its own, his sword suddenly began to glow, white light shining into the darkness, and the shape of the blade changed, growing in length, and serrations growing along the blade, intend on doing far more damage than just a slice.

The strongest will would prevail. Cain may have been nearly invulnerable in life, but here, he was not, if Link's will was strong enough.

Link suddenly found it wasn't. Cain did not even move, but Link's blow was deflected and he was sent staggering backwards from the force of the invisible counter. As Link regained his balance, he readied to charge again, only to find his sword changing once more. The blade rounded off and started to twist, the tip coming back toward him, the tip itself opening into the hissing mouth of a snake, fangs dripping with venom, aimed directly at him.

Link quickly hurled the weapon aside, which vanished in a puff of smoke as it hit the stone under them. Forcing himself to focus, he turned on Cain, clenching his hands into fists and struck back with nothing but his will.

There was no effect. "What…?" Link said, and then he found more happening. His feet were glued to the ground, but looking down found it was not the same as before. His eyes went wide with horror as he realized his flesh was melting, spreading across the stone like paint of every color, from the brown of his boots, white of his trouser, and the color of his own skin. He lifted one hand in front of his eyes, and watched as his fingers bent in unnatural directions, through no will of his own, and started to drip.

"No!" Link cried out, and found himself falling. He hit the stone hard, with a wet splat, and tried to push himself up, onto to find his arms giving way, as he sank closer to the floor, parts of himself running onto the stone in a constant stream now.

"Now, this," Cain said, not moving a bit, exerting this on Link through nothing but the force of his will.

Pain shot through Link's middle, and he screamed in agony, a second later finding himself lifted into the air. Looking down, he saw his own hanging entrails, his torso ripped away from his lower body, and his insides dripping not with blood, but dissolving themselves as the outside was. Pain shot through him again, and he felt bones shattering and flesh tearing. He ground his teeth, trying not the scream, but as his breastbone split in two with a loud snap, he was unable to do so, and screamed in pure, unmitigated pain.

When the red mist started to clear from his vision, he realized there were tears running down his face. In all his life, even as a child, he had never before cried from pain. But the realization was replaced with utter horror, when he realized he could see himself. Each of his eyes saw a different image, yet the same. He had been split in half vertically, and now the two halves had been turned to face each other, and he was still completely conscious. His next scream was not of pain, but of terror.

Suddenly, the two halves were slammed together, and like a twisted creation in clay, Link was restored, but it was slowly, and painfully, as each organ and bone moved into place, sending pain throughout his body. Then the pulling sensation started again.

"Stop it!" Link screamed, "No more!"

His own voice sounded strange to him, begging in such abject terror, a fear like he had never experienced. Fear at being so utterly helpless, fear of what would come next, and fear that, though he knew this was a dream, and not real, the simple fact that he was not waking up.

Ignoring his cries, it went on for a very long time.

* * *

When Link finally snapped away, he sat upright with a gasp, instinctively reaching for his weapon, and it took a moment for him to remember where he was. In the small cave, Midna lying next to him. Ralthas and Kilishandra were asleep close by, their watch ended, and Alex and Silviana undoubtedly outside the cave on their turn. Which meant it was likely near morning. How many hours exactly he had been at Cain's mercy, he had no idea.

Midna sat up next to Link. "Are you all right?" she whispered, "Gods, I'm so sorry…"

Link realized he was gasping for breath, shaking, and drenched with a cold sweat. "That…" he whispered, "That was the worst experience of my life. I never expected that."

Midna slipped one arm under his shoulders, leaning her body against him. "I never expected it to be like that," she whispered, "He… He made me watch, Link. Nothing he ever did to me was as terrible as that. I'm so sorry."

Link realized their were tears in his eyes. He really had been crying. He wiped his eyes on his wrist, trying to collect himself. Logic had nothing to do with what had just happened to him, though dreams often had little to do with logic.

"He was playing with me at first," Link said, "Letting me fight back. When he really started, though, I couldn't do anything to stop it. He was just too strong."

"I shouldn't have made you do that," Midna whispered, "It's my fault."

"No, it isn't," Link said, finally starting to calm and able to think a little clearly, "Did you hear him say what he intended for you?"

"Yes," Midna said, "And he said before that the more I used his power, the stronger he will become."

"You can't use it ever again," Link said, "And as soon as we're back in Hyrule, we'll find something else to do with it. I'll force Ganondorf to help. We'll destroy it utterly, or if that isn't possible, we'll bury it deeper than Darius and the Light Spirits ever dreamed, so that no one will find it ever again."

Midna nodded, leaning against him, taking what comfort she could when he put his arm around her, holding her to him. He was absolutely right. She had been worried about continued use of the mask, becoming addicted to its power, like she believed her ancestors had. But the truth was something much worse than she had ever imagined.

"I need some air," Link said, and started to climb to his feet, "I won't be getting any more sleep tonight."

"I think I do too," Midna said, and Link offered her his hand to help her to her feet.

Link felt a chill run down his spine as, in the back of his mind, he thought he heard Cain's bass chuckle one more time…


	109. Chapter 108

I know you guys don't like when I put up a shorter chapter, but what I wanted to do here simply added up to what you see, and I wanted it seperate from the events coming next. It would have been even shorter, had I not realized a certain character is becoming more important than I originally thought, and decided to have a conversation that fills out on his background a little bit.

**Chapter 108: A Spark of Hope**

"Are you all right?" Alex asked as Link emerged from the cave mouth.

Link imagined he looked quite a sight, still covered in sweat and attempting to straighten his clothes. "Bad dream," he said, moving past Alex and allowing Midna to exit the cave behind him.

"You?" Alex asked, "I mean, it's creepy as hell the way you wake up instantly, but I thought you slept like a log."

Silviana merely stepped out of the way, allowing the two past. Link stopped a few steps past her, then turned back. "On second thought, no, you should know, and we'll tell Ralthas and Kilishandra in the morning," he said, "Short version, Midna is not going to use the Fused Shadow anymore. At all."

"You're serious," Alex said, not questioning so much as just confirming it, "But that mask turns her into a monster, in a good way that is. Why?"

"The mask contains the mind of an ancient Twili named Cain," Midna said, "When I wear the mask, I effectively make use of the power he had in life. When I wear it, I can also hear his voice in my head, and the night following it…"

She trailed off, causing Alex and Silviana to both glance back at Link. "I wasn't lying about the bad dream," Link said, "If it wasn't a dream, I'd be a thin red paste right now."

A small smile appeared on Alex's face. "That bad, huh?"

"I could tell you exactly what Cain did to me, and you still wouldn't understand how painful it was," Link said, "The fact it was a dream was the one thing I could hold on to, knowing he couldn't actually kill me."

"I thought you said she was the one this being could affect," Silviana said, glancing at Midna.

"I shared my dream with Link," Midna said, "That's the short explanation, anyway. I'd hoped his presence would protect me, but instead…"

She looked over at Link, her eyes still completely apologetic for what he had been subjected to.

"Suffice to say, the mask is now officially off the table," Link said, "It's simply too dangerous, especially if Cain manages to exert control while she wears it. There's no telling whose side he'd be on in that situation. And as soon as we get back to Hyrule, I intend to see the mask destroyed. That's what you should know, and I'll tell the others in the morning."

"Where are you going?" Alex asked as Link turned and started walking away.

"Just getting some air," Link said as Midna fell into step beside him, "We won't go far."

* * *

Across the kingdoms, Zelda was not sleeping any better, as she sat up in her tent. Lying awaking in the dark was worse than any bad dream she might have had, her mind constantly going over what was going to be happening the following night.

She dressed and moved out the front of the tent. The camp was not completely silent, several fires still burning in the night near the center, casting long shadows of the tents and barely shedding any light on the circle of wagons around the edge of the camp.

Zelda knew she was not alone, as she always did, sensing the presence near the side of her tent. "You can't sleep either, Vargus?" she asked the darkness.

"Already had mine," the ninja said, stepping around into her line of sight. His hood and mask were down, allowing her to see the rough face beneath, toughened like leather, but the inevitable lines of age showing through on the dark skin, even in the dim light. Snow white hair was clipped short in a perfect military cut, and piercing green eyes that seemed to see more than the average man's. "Part of the training involves getting used to about four hours a night of sleep," he said, "Though I am growing more and more curious how you always know when one of us is about. Not to mention you identified me by name this time."

Zelda smiled, holding up her right hand, where he could see the golden triangle on the back, which glinted softly in the dark. "Ever since I was young, I have been able to sense the emotions of those around me," she said, "Because I can sense them, it is impossible for someone to sneak up on me. It is also impossible to lie to me. I can't see the truth, but I know when someone isn't telling it to me. And given enough familiarity with someone, I learn to notice small things unique to an individual, I guess similar to fingerprints."

"I'll make sure to never have reason to lie to you, in that case," Vargus said, "But you can't sleep?"

Zelda sighed. "Thinking too much," she said, "What we're going to be doing tomorrow, in truth will only be the second time in my life that I've had to lead people in a dangerous situation. I mean, I helped back in Darimar, but it was always King Rigdar who had the final word. The first time I ever had to lead men in a combat situation myself, I failed spectacularly. So I'm fairly nervous about this whole thing."

"Don't worry," Vargus said, "My men and I know what we're doing. At Darimar, we were taking roles outside our skills, because there was no one else who could do them. But this, sabotage and hit and run, providing distractions, is an area we excel at. It is a tactic only second to our scouting and spying skills."

"I've no doubt of that. I'm also sure Sledge and his men will know what they're doing," Zelda said, "I'll just have to keep order at the camp and make sure everyone is ready to load the ships as soon as they arrive."

"Probably the most difficult task of the three," Vargus said, moving around beside her, "I remember being told that it is far easier to stand in the shadow and whisper advice than it is to be the face, the one people actually look to for leadership. As I've gotten older, I've come to believe it very true."

"Doesn't make me feel better about sending people off into danger," Zelda said.

"You're not heartless, then," Vargus said, "Maybe the worst kind of ruler is the one who does not care about men under his command dying. I've known a ruler like that in the past."

Zelda turned her head to look at the dark elf. "Now that I think about it, as much as we've talked, I still know so little about you," she said.

"I'm rather boring," Vargus said, "My profession was decided for me, very early, and since then, I've followed orders, at least until the rebellion."

In actuality, that did pique her interest. "What do you mean 'decided for you?'" she asked, "You didn't want to be a ninja?"

Vargus sighed, leaning his head back to look up at the starry sky. "First, you have to understand that the society I'm from was extremely matriarchal. Males, even male children of nobles, held very little rights as citizens. Females held all the important positions, while males weren't even allowed to own their own land. Men performed hard labor, perhaps the most important being the smiths, or were soldiers or ninja. If a male desired real power in society, the only path available was to gain the ear of a noblewoman, and the only route available to that usually lay in her bedchamber."

"I see," Zelda said, "I've never encountered a society like that before."

"To answer your question, no, I did not choose to be a ninja," Vargus went on, "I was selected, along with about ninety other young boys, between the age of nine and fifteen, to be trained as a ninja. It's easier to start young, you see, because children learn faster than grown men. Not to mention they can be raised with the proper diet, exercise, and conditioning. Being a ninja requires strength and agility, but the body must be perfectly honed to a specific condition. Too much muscle actually hurts your ability to move quietly and quickly, and not enough means you'll be unable to use the desired amount of force when needed, be unable to leap as far and so on.

"The training has a very high attrition rate, about eighty percent of each class will be removed and returned to their families due to being unable to reach the level of skill required at each stage. Any number of reasons can be behind it, such as lacking the dexterity required, not measuring up to the needed level at any stage, or belligerent attitudes that refuse to bend to what is desired. From the original number, I said about ninety, in my class, only twelve of us graduated."

"Quality over quantity," Zelda said.

"Yes," Vargus said, "In the kind of tasks usually assigned to ninja, small groups usually work better than large squads. We were primarily spies, to keep an eye on surrounding nations. The world we come from was much less accepting of dark elves than what I have seen of this one. We used to span the world, but after the demon rebellion, our race was pushed back to a single kingdom, hated by the humans, elves, and what have you, because our ancestors sided with the demon rulers of the world, and lost. So, it was important to our survival that we keep an eye on everyone, in the event one or more turned their eyes toward us.

"It was Mur'neth that changed all that. While the ninja were obviously servile to the queen, we were respected compared to the rest of the military, and were allowed something other males were not: The right of single combat. It was a tradition dating back to before the demon rebellion. A ninja was able to challenge any other to single combat, and the queen could not refuse the right. Typically it was invoked to settle disputes and bypass rank if it were an issue, and would be held in a fair manner, in a supervised arena. Usually it was to first blood, but more severe issues would sometimes be to the death.

"In the north, Ganondorf had built a kingdom from literally nothing, and we were watching him as we did others. When the barbarians from the north attacked him, however, he did not simply drive them off. He drove them back into the artic wasteland, and decimated the tribes, wiping out their leadership, and then did what we thought impossible, absorbed them into his own forces. He returned from the artic with an even larger force than he had entered with, and rather than return to his own lands, started sacking the nearby kingdoms one by one.

"It seemed that he feared the other kingdoms allying against him, and instead attacked them first, leaving governors he trusted in each to rebuild the destruction, taking what remained of their armed forces and moving to the next, the horde behind him growing larger with each kingdom that fell.

"It was inevitable when he set his eyes on us. His prowess as a wizard was well known, and even if he had no magic at his command, his force was simply too large. We all knew that fighting back would be a waste, as he had already felled much stronger kingdoms, and had only grown stronger himself as a result.

"Mur'neth invoked the right of single combat, and demanded Ganondorf as his opponent. Insane as it sounded, the queen granted Mur'neth leave to hunt him alone. When he returned, he brought with him a bloody bag he claimed had the head of Ganondorf within. But before he went to see the queen, he pulled me and a few others he trusted aside, and explained the plan: That he intended to save the ninja and as many others as he could by joining him. He had lost his battle against the wizard, and instead of being killed as an assassin, Ganondorf had recruited him.

"And all we had to do was kill the queen and open the gates of the city, and Ganondorf would spare the lives of the defenders."

"And you took the offer?" Zelda asked.

"In all truth, I had no loyalty to the queen or kingdom," Vargus said, "I'd just never had another choice. I wasn't stupid, and I knew there was no possibility of winning a battle against Ganondorf's army, not to mention he had not earned the title 'Man-Demon' for nothing. We call it a rebellion now, but in truth, we betrayed our kingdom and joined the invasion. We spread the word among our ranks, and very few ninja did not leap at the chance. Mur'neth killed the queen when she granted him an audience, and the ninja who were waiting in the throne room as her guard surged from the shadows, cutting down the guards who attacked Mur'neth in reprisal.

"What followed, I realize now, was the worst mistake we could make. Most of the ninja had in fact, for all the image of honor and rising above the other males of the race, been treated as slaves by the noblewomen for most of their lives. The reprisal for that did not stop with the queen. Before Ganondorf arrived, the palace was a bloodbath. I'll admit, even I took part, though I only killed one noble. A woman who had caused me a great deal of agony throughout my life.

"Looking back on it now, we were very foolish. We took our bloody revenge on the nobles, and in the aftermath, very few women of our race still lived. If the situation with the blight in our own world has grown worse since we left, I doubt that the dark elves, as a species, have a chance at survival. There simply won't be enough women left to support the species without reaching a dangerous stage of inbreeding in just a generation or two."

He spoke so matter-of-factly about it, Zelda had to turn to see his face. Vargus was looking toward a fire near the center of the camp, his eyes unfocused, as if he were actually looking much further. It did not seem to pain him even as he spoke of the subject.

"It seems your people aren't any better off than the dark elves of this world," Zelda said.

"But we brought it on ourselves," Vargus said, "The elves of this world, of all kinds, were fading long before now, though I know not why."

"I might have an idea," Zelda said, lifting one hand and tapping her left ear with a finger, "I believe my own people are mixed blood, between humans and elves, and eventually the two races became one. It is still tragic to think we may have lost their culture along the way, but I think blending with another race is better than genocide."

"Maybe so," Vargus said, "Kilishandra's existence is proof enough that the dark elves and humans are not too different to have children. That may be our future as well, to breed into another race until our descendants are the same as everyone else."

"If you stay in Hyrule, I will do everything I can to protect what remains of your culture at least," Zelda said, "I told you before that the royal family used to be protected by a people of the shadows. They have been lost to time, and I'd like to change that. You and your men have already been shadowing me like a personal guard since we left Darimar."

"Our own survival may hinge on your leadership," Vargus said, "But what you have told us about Hyrule has intrigued me. I've become very interested in seeing this land where such different races and cultures live as a single entity. And I can think of worse jobs than being the queen's bodyguard, in a land where I may at least have some respect for the position."

"You say that, though you've been scant on the details about how you were actually treated before your kingdom fell," Zelda said, "Not to mention you dodged my question by telling me about the ninja, when I was asking about you."

"As I said, I'm rather boring," Vargus said, "I was about seven when I was chosen to be trained as a ninja, and that has been my life ever since. Telling you about them is basically speaking about me."

Zelda was tired of standing and watching the camp, so she turned moving back toward her tent, and pulled the edge of the bedroll out far enough to sit down on it. She offered Vargus a seat next to her, but he waved it off.

"Well, you did mention a certain noblewoman you hated," Zelda said, "I'm curious, but if you don't want to talk about it…"

"I did, didn't I?" Vargus said, and did take a few steps closer to her, looking down so he could see her face, "Yes, there was one woman, starting a few years after my graduation from the training, who took a great interest in me, and made me quite miserable as a result. If you're interested in the details, I need to ask you one question first, and I warn you that depending on your answer, I may have to decline to tell you anyway."

"Are you worried that this will make me uncomfortable?" Zelda asked.

"That remains to be seen," Vargus said, "My question for you is this: You've told me about Hyrule accepting races and cultures without reservation, but what about individuals? I'm speaking about men and women who…" he paused, looking up as if searching for the right words, though apparently not finding a more delicate way to phrase it, shrugged and gave up, finishing with, "Men who prefer the company of other men."

"Well… Oh, I see," Zelda said, looking up at him with realization at what he was implying, "I'm afraid I can't speak for everyone on a personal level, but Hyrule has no legal restriction at least. The church might complain, but as for me… I don't have a stance on the subject. If I have to take one, it will be that in the privacy of your home, it's no one else's business what goes on between two consenting adults. Maybe not the answer you wanted…"

"No, that's more than enough," Vargus said, and nodded his head, "And thank you. So let me think. This noblewoman I mentioned, she found out about my preferences, though exactly how I'm not sure. I think it was for that very reason she took me to her bed. For as much praise as the ninja received over the other males in society, we were still effectively slaves. If I refused, she could have had be executed for the reason of disobeying an order. And she was a genuine sadist. If I was unable to perform, she took her enjoyment in other ways. There was a cat-of-nine-tails that she favored in those situations. My legs, back, and chest all bear the scars of those years. They've faded with time, but will never vanish completely.

"Until Mur'neth sparked the rebellion in the ninja, it seemed inevitable. Once or twice a week, I was with her, for most of my life. And if she spotted me with another man during my off-duty hours, the next session would be all the worse. I learned to keep my own time very private, you could say.

"And when we turned on the nobles, I made very sure it was me that bled the life from that bitch."

"Why would she do that?" Zelda asked, "I mean, if she knew your preferences ahead of time, to force you to her bed…"

"As I said, I think it was because she knew that she did," Vargus said, "Maybe she just took a sadistic joy in it, or maybe she through she could break me of it, beat it out of me if nothing else. In that regard, she failed miserably."

Zelda nodded. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not looking for pity," Vargus said, "I've moved on. The reason I hesitated to tell you was that I've seen lands where someone like I would actually be burned for being what I am. And of course, idiotic people who literally fear they could catch it, as if it were a disease."

He finally sat down, a few feet to her side, on the ground instead of where she had offered the edge of her bedroll. "I understand all too well about idiotic, narrow-minded people," Zelda said, "At home, I dealt with them every day in the form of the Royal Council. Every one of them a noble, and only one or two actually worth anything as a human being. But looking back there, and looking at myself now, I was such a little girl back then."

"Planning a rebellion of your own?" Vargus asked.

"Knowing what's coming, between Tharkus and Shaklator, and seeing the blight first hand here, it's nightmare stuff," Zelda said, "I can't wait for those bureaucrats to come to any sort of agreement. If I try to explain about this, they'll likely laugh. When we get to Hyrule, and break the curse that has petrified the kingdom, I'm going to have to make some changes. It will likely involve the dissolution of the council before anything else, so that preparations can be made for what is coming without them constantly screaming about the cost of what I'm going to do."

"You're a good leader, from what little I've seen," Vargus said, "You've gotten these people this far, something I certainly couldn't have done."

"I've manipulated them," Zelda said, "They think they're following Sheila. If I make a mistake, it will be on her head."

"If that's what it takes," Vargus said, "One thing I know for certain is that people need a leader. Hell, they want to be led. And the best leader of all is the reluctant, resigned leader who will do his best for their sake, rather than his own."

Zelda smiled. "That is why Link does so well. He even actively shuns a position of leadership, but when chaos begins, he steps into the role so easily, as if he were born into it. And he has something strange, some amazing charisma that makes you want to follow him. It's strange, but even Ganondorf listens when Link starts giving orders."

"I haven't seen him in a situation like that, but I'll believe it," Vargus said, "Sometimes the world puts forth amazing leaders and heroes, in a pattern we can't truly grasp. Perhaps we live in even more auspicious times than we know."

"Link would make an excellent king, if he would accept it," Zelda said, "He never would, unless it was forced on him, though. Something like pushing my crown into his hands and with my dying breath declaring him my heir."

"I thought your kingdom was ruled by the princess," Vargus said.

"It is," Zelda said, "Though in the coming days, that title might get in the way, the way it implies I am still lesser than a true ruler. I need to be the queen Hyrule deserves."

"There's no point in dwelling on it now," Vargus said, "Tomorrow is the most important thing right now. We should focus on getting the ships and keeping these people alive."

"You're right," Zelda said, "No point agonizing about the future until we're out at sea and have nothing better to do."

* * *

"Link, are you sure you're okay?"

Link stopped, turning to look at Midna, several steps behind him, and with a sigh, turned away from her, putting out one hand to lean against a desiccated tree. "Let's take stock of the situation," he said, "Entire countries have fallen around me, the land itself is dying so that nothing will grow, literally millions of people died right before my eyes, an angry goddess is about to step into the world to kill countless more, a nigh-invulnerable necromancer is helping her, and now I've got an eight thousand year old vengeful ghost trying to possess the woman who is more important to me than anything in the world. Have I left anything out?"

"Well, the people of Hyrule are petrified, and you also made a promise to save the people of a parallel dimension from extinction," Midna said, fighting to not smile.

"Thanks for reminding me," Link said, stepping closer to the tree and leaning his side against it. Midna realized her mistake, that he was not in any mood for jokes. She moved closer to him, but he spoke again before she did. "I'm finding more and more often that I just want to throw my sword on the ground, say 'to hell with it all,' and just go the other way," he said.

Midna moved up behind him, stepping quietly, and reached her right arm under his, and pulled herself close, hugging him from behind, though careful not to jam her shoulder on the hilt of his sword. "But you won't," she whispered in his ear, "I know you won't, because I know you. For everything you claim about being selfish, fighting for no reasons other than your own, you're not the kind of person to abandon events like this. And there's no one else I'd trust to lead us through it."

Link rested one hand on hers that was around his abdomen. He turned, putting his back to the tree, so he could see her. The glimmer of the star shaped emerald hanging from her neck caught his eye. She had not lost it, even in the chaos of the battle.

"They say that real heroes, like the legends speak of cannot be made," Midna said, "They are born. And I know this is true, because I see one every time I look at you. Even if we had never met, I've no doubt you'd be doing something amazing."

"You give me too much credit," Link said, "I'd probably have lived my entire life in Orden if it weren't for what Ganondorf and Zant did."

"You would have left, and you know it," Midna said, "I know the world's pressing down hard right now. I can feel it too. But you don't have to carry it all by yourself. I'm here, so are Alex and Silviana, and even Ganondorf is helping. And I've no doubt Zelda and the others are doing everything they can as well. We just need to take our problems one at a time."

"First order of business, cut Tharkus' gods damned head off," Link said, finally smiling.

"Exactly," Midna said, "Let Shaklator and Cain wait until later. So long as you're with us, I have no doubt we'll make it through this. But you're not doing it alone."

Link snaked one arm around her waist, pulling her closer, and she smiled and put one arm around his shoulders. "Thank you," he said, "I do feel better."

"Good," Midna said, "Now, we've still got a few hours until morning. Maybe we can find somewhere more private…?"

"I think we should just wait," Link said, "But if you'll make the long journey down here, I'll settle for a kiss for now."

* * *

"Amazing what he goes through for her, isn't it?" Alex muttered as he sat down by the cave entrance, after Link and Midna had moved out of sight.

Silviana didn't look up from her work with the open box of pieces, assembling another arrow, after adding several to her quiver already.

"And you're just going to sit there and ignore me," Alex said, "Fine, I guess I'll just have to look for some demon I can slay, I guess."

"I don't need a man to impress me," Silviana said, pausing to lick the underside of a feather before sliding it into the cut notch on the arrow's shaft, "I told you already how simple it is: I can't trust you."

"And a simple 'I'm sorry' obviously isn't going to cut it," Alex muttered, "Look, I screwed up. I feel absolutely wretched. Have been punished enough yet?"

"I'm not punishing you, nor was I ever," Silviana said, looking up at him, "I told you about what happened the last time I trusted a man like that. I lost him and my son. I am not going to let such a thing happen again. I know I acted the part of a flirt, but I wanted to see what kind of person you were. And now I know."

"I was drunk, dammit!" Alex growled, "People always act like idiots when they get drunk."

"Why do you think I don't drink alcohol?" Silviana asked, turning back to the arrow.

Alex turned away from her. The way she spoke about it so matter-of-factly, there was none of the warmth and friendliness she had shown for so long. "And anyway, I don't remember a bit of it," he said, "Like I said before, if I was that out of it, I doubt I was even able to do anything."

"But the intention was there," Silviana said.

Alex growled in frustration, turning so his back was too her. "This is for the birds," he said, "Trying to have a long term relationship is too much damned work. Maybe I should go like that Arthur kid, just have one night stands all my life. It'd be easier than this."

"You're not the type," Silviana said, "Neither was he, as he found out. I guarantee that if you do that, you're going to be miserable, and your life empty."

"So you're a fortune teller now," Alex muttered, then louder said, "Look, just tell me what you want me to do! Hell, I'll settle just for a smile out of you right now!"

"I can't," Silviana said, "Because I don't know what would suffice. I like you, but I can't trust you. What kind of task can I set that would prove I can trust you, if you doggedly pursue that goal, and then just stop?"

Alex sighed. Such a short time, but this woman dominated his thoughts, and having her so against him was like an arrow through his heart. But there was one thing he had, if they both lived long enough to get back to the other group, and assuming Maylow wasn't killed before they arrived.

If reuniting her with the son she had lost so long ago didn't open her to him again, probably nothing would. Even then, he wasn't sure. Gods, this woman was difficult.

He chuckled slightly. Maybe the fact she was so difficult was what made it all worth the effort. She was certainly something else entirely from most of the women he had met in his life.

* * *

Ganondorf almost couldn't believe his eyes when he stepped between the boulders into the small bowl shaped valley, toward the light he had barely noticed in the dark. It looked like a tall hill, with sides too sheer to climb, from the outside, but was almost completely hallow, almost fifty feet in diameter.

There was green grass under his feet, trees that were alive and in full bloom, and he spotted several deer grazing in the valley. In the center was a sparkling clear pool of water. He could see all the way to the bottom, about six feet down, as he approached, and spotted a number of fish swimming about. A buzzing insect landed on the surface, to be snapped up by one of the fish within.

He knelt down by the pool, dipping one finger in the water, as if to test it, when one of the deer approached from the other side of the pool, and reached its nose down to take a deep drink of the water.

"Obviously not blighted then," Ganondorf muttered to himself, "I wonder how this place was spared?"

There was the light again, to his left. He turned his head as it vanished behind a tree. "Just come out," Ganondorf said, "I've no intention of causing harm yet, but you keep sneaking around and I'll just burn this valley until I find you."

Something slapped him over the head. He spun, snatching for whatever had hit him. He missed, a small light dancing away from his fingers. It was impossible to make out a shape within the light, but the two small wings at its edge gave away the identity of his attacker.

"Fairies," he said, "I had wondered if they were extinct in this land. But they wouldn't have the strength to hold off the blight themselves, and that means one thing and one thing only."

He turned to the clear pool as he spoke, raising his voice to make sure she heard. Lights began to appear from the grass and trees. Dozens at first, then hundreds, turning the clearing into day as they began to swarm above the pool.

Then with a flash, the fairy lights were gone. Hovering above the pool was a jaw-droopingly beautiful woman with long red hair that fell nearly to her ankles. Clothing of ivy wrapped over her body, the leaves appearing to have grown about her in a way that preserved her modesty, yet left very little to the imagination. She floated slowly downward, until her feet touched the surface of the water of the pool, where she stood without a single ripple upon its surface. She still towered over Ganondorf, standing at least twelve feet in height.

"You taint this place with your presence, wizard," she said, her voice low and powerful, "I have done much to keep the darkness that surrounds us out, yet you carry a different kind with you."

"A great fairy," Ganondorf said, "I haven't seen one of you in a very long time."

"Not long enough for us, I'm sure," the fairy said, "Why do you come to me?"

Ganondorf chuckled. "It's actually a case of just passing by, and seeing something that looked interesting," he said, "You've managed to hold back the blight from this spot. Impressive, actually, considering even Minerva can't hold it back indefinitely. How long do you think you're going to last?"

"The spread has ceased," the fairy said, "Whatever power drove it is gone now. In a few months, I intend to push back, and spread life again from this place."

"Now that's actually interesting," Ganondorf said, scratching his chin, "Maybe it won't take millennia for these lands to live again after all."

"You fight against the one who drives life from the land?" the fairy asked.

"I guess I do," Ganondorf said, "But in truth, he's just a stepping stone to something much greater."

The fairy did not respond immediately, cocking her head slightly as though examining him, which as it turned out, she was.

"You don't speak with surety," the fairy said, "You don't actually believe that."

"Whatever," Ganondorf said, turning his back on her, "I'll be going now. Tainting the place and all that."

"Wait."

Ganondorf stopped, glancing back with a smile. "Warming up to me?"

"You are used to speaking to those that fear you," the fairy said, stepping from the water onto the grass, "I would not be able to stop you if you desired my destruction, but if you did, it would have already happened."

"What of it?"

"I'm not sure," she said, "You are strange. Stranger than any human I have ever met in the seven centuries of my existence. And you are far older than I. Come here. Let me look you in the eyes."

"Look lady, I found out what I wanted to know," Ganondorf said, "If you don't give me a good reason to stay, I'm leaving right now."

"Give me just a moment of your time," the fairy said, "and I will give you a gift you may find useful in your coming battles."

Ganondorf was quite certain nothing she could give him would actually be more useful than his own magic, but he had nothing better to do at the moment, so turned back to her. She moved up close to him, leaning down until her eyes were level with his own. For some time, she stood there silently, simply looking him in the eye.

"You are very strange," she said at last, "You surround yourself in darkness, encourage the fear others have of you, yet carry a spark of light in your heart."

"You're imagining it," Ganondorf said, giving her a half-smile as his eyes lowered to look down her bust.

"Lie to others and yourself, but do not lie to me," the fairy said, "There is pain and tragedy in your past. You suffered greatly at the hands of others, and exacted your revenge on the woman who killed your friends and family. You used deceit and guile to steal the power of the gods, and then massacred your way to the throne, which you held for years, until a single hero cast you down.

"This process repeated itself numerous times, and in time, you lost your way. You no longer even desire the throne, yet keep reaching for it, because you have for so long. You were cast even further, in hope you would never return. And there… there is the spark."

Ganondorf's expression had shifted from amused disdain to disbelief as she spoke, and now his brow furrowed and teeth clenched as he stepped back from her. "How do you know this?" he demanded.

The fairy stood up to her full height, crossing her arms over her chest. "Even you cannot hide your heart from me here, in my domain," she said, "The spark was a young girl, who reminded you of yourself. You took her in, raised her as if she were your own, and now everything you do is for her sake. But you will not go far enough as to give up your own life for hers. Eternal youth, inhuman recovery abilities, yet you cling to your own life like no other human."

"Only an idiot would want to be dead!" Ganondorf shouted at her. He then took a deep breath to calm himself. What she was saying was getting under his skin remarkably effectively. Far more so than it should have.

"By the time they reach the ends of their lives, most mortals are ready to take the final step and leave this mortal coil," the fairy said, "They have lived their lives, accomplished what they could, and are satisfied with the life they've led. But you live in fear. Four thousand years of life, and you fear death for the sake of your soul. Though you claim no regrets in your life, you know the acts you have committed, and fear your soul facing the eternal fires of Hell."

Ganondorf had gotten a hold of himself, calming himself down. "Are you finished?" he asked, "Your time is up."

"Do you have a bottle? Take some of the water from my spring," the fairy said, "You will find that when poured on an open wound, the flesh will knit miraculously as though under the influence of magical healing. It will even be able to restore a person from the brink of death, but be warned it will have no effect on a body which the soul has already fled."

"That's it?" Ganondorf said, "Hardly worth my time."

He did produce an empty waterskin and filled it with the springs water, then turned to leave.

"You have found countless reasons you are willing to kill for," the fairy said, "But in four thousand years of life, you have found nothing you are willing to die for."

"If I did, I'd be dead," Ganondorf said.

"That is not what I meant," the fairy said, "You walk a dark path. As long as you resist letting yourself care about what you fight for, you will remain on this path. No matter how far you go, no matter how many corpses you step over, the killing will never stop until your own death.

"It is a future without hope."

Before stepping through the boulders marking the exit to the valley, Ganondorf turned back toward her. "One thing I share with Link is that I'm no fan of prophecy and fate," he said, "I'll make my own destiny."

He stepped out between the boulders, leaving the clearing behind. He shook his head, trying to shake off the feeling of her somehow seeing directly into him like nothing he'd ever encountered before. He now remembered why he hated those creatures. It was eerie how they could see into men's hearts, regardless of how they tried to hide them.

"You will understand in time," the fairy said as he walked away from the clearing, "And you will be stronger for it."


	110. Chapter 109

**Chapter 109: Fleeing the Darkness**

"All right, slow up here," Zelda said to the driver seated next to her on the wagon, and the signal went back down the line to slow the wagons.

They were just within sight of the beach, and the camp waiting for them. The driver seemed to hesitate when he saw the figures waiting for them, one of which raised a hand to wave, confirming that he saw them, then turned to shout to the rest of the camp.

"Keep going, just slow down a bit so they can get ready," Zelda said to the driver, and when he glanced from the finned and scaled figures in the distance to her, she added, "Trust me. They're friends."

The enormous figure of Sledge appeared from one of the shelters, coming toward them as the wagons moved closer to the camp, surrounded by those walking due to the lack of space within the wagons. It was just past mid-morning, the journey taking several hours with the full group, barely more than a crawl compared to the speed with which Zelda and the ninja had covered the distance the previous night.

Sledge moved up beside the wagon, though the horses shied from him, and pointed to an open location on the beach on the south side of the camp. "Pull your wagons in there," he said, "Come talk to me after you get them in place, princess."

Zelda directed the driver into the location Sledge indicated, and ordered the wagons into the normal circle encampment, and people began to unload the wagons, the water barrels being the first place many went. Several of Sledge's hunters appeared at the edge of the camp, startling several of the civilians, but bearing long strings of smoked fish meats. With Zelda's approval, they started passing the food out among the refugees, who seemed more interested in food that wasn't dried meat or tough bread than they were in acting fearful of the shark-men.

"Vargus," Zelda said as she moved away from the food distribution, and the ninja appeared at her side from the crowd, "How many men do you have out scouting north of here?"

"Fifteen at present," Vargus said, "Another ten are going to join them after they get some food and water, and the others will be resting until tonight."

"Okay, it's important that the things in the town don't know we're here until it's too late," Zelda said, "Make sure your scouts stay out of sight, but if any patrols are coming this way, something will have to be done about them."

"They've already eliminated two groups coming this way since last night," Vargus said, looking up as they walked toward the edge of the wagon circle, to where they saw Maylow, the former half-elven king helping a woman about seven months pregnant from one of the wagons, and went on as they walked, "The runner brought back a rather disturbing report of what was done when the patrols were found by others. It seems they eat their dead."

"Maybe when there is nothing else left, they'll wipe themselves out rather than spread," Zelda said, slowing her pace as Maylow, leaving the pregnant woman with a man who was likely her husband, and came toward them.

"I hope you have a plan for getting the ships out of the port," Maylow said before she could address him, and she and Vargus came to a stop in front of him.

Zelda had explained to Maylow and Sheila, and a few others the basics of what they were intending to do that morning, before departing, and told them to spread word of who they were meeting on the coast, and that they were trustworthy. So far, it seemed to be helping.

"Like I said, it's already in motion," she said, "Sledge wants to talk to me, and I'm sure it's about arranging final details."

"And you're sure we can trust these… creatures?" Maylow asked.

"We can trust them more than we can trust a certain wizard I have no choice but to depend on," Zelda said.

"I'll vouch for Sledge as well," Sheila said, approaching the small gathering, "He seemed the most level headed among them when we last met."

"Exactly," Zelda said, "Not to mention they're handing out food back there. Some kind of smoked fish I think."

"Mind if I listen in when you talk to this Sledge?" Maylow asked.

"Feel free," Zelda said, and started walking, moving past him, out between the wagons and toward the erected shelters of the camp a short distance away.

"What about the other one, Hammer?" Sheila asked as she, Maylow, and Vargus fell into step with Zelda, "The one who wanted to kill us last time?"

"Sledge tells me he's dead," Zelda said, "Stayed back to hold off the blighted men while as many others escaped as possible. He went out a hero, it seems."

"Not exactly what I expected," Sheila said.

They moved between two of the shelters, into the center of the sahaugin camp. Sledge was with a group that seemed to be checking over weapons. More than one were sharpening their spears, and Zelda spotted another making small darts which he dipped the tips of in a bowl of green liquid before slipping them into a belt across his chest, filled with others. Laying not far away, a carved wooden tube that she knew was undoubtedly a blowgun. With the poisoned darts, it was an utterly lethal weapon, and completely silent as well.

Sledge turned toward their group as he checked the edge of his own spear, enormous and heavy even compared to the others. Zelda knew immediately his weapon was not made by his own people, since they all had very little metal, and the spears were wooden or bone shafts with sharpened rocks or bones as tips. Sledge must have come up with his spear elsewhere, likely from one of the abandoned cities up north. It was of fair craftsmanship, but what made it unique was the shaft was metal, either iron or steel, and she knew just looking at it that it must be enormously heavy compared to a typical spear. And iron shaft would make it more effective as a defensive weapon, to block sword strokes that would normally splinter such a weapon, but the strength required to use it was increased substantially. Of course, looking at Sledge, one had no doubt he could handle it with ease, given that his biceps alone were as large as Zelda's torso. But everything about Sledge was big. Measuring from the front of his chest, around back and back to the front would have easily been seven or eight feet around. Most intimidating, though, was the enormous mouth, lined with razor sharp teeth, that could easily fit a man's head within, and possibly his shoulders as well, and likely bite them off just as easily.

Zelda understood why Maylow and the others found the shark-men disconcerting, but she needed them to work together for this plan to work. So to get them off on the right foot, she decided she better introduce them. "King Maylow, this is Sledge, current chieftain of the sahaugin tribes," she said, "Sledge, this is King Maylow of Whitos-Neiki."

"Thought the humans didn't like dark elves, and they have one as king," Sledge commented.

Zelda glanced at Maylow, who did not immediately respond. She felt a flash of anger from him, which he quickly fought down, and she sensed an odd mixture of pride and sadness coming from him. He didn't consider himself a king anymore, due to how completely and utterly he had lost his kingdom, she knew.

"My skin tone has nothing to do with it," Maylow said, "Aside from the fact the darker shade comes from my human parentage, it is neither here or now."

"Right," Sledge said, glancing past Zelda, "Nice to see you again, Sheila. Glad you're still alive."

"You too," Sheila said.

"Right, to business," Sledge said, "I've got some of my men passing out food to your people, as I'm sure you're aware."

"I saw them," Zelda said, "Thank you."

"We've got plenty," Sledge said, "In fact, far more than we can take with us when we go. What we don't have is water for you. If you have barrels, there is a fresh water stream a bit further north where you can refill."

"How close is it to the port town?" Zelda asked.

"Oh, it's less than an hour from here on foot," Sledge said, "Plenty of room between it and them."

"It's only standing water that turns to poison," Zelda said, and turned to Sheila, "When we go back, get some men to load wagons with all the empty barrels. As many as it takes. The empty ones from the grain for the horses, too. Vargus, have some of your ninja go with them as lookouts, and bring back as much as you can."

Vargus and Sheila both nodded as Zelda turned back to Sledge. "Next, I've got some unpleasant news," Sledge said, "Some of my own scouts got close enough to the town to get a better look at it. We've got two unexpected problems. First are the horses. Looks like your blight men have blight horses that they can ride. I'm having a hard time picturing the ninja that are going to be our distraction outrunning cavalry."

"We don't have to outrun them, just escape them," Vargus said, "The two are mutually exclusive, especially for a ninja who knows how to drop out of sight and let the pursuit pass by."

"If you're sure it won't be a problem," Sledge said, and when Vargus nodded, "All right, the other problem. It's some kind of monster like I've never heard of. My scouts saw it north of the port, and described it as a great worm of fire."

"A fire worm?" Maylow asked, "You mean a dragon?"

"No, I'd know a dragon if I saw it, and so would my scouts," Sledge said, "They described it as a gigantic worm literally made of fire, moving in a great cloud of smoke. We don't know what it was doing, but it returned to the port town and vanished within. A small village north of the port was burned to the ground in its wake, along with numerous bodies of what we assume were survivors, all reduced to scorched black skeletons."

"I've never even heard of something like that," Sheila said.

"If anyone has, it will be Ganondorf," Zelda said, "Give me a moment."

She turned and moved away from the group. "What is she doing?" Maylow asked.

"As I understand it, the Triforce she has allows her to communicate with Ganondorf, even at great distance, through his," Sheila said, "So we're not completely out of contact with him, and by extension the rest of the group going to kill the necromancer."

Zelda turned and moved back toward them. "Okay, Ganondorf says he has never heard of such a creature either," she said, "But he also reminded me to remember the other experiments and creatures Tharkus has created. So, regardless of what this creature is, we should do our best not to attract its attention."

"I agree," Sledge said, "A creature of fire won't be able to follow the ships out to sea, so provided we get out quickly enough we should be fine. Problem is it went into that town and then disappeared."

"If it was giving off such a huge cloud of smoke, the town should be practically a gray fog, even if it were in the sewers," Maylow said.

"That's the part we just don't know," Sledge said, "The creature vanished, and the smoke faded some time later. I'm convinced it's in our best interest to not draw its attention, though, if we can avoid it."

"Sheila, do you think you could put it down?" Zelda asked, glancing over her shoulder at her.

Sheila seemed startled by the question at first, though she quickly remembered that she was the only real practitioner of magic still among them. "Maybe," she said, "I've never seen a creature of fire, but I could try frost magic to try to put it out, possibly. I'd rather not risk the lives of everyone here without knowing it's a sure thing, though."

"Neither would I," Zelda said, turning back to Sledge, "I'll have my men do their best to avoid rousing it, if that's possible."

"All right," Sledge said, "We need to coordinate our movements. My men and I can leave about two hours before sunset, swim up the coast and arrive at the port just after dark. How long do yours need to get there?"

"On foot, we'll leave about an hour before you," Vargus said, "We'll be there just before dark, if all goes well. I want to get a look over the town from a distance before it's too dark to see."

"Just so we're clear, we won't be moving in until after dark," Sledge said, "You'll have to have some kind of signal to let us know you've got their attention before we try to pull the ships out of the harbor."

"If things go as I expect, the signal will also be what gets their attention," Vargus said, "We'll have to see what we find when we get there."

"Do you need help with anything?" Zelda asked, "Anything we can do before it's time?"

Sledge shook his enormous head. "No, nothing I can think of," he said, "There's only so much any of us can do, unfortunately."

"Unfortunately," Zelda agreed, "In that case, I'll go back to our camp and see about what we can do there."

Sledge nodded, turning back to his own preparations as the four of them turned and moved away. Once they were out of earshot, Maylow moved up beside Zelda. "I'll admit it, I'm impressed," he said, "Everything I've heard about the sahaugin points to them being bloody savages. You've built an impressive bridge with that one."

"It works in our favor that Sledge is the one in charge," Zelda said, "We were on fairly friendly terms the last time I met him. While I hate to sound cold, it's also fortunate Hammer did not survive their escape, since he seemed to be fairly high in their hierarchy at that time, and was one of the loudest voices for killing us outright. I don't know what would be happening now if he were the one leading them."

"Sometimes fate works in strange ways," Vargus said.

"Stranger than you even realize," Zelda said, thinking about Ganondorf and Link somehow united against this enemy they faced, an event that only last year she would have believed impossible. Not as impossible as trusting the wizard herself, anyway, after what he had done to Hyrule.

"So what do we do now?" Sheila asked as they moved between the wagons back into their camp.

"We need to get ready to load the ships when they arrive," Zelda said, "The distraction provided by Vargus and the ninja won't last forever. I expect we'll have a few hours at most to get the supplies and everyone onto the ships. The horses and wagons will just have to stay here."

"In that case, we can plan accordingly," Maylow said, turning to the ring of wagons, "After the fresh water is retrieved, we can arrange them in a tight half-circle on the coast. A good defensive position around where we'll be ferrying things to the ships."

"Good idea," Zelda said with a nod, "Though I'd prefer to be out to sea by the time they arrive. Sheila, go see about getting the empty barrels all moved into three or four wagons to retrieve the water, and get some volunteers to go along and do the work."

Sheila nodded and moved away from the group without a word. Zelda watched her go, moving among the crowds toward the supply wagons. Zelda realized that she was another like herself, who was having to grow up fast, compared to what she was only a few months ago. She wasn't sure she liked how much less vocal Sheila was becoming, though. Zelda knew she was a fairly intelligent woman, and had no doubt she would do well in Hyrule. Perhaps a title and lands, something she would have to oversee would help distract her from the sheer horror they had lived through in the past few months. Zelda was convinced Sheila would make a good leader, and all she needed was a strong boost of confidence.

That was business for another time, however. She turned to Vargus. "You'd best go see that your men are ready," she said, "Rest yourself, if nothing else. I know there's three more around that I can't see to keep an eye on me."

"If that's an order," Vargus said, and gave Maylow a quick salute before turning and moving away into the crowd. Zelda watched his receding form, until a man carrying a crate of dried meat from one of the wagons passed between them, and like smoke, Vargus was gone.

"One of these days I'm going to figure out how they actually do that," Zelda muttered.

"So what are we doing?" Maylow asked.

"You and I are going to the center of the camp first," Zelda said, "We need to explain the plan so everyone knows what is happening and what to do when the ships arrive."

"Assuming nothing else goes wrong," Maylow said, "If the ships don't arrive…"

"We've got to depend on Sledge and his men right now," Zelda said, "In truth, I wish there was some kind of backup plan, but we don't have anything else to grab onto at the moment. When we get to Hyrule, then we'll have something. Until then, I'm afraid we have to take anything we can get."

* * *

The day seemed to go on forever from Zelda's perspective. The refugees were all tired and travel-worn, but they listened intently as she explained the plan. They had to be ready to begin loading both themselves and supplies onto the ships as soon as they arrived, which would likely be just past midnight, and she encouraged them to get what rest they could.

It seemed to be an eternity before the sun started to sink in the afternoon. With the wagons in place, the supplies ready to be shuttled to the ships, and nothing to do but wait, it made Zelda more and more restless, constantly thinking, trying to remember if there was anything else she could do in preparation.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when Vargus appeared at her side, so distracted that even her empathy did not warn her of his approach. He informed her that he was taking the main group of the ninja and going north to do their part, and that Sledge would be following in the water in another hour.

She wished them luck, but was even more frustrated that there was still nothing for her to do.

About three hours later, Vargus and the main body of ninja were outside the port city on the western side, just close enough he could take a look at the city walls from a distance. The first problem he noticed was the lack of sentries. The outer walls of the city were as still as a grave, which immediately made him expect an ambush.

The sun was steadily sinking, and while from Zelda's perspective it was taking ages, where Vargus was standing they were rapidly running out of time before they had to move.

He did see several smoke trails from small fires. Likely cooking fires, he guessed, so the things did still possess some semblance of life, but they'd have to get into the city undetected before he could make an accurate judgement of the situation.

It was only a few more minutes until the sun vanished over the eastern horizon, and as soon as the final rays of light were gone, Vargus motioned forward. His hand signal was quickly passed through the ranks, and the ninja rose as one, moving toward the city in a running half-crouch, staying low to the ground. One benefit of the blackened earth was that if there was something on the walls, their dark armor and hoods provided the perfect camouflage.

The wall gate was standing open, but using the main entrance was the last thing any ninja would do. Spreading out, the group moved up on either side of it, up to the wall itself. Vargus and several others took strong grappling hooks from their belts, and spinning the heavy head to build momentum, cast it upward. How many times Vargus had performed this infiltration in his seven hundred years of life, he couldn't even count. But still every time, he hesitated when he heard the clatter of the hook on the stone above, certain there would be an alarm. When no sound came, he pulled on the rope, dragging the hook back until the rope went taut as it snagged on the crenulations of the wall's edge. A few tugs ensured it was well lodged, and he heaved himself up, with his feet on the wall to balance. Other ninja were also ascending further down on either side of him, and as soon as he cleared the top of the wall, the next started climbing up behind him.

The wall was just as clear as it had appeared from the distance. Vargus moved into the gatehouse, pausing at the door to quickly scan the upper room. It was a small barracks for the guards on duty, and completely demolished. Not in the manner of an attack, but of someone deliberately breaking every piece of furniture as if out of malice. But the smashed beds and tables were not what interested him, as he moved to the gate mechanism.

The chain was taut, and the levers refused to give when he gave them a gentle push. That was good. He checked the lock mechanism as some of his men entered the room behind him. Most would be rapidly spreading through the city, looking for ways to cause havoc and draw attention, once he set off the initial signal. The lock mechanism was stiff and rusty, after months of no maintenance.

Picking rusty locks absolutely silently was the reason every ninja carried a small supply kit that, besides his lock picks, also contained miscellaneous tools and probes. Vargus opened the kit on his belt and removed a small jar of grease, then used one of the probes to smear it on the locking mechanism. It would still need a good kick to break the rust, but it was more likely to actually go now. One of the other ninja was busy doing the same to the lock on the other side.

They would flee this way when they left, even straight out the gate itself, and two ninja that he now ordered to wait in the gatehouse would slam the portcullis shut before going over the wall. It would slow pursuers as they wasted time trying to open it to get through, assuming it went as Vargus hoped.

Sledge and his men would be creeping into the harbor by now, Vargus reminded himself as he left the gatehouse and dropped from the wall onto street level, falling into a crouch to cushion his landing from the twenty foot drop. The ninja would spread through the alleys and along the rooftops. They knew their tasks, and now he had to set about his.

* * *

And at that moment, Sledge was moving into the harbor. Swimming just under the surface of the water, and only lifting his eyes above long enough to keep his bearings, they moved in silence and without ripples. Even Sledge's massive frame glided through the water with graceful ease, kicking with his finned feet and arcing his body through the water.

It was easier to see what was beneath them than what was above without putting his head above the water. The bottom of the harbor was at least twenty feet down, as if the harbor itself had been built significantly over the open water. There were several wrecks along the bottom, though he wasn't sure if they had been there some time, or were recent.

What he was looking for was the massive bulge of the underside of the ships still afloat, however, and knew there was no time to explore the wrecks on the bottom. He found what he was looking for, the first ship coming into sight, and moved up along its side. He motioned for those behind him to be silent as he slowly pushed his head above the surface. They were in luck, there were no stars or moon tonight as heavy clouds reduced the natural light to almost pitch black. If they were lucky, perhaps it would start to thunder, to mask the sounds of their infiltration.

Sledge knew there was no time to wait for mother nature's temper, and there was no depending on it anyway. Holding his spear in his left hand, he pulled a grappling hook from his own belt, spun it over the surface of the water, and gave it a one-handed toss upward toward the ship. He heard the metal hook clatter onto the deck, and he pulled the rope, sliding it until it was snug against the railing. Then, placing the shaft of his spear in his mouth, took the rope in both hands and started to ascend the side of the vessel, and praying the wooden railing, which he could hear groaning under the strain, did not give him away or worse, break under his weight.

He cleared it without incident, moving onto the deck and readying his spear as he scanned the dark shadows along the vessel. As his men climbed aboard behind him, he moved far enough to see the other side of the mast, ensuring there was nothing waiting for them.

He pointed to door that was the entrance to lower decks and holds. "Check every room, every hold, and every inch of this ship," he ordered, "Make sure there's nothing and no one on board but us. And you, climb up and check the crow's nest, just in case."

The sahaugin fanned out, following his directions. From what Sledge could tell in the dark, the vessel didn't seem any worse for wear. The sails were furled above them, but that was a good sign that they were likely undamaged, and the rigging all seemed intact, though it could all be repaired fairly easily once out to see. He would likely have to admit to Zelda that none of his people had sailed a vessel this size before, and were limited to experience with smaller fishing vessels, but the principle was the same, just on a larger scale.

"It's all clear," one of his men said as they began to emerge from below decks.

"Okay, the first ten will stay here and make this ship ready to pull out," Sledge said, "The rest of you, with me."

With a running leap, he dove over the railing, and started swimming for the next ship. A ten man crew wouldn't be nearly enough to man the ship on the open sea, but it would suffice to move it down the coast. Time was against them, as he had no idea how far in Vargus and his men were, or when the distraction would occur.

* * *

With three other ninja behind him, Vargus was moving down alleys between the shops near the city square. He was growing more concerned with every one he passed through that he saw no sign of a patrol, guard, or even habitation. He was gradually working toward the where he remembered the smoke from earlier, hoping to spot camp fires, and some sign that the entire city wasn't a giant trap in the waiting.

A snort brought him to a sudden stop at the corner of an alley. He motioned those with him to stop, though they needed no signal. Vargus pulled the small mirror from its pocket, and with one hand cautiously slipped it around the corner of the building, angling it to find the source of the sound.

It was a stable, out back of an inn. That was strange, this far into the city, he thought, but not impossible. Within it was a confirmation of what sledge had said. Horses they certainly were, but their hair had fallen completely off, their exposed skin a sickly gray color. It was also sunken in, exposing every rib and vertebrae on the spine, and then there were the sores, bright red in color, like open wounds and on one even exposed several ribs to the air, and the organs underneath just as sickly looking as the skin.

Vargus counted eight horses in this stable. There had to be more elsewhere, but this would be a good opportunity to eliminate at least part of the pursuit they would have to elude. A movement in the corner of the mirror caused him to quickly pull it back. Now he heard footsteps moving toward the stable, and then a sound of something heavy being put down. Vargus slowly eased the mirror back around the corner.

The figure that entered the alley had his back to Vargus. He had sat down a bucket full of something, and was emptying a second into the trough of one of the horses, which fell on it with a sickening slurping and smacking, and adding to it an occasional crunch. Vargus lifted the mirror higher, trying to see what was in the bucket on the ground. It was too dark to see much, but as the figure turned to pick it up, Vargus saw what looked like human fingers floating on the top of whatever was in the bucket.

_Even the damn horses are eating the dead,_ he thought, pulling the mirror back out of sight, _Tharkus, you are one sick son of a bitch._

But this was what he had wanted to see, a sign that the blighted men were not all laying in wait for them. He motioned the others to back up a bit. There was a door on this side the building hiding them from the stable. Vargus tried the handle, and found it locked. He slipped his picks from the kit on his belt and in a manner of seconds had the simple lock open and silently slipped into the building.

It had been some kind of store before it was ransacked, Vargus noted as he and the others moved in, keeping watch for any sign of inhabitants. It was clear for the moment. Vargus moved up to the counter, the one piece of furniture not completely devastated, crouching down behind it out of sight of the front windows.

He gave the others the hand signal to search for anything usable. They spread out, checking the shelves and back rooms, while staying out of sight of the front window. After a moment, one motioned him to follow into the back stockroom. Inside, he motioned Vargus toward a pile hidden by a bloodstained sheet.

Pulling the sheet back, the ninja revealed not a pile, but six rows of casks, unopened and undamaged. Vargus knew what was being suggested, even without asking, depending on the contents. Using the point of one of his knives, Vargus pried the bung from the top and leaned down, sniffing the contents.

It was lantern oil. A smile crept onto Vargus' face, though it was hidden by his mask. Yes, now he knew what would serve as both a distraction and a signal. He had expected to start a fire, but didn't know it would be this easy.

"Take one out to the front of the store, dump it on the floor," Vargus whispered, the hand signals lacking the complexity to explain his plan, "Make a trail back here to these. We'll give the shark-men ten more minutes to get into place, then we'll light it up."

* * *

The second and third ships were large two-mast beasts, and Sledge divided his men among them accordingly, the fourth one being a smaller vessel, barely large enough to even be considered for the open sea, but he and one other could get it out of the harbor and down the coast. He intended to use it mainly for fishing to feed the other three vessels, but if there was a particularly severe storm, it might capsize. In that case, he'd just use his own men on board, who would not drown like the land-dwellers.

He almost laughed as he checked the rigging. A few weeks ago, he'd have never dreamed he'd be so worried about the fates of humans. And if it were anyone other than Zelda as their leader, he'd never have even considered working with them. He was certain he could trust her, if not those under her. In fact, he wasn't sure he liked this Vargus and his ninja. Men that creep around in the dark and spy on others as their profession… It was unnerving to say the least.

For now, he was sure they could be trusted. With so many lives depending on this, they would not betray him, at least until they were well out to sea, and then the sahaugin would have the advantage.

Sledge looked up at the shore. He could see a few small fires, but none that could be the signal. He was ready, now they just needed the opportunity to slip out of the harbor, unnoticed at least until they were too far to be followed.

* * *

With a knife and a piece of flint, Vargus created a spark that ignited the trail of lantern oil, which streaked rapidly back into the store. In an instant, he and the other ninja were moving away from the back door at a full sprint. They rounded the back corner of the building next door and stopped, plugging their ears with their fingers.

It took a moment to burn through the sides of the casks, but when the first went off, the others followed in rapid succession in a series of thumps, exploding one after the other. Vargus moved to the end of the alley that opened into the street, glancing around enough to see flames leaping high in the night, engulfing the front of the building.

Another loud thump caught his ear, and he turned toward it, seeing another fire leaping high. The rest of the ninja were in place and ready, and more fires leaped into life. But then there was the shouting.

It wasn't words, or anything Vargus would call words, then it became a howl. They came pouring up the street, howling like animals, weapons in hand, everything from swords and axes to pitchforks and kitchen knives. Dozens of them at least, but not an innumerable horde as had been described. Vargus moved to flee back down the alley when the front row suddenly fell, blood pouring from their throats. A group of ninja on a rooftop on the opposite side of the street from Vargus were hurling throwing knives into the crowd.

"Let's cut this group down," Vargus said to the others with him, "But be ready to break away."

The next sound was their swords sliding free of their sheaths, and Vargus walked almost casually out into the street where the blighted men could see him. Their howls renewed as they stepped over the bodies of their fallen at a full charge, and the four ninja lined up side by side, waiting for them.

These creatures were not trained fighters, that much was clear when Vargus easily stepped around the clumsy thrust of a pitchfork, and sent his masterwork blade slicing through sinew and bone, taking its head off with one stroke, and stepped into the next, outreaching the knife in its hand and leaving a three foot upward slash from its hip to its shoulder with a spray of blood arcing into the air.

The other ninja fared similarly, easily cutting down the opponents that came their way. In a matter of moments, all of the attacking blighted men were bleeding out their lives on the street.

"We need to buy some time," Vargus shouted to the group on the rooftop, "Don't retreat yet!"

More howls rose from the alleyways, and another group poured onto the streets, considerably larger than the first. From an alley on the left, several were struck down as they exited the alleyway. A shadow loomed up in a window on the right, and one went down as it passed by, choking and pouring blood from an enormous slash wound in its neck, nearly decapitated entirely. Another group of ninja appeared from the building, one dropping a bloody garrote on the ground as he went for his sword.

More knives rained from the rooftops as more groups appeared above. Vargus and his group were the only ones that stood in the open, others striking from the sides and flanks only to vanish back into the alleys and buildings to then reemerge elsewhere. Bodies of the blighted men began to fall in piles. They continued to pour from the side streets and alleys, but were not even reaching Vargus' group, as quickly as they were felled. "That's right, you undead bastards," he said, "This is how ninja fight."

A group tried to move up behind them, and as one, Vargus' group turned, snatching throwing knives from the belts on their right sleeves, and taking down four in a single motion, and cutting down the others with ease.

"I didn't know it was going to be this easy," one of the others commented, "The princess was wrong, we can clear this town all on our own."

"Don't forget the fire worm," Vargus said, "If anyone sees any sign of it, we pull out immediately."

He turned as he said this, back to the main body of the enemy, when something else caught his eye. Amidst all the chaos was something else, moving slowly and deliberately. It was another blighted man, who looked like all the others, with sickly gray skin, open sores, and the odd expression that didn't seem to be his own face, but he also wore a crown, fashioned of human finger-bones, as if he wanted to stand out in the crowd.

The slow, deliberate way he moved compared to the others, and the fact he was not howling like an animal, was the warning sign to Vargus, who then sized up the weapon in his hand. An ordinary longsword to all appearances, but while the others around him were using weapons that were chipped and rusty, this one was in pristine condition.

Amid the mob, there was a warrior.

"Kill the one in the crown!" Vargus shouted at the knife throwers above him, just as another group of ninja appeared behind the one he indicated, rapidly striking through the others around him.

The warrior spun, knocking aside the blow of the ninja who struck at him, throwing a punch with his free hand. The ninja leaned his head, the fist passing by harmlessly, or so he thought, until the warrior snatched hold of the side of the ninja's hood and pulled the ninja's face into his own. It was not a headbutt, as Vargus first thought, when the ninja screamed, pulling back with blood streaming from his own face, and the warrior spat the ninja's nose and part of his mask on the ground. While the ninja was stunned in the pain, the warrior used the space to maneuver his sword, and ran him through the middle, then kicked him off the blade, directly into the other blighted men who forced him to the ground, stabbing and kicking repeatedly.

More attention was turning to the warrior now, who had turned to face Vargus again, blood dripping down his chin from his mouth. Another ninja struck at him from behind, only to have him spin again, this time sidestepping the ninja's weapon and slashing his into the ninja's midsection, the blade cutting several inches deep through the leather armor, then releasing his grip on the weapon as another ninja thrust his weapon toward the warrior. The warrior moved with amazing precision, lifting his left arm, the blade passing only inches from his flesh, and suddenly clamped his arm down on the ninja's. The warriors right arm came up underneath, and Vargus couldn't see what was happening, but the ninja suddenly screamed and dropped his sword, the warrior shoving him back. The ninja's arm flopped uselessly, his elbow bent the opposite direction, and he did not last long as the crowd fell on him.

The warrior turned to collect his sword, and Vargus was aiming a throwing knife, trying to get the timing through the crowd when the warrior looked up, to the left from Vargus' perspective, and suddenly shouted something. The howling from the others immediately ceased, and the warrior shouted more of what Vargus wouldn't dare call words, and pointed his sword toward the harbor.

_Shit!_ Vargus screamed in his own head, then shouted to the other ninja, "He saw the ships! Don't let them get to the harbor!"

Knives whistled through the air, striking down more of the crowd. Vargus' own was intercepted from its intended target by another moving in the path. The warrior, completely ignoring the ninja, started moving at a fast, deliberate walk, toward the harbor, and many of the others started to follow, in spite of the strikes from the ninja on ground level.

"No, keep them here!" Vargus screamed, leading his own group through an alley on his left to try to head the crowd off, "Keep them here!"

Vargus was struck from the side as he tried to emerge back into the street ahead of the crowd, a blow that sent him rolling several feet and the stars spinning through his head. He pushed himself up, trying to make sense of what was happening. He saw the warrior, marching right past him without even a glance, and two hands snatched the front of his clothes, heaving him up and he felt his back slam into a wall.

This impact caused his vision to start to clear. "The first blow deprives a man of his wits, the second blow restores them," one of his instructors had told him. Why he remembered that now, of all times, he had no idea. A pale face was in front of his own, and he realized it was a woman holding him against the wall. She was completely naked, her skin the same sickly pallor as the men, but with no visible sores.

Vargus reacted quickly, lifting both feet and planting them square in her stomach. She was knocked back, the leather of his outfit slipping from her hands. Vargus regained his feet as she rebounded, striking back toward him. He quickly dove to the side, and her fist struck into the wall behind him. He was struck with disbelief as her fist drove directly into the brick nearly six inches, but recovered as she started to pull free, and with a swing of his blade, send her head rolling on the ground, her body slumping against the wall as blood spilled from the stump.

He looked up to see the outline of the ships on the horizon. He breathed a sigh of relief as he realized they were already a great ways out. Except for one, he amended. A smaller vessel than the other three was moving along the docks, having to navigate through a maze of half-sunken flotsam.

Looking around, he realized that the blighted men had completely abandoned the ninja and were moving toward the harbor. "To the rooftops!" he shouted to the others, "Don't let them reach the harbor!"

* * *

The other ships were already far enough out, and Sledge was being careful, navigating amidst the half-sunken wreckage of the other ships in the harbor, trying to get the smaller vessel safely out, and now had a clear path along one of the docks to the open sea as he swung the ship around the final floating debris.

That was when the other sahaugin started shouting that the blight men were coming. Sledge locked the wheel to keep on a straight path and turned to look.

It was like a tidal wave of flesh running up the streets, lit by the fires amidst the buildings.

"They left too soon!" the sahaugin said.

"No, there they are, on the rooftops," Sledge said, spotting the shadows moving, trying to catch up with the horde, "We were spotted. Pure bad luck."

"So what do we do? There isn't enough wind to open the mainsail and move any faster!"

The front of the charging horde collapsed as throwing knives rained down from the ninja on the rooftops. Sledge turned to check the distance. "We're almost out," he said, "We just need another minute or so."

It was agony, watching the horde come ever closer as the ship crept slowly toward open water. The ninja were doing their best, Sledge knew, but then a figure broke out from the front of the horde. It was clear the ninja tried to bring it down, but it bobbed and weaved, doubtlessly evading their knives, and outdistancing the horde with remarkable speed, and then it was on the dock, racing toward the ship.

Sledge grabbed his spear, hefting the weight of the steel shaft, watching the figure. The back end of the ship finally crept past the end of the dock. The figure hit the end of the dock and leaped, crashing into the back of the ship. Sledge moved back to make sure it hadn't been able to get a grip. He was greeted by a sword thrusting upward over the railing, causing him to step back as an arm appeared and drug the figure up onto the deck.

The warrior, in the crown of human fingers, was back on his feet in an instant, dropping into a fighting stance. "Steer us out of here!" Sledge shouted at the other, "I'll deal with this one!"

The warrior moved forward, and Sledge used the shaft of his spear to block his strike, and pushed forward, using his size and weight to push the warrior back. He would have pushed him over the railing, but the warrior ducked to the side, out of Sledge's path, striking at the shark-man's side. Sledge growled as he felt the blade strike his flesh, lashing back with one hand, his enormous fist connecting in a powerful stiff-arm strike and sending the warrior sprawling. Sledge turned lifting the point of his spear as the warrior rose to his feet, shaking his head to try to clear the monstrous impact.

"Come on then," Sledge said, "Give me two seconds and I'll cure all your ills."

The warrior charged him again, this time Sledge more ready for him. He blocked the strike with the shaft of his spear, then twisted it around the sword blade, striking the butt of his spear into the warrior's side, who grunted as the wind was knocked from his body. Sledge spun the weapon in one hand, turning the point toward the warrior and driving it toward his chest. A sword strike turned the blow, and Sledge immediately reversed his own strike, again twisting the weapon around the sword and this time striking its butt into the warrior's head.

The crown of bones shattered from the impact and the warrior staggered against the rail. Not taking the time to change his grip, Sledge instead pushed forward, slamming his own weight into the warrior, crushing him against the railing. The wood creeked loudly, and the warrior's sword fell to the deck.

Sledge stepped back, the warrior falling to his knees, his head level with the railing. Sledge cocked a fist and drove it into the side of the warrior's head. Wood splinters flew through the air as the railing shattered, the warrior's head driven directly through it and out the other side, followed a second later by a splash as his limp body fell into the water.

Sledge reached down to the cut on his side. Fortunately, it seemed the blade wasn't poisoned, and it was just skin-deep. Not a serious wound. He looked back to the fires burning on the city as it gradually faded behind them. Out this far, they could afford to open the sail a bit more and get some more speed, and it was falling behind them at a comfortable pace.

Sledge chuckled to himself. "Where speed and stealth fail, brute force prevails," he said, thinking about the ninja's efforts to catch that warrior. Well, now they just had to get themselves out and back to the camp.

* * *

Zelda woke to someone shaking her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see Arthur above her. She blinked, unsure of when she had finally fallen asleep. "What is it?" she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"The ships were spotted coming down the coast," he said, "Everyone's already getting into position to load them."

That woke her up, and she sat up, climbing to her feet. "Are Vargus and the ninja back yet?" she asked.

"Not that I know of," Arthur said, "I'm sure they'd have woke you if I didn't."

They moved through the camp toward the beach. Fires were still burning, and Zelda could see the lined up rows of water barrels and what food they had left, waiting for the ships' longboats to ferry them aboard. The camp was quickly becoming a flurry of last minute activity, waking those that still slept and people moving down to the beach to watch the silhouettes of the ships against the horizon.

"We've got a few hours at most to load the ships and get out to sea," Zelda said.

"Sheila and King Maylow are already organizing who and what go first," Arthur said, "I'm sure we'll be ready as soon as they get here."

* * *

Vargus and the ninja had escaped the city after the final ship pulled out of the harbor, and Vargus had seen the body drop off the back of the ship. Since it turned down southward, he could only assume it had been the blighted man that had managed to get on board. The ninja had escaped the city as planned, dropping the portcullis at the west gate to slow pursuit, and had been running for two and a half hours when Vargus called a stop to catch their breath. They still had a half-hour to go before they reached the camp, and hopefully the ships would be mostly loaded by then.

It was during this pause that Vargus glanced back they way they had come, and saw it behind them.

A long, streaming trail of fire, moving like a gigantic snake across the land. It had to be a good ten miles behind them, and even at this distance it was enormous. He wasn't sure, but it had to be a hundred feet from nose to tail. And it was moving fast.

"Break's over," he called to the ninja, "We need to go. They've roused the fire worm!"

* * *

The ships arrived, and loading began quickly. Zelda watched the longboats ferrying supplies and people to the ships, coming back nearly empty except for the rowers, but no matter how many trips they made, there were always more. Sledge and his sahaugin were proving invaluable, and they quickly erected rafts they could swim and pull to speed the process, but it was still just so much to do. Nearly an hour into the loading process, she decided to go out to the wagons and instead watch for the return of the ninja.

Maylow and Sheila were on the beach, trying to keep things organized, and Arthur had gone to help load the water barrels. Zelda found herself so nervous, she felt as though she were actually having chest pains from something clamping down on her lungs. They were going as fast as they could, but it didn't feel fast enough.

She jumped when Vargus and the ninja suddenly materialized out of the dark. "How is the loading?" Vargus asked immediately, "We've got about twenty minutes before the fire worm gets here."

Zelda looked back into the camp. "The supplies are all loaded," she said, noting the lack of any remaining barrels, but there were close to four hundred people still on the beach, "Twenty minutes is going to be cutting it close." She suddenly turned back to him. "The fire worm? You saw it?"

Vargus moved back out between the wagons and pointed north. "Look for yourself!" he said.

Zelda moved out where she had a clear view to the north. And there it was in the distance, moving like a snake, straight their direction, a worm of pure fire in the night. "Gods, it is real," she whispered, then realized something seemed off.

She pulled her spyglass from her belt and lifted it to her eye, aiming toward the worm.

"Damn, it's worse," she muttered when she saw what was beneath the worm in the very light it gave off, "It's cavalry. With torches."

She handed Vargus the spyglass and he looked for himself. She was right. A line of cavalry, the riders holding burning torches aloft to create the "worm." At their head was the warrior, the very one he had hoped Sledge had killed when he knocked him from the ship.

"I'd have preferred a dragon," Vargus said with a sigh, handing Zelda the spyglass back.

"Get your men onto the ships," Zelda said, "We need you to sail them, and no way are we going to try to fight that."

"You heard the woman!" Vargus said, "Onto the ships, all of you!"

The boats continued ferrying people onto the ships. The holds had to be getting crowded by now, and Zelda watched the progress of the approaching doom, creeping closer and closer. Arthur had to call her name twice to get her attention, and when she turned, she saw a single boat waiting by the beach, and the last of the people loaded into it. They were waiting for her.

She ran down the beach toward it. The hoof beats were audible now as the blighted men pulled their horsing up outside the line of wagons. Arthur grabbed Zelda's arm and helped pull her into the boat, the oars already striking the water as the blighted men appeared between the wagons, abandoning their horses and charging down the beach, their howls starting to fill the night air.

The people in the boat urged the rowers to go faster as the creatures reached the water line, splashing out into the shallows, their torches throwing long flickering shadows over the boat. Arthur and Zelda both drew their swords, standing up in the boat as one splashed out to chest-deep, snatching at the boat with his empty hand. Arthur stabbed him in the neck as Zelda used the Master Sword to cut the offending limb from his arm. He tried to throw the torch into the boat, but it was fortunately batted away, hissing as it went out in the water.

The boat pulled up beside the ship, and the hanging hooks were fitted into the loops at either end, and those on the deck started to heave the rope through the pulleys to raise the boat from the water. More of the blighted men were swimming out toward them. There was a shout from above to open the sails and make for open sea. A few of the surviving soldiers with what bows were had opened fire on the swimmers, raining arrows down on them and leaving many floating in the water as they bled out.

As the boat reached the top of its climb, hands appeared to help them onto the ship proper. Zelda reached out to find the massive red hand of Sledge grab her arm and lift her easily onto the ship. When he set her down, she turned to look back at the camp. The blighted men were moving back out of the water and onto the beach. Zelda realized the archers and many of the others on deck were cheering.

"We made it," she whispered to herself, not quite believing it, then a slow smile crept onto her face, and she said louder, "We made it!"

"Yes," Sledge said behind her, "The wind and tide are favorable. No way they can catch us now."

In the end, she had never really believed it would work herself, she realized. Zelda realized only now what it must have been like for King Rigdar, keeping a strong face on for his followers right up until the end. She had been doing the same without even realizing it. And coming this far, one of the weights she was carrying was suddenly lifted. Being a leader through these kinds of events wasn't just a trial, it was a nightmare, yet one couldn't allow it to show to those who followed you.

She realized that she had done more than just learn, she had grown so much, and so much more than she had thought previously. And the realization that the leader must be a strong face, no matter the peril, in that moment made her realize how lonely the task truly was. What really went through Rigdar's mind in that final moment, when he saw the fortress falling toward his city, and full knowing there was nothing he could do to stop it? And would she find out, when she stood again in Hyrule, and found herself facing an even greater threat than anything so far? Would that final moment come, and when it did, would she face it with quiet dignity, or would she go down struggling, fighting against the inevitable?

The weight pressed back in. She had snatched a small victory, thanks to the help of those around her, but it was ultimately just one more step toward the true final battle, and when it arrived, everything done here was irrelevant if she failed there.

"These people need a strong leader," she said to herself, "And I am going to be it, no matter the outcome. That I swear."


	111. Chapter 110

**Chapter 110: Separation Anxiety**

It was another two weeks from where they camped in the forest until Link and the others arrived at the mountain pass, west of the ruins of Whitos-Neiki, that led to where the citadel had been constructed, and remained until just a short time ago been violently pulled from the earth, and even more violently returned.

Going had been easy, and the morning after the stay in the forest, Ganondorf informed the group that the refugees had made it out to see, commandeering ships and safely escaping the blighted men. With that worry off their shoulders, they had focused on the task at hand, making good time overland directly to the mountain pass. Once out north of the forest, they had stopped encountering dog tracks, and believed they had managed to avoid the pack, but now kept looking over their shoulders as they walked, but dared not slow down. With the estimate of only two months to reach Tharkus and prevent him from opening a portal with the Twilight Mirror, their time was already half gone.

They moved as quickly up the mountain pass as they dared. It was not difficult, and the pass itself was about seven feet wide, which answered Link's question as to how Kilishandra had moved an army through it previously, but the footing was poor on loose gravel of the path, which slowly but steadily sloped more and more steeply upward. Yet through it, there was evidence of the path, at some point, being a genuine road. A buried stone, or patch every so often. It may have even been a highway at some point.

"And here we are," Kilishandra announced when they finally reached the top of the slope, and the sheer walls on either side of the path opened up.

Link moved up beside her, swearing under his breath when he was able to see over the slope to what lay beyond. It caused similar reactions in Alex and Midna as they came up beside them. The path suddenly dropped into a massive crater, an enormous bowl shape between the mountains. "That's a lot bigger than the citadel was," Link said. He could see the other side of the crater from where he stood, and estimated it had to be at least twenty miles in diameter. Looking down, he could not see the bottom. It descended into blackness, as if an opening into the pits of Hell itself.

"This crater is not from the citadel," Kilishandra said, pointing to the far side, "See the sudden sheer crags on the other side, where the wall suddenly slopes away in that large gap, still sharp and not worn smooth by the weather? That's where the citadel was, until it ripped away. There's a path around the edge of the crater we can take to get over there, but it will take about a day. Hopefully the passage beneath the citadel didn't collapse entirely when it pulled away."

Link was able to see what she indicated. A gap in the far wall, more distant that the either side around it. To think the magic circle built into the citadel's foundation had literally ripped it away from the rock surrounding it. This place must have shaken like the earth itself was going to split open when it occurred.

"If the citadel didn't cause this crater, what did?" Midna asked.

"The ancient war," Ralthas said, moving up beside them, "This is where the mountain city of Andol was built, a haven for practitioners of the magical arts, and it is where Darius slew Cain, the black devil. The spell Darius used to kill the monster should have leveled the city, but instead it sank it. Far below the earth it fell, until it was lost from the sight of men for all eternity."

"Which is of course ridiculous," Ganondorf commented as he moved up behind them, "They'd see it again if they just bothered to go looking for it. If it is actually down there, that is."

"That is the way the history is told," Ralthas said without glancing back at him.

"It's far more likely the entire city turned molten," Ganondorf said, "Stone tends to do that when heated high enough, and it burned through the rock foundations into a natural cavern below, filling them with magma."

Link moved far enough forward to see around the edge of the pass. Sure enough, as Kilishandra said, there was a path to the right, circling the bowl of the crater. It was narrow, to the point two men walking side by side would put the one on the inside in danger of making an errant step which sent him over the edge. It would also have been a deadly defense, when the citadel was in place. Hostile troops attempting to reach the citadel would be completely exposed, both to spells and arrows from the citadel's towers as they came within range.

"And you were up here for a decade, waiting for the war to start," Link said, glancing over his shoulder at Kilishandra.

"We weren't just sitting about," she replied, "We had spies in the five kingdoms, gathering information. We were building, both our numbers and the necessities to make the citadel self-sufficient. You didn't see them, but several of the courtyards were turned into large gardens, and we pulled water from an underground river in the caverns below.

"Looking at it now, I think what Khall and Tharkus were waiting for was the Twilight Mirror. Waiting for you to drag it back out of the darkness where it had been hidden."

"How could they have even known about the mirror?" Midna asked, realization sparking into her eyes even as she said it, and turned her head to Ganondorf.

The wizard shrugged. "I probably mentioned it when I told Khall and Kilishandra that I wasn't from their world initially," he said, "I only have a fairly vivid memory of being chained on a block of obsidian in front of it and stabbed by Hyrule's sages."

"And then you pulled the sword out of yourself and killed the Sage of Water with it," Link said, "I remember that part of the story."

"It's no story," Ganondorf said, "When they couldn't kill me, they used to mirror to banish me from the world. I still have the scar from that event."

"I'm about convinced the only way to kill you would be to cut your head off and hide it somewhere you couldn't find it," Alex commented.

Ganondorf glanced at him, with what appeared to be a dark glare, but the smile that appeared on Ganondorf's face betrayed it, and he started to laugh. It was not the kind of maniacal, almost insane laughter Link was used to hearing from the wizard, but a laugh of genuine amusement. "You might be on to something there," Ganondorf said, before letting out another bout of laughter.

The party started to moved along the narrow path in single file. Midna faded into Link's shadow, vanishing from sight as he followed a few steps behind Kilishandra, with Alex and Silviana behind him, and Ralthas followed by Ganondorf in the rear.

"That scar of yours is like nothing I've ever seen," Ralthas commented over his shoulder to Ganondorf, "Too bad, I guess. I'd love to see the weapon that can cause such a wound."

"You mean this one?" Ganondorf asked with a smirk, drawing his weapon just enough to reveal the glowing white blade within the sheath at his hip.

"You're carrying and using the weapon intended for your own execution?" Ralthas asked.

"I'm just borrowing it," Ganondorf said, "I need to give it back at some point. Preferably straight into the Sage of Light's chest."

"He's trying a lot harder lately," Midna whispered to Link, "Like he's deliberately making an effort to remind us he's a giant prick."

"Yeah, I guess so," Link said, "I think he's trying too hard. Needs to relax and let the overcompensating come naturally."

Kilishandra glanced over her shoulder at him, and just shook her head. She couldn't hear when Midna spoke to him in this way, but she was getting used to the fact Link wasn't just talking to himself when he responded to something no one else heard.

He stepped faster, moving up closer behind Kilishandra and slightly to the side, though not enough to move up next to her. "So tell me something," he said, "Khall and Tharkus had this scheme with the Twilight Mirror that you knew nothing about, right?"

"That's right," she responded, "What of it?"

"I'm just wondering," Link said, "What were you doing for so long? Just waiting?"

"Keeping myself sharp," Kilishandra said, "Trying to keep the rest of the men with us in order. And… no, never mind."

"What is it?" Link asked.

"Nothing, you'll think it's stupid," Kilishandra said.

"I doubt it," Link said, "I spent a good deal of my travels in Hyrule with my eyes open for specific bugs that a crazy rich girl in the capital paid me ridiculous amounts of money for. That's stupid."

Kilishandra was silent for a second, only for a smile to appear on her face, followed by a short laugh. "You're right, that is pretty stupid," she said, "On that girl's part, anyway."

"So your stupid is what?" Link prompted.

Kilishandra sighed. "All right. During my free time, waiting at the citadel, I taught myself to play the lute."

Link gave her an incredulous look. "That's it? After that build up, I expected something a lot bigger."

"Where I come from, I was already under an incredible amount of scrutiny," Kilishandra said, "Both because of my ancestry and who I was with when most people first met me. Even I think it's a pretty frivolous thing for a woman like me, with my sword skills and magic, to be able to do."

"And when you look at me, do you automatically think I'd know how to milk goats and cattle, how to make butter and cheese, shoe a horse and so many other things?" Link asked.

"I guess not," Kilishandra said, and glanced over at him, "Do you really know how to do all those things?"

"I grew up in a farming village," Link said, "If I didn't know how, I'd be embarrassed."

"Well, I was in a fairly small farm village myself until I was fifteen," Kilishandra said, "Though my mother was the only one I could even count on. The fact I was a half-breed made me an outcast even among the dark elves. I didn't have an opportunity to learn a trade. The adults would ignore me, and the other children would mock me and throw stones. My father said it was fortunate he found me when I did. With the natural talent I show for magic, my own temper would have likely cause me to kill the other children, and probably knock a building or two over if I didn't learn control."

"I'm sorry," Link said, "Is your mother still back in the world you came from?"

Kilishandra did not respond immediately, and turned her head from him, fixing her eyes on the path ahead. Link started to think he'd said something he shouldn't when she finally said, "She's dead. She was killed by a sadistic freak named Reaper. I told you a bit about Erador. Reaper was one of his officers."

"I see," Link said, "Sorry I brought it up."

"If I understand what I've heard right, you never knew your parents?" Kilishandra asked.

"No," Link said, "Rusl, one of the villagers, found me when I was an infant. In a way, I guess the whole village raised me. In a way, I guess I had a fairly decent situation. I only recently found out what actually happened to my real parents."

"May I ask what it was?" Kilishandra asked.

"It was Tharkus," Link said, "Apparently he and Khall were watching, or maybe it was only Tharkus, for this." He lifted his left hand, indicating the glowing Triforce on it. "Tharkus killed my parents, left me alive, but apparently took samples of my blood and… I don't know, my soul, somehow, and used them to create that monster, Zero."

"That's impossible," Kilishandra said, "We haven't been here long enough. That would have been at least twenty… twenty-something years ago, well before we came to this world. Before we even had the plan to do so. Unless…"

"Midna, the journal," Link said. Her hand emerged from his shadow, handing him the leather-bound book that was a translation of Tharkus' diary. "This here is Tharkus' last diary, before the ancient war eight thousand years ago. He has been planning this revenge for that long, and apparently went so far as to use Darius' technique of leaping between worlds to find the help he needed."

"Where did you find that?" Kilishandra asked.

"This is a translated copy," Link said, "Sheila managed to get it to me after the battle in the citadel. The original was the book we found in the last temple we visited."

Kilishandra shook her head. "It is kind of strange to hear someone speak so matter-of-factly about someone living over eight millenia, though," she said.

"Truth is stranger than fiction," Link said, "Besides, remember who you call 'dad' and how old he is. Doesn't seem nearly so impossible in that context, does it?"

"I suppose not," Kilishandra said, "May I borrow that when we stop tonight?"

"Here," Link said, handing her the diary, "I think Sheila will want it back more than I will. I found out what I wanted the first time."

"And what was that?" Kilishandra asked as she opened the cover and leafed through the first few pages.

"That Tharkus, whatever kind of man he used to be, is stark raving insane," Link said, "At this point, I think killing him would be the merciful thing to do."

* * *

"I think I'm finally getting used to this incessant rocking," Arthur commented, moving up beside Zelda where she was leaning on the ship's railing, watching the distant waves.

"Not feeling queasy today, I take it," she replied, "It took me a while to get used to it my first time on a ship."

Arthur turned, leaning his back against the railing, watching the activity on deck. The ninja and sahaugin were alike in proving to be adept sailors, though none of them had operated ships this large in the past. Vargus had explained to Zelda that they were all trained in manning small skiffs, for seaside infiltration. Ships this size were a much larger scale, but the principle was the same. Watching them running about the deck, making adjustments to the rigging and sails, one would think they had been sailing all their lives.

The part she never would have dreamed of was when, the second week out, the ninja started singing pirate songs as they worked. She knew how sea shanties tended to work, lifting morale and encouraging working with the beat, actually increasing efficiency, but the parts about sailing under the Jolly Roger and capturing rich merchant ships weren't the kind she ever expected to hear in her life. Then Sledge and his men joined in. She decided if they wanted to hang an actual Jolly Roger from the mast, that was where she would have to draw the line.

When she asked Vargus about the matter, he explained that it was the end result of turning their backs on their old lives, taking their freedom from the matriarchal slavery by force, and now stealing several ships before escaping out to sea. Zelda concluded it was more that they now fancied themselves to be the romantic image of pirates, rather than the actual reality of them.

Though she still enjoyed hearing the songs when they were about riding the open sea and being one with the wind considerably more than when they were about raiding ships and towns. But she'd let them have their fun. It helped take minds off what they were fleeing from, and what Zelda believed they were moving inevitably toward.

"You feeling okay?" Arthur asked, "You look down."

"Just thinking," Zelda said, "I feel like we've escaped one nightmare to just head toward another."

"I think it's not having enough to do," Arthur said, turning around to face out toward the waves, "If I wasn't so happy I'm not puking my guts up like the first two days, I think I'd be very bored by now."

"Maybe that's part of it," Zelda said, "Gives me time to dwell. But I thought I'd be happier than I'm going home, you know? I feel like, instead, I'm dragging all the problems with me toward it."

Arthur didn't respond, instead just waiting for her to go on. Zelda clasped her hands together, leaning on her arms on the railing. "I think it's also being so far from Link and the others for so long," she said.

"You're worried about him?" Arthur asked.

"Not about him, so to speak," Zelda said, "Link will be fine, I'm sure. Even the end of the world would have a hard time stopping him, I think. It's more that I'm worried about us."

"Us?"

"It's difficult to explain," Zelda said, "Though I think you're about the only one I haven't tried to explain it to at this point. I shouldn't depend on Link like I have, but it's a hard habit to break. He doesn't want to be a leader, doesn't want people to follow him, but it's hard not to. It's like a natural charisma that's almost magical. He has an incredible feeling around him, like so long as he's around, you just know everything is going to be all right.

"He's only human, like you or me, yet regularly accomplishes feats that would leave me curled up in a ball and shivering."

"Didn't exactly save Darimar," Arthur said.

"That was my fault," Zelda said, "You were there. I wasn't strong enough, and let Tharkus escape. That's why I have to help these people all I can. To try to make up for my weakness."

Arthur put one hand on her shoulder, trying to be comforting. "You did more than I could. I don't for an instant believe it was your fault."

Zelda smiled, but it faded just as quickly. "It's not the first time I was weak," she said, "You know that two years ago, my kingdom fell under attack?"

"I'd heard that much around the castle," Arthur said, "Not any of the details though."

"We were attacked," Zelda said, "Creatures that fell from the sky. They were twisted images of the Twili, Midna's people, cursed in a similar way she was. Zant, the one who usurped her throne, was the only one still in command of his senses, because he was a willing follower of Ganondorf. Yes," she nodded as he started to speak, "The same man you've seen around Darimar's castle and who now helps us. I did not know he was in control of it at the time, but he had given Zant powerful magic that allowed him to overpower the castle guard, and the main force of our military was taken completely unaware.

"Zant cornered myself and my personal guard in the throne room," she said, looking up at Arthur, "I watched my friends die trying to save me. Blood on white marble is a sharp image that you can never forget. And Zant gave me a choice in that moment: If I surrendered, he would spare me and my people. If I tried to fight, he would kill them all. In that moment, I gave in to fear, and surrendered."

Arthur looked away from her, out toward the water. "Wow," he said, "I thought it was another kingdom that invaded your land, not that…"

"It gets worse," Zelda said, "Zant was true to his word. He did not kill any more. But as if my own resolve was what held him back, he cast a dark shadow across the land. I found later that it was an effort to make the Twilight Realm, a parallel world near our own, overlap with ours, and allow Ganondorf to cross. It seems the more powerful the being trying to move between worlds, the more difficult it becomes without significant aid. But when the shadow fell, it twisted the people of Hyrule, turning them into helpless spirits, trapped in the darkness. I was the only one spared this fate, and was locked in the tower of my own castle, to watch my kingdom crumble.

"Or so I thought. Midna, the rightful ruler of the Twili, came to me, in the form you first saw her. She was cursed and her body twisted, though not in the manner of the others. She had come across a legend, regarding the spirits of light that inhabit Hyrule, and believed that they would be able to push the darkness back and save her people, and by extension, mine. She would not be able to approach the spirits, however. Their light would kill any Twili who attempted to do so. She needed help, someone who could resist the darkness's effect to turn them into spirits, so that they would still be able to interact with the world, and strong enough to fight the shadows her people had become.

"I was not the one, and she knew it when she saw me. Even if I did have the skill needed, I had given up, and accepted my fate. She left me to search for one who would suit her needs. Several weeks later, she returned to me, and had found someone capable of her task. That was Link. We believe it was the Triforce he carried, and had since his birth, that protected him from the darkness covering the land, but I think his undefeatable spirit had something to do with it as well.

"To be entirely honest, at that time, I didn't think they'd make it at all. I gave them what aid and direction I could, but thought I'd never see them again after that day."

"And they proved you wrong?" Arthur asked.

"Of course," Zelda said, "I couldn't believe what I was seeing when the darkness over the city at last lifted. Sunlight was visible over my kingdom for the first time in several months. The monsters still held me prisoner in my castle, but for the first time since I gave up, I had hope that it wasn't the end of Hyrule, at least until Link and Midna did return.

"He had been cursed by Zant, trapped in the body of a wolf, and Midna was near death. Zant had forcibly cast her from the shadows that protected her in our world, and exposed her directly to the light of one of the spirits. I think it was nothing but sheer force of will that had kept her alive long enough to reach me. She begged me to go with Link, to help him finish the task in her place."

"But she's still alive," Arthur said, "So how did you save her?"

"I gave her my life, in quite the literal sense," Zelda said, "I had no idea what I was doing at the time, so I'm probably very lucky I didn't kill us both, but using my Triforce, I put my soul into her body. To them, it had appeared I had died, while she was strong again, and now impervious to the light of our world. In truth, I was with them for the remainder of their journey, seeing events through Midna's eyes. It was during that time that I came to understand Link as she did. With the world going mad, and monsters besetting them at every turn, he was the one she depended on. She is incredibly strong-willed herself, but it was he that kept her on the right path. He was her rock, and became mine.

"There are so many stories we have of heroes that came from humble origins, that rose above their station, becoming inspiring figures. Ordinary people in extraordinary times. But Link isn't like that. A person like Link cannot be trained to do what he does. People like him are not made, they are born. The rest of us will be but footnotes in his legend."

Arthur sighed. "Well, that has a way of making me feel insignificant," he said.

"Not at all," Zelda said, "You see, I'm convinced that all this is going to end in Hyrule. Link is an exceptional person, but everything points to us taking on an angry goddess, along with whatever demons she can conjure up. Link is just one person, and can't win it alone. I don't think any of those heroes in history did it all by themselves. I think that's part of why I'm being so hard on myself, though I'm not actually trying to. We're all going to have to do this together, and everyone is going to be looking to me for leadership. Of course, all this is meaningless until we see what is actually coming for us, but I intend to do everything I can to make sure we're ready."

Arthur didn't respond immediately, and Zelda turned as another approached them. Vargus moved up behind them. "We've got a problem," he said without preamble.

"What?" Zelda said, standing upright and turning away from the railing.

"The fishing nets are coming up empty," Vargus said, "We're in too deep of water for this kind of fishing."

"Wait, we're out of food?" Arthur asked.

"I didn't say that," Vargus said, "But we've got maybe three days of dried food in the holds. We were depending on the fishing to feed these people, and I'm afraid I was expecting this to happen."

"Where is Sledge?" Zelda asked.

Vargus turned, pointing to the far side of the ship. Sledge and several of the other shark-men were pulling in the net with the crane intended for hauling nets full of cargo. As Zelda, Vargus, and Arthur approached, she could see the net was empty as they set it down on the deck.

"Sledge," Zelda said as she came to a stop, "What's going on with the fishing?"

Sledge looked up. "We're in too deep of water for net fishing," he said, "Don't worry, we were expecting this."

"What are we going to do then?" Zelda asked, "We don't have enough supplies to feed all these people. You promised me you could fish up enough to get us across the ocean."

"I didn't say anything about not keeping my word," Sledge said, and ordered one of his men to cut the net loose from the crane before turning back to Zelda, "We've just got to use bigger bait."

Zelda started to ask what he was talking about, but stopped short when Sledge took the end of the now free rope from the crane and looped it around his waist, and one of his men handed him his spear. It was good heavy rope, as large around as a human fist, and difficult to secure in place around his waist so it wouldn't come loose. "Wait a second," Zelda said, "Don't tell me you're going to…"

Without waiting for her to finish, Sledge leaped over the railing, trailing the rope from the crane, the cranks spinning out slack freely, to splash into the water below.

"He just did," Vargus answered Zelda.

Zelda moved to the railing, looking over to see the rope trailing down into the water, vanishing into darkness below the surface. "What is he going to do?" she asked.

"Well, first he'll drag out the rope a bit," said one of the sahaugin, "then he'll kick around a bit and pretend he's injured. That usually gets their attention."

Zelda turned back to the water, wondering what he could possibly be trying to get the attention of. It was ten minutes before there was any sign of movement from below, when the rope suddenly jerked. There were shouts to man the crane, but the four sahaugin who moved to the cranks waited, watching the violent churning of the rope.

After a moment, the rope stilled, and they started turning the cranks, winding the rope back in. Zelda felt like her heart was in her mouth. They were going to be hauling up Sledge's body, or more likely shredded remains, she just knew. Several minutes passed, winding up the rope, and a shadow could be seen in the water, coming slowly upward. The red tinge of blood rose to the surface, then suddenly her fears were gone.

Sledge's hand on the rope rose above the surface, followed by the rest of him, the rope no long tied around his waist, but around the tailfin he was standing on, with his spear in his other hand.

"Gods in heaven," Arthur swore as the body rose above the water.

Sledge jumped from the rope over the railing once high enough, and turned to watch as his prize was hefted into the air. It wasn't a shark, as Zelda knew them, but it was some kind of carnivore. Sledge, as big as he was, would have barely been a mouthful for this monster. The entire ship rocked as the crane was swung over, more hands appearing to drag the carcass over the railing, where the crane could not lift the monster high enough.

On the top of its head, at the base of the skull, was a single bloody hole, the stab wound from Sledge's spear.

"Happy now?" Sledge asked, glancing at Zelda.

Zelda opened her mouth, no sound coming out, only a few seconds later managing, "Yes. That will work."

Sledge shouted for some hands to come and start the task of cleaning and butchering the beast, but they'd have food for days at least. Zelda turned to look over the railing at the other ships behind them to see the closest already had one of the monsters hanging up and halfway through the process of gutting it.

"I think I'm just going to stay out of their way from here on," Zelda said to Vargus.

"I'd have preferred to know about this before it actually occurring," Vargus said.

"You're more than welcome to stay," Sledge said, then grinned, "I heard human royalty doesn't usually prepare their own food. If you want, just come over here and I'll show you how to clean the scales."

Zelda looked back in time to see one of the other sahaugin with his arm up to the shoulder in the massive creature's gill opening, and then suddenly pulled or twisted something inside. The creature's stomach contents suddenly spilled from its mouth onto the deck, salt water mixed with other, thicker fluids and a large number of dead, half-digested fish. Zelda, Arthur and Vargus all stepped back before it could wash over their boots.

"Maybe next time," Zelda said with a grimace, adding silently, _Most likely never._

"So, any more excitement planned for today?" Arthur asked as the trio moved away.

"Realizing that as soon as we're on solid ground again, I'm never eating fish again in my life," Zelda muttered.

* * *

Back on land, near the ruined, scorched ruin that remained of the port city, a solitary figure sat on the grass, where he could see the rolling waves on the coast. Like the other blighted men, his skin was a sickly gray pallor, and dressed in shredded remains of a city guard uniform, only the metal preserved by his efforts to keep it polished and rust free, and simply replacing the straps whenever they wore too much to wear. Recently added, among the open sores in his flesh, scabbed over wounds on the right side of his face, from the splinters where his face had been smashed through the railing on the back of the ship.

"Look at you there," said a voice behind him, causing him to spin, and his sword flashing from its sheath, finding only a lone figure behind him. "I'd almost think I'd stumbled into a story of a troubled hero, searching for meaning after getting his ass handed to him."

The warrior was not sure what he was seeing. He recognized the difference between himself and humans instantly, as did the other blighted men, though unlike the others, he was not driven into a frenzy by the sight.

And this thing was not human.

Zero stopped a short distance from him. Zero's own scars out shadowed the warrior's by a large margin. Zero's left should and arm, as well as half of his torso, were charred black, a remnant of the touch of the Triforce of Wisdom, in sharp contrast to the long white scar left by Link's sword from his right shoulder nearly to his left hip. His left eye, blood red with a dark black pupil, was much too large for his face. The warrior's eye was drawn to the sword in his hand, with its cold, black blade, decorated only with a dark blue pommel gem.

"The fact you're not barking yet means you really are something more than the other animals nearby," Zero said, "You can understand me, right?"

The warrior sneered, baring his teeth.

"I'll take that as a 'yes,'" Zero said, "You seem to be a level above most of the wretches in these countries now. You know you're something more than them, but you don't know why. Just grunt if I'm getting close."

With a growl, the warrior lifted his sword, pointing it directly at Zero.

"Just calm down," Zero said, "I'm here because of an interested party, interested in the very people who just slipped through your fingers. I can tell you what she wants, but the question is, what do you want?"

The warrior lowered his sword slightly.

"Yes, I don't think you're in much of a position to explain it to me," Zero said, and glanced toward the ruined town to his left, "Maybe something about the droolers? Get them out of the way, maybe leave you with the women? Do you even still desire that human vice?"

Both of them suddenly spun as another approached, raising their weapons to the new party. A small girl, who looked no older than ten, stopped when she saw the weapons. She was blighted, with the same sickly pallor, with thin black hair hanging down her shoulders. In her hand she held the leg of a stuffed animal that may have been a cat, but the lack of a head made it hard to identify.

Zero slowly lowered his sword. "Now that's interesting," he said, glancing over at the warrior, "I thought Tharkus' blight was too vicious on the humans' biology for children to survive."

The girl turned her head, looking toward the warrior, who had lowered his weapon to the ground. He made a negative motion with his free hand. The girl turned to look at Zero, her dark eyes glancing over him, and she moved toward the warrior. Dragging her toy in the dirt, she moved behind him, turning to watch Zero from behind the warrior's leg.

"And her mind still functions," Zero said, "Interesting. But drifting off my goal here. You have some control over the lesser creatures now residing here. You help us, and we'll help you."

The warrior's brow furrowed, but it was clear he was listening.

"Take your followers and go north," Zero said, "Gather all the numbers you can find on the way. Past the mountains bordering the north of these lands, you will cross into the barbarian lands of the artic. You will find resistance there, from the scattered tribes. Kill them, eat them, recruit them, whatever it is you do. Dress your men in their furs and hides, and keep going. Keep walking until north becomes south, over the glaciers of the frozen sea, and cross into the lands on the far side of the artic.

"There you will enter a massive stretch of wilds, untouched by human hands since the dawn of the world. Cross these lands, going south, and you will reach the lands of a kingdom called Hyrule. That is where those that flee you are going, and where you will find them. That kingdom is also the central point for a spell I will be enacting to release a living god into the world, and by aiding me, you will be on the winning side. She will grant anything you desire, once those who oppose her are destroyed. It will be a journey of many months, but if you survive, you will have a place in the new world we are going to build.

"Will you do this?"

The warrior glared at Zero for a long moment, then gave him a single nod.

Zero smiled. "Excellent. Then I will leave you to it. I will be in Hyrule by the time you arrive. Don't be late. The goddess has since lost faith in her other allies, and the one other that remains will not be receiving her aid when he is cornered very soon."

Zero started walking, cutting a wide circle around the warrior, toward the beach. As the warrior and girl watched, he stepped into the waves, walking out into the deeper water. He seemed to have no buoyancy, and in moments, vanished beneath the waves.

The warrior was not sure what that creature was, but what he had said, it was a goal. The warrior felt his heart rise at the thought of having something to work toward. Something had been missing, and perhaps it was merely direction. He looked down at the girl, still holding her toy in one hand, her other arm around his leg, as she looked up at him through the mess of black hair hanging over her face. Her scream would have brought every hunter and matriarch in the city running, but he doubted it would have made a difference against that creature.

The warrior looked up, to the north, where he would shortly be marching, along with every blighted man and woman he could find. He laid his hand on the child's head, softly stroking her hair as he envisioned what was to come. Bloody and glorious slaughter, to please a living god seeking to destroy those who opposed her.

Yes, he could do this, and gladly.

* * *

Night came on, and the small party was forced to stop, rather than trying to walk the narrow ledge in the dark. Not even halfway around the great bowl yet, but hoping to reach the site of the citadel by the next evening, they spread out in a line on the ledge. There was enough room to lay out the bedrolls this way, but impossible to build a fire.

As they lay down to sleep, Kilishandra was focused on the diary Link had given her, a small globe of light conjured to hover just over her shoulder so she could see the pages. She almost couldn't believe what she was reading at first, but started to become more certain when she reached the entry describing how Tharkus had cut a student's throat, and turned the body into material for his experiments. Link was right in his assessment. The diary was a depiction of Tharkus' steady descent into madness.

"Shouldn't be doing that now, you know," Link said, causing Kilishandra to look up to where he was sitting for his turn on watch, "The light makes you night-blind."

"It's not like there is a better time," she said, turning to the next page.

"Hey, look what I found in the rocks," Link said, standing up and moving toward her.

Kilishandra sighed, dog-earing the page she was on as she shut the diary. Link knelt down next to her, showing her what he had in his hand.

She started to roll her eyes, only a second later realized the significance of what he was showing her. It was a stalk of a plant, maybe some kind of grass, that was still green. "It looks like the blight didn't reach all this way," Link said, "I found it on the side of the path."

"That's nice," Kilishandra said, "I don't see how it helps us right now, though."

"It doesn't, but it's nice to know there's still life out there," Link said, sitting down next to her.

Kilishandra looked up, checking for the one she expected to constantly be in his shadow. Midna was under her blanket, lying on her bedroll a bit up the path from them. There wasn't room to place them side-by-side, so she hadn't put it up against Link's like the other nights. When Kilishandra looked back to Link, he was folding the leaves of the plant over his fingers for a reason she couldn't fathom.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Checking for something," Link said as he twisted the leaves into a new shape, then brought the stalk up to his mouth.

He blew on the stalk, and Kilishandra wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't heard it herself. The leaves whistled, not even in a high pitched manner like she expected of a whistle, but low and melodic. The tone of the whistle shifted as Link changed the speed of his breath through the leaves. He whistled several more notes before stopping, the echo of the sound remaining in an haunting manner as he laid the stalk aside.

Several heads lifted from their bedrolls, and Link apologized for waking them. Kilishandra noted that Midna was not one who woke. A moment later a shadow passed over Link and herself. She instinctively reached for her sword, laying nearby, but Link stopped her, and lifted one arm over his head.

A large hawk descended into the light, placing its feet on Link's arm before folding its wings. "What…?" Kilishandra asked as Link lowered his arm, and scratched it on the neck with his other hand, "How did you do that?"

"It's an animal thing," Link said with a smile, "Another hour or so and he might not have listened. Hawks are usually taking roost for the night by this time."

Kilishandra couldn't believe what she was seeing. A _wild_ hawk was sitting on his arm, letting him scratch its neck, and craning its head to push harder against his fingers as though it were a pet. She found herself reaching toward it, like a child, not sure if she was allowed to touch it or not.

"It's okay," Link said, "Get the back of his neck. They love that."

Kilishandra's hand moved slowly, cautiously, and held her breath as she touched the hawk's soft feathers. She gently pushed with the edge of her fingernail, her fingers slipping under the short feathers at its neck, and scratched the skin underneath. The hawk stretched its neck and rolled its head to one side as it pushed back against her, urging her for more.

She realized she was smiling. Something so simple, such a childish delight, and she found herself smiling for the first time in… Well, the first time in quite a while.

"Okay, need to let him go now," Link said, interrupting the fun, "He needs to find somewhere to spend the night, too."

Link lifted his arm higher as Kilishandra withdrew her hand and the hawk opened its wings, beating them hard and lifting away from Link's arm, vanishing into the dark night, its shadow blotting out the stars for a moment as it passed overhead one last time. Kilishandra looked down at Link, where he sat next to her. She was still smiling, she realized, as he turned his own gaze to her.

"What?" he asked.

"You really are something else," she said, "I don't think I've ever met anyone like you before."

"Considering your friends before, I won't doubt that," Link said.

Kilishandra shook her head, and turned to look out over the bowl in the earth. She pulled her knees up to her chest, putting her arms around her legs as she thought for a moment. "No," she said, "I know you're talking about Khall. He wasn't always like… that. Not before all this."

"What was he like?"

"I think gentle is the best way to say it," Kilishandra said, "He had no one when we first met. He was friendly, honest, and kind. Never lost his temper, never even raised his voice to anyone. Seemed like he had infinite patience. He cared about people. Took care of his friends, showed mercy to his enemies when he could.

"I think, if circumstances had been different, you and he could have been friends."

"I guess anything's possible," Link said, "That's the worst part of war, beyond even the senseless violence and killing. The fact that one side can only win by victimizing the other."

"That's something my father says," Kilishandra said.

"Oh, that's great," Link said, "Last thing I want is to start sounding like him."

"No, you've got something he's long since lost," Kilishandra said, "Simple faith in humanity. He's always told me to expect the worst of people, so you're never surprised when they turn on you. I think you're the opposite. You want to believe in people. That they will stand up and take responsibility for themselves, and work together."

"Maybe," Link said, "But if everyone would do that, the world wouldn't need people like you and me in the first place."

"I really want to see it," Kilishandra said, "Hyrule, I mean. Where I come from, the dark elves were already looked down upon for picking the wrong side in an ancient war. I was even more so, because I'm a half-breed. I had to fight for every bit of respect I earned. I always dreamed of building a kingdom where there would be no such prejudice. And now I find out that such a kingdom apparently already exists…"

"You'll see it," Link said, "If you want, I'll show you around myself."

"I think I'd like that," Kilishandra said, smiling again.

"You'll have to try some of Bo's home-brew mead while we're there," Link said, "It is strong and absolutely vicious, but it's the best drink I've ever tasted."

"The kind that murders your throat?" Kilishandra asked.

"Not that bad, at least not anymore," Link said, "The first time he tried to make anything, good gods, I'd swear it was strong enough to kill small insects. You could clean privies with that stuff."

Further back down the path from them, at the other end of the long camp, Ganondorf stood alone in the dark. He watched the two of them from a distance, and took a slow pull on his pipe. After holding it a second, he exhaled the smoke, lowering the pipe from his mouth.

He couldn't hear them speaking in low tones, but Link was describing something and gesturing with his hands to accentuate what he was saying. Kilishandra was smiling and laughing.

"Hmmm…" was the only sound out of Ganondorf as he watched them.


	112. Chapter 111

I never really thought about it before, but the common depiction of a lamia (half-woman, half-snake) is actually one of my favorite monsters ever, second only to the minotaur.

**Chapter 111: A Titan's Grave**

"Hey, I found it!"

Alex's shout drew the attention of the other members of the party as they picked through the rubble where the citadel's foundation had previously rested. He groaned as he pulled aside a large splinter of rock, exposing more of the opening that descended into darkness below.

"You went through there?" Ganondorf asked Kilishandra as the rest of the group gathered around the passage.

"I remember it being… bigger," Kilishandra said, eyeing the hole carefully.

"This is a passage to the caverns, not a basement or something?" Ralthas asked.

"The rock foundation on the bottom of the citadel when it was flying was at least fifty feet tall," Link said, squatting down near the entrance of the hole, trying to see further in, but the sun was still too bright to allow his dark vision to function, "If this is a basement, it's below the dungeons and sewer, too."

Silviana turned to Kilishandra. "You went through these tunnels with a fairly large group before, right?" she asked, and when Kilishandra nodded, "Did you encounter anything down there on the way through?"

"Worst I saw was the crocodiles," Kilishandra said, "They were in an underground river we stopped to get water at. Large enough to swallow a man whole."

"Just cave crocs," Ganondorf said, leaning forward to look over Link's shoulder into the tunnel, "There's far worse things in the depths of the world than crocodiles."

Alex looked up at him. "Like what kinds of things, exactly?"

"I genuinely have no idea," Ganondorf said with a sadistic smile, "Ancient things, never seen by man and forgotten by time itself. The one thing I can promise is they won't have eyes. There's no use for them in the dark depths of the world."

"And just thinking about it turns you on, I'm sure," Alex said, recalling the wizard's comments when he had explained that even a spark of magic could set off the pocket at the temple and kill them all.

"Oh, unbelievably," Ganondorf replied.

"So what now?" Midna asked, leaning down near Link.

"Going to be dark in there," Link said, "I can't see any better than the rest of you with light in my eyes…"

"You volunteering to scout ahead?" Ganondorf asked.

"Better idea," Link said, standing up, "I'll go first and the rest of you will follow about ten feet back with one of the globes of light. That way you'll be close enough there will be light on my back but not in my eyes."

"How long will it take to cross?" Ralthas asked Kilishandra.

"It took my first group about a week," Kilishandra said, "I think we should be able to make it in three or four days. Hopefully."

This last comment she said as she turned back to the opening, and clenched her teeth as she eyed it dubiously.

Link glanced back at her, then nodded to Alex. Link reached up to Midna's hand, where she had let it rest on his shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze and a smile before stepping into the mouth of the opening. "Darkness, here I come," he said, stepping into the tunnel and out of the sun, "Hope you're ready for me."

The tunnel meanders, but as Link's eyes adjusted, he was able to make out the shapes of piles of fallen rock. It was extremely lucky that the tunnel hadn't completely collapsed. He could hear the footsteps of the others following behind him as he made his way around the piles. The tunnel began to slope more steeply downward, and loose gravel made footing tenuous. Warning the other behind him to be careful, he moved carefully downward.

His dark vision revealed a circle shape ahead, that of a cave opening into darkness beyond. Stepping through, the cave suddenly opened wide. An edge ahead revealed a rock ledge that suddenly dropped into open air below.

As good as his vision in the darkness was, it had a limited range, he realized. About twenty feet out, it turned to blackness, and he could see nothing beyond. To the right, the rock ledge followed the cavern wall, descending into darkness below. Link moved toward it, making sure the others saw him before following the ledge.

About fifteen feet out, the ledge suddenly dipped, dropping almost ten feet straight down. Link called a halt, and carefully moved over the ledge, dropping down to the ledge below. He slipped, quickly grabbing a protrusion from the rock wall as gravel slid under his feet. It was narrower here, the ledge barely over a foot wide. Once he was sure of his feet, he called to the others to move up, warning them of the ledge. It was then that he realized the protrusion he had grabbed was not rock, but a mushroom of some kind growing directly from the wall. He was fortunate it hadn't ripped from the wall when he put his weight on it.

It was hard to imagine something growing down here in utter darkness, but he found more as he scooted down the path, giving the others room to climb down over the ledge.

"This wasn't like this last time," Kilishandra said once she was down on the ledge, "I'm sure there was a wider path here."

"How far to the cavern floor?" Ralthas asked, "I'm not sure I like hanging over the abyss like this."

"I don't know," Kilishandra said, "Thirty, maybe forty feet."

"Too bad for those of us that can't fly," Ganondorf commented.

"So long as we're careful, we'll be fine," Link said, starting down the path again, careful and watching where he put his feet.

"Oh, just think about it," Ganondorf said, "One little push is all it would take, and I'm rid of you for good."

"And then you get to figure out how to kill the flaming bitch from Hell on your own," Link said.

Ganondorf started to respond, but Link hissed, motioning for silence. Like a tingling in his ears, he could hear a faint sound. It was slowly growing louder.

"Wings," he whispered.

"We can't fight here," Silviana said, "We need to get off this ledge."

They materialized suddenly from the darkness, descending on the group with incredible speed, and high pitched shrieking. The largest bats Link had ever seen, and with no room to draw his sword, he swatted with one arm at the one that attacked him. He could see its face in the darkness, sharp jagged teeth from a mouth the size of a child's head, snapping at him as he managed to get his free arm across its chest to hold it at bay. Its leathery wings were beating on either side of him, the sound of rushing wind drowning out the shouts from the others as they were similarly attacked.

These were no fruit-eating pests as Link expected of bats, these were dangerous carnivores, and this thought was reinforced by the snapping teeth clicking together just inches from his face.

Ganondorf managed to get his hand around the throat of one that was attacking him, and with a squeeze, felt the bones in its neck snap in his fingers, dropping the paralyzed body from the ledge and snatched the one on Ralthas by the back of its head. He lifted it higher, above the judge's head and smashed its face against the rock wall before hurling it out into space.

Link managed to slip his shaving razor from his boot with the hand not occupied in holding the bat and flipped the blade open, and quickly brought it up, slashing the bat's throat. Warm blood spilled over his arm, and the bat's aggression almost immediately transformed to choking and gasping as it pulled away from him, every beat of its wings weaker as it fell away out of sight.

Kilishandra had managed to get one hand on the base of a bat's wing as she held it off with another, and pulled down. With a loud pop, the bone came out of joint and the bat almost instantly fell away. Kilishandra fought for her balance, leaning slowly over the edge of the ledge. Midna's hand materialized over her shoulder, out of her own shadow, pulling her back toward the wall, before vanishing to snatch hold of a bat attacking Alex as he drew a knife and stabbed it into the beast's gut and drug upward before pushing it away.

Almost as fast as it started, it was over, the remaining creatures fleeing, and the group paused to catch their breath. Or at least, it seemed to be over. Suddenly, screaming out of the darkness, another of the creatures, flying like a streak, slamming into Alex and Kilishandra with the full force of its body, knocking the wind from their lungs as they slammed into the wall behind themselves.

It happened so fast. Kilishandra fought to inhale and recover her breath, and the bounce off the wall forcing her to fight for balance, and she felt her foot slip on the gravel, and when she tried to set it back on the path, all she found was open air.

"Shit!" she shouted as she fell from the ledge.

Ganondorf was reaching for the bat, as Silviana grabbed Alex and tried to hold him up. Link saw Midna looking out of the shadows from the glove of light over Ganondorf's shoulder, already moving, but even she wouldn't reach her in time.

Link's reaction was instantaneous, and he dove from the ledge back toward her. Kilishandra felt his hand snatch her wrist, and in the next instant her fall was halted, her shoulder jerked in a painful wrench that threatened to yank it from its socket. She looked up to see Link with one hand on her wrist, the other holding some kind of plant growing from the rock about three feet below the ledge.

The screeching of the bat above them suddenly cut to silence, and a second later two large pieces fell past them into the darkness below.

"Link!" Midna shouted down, "I'm coming!"

Link looked up toward her voice. He already saw the large red hand descending toward them, but his eyes suddenly rooted on the mushroom he was holding to keep them from falling, just in time to watch its final fibers unwinding.

"Oh, this is gonna hurt," he said.

The plant snapped, and they were falling. The large red hand of Midna's magic snatched nothing but air. Kilishandra swore loudly and Link couldn't help but add his own as they dropped, only to be suddenly cut short as they slammed into rock, bouncing and falling further before crashing into the rock again, and were suddenly rolling down a slope. Link felt the rocks jabbing him in the back and ribs, and fought just to keep his head from smashing into something.

The stop was sudden as the pair slammed into a rough rock floor, and Link found himself laying on his back, gasping for the breath that had been so effectively knocked from him during the fall.

Up on the ledge, Midna moved to dive off the ledge after them when Ganondorf's hand snatched her arm. "Let go of me!" she screamed, trying to jerk from his grasp.

"Calm down! They're not dead!" Ganondorf said, "Or Link isn't at least."

"How do you…" Midna was stopped short as he waved his right hand, with the Triforce symbol visible, in front of her face.

"I can sense his position, remember?" Ganondorf said, "If he died, I wouldn't be able to. But we need your eyes here, got it? You're now the only one who can see in the dark around here."

"You can fly, right?" Alex asked, "Just lift us all down there."

"I can't control it like that," Ganondorf said, "Precise movement in a cave isn't something I want to try. I'll be lucky if all I do is smash us into a rock wall."

Alex turned to Midna. "I can't either," she admitted, "Not in this number, and without the mask, which I can't use again."

"We'll find them in a minute," Ganondorf said, "Right now, just guide us off this ledge, before those things come back again."

"Dammit," Midna growled, looking down again, "Please be okay…"

* * *

Link sat up slowly, holding a hand to his ribs in agony. Nothing was broken, he hoped, and even if it was, he was getting used to having the quick healing of the Triforce. In a moment, he'd be fine, if tired.

"Kili…" he said, and choked, coughing up what he hoped was just dust, rolling over to push himself up onto his knees.

He saw her, lying a short distance away, and rather than try to force himself up, crawled over to her. She was breathing, so he let out a sigh of relief. Her arms were bleeding from several scratches, but she seemed none the worse for wear. Her breastplate and greaves were not even dented. Damn good craftsmanship on those, he'd admit.

"Just tell me you didn't hit your head," he said, feeling with one hand around her braid for blood. Her scalp was dry, and as he checked, her eyes fluttered open, and suddenly she was reaching for her knife.

"It's okay!" Link said, realizing she couldn't see him in the dark, "It's just me! I was afraid you'd hit your head."

She relaxed somewhat. "Left arm," she said, "I think it's dislocated."

Link moved around to her other side, gently feeling around her shoulder with one hand. She was right. He lifted her arm, she hissed through her teeth as he did so, taking a grip just above her elbow. "Ready?" he asked, and when she nodded, he quickly snapped it back into place with an audible pop, causing her to swear and hiss again. After a moment, she was gently flexing her elbow and rolling her shoulder to work the pain out.

"When I stepped down and felt nothing but air, I was sure that was it," she said.

"Not that lucky, I'm afraid," Link said, taking stock of their surroundings. The slope they had rolled down appeared to be fallen rubble, likely the larger ledge Kilishandra remembered had broken away from the wall when the citadel lifted off. "Seems to be safe enough for the moment," he said, "You wait here for a moment, and I'll take a look around and see if I can find a way to head back toward the others."

"No!" Kilishandra suddenly snatched his sleeve as he started to stand, though her grip lessened as quickly as she grabbed him, "That is, just help me up. I can walk, I think."

Link helped her to her feet. Kilishandra groaned in the process, but was able to stand on her own. In another moment, she had a small globe of light hovering over her open palm, and she relaxed more visibly as she looked around their surroundings, that being a fairly large area of the cavern, with open passage to the west. Or at least she believed it to be west.

Link judged which direction the others would still be heading down the ledge, and moved to the pile of rubble in that direction. There was no way past it but over, and started to seek hand grips to move up it. The rocks dislodged almost immediately, and Link was forced to move back as a slide of the rubble rolled down the side of the pile.

"Not going that way," he said, turning back to Kilishandra, and pointed to the open passage, "We'll go that way and see if there is some way we can circle around to the others."

"Maybe we should wait here," Kilishandra said, glancing at the tunnel leading away, "They'll be looking for us, after all."

"Ganondorf will be able to find me," Link said, "He always does. I'd rather not waste time."

Kilishandra sighed, turning to follow as he walked past her toward the tunnel. "All right, just don't run off and leave me, okay?"

"I won't."

* * *

"They're moving," Ganondorf said as the remaining five stepped from the narrow ledge onto the solid floor at last.

"Where?" Midna asked.

"Going west," Ganondorf said, "Likely passage between them and here was blocked, and they're looking for another way around. So, we'll just keep going and see if we can meet up with them somewhere."

Ralthas glanced at Alex and Silviana, who were both stooped down, examining something on the floor, before looking back at Ganondorf. "You're awfully calm considering that your daughter is out there," he said.

"We've already got one panicked idiot," Ganondorf said, gesturing at Midna, who shot him a dark glare, "And panicking won't help her or me. Let's just go."

"I think it's just some kind of moss," Silviana said as she and Alex rose to their feet, "Amazing that things can grow down here with no light, isn't it?"

Ganondorf moved past them, the others falling into step behind him and his light. "Yeah," Alex said as he followed her into the line, "Amazing."

* * *

Link would have liked to walk further ahead, so the light in Kilishandra's hand didn't leave him night-blind, but as the tunnel narrowed, she seemed to move even closer to him, and not from the lack of space. She seemed nervous and on-edge, but when Link asked her if she was okay, all he got was a rather angry "I'm fine!"

When the passage opened up again, she visibly relaxed, and Link realized that their footing had changed from bare rock to something else. Some kind of blue moss was growing from the cave floor, and extended as far as their limited light could see, almost like grass. They turned somewhat north, to try to circle to the others, but without any idea how far the others had gone, they moved slowly.

Incredibly, more plants began to appear in their field of vision. Mushrooms, about a foot tall, growing from the cavern floor as well, and Link surmised they were likely feeding on the dung of those enormous bats, as was the moss.

"Those bats," he said.

"What about them?" Kilishandra asked.

"They were carnivorous," he said, "So, what's in here that they normally eat?"

"Probably something smaller than us," Kilishandra said, "They were awfully aggressive, though."

As they walked, the mushrooms began to become larger. None had any spectacular colors, but Link guessed that in the dark, nothing could see to be warded off by bright colors. More than one they passed towered at an incredible six feet in height, and they had to duck under its cap to pass.

Then more kinds of plants began to appear among the mushrooms. Stalks of something that resembled grass, and pods like unopened flowers, in a variety of sizes, all the time the mushrooms still growing larger as they walked. Now further apart, but the towering fungus caps rose high overhead, in sizes Link never even imagined.

"This is like the Mystic Mushroom Grove," Kilishandra commented.

Link glanced at her. "The what?"

"Oh, it's a children's story my mother told me when I was young," Kilishandra said, "The young heroine hears that the only way to save her dying friend is with a broth made from the cap of a giant purple mushroom that only grows in the Mystic Mushroom Grove deep underground. She journeys for months, through dark tunnels and avoiding the monsters in her way until she reaches the grove, manages to scrape some of the insides of the purple mushroom's cap into a bag, and returns home."

"Happy ending then," Link said.

"No," Kilishandra said, "It turns out that the mushroom in question was highly poisonous, and her friend is killed by the broth rather than cured. I think it's a cautionary tale to not blindly follow rumors and legends."

"That's depressing," Link said, "But I do see the point."

"Can we stop for a moment?" Kilishandra asked, "My breastplate is digging into my side and I need to adjust it."

* * *

"They just stopped," Ganondorf said, and pointed at the rock wall, "That direction."

"Lot of good that does us," Alex said, tapping his hand against the side of the tunnel.

"Hey," Midna said with sudden realization, "You can talk to Zelda even at this distance, can't you talk to Link the same way?"

"No," Ganondorf said, "The princess is more, shall we say, 'in tune' with her Triforce than Link is. He is just barely learning to scratch the surface of his, while she has been using hers for years, in the form of her empathy that allows her to read the emotions of others nearby, even if she didn't realize where it came from at the time. Put it this way, I could talk to Link through his, but he doesn't even know how to listen the right way to hear me."

"They may have found a safe spot to rest and wait for us," Silviana said.

"Possibly," Ganondorf said, "Or an injury may be stopping them from going further."

"Let's just keep moving and hope this tunnel meets up with them soon," Ralthas said.

* * *

"Pull it good and snug," Kilishandra said, "Having it bouncing and loose is worse than having it out of place."

Link pulled on the right shoulder strap of her breastplate from behind, tightening it back onto place after she had shifted its position. "One reason I'm glad I don't wear plate," he said, "Mail is so much easier to adjust."

"It also does nothing to lessen impact," Kilishandra said, "It might stop a slashing blow from actually cutting skin, but it can still hit with enough force to shatter bones. Not to mention to a good piercing thrust, it might as well not be there."

"Whereas a good knock from a mace or war hammer, and your plate is dented to the point you can't breath until you cut it off," Link countered, "And in that situation, you wouldn't be able to reach the shoulder straps on your own."

"And how often to you actually see a soldier with a mace or war hammer, exactly?" Kilishandra asked.

"Gorons tend to favor them-" Link started and was cut off as he suddenly looked down, stomping at whatever had just been trying to crawl up his ankle.

"What is it?" Kilishandra asked, turning to see.

"Snake or something," Link said, searching the floor for it, and finding no sign amidst the blue moss and trailing vines from the flower-pods.

"I don't see anything," Kilishandra said.

"Something isn't right," Link said, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, "I'd be happier if I did see a snake, or a scorpion, or something. In fact, with all these plants around…"

"There should be insects of some kind, or animals," Kilishandra said, "To spread the seeds."

"We need to get out here," Link said.

Before she could respond, Kilishandra's foot was yanked out from under her, dropping her face-down on the moss. Link spun as she rolled over onto her back. "The hell?!" they said in union.

A long green vine was wrapped around her ankle, the think leather of her boot and metal of her greave prevented her from feeling it as Link had, and it was dragging her across the floor. Link was reaching for his sword even before he saw the source of the vine.

Kilishandra's light moved with her, exposing the end of the vine where it was dragging her, directly toward one of the pods, far larger than the others they had seen. It was horrifically fascinating to watch as the pod's leaves opened, angling toward her like a great mouth, the insides looking less like a plant and more like flesh, coated with some kind of mucus that shined in the light, and a black hole in the bottom that suggested the plant was much larger than it appeared on the surface.

Link was there, his sword drawn as Kilishandra fought to draw hers in her awkward position, and with one slash, the white blade cut the vine, which drew back quickly, spraying yellow ichor as if it were blood, and the pod actually letting out some kind of pain cry that sounded like no animal Link had ever heard.

Kilishandra jerked the remaining part of the vine from her foot, climbing to her feet and finally managing to drawn her sword. With remarkable speed, another vine appeared, wrapping itself around Link's waist from behind. He swore as it jerked him back off his feet and dragged him across the mossy floor. Kilishandra moved past him at a run, slashing through the vine with her weapon, another of the enormous pods howling in agony as its severed vine quickly retracted.

Link climbed to his feet. He looked around, realizing he'd lost his sense of direction in the scuffle. He saw two more vines creeping across the ground toward them. "We need to go, now!" he said.

"Which way?" Kilishandra asked

"I don't know," Link said, "Anywhere is better than here right now!"

Picking a direction, they started running. Link managed to slash down another vine before it touched either of them, as the mushrooms and pods whipped past them, their sole focus on escaping the hellish plant life.

Link didn't know what actually attracted them, but the enormous bats appeared as well, descending on them from above. One dove toward him, to suddenly stop dead and reverse direction as a vine snapped around it and dragged it rapidly down into the open maw of the one of the pods. The leaves snapped shut around it, bending and twisting as the bat fought violently for its life, but stilled in only a few seconds as whatever toxins were in the mucus coating the inside of the pod did their work.

More bats were snatched as they attempted to swoop down on Link and Kilishandra, who weaved between the towering mushrooms and pods, fighting away the lashing vines that snatched for them, only to have their dash transform into a freefall as the mossy ground suddenly ended in a sheer cliff and they desperately tried to stop, to skid on the slick moss and shoot over the side.

_Oh, not again,_ was the through that shot through Link's mind. Fortunately, it was less than ten feet to the slope below, and while the initial impact was hard, it was not rocky rubble, and rather than rolling and bouncing and adding the bruises they still carried, they instead found themselves sliding down it on their backs. Another fifty feet down, they came to a stop on level ground. Link had managed to hold onto his sword and not cut himself in the plummet, and he looked up to see Kilishandra sitting up, and also still holding her weapon.

It was smooth rock under them now, no sign of plants, and Link realized as he rose to his feet he could hear running water. "You hear that?" he asked.

"Yes," Kilishandra said, "I think we found the underground river."

It wasn't far, and they found the bank about thirty yards from where they landed. It also explained the smooth stone floor, if the river rose like most rivers did after heavy rains and filled this area too. Given the countless centuries it had undoubtedly been flowing, the river and its erosion were likely the entire cause of that cliff above.

"How deep in the earth are we?" Link wondered, looking back up toward the cliff, though he could not see it from here.

"Deep enough if we go off another cliff we're likely to fall out the bottom," Kilishandra said, and added, "Don't get too close to the water."

Link paused, and spotted her meaning. He couldn't make out more than indistinct shapes, but there was something just under the surface of the water. The back of one broke the surface for an instant, showing tough, leathery hide with high ridges along its back before sinking beneath the surface again.

Something else caught his attention from the corner of his eye. "Hey, put out your light for a moment," he said to Kilishandra.

She gave him a "you can't be serious" kind of look, but as he moved a few steps further out, looking down the passage carved by the river, she did as he requested, dousing the light.

"I see light," Link said, now that her magical light was not reducing his field of vision, and pointed up the river, "That way."

Link heard her footsteps, and a moment later, Kilishandra's searching hand touched his neck before moving down to his shoulder as she turned the same direction as him. "I don't believe it," she said.

Up-river, in the opposite direction it flowed, there was a distant light. It was a dark blue, slowly pulsing light, not like the flickering of a torch or the glow of the magical light she and Ganondorf could produce. The light would grow, revealing rock and a tunnel beyond before fading to almost pitch black, then grow again.

"There's a path there, alongside the river, about six feet above the water," Link said, indicating a ledge a short distance from them before remembering that she likely couldn't see it.

Kilishandra flared her light back into life, glowing brighter than before, as she turned, looking around them. They had landed in a small alcove near the river. "Well, I don't see another way out anyway," she said. The light in her hand dimmed to a more acceptable level as Link started toward the path, and she moved up behind him.

* * *

"They're both alive," Ganondorf said.

When Link and Kilishandra had taken off at a run, he had halted the group's progress, shouting and swearing, then almost immediately fallen silent as he monitored their progress. The source of his ire was the fact that when Link's signal had started to move so quickly, it was going the wrong way, directly away from them. Then it had suddenly dropped almost fifty feed underneath them, though not fast enough to be a freefall. Fortunately, the signal had started moving again.

"I thought you could only track Link," Ralthas said, "How do you know Kilishandra is alive."

"I'm actually not sure," Ganondorf said, "I just know that for a moment, I felt her through him. Maybe, considering she's a rather powerful beacon of magic herself, if they were in physical contact, such as direct skin to skin contact, I was able to sense her."

"Wait a second," Alex said, "Why would they even be doing that? Link has those leather gloves he wears, so even if he was helping her up…"

"Grow up, boy," Ganondorf said, seeing where Alex's train of thought was leading, and glancing at Midna, "Either of them could be hurt, and at least checking for wounds. Your fantasies had best wait for another time."

It was in fact when Kilishandra's bare hand had touched Link's neck, but there was no way even for Ganondorf to know this.

The tunnel the group was in had finally opened into a wide open cavern. Enormous stalagmites rose from the floor around them, and the sound of water drips could be heard, echoing through the vast chamber.

"Slow down," Midna warned, "I've got a lot of blind spots with all these columns."

Not blinded by the nearby light as Link would have been, Midna was closer to the group, and they moved in a fairly defensive knot, with Ganondorf in the lead, Alex and Silviana on either side of Midna, and Ralthas behind.

A rustling sound caused Ganondorf to hold up one hand to halt them, then he motioned for silence. There was the sound again, as something sliding on the rock floor in the dark.

"I saw something moving," Midna said.

"Thanks, eagle eye," Ganondorf said sarcastically, slowly sliding his sword free, "That's vital information I didn't already have."

The rustling sound was heard again, much louder and closer, before falling silent. Silviana had taken her bow from her shoulder and was silently drawing an arrow from the quiver at her hip as Alex and Ralthas both drew their swords as quietly as possible, but the sliding steel insisted on echoing around them.

A shape appeared from around the base of a stalagmite. Midna's caution was suddenly replaced by incredulity. It was a woman, leaning around the column. Red hair like fire hanging down over her shoulders, her bangs obscuring her face, and completely nude, though the way she leaned around the stalagmite, everything below her waist was hidden from sight.

"What the hell?" Alex was the first to voice his disbelief.

A smile appeared on the woman's lips, through the hanging red bangs, and with one hand resting on the stalagmite she leaned around, she lifted her other hand, and delicate fingers beckoned to them, though her nails were long and sharp, almost as if they were claws.

"Don't approach her," Ganondorf warned.

"I wasn't going to," Alex growled, "How dumb do you think I am?"

"You don't want me to answer that," the wizard replied.

"Why would a woman be by herself down here?" Silviana asked.

"You'll see in a moment," Ganondorf said, "I can't use my magic or risk bringing the whole cavern down. Shoot her, elf."

"She hasn't done anything to us!" Silviana argued.

"She's going to if you don't shoot her!" Ganondorf retorted.

The woman, evidently displeased that her offer had not been accepted, lowered her arm, her smile disappearing, and then moved back behind the stalagmite.

"I wish you people would just learn to do what I say," Ganondorf growled as the rustling sound returned, and before there was a response from the group, the woman reappeared.

Moving with remarkable speed, her body almost horizontal with the ground, she entered the magical light, a loud hissing coming from her mouth. The group started to scatter, only for the woman to suddenly stop cold in her tracks, with Ganondorf's left hand clamped around her throat and lifting her from the floor.

In the light, her true form was revealed. Below her waist, her pale skin turned into dark scales, and where one would have expected legs, she had a long tale like a snake. With her hair falling away from her face, the long fangs in her open mouth were clearly visible, dripping with venom, and above that, no eyes whatsoever, or even sockets to hold them, instead only unbroken skin.

Ganondorf lifted his sword in his other hand, ready to end it with one stroke. As he lifted the weapon to strike, the monster pointed the fingers on both her hands toward him and rammed her long claw-like nails into his armpits. Ganondorf flinched, growling through his teeth, but then the snake-tail came around, whipping under him and knocking him to the floor, his grip on her failing as she slipped back out of his reach.

Ganondorf quickly climbed to his knees as the others spread out. The snake-woman moved back some distance, showing remarkable ability to slither backwards on her snake-tail. A forked tongue darted out between her lips, then back in and darting out a second time.

"She can't see us, but she can smell like a snake, by tasting the air," Ganondorf observed, then turned to Silviana, "Will you shoot her now?"

Silviana lifted her bow up, drawing the string back and taking aim. The creature's head snapped up at the twang of the string. Suddenly she was not there, the human part of her body weaving swiftly to the side on the snake-tail, the arrow whistling past to clatter against a stalagmite in the darkness beyond. "Well, nothing's ever done that before," Silviana said.

"Get out of the way," Midna told Ganondorf, the black sparks of her Shadow Magic already leaping into life at her fingertips.

"No, that's stuff's too wild," Ganondorf said, climbing back to his feet, "You might hit a load-bearing column and bring the roof down. You just stay back."

Alex had circled wide around to the right, and now charged the creature, aiming his blade high. Again, she weaved to the side, and moved back up into him, shoulders first, lifting Alex from the floor, his sword held off to the side by one of her arms as the other snaked up, her long fingers encircling his neck.

Her mouth opened wide, and then wider, as if her jaw had become unhinged, to create a bigger opening than any human would be capable of, and he had a perfect view of her pair of three inch fangs and the drop of venom that fell from one. Then it snapped shut as his free hand struck into her chin with all the force he could put into the uppercut in this position. A sound of pain issued from the woman, shaking her head to clear it, when he brought one knee into her stomach. It didn't have as much effect as he'd hoped, so he snatched her shoulder with his free hand, dragging her into him as he brought the other knee in.

That had slightly more effect, and as she fought for her breath, Alex planted both feet flat against her and pushed away, breaking out of her grasp and landing in a roll on the floor, moving back as he rose to his feet. She moved after him, a loud hiss coming from her. Her head suddenly snapped around as she felt a foot step onto her tail.

Ralthas' roared a wordless battle cry as he leaped up off the snake-tail, toward her torso, his sword high over his head in both hands. She weaved to the side, out of his path, but did not escape entirely. Blood flew, splattering across the floor as Ralthas landed, and the monster's right arm, severed at the elbow, landed by his feet as he spun back toward it.

Clutching at the bleeding stump, the monster let out a genuinely effeminate cry of agony. Silviana leveled an arrow at her, drawing the string taut. The creature looked up at the sound of the stretching sinew, and was suddenly gone, streaking off into the dark around a large stalagmite, the suddenly reappearing around the other side, and going upward, circling around the rock column, climbing with incredible speed, going around and around.

"You don't get off that easy," Ganondorf said, and with a single step, leaped from the floor, and shot up after the monster, riding an invisible cloud of his magic, and slamming into the back of the creature's human torso, wrapping his arms under hers and lifting her away from the stalagmite.

He looked down, taking note of the distance they were already from the floor, and finding what he sought, that being a smaller stalagmite with a narrow tip. With a wordless roar of fury, he drug the creature through the air, in spite of her struggles, then shot downward.

The sharp point of the stalagmite pierced the scales of the snake tail easily, and Ganondorf dragged downward as she screamed in agony, her body ripping open and her cries suddenly cutting off as the point of the sharp rock ripped out through her throat, covered in blood and nearly severing her head.

Ganondorf swung around the creature, to her front, looking her in the face, suddenly disappointed that he was unable to watch the life fade from her eyes, but he let out a satisfied sigh at her feeble twitching.

"Gods damn," Alex said from below, where the other watched him.

"That kind of brutality was entirely unnecessary," Ralthas said, "The creature wasn't even that great a threat to us."

Ganondorf dropped from his perch, landing near them and turning to Ralthas as he stood up. "Maybe," he said, "Felt good, though."

Midna just shook her head, watching in silence, remembering all the reasons she hated the wizard. Not that she regretted the creature's death, but she agreed with Ralthas about the brutality.

"Now, let's go," Ganondorf said, "We need to find Link and Kili."

* * *

Link and Kilishandra reached the tunnel and followed it into the pulsing light, which seemed to emanate from no visible source. Emerging from the other end, they both paused at the sight beyond the narrow tunnel.

City buildings and streets lay before them, all covered with only the dim, pulsing blue light. It was a ruin, but clear in that these buildings had been grand structures at one time.

"What is this?" Kilishandra asked as they walked into the street.

"The city," Link said, "The city that sank below the surface when Darius used his magic to kill Cain in the ancient war."

"So my father was wrong," Kilishandra said, tracing the cracks in a building wall on the side of the street with one finger, "It actually did sink."

"Doesn't look like the whole thing is here," Link said as the street before them opened, "This looks like the central square."

A wide stretch of paved road, with a ruined, dry fountain in the center, likely in ancient times used as a marketplace and gathering for festivals was open before them. Near the street exit to their left, there was another shape, which remained indistinct as they approached, until they were only a few feet away.

It was made of stone, about four feet in height, though it would be taller if not for what appeared to be a large, circular cut take from its top half, and as they came closer, Link saw the unusually detailed hands on either side of the indistinct central shape.

"Oh, gods," he whispered, suddenly realizing what they were looking at, "It's Cain. Or at least, what's left of him."

"That was this ancient demon that's now living in your girlfriend's mask?" Kilishandra asked, pointing at the stone statue.

"As I understand it, he was actually a Twili, like her," Link said, moving closer to the stone form, "But he was unique. Maybe something changed him, maybe he was some kind of mutant, I don't know. But look here. This isn't a break, the gap in the top was actually cut out. This has to be where the Fused Shadow came from! They cut it from his body, and carved it into a mask! Don't touch it!" he warned as Kilishandra came closer, "If anyone but a Twili touches the Fused Shadow, bad things happen to them. I'd bet touching this would be just as bad."

"This is the thing we saw the image of back in the temple, right?" Kilishandra asked, and when Link confirmed it, she went on, "But it looked like its body, aside from the face and hands, were literally made of shadows. What could have solidified it like this?"

"It must have been something to do with the spell Darius used," Link said, "He destroyed this entire city and sank it into the earth just to kill Cain. Gods, so much destruction just to kill one person, it's unbelievable."

The streets around them were empty, and utterly silent. Every structure seemed to be covered in a feeling of despair and emptiness. And yet there was another feeling, a sensation in the air that made the skin tingle and a feeling of an icy grip on the spine.

"Cain's still in that mask," Link said, "And that means there's still something of him here."

"Now you're just being dramatic," Kilishandra said, but she couldn't deny that there was something wrong in the air, and every time she looked at that stone form, she knew it was coming from that.

"Damn it," Link growled, walking around the statue, "I don't want to just leave it here, but trying to destroy it might just make everything worse."

"Maybe we should just wait for the others," Kilishandra said, "If you're that worried about it, Father might know better than either of us what to do with this."

"Maybe," Link agreed, "Though I don't Midna anywhere near this thing. Come on, I'll be more comfortable if we sit down somewhere it can't see us."

"You mean we can't see it," Kilishandra corrected him.

"I know what I said," Link said.

The turned away from the statue, moving back into the square and turning out one of the other exits, walking the street opposite from where they entered. Out of sight of the statue, Link was able to shake off the bad feeling he had, though the sight of this empty, dead city was still fairly depressing in itself. Fortunately, at the end of the street was another tunnel opening, which led to a dead end, but one that was empty and fairly defensible if something did find them there, with a small stream of water in the corner that rose from a small crack in the bottom of the pool, and vanishing out another small opening. Probably best of all was the pulsing blue light did not reach past the opening.

Link declared the water safe to drink when Kilishandra brought the light close, revealing the small waterbugs and even some small eyeless fish swimming within, and explaining that when you had a pool of perfectly clear water with absolutely nothing within, that was when you knew there was something in it that you didn't want to drink.

It was getting late, they knew because their stomachs were demanding attention, and the folly of having Midna carry all the food in her invisible pocket dimension was clear. But with a little bit of work they had several of the fish from the pool on their knives, which Kilishandra was able to cook with a small jet of flame from her fingertip.

"You seem to know what you're doing fairly well, circumstances permitting," Kilishandra said as they ate their meager fare, "Do you get into these kinds of situations often?"

"You mean when I'm eating eyeless fish that no human being has likely ever seen before?" Link asked, "No, this is a first. If you mean surviving off what I can find, it was mainly a couple years ago when Hyrule basically became entirely hostile to human life. Then there was the desert, and the side-trip I made into the frozen heights of the mountains… Okay, I guess more often than the average person."

"Was that before or after you started running on all fours and growing hair in funny places?"

Link couldn't help it and laughed. "Okay," he said, "What is it you're trying to ask with that?"

"I've never seen magic that can do that before," Kilishandra said, "How does that transformation of yours even work?"

"I actually don't know," Link said, "The best I know, and how it was explained to me, that between my Triforce and sheer force of will, I was protected from the worst effect when darkness fell over Hyrule. Most everyone else was turned into spirits, unable to interact with the world around them. I was instead transformed into a form that represented the real me. Something about nobility and courage, combined with a kind of animal ferocity. I don't understand it all, honestly."

"What about that shifting at will, then?" Kilishandra asked.

"The crystal Midna has allows her to change me, actually," Link said, "I can't do it on my own, at least not in this world. That crystal is a concentrated, solid form of the darkness that blanketed Hyrule, and was actually forced into my skull, permanently locking me into the form of a beast. It took the Master Sword's power to safely force it back out, and Midna has kept it for our use, making a tool out of the curse. She just channels her magic through it and into me to make me change between the forms whenever we want."

"Well, that's somewhat less impressive than I expected," Kilishandra said.

"Sorry to disappoint," Link said, and dropped the bones of the last of his fish on the floor.

"Have you had enough of the water?" Kilishandra asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm going to clean the cuts on my arms," she said, "I'll probably get blood in it, unless you don't mind the taste change."

Link suddenly remembered the first fall. He felt perfectly fine now, without even a bruise remaining. He was getting too used to the rapid healing he had come upon what now seemed like ages ago. "Here, let me help with that," he said as she tried to undo the shoulder straps on her breastplate. She seemed surprised b his offer, but did not say no, and in a moment the two pieces of metal came off her and she moved to the pool of water.

With her back to him, she pulled off the padded undershirt she wore under the armor. "Wow," Link whispered at the sight of the large black and blue splotches on her skin. One was directly under the back of her breast-strap, and likely hurt just by breathing, and the others certainly had to hurt with almost any other movement. Armor or not, rolling down those rocks had taken their toll.

The shine of her skin before she even reached the water made him realize that she was also soaked in sweat. They hadn't had that kind of exertions since the run from the killer plants. Link stood up and moved up behind her as she leaned down to the water, dipping one arm as she rubbed at the cuts with her other hand, peeling away the scabs that were drying on in order to clean the cuts out as best she could. Link pulled off the glove on his right hand and laid his palm on her shoulder by her neck.

Kilishandra's head jerked up. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

"You're not running a fever," Link said, taking his hand away, "Sorry, I was worried when I saw how sweaty you are."

"It's not a fever," Kilishandra growled through her teeth, "I'll be fine so long as I keep myself occupied."

Link didn't comment, though he believed he had a good understanding now why her behavior had been so odd since they went underground. He moved away, sitting down where he could see out the entrance of their cave, and a bit of the ruin street beyond. He had no idea how far they were from the others, but he knew if they didn't show up quickly, he and Kilishandra would not be able to stay here. They'd already exhausted the eyeless fish in the water pool, and unless more came swimming up through the crack in the bottom, they'd have to find something elsewhere.

Now he found himself wishing those giant bats would turn up again.

Kilishandra finished at the pool, and Link could hear her bare feet on the stone floor. He glanced up at her, almost casually, seeing her dressed again in the padded shirt and trousers as she moved toward him.

"Now let me see if I remember this…" she said, moving past him toward the entrance to the small cave.

Link cautiously looked up. With a few hand gestures and words, Kilishandra enacted a spell, and the entrance to the cave vanished. "What the hell?" he said, climbing to his feet.

"Illusion magic," Kilishandra said as Link moved to the solid rock wall where the door used to be, "Not very strong, but it'll last at least eighteen hours unless I take it down sooner. We can both sleep safely."

"This is solid rock!" Link said, touching the wall where the opening used to be.

"That's part of the illusion," Kilishandra said, "It would hardly be a good illusion if you could walk right through it, would it? But knowing my father, he'll spot it in an instant if they manage to find their way down here."

It sealed the pulsing light outside, making the small cave seem much more still. Kilishandra moved to where she had deposited her armor, sitting down and leaning her sword against the wall within reach before leaning back against the rock.

Link undid his baldric and leaned his own weapon against the wall, and shucked his green tunic. "Here," he said, "It's not very clean, but you can wad it up for a pillow and maybe get some sleep."

He tossed it to her, and she snatched it from the air, looking down at it for a moment before looking back to him. "What about you?" she asked, "All you'll have left is that padded undershirt. You shouldn't sleep on a stone floor with bare skin, if you're going to use it."

"I think I'll just sit up and keep watch for a while," Link said.

"There's no need, but suit yourself," Kilishandra said, wadding the tunic into a fall, and setting it on the floor behind her as a makeshift pillow.

Link stayed where he was, watching the wall where he knew the entrance was, glancing over at her every few minutes. He guessed it was the better part of an hour before she finally managed to sleep. She was still in a cold sweat, and when he saw her shiver, moved silently over to her, gently laying one hand on the back of her neck, checking her temperature. No, she wasn't too cold now.

He was certain now. She had a claustrophobia so great, it was tormenting her even now in her sleep, this place likely giving her nightmares. He moved his sword, laying it quietly against the wall so it would be within reach, and sat down next to her.

He had noticed odd behavior from her before, but he'd never thought it through to this point. It seemed like a complete contradiction, for such a powerful woman to have such a fear. Yet it didn't stop her, even now, as she went through this without complaint other than the sweating and a bit of temper flares, as when she had snapped at him when he asked what was wrong.

The fact she fought through it and kept in control showed an amazing strength in itself, Link realized. Everything he'd heard about claustrophobics said they tended to fall to pieces if they had to go underground, or even in a room with no windows. The worst Kilishandra was showing was how she moved closer to him in the narrow spaces, as if she was leaning on his strength to keep herself going.

"Just don't run off and leave me, okay?" she had asked him earlier. Such a simple request, with far more implication than he had originally realized.

"You're an amazing woman," he whispered, "And I will not leave you alone down here. I promise."


	113. Chapter 112

Stupid Skyrim. Stop eating all my free time! Seriously, this is the fifth time!

Well, I came up for air long enough to write this one. I was expecting this to take longer to get to where it was going, and when it didn't, I was going to go a bit further down my event list, but decided to keep to the subject in the title for the chapter. Besides, some folks were getting tired of the stuff with Kilishandra, so I'll give them a break and it'll be 113 that I get to the key moment I've been building up to with her character for a good while now. No, she's not taking over the story, but it's hard to get to her big moments without her becoming the center of attention for a while. A character like Alex on the other hand... Well, I'd best not even hint about anything surrounding that just yet.

**Chapter 112: The Ghost**

"Look, we're going to need to stop soon, whether we've found them or not," Ralthas said, moving up next to Ganondorf.

"If you can't manage at least forty-eight hours without sleep, you're just a hindrance to this kind of work," Ganondorf muttered.

"I could go four days at my best, but that was a long time ago," Ralthas said.

"Do any of you three need to stop?" Ganondorf asked.

Alex, Silviana, and Midna all said they could keep going for a while.

"So you just have to keep up," Ganondorf said to Ralthas, "Besides, we're getting close. They haven't moved for the past few hours."

They had been moving through the tunnels so long, they had all lost track of time, relying on Ganondorf's sense of Link's location, and Midna's eyes to keep a lookout in the dark for danger. She was leading the group, silently taking Ganondorf's directions every time they came to an open chamber or a branch in the tunnels.

It wasn't his remark that they were close that suddenly caught her attention, however. Weary as she was growing from the walk, something perked her energy, causing her to look up. A strange but not unpleasant tingling sensation in the air. Behind her, the others did not see the brief flash of green light in her eyes, which vanished as soon as it appeared, and she began walking faster.

* * *

Kilishandra woke to Link shaking her shoulder. "Get up," he said as she rolled to look up at him, "We need to go."

She lifted herself up on her elbows, blinking the sleep from her eyes when she saw it. The illusionary wall she had placed was rippling and distorting, and being pierced by a strong green light. Something outside this small cave room had changed since their entry.

"How long was I asleep?" she asked as she reached for her boots.

"Three, maybe four hours," Link said, picking up his tunic, unfolding it and quickly slipping it on over his head, over his chain shirt, "Hard to tell in here."

"That isn't magic Father would use," Kilishandra said, watching the distorting illusion as she pulled her boots on.

"I'd know if it were him," Link said, "I can't exactly track him through it, but my Triforce grows hot when Ganondorf is nearby. There's something else out there, and it's trying to get in."

Kilishandra snatched up her greaves, snapping the plates around her thigh and aligning the joints so she could close the plates below her knee. Link was on his feet, pulling his sword up so the hilt was over his left shoulder and buckling the baldric across his chest. "Help me with my breastplate," Kilishandra said, and in a moment they had the front and back plates joined, and Link pulled the straps tight at her shoulders as she adjusted the belts above her hips and joined them to the pelvis pieces.

The illusion failed as she stood while pulling her swordbelt into place, causing them to both turn as the sound of breaking glass filled the room. As if it were glass, shards of illusionary rock fell, cascading to the floor in thousands of pieces that each turned into a brief flash of blue flame before vanishing entirely.

The former pulsing blue light of the city beyond was gone, or completely drowned by the powerful green aura that now flooded into the chamber. Link's sword flashed from its sheath as he faced the entrance. The sound of the shattered illusion gone, dense silence filled the room, making his ears ring as he strained to hear what might lay beyond that passage in wait for them.

He motioned to Kilishandra to be silent. A faint whisper hissed across his ears. Something said, but he couldn't understand it, but it was so close it felt as though it was in the room with them. A shadow flitted over the entrance, blocking the green light for an instant.

"No remains…" came a hissing whisper, louder this time, and Link and Kilishandra were able to make out the words, "…nothing left…"

Another shadow flitted over the tunnel, vanishing over the top, and shortly later another that appeared at the top and vanished near the ground. The hairs on the back of Link's neck were standing up and he could feel his palms sweating.

"No remains…" came the whisper again, causing Link to turn his head. It had sounded like it was directly behind him. "…nothing left…" came the answer, from the other direction, causing him to turn back toward the entrance, just in time to see a shadow cross the light, and enter the chamber.

It appeared in an instant and it was upon him. Link let out a shout of shock as the figure crossed the chamber with inhuman speed and icy hands snatched hold of his wrists. He found himself staring into a distorted face of a woman, her features gaunt, with visible cracks running through her skin, pieces of dry skin flaking away before his eyes. Two empty, black eye sockets staring into him through greasy, scraggly hair, sending an icy chill down his spine as she regarded him with what was, in a way, an oddly curious expression.

He heard the whistle of a blade as Kilishandra stepped around him, bringing her weapon down on the woman's neck from behind. Instantly, the figure was gone, vanishing in trails of smoke that quickly dispersed into the air. Link realized he had been holding his breath, and let it out quickly, noticing the mist his breath caused in the air. The temperature had dropped rapidly, and yet colder still was the lingering chill in his wrists where the woman had grabbed him.

"What the hell was that?" Kilishandra asked, turning her head to check the corners of the room, not sure if it was gone.

"I don't know," Link said, realizing the chill in his wrists was contrasted by an incredible heat in his left hand. He realized the instant the woman had appeared, the Triforce of Courage had started burning like fire. It wasn't the same kind of warning as when Ganondorf was near, but something else entirely.

"No remains…nothing left…" came the hissing whispers again, as more shadows flitted over the entrance of the chamber, and another whisper added "…to kingdom come…"

"We need to get out of here!" Kilishandra said.

"Run!" Link said, "Just go!"

They moved for the tunnel, dashing into the light. Link felt icy hands snatch at him but slip off his clothes as he passed through the tunnel mouth, with Kilishandra right behind him. He came to a sudden stop at what lay in front of him.

What had been the street of the lost city was gone. The buildings remained, but between them was a sheer drop of a hundred feet or better, brightly lit by the glowing hot magma far below. "You can't be serious!" Link said to himself at the sight.

Platforms of stone spun through the air around what had been the square ahead, and the fountain remained, on a tall column of stone descending all the way to the molten rock below. From the fountain spilled liquid fire, rolling and bubbling along its surfaces in a dazzling display.

"Okay, I'm dreaming," Kilishandra said, "I have to be. I'm in a tiny gods damned cave, and it's giving me a nightmare that I'm in Hell…"

"If you're dreaming, wake the hell up, because I don't like this one bit," Link said, raising his gaze to see shadows flying across the walls of the buildings around them, cursing and looking for some passage off this ledge.

"Do you have a plan?" Kilishandra asked, trying to follow where his gaze was aimed.

"Not really," Link said, watching on of the spinning platforms move through the air. Sure enough, there was a pattern, and it was coming closer to them, "Okay, first move, jump on that as it comes close."

"And then?"

"Haven't got that far yet," Link said, "Get ready!"

"Hang on, this is-" Kilishandra started.

Rotting, icy hands reached out from the shadows toward them. "Don't think, just do it!" Link shouted, snatching her wrist and dragging her with him as he took two steps and leaped. The sudden movement caught her off guard, and she nearly stumbled, and then saw the edge of the ledge. She leaped, and as soon as her feet left the ground, she swore. It was a swear that turned into a scream, dragging out endlessly as she plummeted through the air, with nothing to hold onto, cut off as she slammed down on stone, landing on her knees and elbows, and found herself gasping for breath as she felt the hard stone under her.

Kilishandra looked up to see Link already on his feet, scanning their surroundings again. She slowly climbed up, and realized they weren't on solid ground, but on the thin piece of stone that was hurtling through the air above a hundred foot drop into molten rock.

She rose to one knee as Link climbed to his own feet. She snatched his sleeve, ready to practically shriek what she'd do if he ever did that again, when the chant was heard again. "No remains…nothing left…"

The spinning platform made it difficult to keep any sense of direction, but Kilishandra saw on the ledge they had just fled, a group of the phantasms, broken images men and women, crowding toward the edge, and those in the front stepped into the air above the chasm, floating toward them.

"Come on, don't get lost here, I need your help," Link said, pulling her to her feet as he sheathed his sword.

Kilishandra blinked, his voice bringing her back from her fascination as he pulled her up on her feet. "What do you need?" she asked.

"Do you see the door on the side of the building there?" Link said, indicating an entry to one of the ruined buildings, above the sheer drop ahead of them, "I need you to blow it open!"

"I can do that," Kilishandra said, turning to face the side of the rotating platform and making a note of the door's location as she sheathed her own sword. Twice she let it spin past, to allow the platform to go closer, as well as let her get a grasp of the timing. On the third pass, she thrust her hand toward it, and with a shout of "_Daem_!" sent a shower of splinters of stone flying into the air.

The dust hadn't even settled when Link shouted at her, "Okay, go!"

Again they leaped into the abyss, this time crashing down on the foyer floor amidst the splinters and rubble. Link landed smoothly on his feet and snatched Kilishandra's wrist as she fell, catching her and dragging her up. "Come on, let's find a way out of this nightmare," he said, moving ahead into the hallway before them.

Kilishandra paused to glance back at the ruined doorway, not really believing what they had just done. Instantly it was upon her. Icy blue hands snatched her wrist as the phantasm shot from the wall, bringing his face close to hers, locking eyes with her, surrounded by a gaunt, starved face. Empty black sockets, like bottomless voids, threatening to swallow her. His hands on her bare skin were like ice, the cold searing into her flesh, and she could not break the grip.

He only had one wrist, and her other hand acted on pure reflex, snatching her sword from its sheath, and the same stroke that drew the weapon sent it through the phantasm's body. The figure dissipated in smoke, fading from view, leaving only a whisper, directly in her ear, "To kingdom come…"

She turned to follow Link. He had turned back for her, but had only reached his own sword when she struck the phantasm down, and now motioned for her to follow as he moved into the building. Old beyond the years the two of them knew how to count, much of the insides had collapsed long ago.

The hallway was blocked by a mass of rubble, but through a door to the left was an open room. The ceiling was half-collapsed, the floor above spilling into the chamber, and Link started climbing to the floor above. At the top he turned, offering one hand to help pull Kilishandra the rest of the way, and he saw more of the phantasms spilling through the doorway behind them as others materialized through the walls like blue smoke.

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Kilishandra asked once she was on the upper floor with him.

"I think anywhere that isn't here is a good goal for the moment," Link said, turning and starting for the door on his right.

They passed through the second floor hall and into the room beyond. Link spotted another passage at the back of the chamber, making his way toward it, pausing when something caught his eye as he passed one of the open windows over the square.

Past the fountain spewing fire that rolled like water, a light was visible on a single solid platform of the street, on a towering column of stone descending into the molten rock far below. A bright green light on the platform outlined the dark shape of the stone corpse of the monster known as Cain.

"It can't be," he said.

Kilishandra moved to where she could see. "Some kind of reaction," she said, "The monster in Midna's mask, that's the rest of his body, right?"

"That's right," Link said, and slammed his fist against the windowsill in frustration, "Should have smashed it while I had the chance."

Kilishandra glanced back at the figures moving up behind them. They had not ascended to this floor yet. She was silently mulling over what could be causing that kind of reaction. Maybe, as powerful as Cain was supposed to be, Walpurgis Night's approach was causing the reaction, but bringing back the dead was beyond even that amazing night as far as she knew. Unless it was something else…

"Proximity!" she said, as it suddenly clicked together in her head, "The mask, the Fused Shadow! It's too close to the body, and it's causing some kind of reaction!"

"I'll be damned," Link whispered, his anger fading as it made sense suddenly. It was like with the pieces of the Triforce. His hand burned when he was in close proximity to Ganondorf, and while not the same kind of searing, it did give off a feeling of warmth when in Zelda's presence. When all three of them together, it pulsed constantly. It was as if the three pieces wanted to be reunited, to become one again. "The body is reacting to the mask because it wants to be rejoined!" Link declared his realization, "But if Cain was never actually dead, would that mean…"

A sudden chill shot down Link's spine. This was it. This was the reason for Cain's efforts to break Midna in her dreams, and the nightmare he had experienced himself trying to help her. To bring the mask back here, to the rest of his body, but what then? What about Cain declaring he would destroy Midna's mind, taking her body for himself? Maybe there was more to it. Maybe being divided also divided Cain's strength, in which case Link had no desire to see the two pieces reunited.

"We can't stare at it all day!" Kilishandra shouted at him, causing him to turn and see the blue hands of the phantasms crawling up over the collapse in the floor toward them.

"No remains…" hissed a whisper close to Link's ear, in a different voice than before, much stronger and lower in pitch, "Nothing left!"

Icy hands suddenly shot up from the floor, snatching each of them by the ankle. Link and Kilishandra looked down in time to see the face that lifted up from the floor, completely different from the others. The pale transparent face with a sinister grin, and eyes, while black as coal, were not empty and soulless as the others were, but filled with wicked amusement and intent.

Link's blood turned to ice in an instant. "Not you…" he whispered, as images flashed through his mind, remembering his own body melting before his eyes, and being ripped in half but still alive, and smashed into horrific shapes, the pain as vivid as if it were real, and though he had known it was a dream, try as he might, he could not wake up.

For the first time in his life, Link found himself unable to move or even think, as if his arms and legs were rooted in place and his mind going completely blank except for the utter fear shooting through him, his eyes locked on the black lumps of coal that were Cain's own eyes, and seeing in them a sinister menace that made even Shaklator and Ganondorf pale in comparison. Kilishandra went for her sword, but scarcely had her hand on the hilt when the floor beneath them gave way.

It wasn't a drop of a single story. Before Link and Kilishandra's eyes, the floor below crumbled away, opening into blackness below, and they were left with Cain's laughter echoing in their ears as they passed through the building's foundation into open air. The icy grip released on them, and they were free-falling toward the glowing red magma below.

Kilishandra's scream pieced through the laughter echoing in Link's ears, like a rooster crow at dawn would awaken him from sleep, it brought him back to reality. The gears in his mind started clicking again and he quickly shifted his gaze from the magma below that was rapidly growing uncomfortably close, searching for something, anything, to get them out of this situation.

He realized how close he was to a rock wall that was rapidly moving next to him, and though how lucky he was that he hadn't bounced off it yet, and then spotted his one chance in a small ledge projecting slightly further out from the wall. He snatched Kilishandra's wrist in his left hand and felt her fingers snap shut around his own, and roared as he wrapped his right arm over the ledge, grabbing for any purchase he could get.

The unevenness of the ledge saved them, as he got his arm into a deeper groove and around a small rise, like a pole, and snapped them to a sudden stop. Link groaned pain through his teeth, his left arm feeling like Kilishandra, hanging beneath him, had nearly pulled it out of its socket.

"Oh gods," Kilishandra whispered, and then said it again, "Oh, gods…"

She repeated it several more times before finally looking up from where her eyes had been rooted on the magma below. Link tried to lift her, and growled loudly through gritted teeth against the pain, which increased in magnitude. "Kili…" he started, cut off as he groaned again, shaking his head to clear the pain, then tried again, "You've got to climb up. My arm's dislocated. I can't lift you."

Kilishandra lifted her other hand, trying to find a purchase, but hanging from her right hand from his left put her in an awkward postion. "I can't reach anything but your arm," she said, "This is going to hurt."

"Just do it before I lose my grip entirely!" Link said.

She grabbed his arm by the elbow with her left hand, managing to hold on long enough to get her right arm on his shoulder, and then the left when onto the stone ledge, which fortunately provided enough purchase to pull herself up, and she quickly turned to grab Link under his arms and pull him up behind her. There was a surprising amount of space, as the small ledge was the opening into a larger tunnel.

"Looks like it's your turn," Kilishandra said, moving around his left side as he sat up on the floor. When he nodded, she took hold of his arm, and with a loud snap, popped his shoulder back into place. Link growled through his teeth before laying back against the rock wall, gasping for breath.

Kilishandra sat down across from him, trying to catch her own breath, and her heart beating against her ribs as if it had had enough and wanted out. She was drenched in a cold sweat, and Link was as well, and they sat there for several minutes, the only sound in the tunnel that of their own breathing. Link's arms felt like they were leather that had been stretched too much, too far, but the pain was already beginning to fade. He wondered if, even with this rapid healing similar to Ganondorf's, if he would ever reach the wizard's inhuman pain threshold.

"I think we're safe," Kilishandra said at last, "I don't think it can reach this far down."

"I think, when we get out of here, you should get your dad to teach you that flying trick," Link said.

"Way ahead of you," Kilishandra said, glancing back at the opening, the only visible light a dim red glow from the magma below, "So, that thing that grabbed us. That was Cain, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Link said, "I think he's a still little mad after our last encounter."

"Do you just piss off every killer monster you encounter?" Kilishandra asked, thinking about some of the stories he'd told the group to pass time at camp, of the monsters he'd fought and slain before.

Link started to reply, then stopped himself, and then stopped to count something on his fingers as he looked toward the tunnel ceiling as he thought. "Pretty much, yeah," he said, looking back at her with a grin.

Kilishandra started to give him an angry retort, but stopped when his smile vanished and his eyes turned from her as his thoughts shifted. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"I froze," Link said.

"What?"

"When that thing grabbed us, and I saw what it was, I just couldn't move," Link said, "I froze. That's never happened. Not once in my life. I don't even know what that means."

"Everyone has moments like that," Kilishandra said.

"Not me," Link said, "I've never been rooted to the spot before. I charged after the moblins that kidnapped the village children, alone and unarmed. Stupid, sure, but I didn't hesitate. Nothing I encountered gave me pause. Not the fifty foot leviathan, not the giant undead skeleton, not even your father, the most feared man in my homeland for the past four thousand years. But that thing, Cain…"

The memories of the nightmare floated to the surface again, as vivid as the moment they happened. Link lifted one hand to his chest, where for a moment, he thought he could feel the pain of the center bone of his ribcage being ripped in half again.

He suddenly rose to his feet. "Come on, we need to find a way back up there," he said.

"You want to go back to that mess?" Kilishandra asked. "Are you crazy?"

"We can't leave it there," Link said, "I'm going to find a way back up, and smash that statue to gravel."

There was no way back up the ravine they had dropped into, so they had no choice but to follow the tunnel and hope it led to a way back up.

* * *

The phantasms descending on the group suddenly, as the tunnel opened up into a wider area. Weapons were drawn, on of the ghosts lunging through the group faster than their eyes could follow, snatching hold of Silviana's wrists and pulling her arms out to the side, where her blades were useless, leaning its face close to hers with the empty sockets, only to be struck down a second later by Alex's blade.

More of the spirits were coming out of the walls as the group moved quickly into the open area, the remains of a ruined street between ancient buildings. No time to wonder what kind of place it was as the ancient ghosts swarmed them. Ganondorf's sword flashed through the air, striking at least one with every stroke, where they dissipated into smoke, as did the others, but it seemed to do nothing to reduce their numbers.

Midna continued walking toward the sudden drop ahead, the spirits passing by her without paying her any attention, moving after the others. Ganondorf shouted at her to turn back, but she paid him no heed. "Something has her," he said to Ralthas, the judge finding himself back to back with the wizard.

"If she keeps going, she'll fall off the ledge!" Ralthas said, then cut down two more of the ghosts.

Alex moved to chase Midna down, and one of the ghosts wrapped its arms around his neck from behind, and he gasped as the sudden icy chill passed swiftly through his clothing, like needles of ice stabbing into his chest. There was a whistle as Silviana's blade struck through the spirit and it vanished, releasing its grip on him.

"Don't touch her!" Ganondorf shouted at them as they charged after Midna, and when they paused to glance back at him, added, "She'll tear you apart. Look closely at her."

A crackle of green light passed over Midna's body as she walked, like a magic spark would dance across metal. The same green light had appeared in her eyes and was growing brighter.

Then she stepped off the edge of the ledge, over the sudden and steep drop.

Stones appeared under her foot. For the first time Alex and Silviana saw the chaos of the chamber they were in. Buildings surrounded a massive open area, like the central square of a city. A single floating ledge in the center held a fountain that spilled fire from its top that rained down its bowls like water, and all around it slabs of stone flew through the air, spinning around the chamber, and now several were drawn to Midna, and each step she took formed more of a path under her feet.

"I've had enough of this!" Ganondorf growled as he struck down yet another phantasm and shouted at the other three, "All of you get down!"

He crossed his arms in front of his face, the golden triangle on his hand flashing brightly as gold sparks danced on his right hand. They barely had time to dive to the stone floor when he thrust his arms to either side and a flash of light erupted from his body, washing over their surroundings. Ralthas could feel the blast of heat that passed over his back, as all the ghosts swarming them evaporated in an instant. As the heat and light died away, more began to crawl from the walls around them, but Ganondorf had bought them a precious few seconds.

"No remains… nothing left…" came hissing whispers from all around them.

"You three stay here," Ganondorf said, "Keep yourselves alive. Whatever has a hold on our Twili friend is the cause of this mess. I'll deal with it."

Before they could protest, he was running, and in three steps at the edge of the ledge and leaped over the drop. With a deliberate effort, he used his Triforce again, this time surrounding himself with its energy and using it to hold him aloft, allowing him to fly after Midna, who was still moving toward what he was certain was the source of this chaos.

It took focus to keep himself from flying off and smashing into a wall. The effort of flight was more difficult in enclosed spaces, and would divide his attention more than he liked, but fortunately, the source was obvious once he caught up to Midna near the mountain of fire.

A single ledge, in the street to the left, remained, on a massive column of stone that descended all the way down to the glowing molten rock below. A stone statue, surrounded by the same green light that sparked across Midna's body and burned in her eyes.

The fragments of the Fused Shadow appeared near her head, as if leaping from her head, spreading out and spinning around her body in a circle, each glowing with the same green light.

As much as Ganondorf would have liked to analyze the situation and find what was actually happening, he knew that statue had to go, and fast. The three behind him had taken a postion in a circle, fighting off the ghosts that were once again pressing in on them. He quickly flew past Midna, toward the statue atop the column of stone.

A brighter flash of light from the statue, and Ganondorf reflexively stopped, thrusting up a barrier of energy, only to then dodge to the side as the black lightning that followed the flash seared through his barrier like paper. Pure reflex and instinct had probably just saved his life. He had no real defense against the Twili Shadow Magic.

No time for a more complicated casting, he would just have to hope the Wizard's Fist would be enough as he sheathed his sword and focused his effort, drawing energy together, sparks of electricity dancing around his right hand, closed into a fist and cocked back as he descended toward the statue.

From the green light emerged another blue form, a formless creature with a face and hands from dark shadow, a phantasm of an inhuman monster, which flew up toward him, face contorted in fury, grinding its teeth and eyes twisted into slants of rage.

"So you're Cain…" Ganondorf said.

* * *

_Eight thousand years ago…_

"This is your last chance, Cain!" Darius shouted over the growing shouts around him.

He had stolen into the city high in the mountains, impossible to siege because of the narrow passes, for one reason and one reason only: To murder the Twili mutant that called itself Cain. There was no one else capable of killing the beast, Darius was certain, but the cost was going to be astronomical.

Now, in the city square, the guard pouring in around him with his presence revealed, and about twenty feet across from him, the beast stood in person before him, in the sunlight, an action that would kill any other Twili in seconds.

But Darius knew Cain was in constant pain, even if it would not kill him, and from that knew what it would take to slay the beast whose flesh was like a living shadow, that allowed arrows, blades, and magic to pass through without doing harm. The terrible truth, however, was that the necessary act to kill Cain would also kill everything else in this city except for himself, at the epicenter of the spell, the one safe place in the coming storm.

Sparks of energy crackled across Darius' body, the telltale signs of the effort of holding onto the delayed spell, the eventual discharge of which grew stronger with every passing second he denied it release.

"My last chance?" Cain said, smiling, like the ghost of a nightmare whose words came though he did not appear to speak, "You would not have come here alone if you were not desperate. You're losing this war. Maybe you should have listened to me when you had the chance."

"I was doing everything I could for your people, Cain," Darius said, "It was your impatience and ingratitude for my efforts that brought us here!"

"That's irrelevant now," Cain said, "There's no escape for you. Why don't you just cancel that spell you're holding onto and surrender. Then I can at least promise you a quick execution."

"No, Cain," Darius said, "As much as Tharkus likes to think he's their leader, you are the rock the rebels cling to. I kill you, and I change the course of this war in an instant."

"Kill me? You're going senile, wizard," Cain said, "No weapon or spell you possess can harm me, let alone kill me!"

"That's why I've got a new one, just for you, demon," Darius said, allowing himself a smile. He couldn't hold it back any longer anyway, and let the energy flow out, and cried the name of the most destructive spell the world had yet to see. "_Harrowing!_" It was a long and dreadful cry, and what followed was even worse that Darius had ever imagined.

Light spilled from the wizard's body, not in the form it had ever been seen before. Like bright, glowing water, the liquid light spilled across the streets, rapidly flooding outward from his position, and in a heartbeat had risen as high as the rooftops. Screams from the guards and civilians around them were cut off in an instant as their flesh turned to ash instantly, to vanish as it completely vaporized, their skeletons hanging in the air and turning black, then crumbling away in ash themselves before they could actually fall.

The light flooding out through the city, filling every alley, every corner, and there was nowhere to hide. Tens of thousands of lives were cut short in an instant, all for the sake of ending the life of the monster called Cain.

Cain's own reaction was far and away different from the others around them, at first a sneer of disdain, turning to an expression of shock and disbelief before contorting in pain as the liquid light seared his body of shadow. The black, formless shape of his body twisted and contorted in his pain. He lifted his face to Darius, the pained expression turning to utter hate and rage, and he finally cried out in his pain, a scream that rose above even the blasting noise of the magic.

Then in a flash, it was over, the searing light vanished, along with the loud ringing of its presence. Darius looked up, whispering his disbelief as rock walls were rising around the buildings, still standing even now. The light had not turned the city molten, but it was sinking, riding almost smoothly on what was undoubtedly a river of molten rock beneath its foundations, sinking into the earth swiftly.

Where Cain had stood, he had left a corpse, the only one in the city to do so. A statue of stone, face contorted in agony, mouth open in the scream of pain that still echoed through the air.

The deaths of the rest of the people of the city, however, weighed heavily on Darius' mind, however.

"I hope this was the right thing to do," he whispered to himself.

* * *

"I hope this is the right thing to do," Ganondorf growled, and thrust his fist forward, his punch passing directly through the ghost of Cain and striking into the stone figure through the green light surrounding it.

The explosion of power blinded him, sparks flying every direction, a white light exploding from the point of impact.

And then in an instant, it was over. Gravel scattered across the stone street, and as Ganondorf looked up, the area had transformed, and become much more of what one typically expected of a ruin. The street was intact, and what had been a hundred foot or better drop into magma was simply gone. Nothing issued forth from the fountain in the center of the square.

"No remains, there's nothing left. It's all blown to Kingdom Come…" whispered a soft voice on the wind before fading away.

The light in Midna's eyes had flicked and vanished, and she collapsed to the floor, the pieces of the Fused Shadow dropping to the rock with a clatter. Ganondorf moved over to her, checking to find she was still breathing, though she had lost consciousness.

He looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps to see Ralthas, Alex, and Silviana moving toward them.

"What was that?" Ralthas asked.

"An angry ghost, from ages long past," Ganondorf said, "Its residual energy bound the spirits of countless others in this place. Their nightmare became reality here. With more time, I probably could have determined exactly why, but on a guess I'd say it has to do with the increasing mana across the world as Walpurgis Night draws near. Destroying the source of the energy that bound the spirits erased the nightmare they had created."

"Is this the city you were talking about earlier?" Alex asked Ralthas, "The one that sank into the earth?"

"I think so," the judge said, "Lives beyond counting were lost on that day. I believe those were the spirits attacking us."

"Is she all right?" Silviana asked, crouching down next to Ganondorf and Midna.

"I think she'll be fine," Ganondorf said, "I think whatever spirit it was had managed to get a grip on her, somehow…" He trailed off, though glanced for an instant at the pieces of the Fused Shadow laying around them. "All right, let's stop and rest for a while," he said, changing the subject, "Link and Kili have moved again, and are quite a ways beneath us now."

"Gods, you'd think they could sit still for just a little while," Alex muttered.

The group made themselves comfortable, though with Midna unconscious, could not recover their bedrolls and food from her, and resigned themselves to wait until she awoke to eat.

"Are you two all right?" Ralthas asked, sitting down on the edge of the dry fountain near Alex and Silviana.

"Still feel cold where that thing grabbed me, but it's going away," Alex said.

"Same for me," Silviana said, taking off her gloves and rubbing her wrists to try to restore some warmth to them.

"What about you?" Alex asked, "That bad knee of yours all right?"

"Sore, and going to be stiff in the morning, but I've survived worse," Ralthas said, and turned to Ganondorf, who had picked up Midna in his arms, and moved her to where he could lean her against the side of the fountain.

Alex moved closer to Silviana. "Thanks," he said in a low voice, "That is, for getting that thing off my back when it grabbed me."

"You did the same for me," Silviana said, giving him a smile.

"So, even though I screwed things up," he paused and offered her his hand, "Friends?"

"I never said we weren't," Silviana said, casually smacking his open hand with the back of hers.

"No, you just said you couldn't trust me," Alex muttered under his breath as he turned back to where Ganondorf had taken Ralthas' offered cloak, wadded it up and used it as a pillow for Midna.

"Awful lot of care for the guy who tries to act so grim and menacing all the time," Silviana commented.

"I think he's more worried that Link would kill him if she had so much as a bruise," Alex replied.

Ganondorf looked up at them and grunted derisively before rising to his feet and moving away. Maybe just to move, maybe to try to save his image.

Even Ganondorf did not see it, as small traces of a black substance began to appear from the gravel remains of the stone statue, pooling together and growing slightly larger. Barely an inch across when it had all gathered together, the small black blob moved slowly over the stone, past their feet, and into the shadow Midna cast from Ganondorf's globe of light, where she lay.

It silently vanished into her shadow, becoming completely invisible to any and all who might have looked.


	114. Chapter 113

I can't be the only one tired of the underground sub-plot. Next chapter will get things moving again. I dare estimate we're between 8 and 15 chapters from the end at this point.

**Chapter 113: Closed In**

Link suddenly came to a stop, gabbing his left hand in his right and hissing through his teeth at the searing pain. The Triforce on his hand pulsed brightly, flooding the tunnel with light for an instant, causing Link and Kilishandra both to narrow their eyes against the sudden blinding flash, and then vanishing just as quickly, taking the searing pain with it. Link flexed his fingers, staring at his hand as he wondered what that could possibly have been.

"What was that?" Kilishandra asked.

"I wish I knew," he replied.

His eyes were readjusting to the low light again. The searing pain was familiar to him. It was a warning. The same kind of warning as when Ganondorf was near, but much stronger and much more urgent. He had thought of the pain when Ganondorf was nearby as a reminder that he could never completely trust the wizard, but this was something else entirely.

"Something happened," Link said, "Something happened to Ganondorf, or he did something. That's the only thing that could have set it off like that."

"I wish I knew what was happening with them," Kilishandra said as Link started walking again.

The tunnel was beginning to widen at last. Link wasn't sure exactly how far they had walked from the mouth that opened directly into the canyon with molten rock, and he had no idea what time of day it was. Not being able to see the sun had that effect after a day or so.

"I don't think this is going to lead us back up anytime soon," Link said, sighing with his own frustration at not being able to get back up to deal with the statue, "But I'm tired of stabbing in the dark here. We need to find some way of locating the others soon…"

He trailed off, thinking as he spoke. He remembered Zelda locating Ganondorf with her Triforce at one point. That had been the main reason they went straight to Darimar, looking for him. He silently wondered if he could do the same. His use of the Triforce was still almost entirely by instinct, pure reaction at desperate moments. He could focus and do small things, but he couldn't create new objects or actions like Ganondorf could. He had seen Ganondorf's golden lightning, so much more destructive than lightning magic wielded by Sheila, and he had also see the Triforce on the wizard's hand flare to life during more powerful spells he cast, as if increasing their destructive force even further. In contrast, Link's ability to make dust dance and lift bricks without touching them seemed like child's tricks, not to mention Ganondorf could perform his actions seemingly instantly and with little to no effort, while Link required intense concentration and focus.

The way he had reconstructed Midna's body from the ash after she had been cremated, he doubted he could do it again. The same as when he fought Khall, creating a massive shield of ice from what was on the floor to stop the needles of ice that would have perforated him with thousands of holes. It had been an instant action of pure instinct, and he had no idea how he had actually done it.

The one constant he seemed able to count on was the incredibly rapid healing he had come to possess since his encounter with Shaklator in the Void. It wasn't becoming any less tiring, even from small injuries, however. He was already tired after their fall, though the bruises and soreness of his dislocated arm were already gone. He reminded himself that Ganondorf had a four thousand year head-start on him in terms of building stamina, and wondered how long the wizard would actually last if he was constantly recovering from injuries that would be life-threatening to normal people.

He came to a stop as a new shape materialized at the furthest range of his vision. "Oh no," he whispered.

* * *

"Oh no," Zelda muttered as she stepped onto the deck.

She no sailor, but she was able to identify what was wrong immediately. The sails hung slack against the ropes, pulled tight enough they wouldn't tangle, and the majority of the sailing crew was spread across the deck, most chatting about nothing, and groups here and their lounged against the masts or railing, and other entertained themselves with games of cards or dice. She heard none of the singing she had come to expect when on the deck, and the quiet made her ears ring.

There was no wind. She licked the tip of her finger and held it aloft, a trick she remembered seeing used. Nothing, not even a slight breeze. The air was dead still.

"Not now," she muttered, "We were almost there. Just one more week…"

Of course, that was just the estimate the navigator had given her, and he had said, "If the wind holds."

She regretted sleeping so long today. The monotony had taken its toll on her, and she had spent most of the day in bed, with nothing else to do. "Sledge!" she called, starting toward the unmistakable bulk of the enormous sahaugin, where he sat, taking part in one of the games of cards.

He looked up as she approached. "Princess," he greeted her, but his eyes drifted back to his hand. How he manipulated the cards with fingers that were larger than the cards themselves, she had no idea. "Something wrong?"

"How long has the wind been dead?" she asked.

"Going on about four hours now," Sledge said.

Zelda remembered the calming spell she had used before departing Hyrule, that stilled the wind and weather and wondered if it had something to do with it. No, she decided. It had long since expired, and wouldn't have reached this far. And everything she knew about magic that created wind would create sharp bursts, intended to pierce stone walls and send men flying, not to create steady flows like they needed.

"I'll take two," Sledge said, interrupting her train of thought, and she realized he was on the game again as he discarded two cards from his hand and the dark elf ninja acting as the dealer tossed him two more face-down, and the rest of the circle of shark-men and ninja went through the same process with varying numbers.

"If you're wondering what to do about this, the answer is simply to wait," Sledge said to Zelda, "We can roll out the oars, but we'd have to get the refugees down in the hold to row. We're skeleton crewed up here as it is. And that would just tire them out and make them go through the fresh water supply faster. Won't get much of anywhere quickly that way."

"I suppose we can't always expect the weather to be on our side," Zelda muttered, turning to walk away.

"I spoke to the shaman," Sledge said, "She says it's going to get cold tonight, with a good, solid mist, and the wind should return in the morning."

"Well, that's good to hear," Zelda said.

"She also said everyone should be below deck tonight," Sledge said, "Warned to not have one person up on deck, even as a watch, or they won't be here by morning. The mist will take them."

Zelda turned back to him, but his eyes were back on his cards. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I only know what the shaman told me," Sledge said, "She said the mist brings with it an evil spirit that will walk the decks of our ships in the night tonight. Anyone out on deck after the sun goes down won't be there in the morning."

"And what's to stop it from just coming inside after us?" Zelda asked.

"Spirits cannot cross thresholds indoors unless they are invited," Sledge said, "So long as no one is on deck when it arrives, and no one invites it in, we'll be fine."

Zelda sighed. As much respect as she had come to have for Sledge and his people, this sounded like ignorant superstition. Hyrule was a land where spirits did walk after the sun set, and they were no danger to the living that she knew of. Most people were completely oblivious to their passing. It took a certain knowledge of the flows of energy, or mana, to sense them, or exceptional senses, like the ones Link possessed while he was a wolf. But even Link could not detect their passage normally.

That reminded her. She had not heard from Ganondorf for days now. She wondered how their group was doing. Perhaps she would try to contact him before she retired this evening. It would at least feel like she was doing _something_ worthwhile.

* * *

"Okay, it's not far," Link said, returning to Kilishandra, "Maybe twenty feet or so. I can see it open up again at the far end, but it gets pretty tight."

Kilishandra stood rigidly, staring at the rapidly narrowing passage ahead of them. Link had told her to wait while he looked, and she grasped that he knew about her greatest weakness, though she hadn't exactly made a secret of it.

"You'll to take your breastplate off, though," Link said as he came to a stop in front of her.

"What?" she asked, blinking and snapping down to his face, "Why?"

"Like I said, it gets pretty narrow," Link said, "We're going to have to move sideways through it. That metal breastplate doesn't have any kind of give and will probably get you stuck if it gets too narrow."

He saw the flash in her eyes, though her expression betrayed nothing, and she calmly turned around and started walking. "Let's just find another way," she said.

Link snatched her arm. "There is no other way, remember?" he said, "It's one straight passage, all the way back to the drop into boiling lava. There's no way out but forward."

"Then I'll blast it wider!" Kilishandra said, turning back toward him.

"And bring the whole place down on us!" Link said.

He realized her hands were shaking. He could feel it through his grip on her wrist, and dropped it. He reminded himself that just being in these tunnels were putting her in a constant struggle he couldn't really comprehend, just to keep control of herself. What did claustrophobics actually fear, he asked himself. Enclosed spaces, but he realized there was more too it. They feared being trapped and unable to escape. It made more sense when he thought about it from the perspective of saying that having to go through this extremely narrow area was like asking someone to deliberately set their foot in a bear trap.

"Look, I'll go first," he said, "You're taller than me, but not much bigger across the…um… chest. If I can make it, I'm sure you will be able to. And if I get stuck, you can pull me out and we'll find something else."

_Not to mention you'll have a bit more give than me in that area,_ he added silently.

Kilishandra eyed the narrowing passage at the edge of the field cast by the globe of light hovering over her shoulder. "I can't…" she whispered, turning away from it again.

"Yes you can," Link said, "I'll help you. You just have to trust me."

She turned back to him. He almost didn't believe it, but there were tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "You don't understand…" she said.

"I won't leave you alone," Link said, picking up her hand in his, "I promise. But I need you to trust me on this, okay? If there were any other way, we'd take it."

She looked past him at the passage again. He didn't understand. Being underground was one thing for her. In the dark made it worse, and she knew what awaited her in that tight passage. Maybe she could make it, if she stayed right behind him, held onto him. She wouldn't be able to maintain her light in there, her focus would have to be absolutely maintained on herself, to keep control.

She cursed, and reached for the straps holding her breastplate in place. "Thank you," Link said.

"Just shut up," was her response.

In a moment, she was ready, still wearing her padded undershirt and had the two halves of her breastplate tied together so she could drag them behind her with one hand. Link led her into the passage. It narrowed rapidly, forcing them to turn sideways to avoid dragging their shoulders against the black walls.

"Why is the rock here black?" she asked, trying to distract herself from what she was doing, the globe of light flickering as her concentration wavered.

"Has been all along this tunnel," Link said, "I'm no mineral expert, but I think it's obsidian."

"Obsidian is volcanic glass," Kilishandra said, "It's left behind when magma is rapidly cooled."

"Maybe this tunnel is an underground magma pipe," Link said, "Could be this narrow area is sort of a plug that stopped up and forced it to reroute."

"If that's true, we're going into a dead end," Kilishandra muttered.

"No, I know this opens up," Link said, "I can see it just ahead. Just another ten feet, okay?"

The passage was getting narrower. Link could feel it scraping along his chest and back as he sidestepped through. He looked back to see Kilishandra was right behind him. She was soaking with sweat. Her eyes were clamped shut now, and she was moving by feet.

Link turned back where he was going, just as the tunnel clamped down even tighter. "Hold up," Link said, and Kilishandra stopped behind him. Without the scraping of their clothes on the rock, he could hear her breath, coming in fast, ragged gasps. "Hey, calm down a bit. You're going to pass out like that!"

Kilishandra took a deep, if shaking, breath. Link reached back with his hand and found hers. "Okay, hold on to me. It gets tighter up here, but I think I can squeeze through. If I can't, I'm going to need your help to drag me back out, okay."

"Okay…" came her whispered reply.

Link stepped forward, and drug himself with his hand. The rock clamped down on his chest, not letting him get his full breath, and he heard the metal of his scabbard dragging against the rock behind his back. _Shit,_ he thought, _Of all things I forget to take my sword off my back and carry it through here._

He took another step, the rock dragging painfully along his chest and pressing down more. He could see the far end, just out of reach. If he could get one hand around the far end of the rock, he could drag himself out. One more step. The rock pressed down painfully on his chest.

"Link!" Kilishandra called out behind him. Her light flickered and was gone. Her fingers slipped from his grasp. He tried to call her name, and found himself unable. He couldn't get the breath. His lungs were starting to burn and he realized the rock was pressing down so hard he could barely breath at all.

_If I pass out here, I'm dead!_ he realized. He snatched hold of the rock ahead of him with one hand as best he could and tried to pull himself forward. He moved a painful inch. He was sweating and his lungs were screaming for air. Panic was welling up. He'd be shaking if he had the room to do so. He tried to pull himself forward again, and found himself to be tightly wedged.

"No!" Kilishandra shrieked behind him, "No no no no! Stop it, get away from me!"

It was the most fearful cry he had ever heard from her. Was she going to lose control of her magic, like he had seen her on the verge of back in the sewers? It would kill them both in this situation. But he was already dead if he didn't free himself. His vision was beginning to blur, and soon he was going to pass out and then suffocate. Only one chance left.

He reached as far forward as he could, wrapping his fingers around the rock, stepping as far as he could in the narrow confines, and pulled. He kept up the pressure, hopelessness sinking in as he did not move. Then he felt the scrap as he slowly drug forward. Kilishandra was still crying out behind him, but he had to focus on himself first.

Then, it was suddenly over, he popped from the tight passage like a cork from a wine bottle, landing facedown on the rock floor, gasping for air as his screaming lungs burned like fire. For a moment, he could hardly believe he had made it. He coughed and choked, trying to push himself up. Kilishandra's screams had turned to sobs in the passage behind him. He turned toward it, moving to where he could see her.

"Kilishandra!" he shouted, and repeated her name a moment later when she didn't respond, "Listen to me, I'm out the far side! You can make it!"

She almost couldn't hear his voice, lost in her own private hell. In the dark, with the walls pressing down around her, she could hear her mother screaming. Reaper's thin, hissing voice, toying with her and describing everything he did in gruesome detail, and her mother's screams, so loud and piercing that each gap when she took a breath would leave her ears ringing.

Link's voice was the unknown. It didn't belong in the world. "Kilishandra!" he called, "Wake up! You've got to wake up!"

She tried to focus on it, to block out her mother's horrific screams. Anything to distract her from the nightmare a few feet above her. "I'm not leaving you!" Link called, "Come toward me, and hold your hand out! I'll pull you out!"

She was moving, slowly but steadily, and lifted her hand toward the voice. She could feel the walls pressing down on her. It was getting harder to breath. A hand snapped around her wrist, taking a firm grip, and her own fingers snapped around the hand's wrist. It pulled. There was pain as something raked across her chest and back. Real pain. It snapped her from the dream, back into reality as the rock walls pressed down, and then just as it had started, it was gone, and she fell, colliding with another body and sending both of them crashing to the floor.

"We made it," Link said, "I told you."

Kilishandra found herself shaking violently, and her breathing was broken by involuntary sobs. She could feel the tears running freely down her face, and something in the back of her mind reminded her that Link could see in the dark, he could see her crying, and for some reason she didn't care.

"It's okay," Link said, "I'm sorry I put you through that."

She realized she was lying on top of him on the floor and… She swallowed involuntarily. And he had his around her, holding her, and hers were around him. She had been squeezing with all the strength she had, and he hadn't pushed her away.

But he was holding her in a specific way, she realized. He was trying to comfort her, to help her back out of the nightmare and into reality. She knew instantly it wasn't the same way he would have held Midna in this situation. Her tears renewed themselves as this realization sent a knife of despair she hadn't expected through her chest, even as she chided herself, pushing him away, telling herself she was being stupid. She had no right to expect that.

"I'm sorry," she said, sitting up and moving away from him.

"It's okay," Link said as he climbed to his feet, "I almost panicked when I thought I was stuck for a second there. I understand why it was worse for you."

"No," Kilishandra whispered, "No, you don't."

* * *

Sheila sat up in her bed. She couldn't do it. Just couldn't sit still any more. She had spent weeks in this cabin and not so much as ventured onto the deck. Once she had a chance, she had locked herself away with her thoughts. Every night, she had nightmares of Darimar crumbling, people screaming, and children crushed under the rubble.

And then, her father had practically dumped the responsibility of leadership onto her shoulders. She was supposed to lead the survivors away, to safety. But Zelda was the one actually doing it. It had actually caused a depression to sink into Sheila, on top of everything else. She felt completely useless.

She had been given the first mate's cabin, a smaller room next to the captain's cabin, where Zelda slept, and hadn't left it since the ships had departed. But now, she had to get up and do something. Her legs were itching to at least be moving around. It was dark, and she knew it was undoubtedly past sunset, but at the very least a walk around the deck and some fresh air would do her some good. She needed to clear her head.

"I can't keep doing this," she said to herself as she dressed, "My father, and even the king had enough faith in me to pick me as his heir when… when…"

Her eyes began to tear, when she couldn't even say his name. Gods, she didn't even realize she'd miss him this much. The vision of Richard's severed head rolling through the air played through her mind again, just as vivid as if it were yesterday. His hot, sticky blood had splashed across her face. She could feel it now, as if it were burning into her skin, branding her for the rest of her life, if not beyond.

Why? Why did the wizards of old start their war to begin with? Why did it end with them? Why did Tharkus, somehow survived for eight thousand years, now return only to begin killing again?

Why were there so many more uses for magic to kill and destroy than there were to heal and protect?

Why do people do this to each other?

The perfect world, one with no killing, no hatred, no discrimination, and no war. Why was it so impossible to make?

The room was stifling. Sheila pulled on her boots, and stood up, moving to the door, pushing it open into the night air. It was cold as she stepped out on deck. Much colder than she expected, this far into Spring. A dense, damp mist hung over the deck, but the fresh air smelled good, in spite of the salt, and she closed the door behind her. She'd just walk around the deck a few time, clear her head. The night watch shouldn't mind.

She could see him, standing amidships in the fog, though it made it impossible to tell who he was. All she could make out was the silhouette, and from the shape it had to be one of the ninja, wearing a heavy coat against the cold.

Sheila walked slowly around the outside of the deck, near the railings, alone with her thoughts. She thought about what Zelda had told her of Hyrule, a land where strange and wildly different races lived together, and did so in equality. She still was not convinced. It didn't matter where you went in the world, there were those who thought less of others just because they were different. It had to be, from what Zelda told her of the history, that Hyrule had been built through war and conquest. The first king of Hyrule had united the different races of the land, but he had done so through force. That kind of method left old hatreds to fester, until they exploded. Could they have truly been forgotten in the time since?

She stopped near the bow of the ship, leaning on the railing to look out across the water. But the mist made it impossible to see more than about twenty feet past the side of the ship. She turned around, leaning back against the railing, and saw the night watch again, silhouetted in the fog. He must be pacing the ship as well. He had moved closer to the bow, though he now stood still. She couldn't tell if he was facing her or away from her, but he was closer now than before.

Sheila leaned her head back, taking a deep breath of the damp night air. It reminded her of Darimar summers. The kingdom was buried in snow in the winter, and was rainy almost all summer. It was because of the elevation, they said. She had just known it to be the regular cycle as she grew up. She smiled to herself. No one ever knew, but during her teenage years, she would sometimes sneak out of her room and walk along the parapets of her father's house at night, just to enjoy the cool, humid air on her skin. On nights she was feeling particularly brave, she had done it entirely nude, just to feel the maximum amount of exposure to the air. Not that she was an exhibitionist. If she had been alone on deck, she might have been tempted to open her blouse to the cool air, but not with someone else watching.

She stood up straighter, turning back toward the deck to spot the night watchman, only ten feet away from her now, standing just as still as before. He was dressed all in black, making it difficult to see any of his features through the mist even at this distance.

"Quiet night, isn't it?" she asked, just trying to make small talk.

He did not move as he responded, "So it is. Think it will stay that way?"

"Would be nice for the wind to come back up, I think," Sheila said, "Depressing to be on a ship that isn't going anywhere."

"I know that well."

There was something strange about his voice that was strange. When he spoke, he seemed to gurgle, as if he were trying to talk underwater. Her effort to make small talk now had her genuinely concerned.

"Are you okay?" she asked, "You don't sound good."

"I am as well as can be expected." This statement was punctuated by the figure coughing, lifting one hand to shield his mouth.

Sheila glanced past him, toward the cabins and trap to below deck. Too long in the cold and damp took their toll. Healing magic had its limits. She could restore damage done by sickness, even a cold, but not cure it entirely, and she'd need someplace dry she could work if she tried to help.

"Do you need to be out here the whole time?" she asked.

"Not exactly."

"Well, I feel like I really need to do something right now," Sheila said, "If you like, I can try to help with that cough of yours. I can't make it go away entirely, but I can probably make you feel better."

"I doubt you can do that," the figure replied.

"No, it's okay," Sheila said, "Let's go to my cabin, so you can lay down somewhere dry, and I'll see what I can do."

"If you want to try."

"Follow me," Sheila said, walking past him, back toward the cabins.

She did not hear his footsteps as he followed, but when she glanced over her shoulder, he was moving, keeping pace with her a distance back. These ninja always did walk rather quietly, she reasoned, going to her cabin door and pulling it open. She moved to the desk on the right hand side of the room, sending a small jet of heat into the lamp on the table and adjusting the feed as the wick burst into life, spilling light across the room.

There was a chair at the desk she pulled out. "Here," she said, "Take off your coat and sit down. If you'd rather lay, I can get you a pillow…"

Her words caught in her throat as she turned around and saw the figure in the light, across the threshold of her door, and gray hands, their skin flaking off in patches reached up to pull back his hood. The dark eyes were revealed in a sickly gray face, teeth fully exposed with no lips, waterlogged and patches of seaweed peeking up his neck from the collar of his coat.

The jaw moved, and in spite of no lips, he spoke clearly, only impaired by the faint, watery gurgle.

"I think I'll stand."

* * *

Link and Kilishandra had not gone far from the tunnel opening, finding only a relatively safe spot they could only be approached from one direction. Not far into the cavern, they found more of the blue grass-like moss, and decided to not venture further on the risk of more of the killer plants, at least for now.

Link hadn't asked, but when they sat down, trying to calm down and rest, Kilishandra had started telling him the story of Reaper and her mother, and how she had heard everything that happened in the cellar, less than ten feet below them. He listened quietly to how she could remember every intimate detail, down to Reaper's footsteps as he moved around her mother's body, and even the warm blood dripping between the floorboards and onto her from above.

"When I'm in enclosed spaces," she said at last, "Especially in the dark, it's not just the feeling that I'm trapped, that I have nowhere to go. I can hear her screaming, as if it were happening again. I can hear Reaper's voice, taunting her, describing what he's doing before he does it.

"I am a powerful woman, a sorceress of power that is second only to my adoptive father," she went on, anger entering her voice as she practically spat the words, "I am a dangerous bitch! And yet," her tone softened again, "And yet, when I'm in the dark, closed in and trapped, I'm a scared little girl again. I relive it as vividly as if it were happened again. I killed Reaper myself. I saw him impaled on a splintered beam, crushed under the collapsing building, and finally consumed by the fire that brought it down to begin with.

"And yet he haunts me even now."

Link didn't respond. When she said he didn't understand, she had been absolutely right.

"But you were right," she said, "We got through there and I feel like a complete idiot now."

"No, I'm the idiot," Link said, "I forgot to take my sword off before going in, and almost got myself wedged in and suffocated. You actually came through there easier than I did."

"But it was the only way."

"Yes."

They sat in silence a moment, perhaps a shared moment of understanding between them, that neither of them would have likely been able to get through there without the other. Link's concern for her giving him the strength he needed to free himself when he was on the verge of blacking out, and without him she would have panicked and possibly even injured herself as she struggled.

Link changed the subject. "I need you to keep watch for a bit," he said, and indicated his Triforce, "I'm going to try to use this thing to find Ganondorf. I don't exactly know what I'm doing with it, so I'm not sure how long it will take."

"Okay," Kilishandra said, "I'll keep my eyes open."

Link put his back to the rock wall, setting his sword within arm's reach and sitting down cross-legged. He had no idea how he was going to do this, but he understood the Triforce reacted to his desires. Maybe if he focused on finding Ganondorf, as what he desired, he could get some kind of reaction.

* * *

Ganondorf suddenly laughed. He was some distance from the rest of the group, where they waited by the fountain in the center of the ruined city, causing them to look up toward him as he turned and started walking back toward them. Midna was still unconscious after the events, so they had attempted to make her as comfortable as they could, since she carried the bedrolls in the invisible space none of them could access.

"What's so funny?" Ralthas asked as Ganondorf approached them.

"Link is trying to find me with his Triforce," Ganondorf said, "Took him long enough, but it's almost adorable, the way he's grabbing blindly, like a child in the dark."

Without waiting for another response, Ganondorf reached out himself, snatching hold of Link's erratic, waving energy. He could feel Link's immediate shock and surprise.

_Keep your focus,_ Ganondorf said silently, _Otherwise you're going to lose the contact._

_I can't believe that worked,_ came Link's reply.

_I could have spotted that fumbling of yours even if I were stone drunk,_ Ganondorf said, _And you don't have to speak out loud for me to hear you. Are you and Kili all right?_

_So far,_ Link replied, _We've both got a fair number of bruises, but no serious injuries yet._

_All right,_ Ganondorf said, _Now, can you stay put for a while? Are you somewhere you can sit still for a change?_

_I think so._

_Good. Don't move, and we'll come to you,_ Ganondorf said.

_There's one thing,_ Link said, _We found something a while ago. A statue. I think it's the body of Cain, that monster in Midna's mask. We can't leave it here like it is._

_Already found it,_ Ganondorf said, _It's gravel now._

_Good._

_Now stay put, we're coming to you right now._ Ganondorf turned to the others. "Come on, I've told them to stay put. Let's go collect them, and get the hell out of these caves."

"Midna's still out," Alex said as they rose and began to collect their weapons.

"She had her chance to be comfortable," Ganondorf said, picking Midna up and tossing her over his shoulder like a save of potatoes, "Now let's go. They're about a half-mile under us."

Ralthas checked his sword, Alex and Silviana nodding they were ready, and the group set out once more, leaving the ruin behind.

* * *

Morning brought the wind as expected. Zelda stepped out onto the deck in the dawn light as the sails were unfurled and their course was corrected toward the rising sun. She smiled quietly. It didn't really matter if the shaman's warning of the evil spirit was true or not, she decided.

She heard another cabin door open and shut, and turned to see Sheila walking toward her, though she didn't seem to have an intent, and was just looking around and taking in the activity on the deck.

"Good morning," Zelda said as she came closer, "I was starting to worry you'd never get over your seasickness."

"Oh, I was up and moving around last night," Sheila said.

"Last night?" Zelda asked.

"At least I think I was," Sheila said, shaking her head, "Actually, now that I think about it, I think it was one of the strangest dreams I've ever had."

"Why? Did you meet the evil spirit the shaman was warning us about?" Zelda asked.

"Was that what it was?" Sheila asked, more to herself, then turned to Zelda, "Actually, he was rather pleasant, after I saw his face. We had a long talk about sailing, and leadership and what it means."

Zelda turned to her, incredulity on her face.

"I think it was just a dream," Sheila said.

"I hope so," Zelda said.

At least it got her out of the cabin, Zelda added to herself. It was good to see her among them again.

One more week, she told herself. One more week, and they should be back on land again, and moving toward Hyrule. Gods, she wanted to be home again.


	115. Chapter 114

**Chapter 114: Under the Stars Once More**

It was less than an hour before Link heard the footsteps and the other members of the party appeared around the corner into the alcove, light from the hovering globe over Ganondorf's shoulder, and over his other shoulder, Midna's sleeping form.

"What the hell?!" Link shouted as soon as he saw this, leaping to his feet, his hand shooting up to the hilt of his sword.

"Take it easy, kid," Ganondorf said, "She's not hurt. Not physically, anyway."

Alex stepped up past Ganondorf, what looked like a bag of something in his hand. "He's telling the truth, Link," he said, and tossed the bag on the cavern floor. It was actually one of their cloaks, which fell open as it hit the ground, the pieces of the Fused Shadow rolling free as it did so.

Kilishandra was on her feet, moving up beside Link. "What happened?" she asked.

"It was the statue," Ganondorf said, pulling Midna from his shoulder and into his arms. Silviana wadded up her cloak and set it on the floor so Ganondorf could lay her down, her head on the makeshift pillow, "You know, the thing I said I turned into gravel? When we got close enough to it, something happened to your girlfriend here. She was headed straight for it, and passed out when I smashed it."

Link relaxed his grip on his sword, lowering his hand back to his side. None of the others seemed to be injured, and his gaze fell to the pieces of the Fused Shadow on the floor. Ralthas had moved to where Alex dropped them, and kneeled down, examining the piece with the large eye and horns, the mask Midna had worn for so long, though he heeded past warnings, not touching it with his bare hands.

Link rushed to Midna's side, where Ganondorf lay her, kneeling down next to her. She was breathing, and he lay his hand gently on her neck, above the collar of her shirt. Appropriately warm, he noted and calmed himself. He glanced over at the pieces of the Fused Shadow again. "Is it possible to get rid of those things?" he asked Ganondorf.

"The Fused Shadow?" Ganondorf asked, looking over where Link's gaze fell, "There's no place to safely put them around here. Of course, they were well locked away before, and you managed to find them, so maybe no place is safe."

"I mean destroy them, like the statue," Link said, "I'm positive now. That monster, Cain, is still alive, and he's in those pieces. It had to be a reaction from those pieces coming too close to the rest of the body."

Ganondorf didn't respond immediately. It wasn't that he didn't believe the possibility Link was presenting. After living as long as he had, and seeing as many things in that time, the wizard had very little incredulity left in him. He'd be willing to give almost anything the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. It had more to due with the fact that the more he heard about this "Cain," the more intrigued he became. He'd never in his lifetime encountered a being quite like the legends surrounding this mutant Twili.

He'd relish the chance of meeting such a creature in person.

But they already had one impossible enemy, and didn't need two. "We could," Ganondorf said finally, "But I'd need time to make preparations. Time we don't presently have."

"You destroyed the statue on the spot," Ralthas commented.

"And the more I think about it, the more it seems like it was a mistake," Ganondorf said, and turned back to Link, "If Cain is still in that mask, and in that statue, it means that his spirit, somehow, has clung to this world for eight thousand years. The fact he's still sentient, still sane, after so long, troubles me greatly."

"I hardly think trying to take Midna's body for himself qualifies as sane!" Link said, with a bit more force than he intended, but Ganondorf didn't seem to react.

"What I mean is that I've encountered ghosts before," the wizard replied, "You have too. Most often they're unreasonable, or can't even speak. It's because they don't remember how. I don't think any ghost over a century after their time of death even remembers their own name, or anything of their life. It all bleeds from them. I think it has to do with the fact, no longer confined to their flesh, there's nothing for them to hold onto.

"But even if a spirit manages to possess a physical form, maybe even reanimate their own dead body, it can't last forever. Their mind will rot just as their body does. Of course, there are rare exceptions. Nothing is impossible. But after eight thousand years, it's not just Cain's mind that should be gone. He shouldn't even be able to hold his form together. And yet, you tell me this dream Midna pulled you into, he spoke very clearly, very eloquently even. Eight thousand years of being little better than dead should have sapped his will entirely. Now, you're not exactly weak willed, Link. In a contest of pure strength of will, you might even give a rough time. Yet he pretty much spanked you in just such a contest.

"My point is, if we intend to destroy the mask, we had best make sure it is utterly destroyed, not even fragments remaining. If Cain has kept himself in existence for eight millennia just on the force of his will, I'm not sure he couldn't come back from a single pebble. This will take time to prepare, and I'd prefer to have a controlled environment to do so. It would be best to wait until we're back in Hyrule, and I can commandeer a fair sized area to erect barriers and shields against potential reactions that you are currently not thinking about, as frightened of this thing as you are."

"I'm not frightened," Link retorted.

"Oh, I beg to differ," Ganondorf said, and stood up to his full height, "In any case, we'll rest here for a few hours. We've wasted enough time on this little chase through the caves, and I'm eager to see the sun again."

"I hear that," Alex grumbled, sitting down and leaning his back against the rock wall.

Link situated himself beside Midna, sitting down in a more comfortable position. She looked like she was simply asleep, yet now he found himself cursing that he had let it get this far. He should have smashed the statue when he had the choice. And now, they were going to have to carry the Fused Shadow with them further yet. It was a foolish thing to worry about now, he knew, and they wouldn't have been able to stop Ganondorf's own ambitions without them, but he silently wished they'd never dug the cursed things out.

"He's right," Kilishandra said, stopping as she turned to move back, "I know you've got a bad history with my father, but he knows what he's talking about."

Link nodded. The part that made him so angry was he couldn't refute anything Ganondorf said on this matter. Kilishandra stood there a moment, looking down at him, then moved away, seating herself some distance away.

Feet appeared again in the corner of his vision, and Link looked up to see Ralthas standing over him. "So," the judge said, "This Fused Shadow… You found the pieces yourself?"

"That's right."

"And you knew how dangerous it was when you did?"

Link looked down at Midna. "We were warned, but even that didn't come close to what we're learning now," Link said, "We knew it was dangerous, just not how dangerous. And we were both inexperienced. We had an enemy to fight, and when we found the mask, even that wasn't enough by itself. Not until we had the Master Sword as well."

Ralthas thought about this for a moment. "I understand need can push people to move more quickly than they sometimes should," he said, "It may have been best for all concerned if you had gone only for the sword."

"You weren't there," Link said, looking down at Midna, "You don't understand."

"Maybe not," Ralthas said, "But I do understand desperation. It is an ugly thing. I'm over nine hundred years old, Link. I've seen the worst humanity has to offer, and yet I've also seen people with the best of intentions, driven to desperation, cause just as much pain and suffering as the villains of the world. Don't think me unsympathetic about your friend's condition, but this could very much be your own choices coming back to bite you."

Link thought about what he had read in Tharkus' diary. He couldn't refute that point. But there was a difference between someone with good intentions causing harm by being oblivious, and being twisted as Tharkus had been. Tharkus' desperation had led him in a descent into madness. Link had no intention of going the same road. But a spark of fear was there, not for himself, but for Midna. He looked down at her face in time to see her eyes flutter open.

"Link?" she whispered, blinking as she tried to clear her vision.

"I'm here," Link said, leaning over her. He glanced up at Ralthas, and the judge silently nodded and turned away, moving away from the pair. "Are you okay?" Link asked Midna.

Almost instantly, she sat up and her arms were around his neck, her head on his shoulder, holding him close. She tried to speak, but broke down, only managing to sob in his ear. Link put his arms around her back, hugging her to him. She was trembling, and Link could feel the eyes of the others on them, but he only held her until her sobs started to calm.

"Was it another nightmare?" he whispered to her.

"Worse," she whispered, "So much worse. I was awake the entire time, but it was like my body was acting on its own. No matter how I tried, I couldn't make it obey. I could see and hear everything, but it was like I was trapped behind a barrier, and no matter how I screamed and beat against it, I couldn't make anyone hear me.

"Cain was in total control."

"Oh, gods," Link whispered. This was moving way too fast. What if she had reached the remainder of the statue? What would have happened when its missing pieces, the Fused Shadow, had come into contact with it? He held Midna close, unable to find any words. What could he actually say? This was something so far beyond their understanding.

He considered squeezing back into that tunnel and taking the Fused Shadow pieces to throw in the magma pool at the far end.

No, that might not be enough. Ganondorf said it would take time to make preparations, to make sure nothing was left of it. Moving too quickly might be even more disastrous than waiting too long.

"I won't let him have you," he whispered gently to her, "I'll die first."

* * *

Sheila sat at the desk in her cabin. As the first mate's cabin, she was sure it was intended for his copies of the maps and charts, perhaps for keeping a log. Right now it was a bare table, which she sat at, drumming her fingers on the surface.

Zelda had explained about the shaman's warning the previous night, that a spirit would visit their ships, and any on deck would not be there the next morning. Sheila was certain she had not been dreaming, however.

When she first saw his face, he had terrified her. Half-rotted, skin flaking off with patches of his bare skull visible through cracks on his bald head, turned gray with age and all of it slick and wet, as if it had permeated through his flesh. Bare teeth, like a grinning skull, his lips long since gone. And seaweed wrapped around his neck, and visible from the wrists of his dark coat, which was itself soaking wet. She'd seen the puddle of water at his feet as he stood there.

She hadn't been able to see him clearly in the mist and the dark, and had invited him in because she had thought him sick, to see if she could help him. In the instant she first saw him, she knew he was far beyond anyone's help.

Sheila didn't like dealing with undead creatures. They undeniably existed, but there was such a disparity in different instances of what they were capable of. Tharkus' undead army were completely mindless, and toppled over on the spot if their link with the necromancer was severed. That was how Ganondorf had felled the entire army with one strike, by forcing Tharkus' concentration to waver, and breaking that connection.

Then there were the flesh golems. In once sense, they were the same as any other type of golem, an automaton of stone or metal that was animated by magic. The art of making such devices had been lost, along with so much else, after the great war eight thousand years ago, and intact golems were highly valuable among modern mages. Yet flesh golems were a perversion of even that art. A golem of stone began as a block of stone, and a stone crafter would carve it into the desired shape, usually similar to a man, with two legs and two arms, standing upright, and then the mage would animate it. Metal golems were constructed by skilled metal smiths, but the principle was the same.

Flesh golems were not built, however, they were grown. Grown from the flesh of living beings. They also required their master to focus utterly on their task, or they would go berserk. A stone or metal golem, with no orders, would shut down and await its next command. Flesh golems seemed like the anti-thesis to living creatures. They were the undead of golems. Like the zombie armies, they were an affront to nature and life itself.

"Natural" undead, and she used the term loosely, seemed impossible to predict. They could be confined ghosts, like the one they had encountered in the tomb what seemed like ages ago, tormented by their own regret by being denied passage to the next life. Restless spirits were harder to define, because they were so rare, and most people without sensitivity to them, or specific training, like mediums, were oblivious to their passage, except for perhaps a chill in the air as the spirit moved by. Most of these spirits lost their senses within a hundred years of their death, not even remembering who they were in life.

Ganondorf had that Hyrule had a high level of ambient magical energy compared to the other kingdoms she had visited. Sheila remembered Link telling her of a few of his trips into underground caves and tombs, which seemed to be filled with walking corpses. They would not venture outside, but going in was dangerous, as they would attack all intruders on sight. Of particular danger were the skeletal creatures he called Stalfos. They were strong fighters, and seemed to retain a good amount of skill, if not intelligence, from when they were alive. And he had told her he had lived most of his life on the border of a forest simply called the Lost Woods. The legend surrounding it was that those who lost their way in the forest would never find passage back out, and were doomed to wander its paths forever, even after their flesh had completely rotted from their bodies and turned them into Stalfos. There was also a legend of a tribe of fairy children living somewhere deep in the forest, but apparently there was no real proof. The only hint of their existence was that the ancient Hero of Time had apparently grown up among them.

So, what was this spirit she had encountered last night? A dead man, most likely a sailor. He seemed to possess all his wits, as far as she could tell. It seemed silly, what they had talked about. He had told her about sailing, the working of the rigging and sails, how to chart a course by the starry horizon when the sky clouded over. She didn't understand most of it. And she'd told him about her training in magic, at the academy in Tyr, which was destroyed what seemed like so long ago at this point.

And she had mentioned the task her father had bestowed upon her, to lead these people to safety, though Zelda was the one actually doing said leading. They'd had a long talk about leadership at that point. He had mentioned he was first mate on his ship, yet in truth ran the whole show. The captain he served under was black-out drunk most of the time. As first mate, he was solely responsible for the safety of the crew and the cargo in the hold, yet always knew that if something did go wrong, the captain would be first to be blamed by the merchant company they sailed for. It was easier to lead from the second spot than to be on top, and he implied that it was much the same for kings and queens over the years. Certainly more than one kingdom had actually been led from behind the crown, rather than on it, as someone whispered advice to the ears wearing the crown from the shadows, out of the public eye.

It was actually an interesting subject of debate, she realized, about what makes a leader. An intelligent person might do well at the job, but a natural charisma might inspire people to follow even a bad one willingly. But the best leaders undoubtedly were those who bore the position as a burden, a weight they must carry for the benefit of others, rather than those who wanted it, who thought it was their right, to elevate themselves above others.

Sheila again thought of Link, and what she had seen him do during the time she had been with him. He made no claim to leadership. Didn't want it in the least. But so many times he stepped up and took control. He led as if he were born to do so. His mind worked incredibly fast when others froze, and it worked well. He found solutions when she had been convinced they were all dead several times. And he had it, the natural charisma the spirit had spoken of. When Link gave orders, no one would argue. Even Ganondorf listened when Link spoke. That was the effect of such charisma, something invisible that made you want to follow him, even if what he was saying sounded absolutely crazy.

But leading a group and leading a kingdom were two different things. Sheila knew that Link did not have the slightest understanding of dealing with government affairs or trade agreements. Zelda believed he would make a good king, if he would ever accept the position, but she and Sheila both knew it would be only after a great deal of training.

In any event, near dawn, the spirit had departed, leaving her alone with her thoughts. The mist had lifted and the wind returned. She leaned back in her seat. The sun had gone down hours ago now, and the warning had gone out among the crew again that none should be on deck again tonight, though the wind held steady, the mist had begun rolling in again just before sunset. It was too dangerous to risk running at night without a watch, and the ships could run aground or into a reef near the coast, as close as they believed they were getting, so the sails were furled and tied, and the rudders locked to try to control drift on the currents, to avoid going too far off course.

Sheila drummed her fingers on the table, glancing over at the door. She knew she had best abide the warning of the shaman, and stay inside, but even the shaman seemed surprised that the spirit was returning tonight. There could be only one reason, Sheila knew, and she was actually interested in talking to the spirit one more time.

Making up her mind, she picked up her jacket, pulling it on as she walked to the door, and opened the door, stepping out into the cool evening air. The mist was even thicker tonight, she noted as she stepped out and pulled the door shut behind her. She could barely make out the nearest mast, and it was only fifteen feet from the cabins.

It was colder as well, she realized as her breath fogged in front of her face. The atmosphere was tremendous as she walked across the deck, searching each shape materializing from the mist. Her breath caught in her throat when the outline of a man appeared in front of her, much closer than the other shapes surrounding her.

"I was starting to wonder if you would come out again," the spirit whispered, leaning close to her. Much closer than he had come the previous night, his half-rotten face closer to her own. At this distance, she could see the shine of the permanently soaked gray skin, peeling in numerous places, teeth fully exposed with no lips, and the penetrating dark eyes. The only thing that seemed undamaged were the eyes, they seemed full of life even now, the dark brown portals into the soul within.

"You know, it's not polite to sneak up like that," Sheila said, pulling her jacket tighter.

As damp as the mist was, it was still fascinating to watch the water droplets that should not have been there run down the dead man's face, dripping into his collar, where strands of seaweed wrapped around his neck from under his dark coat. When he stood still, the coat dripped, forming pools around his feet that remained even though there was no other sign of his passage.

"This is the first time I've returned to a ship on the second night in… I don't remember how long," the spirit said, taking one step back, and turning to the railing along the edge of the ship, "I'm surprised I remember how to speak at all."

"How long has it been since…" Sheila started, and paused, searching for how best to phrase it.

"Since I died?" the spirit asked, and chuckled as he leaned his hands on the railing, "More than a century, less than ten, I think. It's hard to keep track after a while."

"Why?" Sheila asked, "I've thought about what we talked about last night, but it doesn't make sense. I'll admit, you're not like most of the stories about spirits, but it's believed that they are bound to the world by a sense of unfinished business. Being unwilling to let go yet. What holds you here?"

She had moved up next to him. He leaned his elbows on the railing, clasping his hands together as he looked out over the water. "I don't remember anymore," he said, "There was something, some reason I had to stay, I remember that much. But even my life before that is clearer than what surrounded my death. And come to think of it, I couldn't even remember most of that until recently. It's like my memory is coming back, and I feel stronger with each passing day. I do feel stronger now than last night."

"Walpurgis Night is approaching," Sheila said, suddenly realizing, "It occurs when the stars and planets align every few years in a manner that thins the barriers between our world and the next. Magic grows stronger as the event approaches, before returning to normal afterward, and there are many legends about strange events that occur when the event is near. Maybe that's what is feeding you strength, and your memory."

"Then maybe, when it arrives, I'll remember why I'm here, only for it to slip away again afterward," the spirit said, "I'll only remember what I do, what I must do, what I have been doing for so long."

"What are you doing back here?" Sheila asked, "Even the shaman seemed surprised that you would return."

"I returned because I wanted to let you know you passed."

"Passed?" Sheila asked, "Passed what?"

The spirit stood upright, and waved one arm over the railing. The mist off the starboard side of the ship began to clear, and in a few moments, Sheila could see shapes out in the water.

"Oh, gods…" she whispered.

Splintered hulls and broken masts jutted from the water about twenty feet beyond the starboard of the ship. Lights flared in their portholes, revealing massive holes shattered in their shapes, water flowing freely into them where they rested. Lights under the water showed the jagged edges of a shallow reef. Anything larger than a rowboat would smash itself against its edges and sink.

Sheila realized suddenly that she had to wake the crew, turn away from this deathtrap, but before she could go, the spirit pointed at one of the wrecks, most of its upper deck intact. There was movement on the surface. There were men still on the deck. As the lights flared, she realized they were the same as the spirit, long dead, their flesh rotting away, though they still worked the rigging, adjusting the sails and uselessly trying to steer the ship.

A voice rose from the wreck, a mournful song in the night, over the sound of the waves.

"A wrinkled old gnome sat on the yard," the voice sang, wailing in sadness and hopelessness, "On the sailing vessel, he walks the dark."

A second voice joined the first, in a haunting duet. "He may have brought safety, or he may have brought death."

Sheila turned to the spirit next to her. She knew immediately he was the subject of the song. She looked into the powerful brown eyes that seemed to stare into her soul as the next line of the song came to her ears. "…if he was treated well… or if he was treated bad…"

The entire undead crew chanted as one. "Evil spirit…" they chorused. The singing continued, but the words seemed unimportant after that.

"So you said I passed," Sheila spoke slowly, not sure what was about to happen, "If I hadn't, you wouldn't be showing me this. We'd have smashed into the reef already."

"Yes," the spirit said, "You showed me kindness when you thought I was sick. That is not the usual reaction when a sailor sees me on their ship. And I did enjoy talking with you last night. For that, all of your ships will pass safely this night. I will guide them between the reefs.

"But you've gotten me thinking now. About why I do this. I can't remember the why. And I want to know. I want to know if my task is long since overdue, that I no longer belong here." He paused, and reached one hand into his coat, and it came back with a leatherbound black book. Sheila immediately knew it would be a diary. "Here," the spirit said as it held the book out to her, "This is my last possession that I still have from my life. I forget how to read, but I think it holds the secret to my being bound here."

The book was remarkably dry, Sheila noticed, considering the soaking state of the coat it came from. The leather was peeling from the corners of the covers, which were themselves bent, and the pages yellowed with age.

"What do you want me to do with this?" she asked.

"I don't know," the spirit said, "Perhaps it holds the knowledge of what began this task of mine, and with that I can be free. I do not expect it to be soon, or that I will even remember you if you return. All I ask is that you try."

"We have an enormous task before us already," Sheila said, "But if I survive, I will try to free you."

The spirit smiled, or at least Sheila thought it smiled, as the skin around its exposed teeth twitched and curled slightly upward. "Perhaps it is because I've lived outside of the normal span of human life," he said, "But I see a touch of destiny in you child. There is a great task in your future. Would that I could see it for myself. When the world opens up before you, do not hesitate to leap."

"I know at least one person who says fate is nothing but a scapegoat for those too weak to accept their own failings," Sheila said.

"Perhaps so," the spirit replied, "Or perhaps it is their destiny to resist destiny. We cannot change our fates, but with strong enough will, we may be able to bend them."

"Maybe," Sheila said, looking down at the old diary in her hands.

"You should return to your cabin," the spirit said, "Rest while you can. No harm will befall your vessels while I am on watch."

We can't change our fates, but we may be able to bend them. Sheila thought on that as she walked away from the spirit, toward her cabin. Maybe there was something in that. She thought about what they had already been through, and yet she and the people aboard these ships had survived. It was not a storybook tale where a hero was able to save everyone, but it was more than she had expected when she had realized the citadel was falling on the city.

What would Link say about this? She wasn't sure about that, but she knew what he'd do. He'd keep fighting. It wasn't over yet, but so long as even one of them was still alive, it would not be over. It suddenly struck her like a bolt of lightning to her brain.

This wasn't a storybook, and there would not be an ending. An angry goddess was bearing down on them, and would undoubtedly bring everything she could muster against them before the end. But that was her goal: To cause the end for them all. Link's task, in fact all of their tasks, was to prevent that ending. So long as they defeated her, and even a few men and women were still standing at that point, it would not be an ending. Life would go on. No matter what a state the countries and world were left in at that point, life would go on, and victory would be theirs.

It was a strange feeling, to suddenly know so surely what must be done. Sheila had never considered herself to be the hero type, but she knew now what she was sure Link lived each day by at this moment: Shaklator must die. It didn't matter how many gave their lives in the effort, so long as she lay dead and life would go on. Any less of a commitment than that, and Shaklator would win, and it would truly be over.

We can't change our fates, but we may be able to bend them. Well, if their fate was to fail, to be defeated by this ancient evil, Sheila was certain she'd at least have Link beside her, ready to bend their fate for all it was worth, and until it snapped if they had to.

She had to stop hiding in her cabin, hiding from the people she was supposed to be leading. She didn't know exactly what she was going to do, but if she was going to die in this effort, she was going to… How did Link always put it? "Put up one roaring pig of a fight," she smiled to herself as she entered her cabin, closing the door behind her.

* * *

"Hey, Link," Alex said, moving up behind him as they ascended the rocky slope of the tunnel, "You smell that?"

"Yeah," Link said, quickening his pace, "Fresh air."

The party had completely lost track of time in the caverns, but it was at least another three days before they finally emerged on the far side of the mountains. It was just past midnight when they emerged from the tunnel and moved under the starry night sky. Link climbed out of the nearly horizontal tunnel entrance, turning to help Alex up as Midna and Ganondorf both simply levitated from the mouth, setting down on the ground a few feet away.

Once Alex was up, he turned to offer Silviana his hand, who took it and let him help her climb from the mouth of the tunnel as Link did the same for Kilishandra and then Ralthas. Once the entire party was up, there were a few smiles going around, simply happy to finally be out of the caves as they turned to the west.

"And this is the so-called Desert of Death," Ganondorf said as the group moved slowly from the cave, spreading out as they walked. It was perfectly flat, or seemed to be, as far as any of them could see, with no variation in the land's shape, and no sign of life, animal or plant, at all.

Link stopped, for the first time noticing how strange the ground felt as he walked. It had no give, but not the same as rock, and had unusual round ridges on what looked flat to his eye. He knelt down, running his fingers over the ground. "I don't believe it," he said, "Is this glass?"

The other members of the party began to check beneath their feet, duplicating his disbelief, except for Ganondorf and Ralthas, who remained standing, and Kilishandra, who had been here before. The judge moved up beside Ganondorf, facing the same way as the wizard, looking out to the west. "This is where Darius unleashed for the first time the Senen Serat," Ralthas said, "It turned a lush, tropical place into a desert where nothing has grown since. This, wizard, is why the people fear magic."

"The Senen Serat was too powerful for even its creator, Darius, to control it," Ganondorf said, "I require a second piece of the Triforce to keep it focused, but then again, maybe that was the intent."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it," Ganondorf said, fishing inside his tunic for his pipe and bag of tobacco, "A spell like the Harrowing already existed, capable of razing an entire city in seconds. Why make something even more destructive? Because the Senen Serat is not for attacking a city, it's for wiping out an entire kingdom. The spell functioned exactly as intended. The rebels were hiding in the jungles here, and it would take decades to ferret them out. Centuries even. So, he wiped them all out in one fell swoop. The war had gone on long enough, and he was trying to end it in one final blow, by glassing the entire countryside, so that even if the rebels survived, they'd have no means to farm anything at all."

"And he failed," Ralthas said, "The war took an even worse turn after that."

"It was Shaklator's betrayal that caused that turn," Link said, moving up beside them.

"Looks like that's the last of it," Ganondorf said, tossing the empty bag away and lit what was in the pipe before taking a puff, "Link's right. She remains the only person in history to have commanded the completed Triforce, though she forced it off on Darius, who later attempted to return it to its resting place."

"And then you stole it," Link said.

Ganondorf chuckled. "That I did, though as obvious, it did not turn out exactly as I hoped at the time," he said, "The point is, her hatred and anger over what happened to her had turned to madness, and she became a greater threat than the rebels ever were. A threat that was locked away, but never truly stopped, and now has returned, perhaps even worse than before."

Midna moved up beside Link. He glanced over his shoulder at her, and she smiled down at him. She was feeling better now, after the episode in the cavern. She hadn't had nightmares since, and had no more episodes with Cain. Maybe it was over, Link hoped.

"So that's how it works?" Alex asked, "Just find a way to lock away a world destroying monster so that the people eight thousand years later can suffer for it instead?"

"It may have been beyond Darius' power to destroy her," Ganondorf said, "He had little time to prepare, and less to act. It may be beyond our power to destroy her as well. I faced her in the Void, if only for a moment. She is powerful, and has no weakness I'm aware of. We may have to resort to finding a way to lock her away for another eight thousand years if we can't find a way to kill her."

"How far is it to Tharkus' tower?" Link asked, turning to Kilishandra, who had moved up on the other side of Ganondorf.

"About two days on foot," Kilishandra said.

"That's one threat we can deal with at least," Link said as he started walking.

"Wait, veer a bit to your left," Kilishandra said.

He paused, turning back to her. "Why?"

"Not everything was wiped out," Kilishandra said, "If we're where I think we are, there is a ridge about four hours that way, and at the bottom is an oasis. I think it was spared because of the position of the ridge, which must have shielded it from the spell. I remember there being some fruit trees and a pond there, unless you're not eager to eat something besides jerky."

"That sounds good to me, Link," Midna said.

"If we're taking a vote, I would also like some of this fruit," Silviana commented.

"It would also be a better place to rest than out in the open," Ralthas said, "We're officially in Tharkus' territory now."

"Yes," Ganondorf said, "Keep your eyes open for those blade-armed golems of his. Tharkus has retreated into his shell, and is no doubt prepared for us."

"All right," Link said, "To this oasis then."

The party set out across the glass ground, in a generally western direction. Link quick soon realized he would have preferred to be walking on rock rather than the glass. It was hard, but the seemingly flat surface was covered with small ridges he could not see in the dark. When he commented, Ganondorf explained with was because of the waves of force from the center point of where Darius had used the spell. The waves had caused ripples in the surface. Link just knew that even with his dark vision, he couldn't see them, and the ridges caused his ankles to roll slightly to one side or the other. Too much walking like this and his ankles would be killing him, and he doubted the rest of the group was doing any better. At one point, he stopped and tried to stomp through the glass with his heel, but was unable to even fracture its surface. The glass had to be three or four inches thick at least. It was no wonder nothing could grow here.

They walked in silence for the most part, though Link slowed up at one point to move back beside Ralthas. "How's the knee holding up, old man?" he asked.

"Hurts like hell, but it's not stopping me," Ralthas said.

"Honestly, when you said you were coming with us, I didn't expect you to make it this far," Link said.

Ralthas smiled. "Don't ever underestimate someone," he said, "I seem to have made that same mistake when I first met you."

"Oh, yeah, when you arrested us," Link said, "Gods, that seems like so long ago now."

"Maybe to you," Ralthas said, "I'm kind of regretting using my last charge of Mirage Golems to try to bring you in. We could probably have used them when we reach the tower."

"Well, I've still got this," Link said, lifting the small horn hanging around his neck, "The horn Roxim gave me when I first met him. Can probably use it to blast open a door, though I think Ganondorf will have that covered."

"That's a valuable tool," Ralthas said, "Make sure you never lose it."

"When this is over, I'll probably give it to Zelda to lock up in the vault," Link said, "Better than having it stolen from my home by the kids."

"You have children?" Ralthas asked.

"Not mine," Link said, "Several of the other villagers' children."

"I see," Ralthas said, "You're from a farming hamlet, correct?"

"Yeah," Link said, "Remember when I told you I didn't have a family name? That's because I never took one. In a way, everyone in that village is my family. They all helped raise me."

Ralthas smiled. "If only every orphan were so fortunate."

"I find myself thinking about them quite a bit lately," Link said, "I think I'm getting homesick."

"How long have you been away? A year now?" Ralthas asked, "I think that's natural. But also a reminder of why you have to finish this."

"I know that," Link said, "I can't go home until it's over, or this mess will eventually follow me, and be all the worse when it arrives."

"Exactly," Ralthas said, "I have a duty to be here, it's part of the oath I've taken, but that's not what's keeping me on my feet right now. It's Sheila. I'm old, and have lived my life. She has a great deal of living left to do. And I'm going to make sure she has a chance to do so."

Link couldn't help but smile a bit. Maybe he and Ralthas weren't so different after all. "You'll have to remember to tell her when we get back to Hyrule," Link said, "I think you'd like it there."

"I'm looking forward to it," Ralthas said, "I'm especially interested in meeting the Gorons and Zora that I keep hearing about."

Just about the two hour mark, the party found the ridge Kilishandra had mentioned. It was a steep drop, but a path just wide enough for them to move single file descended down the side. Link was relieved when a few feet down from the top, the glass gave way to rock, proving at least something about the theory right. It took nearly a half hour to navigate, but Link inwardly cheered when he saw the green at the bottom.

They were not trees he recognized, and possessed long, wide leaves, and moving among them, there was soft earth beneath, still damp from a recent rain. Being tropical, this locale would have rain often, though the glass floor of most of it would not soak up a bit, and it would all run off. Insects buzzed in the air, and Link smiled when he spotted a low hanging fruit from one of the trees. He wasn't sure what it was, but plucked it and used his knife to slice it in half. He gave one to Midna as he took a bite of the other, and the other members of the group found more as they walked.

The fruit was sweet and very juicy. It didn't taste like any Link had had before, but it wasn't bad. Mostly water, though, and you'd have to eat quite a few to get much value from them, he idly thought as he spat the seeds out.

"There's the pond," Kilishandra said, pointing ahead.

Pond didn't quite fit to Link. It was more of a lake, nearly thirty feet in diameter, though he wasn't sure how deep it was in the center.

"Do you think it's safe to drink?" Midna asked as they moved up to the edge of the pool.

Before Link could answer, there was the sound of something hitting the ground, and Alex gave a whoop as he leaped from a high rock near the lake's edge and splashed into the water with his knees tucked against his chest, causing Link and Midna to raise their hands to shield their faces as water splashed over them.

"Not anymore," Link replied to Midna.

Alex had dumped his cloak, sword, and belt on the ground and leaped, still clothed, into the water. It was deeper than it looked, as Alex surfaced, wiping water from his eyes, and kept himself afloat with just his head and shoulders above the surface.

"Come on in, guys! Water's fine!" he called to the others as they gathered by the water's edge.

"You realize that you just jumped into a tropical lake without even checking for things like alligators, right?" Link asked.

"Oh, come on, there's no alligators in here," Alex said, then turned in the water, "Uh, right?"

"There aren't," Kilishandra said, "There's nothing left around here for them to eat. They've long since starved off."

"We can set up camp here," Silviana said, "There's enough space for a fire and the bedrolls."

"Works for me," Link said, "Alex, get out of there. You and I are on firewood patrol."

"Ah, all right," Alex muttered, swimming toward them, like a reluctant child being told to come in by his parents.

"Midna, lay out the bedrolls while we're gone," Link said, and when she nodded, he turned to Silviana, "Sil, why don't you and Kili go hunt down some more fruit for everyone?"

"I can do that," Silviana said, and glanced at Kilishandra, who just nodded.

Link turned to Ganondorf and Ralthas. "I'll stand watch," Ganondorf said before Link could speak to him, "And the old man to get the weight off his knee for now."

"That'll work," Link said, "Come on, Alex."

Alex picked up his belt with his sword, glancing over at Kilishandra, then started after Link, moving quickly to catch up. "Did you actually just call her…"

It wasn't long before Link and Alex had amassed a modest stack of dead wood from fallen trees and branches. The environment here seemed very adept at decomposing fallen branches and wood, but there was a lot of it.

"You didn't answer me, you know," Alex said as they arranged what they had collected into stacks they could carry.

"Must have missed it," Link said.

"You called her 'Kili,'" Alex said, "When I did that, she nearly bit my head off."

"Did I?" Link asked, "Didn't think about it, really."

"What happened when you two were alone in those caves?" Alex asked, and glanced back toward the camp before turning back to Link, "Did you two, you know?"

Link looked up, his eyes narrowing at Alex. Alex took this as a sign he was correct. "I knew it!" he said, practically congratulating himself on the spot when he saw Link's knife flash from his belt, and Link leaping toward him.

Alex swore, going for his own weapon, never expecting this kind of reaction from Link. He was far too slow and he knew it. There was a thunk as Link's knife embedded in the wood of the tree behind Alex. Then Link pulled it away, and brought with it nearly three scaly feet of a green snake that had been climbing down toward Alex.

"Shit, don't scare me like that, man!" Alex said, watching Link lay the headless snake over the pile of wood.

"Sorry," Link said as he picked up the pile of wood and snake with it, "But no, you were wrong. Nothing happened like that. Besides, I'm spoken for, remember?"

"Yeah," Alex muttered, leaning down to scoop up his own pile of wood, and they started back to camp, "And we all know you're perfect and would never screw something like that up. Not like me."

"What have you got there?" Ralthas asked as they walked back into camp.

Link and Alex dumped their wood in a pile, and Link picked up the still squirming body of the snake and tossed it to Midna. "Dinner," he announced.

Ralthas looked slightly queasy, but Midna held the still squirming form of the dead snake in her hands and a smile appeared on her face. "Been a while since we had snake," she said.

"One of these days, we're going to get a chance to cook it with some decent sauce," Link said as he kicked dry fragments of wood and dead leaves from an area to build the fire.

The fire was burning by the time Silviana and Kilishandra returned with Silviana's cloak full of the fruits. Link and Alex were involved in building a makeshift spit to cook the snake, and Ganondorf at last seated himself not far from the fire, and laid the belt of throwing knives he had worn since leaving Darimar next to him. He had never used any of them, as far as Link could tell, but now he slipped one of the blades free of the belt, turning it over in his fingers, then holding the shining blade upright in one hand, he ran his finger slowly along its length with the other.

"_Ancient spirits of fire, bring me thy wrath. Let metal and flame unite, and imbue your power into this blade,_" he whispered. Though it was a whisper, it bore the same strange element of seeming to come from every direction at once, as well as a faint echo, the signs of spell casting.

As he lifted his finger away from the throwing knife, a red glow was visible on the blade. Red letters, in a language Link did not know were visible in the metal. Ganondorf quietly returned the knife to the belt and drew the second one, repeating the process.

"What's he doing?" Link asked, leaning closer to Kilishandra.

"I guess you could call it enchanting," she replied, "He's storing spells in the blades for later use."

"Making them magical?" Link asked, "Like the Master Sword?"

"No, it's not the same thing," Kilishandra said, "What he's doing will have only a single use. It's not a permanent device. Once he uses the spells stored in the knives, they'll be gone, unless they are recovered and the spell placed again. Not likely to happen, since the spell he's putting on those knives will make them explode in a fireball on impact."

"I get it," Link said, turning his attention back to pushing the makeshift wooden spit through the length of the snake's body. Ganondorf was preparing for battle. Spellcasting was tiring, so he was making a basic weapon to use at will that wouldn't sap his strength directly during the fighting.

It made the situation sink home. They were closer now than ever before. Very soon, they'd have Tharkus cornered, and it was going to be either him or them. And nothing fought more viciously and desperately than a man who knew he was cornered.

* * *

The snake and fruit made an adequate meal, supplemented by a bit more of the jerky, though supplies were beginning to run short. They had to depend on Ganondorf's ability to use a travel spell to get them to Hyrule once the task was finished.

Link had taken second watch, and woke Kilishandra for third watch, laying his sword next to his bedroll as he shed his chain mail to lie down to sleep himself. He started when he realized Midna's bedroll, next to his own, was empty. He looked about, and spotted the familiar red hair peeking just over the rock at the edge of the lake. Leave it to the princess to want a bath even in this situation.

He stepped silently toward her, moving around the rock and reaching over to tap her shoulder. She didn't even flinch, and turned a smile up at him from where she sat in the water, her shoulders just above the surface.

"You're not as quiet as you like to think," Midna said, "Maybe you should get Silviana to give you some lessons. She could sneak up on a terrified rabbit."

"What are you doing?" Link asked, leaning over the rock, "You do realize we're in dangerous territory, right?"

"We're also in the dark," Midna said, "One way or another, that's my element."

"Glad you're feeling better," Link said.

She smiled at him again. "Care to join me?"

Link glanced over his shoulder. Kilishandra's back was to them, and she was on the other side of the camp, just out of earshot. He glanced around, checking the shadows among the other trees surrounding them, then with a shrug, shed his padded undershirt and trousers, slipping quietly into the water next to Midna.

She moved close to him, allowing him to lift his arm over her shoulders as she moved up against his side. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Fine," she said, "I just want to be close to you."

She sank a bit lower in the water, so she could rest her head on his shoulder. Link was able to bend his arm at the elbow around her neck, and let his hand rest on her chest. It felt good just to have her this close. He noticed something against his skin, and realized it was the necklace he had give her, or at least what was left of it. The emerald, the green gem cut in the shape of a star, had been all she had managed to hold onto when the column of fire had erupted, the chain completely lost. Link had taken a leather string and wrapped it around the star, binding it tightly, and fashioning it into a sort of pendant, and she had not taken it off since, even now.

He tried to think of something he should say. That was how these kinds of things were supposed to work, right? You're supposed to talk to the person you love, and yet he couldn't find anything. Nothing that wouldn't sound incredibly awkward in any case. But then again, just holding her like this, he felt they were saying more than words would allow. He smiled, leaning his head over against hers.

No, he didn't need to say anything, and she didn't either. This was just exactly right. And this was what he'd fight tooth and nail to protect. It didn't matter who it was that threatened it. Tharkus, Shaklator, or Cain. He would not let them take her from him. And the next time he saw Cain, he certainly would not freeze like last time.

"I feel like we've been here once before," Midna whispered.

"Why's that?"

"The last night, before battle," she said, "And not sure what's going to happen."

"We're going to win," Link said, "That's all there is to it."

Midna turned her body, putting one arm across his chest hand holding herself to him. "I know," she whispered, "But this may also be our last chance for some time, our last chance together."

Oh, that's what she was getting at.

"This is hardly the place," Link whispered, "Outside, and the others aren't far from us."

Midna smiled. "They won't hear us if you're quiet."

Before Link could object, she shifted, putting one leg over him and pulling herself up to straddle his lap. Location be damned, she could certainly set him off in a heartbeat, and was having exactly that effect. She leaned her head down, putting her hands on his shoulders as she gently kissed him, and he found his hands running up her sides. She leaned against his chest, her head around his so she could whisper directly into his ear, "And besides, under the stars on a beautiful night like tonight, I can't think of anything more romantic."

"Gods, I love you," Link whispered in reply.

It didn't matter where they were. All that mattered was that they were together. Link didn't care what challenges the world threw at them. They would find a way, angry goddesses, evil necomancers, and demons from Hell all be damned. They would find a way.


	116. Chapter 115

I was so tempted to break my naming pattern of these kinds of chapters in favor of calling this chapter "Dancing Mad." Yes, it would be an FF6 reference.

**Chapter 115: The Mad Wizard: Tharkus**

It was raining that night. Lightning flashed in the sky, followed by nearby crashes of thunder. Darius had discovered his laboratory. Thalandril had managed to escape, but the other wizard would undoubtedly be rousing the guard, and likely the Judges as well. Thalandril only had one thought: His wife and their daughter. He had to get them out of the city. After that… Well, he'd cross that bridge when he got there.

Just a little more time. That was all he had needed. Just a little more time. He'd managed to keep his practice of Necromancy a secret until today. It was those wretched students. If they'd had stayed away from his lab, he wouldn't have had to silence them. And if Darius, damn him, hadn't started looking into their disappearances… Didn't that plane-hopping idiot have anything better to do than stick his nose where it didn't belong? Things would have been much better off if Darius had stayed dead, instead of returning and revealing the explosion in his own lab that had seemingly erased him from existence was actually just a pop across dimensions.

There it was. The back of his home. Damn Darius for forcing him to do this. Just a little more time and he'd have been able to make his research public, revealing everything he had done, and all for the sake of the people. The farmers' dying crops in the drought that had gone on so many years. The rain tonight was the insult to his injury, even the God of Nature laughing in his face.

Thalandril came to a stop at the back door. The lock was broken. "No…" he whispered, and pushed it open with a hard shove that slammed the door loudly against the wall as he rushed inside. The rear foyer was a shambles. The gardening tools for the back lot strewn about, and a bag of fertilizer was toppled over, spilling its stinking contents on the floor.

He called for his wife, and his daughter as he moved into the house itself. When there was no answer, he shouted louder, while focusing a small part of his mind on manipulating energy into a shape in his palm. He would have a deadly bolt of lightning ready the instant he saw someone who didn't belong. But still he heard no answer. Desperation growing, Thalandril broke into a run down the hall, shouting their names, begging them to answer, when he burst into the main dining hall.

It was a nightmare come to life. Amidst a scattering of dinner plates and food, his wife lay on the floor, the hilt of a knife jutting from her chest, eyes gone cold as her blood still ran across the floor. Their daughter was a few feet from her, laying facedown in a pool of her own blood. There was a third body. A man, on his back over the table, his chest ripped open, ribs jutting out as if he had exploded from the inside out, and his insides a blackened mess.

And standing there, blood covering his chest and arms, stood Darius. The other wizard looked up, toward Thalandril. He opened his mouth to speak, but was drowned out by a roar of fury and agony. Thalandril realized as it went on that he was the one screaming. This man had ruined his plans, and now he found him standing over the ruins of his family, his life, covered in their blood.

There was no thought. Thalandril reacted instantly. A massive explosion that left people several streets away with their ears ringing as the entire front half of the Arkanus home went up in flame. When the flames died, and the smoke cleared, Darius was standing in the center of the carnage, only his quickly erected barrier saving his life, and Thalandril was gone.

Taking the name Tharkus, the only remnants of his past life he had held onto, he had determined that the world which did this to him, that denied his research for the benefit of all, and condemn him while sparing the life of a man like Darius, who had doomed both him and his family, was not the world he would live in.

He had thought on the matter, and realized that Darius was not the one who murdered them. That had been the nameless intruder that Darius had slain. Tharkus had even given Darius him the opportunity to join him. Together they could have built a better world. A world that accepted magic rather than feared it, that would allow him to pursue whatever means in his research if it were for the greater good.

And Darius had refused. Darius would rather subjugate himself and live under the yoke of those who were weaker than themselves. He would abide the laws and rules made out of fear by those too ignorant to understand what a wizard truly was. As far as Tharkus was concerned, that was the moment Darius signed his own death warrant.

And yet, Darius had prevailed. Against impossible odds, he had found ways to defeat them. He had slain Cain, a monster that no mortal should have hoped to prevail against, and then wiped out the majority of the resistance in an instant, turning almost five hundred square miles of lush tropical land to glass. To preserve the lives of people who feared them, Darius performed the very acts they feared. Tharkus had been able to save only himself and the single tower. The tower built to house the Twilight Mirror, and keep it safe once the war was over, far out of reach of those who did not understand the dangers it presented.

Everything had fallen apart again. Tharkus was alone once more, even if Darius believed him dead. The rage had become a burning hatred. Darius had destroyed not just his life, but all his efforts to fix this broken world. Everything he had done had been for the betterment of mankind, and they resisted beyond all reason. Tharkus would not rest until he returned the favor. Everything Darius fought for, everything he loved, would burn.

That was when Shaklator came to him. The ends Darius had gone to in order to save his world had shattered her life as well, though she had been one of his closest allies. Patrick, her dark elf husband, was dead. Her son was lost, and she believed him dead. She wanted nothing more than to crush the life out of Darius with her own hands.

She was not formally educated, but she had always been remarkably intelligent. She had come to him with a plan ready. Tharkus still held the Triforce of Power, from a much earlier grab at its power, in an attempt to turn the tide of the war. Cruel as the gods were, only one piece of the Triforce had remained in his grasp, the others going to two others. The Triforce of Wisdom had ended up in the hands of Darius himself, as if sealing their fate that they were destined to face one another.

And the third was in Shaklator's hands. At the time, it seemed logical that the Triforce of Courage would choose her, dauntless as she was. But just as he had, she had fallen a great deal since then. Those the highest, with the most good in their hearts, must fall further and harder than any born villain. Tharkus had no idea how to use the Triforce, but she had been learning. They devised the plan. She would take both of their pieces herself, and with them, would have the strength to match Darius. They spent several weeks in practice, to ensure she had control before she set out to break him. Meanwhile, Tharkus was growing all the flesh golems he could and gathering an army of the dead with his influence. The war would return, and with a vengeance Darius could never imagine.

Yet even then, Darius had bested them. Shaklator had forcibly ripped the Triforce of Wisdom from him with the strength of the other two, and though she should have been impossible for any mortal to face at that point, Darius had been prepared. Silver Fang, or the Master Sword, as it was later named, had been recovered, and he used it against her. The bizarre power Tharkus did not understand could neutralize the Triforce's power, making her as any other mortal against its blade.

She had proven her quick thinking and intelligence once more, making a final wish on the Triforce, permanently altering her biology, before ejecting the Triforce in its entirety into Darius. Suddenly possessed by a power he did not understand, and Shaklator transformed into a mighty godlike being, even without the Triforce in her possession, it seemed that finally, they had won.

And Darius surprised them again, using the Twilight Mirror to banish her into the Void. A maneuver that she had no defense against, and then turning his magic against Tharkus' undead army, burning them to cinders. Tharkus was forced to escape, unable to do anything against Darius in this state.

Perhaps it was irony, if that was the correct use of the word, that what saved Tharkus' life that day was Darius' own dimension-crossing travel spell. There was nowhere in the world he could hide from Darius anymore, so he would hide in another.

Eight thousand years was a long time. Tharkus had advanced much in the craft of Necromancy since then. He had successfully completed the process of transferring his soul and mind into a flesh golem, effectively making himself immortal. He had improved his ability to control his undead minions, and devised methods to craft specific elements onto his golems, not simply growing them as they would. The demons of the world he found himself in had remarkable power, and their blood in particular had amazing effects on human biology. His research in this direction had been cut short when the humans of the world rebelled and committed the genocide of the entire species.

All except for one. It had been Tharkus who found Minerva's crypt. The half-breed child with power greater than even Shaklator had wielded. And it had come to her entirely naturally. Tharkus had to know what made her what she was. It had been quite an effort to gain access to her blood without releasing her from her slumber. Once loosed, he would have had no chance of reigning her in.

Eredor had been a willing guinea pig for his further experiments with her blood, which had much the same effect as a full-blooded demon's had on human biology, granting the emperor remarkable power. And so long as Eredor kept up with the treatments, getting flesh blood into his veins on a regular basis, the corrupting effect that would eventually kill him was delayed.

It had been from Minerva's blood, and the study of the corruption and decay it caused, that Tharkus had devised the Blight, a method of corrupting the land itself, so that nothing could grow, and water turned to poison. Darius had shown no hesitation at razing the land to glass in order to wipe out the rebellion. Why should he limit himself from doing the same?

During this time had been when Ganondorf appeared in this world. Tharkus had instantly recognized the signs of the Triforce of Power. There was no doubt where he had come from, and Tharkus knew that if he managed to get close the wizard, it was only a matter of time before he returned to his own world, and sought a way to ride his coattails, so to speak.

Tharkus could hardly believe the level of power Ganondorf commanded, surpassing both himself and Darius at their prime, but most shocking was the way he almost continuously accomplished feats with magic that Tharkus believed impossible. It was as though the functional laws of magic annoyed the wizard, and he deliberately set out to shatter them, and was actually successful more often than not.

The Triforce was said to be the power of the goddesses who created the world, and that the one who possessed all three was capable of ascending to the level of godhood himself. Tharkus could easily believe that if Ganondorf ever gained the other two pieces, he could certainly reach that level.

Finally, Tharkus believed it was time. Ganondorf had completed his goal of bringing all the world under a single banner, and was planning to use a dimensional travel spell to leave, and soon. Tharkus was attempting to find a way to trace the wizard, and use him as a beacon to lock his own travel spell onto, even across dimensions, when Shaklator contacted him. He could hardly believe she was still alive after eight thousand years, but it seemed whatever she had done to herself in that final act with the Triforce's power had also extended her life indefinitely.

She asked if he still sought his revenge on Darius, and Tharkus had agreed instantly. They tried to recruit Ganondorf to their aid, keeping Tharkus himself hidden and out of the equation. Ganondorf had done all but spit in her face, and departed the world as intended. Next, they went to Khall, after allowing Tharkus to sow his new Blight, and convince them that their world was doomed.

And thus began the chain of events that had finally led them here.

Tharkus stood alone on the open roof of the tower. The Twilight Mirror was in its elevated rack, glinting in the afternoon sun. Ten feet from it, a massive column of jet black obsidian, the only element capable of bearing the portal the mirror would project.

Darius' final insult had been a seal, based on the Triforce itself, to keep Shaklator out of the world. While it was in place, she was unable to cross the threshold back into the world. Tharkus had surmised that it could be unlocked by draining its power via forcing the three Triforce bearers to unleash their power. The locks made by the pieces of Wisdom and Courage had both released, but the seal of Power had remained immutably in place, regardless of their efforts. And over time, energy seeped back into the seal, all three locks now standing strong once more.

It wouldn't matter soon. The approach of Walpurgis Night weakened all barriers, including those that separated the worlds of the living and the dead, and this seal. Once the sun was down tonight, Tharkus believed, it would be close enough that with the aid of the mirror, he could open a gateway through which Shaklator could cross, and they would then begin once more their crusade of revenge. They would destroy everything that stood in their way, taking from Darius the only thing he had left: His world. And from those ashes, Tharkus would finally build his world, the perfect kingdom. And all the world would fall silent, in a glorious peace of silence. A silent kingdom.

And this was his last chance. Shaklator's patience, it seemed, was not as infinite as her life. She had grown irritated that their attempts at removing the final threat to her release had failed to such a degree that he was now alone and cornered in this tower. If he failed here, she would turn to Zero, unlikely as it seemed, to release her at the only other opportune time, by opening a gateway at midnight on Walpurgis Night. Where the little monster had gotten to, Tharkus did not know, nor did he care.

A spark shot to him from one of his lookouts. Looking through the eye of the golem in question, he could see them, approaching from the southwest. A group of seven, moving quickly toward the tower. Not running, so they did not wind themselves. He couldn't be sure who they were exactly at this distance, but the massive frame of Ganondorf, towering over the others, was unmistakable. And there was Kilishandra, almost seven feet tall herself, but there was another woman, almost the same height. That was Midna, and that meant Link was doubtlessly there as well.

They did not destroy the tower at a distance, which meant they intended to enter. They were coming to reclaim the mirror, Tharkus surmised. He knew they would chase him down eventually, but he had not been sure whether they'd actually try to take the mirror back, or if they would arrive in time to try to stop him.

And in cliché heroic fashion, they arrive in the nick of time. The tower was large, and not without defenses, but he would have to slow them, to buy time until the sun was down. It was still over an hour until dark. Tharkus released his grip on the golem, and turned his massive, five-armed and four-legged monster frame to the stairs. Stairs were so much harder to manage since his feeding frenzy had transformed him so, and he had not had time to find a way to fix it, but there was no help for it now.

He just had to hold them off long enough.

* * *

Ganondorf sent an explosive wave ripping through the out wall surrounding the base of the tower, and the group moved rapidly through the breach. The blade-armed, one-eyed golems descended on them almost instantly. Link's sword flashed, igniting the ones it touched in blue flame, burning them to ash, not allowing them to rise again as the other weapons that struck them did. Her black lightning not effective on these monsters, Midna used the phantasmal hand that sprouted from her hair to strike and hurl them away as Alex, Silviana, and Ralthas struck down those that came near, the group making a direct charge for the door of the tower with Ganondorf leading the way. Kilishandra unleashed a strike of lightning into the rapidly reforming group behind them, not enough to eradicate them, but blasting them into hundreds of pieces that would take a great deal of time to recover.

"How many of these damn things did he make?" Alex asked as the group arrived at the door, and more of the golems were swarming around them like insects.

"Count them if you want, but I'm going with 'as many as he could,'" Ganondorf answered, drawing one of the throwing knives from the belt across his chest, and hurling it into a group on their right, where it exploded in a fiery ball, seconds later dying away as limbs rained down on the ground.

"Not a single window on the place," Link said, looking up at the tower's sheer stone walls, "I guess there's only one way in."

"I've got the door!" Midna said, the giant red hand turning its palm to the stone doors, and with a shove, sent the massive stone doors grating across stone, swinging on their hinges and slamming into the walls on either side.

Ralthas lopped both arms from one of the golems that came too close as the group quickly moved inside. They were greeted by a simple open room with a set of double doors at the far end. Ledges on either side of the room above them quickly filled with more of the monsters. Link and Ganondorf stuck down more as they charged toward the doors. Silviana snatched her bow, putting an arrow through one of the creatures' eye, and stopping it in midair as it leaped toward them, crashing hard on the ground.

Ganondorf ripped open the doors with one hand, finding them unlocked, and they were greeted with a stairway going upward, spiraling to the left. "Should be a simple layout," he said to Link, "This stairway should wrap around the outside, with openings onto each floor. The mirror will be on the roof."

"Then we go up," Link said.

Alex stopped at the door, turning back while the others filed through. The golems were not rushing them yet, and seemed to be building their number back by the door. Ganondorf could probably wipe them out, but he needed to save his strength for Tharkus, Alex knew. These things were going to be on their heels the entire way.

An odd shape and color amidst the swarm caught his eye. One of the creatures stepped through the crowd, out in front. Alex recognized it. The black, cloth-like flesh of its body was gone, instead showing the thin spinal column and large, exposed ribs of the chest. Alex knew it as the one he had fought before, amidst the fire. The one that had killed his sister right in front of his eyes.

"Alex, let's go!" Silviana shouted at him from the stairs.

He turned to follow, and then paused again, glancing over his shoulder at the creatures, which were starting to advance as a group. Then, he sheathed his sword, and reached out, taking a grip on both doors, and pushed them shut. He heard the latch click.

The group paused, glancing back. "Alex!" Silviana shouted, leaping from the stairs and rushed to the door, pushing, only to find it would not budge. On the other side, Alex had taken his belt knife, and jammed the blade through the handles, barring the doors as best he could. "Alex, what are you doing?" Silviana shouted.

His voice was muffled by the door as he responded. "We already know I can't do anything against that monster," he shouted back, "I'm useful here!"

Silviana pushed on the door again, rattling the dagger, but it refused to budge under her strength. "You idiot, you're just going to get yourself killed!" she shouted.

"Probably, but this is the best I can do," he replied, "I'll keep these things off your backs for as long as I can."

"Open this door, damn you!" she shouted, her voice becoming more of a scream.

"I'm not a hero, Sil," Alex said, "I'm not going to save the world. That's you guys' job. Best I can do is give you the time to do it. Now you better get going. They look like they're getting ready to come at me, and I'm going to be too busy to talk for much longer."

"Come on," Ganondorf said, "We need to get moving."

"Sil," Link said, "He's right. We have to go."

Ganondorf started up the stairs, with Kilishandra following him. Silviana turned to them, unable to believe they would just leave him here like this. "We can't just leave him here!" she said.

"He made this choice on his own," Ralthas said, "We must respect that."

The judge silently passed his sword into his left hand, then clapped his right fist over his heart, in a silent salute, before turning to follow Ganondorf and Kilishandra. "Come on, Sil," Link said, "Let's make it count for something."

"Sil, go," Alex said, "You know good and well why Link is going to need you up there."

She knew what he spoke of. The Silver Arrow in her quiver. If they needed it, if Ganondorf betrayed them at the last moment, she had to have it on hand. "Damn you," she said, fighting back the tears as she turned from the door, "Don't you dare die, do you hear me? Don't you dare die!"

She followed Link and Midna as they started up the stairs, moving quickly to catch up with the others.

Outside the door, Alex stood with his back to it, his sword in hand as the golems moved ever closer, seemingly unsure of what he was doing. They had never seen this behavior before, though uncertainty was not going to stop them for much longer.

He smiled to himself at her last words. "Sorry," he whispered, "But that's one promise I'm afraid I can't make."

He looked up at the golems, particularly the one that most held his ire, his smile turning into a snarl. "You are not getting past here, not while I breathe!" he shouted at them, then stepped forward, digging his toe in as he exploded into a full sprint, charging their ranks, "Come on, demons! It's time to go back to Hell!"

* * *

The stairs continued past the second floor, which was littered with only dust and a few old tables and books. The stair stopped at the third floor, which opened into a wide room, with a passage at the far end revealing another stairway, going up and around to the right. The only decorations in the room were two statues facing the group as they entered, standing at seven feet tall and depicting armored knights with swords and shields.

Dust shook from the statues as they approached, and Ganondorf held up a hand to stop. As one, the statues came to life, lifting their swords and readying the shields. "Armos!" Ganondorf said as the stone knights moved toward them.

The knights moved fast for golems of stone, and were upon them in seconds, and Link turned a strike as he stepped around the force of the blow, counter-striking into his attacker's side, only for the Armos to deflect the strike with its shield. Ganondorf caught the blow from his attacker more directly, stopping it with his sword and shoving forward, sending the Armos staggering backward with his enormous strength.

Wasting no time, Midna's phantasmal hand shot out, snatching hold of the first Armos' feet and ripping them from beneath it. Black lightning flashed from her hands, lancing across its body and slicing it to ribbons in seconds, rock rolling every direction as she erased the parts the lightning struck.

Kilishandra moved around the side of the second as Ganondor charged it, turning its blade aside and giving it a shoulder-block that caused it to stagger even further. As if on cue, Kilishandra unleashed a bolt of lightning that shattered it into rubble, sending chips of stone flying everywhere even as Link's ears seemed to explode, and all he could hear was loud ringing.

It was an utter shock when rubble fell from the ceiling and Tharkus' monstrous form descended on Ganondorf from above, landing on him and his weight dragging the wizard to the floor. Their ears still ringing, none could hear the sounds of the impact as four of Tharkus' five hands grabbed hold of Ganondorf's head, yanking upward and slamming his face down into the floor, sending hairline fractures out in a spider web pattern.

Link made a running leap, crashing into Tharkus' back and driving his sword up to the hilt in his disgusting flesh. Tharkus snapped upright, screaming in agony, barely audible over the ringing in Link's ears, and spinning around, trying to dislodge Link. Wondering for just an instant why Tharkus did not instantly burst into flame and die like the other golems, Link managed to hold on and twisted his sword, widening the wound.

Tharkus leaned forward, and Link swore as he yanked his blade free, pushing off the necromancer's back as Tharkus slammed himself down backward in an attempt to crush Link on the floor. Link landed on his back, fortunately out of reach, and climbed to his feet quickly.

Unable to get back to his own feet quickly, Tharkus performed a bizarre action in which his legs dissolved into his body and reformed under him, lifting him from the floor as his arms and head moved across his torso, across the frozen faces on his chest of the men and women he had previously devoured. He snarled at Link, but glanced down to see Ganondorf climbing to his feet, and Tharkus turned to the wizard instead. It was clear who he considered the greater threat to be.

Tharkus lunged at Ganondorf, when an explosion across his side caused him to stagger off course, and turned to see Kilishandra, her hand lifted toward him. He started to snarl something at her when Midna's enormous phantom hand slapped down over his head and shoulders, grabbing on and pulling him backward as all five of his own hands grabbed at its fingers, trying to pry them off.

"Finish him off!" Midna shouted, digging her feet in and grinding her teeth as she fought to hold on.

Silviana and Ralthas appeared on either side of her, running past, their weapons moving and each of them slashed through two knees, dropping all four feet from under him as his body slammed down on the floor. Link turned to Ganondorf. The wizard had sheathed his sword and lifted his hands to begin a spell. Too slowly. Tharkus dissolved into a thick liquid, slipping through the phantom hand's fingers as Midna swore, spreading rapidly across the floor.

"Don't let it touch you!" Ganondorf shouted as they all quickly moved away from the ooze, none wanting to be the Necromancer's next victim and devoured by his flesh.

"_Daem!_" In an instant, Tharkus' head and a single hand rose from the ooze, a bolt of lighting streaking from the empty hand and striking Ganondorf square in the chest and hurtling him across the room, slamming his back into the wall, and he then fell onto his hands and knees, the ooze creeping rapidly toward him.

"See how you like this!" Link growled, turning his sword over and stabbing the white blade into the thick liquid.

Instantly, there was a cry of pain, ripples shooting across the surface of the ooze and it withdrew from the sword quickly, and drew rapidly together, rising from the floor and taking shape once again. Link ran for it, aiming for the center. It swerved back, the blade tip just missing as Tharkus' head became visible above the rapidly growing arms. His rapid charge left Link off balance, and with a grin, Tharkus shot a hand forward, snatching him by the shoulder of his tunic, and yanked to the side. Link felt his feet leave the floor as he hurtled through the air, slamming into the stone wall before dropping onto the floor face down.

Tharkus moved after him, only to be stopped short as a streak of gold lightning struck him from the side, sending a jolt of pain through him. His flesh, where it struck, turned to liquid, and became more difficult for him to hold onto. He turned to see the glowing Triforce on Ganondorf's hand, a single finger pointed toward him, and gold sparks dancing across his wrist.

Ganondorf, closed his fist, drawing it back as if to throw a punch, the sparks growing rapidly as he readied a much larger strike. Tharkus' shot his hands upward, arms stretching like elastic, grabbing hold of the edges of the hole in the ceiling, and dragging himself upward, vanishing with remarkable speed through the ceiling.

"After him!" Ganondorf shouted, "Don't give him time to recover!"

Midna leaned down, offering Link her hand as he climbed to his feet. The impact had left him with several bruised ribs, but the pain was already fading. They quickly moved after the others, up the stairs at a run. They had to cross the open floor to reach the next set of stairs. They slowed when they saw Tharkus moving up the stairs to the next floor. With a roar, he send a wave of fire rolling down the stairs and over the group. Ganondorf did not even blink as he lifted one hand, the flames parting around him and the others, passing by harmlessly.

He was at the far end of the room when they entered the fifth floor, and turned to meet their gaze.

"Damn you all!" he screamed at them, "Why can't you people just die?!"

"You can't stop justice, fiend," Ralthas said as the group spread out, blocking all chance of him getting past them, "You are going to pay for your crimes."

"Oh, don't be so melodramatic," Ganondorf said, "I don't think the _why_ of us killing him is terribly important right now."

"Justice," Tharkus growled, glaring at Ralthas, "You judges always did like that word. 'Justice' this and 'justice' that. You always did like to pretend you were protecting people, while blindly enforcing laws of corrupt politicians and blind ignorance. Yet when one steps up and challenges the system, tries to improve the lot of the many, he is stamped down. What do you know of justice?"

"You're wasting your breath if you think you can talk me down," Ralthas said, "You are going to pay for what you have done to my people."

Something visibly snapped in Tharkus' mind, his face contorting in rage as he screamed in response, "_Your_ people?! You elves always living in your palaces, and riches thrown your way! You can't even be bothered to screw each other enough to keep your own race alive! Even becoming a judge, and having power over kings and mages! What do you know of the people?!

"_I _saw the plight of the people!" he roared, taking a step toward them in his fury, "Hundreds, thousands starving to death in drought! The nobles all living the good life while the rest starved! I tried to change it! I tried to fix it! Not one person stood up to aid me!

"I took my power…" his voice grew quieter, but no less rage within, and lowered his eyes from their gaze, "…my power…without power… wasn't enough to save the people… I took the forbidden magic, yes, but I did it for the people!"

"Dear gods," Link whispered. As the journal had said. The forbidden magic that was Necromancy, which Tharkus had taken to try to help people, and began his descent into madness. That madness, which had been stewing in the necromancer for eight thousand years, had suddenly just been brought to the surface. He was completely snapping.

The group was edging closer, looking for the exact moment to strike. Tharkus took several steps back from them. "They… they wouldn't let me work…" Tharkus said, his voice shifting from rage to desperation, "I could have figured it out! All I needed was more time, but they kept interrupting! I couldn't let them talk, I'd be branded a criminal!

"And then he took it all from me. My wife. My daughter! He killed them! All I was trying to do was make the world better, and he destroyed me! So, I have to pay him back! I'll take everything he loves! And then I'll make it work! I'll make the world better!"

"Ralthas, no!" Ganondorf shouted as the Judge suddenly charged.

It was too late. Ralthas blade found its mark, stabbing into Tharkus' flesh, but also snapping the monster back to reality from the nightmare he was reliving. One of the five hands snapped around Ralthas' neck and lifted him from the floor, high into the air, and choking down.

Ralthas fought for breath, looking down at the hard green eyes, barely visible under the black eyebrows, locked firmly on his own. "I'll crush the life out of you, rich elf bastard," Tharkus growled, and squeezed down harder.

The red hand materialized suddenly as Midna stepped from the shadow behind Tharkus, clamping down over his head and shoulders and jerking backward, slamming the monster onto his back. Ralthas was able to plant his feet on Tharkus' chest and push away, pulling himself out of the monster's grip, but unable to retreive his sword before Tharkus dissolved again, the liquid quickly pouring away, and in defiance of all logic, running up the fair stairs, toward the roof.

Rubbing his neck, Ralthas picked up his sword where it lay after Tharkus dissolved.

Ganondorf glared at him as he moved past. "You're lucky. I was going to let him have you, after an idiot move like that."

"Come on, we need to get to the roof," Link said, "It isn't over yet."

"It could have been," Ganondorf growled, "Let's go."

The group moved up the stairs, toward the roof.

* * *

With a grunt, Alex's blade struck bone, sending one more cyclopean head flying. The bladed arms flashed through the air. He managed to stop the blow from one, to have another strike downward against the flat of his blade.

The blade snapped, sending the piece spinning through the air to clatter on the floor some distance away. Alex found himself with his back against the door, the golems closing in, and only three inches of steel between himself and them, and fighting for breath, fighting to stay on his feet in spite of the rapidly growing exhaustion.

The bare one, with the visible ribs, stood at the head of the group moving toward him, slowly and deliberately, as if trying to drag it out as long as possible. He knew he wasn't going to get out of this alive, but this wasn't how he'd pictured it ending.

"Damn," he muttered to himself between breaths, "What a way to go…"

* * *

Link emerged onto the roof, and took note that the Twilight Mirror was indeed here, though scarcely had time for even that when hands from the right snatched him, lifting his feet from the ground and hurled him through the air. He slammed into a stone column, spinning sideways and hitting the stone floor. As he pushed himself up, he realized he was inches from the edge of the tower, and a long drop over the edge.

Tharkus was moving after him, even as the rest of the group emerged from the stairs. Link was on his knees, seeing the swarm of grasping hands reaching for him. He dove forward, feeling them graze his back as he hit the floor rolling, moving between Tharkus' legs, rising and turning, backing away quickly as the monster turned after him.

The light was fading quickly, only the barest rays of the sun still visible on the western horizon, and the first stars beginning to emerge in the sky over the tower.

"You've got nowhere left to run, Tharkus," Ganondorf said as the group spread out on the tower's rooftop, surrounding him once more.

A smile crossed Tharkus' face, and in a repulsive motion, something appeared in his palm, rising from within his flesh. Link saw it as Tharkus jammed it onto his finger, and lifted it toward him. A ring, with a silver band, and a purple gem. Link had seen it before. It was the ring that the shape shifting creature, the doppleganger, had tried to steal from the vault beneath the castle back when the curse first fell over the country. But he had thought Zelda still had it, wearing it on a chain around her neck.

A light swelled within the gemstone, and flashed toward him. Link stepped to the side quickly, it passing by harmlessly, but when he glanced over his shoulder at where it struck, he suddenly thought he should have blocked it.

There was the Twilight Mirror, in a steel brace on a raised platform just off the center of the roof. About ten feet from it, in the perfect center, was a massive block of obsidian, the jet black volcanic glass, nearly ten feet across and three times as tall.

The light from the ring struck the mirror, and there was an immediate reaction. The purple light spread across its surface, and around the outside edge of the glass, green letters began to appear, in a complete circle around. Link recognized none, but in the next instant, they all faded, vanishing entirely as a green light began to glow along the outside edge.

"What did you just do?!" Midna shouted at Tharkus.

"This ring is a control fashioned by Darius when he was researching the mirror over eight thousand years ago," Tharkus said, "By erasing all the target coordinates from the mirror, instead of opening to the Twilight Realm, or any other physical plane, the portal instead opens to the Void. And now it's too late for you to stop it!"

The light gathering around the edges of the mirror shot forward, striking the surface of he obsidian, forming a green circle that began to spin, growing larger with each passing second.

"Pity, isn't it?" Tharkus asked as Link turned back to him, "You stopped our spy as she placed the false control back into the vault, but were too late, as Zero had already taken this one to deliver to me. The ring your princess has been guarding this entire time was the wrong one."

"What do we do?" Kilishandra asked, turning to Ganondorf.

"Smash the obsidian pillar!" Ganondorf told her, "No obsidian, no portal! You do that while we deal with him!"

Kilishandra nodded, sheathing her sword and running for the pillar and rapidly growing portal. Tharkus moved after her, only to have Link step in front of him, brandishing the white blade that caused him agony as though his body were still alive when it cut his flesh.

They could hear the words of Kilishandra's spell as she prepared her strike. Suddenly, dark shapes appeared from the edge of the roof, and the cyclopean golems appeared over the sides, rushing toward the group. The formation broke as each of them were forced to defend themselves. Link struck down two that rushed him, seeing Midna use her phantasmal hand to knock several back off the roof and into the space beyond, with a long way down.

Ganondorf cleaved one in two with a single stroke of his blade, and backhanded another with his free hand with enough force to shatter its skull. He saw two rushing for Kilishandra. He shouted her name, but was unable to go to her, as one of the blades pierced his back. Not nearly enough to kill him, and he drove his elbow into it to force it off him, and with a spinning slash turned it into pieces.

Silviana was faster than him, evading her attackers and rushing to Kilishandra, both her blades drawn, and with two strokes, stopped them in their tracks, putting her back to Kilishandra's. "Hurry up!" she shouted as the two began to pull themselves back together, rising rapidly.

Ralthas ducked behind one of the pillars of the arches ringing the rooftop, the bladed arm of his attacker striking it as he stepped around the other side, his blade cutting into its back and rendering it temporarily down. Tharkus was moving for Kilishandra again. Link and Ralthas both ran for him. Link reached him first, slashing his sword into one of his legs from behind. Tharkus cried out in agony, the severed part bursting into flame as it was cut from him, and his great weight, no longer properly supported, toppled to the side.

Tharkus turned to retaliate when something most unexpected happened. An enormous armored hand snatched him by the head and crushed down, smashing his flesh like putty. He moved his head over, reforming it quickly, looking up to see a massive armored figure, like a dark knight of legend. Two glowing red eyes looked down at him through the visor of the horned helmet. "You stay the hell away from her," Ganon said. The massive armored fist struck down, splattering his body like wet paper.

Tharkus desperately pulled his flesh back together, trying to put himself upright, out of reach of the monster, but Ganon was already on him again, grabbing his head and with a twist, yanking it free. It was not enough to kill one like Tharkus, but every mere touch of the armored monster caused him pain. The same kind of pain as being struck by the Triforce's power.

"I don't understand this," Tharkus muttered as he pulled himself together again, looking up at the armored figure of Ganon as the dark knight descended on him again, "Where did this thing come from?"

"You don't have to understand," Ganon said, grabbing Tharkus by the shoulders and lifting him up, "I'm going to make sure you never pull yourself together again."

Kilishandra finished her spell, lashing out with a bolt of lightning toward the obsidian pillar. She could scarcely believe her eyes at what happened next, as the streak of light suddenly curved, flying around the pillar and harmlessly into the deeping darkness beyond the tower.

"It glanced off!" Kilishandra cursed, "There's no way!"

Silviana struck one of the golems, kicking its body away as she moved closer to Kilishandra. "So what now?"

"I… I don't know!" Kilishandra said, "I've never seen anything like that!"

Midna, her gigantic red fist doing the work, sent half a dozen of the golems flying off the tower, and rushed over to them. The portal was nearly to its full size, eight feet in diameter, and the surface of the obsidian in the circle was falling away, as if into the pillar itself, forming a dark tunnel in its surface.

"Can't you hit it harder?" Midna asked.

"Sure, if you want me to take out everything else up here!" Kilishandra shouted at her.

"The portal is warping space around itself!" Ganon shouted, "Someone has to get close enough to cause a detonation behind the portal, right against the pillar!"

Tharkus saw his chance. He turned his body to liquid, leaping toward Ganon, and covering him with his flesh. The touch was painful, but in seconds, he was completely smothering the monster, and the instant his flesh contacted Ganon's, it would start to dissolve it. It was several seconds before he realized the error of this attack. The transformation that had changed Ganondorf into this had left no openings. There were no gaps in the armor, no seams he could seep through, and even the visor from which the red glow of his eyes was visible was pure metal beneath. There was no flesh for him to devour, and his strength against the pain of Ganon's touch was rapidly failing, the pain becoming too much to bear.

"Is there something you can do?" Midna asked Kilishandra, "Some kind of explosion at close range?"

"No, not like we're going to need," Kilishandra said, "It will have to be focused in a single point, preferably directed into the pillar. We need my father's level of control for this."

"He's preoccupied," Silviana said, indicating where Ganon was pulling pieces of Tharkus off himself one at a time and smashing them under his heel.

The tunnel within the portal was growing more defined, green rings of light marking its outline, and extending seemingly infinitely into the pillar. Midna turned from the portal to the mirror, where it stood on the brace, glowing brighter and brighter by the second. "No choice for it then," she said, "I'll destroy the mirror."

Sparks shot across the portal, causing them to turn back to it. A shape was taking form within the portal, drifting steadily toward them. Midna felt her blood go cold. She could see the red hair, like fire, and plate armor, dark red as blood, and the dark eyes fixed on them as she drifted forward.

"It's her," Midna hissed.

"She's coming!" Kilishandra shouted, readying another spell.

Link turned as he struck down another golem, its body bursting into flame from his sword strike, and saw the figure within the portal, coming closer by the second. "Shit…" he said.

Ralthas also saw her. A chill shot down his spine. This was it. There was no time left. Kilishandra's first spell had failed, and it would take too long for her to ready another to close the portal. Tharkus was doing everything in his effort to keep Ganon from breaking away and charging the portal.

There was only one option left. Ralthas struck his blade into another golem, and with a kick, sent it toppling from the roof, and turned to the portal. He tossed his sword aside as he moved. Link, Midna, and Silviana were once more focused on fighting off the golems, and Kilishandra didn't have time. His hand rose to his neck, and reached into the front of his shirt.

Ralthas pulled a pendant from inside his shirt. A simple leather string, with a blue gemstone. The gemstone worn by all healers of the magical arts, and the only part of his old life, before he became a judge, that he carried with him, and identical to the one Sheila still wore herself.

"What are you doing?" Link shouted at him, but unable to break away from the fight as more of the golems swarmed up the walls and toward him.

"_Hear me, gods of past and future_," Ralthas spoke, his own voice taking on the tone of magic, audible all around them, "_I am a faithful servant of the light, and have reached the end of my path._"

The gemstone began to glow. Link and Midna both suddenly remembered what Sheila had told them about it. The healer's stone was the conduit through which magical healing passed, allowing the healer to share their own life, their own energy, with those they aided. But by focusing the energy in the stone, with no recipient, it would build until the stone could not contain it, and explode with catastrophic force.

"_Centuries ago, I swore my oath, to protect the innocent, and uphold the law_," Ralthas continued, approaching the pillar still, "_In the name of the duty that cannot be forsworn do I willingly lay down my life to save this world and its people._"

"He's going to do it," Link whispered, "He's going to kill himself!"

Ralthas was at the pillar, at the side to the right of the portal. With a sharp pull, he snapped the leather string from around his neck, and pushed the glowing gemstone against the side of the pillar. It was growing steadily brighter.

Link struck down yet another golem, finally breaking free, and running after him. "Ralthas, there's another way!" he shouted.

"Stay back, Link!" Ralthas shouted back.

Something in Ralthas' voice made him stop, which surprised even Link. The figure of Shaklator in the portal was coming ever closer. It would only be about a minute more before she reached the threshold.

"I don't expect you to understand this, Link," Ralthas said, "But I swore an oath when I became a Judge. An oath to uphold justice and protect the innocent. You may have misunderstood, thinking that I represented the laws of the nations, upholding what the politicians deemed the right course. What I truly represent… what all Judges represent… is the spirit of justice itself. Kings fear us because we care not for the laws of men when the laws of humanity have been violated.

"You are here because you choose to be, an admirable trait. But I am here because it is the only course for me. I do not choose to be here, because there is no other choice than to stop this nightmare from continuing.

"This is my duty. This is everything I am. And if my life can stop this, then there is no other choice."

"What about Sheila?" Link asked, "What do you expect me to tell her?"

Ralthas looked over his shoulder at Link. "Tell her the truth. Tell her that I love her. And that I'm sorry. Sorry I was not there for her as a father should have been."

Red gauntlets stretched out past the portal, fingers gripping its sides as Shaklator began to pull herself from within. Kilishandra cocked her hands back, ready to fire everything she had in an instant.

Ralthas turned back to the glowing blue stone in his hand. His final thoughts were not of what was about to happen before him, or the fate of the world. Instead he saw in his mind the beautiful face and golden locks of the only woman he had ever loved, who had centuries ago passed from the world, but was never far from his thoughts.

"Maria," he whispered, a single tear forming in his eye, "I'm finally coming."

There was no sound from the explosion. Only a blinding light, and Link raised one arm to shield his eyes, as did the others, and then just as quickly as it happened, the light was gone. The portal was gone. All that remained of the obsidian pillar was about two and a half feet of broken rubble in a pile. There was no trace of Ralthas.

The bladed golems stopped, backing slowly away from the group as they turned outward. Link turned in time to see Ganondorf returning to his normal state, the armor peeling away and vanishing in gold light. Tharkus seemed to be gone as well, until he stepped around the raised platform with the Twilight Mirror, to see what was left of him.

Shaklator had vanished with the portal, unable to cross the threshold in time to enter the world.

Tharkus's torso and a single arm were all that was visible in a puddle of his own flesh. The constant contact with the power of Ganondorf's Triforce had taken its toll on him, now unable to even force his flesh back together. And he was laughing.

"And what do you think is so damn funny?" Link demanded, stopping a few feet from the grotesque mass.

"It's funny," Tharkus said, a bubble of his own flesh interrupting him as it filled his mouth, then tried again, "It's funny, because you've changed nothing. Using the mirror was just a bypass, to save time."

"You intended to summon her on Walpurgis Night if this failed, and it has," Kilishandra said, "But you aren't in any shape to summon anyone."

"Not to mention you're not getting out of this alive," Link said, "Not after we had to lose a far better man than you just now."

"Don't tell me you've forgotten Zero," Tharkus said, "He was always the contingency, even if he didn't realize it. He'll be the one to summon her now. You've done nothing but delay the inevitable."

"I'll show you what's inevitable," Ganondorf growled, and then in a flash of gold, struck his hand toward Tharkus. There was a crash of thunder and a flash of light, the other four stumbling back from the force of the impact, though it was not directed at them. When it died away, Tharkus was gone, only a black stain remaining on the stone where he had been.

What happened next shocked them all. The bladed golems around them convulsed, and then collapsed upon themselves. Their bones fell to dust, their flesh dissolving, and in seconds, all that remained of each were the two bladed arms and a pile of white powder.

"What just happened?" Silviana asked, looking around them at the sight.

"The method of controlling flesh golems easily is to place a fragment of one's own soul within them," Ganondorf explained, "It causes a permanent telepathic link between them and their master, as well as unquestionable loyalty. But when their master dies, and his soul departs this world, it takes the fragments with it."

"So the golems all die on the spot," Kilishandra concluded.

"Exactly," Ganondorf said, "Now, better question, what to do about-"

He was cut off as a spark shot across the roof of the tower. All five turned to the Twilight Mirror in the center. Green light shot off its surface in random directions, and red sparks danced across it and onto the stone.

"What's happening?" Link asked.

"She's too close," Ganondorf said, disbelief evident in his own voice, "She's got her foot in the door, so to speak. Shaklator is still coming through!"

In the green light on the mirror's surface, two dark voids appeared, shaping into vicious silhouettes of eyes, thought they all knew they could see them well enough. A feminine voice let out a vicious growl all around them.

A shape drifted out from the surface of the mirror. A silhouette of an arm, five grasping fingers that reached to the edge of the raised platform and took hold. "If anyone has a plan to stop this, speak up," Ganondorf said, "I'm drawing a blank, considering the laws of dimensional travel have just been shattered!"

"She's still using the mirror," Midna said, "There's no choice. I have to destroy it."

Link snatched hold of her arm. "If you do that, you might never be able to go home," he said.

She smiled sadly. "If I don't do it, it won't matter anyway."

With a groan of effort, another shadowed arm emerged from the mirror, snatching hold of the stone. Midna pulled her arm free of Link's grasp and moved toward the mirror. With a sudden cry, something shot from its surface, striking Midna across the face. It jerked her head to the side, blood appearing on her cheek, but she kept walking. Link tried to rush after her, but Ganondorf grabbed him by the shoulder. When Link shot him a challenging glare, the wizard just shook his head.

More shapes shot from the mirror, striking Midna across the face and shoulders, but only slowing her down as she climbed the steps of the platform. A thick shape shot out, doubling her over as it struck her in the stomach, but finally, she reached the top of the platform, only a few feet from the mirror.

Midna turned, looking down at Link, and smiled at him. He wondered what she was thinking, wasting time like that. A tear formed in her eye, and she reached up with one hand to wipe it. The eyes in the mirror moved, the dark silhouette of a head beginning to pull itself through. Midna reached out and brushed the surface of the mirror with her finger, wet from the teardrop.

Instantly, everything fell silent. There was a sudden sharp crack that split the air. Then in an instant, the mirror collapsed. Thousands of pieces broke free of one another, raining downward and tinkling across the stone, only to vanish seconds later in blue flame.

And then it was gone. No trace of the mirror remained. The shadows had vanished, and Shaklator was once more confined to the Void with no portal for her to take hold of. Midna silently turned, and walked down the stairs, back toward the others. She stopped in front of Link. There were tears in her eyes.

"Like I told you," she said to him, "You're stuck with me. For life."

Link didn't know what came over him then. He reached out and pulled her close, and then realized that he was crying as well. He felt like a mess, and wasn't sure if he was happy or not, but when she embraced him as well, he knew it was right.

"I think I'm going to vomit," Ganondorf muttered, turning and walking toward the stairs.

Silviana watched them a moment, then without a word, started after Ganondorf. Kilishandra moved as well, pausing at the stairs to glance back at them, then started downward after the others.

The first floor was a mess when Ganondorf and Silviana stepped out into it. Whatever Alex had used to bolt the doors was gone, allowing them out. There were remains of the bladed golems everywhere, the sharp edges of the arms in piles of white dust covering almost every inch of the floor.

Silviana quickly searched the room, and to the right of the door as they came through, she saw him. Alex was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall, head hanging down on his chest, his right hand still gripping the bone arm of one of the golems, which he had evidently pulled free of its owner and used as his own weapon. The broken pieces of his sword lay some distance away. His clothing was ripped and slashed in innumerable places, with large bloodstains covering a good deal of the fabric. With enemies that did not bleed, Silviana knew it could only be his own.

She moved to him, dropping to one knee and reaching her hand up under his face, checking for his breath. Her heart caught in her throat as she moved her hand to his neck, desperately hoping to find a pulse.

"Did we win?" Alex asked quietly.

Silviana nearly leaped backwards in surprise, but managed to stop herself when the relief washed over her. She suddenly found herself smiling, and tears in her own eyes.

"Yes," she whispered, "We won."

"Here, kid," Ganondorf said, leaning over her shoulder, offering her something. It was a waterskin. When she gave him a questioning look, he said, "Fairy water. Put a few drops in each of his wounds. He'll pull through."

"Thank you," Silviana said, giving him a grateful smile.

Ganondorf waved her off, responding with only a wordless growl as he turned and walked away.

Still on the tower roof, Link and Midna, at last parting their embrace, walked to the small pile of rubble that had been the massive pillar of obsidian. Link leaned down, picking up Ralthas' sword from where the Judge had dropped it.

"If I'd moved sooner, destroyed the mirror first, he would still be alive," Midna said, "Such a waste."

"Maybe," Link said, "I think this was what he planned when he came with us. That he didn't intend to come back from this."

"Why?"

"He said it himself: He was old, and had lived his life," Link said, "Maybe he wanted to go out while he was still on his feet, before age finally made him too decrepit to even leave his bed."

He lifted the blade of Ralthas' sword. This was the first time he had a close look at the weapon. The blade was polished to a mirror hue, but there were clear chips in the blade, from long years of use. He kept his thumb away from the pommel gem, remembering the effect stroking it had.

Ralthas was not his friend. Never was. Their personalities clashed much to easily. But the Judge did have Link's respect. If he hadn't, he certainly would have now. Link found himself wondering if he would be capable of such a heroic sacrifice.

"I think I might see you again, old man," Link said to the sword, smiling slightly, "Just not for a good while."

There was still work to be done. Zero was still out there, and while they had bought a reprieve, it was mere months. It was not over yet.


	117. Chapter 116

Have a happy end of the world, everybody! And if the Mayan gods don't show up to kill everybody (PROTIP: They won't.), a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, or whatever other holiday you celebrate. Now brace yourself, heavy stuff in this chapter.

**Chapter 116: The Wizard's Lost Home**

Link knelt down, lightly dusting the soot aside. There was the silver glint that had caught his eye. What was left of Tharkus after Ganondorf's attack wasn't even enough to be called ash, though if what Ganondorf surmised, about the fragments of his soul in the other golems causing them to be destroyed when Tharkus' own soul departed his body, then at least he could be sure the necromancer was well and truly dead.

Link picked up the ring, rubbing the black grim off with his thumb, revealing the amethyst set in the silver band. The purple gemstone glinted in the fading light. His hand started to shake and he found himself clenching his fingers down tightly on the ring and gritting his teeth. He was angry. At Tharkus, at Zero, and at himself. He had found this very ring in the vault, the object that shape shifting creature disguised as Zelda had been after.

At least, he thought he had. Zelda still had it around her neck. It had been a fake from the very start. Tharkus had called it a key to the Twilight Mirror. It was the means to change the mirror's "aim," he guessed, to different worlds. He remembered the symbols that had appeared around the mirror's edge, only to be erased, targeting no world, but the space between them. Targeting the Void.

Link closed his fingers around the ring, clenching it in his fist as he let out a hissing sigh through his teeth. He had seen her, reaching out of the portal, and then out of the mirror itself. So close… They had come so close to losing it all right then. Even the group of them, in their current state, likely would have not been able to hold her back in close combat. He remembered when he fought her in the Void. She was so strong, so invincible…

"She is no god," Darius had said, "But she is close enough that it makes no difference to us."

It had been so fast. Now Ralthas was dead, and the mirror was gone. In the midst, riding on adrenaline and panic, he hadn't realized just how close they had come to absolute failure. His first thought when Midna moved to destroy the mirror that she would have been unable to ever go home. His hesitation could have damned them all.

Link rose to his feet, staring at his hand, fingers closed around the ring. He suddenly understood. So many others, like Zelda and Sheila, continued to look to him to solve this problem, even if they didn't voice it. He had made a habit of doing what others would call impossible, believing that anyone could do it if they set themselves to it. Alex and Silviana, and Midna too, all looked at him the same way, even if Alex and Silviana possibly didn't understand why. Midna did. She believed in him with all her soul, that he would find a solution to this problem. He had begun to see that look in Kilishandra as well, though it was some time after he first met her.

Ganondorf did not. There was always something in the wizard's eye when he looked at Link, something that said "no." The wizard did not share the hero worship that surrounded Link, and now, Link knew why. His moment of hesitation had nearly cost them everything, though no one rebuked him for it, and he wondered if they even realized it.

He was faced with a conflict, and he saw it. When he had seen Khall kill Midna in front of him, saving her had been the soul thought on his mind. At that time, he would have let the world burn before he gave up and bringing her back. And now, once again, when faced with a choice between her and the world, he would have chosen her.

He was lucky, they all were, that she had chosen the world.

Where was this going to end? Would he have to face Shaklator in direct combat again? If faced with that terrible, sadistic choice, what would he choose? Could he let Midna die to save everything? If it took his own life in the process, would she allow him to make that sacrifice? Would he even be able to?

Link lifted Ralthas' sword, looking up the blade, at the nicks and scars of countless years of use and repair, though still a fine weapon. "This is my duty," Ralthas had said. The Judge had not hesitated, willingly ending his own life to save theirs.

The judge had said earlier that he was old, and had already lived his life. And he intended to make sure others were able to live theirs.

The people in Hyrule called him a hero. He stepped forward to fight back the darkness that fell over the land while others were imprisoned as spirits and beleaguered by monsters and shadows. He had saved the people of Hyrule. But Link knew the truth. In truth he was selfish. Always focused on what was important to him. First, it was the children, and Ilia, kidnapped by the Moblins, that drove him into the darkness. And then… Well, then it was Midna.

Link turned to her. She was standing on the dais in the center of the rooftop. The cradle that had previously housed the mirror was undamaged, though now empty, and she slowly ran her hand along the curved stone shape. She was doubtlessly thinking of her home, her people, whom she would now never be able to return to.

It seemed like so long ago. When Midna lay dying, cast into the light by Zant, Zelda had commented that Midna had bore so much for them already, for the people of the land that were not even her own, and she had ordered Link back to the castle not to save her own life, but to find help for him, so that he could keep going.

Zant had been a terrible figure. Link didn't know the specifics of Twili succession and bloodlines, but from what he understood of nobility and how things worked in Hyrule, he had likely been of noble blood, from a branch family, related to Midna but not by direct bloodline. Cousins at the closest. And Zant had been jealous of her right as the ruler of the Twili, which had made him eager to aid Ganondorf.

Link wondered what the Twili would do without Midna now. The throne would doubtlessly pass down to the next in line, even if it was a different branch, provided Zant hadn't slaughtered the rest of the nobles when he ascended to power.

Link could feel a pain in his chest. It was not from any injury, save that of his heart. He loved her, with every fiber of his being. He knew that. And that was what made it so painful. The thought of being able to spend his life with her, and to be able to do it here, in his own world, he thought should have had him jumping for joy.

It was him being selfish again, he knew. How could he be happy about that, with what she had just lost? No other Twili existed in this world. They couldn't. Back during the ancient war, sunlight was able to kill them. All modern Twili, excluding Midna with her special circumstances, would die even from direct moonlight. Possibly even a lit candle, he just didn't know. This wasn't her home, and now she had given her home up.

In truth, Midna owed this world nothing. Yet she had given it, and them, everything.

Link moved quietly up the dais, stepping up beside her. She turned her head toward him, and gave him a small smile. Her face was streaked with drying tears. Yes, Link thought to himself, she knew exactly what she had just lost.

He didn't deserve her. She was such a good person. The real image of selflessness. Her initially hostile attitude when they first met had been merely an act, whether for his benefit or her own he did not know, but her good heart had been the same the entire time. Midna was the kind of person who deserved to be called a hero. Not such a selfish man as himself. He wasn't good enough for her. Yet now, as she took his hand, turning toward him and reaching around him and he returned the hug, the pain in his heart gave way to a gentle warmth, and a sense of calm at holding her close.

He didn't deserve her, and yet she had chosen him.

Saving Hyrule had been just a by-product of Link's goals. And now, saving the world was just a by-product of what he wanted. Link leaned his head forward, letting his forehead rest against Midna's shoulder and closing his eyes.

Link could not make the kind of noble sacrifice Ralthas had done, to save the countless people of the world. He could do it for Midna, though. He knew that in his heart.

It wasn't over yet. He would face Shaklator again. He knew that. Left alone, she would just try again, however many thousand years it took. Link preferred a more permanent solution. That was what the world would get from it. It was for Midna that he wouldn't hesitate. He would fight until his strength failed, and then fight on, until his muscle and sinew were torn apart with the effort.

It was a dream, to be with her for the rest of his life, wherever they finally went, whatever happened. But if that dream was not to be reality, then for her, and her alone, he would make the ultimate sacrifice.

Lifting his head, he released her and turned to look at the stone cradle. "Are you okay?" he asked. A stupid question, and he wanted to kick himself for asking it.

"I've been thinking," Midna said, "Thinking about what this means. I cannot go home now, unless I perhaps use the magical methods of leaping between worlds, like Ganondorf can do."

"No," Link said, "They're inaccurate, remember? It took Ganondorf a thousand years to find his way back here."

"I know, but let me finish," Midna said, "I don't know what the state of the Twilight Realm is. I haven't been back there in two years now. The steward I left in charge is a patient man. It will likely be a decade or more before he allows me to be declared lost or dead. And there is nothing I can do about it."

Link felt the pain return to his chest, his sympathy for her situation hurting him more than any blade.

"Yet already, I'm feeling better," Midna said, wiping her eyes with one hand, "There isn't any real danger in the Twilight Realm. The world is much safer and tamer than this one. There are no natural dangers capable of really hurting us. They will pass the throne to another, just as they would have if I died from illness or an accident.

"And, in a strange way, I'm relieved."

"Relieved?" Link asked.

"Yes, Link," Midna said, taking his hand in her own again, and placing her other hand over his, "Don't you see? I'm free. There is nothing between us now. Nothing to get in the way."

The enormity of what she said hit Link like a brick to his face. Every reason it wouldn't work, everything he had ever imagined forcing them apart, it was all gone. That joy he thought he would have finally surfaced, a smile coming to his face. He couldn't help himself, and grabbed her by the shoulder, making her lean down so he could kiss her.

All the problems of the world seemed to melt away for at least a moment. He had promised her that they would find a way, and now one presented itself. But reality pressed back in as they parted from the kiss. There was a lot to do yet, and a lot of dangers on their lives that had to be dealt with before they could begin to worry about things like a house and curtains. And even then, as much as Link wanted to go back to Ordon, put up his feet and rest for a while, he had come to understand about himself that he wouldn't be there forever. But Midna was a different class of woman, one capable of going with him wherever he went, and facing whatever danger came with him. As painful as it was for him to think about Ilia, and the fact he still had not told her where his feelings truly lay, he knew that she would not be able to do this sort of thing with him. She wasn't that kind of person.

And all they had to do was survive this one last challenge. No, two, he corrected himself. Zero was still out there. Tharkus had said so, said that Zero was the one who would bring Shaklator into the world. In an instant, Link knew exactly where he intended to do it.

Ganondorf had said repeatedly that Hyrule was a magical hotbed, a center of magical energies. It was the reason the dead walked in their crypts, and the forest was so hostile to outsiders, among other strange things that were unique to the kingdom. Zero was on his way to Hyrule, if he wasn't there already, and that was where he would summon Shaklator.

If this was a story, it had one final act yet to go, and it would occur back where it all began, that fateful night when all the people of the country turned to stone.

* * *

"That stuff's amazing," Alex said, watching his own flesh knit miraculously before his eyes each time Silviana squeezed the waterskin, allowing a few drops to fall into his open wounds.

"Kings would pay a small fortune for even this amount," she said, gently pulling his shirt, sticky with his blood, away from his chest and used a knife to cut it away, revealing the slash wounds across his ribs. Fortunately, none were very deep. None had managed to slip between his ribs or break any of the bones to get at the vitals within. "How did you do it?" she asked, "How did you manage to hold of that many for so long?"

"I think there's something to be said when a man knows he's cornered," Alex said, smiling at her, "It did get a little close when my sword broke, but I managed to get this," he paused gestured to the curved blade at his side, all that remained of the sword-like arm of one of the creatures, "Pulled it off the one that killed my sister, then used it to split his skull. Okay, seriously, how much is that stuff actually worth?"

Silviana looked up from his knitting wounds, where she was holding the waterskin. "Considering how hard it is to find, since fairies have all but vanished from the world, I'm not sure I can even count high enough," she said.

Alex looked up at the sound of footsteps, and saw Kilishandra appear from the stairwell. She glanced their direction, but did not slow, and walked past and out the entrance into the courtyard.

"Thanks for noticing, I guess," he muttered.

"If you prefer her to do this, I could go ask," Silviana said.

"Gods, no," Alex said, "Only person I'm more afraid of than her is her dad."

Silviana put the stopper in the waterskin and rose to her feet. "She doesn't have any malice for us," she said, offering her hand and pulling Alex to his feet. The water had stopped the bleeding, but every place he had been cut still screamed in agony. "The soreness will last a few days," Silviana said as he groaned, "Drinking some of the water would help, but we shouldn't use more than we absolutely need to."

"I've been watching her for the past few weeks," Alex said, gesturing after Kilishandra, "Have you noticed the weird look in her eyes? The way she is almost always looking at Link when she thinks no one is watching her?"

"I have," Silviana said, "It's because she's fallen in love."

The way she declared it so flatly caught him by surprise. "You're serious? Her?" he asked, and then pointed toward the stairwell, "And Link?"

"I don't think she's sure of it herself yet," Silviana said, "But no. Link does not return her feelings. You've seen the way he and Midna are together. They've got eyes for no one but each other."

"Then… why? Why would she fall for him?" Alex asked.

"I don't know," Silviana said, "Maybe she is unconsciously rebelling against her father. Remember that Link and Ganondorf were enemies before we met them. Or maybe she is attracted to how good a person he is. Perhaps she even has a bit of hero worship for him, and it grew into something more. Love is hard to predict, or find the exact reasons driving it sometimes."

"You're right about that," Alex said, turning his head back to her and shooting her a smile.

She shook her head sadly, but a smile did creep onto her own face. "I hope this whole noble sacrifice idea of yours wasn't just to impress me."

"No, but since you bring it up, did it?" he asked.

"Maybe a little. But we've been over this. I-"

"Can't trust me," Alex said, interrupting her, "Look, I've been thinking about it, and you're right. I'm completely untrustworthy like that, and it all comes to one thing. The drink. I'm not a sop, but I love my drink."

"Yes, you've said that before," Silviana said, "Look, I want to be friends, but if you're going to keep pushing like this…"

"But I don't want to be friends," Alex said, "Listen for a moment. It would be far easier to give up and find someone else. But I don't want someone else." He took her by the shoulders, making her face him. "I've thought about this every day since it happened, when I woke up with that bard in my bed, and you told me that. It would have hurt less if you had smashed me in the face with a brick, I think.

"Sil, I don't want to find someone else. I want you. I honestly didn't think I was going to survive this here, and the fact I did… Well, it's not worth it if I can't be with you."

"Alex…"

"I am willing to do whatever it takes," he kept pressing, "I'll swear off drinking. I'm done. I'll drink plain water for the rest of my life, so I never make that kind of idiotic mistake again."

"Ralthas is dead," she said.

Forget the brick to the face, Alex felt as if he'd just charged headlong into a brick wall. This was not the right time to be pressing this subject, that was for certain. "Oh, gods, I didn't realize," he said, "I'm sorry, I thought he was upstairs with Link and Midna."

"You didn't know, and I'm sorry for dumping it on you like that," Silviana said, stepping away from him and pulling his hands from her, "But my friend is dead. He gave his life willingly, for all our sakes. Even if you could win me over with what you're saying, this is not the time."

And that was it. She walked away from him, toward the tower entrance, and out into the courtyard.

Alex felt very small at that moment. He sighed, hanging his head, and whispered to himself, "Shit…"

* * *

Ganondorf found himself so irritated that he spoke aloud, startling Kilishandra when he demanded, "You were supposed to be in Hyrule by now! And you're telling me you just made landfall this morning?"

He gave Kilishandra an apologetic look as Zelda's telepathic response returned. _Well, I'm sorry that the ocean is so enormous,_ she said, _Yes, we barely reached land this morning. It took a few extra days to find the port we were looking for._

_And you needed a port why?_ Ganondorf demanded, _You could have landed anywhere on the coast and dumped the ships!_

_And then had to travel on foot with as many elderly and crippled as we have,_ Zelda said, _There are three women who gave birth in the ship holds, and six more who are very close to term. They can't be expected to walk as far as we still have to go. We landed in a port so we could sell the ships. A merchant company has already made the purchase, and in the morning we'll be getting the last of the wagons and supplies we need to make the trek around the mountains and come into Hyrule from the north._

_That adds another two weeks onto your journey,_ Ganondorf replied, _Which means by the time we're all in Hyrule, we are literally going to have a month and a half until the end of the world._

_There's no help for it,_ came Zelda's response, _We'll just have to make due._

_Leave the sick and crippled behind,_ Ganondorf said, _You'll make better time without them._

_We are not in my sovereignty, _Zelda said, _I'm causing enough of a stir with the local authorities already. This port town is independent, self-governed. It was only the promise that I intended to leave as quickly as possible that kept them from arresting the lot of us. I did try to explain to a few what is happening, but they scoffed at the idea. I'm beginning to fear having to explain all this to my own Royal Council._

_Just wait until I'm there,_ Ganondorf said, _Tell them who I am, and I'll be able to make quite the impression even if I just stand behind you and look menacing._

_You're not going to Hyrule now?_

_Of course not. Until you get there with that counter-spell to break the curse on everyone, there's not even any edible food. All the animals and crops are stone, too, and the stuff in storage is doubtlessly rotted by now._

There was a pause, then Zelda responded. _You're right. We do have a goodly amount of grain and dried foods stored, in case of things like drought or siege. I'll have to have them distributed until we're able to straighten things out. Gods, I'm going to go through this whole mess again. Only difference is that last time, you were one who caused it._

_You remembered. You do care,_ Ganondorf replied, then lowered his tone into blatant sarcasm,_ How sweet._

Ignoring his comment, Zelda asked, _What are you and the others going to do until we reach Hyrule, then?_

_We can't stay here,_ Ganondorf said, _We're running short on our supplies, and the local food is more water than substance. There is another place I can take us…_

_Where is that?_

_In the desert, a fair distance south of modern Hyrule. There's a rich oasis that I spent several years of my youth at. Provided it's still there, we should be able to survive easily for two weeks. If not, I do know how to survive in the desert when push comes to shove. I believe Link does as well. We'll manage._

_I'll contact you as soon as we've restored Hyrule,_ Zelda said.

_Time is running short, princess,_ Ganondorf responded, _Don't waste a minute of what we have left._

The connection broke. She had almost immediately warned him that he had interrupted her first bath in months, and the first hot one in longer, and then immediately changed the subject by demanding what he wanted. Though she had been pleased with the news Tharkus was dead and the more immediate threat was over, they were now left with a new problem.

He turned back to the tower door, and saw Kilishandra beside it, leaning with her back against the stone wall, looking up into the sky at nothing in particular. "Where are the others?" he asked.

She blinked, lowering her gaze toward him. "Still inside," she said, "Alexander and Silviana are in the entry hall. From what I know about Link and Midna, they're probably having sex on the roof." She practically spat the last part with venom.

Ganondorf ignored the comment. That was something to deal with later. "They wouldn't help much anyway," he said, "Come over here and help me."

"I thought we were safe," Kilishandra said as she moved toward him.

"We are," Ganondorf said, kneeling down by the remains of one of the bladed golems. He stuck a finger in the powder remains of the bones and sifted it about a bit. "Very fine. Not the ideal material, but it should work. Here, gather up some of this powder and help me draw a circle. About six feet in diameter should be enough."

Kilishandra nodded, understanding appearing on her face. He intended to begin readying the travel spell to catapult them to Hyrule. Their food supplies were running out, and she didn't relish the idea of a steady diet of the fruits from the nearby oasis. And as far as she was concerned, the sooner they were away from this place, the better.

Taking double handfuls of the powdered bones, they moved to a clearer area to one side of the courtyard, and began drawing the lines of the star. The six-points, all connected by intersecting lines, followed by a circle that touched the tips of all six points, and around that a square, each of the four sides intersecting clearing through the edges of the circle. Ganondorf then had her stand away as he began the more meticulous work of drawing the specific spell runes in the corners of the square and in the empty spaces between the points of the star. Travel magic was something she had never mastered, and when she was honest, she was afraid of it, especially knowing Ganondorf and other wizards of similar power were capable of launching themselves across continents, but between worlds. She had experienced such a trip once, and had no desire to repeat it.

That wasn't going into all the things that could go wrong, such as landing in the middle of the ocean, or inside mountains or walls.

Silviana emerged from the tower, moving up beside Kilishandra where she watched Ganondorf work, pausing every now and then to retrieve more of the powder. "I guess we're not going to be going back to the oasis," Silviana said.

"That's right," Kilishandra said.

"How long will this take?"

"A few hours," Ganondorf said without looking up from his work, "Drawing the circle is the easy part. Then I have to pull together the energy needed, infuse it, and find a suitable target, in the form of a magical beacon to aim the spell at. The longer I spend, the more accurate it will be, so there's no reason to rush."

"Unless a gust of wind comes up and scatters all that powder and ruins the whole thing," Kilishandra commented.

Ganondorf shot her a glare in response.

"Do you want this back?" Silviana asked, holding the skin of fairy water.

"You hold onto it for now," Ganondorf said, returning to his work.

Alex emerged from the tower, with Link and Midna close behind him. They walked over to the others, stopping a short distance from where Ganondorf was still writing runes with lines of the fine powder. When Link asked what he was doing, Ganondorf patiently explained that the circle would provide a mechinism to assist his aim of the travel spell that would send them across the ocean in an instant, with a somewhat snarky remark that it would be easier to get it right if people would stop distracting him.

Alex turned his head slightly, looking toward Silviana out of the corner of his eye, but then quickly turning his attention to what Ganondorf was doing when she glanced over at him.

With nothing else to do but wait, Midna laid out the bedrolls, giving them something a bit more comfortable to sit on than the hard glass that made up the ground.

When Ganondorf at last finished the intricate runes, he stood up, shaking the dust from his hands, and stepping carefully over the lines to not break them, moved into the center of the star. Speaking softly, he held his hands out to the sides. A faint blue glow appeared in the white powder, building slowly until the lines seemed to be solid blue light, and small globes of the blue light rose in the air around him.

"Should we be closer?" Link asked.

"No," Kilishandra said, "It will take a few hours from this point. Like he said, the longer he works, the more accurate it will be."

"The way he talked, the travel spell he used to jump from Hyrule to Darimar was nearly instant," Midna said.

"Possibly," Kilishandra said, "But fast travel spells are extremely inaccurate. He could have easily landed in the middle of the ocean, and that would have hardly helped him."

"You know, I miss Hyrule," Midna said, sitting down next to Link, "It's hard to believe we'll be back there tonight."

"From the sound of it, he's never been sure where we'll actually end up," Link said, "Wonder if we'll have time to stop by Ordon and see everyone…"

"Is that your home?" Kilishandra asked.

"Yeah," Link said, "Nice and quiet little hamlet, near Hyrule's southern border." He smiled to himself. "As quick as I jumped at the chance for an adventure, I'm looking forward to this all being done, so I can go home and relax for a few months."

"I suppose it's nice," Kilishandra said, "Nice to know your home is still waiting for you."

Link looked over at her, and a spark of realization shot through his eyes. He realized suddenly how insensitive his comment had been. Midna had just lost her only way back to her home, Alex and Silviana's homes had been destroyed in this stupid war. And Kilishandra, her home was dying. Her only hope was to find a way to save as many of the people still there and move them across worlds.

There was that selfishness of his again, and he wanted to kick himself. With a sigh, he lay back on his bedroll and closed his eyes, not trying to sleep so much as just get a bearing on his thoughts again.

The group sat in silence until Ganondorf was finished preparing the spell. Link had dozed off, and woke when Midna shook his shoulder, and saw the others on their feet, moving to the circle. Midna quickly swept up the bedrolls with her magical hand.

"Everybody inside the circle," Ganondorf said as the group approached him, "Don't scuff any of the lines or runes, or you could throw my aim off by as much as a thousand miles."

"Do we have to do anything?" Link asked as he carefully stepped between the glowing lines, finding an empty space to stand.

"Just don't mess up the lines," Ganondorf said, "Though if you're nervous, you can cross your fingers or pray. People tend to get nervous, I find, the first time their bodies are broken up into millions of fragments and carried on energy streams across the world to be reassembled on site."

"Hang on, what are you-" Alex started, and was interrupted as Ganondorf allowed his hands to fall to his sides.

In an instant, they were gone, vanished into the sky as their forms shattered apart and flew away rapidly, like a great swarm of multicolor bees. It lasted only seconds, and they came crashing down on hot sand beneath a high desert sun.

As they collected themselves, Ganondorf turned around and smiled to himself. He was maybe thirty feet off where he had been aiming. The best success with this kind of magic he'd ever had.

"I don't know this place," Link said, then turned on Ganondorf and demanded, "Where are we?"

"About eighty miles southwest of Hyrule," Ganondorf said, and gestured to their surroundings, "Welcome to the Lost Oasis, or as some know it, the Colossus of the Gerudo Desert."

The structure to which he gestured was massive, dominating the skyline of the valley. There was a doorway visible on ground level, going into the base of the structure, and above it, the natural rock became a massive carved visage of a man, or possibly a woman, weathered by countless years of exposure to desert winds and polished to a mirror sheen by the blowing sands.

To one side of the valley, there was a visible pond, surrounded by dense grass and tall palm trees, among which insects buzzed happily, and the party could even hear birds, apparently not troubled by the sudden appearance of the party.

"Why did you bring us here?" Link demanded, pushing past the others toward Ganondorf, whose back was to them as he faced the giant colossus, "We were supposed to go back to Hyrule!"

"Calm down," Ganondorf said, turning to him, "I contacted the princess. They were still two weeks out from Hyrule, and until they get there, everyone there will still be petrified. Not to mention, there would not be food of any kind aside from the dried stores. Rather than making you feel like a thief, I brought us here."

"What exactly is 'here?'" Midna asked.

Ganondorf turned back to the colossus. "A legacy from long before your time. As far as I know, this great structure may have even been made by the gods themselves when they created the world. This oasis is lost in the middle of a stretch of desert known as the Haunted Wasteland. It is a hostile area consumed by perpetual sandstorms. If you venture into it, you won't be able to see more than a few feet ahead, and those who become lost in the storm are doomed to wander until the sand grinds the flesh from their bones."

He paused, and turned back to Link. "It was a legend, among my people, the Gerudo, that the first king of the Gerudo, before he earned that title, made his way here, though the storm. He was the first to ever find it, and from it he returned with a power over the weather. Every so many years, he conjured a massive storm, and rode in its wake, herding it across the desert, and for a few precious weeks, the wasteland around us blossomed in lush green, like life springing from death.

"It became a tradition that every would-be king of the Gerudo would cross this wasteland. But after the first, none survived the crossing of the Haunted Wasteland, or at least none returned from the attempt." He paused again, and a smile appeared on his face. "None until me, that is.

"Now, the reason I brought us here," he pointed to the pond and surrounding life, "There are food and water aplenty. And you are safe here so long as you do not venture out into the wasteland. It will be two weeks until Hyrule is fit for us to return, so consider this the last respite before we return to war. And it will be war like you have never seen. Up until now, we have ultimately been fighting men. Between Zero and Shaklator, now we go to war with genuine monsters."

With that, he turned and started walking toward the structure, away from the group. There was an awkward silence as the other members of the group turned to each other.

"So, what do we do now?" Alex asked, breaking the silence.

"Well," Link started, turning to the pond and trees, and wondering what the fruit was he could see near their tops, "I'm thinking something to eat and a nap for a start."

It had been less than an hour since Tharkus' death and the destruction of the mirror. But this realization prompted another question. "How long did the spell take?" Silviana asked, looking up at the sky, "It was night when it began."

"Travel spells are almost instantaneous," Kilishandra said, "It has been only a few seconds since we were at the tower."

"But the sun is early morning," Alex said, looking up, "It was barely after sundown when we left."

Kilishandra sighed. "When it is night on one side of the world, it is day on the other. If you'll excuse me now," she said and started after Ganondorf, who had paused on the stone patio outside the entrance under the colossus, as if he were considering whether to go in or not.

"Well, whatever is going on, if we're safe, I think the first thing on my agenda is a relaxing bath," Midna said, turning toward the pond, and she glanced over her shoulder at Link as she started walking and added, "If anyone would like to join me."

"I'll be there in just a second," Link said, and then turned to Silviana. He held up Ralthas' sword, which he had held onto since leaving the tower, "Sil, I took this from the tower. It was-"

"Ralthas' sword, I know," she said, "I should have taken it myself. I wasn't thinking, or at least, not of that."

She held out her hand, and Link turned the blade over, handing it to her hilt first. "I guess, since you're the only Judge left now…" Link started, and trailed off.

"The Judges are finished," Silviana said, lifting the blade and running her eyes over the notches in the blade, "They were some time ago. Roxim, Ralthas and I were the last. I think the best thing to do with this sword at this point is to give it to Sheila." She sighed, and added, "I'm not looking forward to telling her that her father is dead. But thank you, Link, for remembering this. I think I'm going to find a spot in the shade, and sit and think for a while."

Link nodded, and glanced at Alex giving him a quick, courteous nod, before turning to follow Midna. Silviana nodded at Alex, and turned to move away. Alex sighed, looking from one to the other as they moved away from him, and sighed to himself. "Now what?" he muttered to himself.

* * *

Ganondorf glanced back at the sound of footsteps on the stone behind him. Kilishandra moved up beside him. "So this world is really where you came from?" she asked

"Yes," Ganondorf said, "I was born in the desert here. My crossing of the Haunted Wasteland was the first step on my path to becoming what I am today."

"You never actually told me you were from another world when we met," Kilishandra said.

"What purpose would that knowledge have served you?" Ganondorf asked, "It had nothing to do with what we were doing, it would have been no aid against Erador. You didn't need to know."

"Except for knowing the man I call my father," Kilishandra said, "You know, when I first was told you were here, and that I was to kill you, I didn't believe it. I was hoping against hope that if you were here, Mur'neth would kill you so that I wouldn't have to."

"And neither of you succeeded, and now we are in a very different situation," Ganondorf said, and turned fully toward her, "And speaking of situations, what of you?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You and Link," Ganondorf said, "I've seen you together. I've seen the way you smile and laugh when you are the object of his attention. I've also seen the jealousy when he is with Midna. You've fallen in love with him, haven't you?"

Kilishandra started to deny it, but before the first word was past her lips, she stopped. She realized he was right. She had known there was something that kept drawing her toward Link, yet until Ganondorf mentioned the word "love," she hadn't been sure of it herself. Now it suddenly seemed so obvious.

"Gods, I am such an idiot," she said, lifting a hand to her face.

Ganondorf crossed his arms, waiting silently.

"Well?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Well, what?" Ganondorf asked, "Do you expect me to be angry? To berate you?"

"Yes, actually," Kilishandra said, "Or at least, something."

"I'm not a theatre villain, Kili," Ganondorf said, "I'm not going to rant and scream because things did not go as I expected. I'd say I'm more surprised than anything. At the time you met him, he was clearly already invested in Midna. He changed time to bring her back from the dead.

"I know," Kilishandra said, "I don't know. I was so curious, I guess. The princess and Sheila both talked about him like he was a godsend, the one who was single-handedly going to save everyone. No person could do that. If anyone could, it would be you or even me before someone like him."

"Kili, I've learned this lesson the hard way: Raw power is not always the deciding factor in these kinds of things," Ganondorf said, "You see, Kili, you've never seen me truly beaten, yet it has happened more than once, and always by someone like Link, nowhere near my level of ability.

"I can see it in your eyes, every time the fighting starts," he took her by the shoulders, making her face him, "You're not afraid of death, are you?"

"Of course not," Kilishandra said.

"That's the problem," Ganondorf said, "Link fears to die. I do as well. It's all well and good to be willing to die for something, but fear of dying before you see it through is what pushes you to hold on. Fear of death will put you back on your feet when your injuries should have already killed you. Fear of death will give you the will to fight on beyond human limits. And fear of death will give you strength when you should no longer be able to stand. I've told you before that sheer stubborn will to not die will keep you alive longer than any armor. And fear will give you that will. And that is the will that Link has, that allows him to do what you call impossible.

"You know that the princess, in spite of her kind nature, will not be able to protect you from those who will demand your execution once this is over. Those who look at you as a war criminal. That former king, Maylow, is among the survivors, and he will be the loudest voice by far. That is why you do not fear dying, because you are certain you will die via execution if you do survive. In fact, knowing you, you would prefer it be unexpected, rather than being able to see it coming. Most would.

"But Kili, my alliance with them is ultimately one of necessity. I don't know what will happen when this is over, but I will not allow them to execute you. I would raze the entire kingdom first, though I don't believe that will be necessary."

"I gave the princess my word," Kilishandra said, "I can't betray her."

"Yes, you always were like that," Ganondorf said, "You've got to keep those promises. Where would your loyalty lie, if you were forced to choose between her and me?"

"I don't know," Kilishandra said.

"And that is something else I know," Ganondorf said, "You are indecisive. That is why you prefer another to lead, rather than make decisions of life and death. Hell, if you would decide you wanted Link, and went after him, to win him away from Midna, it would certainly have an effect. You might even succeed. But instead you sit back and watch, while they grow ever closer. It reminds me of someone else."

She knew who he spoke of. "I knew about Mur'neth's feelings," Kilishandra said, "But I didn't care about him the same way. Maybe this is divine punishment for what I did to him. I've fallen in love with a man I can't have."

"Kili, being a philanthropist is fine, benefit the world every way you can," Ganondorf said, "But if you sit back and wait for someone else to tell you what to do, it's all going to pass you by. The meek do not rule the world for a reason.

"This world was created by force. Civilization was built on force. It runs on force. And the only way to change it is by force. Many would think force automatically means violence. It does not. The ones who impact the world are the ones who use force to get what they want. They don't ask, they don't wait for permission, they take it. They use force.

"You need to learn to stand on your own, Kili. Without me. You will never reach what I know you are capable of if you constantly try to hide in my or someone else's shadow. I told you that your fairy tale kingdom where everyone is happy was an impossibility. So prove me wrong."

"It's not that simple," Kilishandra said.

"Yes it is," Ganondorf said, "If that is your goal, then step up and start pushing for it. And keep pushing, no matter the resistance. I can't promise you'll see it in your lifetime, but if you push hard enough, you will leave a lasting impact. After that, the world will belong to the people who live then, and it will be up to them to continue on your path, or tear down what you have built for something else.

"My point is very simple: Find a reason that will make you fear death. Find something that will give you reason to live on. Kili, I experienced a time when I had no reason to live. And I became something truly terrible, until I found something that gave me reason to live on."

"What was it?" Kilishandra asked.

"You," he said, and finally released his grip on her shoulders, "I found you, Kili. And I can't give up, let myself die, until I know you're on the right path. And after that, I'll still fear when it comes."

"Why?" Kilishandra asked, "You've lived for four thousand years, if what I hear is true. You must have experienced everything humanity has to offer in that time. What do you fear to lose?"

Ganondorf did not respond immediately, looking into her eyes, as if judging if she were ready to hear the response. "My soul," he said at last.

"I don't understand," she said.

"I told you that I crossed the Haunted Wasteland, found this place, long ago," he said, gesturing to the colossus, "You don't know the details though. I was near death the entire time. You see, Kili, my people, the Gerudo, are extinct now. Back then there were numerous tribes that lived in this desert. They were all women. It was a strange element of my race. They took husbands from the human races, yet regardless of their other half, they always gave birth to Gerudo girls, full blooded. My skin color that you see, no matter how many generations, never dimmed compared to their mother's, unlike yours. You are considerably darker than your father, but not nearly dark enough to pass for a true dark elf.

"Now, once every generation, a single male Gerudo would be born. Dating back to the first king, this male child was destined to become King of the Gerudo. But there were two severe obstacles in his way. First, jealous tribes that would kill him solely because he was not a child of their tribe. Most would not live long enough to face the second obstacle, the Haunted Wasteland. I nearly didn't.

"My tribe was attacked when I was sixteen. They killed most of us, and took the others as slaves. I was left for dead with a massive slash-wound in my back. Almost twelve hours after the attack, I was found by outcasts from all the tribes. A pair of witches, named Koume and Kotake. They applauded my strength, that I was still alive in spite of my wound, and gave me a small amount of help. The fixed me up just well enough that I could walk, and pointed me to the wasteland. If I managed to cross it before my wound took me, then they would nurse me back to health, and teach me what I needed to know in order to make those who did this pay.

"I made it here, Kili. I was barely alive and utterly delirious when I stumbled into the oasis. It was at least a month before I was fully conscious again. The witches, flying high over the Haunted Wasteland, were able to come and go from this place as they wished. They were true to their word. They nursed me back to health, and I spent years here, learning everything they could teach me.

"I've taught you practically everything you know about magic, Kili. But I did not teach you everything I know. One of the things I withheld was what these witches taught me. They taught me what is commonly called the Dark Arts. True witchcraft, the kind of things that make Necromancy look like a legitimate magic school in comparison."

Kilishandra did not know the true workings of the Dark Arts. Very few outside of the practitioners of them did, and for good reason. It was believed that one of the requirements to practice them at all would mark the user, not just in life, but in death as well.

"Did you speak to a demon?" Kilishandra asked, "Make a deal for the… knowledge?"

"No, I did not," Ganondorf said, "Koume and Kotake had long since crossed that bridge, and they were able to teach me the practical uses. I never became privy to the darker aspects, but I did learn how they had managed to live as long as they had. The way Khall managed to extend his life was by stretching his own lifeforce thin, and his health continued to fail as a result. These two, I got to see them do it once. They dragged a young woman from one of the tribes I had never encountered into the temple here, and they literally devoured her youth. Whatever they did, when it was done, the two of them were young once more, while that poor woman became a shriveled old crone in seconds.

"It was part of their deal. As long as they extended their own lives by stealing the youth of other women, they did not have to pay the price of their souls to their demon master.

"But I did practice the Dark Arts, and I made use to them in my battles. I have not made use of them for millenia, and yet, yes, I fear my soul is marked so that when I do eventually pass from the world, a demon will come to collect me, and I will not even face whatever final judgment the gods devise."

A sudden thought struck him. "Actually, there is something I want to do while we're here," he said, "And I could use your help."

"What do you have in mind?" she asked.

"Actually, what I need is your blood," he said, "Not much, just enough for the spell. They probably will not answer to mine."

Kilishandra's eyes shot open wide. Ganondorf never made circles of blood, and they required a lot. He had something else in mind. "You're going to do some kind of witchcraft aren't you?" she asked.

"Only a basic one, to speak to the dead," he said, "It's been four millenia, but I want to get some answers from those two."

"Why won't your blood work?" she asked.

"In most circumstances, it would," Ganondorf said, "But think of it this way: The blood is not a component of the spell, it is the bait for the spirits. They will feed on it when they arrive. The witches know the scent of my blood, and whatever Hell they are in, at this point likely fear me more than they desire a respite."

Kilishandra's curiosity defeated her caution. "What do I need to do?"

* * *

Once on top of the platform, Ganondorf turned to help Kilishandra up. It was a long climb up the bizarre altar. An enormous square platform with relatively easy-to-climb ridges up the sides, surrounded by four square columns of equal height. The journey through the temple had been eerie enough. So many old traps, long since fallen into rust and disrepair, and dark shadows at every turn.

Now this enormous room, and even as tall as the platform was, the ceiling was high above, and every step they took echoed eerily back at them from the surrounding walls. It was too dark to see the walls, and Kilishandra kept looking over her shoulder, and felt as though someone or something was watching them.

On the way in, Ganondorf had stopped in a side room near the throne room they passed through to retrieve a few things from the long rotted remains. An ancient ceramic bowl, and picked a few weeds that were growing wild around the windowsill, and a human skull.

Now, as Kilishandra watched with fascination, he stuffed the weeds into the eyes of the skull and sat it on the floor so it was facing him. Ganondorf then took a piece of chalk from his belt pouch, and quickly drew a small magic circle, but Kilishandra noted he drew it in reverse, starting with the square outside and working in, with the star the last. She knew this made the circle considerably stronger, but also much more dangerous and unstable. He moved the skull, sitting it on the northern point of the star, facing the center of the circle.

"Come here," he said, taking the bowl and sitting it in the center of the star.

Kilishandra approached him, and he motioned for her to kneel down on the opposite side of the circle from him. Ganondorf took another bunch of the plants he had picked and ground them under his thumb, and sprinkled the remnants across the circle. There was a reaction, and a faint red glow appeared from the chalk lines.

"I'm not going to tell you what I'm doing or why it works like this, because I don't want you ever repeating any of this," he said.

"Don't worry about that," Kilishandra said.

"Hold out your arm," Ganondorf said, pulling his knife from his belt.

Kilishandra grit her teeth as he drew the sharp blade across her wrist, and turned it so the blood would fall in the bowl. "Flex your fingers," he commanded, and she did so, working more blood from the cut. After a moment he stopped her, saying it would be enough, and produced something she did not expect, a cloth bandage from his belt that he wrapped around her wrist, tying it tightly to stop the bleeding.

"Now stand back," he said. As she backed off, he waved his hand over the circle, speaking a few things under his breath, the red glow of the circle growing brighter, and then he stood and backed off.

Something rose from the floor, outside the circle. Then there was another. Transparent clouds with no shape, which flowed toward the circle, and both reached the bowl. The blood in the bowl began to disappear as they watched. As the blood vanished, the clouds began to show more shape, growing steadily in definition, and in a matter of seconds, the phantoms of two women were visible, leaning over the circle with their faces near the bowl, drinking the blood. The bowl empty, they sat up and rose to their feet.

From the neck down they were dressed in tight-fitting black leather, that both concealed and accentuated their shapes. Both had their hair bound in tight buns, adorned with a large brooch, one adorned with a single ruby and the other with a sapphire. Their faces were identical, twin sisters, and other than somewhat large noses, were the image of beauty, as though they were chiseled from marble in perfect form.

"I thought they were going to be old and ugly," Kilishandra said.

"Well, I remember them being considerably more shriveled myself," Ganondorf said, "Though I suppose in death they can appear whatever age they wish. Even they had to be young sometime."

Kilishandra's voice had caused them both to shoot dark glares her direction, but Ganondorf's had caused them to spin toward him, eyes going wide. If they had breath, they might have gasped, and as it was they tried to back from him, but the red light of the circle flared, and they recoiled in pain from the barrier that held them in place.

"So you do remember me," he said, leaning toward them, "Koume. Kotake. And you also clearly remember what you did, or you would not fear me."

"Everything we did, we did for you, child," Koume said, and turned to her sister, "Isn't that right, Kotake?"

"Quite, Koume," said the other, "Though I be curious why he calls us back after so long. If revenge he seeks, there be little he can do to harm us now."

With a growl, Ganondorf's hand shot out, grabbing Kotake by the throat. The woman was surprised, and then fear shot through her eyes at the physical contact. "You know quite well there is plenty I can do to harm you," he growled, "I've tried calling you before, with my own blood, and you did not answer. So think you also know exactly what this is about."

"The girl was a problem!" Koume said, fear for her sister clear in her eyes, "We would remove the problem! Help you! Remember, she betrayed you!"

"And as a result, she became an even bigger problem!" Ganondorf roared, "The Hero of Time killed you idiots, and she became a sage!"

"Father, what are you doing?" Kilishandra asked.

Koume turned to Kilishandra. "Daughter?" she asked, "No, would have tasted in the blood. You are not his daughter. You are not Gerudo."

Ganondorf smiled, releasing his grip on Kotake, who massaged her ethereal neck with a hand. "She is my daughter. I raised her as if she were my own blood, and taught her everything I know, except for what the two of you taught me."

"Strong she is," Kotake said, "I see it in her, Koume. Bear a strong son she will."

Kilishandra felt a chill run down her spine as the two witches gazed at her, as if piercing into her soul.

"She is not the blood, Kotake," Koume said, "But a strong son, yes." She turned to Ganondorf. "You should take her. She will bear you a true heir."

"What?!" Kilishandra said, and turned to Ganondorf. Her expression was a mixture of disgust and fear, as if the act was unthinkable, and yet somehow worried he might be considering it.

"She is my heir," Ganondorf said without looking away from the witches, who both now turned to face him, "The only woman I desired to bear my child, the two of you took from me."

"She worked to undermine you!" Koume said, "Everything we did, we did for you!"

She didn't even have time to recoil as Ganondorf's fist struck her across the face. She may have been dead already, but Koume clearly felt the pain as she cried out and fell to the stone floor. Ganondorf moved toward her, stepping across her body and straddling her, and he screamed at her, his voice echoing across the chamber. "You should have let me talk to her!" he screamed, and leaned down to strike her again, screaming as he did so, enunciating each word with another solid punch to her face, "You should have let me talk to her!"

She was dead, and still felt pain, but was clearly unable to black out to escape the punishment, and lacked the strength to resist, the way she screamed as each punch struck her face with no effort to escape. Perhaps she was fortunate she was already dead, as no living man or woman would have survived such an assault from Ganondorf. Kotake made no effort to help her sister, but her turn came, when he looked up from Koume, and shot one hand toward her, taking her again by the neck, and lifting her up in the air by the throat, over his own head as he stood to his full height, her feet dangling helplessly in the air a full four feet off the floor.

"You were going to drain her, to feed your vanity just like the other women!" he screamed at her, squeezing down on her throat. Though she had no breath, it was clearly painful. "You tried to hide her from me, so that it would be too late by the time I found her! For seven years you hid her from me!"

Suddenly, he slammed her down, throwing her onto the floor with vicious force. He was breathing rapidly, his chest heaving as he looked down at the two prone forms, his fists clenched tightly. Then he looked up, to Kilishandra, where she silently watched. She had moved further away when he started beating Koume. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath to calm himself, and stepped away from them.

"You two are at least partially responsible for the hatred that nearly destroyed me," Ganondorf said, his back to Koume and Kotake as they gradually rose to their feet, "And you are damned lucky the Hero of Time killed you. If I had gotten my hands on you, it would not have been nearly as fast. But blood or not, this girl is my daughter. And she is the one that saved me from that hatred.

"I tell people I don't regret anything I've done in my life. I have one, and that is that things could not have ended differently between myself and Nabooru. Things might have turned out very differently if I had her at my side, instead of at the Hero of Time's."

"Then why not tempt her instead?" Koume asked.

"Yes, let her be the target of your misplaced wrath," Kotake added.

"Because I don't know where her life ended," Ganondorf said and turned back toward them, "And I wanted to do something like that. No matter what Hell you are confined to, it isn't enough for me."

Koume and Kotake both snickered and smiled. "Too bad for you the deal for our knowledge also confers protection," Kotake said.

"That's right, Kotake," Koume said, "Just as mortals forever desire immortality, demons wonder what it is like to be mortal. Our master, in exchange for a taste of mortality, provides us comfort in our afterlife."

"What kind of taste of mortality can a demon get from dead women?" Kilishandra asked.

The witches turned to her. "We have bodies in the other world so that our punishment can be exacted on our flesh. And demons not be above pleasures of the flesh," Koume said, "What be more mortal than that?"

Kilishandra's expression changed to one of disgust, and was sorry she asked. But Ganondorf laughed, and when the witches turned back to him with curious expressions on their faces, he explained, "This actually delights me. Every bit of dignity you had is gone. You've become whores to a demon to escape pain."

"You do not understand," Kotake said.

"I understand plenty," Ganondorf said, "And I promise you, the image of the two of you on your knees in front of a goat-legged beast is going to keep me warm at night for a good long time." He laughed again, and asked, "I wonder, is it barbed? Maybe it has a knot like a dog. That would be even more hilarious."

The witches only returned dark glares at him.

"Oh, I think I hit pretty close," Ganondorf said with a sick grin.

"Be there something you desire, or did you call us just to torment us?" Koume asked.

"Main thing I wanted was to clear the air of my past before I go into battle," Ganondorf said, "This is the first time I've been involved in something of this scale, and I fear I may not make it through. Just to clue you in on how severe it is, I am allied with the princess and hero of Hyrule, the very kingdom I tried to conquer when you were alive."

"We know of the creature you will battle," Kotake said, "Not so out of the loop, even where we now be."

"Many times beyond you she is," Koume said, "If you face her, you will die."

"Maybe," Ganondorf said, crossing his arms, "But I won't really admit I'm dead until they're putting me in the wooden box."

"Like the wind of death she is," Kotake said, "Taking your breath and twisting your spine."

"Her coming is the realization of the nightmare where you fall in the six foot deep hole," Koume said.

"There has to be some way to beat her," Kilishandra said.

Koume turned to her. "No weakness," she said, "Immortal, almost infinite stamina, rapid healing. Far beyond any living mortal, including this child, to destroy."

"Are you willing to help me, even after all this?" Ganondorf asked.

Koume turned back to him, then glanced at Kotake. Her twin nodded solemnly. "Everything we do," Koume said, turning back to Ganondorf, "we do for you. What is it you wish to know?"

"A monster named Zero intends to summon her on Walpurgis Night," Ganondorf said, "Do you know where he is? Perhaps we can prevent the summoning by destroying him."

"The creature you ask for is like a stain on the earth," Kotake said, "Even us, the practitioners of the Dark Arts, would not create a monster such as he."

"Impossible to track, he is," Koume said, "He possesses but a fragment of a human soul, and is not truly alive. A mockery of life he is, and must be destroyed. But find him, we cannot."

"Then tell me how to destroy Shaklator," Ganondorf said, "Nothing else matters if I can do that."

"She has no weakness, and is far beyond your ability," Koume said, "But perhaps not impossible."

"Create a weakness you must," Kotake said, "She has no vulnerable point, so you must give her one."

"And how exactly am I supposed to do that?" Ganondorf asked.

"We do not know," Kotake said.

"There are many weapons in the world for fighting one like you," Koume said, "But none for fighting a monster like you will face. Mortals have only ever fought mortal foes before. They are not prepared for what comes."

"You always were a smart child," Kotake said, "We should not need to remind you to stop focusing on the problem, and start thinking of a solution."

"Yeah, thanks for nothing," Ganondorf growled, "I ought to give you another beating for wasting my time so."

"Your spell has run its course," Koume said, "It is time for us to return to our master."

"If you fail, we expect to see you very soon," Kotake said with a dark smile.

The red glow of the circle faded, and with it, the two specters vanished. Ganondorf stood silently, looking down at the arrangement. Kilishandra moved closer, across the circle from him, and he looked up at her.

"I'm regretting bringing you in here for this," he said, "I'm sorry if they made you uncomfortable."

"I'm fine," she said, "It's so strange. Even in death, and even after what you just did to them, they're so loyal to you."

"In their twisted, psychotic way," Ganondorf said. He looked up, scratching his beard as he thought. "No weakness, so give her one. Hmm…"

"Does that give you any idea?" Kilishandra asked.

"No," Ganondorf said, "Not yet anyway. They're right though. Instead of focusing on how invincible she is, I should be thinking about finding a way around that invincibility. Any way is better than none. Problem is, no matter what I come up with, there's no way to test it until she's actually in my face. If there was some way to scry the secret to beating her… Wait, that's it!"

"What?"

"My ability with the Dark Arts is too lacking," he said, "But it can be used to scry secrets and even weaknesses directly from someone's head. It's going to require help from someone more skilled than me to do so.

"We need to find a master witch that is still alive."


	118. Chapter 117

**Chapter 117: Past and Future**

"How exactly are you going to find a witch?" Kilishandra asked as she and Ganondorf emerged back into the sunlight outside the temple, "From what I've seen, they're not exactly commonplace."

"No, and they take great pains to remain out of sight," Ganondorf said, "Fortunately, with Walpurgis Night so close, they're fairly predictable. In all the parallel worlds, with varying timing of the event, one thing is always the same: Practitioners of the Dark Arts treat it as a celebration of sorts. They gather in great numbers, and led by the most powerful of their art, perform black rites at the peak of the highest mountain in the area. And on Hyrule's eastern border, there is such a mountain tall enough to attract them."

"So we go there and find them, that simple?" she asked as they stepped from the stone platform onto the sand, and Ganondorf led her toward the oasis pond across the valley.

"Unfortunately, no," he replied, "You see, it is still two months until the actual night of the event. We need a master of the art, capable of pulling thoughts from the head of this demi-god we're going up against. Such a powerful practitioner exists, I believe, but she will not deign to show up to their celebration until a day before, at the earliest. And we need her sooner than that."

The trees around the oasis were not as dense as those at the last they had visited, but they grew tall and shaded them as they passed between them. The pond at the center of the oasis never dried up, even in the hottest oppressing heat of Summer, due to an inlet that bubbled up from beneath it. Year round the water fed into the pond, and growing outward from its edges was thick, soft grass, and berry bushes that had grown wild in the four millenia since Ganondorf's last visit. The plant life spread much further than he remembered, and the incessant buzzing of insects filled the air around the pond. The desert fought to keep down life, but it seemed that in this place at least, life was winning the battle, slowly but surely.

Upon discovering fish in the pond, Link had forgotten his nap entirely, and now he and Midna were both taking lessons from Silviana to catch fish without a line or pole. Stripped down to her underclothes, she had waded out into the pond to about waist deep and leaned down, her hands in the water, and waited. As Ganondorf and Kilishandra approached the water's edge, they were in time to see her suddenly jerk up, splashing as she pulled a decent sized bass, flopping madly in an attempt to escape, from the water.

"It's all patience," she said, moving back to the shore with her prize, "You have to wait until they start to ignore you and one slips right into your hands."

"I guess we better get some more," Link said, shucking his tunic, mail, and shirt, "I think everybody wouldn't mind fish for a change."

Silviana dropped to the ground, planting the fish on the grass near her clothes and held it with one hand as she fished a knife from her things. She stabbed the blade into its neck, just behind the skull and twisted, pulling it one way and then the other as the fish's struggles lessened, and a second later had its head completely severed.

"I can show you how to clean it, if you like," she said to Midna, who was watching Link wade into the water in his underclothes.

Midna turned back to her as Silviana tossed the severed head aside, and then shook her own head. "I think I'll help Link catch a few more, actually," she said. She didn't mention that she had seen Link gut fish plenty of times before, and it was not a process she would be involved in if she could help it.

She undid the buttons of her leather jerkin and dropped it to the grass, and pulled the undershirt off over her head. Midna hadn't taken to wearing underclothes like the other women she saw, at least after the fitting for her traveling outfit. The breast strap alone had been insufferably uncomfortable, squeezing far too tight across her chest. Maybe if hers were bigger, it would have been vital to hold them still, especially in dangerous situations, but as it was, there were limits to how much she would conform to their standards of dress. It wasn't that she was against clothing at all. She had always worn regal outfits fitting her position among her own people, but they were always fairly loose fitting and comfortable. Not exactly practical on the road, in comparison to the traveling clothes made for her which were good and sturdy, protecting from the weather as well as simple errant scratches from branches or rocks. But she couldn't picture tying her breasts up in those awful straps like the one Silviana wore, though the dark elf would likely have trouble handling her bow if she didn't.

It didn't really matter now, she thought. The mirror was gone, as was her only route home. She'd given it up to give them a chance. If they couldn't find a more permanent solution to prevent Shaklator's arrival, or beat her when she did come, it would be futile. Of course, even if the mirror was in one piece, Midna would never have abandoned Link at a time like this. She paused in the course of unlacing her boots to look over at him. He was in the water, just as Silviana had shown them, leaning down, trying to remain as still as possible, staring intently at the shapes moving below the surface.

She had seen it in his eyes, just a short time ago. He was putting on a strong face now, focusing on what they must do, but his normally hard, difficult to read eyes had softened. He did not speak of it, but he surely knew she had been thinking of what it meant. Her people were now without her, forever. In one way, she was thrilled by the idea. Finally, there was nothing between herself and Link. She would never have drug him into that life. He would hate being confined to a gilded cage like her palace, and it would have been too dangerous to leave the mirror in place for him to pass back and through, if not to the errant fools who would stupidly touch the surface and suffer the same curse she had seen enacted on the yeti woman, then for her own people. The Twili had no real military, and even a small armed force from this world would easily be able to overtake their capital city.

Depending on the numbers, Midna was sure she could handle defending her people, but such actions would bring reprisal in the form of even greater numbers. It brought headaches to think in that way, but that was how a ruler had to think. She had come to think that Zant's betrayal had at least been partially her fault, for the disdain she and the other nobles had treated him with.

But she was free from that too. It was almost sad to think, she had come to learn so much more about being a ruler, and now she had no use for such knowledge. But Link, he had done so much for her, saved her life more than once, saved her people, and hell, had even changed history to bring her back from the dead. The star-shaped emerald he had given her bounced against her chest as she stood up, dropping her trousers in the pile with the rest of her clothes and moved into the water after him.

As painful as the thought of never returning home was, there were others who would take the throne in time when she did not return, and with the Twilight Realm effectively sealed off from the outside, there was no real danger to them. Ganondorf had been the first contact with the outside they had encountered since their ancestors had been banished, and his arrival had been a complete accident. And as painful as thinking about it was, it was just as painful to think of leaving Link now. If she were put to the choice now, to either stay with him or return to her own people, and unable to have both, she did not actually know which she would choose. She didn't want to think about it anymore, and it was pointless to in any case. The choice was already made and over. Maybe Ganondorf could come up with a solution, maybe find her a way back, but she did not want him near her people again. No, having to ask his help in dealing with these problems and the Fused Shadow later were already too much. In fact, she hoped when it was over that Link and she would kill the wizard outright. The world would be much better off. She was able to put her personal hatred of the man aside for what they were doing, but when he was no longer useful, she couldn't wait to scalp the bastard.

"Ah, dammit!" Link shouted, waking her from her thoughts as he pulled a fish above the surface, as it whipped and slapped him in the face with its tail. With a splash, it slipped from his hands back into the water.

"Have to hold on to it, Link!" Silviana said from the edge of the pond, "Now you have to wait for them to calm down all over again."

"Last time I go on a world-saving quest without a damn hook and line," Link muttered.

Midna smiled as she stopped a distance from him, so they hopefully wouldn't disturb each other's fish as she leaned down, putting her arms under the water and settled in to wait. The water was cool enough to offset the desert sun's heat, and she found herself thinking she'd rather just relax in the shallows. Well, time enough for that later.

This kind of activity was something she'd certainly never have the opportunity for back home. When there was time, she'd have to get Link to teach her to fish with a rod. It would be far more relaxing, at least. He was presently intent on his task, and didn't look up when she glanced over. He was tired, she could tell, and not just physically.

He had practically jumped at the opportunity for an adventure when this began, but now he was clearly road-weary. He wanted to go home and take it easy, at least for a time. Even the most zealous adventurer needed time to rest, and they had already been going for considerably longer than last time, when Zant and Ganondorf had overtaken Hyrule. Midna could sympathize with that.

"Where's the other one?" Ganondorf asked as he and Kilishandra stopped near where Silviana was at work cleaning the scales of her fish with the edge of her knife.

She looked up, and pointed with the blade toward the opposite end of the valley. "Over there, I think," she said.

"Don't let him wander too far," Ganondorf said, "I was serious about the wasteland around this place. So long as you all stay here, you'll be safe until I return."

This caused Kilishandra to look up at him in surprise. "What? You said we can't go anywhere for two weeks," she said.

"You all can't," Ganondorf said, "I'm going to start looking for the witch we need."

"No way, I'm going with you," Kilishandra said.

"What witch?" Silviana asked.

Ganondorf had turned to Kilishandra, but stopped and looked down to where Silviana was on her knees, her knife paused in its work on the fish. "I'm going to find a witch, to see about finding some way of fighting the monster heading our way," he said, and turned his head toward Kilishandra and added, "And I will be going alone."

"Why?" Kilishandra demanded, "If they're so dangerous, you might need help."

"Kili," he said, turning to her and putting his hands on her shoulders, "It's because they're so dangerous that I have to go alone. I told you they can pull thoughts from a person's mind. They can put them there, too. Their wicked fingers can snake into a person's mind and plant the seed of a thought, and you'd have no way of knowing it wasn't a thought of your own. They can make even the strongest of friends and allies turn on one another and fight to the death with the barest hint of their touch.

"I'm not just trying to protect you, I'm trying to protect me as well. I'll be far safer if I go alone, and I at least am familiar with their tactics and will be able to protect myself. Not to mention they will undoubtedly demand a price for their assistance, and I'd rather pay it myself than risk you being involved."

"What kind of price?" Silviana asked.

Kilishandra didn't seem convinced, but he released her to look down at Silviana. "I won't know until I get there," he said, "It may be material, usually in the form of components for their magic, or it may be more substantial. The centerpieces of their concoctions is typically flesh, either in the form of blood or… other things." He paused as suspicion flashed through Silviana's eyes. "Suffice to say, there are several compelling reasons for me to not bring any of you, who might balk at getting their hands dirty on certain matters."

"What kinds of matters?" Kilishandra asked.

He turned his head to look back at her. "Some of their rituals, and from what I know, getting the information we need will be one of these particular ones, simple blood is not enough. They practice human sacrifice. Usually a young boy, between twelve and fifteen years old, is the sacrifice to fuel the spell."

"Why would that make a difference?" Kilishandra asked, though a slight tremble of worry was detectable in her voice, "It's just more blood, right?"

"I told you, these practices make Necromancy seem like a good idea in comparison," Ganondorf said, "Yes, the blood is part of it, but the child's soul is another piece of the magic. When a witch forms a pact with a demon to gain her power, she must continue to appease her new master. To use the greater forms of the power, she feeds him. An innocent soul in exchange for the greater magics seems a small price to pay for them. And the price for her assistance may be collecting the sacrifice for her."

"Absolutely not," Silviana said, rising to her feet, "You can't be actually considering kidnapping a child for one of these monsters."

"One child for the entire world?" Ganondorf replied, turning back to her, "I said before that I don't kill children. That is what made me better than Khall. But right now, with everything that is at stake, and time very much against us, kidnapping is hardly all I'd do. I'll perform the ritual and cut the kid open for her if I have to.

"You can drop the glare, elf," he went on as Silviana's face darkened, "That's not going to be my first offer. Like their demon masters, witches are not above bargaining. Particularly if they think their life is in danger, and intimidation is somewhat of a natural talent of mine.

"But that's only part of why I am going alone. The other part is simply the ages of each of you," he paused, glancing at Kilishandra, "Witches extend their unnatural lives by literally sucking the youth from young women. Both of you, and possibly Midna, though I'm not sure if her being a different species would protect her or not, would be in danger of a witch being tempted to take that from you. Link and Alex, on the other hand, would probably be in even more danger.

"You see, both of them are fairly strong and in their way, handsome. A witch might decide to take one of them as her husband. They would not be able to resist, as she would plant the thoughts in their heads, and they'd never realize it wasn't their own desire. From there, he would serve as her protector and lover, until he fathered her a daughter. A witch passes her knowledge on to her first female child, and the first life that child would take in her training would be killing her own father to seal her own pact with the demon for the magic.

"So we're all much better off if the lot of you wait here."

"So you're telling me this instead of them," Silviana said, cocking her head toward the pond.

"It's easier this way," Ganondorf said, "Link has something in common with Kili, though his motives would be different. He'd want to keep an eye on me and come along, and he'd be far harder to convince to wait than her."

"All right, so why exactly do we need help from these monsters?" Silviana asked.

Ganondorf rolled his eyes. "I've pretty much told you already," he said, "They can pull thoughts right from a person's head. A skilled enough one could do it with Shaklator. I've seen her in person, remember. We have to find some kind of weakness, and if anyone would know one, she would. My own ability with the Dark Arts is limited. I never took a demonic pact for the advanced magics, and what I do know is fairly rusty."

"That still leaves the question of how you intend to find one," Kilishandra said, crossing her arms, "I've never seen a witch in my life. I don't think they make their presence well known if they are out there."

"That's the beauty of it, my girl," he replied, smiling at her, "They do tend to remain inconspicuous. Angry mobs with torches and pitchforks tend to come in too great a number for them to stop. This is also why they are usually alone, unless they have a husband or daughter with them. But in spite of this, they are very communal creatures. A coven of witches always numbers thirteen. The mistress, or high witch, is the oldest and most powerful, and maintains contact with those beneath her in power, usually four, and those four stay in contact with two each of the other eight, usually their daughters or apprentices.

"Walpurgis Night is when many covens will gather together for their festival and black rites, at the top of the tallest mountain in the area. I expect about three hundred witches all-together will be coming to Hyrule very soon. And that's the best part: The lowest ranking witches of each coven will already have arrived to begin preparations for when their stronger sisters deign to appear."

"You seem to know a lot about this," Silviana said almost idly as she returned to scraping her knife along the fish to clean the scales.

"You could say I have particular circumstances," he replied, "A pair of witches served as my surrogate mothers for several years, after all. But that is neither here nor now. I know the gathering is already begun, and I know where it will occur. So, I use a travel spell again to go there, get my hands on these low-ranking witches, and then get them to tell me what I need, and then simply follow up the chain to find the one I need.

"You can see it from here, in fact," he said, turning and pointing between the trees to the horizon to the northeast, "Look carefully, and you should be able to make out the silhouette on the horizon."

Kilishandra turned, squinting and lifting one hand to shield her eyes from the sun. Barely there, rising over the horizon was something, certainly. It wasn't what she expected from a mountain, though. Instead of rising to a pointed peak, the sides suddenly stopped their upward climb and sloped back inward, in the shape of a bowl.

"That's a volcano," she said.

"The highest point for several thousand miles on this landmass," Ganondorf said, "And yes, it is a volcano. Inside the bowl, there are several safe walkways, stone and obsidian platforms, and safe enough provided it is not actively erupting. That is where the witches will be, and where I go.

"It was that way even before my time," he added, "The volcano is not the reason it is called Death Mountain."

"So why are you still here?" Alex asked, appearing from behind Ganondorf, looking up at him on the way by, "Not like you're one to ask permission."

The wizard glanced his way. "Looking out for the less experienced," he said, "As much as I'd like to say I can handle everything myself, I might need a meat-shield like you later. Not much help if you disappear in the wasteland because you didn't wait until I returned."

"So you're seriously going to leave us here, just so long, be good kids, for two weeks?" Alex asked, turning to face him, "Answer me something then: I heard what you were saying about these women. You know what they're like. And you're afraid of them, aren't you? You're going alone because you don't want us getting killed. What the hell do we do if you don't come back?"

"There is no defense against their magic save a will of iron," Ganondorf said, "In fact, when they actually resort to using traditional magic, such as fire or lightning, they are considerably less dangerous. To put it simply, boy: You do not have what it takes in either case. And yes, you are going to stay here, be good children, and wait for me to return.

"It won't be long," he continued, turning his back to them, slowly stepping away, "From here, I'll be able to reach the southern passes up Death Mountain in about two days. If going up the chain finds her between here and there, I can stop by on the way back. Either way, I'll be back by the end of the week."

Silviana looked up. "You're not going to use a travel spell?"

"Travel spells are exhausting," Kilishandra said, "Honestly, I'm surprised he's still on his feet. As far as I know, it should take at least a week for him to be back to full strength."

"I am tired, but by now, you should know my limits are quite a bit beyond most," Ganondorf said, glancing back at them, and shooting a smile at Silviana, "I'm as close to infinite stamina as you'll ever find."

Silviana opened her mouth, pointing her index finger at the back of her throat and made a gagging sound. Ganondorf chuckled, and turned away. "In any case, all things considered, I am too tired to use a travel spell again so soon. But I have an old friend close by who makes up for that."

He started walking, without waiting for a response. A glimmer of confusion flashed over Kilishandra's face, and then she started after him. Suspicious, Silviana laid her knife aside and stood up, and quickly slipped her feet into her boots, pulling them into place before starting after them. Alex glanced out at Link and Midna in the pond, their backs to them, and out of hearing for the level they had been speaking at. He considered calling to them, but then decided to just follow the others.

Out between the trees, away from the grass and across the hot sand of the valley, to a cleft in the far wall. It wasn't a terribly large valley, but the walk took several minutes, until Ganondorf came to a stop by a small alcove in the rock wall that surrounded them. In the shade, hidden from the sun, was another source of water. None of them could see the bottom, but it was only about a foot wide, and there was no sign of plant life around it.

"It's a puddle," Alex said as Ganondorf knelt down by it.

"Don't drink from this one," the wizard said, drawing a knife from his belt, "You won't survive it."

He lifted the knife, placing the tip against the index finger of his other hand, and made a cut. A single drop of blood stood on the tip of the knife, and Ganondorf then held it over the small pool, turning the blade over and allowing the drop to fall into the water. Instantly, the water began to froth and boil, turning red, then deep black, seeming to suck the light away as the liquid swelled and began to run over the edges of the pool.

"Back up," Ganondorf warned and they did so as the thick black liquid began to spread over the sand, bubbling and gurgling.

In seconds, it had spread, covering a ten foot circle out from the alcove, when its movement changed, and it began to rise upward, swelling in the middle and then toward the edges. Then the edge of the liquid began to pull back in, toward the rising shape as it formed before them. Silviana glanced over at Ganondorf to see a faint smile on the wizard's face.

The liquid began to solidify, becoming smoother, and the bottom of the mass split apart and reformed into four powerful legs. With a crack like a whip, a tail of hair on the far side appeared, switching at the air as one of the legs lifted, pawing at the sand, a hoof throwing sand into the air beneath the mass. At last, directly in front of them, two slits opened in the solidifying liquid, revealing two glowing red eyes, and a snort that spewed fire opened two nostrils at the front of the shape. Then, with a shake of the head, and a whinny, the split of the mouth appeared, and the coal black mane tossed through the air.

A massive and beautiful black stallion stood before them, red eyes darting between then. He snorted again, small jets of flame shooting from his nostrils, and pawed the sand with one hoof, and Silviana thought she saw smoke rising from the hoof.

Ganondorf slowly stepped toward the horse, motioning for the others to stay back. He held out one hand, coming to a stop when it was just beneath the horse's nose. The stallion sniffed, then again, then nickered and tossed his head to the side, throwing his mane. Ganondorf's smile grew and he stepped around the horse's side, scratching him under the chin and running his other hand down his neck. "Yes, you remember me, don't you boy?" he asked.

"What is this…"Silviana started, and hesitated for a second before finishing, "…animal?"

"This is Ebony," Ganondorf said as he stroked the stallion's neck, "I told you a pair of witches acted as my surrogate mothers for several years. He was my coming of age gift. The most magnificent horse I've ever ridden. He never needs rest, and at least in this world, never needs to be fed. My guess is he feeds on something on his home plane. He may also never die. He's older than I am, and has aged much better, even with my remarkable everlasting youth.

"When he is injured, he departs this plane of reality, returning to his own to recover. The last time I rode him to battle, Link was my enemy. Led me off an unexpected jump and broke one of Ebony's legs. In spite of everything else, physically he's as vulnerable as any other horse. But he will not have to stop and rest on my trip, so he will easily make the distance in the time I plan."

"I never saw this horse with you before," Kilishandra said, "If he's from another world, can't you summon him anywhere?"

"Possibly, but not this easily," Ganondorf said, "Think of the planes of reality as a disc. A bright nexus at the center would be what we consider to be Heaven, where the gods dwell and watch. The other realities, including our own, extend outward like arms from that center point. It's not really an accurate metaphor, as to mortal understanding, there are an infinite number of parallel realities. What we actually call parallel realities are planes that are very close together, and sometimes they intersect.

"Your world, Kili, is fairly removed from this one. In fact this world is bizarre in my knowledge, due to the fact world close to each other tend to be fairly similar in things like geography, and even culture. This world is close to two others. One is what they call the Sacred Realm, a land that is bonded even more strongly to the Triforce than this one, and people like Link and I, who have pieces of the Triforce, can reshape it to our will.

"The other is the world where Ebony here comes from. This spot is one place this world intersects with his, allowing easy passage between the two. I did pay a visit to his world with Koume and Kotake, to catch him the first time. It is very much the fire and brimstone image of Hell that the churches love to pound into stupid people's heads. Except there are no tormented souls of the damned to be found. This place here is a form of gateway, similar to those that connect this world to the Sacred Realm from the Temple of Time and beneath Darimar. Like those, it is quite impossible to fall through accidentally as well. Considering the fascination with threes that the gods had when they made this world, I assume there are two more of these that I do not know of, and one more to the Sacred Realm as well.

"This magnificent horse is one of the more mundane creatures I encountered there," he had to pause and chuckle to himself before adding, "As amazed as people would have been to see me riding the acid-spitting winged snake, I opted for something more practical."

He leaned down by the horse's side. Something else had formed on the ground from the dark liquid. At first, it was a mass of shapes, but when Ganondorf pulled one piece aside, Kilishandra realized it was a saddle.

"I'm still not sure I like this idea," Silviana said, crossing her arms as she watched him dig through the pile.

"Maybe the kid's verisimilitude that I was asking permission made you think I was," Ganondorf said, looking over his shoulder at her, "I'll make it clear: I wasn't. You don't want me to leave, just try and stop me."

"My very… wait, what?" Alex asked, his eyes narrowing as he tried to deconstruct the word and failed.

"Something else for you to spell when you figure out phantasmagorical in a couple years," Ganondorf said with an amused smile, turning back to the pile when a thought struck him, "Hey, Kili. Come here for a second. It's all right, he won't hurt you," he added when she hesitated, glancing at the horse.

Ebony snorted, flame shooting from his nostrils as she moved to him. At Ganondorf's urging, she allowed him to smell her hand and rubbed his neck as Ganondorf put a pad on his back, then lifted the saddle onto it, and Kilishandra helped him straighten the straps and hook them under the horse's belly. The next piece was a metal chest piece that when under his neck, hooked to the front of the saddle and underneath to hold it in place, though it hung slightly loose to allow him to move freely. The bridle included a protective metal mask, and with the set complete, the already impressive horse was made even more intimidating.

"Isn't that all a bit heavy?" Alex asked.

"Most knights tend to wear more armor than this themselves when they ride," Ganondorf said, "In fact, they need help just to get on the horse, which is usually wearing this kind of armor itself. I think Ebony could carry six knights in full armor, in weight if not in size. There isn't that much room on his back. Point is, all this and me are just afterthoughts to him. You don't know too much about horses, do you?"

Alex shrugged. "I've always walked. Never even learned to ride."

"Hey!" Link shouted at them from a distance away, "What's going on?"

They turned to see Link and Midna moving toward them. Midna was still doing up the buttons of her jerkin, but Link had only taken time to throw on his boots and trousers and put his sword on his shoulder.

Ganondorf hooked on foot in the stirrup and pulled himself up into the saddle, gathering the reigns. "They can explain it to you," he said as Link and Midna approached.

"Where did you get-" Link started, only for Ganondorf to crack the reigns, and with a single shout of "Ha!" sent the horse into a gallop from a standing start, flying past them and sending sand flying into the air in his wake.

"Damn," Link said in amazement as he watched Ganondorf diminish in size toward the far side of the valley, vanishing out between, "That got up to speed fast."

"Link, look," Midna said, pointing at the ground where the sand had been torn up beneath the horse's hooves. Each place the horse's hooves touched the ground left a black scorch mark, with small flames dancing at the edge of the mark, only to die a few seconds later with nothing to consume.

Link turned to the others. "Where is he going?"

Silviana sighed. "Let's go back to the pond, so I can at least work on cleaning the fish while I explain."

* * *

"Four, and that makes five hundred," the man said as he pushed the small pile of silver rupees across the table to Zelda.

She spread them out, counting again just to make sure. Each was about the size of her thumbnail, and didn't want to miscount after becoming used to the enormous metal coins used in Mystara. All ten were there, so she pulled them together and slid them off the edge of the table into her other hand.

"Thank you," she said, nodding her head as she rose to her feet, "I hope the ships serve you well."

"I hope the trade routes to Hyrule open again soon," the man said, "Several mines in the area are suffering without the Goron explosives, and my pockets are suffering without being the middleman for them."

"Hopefully all our fortunes improve in the coming months," Zelda said, turning to leave the office and nodding to Vargus, who fell into step behind her as she pass him.

There was another ninja waiting outside the door to the street, almost casually leaning against the wall next to the building entrance, and rose to follow when Zelda passed by him. Two bodyguards was what the city's governor had deemed acceptable for a foreign leader of her stature, and the city guards paid no mind as they walked. If there was ever trouble, the troublemakers would quickly learn about the other ten that no one saw, but were following her at various distances.

She had not been allowed to bring such a large number of refugees into the city, especially without money to pay for beds, so they had been forced to make camp outside the city walls. Zelda remembered why she hated independent merchant cities like this one. Fortunately, the refugees had been happy just to get off the ships and out of the holds, into fresh-air and sunlight for more than a few hours.

The sight of Sledge and his men had caused the guards on the city walls to triple, and Zelda saw a lot more on duty than before by the gate nearest the camp. She had tried to explain that they were effectively the same as the Zora, whom the people of this city were familiar with, just that they were a salt-water breed. But their intimidating shark-like appearances had their effect.

Zelda had been urged by Maylow and Sheila to at least buy a room in the city for herself, and she had considered it, to at least have a bath before meeting with the merchants. But the sight of the people camped outside the city was what changed her mind. They were all dirty, tired, and after several weeks crammed into the ships' holds with other sweaty bodies, smelled rather ripe. She decided she was not going to have comfort until they did.

A nearby stream ran out into the ocean, providing enough fresh water for the group, so Zelda did take the time to wash her face and hair before meeting the city's governor, and the merchant's guild in her attempt to sell the ships.

The camp was a better sight now, and she could see the wagons being loaded with supplies purchased in the city for the final leg of the journey as she left the city gate. She was sure they had enough now, but as they approached the camp, she counted out seven of the silver rupees and handed them to the ninja on her right, telling him to take the money the docks and order another hundred pounds of salted fish, whatever it was, from one of the larger fishing merchants.

He sped away with the money to carry out the order. Zelda had wondered if she would have to watch them, when she first offered to bring them to Hyrule, but it turned out they were remarkably loyal people. She had used her empathy to "listen in" on them for some time, yet found no tell-tale signs of liars or attempts at deception. It was remarkable how easily they had slipped into the task of her personal guard. The Sheikah had carried out that duty for her ancestors, and it was strangely comforting to have warriors of shadow filling that role again.

The wagons were already paid for, and the refugees, better fed and allowed all the water they wanted from the stream, were looking better already as they worked, loading what they needed for this final trip.

Ilia looked up from where she was working in time to see the princess walk by, the tall warrior in black leather at her heel. Since arriving, the princess had regained at least some of the regal bearing Ilia had expected from her. She was still wearing her traveling clothes, the blue tunic with white sleeves and dark trousers, and it was all dirty and tattered, but she had washed the grime from her face and hair, and undone the tight braid her hair had been in so long, allowing it to fall loose over her shoulders and down her back.

Ilia found herself jealous of the princess's hair. Her own had always been kept short, out of necessity as much as simplicity. When she was younger, she had kept it longer, but a few too many encounters with a goat chewing on it and one incident with a door had convinced her that shorter was better, just because it was easier to manage. Yet the princess's hair was so grand and lustrous compared to her own, which at a distance someone might mistake her for a boy. She knew the princess had no soap when she went to the stream to wash it, yet it still looked so smooth and perfect. She wondered how many people worked in the castle back in Hyrule just to wash the princess's hair.

That's just great, she thought to herself. First she had to break her own heart by stepping out of the picture for Midna to have Link, and now she was getting jealous of the princess over her hair. Reprimanding herself, Ilia picked up another box of foodstuff, lifting it into the back of the wagon and shoving it as far in as she could before climbing up and scooting it back against the others already loaded.

She'd be home soon, at least, back among faces she knew. Yet even that thought carried sadness, because she knew there was one face that would be missing. As she climbed down from the wagon, she looked over at the ocean, extending seemingly infinitely to toward the horizon, and wondered how far away Link was at this moment.

Across the camp, at the only table around, a map was spread out upon it, showing the local geography. Zelda came to it to find Maylow and Sheila pouring over the map.

"If this is Hyrule, why don't we just go through here, in the gap between these mountains," Maylow said as he traced a line on the map in an open area between two sets of mountains.

"Because that's the desert," Sheila said, "Zelda told me about the conditions there. With a smaller group, maybe we could make it, but with this many people, we'd lose a lot of them getting through, if we made it at all."

"I've told you already, Maylow, we're going north," Zelda said, causing them both to look up, and indicated on the map, "We loop around the mountains here, and have easy, flat grassland to cross to enter Hyrule from the north. Our only problem would be going too far north, into the wilds, but we won't be going that far anyway."

"Still seems like a long way out of the way," Maylow said, "What about south? It looks like there are passes through the mountains here."

"Same problem as before, that being the desert," Zelda said, "Not to mention it would also involve going through the Lost Woods."

"The Lost Woods?" Maylow asked.

"Here," Zelda said, indicating the forest on the southeastern portion of the map, "You see, old Hyrule, before the great flood, was located further to the southeast. Our modern border overlaps some of it. About here, I think, is where the capital was. The Lost Woods grew back quickly after the flood, and now have completely covered old Hyrule. Link told me he has been to the ruins of the capital city and the Temple of Time in the woods, but that's the furthest anyone has been in and managed to return in centuries."

"What's so dangerous about it?" Maylow asked.

"You know those children's stories about cursed forests and the like?" Zelda asked, "This one is true. The reason it is called the Lost Woods is because it is nearly impossible to find your way out once you are in. And if you become well and truly lost, you never will. You are doomed to wander the forest for eternity, until the flesh rots from your bones and you become a monster called a Stalfos. Now, I don't know how true that part is, but people who go in more often than not do not come back out, and Stalfos are seen elsewhere in Hyrule, so they're real enough."

"Why did Link go in there?" Sheila asked.

"To get this," Zelda said, tapping the hilt of the Master Sword at her hip, "Don't worry, I'm sure he'll tell you the whole story eventually. In the meantime, we're going north. It's the only way into Hyrule. Which reminds me, Sheila. How soon can we use this counter-spell to break the curse on my people?"

"Well, I can't say I'm the expert, but I think it would be best to use it at the epicenter, where the Silencing was cast," Sheila said, "Do you know where that is?"

Zelda nodded, and put her finger down on the map. "In the capital, in the market square," she said.

"Well, at least you'll be in your position of authority immediately," Sheila said.

"Yes," Zelda said, "We're going to have a lot of work waiting for us."

"I'm actually looking forward to sleeping in a real bed again," Maylow said, "Having castle walls around me, too."

"The castle is only about half-finished," Zelda said, "It was leveled about two years ago, and we have had to rebuild almost from scratch."

"How did that happen?" Sheila asked.

"We have our friend and ally Ganondorf to thank for it," Zelda said.

* * *

Ganondorf had quickly retraced the safe route through the wasteland, and had begun to wonder if he had taken a wrong step just as the river of sand appeared from the blowing sand ahead. He spurred Ebony on, and with a mighty leap, the horse almost flew, hanging in the air for almost ten seconds before coming down on the far side.

The rive of sand was a strange feature of the Haunted Wasteland, and when entering from the outside, was the first obstacle that stopped most, either by turning them back or swallowing them alive when they attempted to cross the shifting, bottomless sands that flowed as if they were water.

After clearing the river, it was a matter of minutes until the sandstorm began to lessen, and Ganondorf finally emerged from the blowing sand within sight of the rocky valley that represented the one passage from the desert to what used to be Hyrule. The ancient gate that had once barred passage into the desert from the valley only barely remained, the rock foundations of the towers on either side, worn smooth by time and weather, all the wooden construction of the gate long since rotted away and vanished.

Ganondorf slowed Ebony to a walk as they moved onto the rock floor of the valley, and pulled the scrap of cloth intended to protect his face from the blowing sand down to his neck. Looking across the ruin in the valley, this was a place of powerful memories for the wizard.

The first king of the Gerudo had begun construction of the fortress here, the valley an ideal defensive point against the people who lived further east in the land of Hyrule, but it had not been finished in his lifetime. Ganondorf had found the ruin, and with the Gerudo tribes united under himself, had completed the work. What remained now was a tribute to the construction.

The block-shaped buildings of the lower levels still remained, though most of the upper floors had collapsed. Four thousand years and at least a few centuries lost beneath the waves during the Great Flood, it was amazing that any remained at all.

Ganondorf could remember this place well, in spite of how young he had been. He had already set his eyes on the Temple of Time and the legendary Triforce, but he had ordered the fortress to be repaired and completed as a backup plan, if his goals were discovered while he was dealing with Hyrule's king. This place had been a city unto itself back then, the streets between the structures constantly filled with Gerudo women and Hylian men.

While most of the Gerudo tribes were nomads and hunters, the tribe that had lived in this general area to begin with were thieves and raiders, often attacking Hyrulean villages for supplies, and often kidnapping young Hylian men to sell as slaves to the other tribes. With a race entirely of women, such men were most often treated well, and didn't even want to return to their homes, as their only task among them was to father as many children as possible, and with many different women. Ganondorf smiled to himself, remembering the dark glares he had received from many of those men when he quickly began the center of such attentions regardless of where he went, due to the thought of pure-blooded Gerudo children, or knowing that the woman who carried a son for the wizard would be elevated to comfort comparable to a queen.

He'd never had difficulty filling his bed back then, and had learned early to temper such acts and not overwhelm himself. Too much quickly left him bored with the process. That was what was special about Nabooru, however. He never found himself bored with her, and she was the only one allowed to share his bed while he slept. The mechanical nature of what he did with her was no different than the others, but there had always been something there, something imperceptible, that caused him to prefer her over any others. Back then he hadn't understood it, trained as he was by the witches to never allow his emotions to affect his judgment or control. Looking back now, he knew he had loved her. Though he hadn't understood it then, he'd felt the stab when she betrayed him just as harshly.

Ganondorf set his jaw and growled to himself. So long ago, and it had shaped so much of his life. That betrayal, followed by the witches hiding her from him. Trained to keep his emotions down, he was unable to truly process them, and the rage turned into hate. Hate for the witches, for Nabooru, and for Hyrule and its princess for what they had caused him, especially the seven years of torment he suffered once it was done, reliving those final moments as she held him down and the Hero of Time repeatedly cut into him with the Master Sword.

Some would say there was a thin line between hatred and love. The original Princess Zelda, from that ancient time, haunted his memories and dreams for so long after his release. Exactly when that release occurred, he did not know, and was fairly certain that some time into the torment he had gone insane and lost all track, and it had been a shock to his system when he awoke and found himself free of the torment at last, and in full possession of his faculties.

His thoughts and dreams of the princess at that time had been the ways he would end her, in as painful a manner as possible. Without her, the Hero of Time would never have gained what he needed to defeat Ganondorf, or at the least, it would have taken him considerably longer. But as it was, she was the cause of every pain he had suffered, first by attempting to thwart him from gaining the Triforce, though her childish naivety caused her to play directly into his hands, it had forced him to accelerate his plans, and instead of the quick, quiet takeover he had planned, had to take the capital by force. The sight of the massacre he performed in the streets was what caused Nabooru to turn her back on him, and he would not find her again until, seven years later, she took the mantle of the Sage of Spirit, and aided in his own defeat.

He made all sorts of plans of what he would do to the princess for what she caused. He would scratch her face into wood and stone only to smash it violently, thinking about how he would make her suffer for years before he ended her life. Then he had decided he would never end her life. The torture would not by just physical violence. He would take her as his own and break her will, and she would bear his son, and as many daughters as it took before that. After that, he'd lock her in the stocks naked and let any passersby have their way with her.

It was difficult to find exactly where it changed. By the time he returned to Hyrule, she was long dead, and he took her descendants prisoner, intending to make them suffer in her place, to break them as he would have broken her. Yet even with them entirely under his power, he found himself unable to harm them, and he couldn't understand why. He could still easily fight the heroes that came in the place of the original Hero of Time, fully intent and capable of beating them into a mess of meat, blood, shattered bones and scraps of hair, though he always found himself backed into a corner, and beaten once again, though he was always just beyond their attempts to finish him once and for all.

And then he had found Kilishandra. Banished between worlds after his last attempt at taking Hyrule, he had found the method of using Travel spells to leap between worlds, though without any accuracy yet. He found her, half-starved and crying, barely able to speak and telling him about the monster that burned her village and killed her mother. So much like Aveil, the Gerudo chief that had done much the same to him and left him for dead, and looking down at Kilishandra, in her eyes, he saw himself as he used to be.

It was like waking from a long nightmare. He saw what he used to be, and what he had become, and he did not like what he saw. And if the best thing he did with his life was to make sure she did not follow the same route of hatred and self-destruction, so be it. And yet the old memories did not die away. He thought he was able to finally let them go, yet when he finally returned to Hyrule a short time ago, he found what he never expected.

He knew the original's descendant would be on the throne of Hyrule, yet the Princess Zelda he encountered this time carried an uncanny resemblance to the first. She was so similar in voice and appearance to the first, he had for a moment thought she had returned to life. And the strange emotions had returned, more powerful than ever. He was not foolish, and knew she was not the same person, but the face was so identical, even now he had to constantly remind himself she was not the one. It was easier now, though, as she had proven herself so frightened of leadership and action compared to the original. She was growing out of this at last, but even as a child, the original Zelda had considerably more courage than the current one.

It was so bizarre to say it, but Ganondorf knew that at some point of his spiral of hatred, he had fallen in love with her, the original Princess Zelda. The worst part was that he was certain that when it had turned around like this, she had already been dead for decades at least. For a brief time, at least, he had entertained the thought of the current Zelda possibly filling that space, but had given it up as being foolish, full knowing he would not find the fulfillment he desired from her.

Ebony had nearly reached the far end of the valley, and Ganondorf looked back, for a second almost thinking he saw the ghosts of the Gerudo still wandering about the fortress, and knowing it was only his imagination.

Even he wasn't sure exactly what he was aiming for at this point. Others said he possessed genius level intelligence and was always thinking five steps ahead. From his perspective, it seemed more likely that the majority of the world's population was simply slow. But thoughts and plans came to him now that even he did not see the ultimate goal of. Finding a witch was a matter of the immediate threat, yet there were other tasks he felt he needed to accomplish along the way. He was laying the groundwork for something, but he wasn't exactly sure what, except that he needed to do it. Now his thoughts drifted back to the great fairy he had encountered.

Something he was willing to die for…

Death was meaningless. Pointless. Nothing was accomplished by dying. He had believed that ever since those long past days among the Gerudo. But he knew there was no place for him in Hyrule by peace. No matter how much he aided their defense in this immediate trouble, the princess would have no choice but order him executed to appease the populace, and the so-called sages. His crimes against their nation through the ages were too great, and no statute of limitations protected crimes like leveling an entire city and allowing undead to come up from the crypts to infest the ruins. It wasn't that he thought they were capable of actually carrying it out, but the thought of what would happen to another if he fought it.

There were a lot of pieces to set into place, and only one person would truly benefit from these actions. That person was Kilishandra. It was a strange feeling when he thought about it. He didn't remember how many daughters he had among the Gerudo, and yet was never close to any of them, not like for her. There were far fewer still alive that would call for her death, but that wretched King Maylow would be the loudest, and he was becoming an integral right-hand figure to Zelda's leadership.

When Ganondorf took the Triforce of Power, the people of Hyrule had wanted a villain they could fight, and he had given it to them. Even if he no longer cared for that original goal, he could analyze and appreciate how the people had united to fight their common enemy. It was the same now: Even he was tolerated for these battles. Once that enemy was gone, they would search for another. If one did not exist, they would make one.

It all came back to his simple belief of human nature: Hatred and ignorance reached to the very core of every person in the world. So long as they had someone to hate, someone to fight, they were happy. They had to find someone to blame for what was wrong with the world, regardless of the actual source.

Ganondorf smiled to himself as Ebony made his way through the narrow pass leading to old Hyrule. Maybe that what why he felt the need to keep up his "monster" facade, and make sure Link and the others felt they could not trust him. To protect Kilishandra from being the villain for them to take out their aggression on, he could certainly fill the role himself. The things he felt he needed to do, and wasn't sure why, suddenly clicked and made sense. It was all to divert attention to himself, away from her.

The biggest problem was the fact he couldn't pull it off alone, and Kilishandra would have to be unaware of it. She was honest to a fault, and would certainly mess it up somehow. No, the person who had to help him would be Zelda herself. She was growing up, and even if she didn't like the idea, she would understand what he meant when he told her the people would need someone they could hate. And if she didn't, she would by the time it was over.

Ganondorf was suddenly broken from his planning as the pass ahead widened, and the path came to an abrupt end and a sheer drop. The bridge he remembered was now just a stone arch on this side of the canyon, and another on the far side. He urged Ebony into a gallop, the mighty stallion leaping forward and accelerating rapidly.

Ebony leaped from the canyon edge, fire streaming from his hooves as he arced over the thirty foot gap and came down on the other side, landing at a full gallop and shooting through the narrowing pass. Coming out the other side of the pass, Ganondorf suddenly pulled back on the reins, dragging Ebony to a stop on the rock ledge that looked out over the grasslands of old Hyrule. Or at least what used to be the grasslands.

"That spread further than I thought," he said, looking out on the vast expanse of trees.

Between the thick trunks of the tightly packed trees, light faded rapidly. Ganondorf was barely able to see more than twenty feet in from where he was, as the light faded to pitch black. He had known the Lost Woods had spread along the northern border, and overlapped what was not the southern border of modern Hyrule. He had not expected it to have spread this far already. He looked to the south, wondering how far it extended that direction. He found himself wishing his strength was not exhausted from the Travel spell, or he would leave Ebony and fly, but in his current state, he doubted he would make it to Death mountain.

Well, he'd penetrated the darkest depths of the forest back then, standing in the glade of the Deku Tree, and to the temple in its furthest reaches. He was sure he could make it now, but unfortunately even Ebony's sense of direction could not be trusted in the forest. He had been hoped to catch snatches of sleep while he rode, but he couldn't let his guard down like that in the forest, or he would be lost.

With a slight effort, a globe of light appeared over his upturned palm, and Ganondorf cast it toward the trees, flying between their branches and casting long shadows of the trunks in all directions. He then urged Ebony on, and moved into the trees at a trot, moving into the forest that none with any sense ventured to without dire reason.

* * *

"Frustrated?" Midna asked.

"How'd you guess?" Link responded, stabbing another cut of the fish on his knife and lifting it to his mouth.

"Oh, that's easy," she said, "It's the way you're glaring at nothing in particular."

"I don't like sitting on my hands like this," Link said.

The two of them were seated beneath the trees, about six feet from the edge of the pond, with a makeshift spit stabbed into the earth, on it were several slices of the fish's meat remaining, cooked until gold and crispy on the outside with still tender on the inside. It was as tasteless as unseasoned fish ever was, but a welcome change to dried beef and biscuits.

"Well, if you want, you can go bruise them instead," Midna said, gesturing to Alex, about twenty feet from them, where he had chosen one of the trees apparently at random, and was not assaulting it with a flurry of punches and kicks to the point where the spots his hands and feet struck it were peeling the outer layer of bark away, revealing the white color underneath, and he showed no signs of stopping.

"He said even after the fairy water, he was sore, and was going to work it out," Link said.

"By making his hands sore instead?" Midna said.

"I guess," Link said, and smiled, "You know, you don't make wise-ass comments like that much anymore."

"I don't know," Midna said, leaning against his side and resting her head against his, "I don't think I need to say much with you anymore. Just being like this is good enough."

"Except when it keeps me from eating," Link said, pushing her head away with one hand and reaching for the fish with the other.

With a smile, Midna slipped one hand under his shirt, tracing the lines of abdominal muscles with one finger. Link fidgeted and cleared his throat. "I told you that tickles," he complained.

"How about this instead?" she asked, and started rubbing back and forth on his stomach with the palm of her hand, "I heard dogs love this."

"Smartass," Link said, pulling another piece of meat from the spit and pulled it in half. When Midna started to retort, he shoved one piece into her mouth before eating the other himself.

Midna coughed once and started trying to chew a piece that was actually too large for her mouth and it was a moment before she managed to swallow, and shot Link a glare. "You're not supposed to do that to a lady," she said, "You're supposed to be delicate."

"I'll remember that when meet one," he replied.

"Ooh, I'm going to get you for that one," Midna said, the hand under his shirt moving down and slipping down the front of his pants.

"Hey, now that's not fair!" Link said, squirming and somewhat dismayed at how quickly he responded to her touch.

"Quiet or the others will hear you," Midna whispered in his ear.

"You are incorrigible," Link replied, then groaned, shifting his position almost involuntarily to give her better access.

"I think I've found the real Master Sword," Midna said with a giggle.

"That's like a line from a bad romance novel," Link said.

"And you would know? I wonder what kind of raunchy books you read when you thought no one was looking…" Midna said, increasing her efforts.

Link shifted his position, but caught her wrist with his hand and forcibly dragging it away. "Let's at least not make a mess of my clothes," he said, "Let's find somewhere more private."

Alex glanced over as they stood up and Link retrieved his sword and baldric, tossing it over one shoulder as the two of them moved away through the trees, his other hand holding hers as they walked.

Alex growled in frustration and renewed his assault on the try, smashing his fists into it with enough force to shake the frond leaves at the top. There they were, making it look so easy, and he felt like he'd completely ruined his chances.

He tried just putting Silviana aside. Give up, it's over, she's never going to give you the time of day, he told himself. That had just made him angrier with himself. He certainly had a gift for bad timing, picking then to press her, instead of waiting and following his original idea. He was utterly convinced that King Maylow was the son that had been taken from her, but he wanted to wait until he could actually get them together before he told her.

Hell, she was a judge, she probably already knew, right? So then he'd be wasting his time and making himself look like an idiot again. He didn't even know why he was so drawn to her. Hell, the way they had met had been her landing on his back with both feet and face planting him in the dirt. She'd actually been the one coming on to him, they way she was constantly flirting, but that's what made him feel more than anything that he'd ruined it, because that was gone. She'd completely closed off from him.

"Alex."

He jumped at the sound, missing the punch he had aimed and scraped the top layer of skin off his knuckles as they dragged on the bark. He growled in pain as he pulled his hand back, looking at the torn skin.

"Sorry," Silviana said, "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's all right," he said, "I doubt I'll die from scraped knuckles at this point."

"Listen, I want to apologize," she said.

He looked up at her. "You apologize? What for?"

"I kind of dumped everything on you fairly harshly earlier," she said, "That wasn't fair to you."

"Well, I didn't exactly pick the best time," Alex said. "I mean, Ralthas is dead, and I was covered my own blood. Not the best setting regardless of fair or not."

She gave him a small smile. "Quite the awkward pair we make," she said, "I just want to hear one thing. The things you said, they are true, right?"

Alex looked up from his injured knuckles to her face. Her smile was gone and her eyes were focused directly on him. He almost couldn't believe what he saw there. The hard wall she had put up after he slept with the bard was gone. He could see it again, the sparkle of curiosity and a wisdom of one far beyond years. He also saw something else. Sadness and fear. Was she afraid he'd say no? Or was she afraid he'd say yes?

He put his hands on her shoulders, looking down into her eyes. "It was all true," he said, "I can't say I expected it, or even understand it completely, but you're the only person I want. And the only one I ever will. I will do whatever it takes to prove it."

Silviana smiled, even as tears welled up in her eyes. "You don't have to prove it," she said, "Even knowing what happened to me when I was young, you feel that way?"

She had told him about what she referred to when he had tried to explain about the bard. When she was a slave, and had been raped. He hadn't asked for details, but guessed that from the situation that it had happened more than once.

"Of course I do," he said, "That wasn't your fault. If the bastards who did that to you weren't already dead, I'd kill them myself."

"That's all right," she said, "Thank, but you have to understand why I approach something like this cautiously."

"Like I said about that other woman, I screwed up," Alex said, "I can't apologize enough. I'll let you hit me as many times as you want if you like."

"I don't think that will be necessary," she said, wiping her eyes, "But what you said about drinking."

"I said I'll never touch the stuff again," Alex said.

"I think just being where I can see you when you drink will be fine," she said.

"No way. You don't touch the stuff, neither will eye," Alex said.

Silviana stepped forward, putting her arms around him and leaning her head against his chest. "I can't say I understand the draw either," she said, "But I think it's what I want, too."

Alex found himself smiling, and put his arms around her, holding her close. The pain in his chest was gone, replaced with relief, and a wonderful warmth. It was a kind of feeling he'd never experienced with any other woman but Silviana. He looked up, suddenly finding himself fighting to keep back tears of his own.

"There's just one other thing," Silviana said, pushing back and looking up at him, "Alex, I am three-hundred fourty-two years old. Provided we live until this mess is over, and barring an accident or illness, I'll live for another six-hundred years or so. I will far outlive you. And if we have a child, it will age slower than human children. At fifteen, he or she will appear about eight or nine to a human, and will not reach an equivalent to human twenty until about a century. If we have a child, you will not live to see them reach adulthood.

"Would you be able to handle that? Could you stand knowing this, and still want to be with me?"

Alex looked away from her. "I… I don't know, actually," he said, "I never really thought about that."

"This is something I should have brought up sooner, before I led you on," Silviana said, and started to turn from him.

Alex grabbed her by the shoulders, stopping her. "I don't know, but won't know unless I try," Alex said, "What about you? Would you be able to handle me not living as long as you? I'll at least have the advantage of my wife always being young and nubile, but I'll be shriveling up like a prune after a while."

"Wife?" Silviana asked, looking back up at him.

"Well, yeah, wife," Alex said, "Is that a problem?"

Her smile was steadily growing. "I just pictured myself in a white dress, walking down the aisle… It's something I never thought I'd have, between living in the forest and being a dark elf."

"I think I've said this before, but I'm not exactly mainstream myself," Alex said, "Tell you what, I know Link has pull with the princess. If we make it through this, we'll be gods damned heroes. We'll pull some strings and you'll get the best wedding you can imagine, and we'll have it in the throne room of her castle, and you can thumb your nose at all the idiots who look down on you just because of your skin."

"Slow down just a bit," she said, "We do have to survive this mess first."

"So… is that a yes?" Alex asked.

Silviana laughed. There were tears in her eyes again. "Yes, Alex," she said, "Yes, I'll marry you."

He couldn't stop himself. Alex whooped with joy and pulled her close, holding her tight against his chest and spun around, swinging her through the air like a child, his voice echoing around them as he shouted in excitement. She was laughing even as she held on for dear life, her feet flying out almost horizontal behind her. Alex slowed down, both of them dizzy, and staggered sideways, trying to keep his balance and failing, sending both of them toppling into the shallow edge of the pond.

Still laughing, they sat up, Alex coughing up some water he inhaled in the process as Silviana fought to get the wet hair out of her eyes. The sound of footsteps caused them both to look up, and found themselves looking up at Kilishandra, her sword drawn.

"The way you were screaming, I thought someone was dying," she said.

More footsteps on the grass caused them to turn to see Link and Midna approaching at a run, slowing down as they neared the edge of the pond. Link's sword was also drawn, and the blade relaxed and lowered as they stopped and looked down at the two sitting in the shallows.

"So, which one of you is melting in the water?" Link asked. Alex now saw him holding his trousers up with one hand, and hadn't even taken time to put his boots on. Midna at least had hers fastened, though her jerkin hung open, only barely covering her. Her expression was quickly shifting from fear to annoyance.

Alex and Silviana looked at each other, and started laughing again. Kilishandra sheathed her sword, sighing through her teeth in irritation, turning away as they started to pick themselves up. "Okay," Alex said, the two of them stepping out of the water onto the sand, and turned to Silviana, "Should we go ahead and tell them?"

"It was more than a little awkward, and probably the worst time possible from the perspective of romantics," Silviana said, "But Alex just asked me to marry him."

"And she said yes!" Alex said, unable to hide even the smallest amount of his excitement.

Kilishandra turned around, a perplexed expression on her face. "I thought you two couldn't stand each other," she said.

As if to make a point, Alex put an arm around Silviana and pulled her closer to himself.

"That's great to hear, but I wouldn't have minded if you had waited about fifteen minutes," Link said, hitching his trousers up higher and trying to fasten the front button with one hand.

"What the hell were you doing that takes that long?" Alex asked.

Midna shot them a sly smile as she moved over to help Link fasten the button. "Wouldn't you like to know…" she said.

"Now I'm curious," Silviana said, "I think I picked the wrong one."

Alex looked down at her, but she smiled back, and he pretended he knew she was joking to begin with.

"That's great," Kilishandra muttered, "That's really great. At least put out the bedrolls so we can make a decent camp before you go off again, will you?"

She started walking away without waiting for a response.

"What's her problem?" Alex asked.

Midna glanced at Link's face. He was watching Kilishandra as she walked away. Realizing she was watching him, Link shifted his gaze to her, and gave her a smile. Midna leaned down and gave him a quick kiss, then without turning said, "I wish I knew."


	119. Chapter 118

Not gonna apologize for another "filler" chapter. I love writing this character stuff. I might apologize for trying too hard to be funny more than once. It's one of those instances where I'm not sure if the readers are going to find things as funny as the characters do. It could have been longer, but I decided to hold off on what Ganondorf's doing until the next chapter. After all, we've got two weeks until everyone gets back to Hyrule, and I'm barely at the first evening. And I had to work Kilishandra singing back into the story, since I had done nothing with it since the first time. The lyrics she sings are from the song "The Guardian" by Running Wild, picked because the tone fit the present tone of the story perfectly, though I did slightly edit it to fit more into how I'm working its story into the lore.

Anyway, I'm yet again realizing I should never estimate where the story is going to end. I was thinking about 125 would be the end, but now at 118 I'm certain I'm going to go well over that mark. I fully expect that if I ever become a published novelist, these bad math skills will make me constantly try to cram five or six novels into a trilogy.

**Chapter 118: The Desert Storm**

The sun didn't have a chance to set, vanishing quickly behind the building storm clouds. Flashes of lightning between the clouds rumbled in the distance. Kilishandra took a bite of the seared fish as she watched them coming closer. The storm didn't surprise her, nor did its rapidly growing size. She would have been more shocked if it were a small drizzle. She could remember distantly what Ganondorf had told her about desert weather, that while it did not rain often, when it did, it came in a torrent.

Surely the others had noticed the brewing storm by now. The nearby temple beneath the colossus would be an ideal shelter from the rain and wind, though she didn't relish the thought, after the encounter with the witches' ghosts. They way they looked at her had sent a chill up her spine. She didn't think it was even the fact they were dead that had done so. They would have likely had the same effect even in life.

"You might want to get inside before that gets here," Midna said, appearing from between the trees.

Kilishandra glanced at her, then shook her head, looking back at the storm. "We have time yet," she said, "What do you want?"

"As friendly as ever, I see," Midna said with a sigh, "I actually came to see if you were all right. You stormed off in a bit of a huff and all."

"'A bit of a huff?' Yes, I guess that's one way to put it," Kilishandra said, "The whole timing of this nonsense with those two, it's so stupid."

"Alex and Silviana?" Midna asked, "What about them?"

"Just think about it," Kilishandra said, turning her head to look directly at Midna, "Look around us. This hardly seems the ideal time to decide to have a wedding, or is that just me?"

"I say good for them," Midna said, "Maybe it is a strange time, but no stranger than the romantic notion of the hero who rescues the princess and weds her while the bodies of her captors are still warm."

"I never put any stock in those kinds of fairy tales," Kilishandra said.

"You should read Hyrule's history when you get a chance," Midna said, "You'll be shocked at how close to reality many of those stories are. It's an interesting kingdom, to say the least. It started from literally nothing, and has been won and lost a dozen times over since."

"And from what I gather, my father was at the center of every bit of it," Kilishandra said.

"Not every time, though he was a steady source of difficulty for almost three thousand years," Midna said, "That's the part I have a hard time believing: The fact that man is now the oldest living being on this earth, and the sheer length of it. I don't know, maybe it's just disbelief. I have a hard time believing anyone can be a genuine immortal."

"He isn't immortal," Kilishandra said, "He's told me as much himself. His eternal youth is one thing, but he's not invulnerable. He's beyond human limits, and would be damn hard to kill, but he can die."

"Good to know," Midna said.

"Is that a threat?" Kilishandra asked.

"Of course not," Midna said, "Look, my problem isn't with you. But I've got very good reasons to hate the man you call your 'father.' If it weren't for the fact we need him and that ridiculously strong brain of his, I'd jump at the chance to put him six feet under. So would Link and Zelda.

"Do you remember what I was when we first met?" she asked, cutting off Kilishandra before she could respond, "Your father did that to me. Twisted and changed my form, trapping me in the shape of that… thing. Then I watched, helpless, while he and Zant transformed my people into monsters. Mindless beasts that would form the army with which they invaded Hyrule.

"They covered that land in darkness, the darkness that I had called home, and it twisted the forms of the people of Hyrule as well, turning them into wraiths, spirits, which could see but not harm the monsters my people had become, but they were unable to see those that had escaped Zant and Ganondorf's influence. They couldn't see me. I was effectively on my own in a world I didn't know, trying to find something or someone to help me fight back and save my people.

"Only two people escaped that fate. The first I met was Princess Zelda. She was spared that fate so that she could watch what was happening to her kingdom, what her surrender had brought upon them all.

"The other was Link. He was protected by the piece of the Triforce he possesses. He did not become a spirit like the others, but instead experienced the first transformation into the wolf shape you've seen. Back then we had no control over it, and he would turn into a wolf whenever he entered the darkness, and the only way to return to his human form was for one of the light spirits around the kingdom to purge the darkness from him.

"But the important part was, unlike the poor souls trapped as spirits, he could fight the monsters the Twili had become. He could fight back against the darkness. And he had good reason to. Ganondorf's followers had kidnapped the children from his home village."

"Why?" Kilishandra asked, "My father's never done anything like that to children before."

"They weren't hurt," Midna said, "In fact, after Link and I started working together, we found them rather quickly. I think Ganondorf's actual goal was to draw Link out. I believe he had found him through the Triforce, and wanted to give him a reason to come looking for them."

"That makes no sense. Even when I was young, he taught me that giving an enemy a chance was practically suicide," Kilishandra said, "One must always crush their enemy, not get their attention and say 'Come and get me.'"

"I'm not going to pretend to understand how he thinks," Midna said, "Even now, his thought processes baffle me. He drew Link out because he wanted a fight. Why exactly, you're better off asking him. "

"Maybe I will," Kilishandra said.

"I've kind of wandered off my original point," Midna said, "I can't really blame Alex and Silviana for grabbing something to hold onto, something to hope for, in the midst of this. But then again, I don't think they're actually the cause of your mood."

"And you aren't the slightest bit put off by the fact they've apparently decided to get married before you and Link have?" Kilishandra asked.

Midna smiled. "Twili do not need big receptions and parties for such a thing," Midna said, "A simple exchange of love and promise is all we need. Sometimes a gift is given, though not necessary, but as far as I'm concerned," she paused, pulling the leather string around her neck from under her shirt and holding it up to where Kilishandra could see the green gemstone cut in the shape of a star, "he and I have already done all that."

She paused, taking a moment to tuck the pendant back into the front of her shirt, then looked back up at Kilishandra. "And don't think I haven't noticed you," Midna said.

"What are you talking about?" Kilishandra asked, looked away, back toward the storm that was drawing ever closer, and the wind starting to rise, softly pushing at them with a chill air.

"I see it happening," Midna said, "You are drawn to Link, just as I was. I think it's the actual reason you're being so surly lately. Because I beat you to him."

Kilishandra shot a glare at her, but did not respond.

"At first, I even felt sorry for you," Midna said, "But, perhaps sadly, deep down I am a very selfish person. I just gave up my people, my home, everything, for this world, to give us a chance at winning this. I'm afraid it wasn't a selfless act, because I know exactly what I want in exchange, and that is Link. That's all I want. And I don't intend to give him up."

"Now I think you are threatening me," Kilishandra said.

"Consider it a friendly warning," Midna said, "I don't think of myself as the jealous type, but I'm not going to share, either."

"Answer me something," Kilishandra said, "Why are you even still here? Why didn't you go back to your people when you had the chance? You're about to fight for a kingdom that is not your own, against hopeless odds, and for what?"

Midna turned from her, lifting her eyes to the approaching storm. The wind was growing stronger, and lifting their hair form their shoulders as they waited.

"I love Link," Midna said softly.

"I understand that," Kilishandra said, "But back then, as I understand it, the two of you were not yet that far. He was even seeing another woman. Why did it go like this? Why are you here now?"

"I love Link," Midna repeated.

"You said that already," Kilishandra said, "And it's not an actual answer to my question."

"But I don't have another answer," Midna said, "I suppose I could say 'Because it's the right thing to do' or try to justify it with flimsy logic, but the truth is that's all I can say. I love Link. In fact, I'm saying it a lot lately, mainly to myself. It's like a stone, something hard and certain that I can hold onto, and it helps things make sense when the world is going crazy and people are dying."

"It's a reason to survive," Kilishandra said, thinking back to her father's words that she needed to find such a thing, a reason to survive.

"Yes," Midna said, "This might not be a storybook, but it's certainly shaping up like one, with our impossible enemy growing ever closer. And then I've got the other thing, in the Fused Shadow. But when I'm close to Link, and when we hold each other, none of it seems to matter, because I just know everything is going to be all right. It has to be.

"Anyway," she said after a pause, "That storm is getting closer. You better get inside before it gets here. Link and the others are gathering wood and dead cactus bits to build a fire."

Kilishandra nodded absently and Midna turned, walking away and leaving her alone.

A reason to live. To survive. Twice now she'd been told that. Well, it was easy, right? All the people she'd left behind, on their home plane. They needed help, and that was easy, right? Somehow, it didn't fill her with any sense of hope.

Link, Midna, and Alex and Silviana, they all had their reasons, and they were much smaller. Their own loves and desires. What did she want? What was a real reason for her to survive, no matter what?

An image of Link forced his way into her thoughts. No, she couldn't focus on him. It was already clear she had no place with him. He had already made his choice. She was being punished, she must be, for ignoring Mur'neth's feelings toward her. Why else would she have fallen in love with a man whose heart belonged to another?

Kilishandra drew her sword, holding up the curved blade of the katana before her. The sword belonged to Mur'neth, and an enchanted weapon that could funnel moonlight into deadly beams of light. Secrets she had no idea how to unlock. She could see her own face reflected in the metal of the blade, and for a moment, she thought she saw his.

That stupid grin he always seemed to wear. The twinkle of humor in his eye. Mur'neth was so different from the other ninja. They all seemed so stiff, so formal. He was so relaxed. The only time he was serious was when he was on mission.

Dark elves were shunned in the world they were from, because they sided with the demons in the ancient rebellion, choosing the familiar evil to the unknown of living without them. And she was a half-breed, a union that should never have happened because of the old hatreds, and was shunned by both sides as a result. When the ninja joined Ganondorf, they had always been respectful of her status, but she could see it in their eyes, even old Vargus, the glint of disgust when they looked on her.

Mur'neth had been so different. Other than Ganondorf and Khall, he was the only one who treated her like any other. And he always greeted her with a smile.

Gods, she had been so blind, and now she was certainly suffering for it, experiencing what he must have. And he killed himself to save her. Tharkus had finally been beaten, but had not suffered nearly enough for Mur'neth's sake, or any of the other countless lives the necromancer had taken.

And then there were those that had died by her hand at his bidding. She could blame the fact she would have died if she had not obeyed, but then why didn't she? That was what a so-called "hero" would have done. Refused to commit those acts that resulted in millions of deaths, instead only the one life lost. And here she was now, alive, and standing alongside people like Link, Midna, Princess Zelda, all much better people than she.

Ralthas, the Judge, had given his life for this cause. Perhaps it was in vain, since Midna had to destroy the mirror anyway, but they would not have had time if he hadn't made that final, desperate act. There had been a real hero in him, far more than in herself.

How could she find a reason to live, to survive, when she deserved every terrible thing happening to her? The best fate she could hope for was to die in the final battle, defending the people she had wronged.

Maybe that was a reason to survive, though. So she could live on, and make up for her mistakes by doing good for Hyrule. This thought seemed good, but it still did not fill the hopeless void she felt in her chest. Maybe she had to follow the others' example, and find something more personal, more close to home.

"I love Link," she whispered. It was almost a fit of desperation, but as she said it aloud for the first time, it was almost like declaring it to the world, and strangely, an invisible weight on her shoulders seemed to lessen. She imagined an odd chance that maybe, just maybe, something might happen that removed Midna from the picture.

She felt bad for thinking this, and yet better at the same time. Yes, Midna had that monster, Cain, in her mask. He was trying to use her as a foothold into the world. What if he was successful? Link would do everything possible to save her, but perhaps the only solution would be to end her life. It would be a mercy. Yes, as terrible as the thought should make her feel, the more she thought about it, the more the emptiness in her chest seemed to fill with hope.

In an instant, she understood why Mur'neth had gone so far, and sacrificed himself to save her. He had held onto the hope until the very end that she would finally acknowledge him. And in the final moments, he had performed the greatest act of true love that he could, sacrificing himself so that she may live.

Perhaps that would be her own fate, to give her life for Link's in the final moments. This thought did not seem to bother her much.

"I love Link," she said again, louder and more firmly.

She felt much better in that moment. That was the trick. She had to be selfish, just as selfish as the others.

Heroes were glorified after their deaths as being so pure and good, but every one had to have their own reasons for doing what they did. A person could not live life entirely in service of the greater good. They would be ground down until there was nothing left. They had to have something for themselves, something to come home to and hold all to themselves. Whatever the reasons they fought, they had to have a selfish reason to survive.

Midna was in her way, and Kilishandra knew that Link did not return her feelings, but she loved him. That was something she could hold onto, to be her rock, until she possibly found something else. She was only a hundred years old. She had plenty of time. Link, on the other hand, did not, having only seventy years left at best. Even if she did have him, it would not be for long, and then, would she be true to him and only him, or would she find another, or even several, given the lifespan of humans?

But right now, that didn't matter. It was strange to think, but Midna, who had been warning her away from Link, had in fact given her exactly what she needed, a reason to survive, and it was Link. Kilishandra smiled to herself, sheathing her sword and turning toward the temple, moving to get inside before the growing wind began bringing the rain. She could wait, for now at least. The future wasn't written yet, and after all, Link was the one who so vehemently denied fate and destiny. But if they survived all this, who knew what would happen then? At least for now, she decided, she had something to hold on to.

The wind was rising rapidly and the first patters of rain began to speckle the sand as Midna stepped through the entrance to the temple. A short hallway opened into the entry hall, a somewhat oddly shaped room, with stairs leading up a few feet toward the far end and passages moving off in to the left and right, though the left was hopelessly blocked, not by collapse, but construction. Midna could, with effort, pass through the small opening near the floor, the same way she could move directly through iron bars, though that would take less effort. None of the others would be able to get through, though. In fact, she guess that the passage would only allow a child, about ten to twelve years old or younger, through.

The floor, walls, and ceiling were all decorated with carvings of various size and shapes. She had read the story of the Hero of Time, and knew this was one of the temples he visited in his journey, but it was remarkable to see how well it held together, considering this place had been thousands of years old even back then.

About twenty feet past out from the entrance and to he left side of the room was where they were setting up camp. Alex was arranging the firewood they had managed to gather, most of which look like dead cactus pieces, though hopefully it would burn well enough to keep the storm's chill at bay.

"Good, you remembered the lecture from last time," Silviana said as Alex stood the pieces against each other, to leave some open air beneath and between the pieces.

"I'm not as stupid as some people like to think," Alex said.

"I don't know," Link said from where he sat with his back against the wall, "I've never met someone else who broke his hand by punching a stone door repeatedly."

"Yeah, well, it didn't kill me, and the healers fixed me up in a snap when we got back to Darimar," Alex said, "And whatever doesn't kill you-"

"Makes you weak as a kitten," Midna said, moving past him and sitting down next to Link.

"Well, if your heart gives out," Link said, "I've heard of people surviving that, but they're never quite the same, you know?"

"That's an old man's fear," Alex said.

"Which I hope you live to be," Silviana said, undoing the clasp of her cloak and dropping it by her bedroll on the floor as she sat down cross-legged.

"Yeah, you do have the gift of timing," Link said, "World's about the end, I'm probably going to go crazy from sitting on my hands for two weeks, and you decide to get married."

"What, are you jealous I beat you to it?" Alex asked.

Link glanced at Midna beside him, and she smiled. "Twili do things a bit differently," she said, and explained about the exchange of vows, as she had to Kilishandra, and finished, "So, really, as far as I'm concerned, Link and I are already married."

"Works for me," Link said, putting an arm around her shoulders, "I hate formal wear. They can never make one of those damn jackets or shirts that is actually comfortable."

"You've never worn any of the really high-end stuff," Midna said, "You can't beat silk for clothing material. It's perfectly comfortable, and feels amazing against your skin."

"I'll take your word for it," Link said.

"I did bring the dress I wore at the party," she said, lowering her voice and scooting closer to him, "I'll let you try that, if you promise to be careful."

Link slowly turned his head to look at her face, and the sly smile. "For you, maybe," he said, "But in exchange, you'll be wearing something I pick out."

Midna's smile turned into a grin and she let out a deep, throaty laugh. Link found himself smiling in response.

"That wasn't clean laughter," Silviana chided playfully.

"No, that was dirty laughter," Midna said with another giggle.

Link turned to Alex and gave him an expression of utter suffering. Alex rolled his eyes, drawing his knife and going to work making kindling with some of the scraps for the fire. Silviana had laid out her weapons on the floor next to her. The quiver and bow, and well as the two elbow-blades kept sheathed directly in her leggings along her thighs. Next to that she laid three knives, each pulled from obscure locations around her sides and back, and then she reached up to her hair, lifting it with her hands and shaking it loose.

"I think I greatly prefer forests to desert," she said as the sand scattered on the floor, "It's much easer to get leaves and twigs out of my hair than sand."

"I'm surprised you don't wear it in a braid like Kilishandra," Midna said, "Wouldn't that make it easier?"

"It would also add an hour of extra care when I stop to wash it," Silviana said, "Besides, look at the length of her braid. Loose, it would reach halfway down her back. I don't want that much hair to begin with."

As she spoke, she was gathering her loose hair back together and pulling it taunt from her scalp with both hands. Then, with one hand, she pulled the mass over her left shoulder as she picked up one of the knives with her right hand. With the calm of much practice, she lifted the razor sharp blade up and cut through her hair in a single smooth motion, a mass coming free in her hand as the rest fell back over her shoulder.

"That's how I keep it under control," she said, holding the fist of hair up as she lay the knife back down, "And I don't have to feel a heavy braid hitting the back of my neck and shoulders all the time."

"How the hell did you do that and keep it even?" Midna asked, leaning forward and eyeing the perfectly even, now just shorter than shoulder-length white hair.

"A lot of practice," Silviana said, "I cut it at an angle. Took a while to find the right one."

"Damn, I lost my flint somewhere," Alex muttered, patting around his belt.

"Here," Link said, reaching down the inside of his left boot, then tossing Alex the small bar of flint the pulled out, "Don't keep it on your belt and you won't lose it."

"That's a hell of a rock in your shoe, though," Alex said, and struck his knife across the flint, creating a small shower of hot sparks that fell onto the kindling he had made. He struck it a second time, and was rewarded with a red light in the kindling and a small wisp of smoke, so quickly leaned down to gently blow on it and urge it to life.

Silviana motioned to Link and Midna to be quiet by placing a finger over her lips, and slowly moved toward Alex from behind. Link still found it eerie how she could move in utter silence. Even the leather of her clothing made no sound. Alex was focused on his task, smiling as the small spark finally leaped into a flame, and he quickly moved the kindling into the side of the larger pile, and picked up more shavings to feed it. He was still oblivious as Silviana lifted one leg and straddled his back, and suddenly jumped up as she sat her weight down on top of him.

Alex leaped clear to his feet, apparently not sure what it was that had climbed onto him, and spun in place trying to dislodge her. Silviana wrapped her legs around his middle and arms under his and holding onto his shirt, laughing loudly as he shouted in surprise. When he slowed, she leaned against him, putting her chin on his shoulder and whispering, "Hi."

Midna was struggling not to laugh, clamping her lips together even as her shoulders shook. "Riding bareback is dangerous," Link said, his face perfectly straight, "I think I might be able to get a pony saddle about the right size, though."

That did it. Midna lost it and was laughing to the point she was leaning against Link for support, and soon found herself lying across his lap, unable to keep herself upright. Silviana released her grip on Alex and moved around beside him. He did his best to give her a stern glare, but couldn't keep a straight face himself.

"You're still a little kid," he said, a smile breaking through on his face.

"Look who's talking," Midna said from where she lay across Link's legs, "I'm still trying to figure out why she's marrying you."

Before Alex could respond, Link started counting off on his fingers. "Sil's gone blind. She's gone insane. He's the last man on earth…"

"If you're quite finished?" Alex asked.

"Oh, I had more, but go ahead," Link said.

"Fire's going out," Midna said before Alex could say anything more.

With a curse, Alex dropped onto his hands and knees, leaning down to gently blow on the flickering flames before they died entirely. In a few minutes, he managed to bring it back to life and had a growing flame across the pile, and he sat back

Footsteps caused the group to look up and see Kilishandra enter the room, pausing to shake water from her hair, then moved toward the fire.

"Now, if we can be serious for two seconds," Alex said, turning back to Link, "Sil and I have never been to Hyrule. What's it like?"

"The princess tells me it's a utopia with differenct races living together that make the treatment of dark elves elsewhere look as moronic as it is," Kilishandra said.

The other four turned to her. "What?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"Well, that's somewhat true, I guess," Link said, "But I'm not sure what you're asking, Alex. I mean, it's a monarchy. Covers quite a bit of territory, though my hometown is barely within its borders. Other than that, I'm not sure what you want."

"Well, what about these other races?" Alex asked, "There's more than humans and elves?"

"Well, speaking officially, the Gorons and Zora are both part of the kingdom," Link said, "There were two other races, the Sheikah and Gerudo, though the Sheikah are very few in number these days, and the Gerudo I think are long gone. I've only met one Sheikah, and no Gerudo. Except for Ganondorf, anyway.

"The Gorons make their home in a cavern near the top of Death Mountain. They're a very common sight in Kakariko village, at the foot of the mountain, and you'll usually see a few as merchants in the capital. They have a mine in Death Mountain where they mine iron, and the stuff they use to make their explosives, too."

"Well, there is a human engineer in Kakariko that makes explosives, too," Midna said, still laying casually across his lap, "What was his name again? Burns, or Barnes…? He never really struck me as being all there."

"The average Goron has forgotten more about blowing stuff up than he'll ever know, I bet," Link said, "Though he was the one that came up with those fuses that burn underwater. Got to give him credit for that."

"Well, they helped us, but I don't think there's much market for underwater demolition," Midna said.

"Anyway," Link said, looking back up at Alex, "If you're out on a road and you hear a crashing sound, and see what looks like a boulder rolling down the way, best to just give it some space. That would be a Goron moving at high speed, and while I've never met one that would deliberately try to run someone down on the road, better careful than flat."

"I don't understand," Alex said, "A boulder?"

"We met you on the ship going to Mystara," Midna said, "As in you were on this side? Have you never been to Hyrule?"

"Didn't go that far east," Alex said, "I heard about the Goron explosives, but didn't pay them much mind."

"Okay, well, a typical Goron stands between seven and fifteen feet tall, and weighs about half a ton," Link said, "They're fairly relaxed, as a culture, and hard to offend accidentally, and most I've met have been friendly, at least after a problem was solved and they stopped trying to throw me off the mountain. They've got a strong sense of honor, but also of pride. They will jump to assist Hyrule's people, but tend to not want help with their own problems. I had to force my way in, for more reasons than just trying to help them, but that was part of it.

"Their skin is extremely tough. In fact, before smiths figured out how to make steel, they were thought to be invincible, because iron weapons break on them without so much as a bruise. Steel can cut through it, but it'll dull by the time you actually draw blood. So, not a terribly good idea to pick a fight with a Goron."

"Says the guy who got in a slap-fight with one," Midna said.

Link looked down at her, shaking his head in mock admonishment. "It wasn't a slap-fight, it was sumo wrestling," Link said, and looked up at the others, "It's a contest of strength that Gorons take a great deal of pride in. And don't blow it out of proportion, I had to cheat to win."

"Oh, so nothing new there," Alex said, and rubbed the back of his head, "I still remember the kick that planted me in the dirt."

"You deserved it," Link said, "My shins hurt like hell for days after you were done with them."

"Last guy I gave that treatment, I shattered both his legs," Alex said, "You got off easy."

"Ugh, male bonding," Kilishandra groaned, idly going to the straps of her armor and attempting to work them loose, "Only thing more painful to watch than teenagers trying to kiss for the first time."

"I wouldn't say that," Link said, "My first kiss was kind of awkward, sure, but it wasn't the part that was painful."

"Painful? Well, I don't know what you're into," Alex said, and tossed another piece of wood on the fire.

"Oh, don't act tough," Link said, "First time with a woman, I'm sure you were just as awkward as me. My first time, neither of us knew what the hell we were doing, and it was more than a little uncomfortable for both of us. It's easier if you just admit it to yourself."

"Okay, maybe experience does count for something," Alex said, "But I don't remember it being painful."

"Considering what I know about your most recent time, do you even remember your first time?" Midna asked.

"Hey, can we not bring that up?" Alex asked, glancing at Silviana, then was hit with realization, "Oh, sorry. I almost forgot…"

"You don't have to coddle me that much," Silviana said, "Yes, I know all about painful. I also know that I don't like it fast and rough. I had months with the prince from Whitos-Neiki, and we had plenty of time to experiment." She paused, and leaned closer to Alex, and lowered her voice, though the others could still hear her, "When you have all night, there is no reason to rush."

"Ah, look at him!" Midna said, pointing at Alex as his face turned crimson, "Gods, I've never been able to get Link to blush like that!"

Silviana started to sit up, but Alex stopped her with one hand around her shoulder. "You know," he said, "I think I just realized the best part of having an elven lover."

"And what's that?" Silviana asked.

"When you want to nibble an ear," he said, and suddenly leaned forward, head neck to hers and playfully pinching her earlobe in his teeth, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to get a protest that it tickled out of her, before finishing, "…there's plenty of ear to nibble on."

Silviana was laughing as he pulled back, when she suddenly leaned in and kissed him on the lips. It was brief, but he was left stunned by the contact, and she smiled at his wide eyed expression. "What was that?" he asked.

"I figured, if the first one is so awkward, might as well get it out of the way," she said.

"You asked her to marry you, and you hadn't even kissed yet?" Link asked, "You like to do things out of order, don't you? Next you'll have gotten her pregnant without having slept together."

Alex could feel his face heating up again. He'd tried to get her back for making him blush, and she'd turned it around on him again. But he found himself overjoyed that she was smiling and playful again.

"Gods, enough, how did we even get on this subject?" Kilishandra asked, unbuckling her greaves and laying them aside.

"I recall it being something you said," Midna replied.

Kilishandra glanced at her, and rolled her eyes at the disgusting sight of Midna resting her head on Link's thigh as he was gently running the fingers of one hand through her hair, yet found herself frustrated that she would never be in that position. "We were talking about Hyrule," Kilishandra said, managing to keep the sudden surge of jealousy from her voice, "You talked about the Gorons, but the Zora?"

"Oh, right," Link said, "The Zora are river dwellers. Fish-men, so to speak, but don't call them 'fish.' They're not as easy-going as the Gorons, and that term in particular is offensive. They make their home in a series of deep lakes near the waterfall above Lake Hylia. You won't see them on the roads, because they travel through the country's waterways, and are actually faster than a mounted man at full gallop this way.

"They're just as loyal to Hyrule as the Gorons, but they've got a severe weakness. They can't survive out of water. Maybe a day or so. At two days, they'd be severely dehydrated and on the verge of collapse. By the third day, they'd be dead for certain. The capital has a lot of waterways in the public areas for this very reason, so that the Zora are accommodated for, but they're a much rarer sight in the city than the Gorons."

"I can't wait to see it," Silviana said, "It must be an amazing place."

"Maybe," Link said, "I'm not the most unbiased person, since I've lived my entire life there."

"What are you going to do?" Alex asked, "I mean, when this is all over, assuming we survive?"

"Haven't thought about it much," Link said, "First thing I'll do is go home and see everyone. Probably get good and drunk off Bo's killer home-brew. You'll have to come with me and try it, Alex, it'll blow your mind."

"No, I'm not doing that kind of thing anymore," Alex said, and Silviana gave him a small smile, "Maybe I will go with you though, just to see where you grew up."

"Your loss," Link said, "I think I'll take a few months there, kind of a vacation. After that, well, that's awfully far ahead to worry about right now."

"No matter what, I'll be right there with you," Midna said.

"I know," Link said, smiling back at her.

"What about you?" Alex asked, "You have any plans for when this is over?"

Kilishandra glared at him. "You're talking about the end of the world," she said, "You know that, right? There's no point in making plans right now when if we fail this, there won't be anyone left."

"Geez, okay miss pessimist," Alex said, "Sorry. But we've got nothing better to do to pass the time for now."

"Don't remind me," Link said, "I'm going to be going crazy by tomorrow afternoon."

"I guess I'll just have to keep you too tired to be anxious," Midna said, and sighed, though she smiled as she added, "The things I have to do…"

The wind was rising and howling through the entryway, and there was a very close crash of thunder as lightning caused the hallway to flash brightly, casting long shadows into the room.

"Well, I ain't going out there tonight," Alex said, "Anyone know any good campfire songs?"

Silviana just shook her head and Link shrugged, not really responding. Midna pretended to be asleep. "What about you?" Alex asked, turning to Kilishandra.

"I… might," she said, looking at him cautiously, "Or at least, I know a few songs, if not campfire songs specifically. I haven't sung in a long time, though. My voice might be rusty."

"You're not performing for a royal court," Alex said, "Just wondering if you'll help pass the time."

"I'm not really in the mood," Kilishandra said, and turned to try to fluff some life into the pillow of her bedroll.

"Just one?" Link asked.

Kilishandra turned back to him. "All right," she said," Just one." _Only because you asked,_ she added silently.

She turned toward the fire, seating herself cross-legged and closed her eyes, taking a moment to clear her throat, and took several breaths as she searched her memory of songs she knew. When she began to sing, the rest of the group all nearly jumped in shock. Her normally somewhat deep voice gave away to a gorgeous tone that carried through the air over the wind and filling the room with deep resonance. It was the kind of voice that needed no music to back it.

"_Before the darkness, before the light,_

_The Guardian rose from the Sands of Time._

_He ruled the void, he ruled the dark,_

_And came to birth the holy spark._

_He watches dark, he watches light._

_Two souls the proof, wrong or right._

_A constant fight, a war of control,_

_A settled path, what future holds._

_Watch out, be strong,_

_Choose when the war is on._

_Watch out, stand strong,_

_Until all the evil is gone._

_Fight or fall_

_Standing proud or losing all._

_Die or live_

_Destruction takes and freedom gives._"

It was actually thrilling for Kilishandra to watch their reactions. Alex's jaw was hanging open and his eyes were wide as he watched her. Midna had sat up from where she lay, her own eyes wide in amazement, though she was not staring directly at Kilishandra. Silviana had shut her eyes and leaned her head back, focusing on the sound of her voice. Only Link she could see no reaction from. He was watching her as calmly as ever. Well, she'd fix that, and put more force into it, her voice swelling for the final verse.

"_The final stand, the final fight,_

_Casting out dark or light._

_The lie will fall, the truth will stand_

_The serpent dies by a true hand._

_Watch out, be strong,_

_Choose when the war is on._

_Watch out, stand strong,_

_Until all the evil is gone._

_Fight or fall_

_Standing proud or losing all._

_Die or live_

_Destruction takes and freedom gives._

_Fight or fall_

_Standing proud or losing all._

_Die or live_

_Destruction takes and freedom gives._"

As she stopped, her voice ringing in her own ears off the walls, she was shocked when she realized she could hear clapping. All four of them were applauding her. "Oh, thank you," she said, finding herself smiling.

"That was incredible," Alex said, "I never would have dreamed…"

"What was it?" Link asked, and when they turned to him, "The song, I mean. What does it mean?"

"Oh, well, it's a story," Kilishandra said, "You have your gods in this world. The world I come from has gods very similar, though with different names. The song refers to their origin. The Guardian it refers to could be said to be the father of the gods, who existed before the universe began. His first two children were Eternity and Infinity, the gods of time and space, that would allow the universe and all parallel universes, to exist. That is what is meant by him giving birth to the holy spark.

"In a sense, the Guardian is the representation of good and evil, and according to the stories, is possessed of two form, two souls. One is as pure, kind, and just as you could dream, and the other is terrible, villainous, and treachery incarnate. His two souls are constantly in a battle for control, and when one gains an advantage, it changes the course of many worlds. If the good soul gains the advantage, the world will be blessed with bountiful crops, just leaders, and helpful miracles. If evil gains the advantage, worlds will be stricken with pestilence, demons, and disasters. Of course, it's all just a story, there's no real proof."

"What about the last verse, and the chorus," Link said, "Something about lies and slaying a serpent?"

"That's the other part of the story," Kilishandra said, "Supposedly, at the end of all reality, the Guardian will finally split in two, and the good and evil forms will each possess their own bodies. The final battle will occur, and all the heroes of all realities will follow the good into battle, while every dark hearted villain will march with the evil. One shall stand and one shall fall. It doesn't say which will win, but whichever does is the truth, and whichever fails is the lie, the serpent. The chorus is supposed to be a reminder of what we believe in, to stand with the good, until the evil is slain."

"Well, that's the summation of history right there," Midna said, "When a war is over, the history book is inevitably written by the victor, and they will be made out as the heroes, while the villains are the losers. The winner is the truth and the loser the lie."

"That is another way to look at it," Kilishandra said.

The storm was growing worse, and the party prepared to sleep, Alex volunteering for first watch, mainly to keep the fire going, as the others bedded down.

They had more than enough to keep their minds occupied, with the uncertain future looming ever closer. Walpurgis Night was drawing near, and its effects were already being felt by the world, as the barriers between worlds thinned, and more magic than normal bled through the cracks, bringing to live wonders of the ancient world.

Had they ventured out into the storm that night, they would have seen one such one. The ghost of the first king of the Gerudo, astride his spectral mount, near the edge of the storm, guiding it across the desert, as he did in life, and as he did now in death, always as the fateful night approached and allowed him to cross the barrier once more. Did he know the Gerudo were all long since gone? Possibly. Did he even care? Who can say? For thousands of years he had performed this task, and would likely continue to do so long after mankind was gone from the face of the world.

Out of reach of the storm, another Gerudo king was riding as well, through the inky depths of the Lost Woods, a forest even more treacherous than the desert he had grown up in. Ganondorf stayed focused, careful not to pay too much attention to the shapes of the trees around him. That was one method of the forest to catch someone, with similar looking shapes, convincing them they were going in circles. And once they believed it, they did, and become lost to its power.

It was almost a shock to his system when Ebony emerged from the trees into a clearing, the night sky visible above, stars twinkling, and in front of him, Ganondorf could not believe his luck. A lone house, a log cabin with a woven grass roof, in the center of the clearing. Moss and ivy grew strong on the walls, and on one side a garden filled with mushrooms and dark colored flowers, grown for a specific purpose.

But what delighted him was the house itself. A light was visible in the windows, and there was smoke coming from the chimney. He had not even had to go all the way to Death Mountain. Ganondorf smiled to himself, and urged Ebony back into a trot, moving closer to the house.

Only one kind of person would be living in a house like this, in the Lost Woods. Exactly the kind he needed.


	120. Chapter 119

**Chapter 119: Dealing With the Devil**

Ganondorf allowed Ebony to approach the house at an easy trot. From the outside, it appeared like a simple log cabin, with woven grass thatching for a roof, and a tall chimney that smoke lazily drifted upward from. Two windows were visible on this side, with a flicker of firelight visible through them.

To the right of the house was a carefully cultivated garden plot. Flowering plants were arranged in neat rows, carefully trimmed to avoid cross pollination, and on the side nearest the house, three rows of mushrooms with brightly colored caps, somehow made to grow just as orderly as the rose of flowering plants.

Even in the dim light of the moon, Ganondorf recognized the distinctive dark petals of the Nightshade and Deathbell plants. Both could be easily made into deadly poisons, and were common ingredients in witchcraft concoctions. The garden was actually fairly large, and contained a large number more plants of varying size and colors, many of which Ganondorf knew were not native to Hyrule. The owner went to a great deal of trouble to collect them all and bring them here.

A shadow moved across one of the windows, blocking the light within for a few seconds. Ganondorf pulled Ebony to a stop and dismounted, not taking his eyes off the building. Yes, the owner was definitely here, and very likely knew he was out here. In fact, though he could not feel anything, he was certain the building's occupant was already searching his mind and memories, searching for anything she could find to use against him. There was no way for him to prevent this, and how skilled the witch was would determine how deeply she could delve, and what memories she could pull from his mind.

He walked to the door, putting his hand on the handle, and found it unlocked. Ganondorf set his jaw and braced himself. For everything he was capable of, his only defense against the witch's power was a will of iron, and a firm grip on what he knew to be reality. He had no idea how powerful a witch he had found yet, and the more powerful she was, the more convincing her illusions would be. He made sure his sword was free in the scabbard, and pushed the door open.

Ganondorf stepped inside, out of the dry desert wind, brushing the sand from his hair as he undid the clasp of his cloak with his other hand. Tossing the cloak over the table, he moved to the far side of the room, sinking down in the cushions of the large chair, made specifically for him, and rolling his head, working the soreness out. The construction of the fortress was well underway, and soon he would not need to oversee it personally.

"My king, may we enter?" came a voice from the door.

"Yes," he said.

Three Gerudo women entered the room in single file, each bearing a tray in her hands. They set them down on the table and lifted the lids, one revealing a plate of beautifully cooked meat, the second a plate of fruits from Hylian orchards, apples, grapes and more. The third tray held under the lid only a single glass and a bottle of strong brandy.

Two of them moved to either side of his seat, while the third uncorked the bottle and poured some brandy into the glass as she approached him, while the girl on his left offered him one of the grapes. Ganondorf smiled to himself. There were certainly benefits to being the king. He was more than capable of feeding himself, but this was more fun, he had to admit as the woman on his right shed her shirt and leaned in close, offering him a strip of the juicy meat.

"Stop it right there," said another voice from the door.

The three women turned. The hard-eyed Nabooru was one step inside the door. "This can wait," she said, "All of you out."

"My king?" asked one of the women, turning back to him.

"You heard her," Ganondorf said, "Get out."

There was muttering and they shot Nabooru dark glares, particularly the one who had to collect her top before moving to the door. Nabooru waited until the third was out of the room before shutting the door and turning the lock.

"A messenger arrived to deliver this," she said, turning back to him and holding out a sealed message tube. Ganondorf stood up, walking over to her and taking it from her hand. He broke the seal and upended the tube. A single sheet of rolled paper fell into his hand.

He dropped the tube, letting it fall to the floor as he unrolled the paper. "This is what I was waiting for," Ganondorf said as he read what was there, "The Hylian king has formally invited me to the capital to open discussions of our allegiance."

"Well, that's good news," Nabooru said, "Even if this fortress were ready, we wouldn't have the numbers to fight the Hyrulean army."

Ganondorf crumpled the paper in his hand. "I've got other reasons for going to Hyrule," he said, "With access to their libraries and histories, I think I can find what I need to open the way to the Sacred Realm. I can find the Triforce, and then…"

"That's just a foolish legend," Nabooru said, "We need this. The king of Hyrule is as imperialistic as they get. You know if he turns his eyes here, we won't be able to stop him."

"And if I pull this off, he won't be a problem," Ganondorf said, "Why be a tiny part of his empire when we can take it for ourselves? We can call actually joining him the plan B."

Nabooru moved closer to him, putting her arms around his waist and laying her head against his chest. "Please," she said, "I worry about you. Promise me you'll at least be careful?"

"I would, but there's a problem with that," Ganondorf said, and as she looked up at him, suddenly clamped his hand around her throat and forcibly wrenched her away from him, lifting her feet from the floor with what looked like barely any effort at all, "You're not the one I made that promise to."

Nabooru struggled as his fingers easily encircled her neck with one hand, choking off her breath to the point she couldn't even scream. She kicked her feet into his stomach, boots ringing loudly against the metal of his breastplate, not the bare skin that even he had believed there seconds ago. The stone walls around them shimmered, wooden log walls visible behind them for an instant before reestablishing as stone.

"Oh, you're good," Ganondorf said to the women he held helpless, "I expected her face. I didn't expect the location or the recreation of my memory to such a degree. It even feels like I'm breathing the dry desert air in the summer. You almost had me. Now you're just lucky I need you alive."

He dropped her, tossing her like a bag of sticks on the floor to his side. She coughed and choked, suddenly able to breath, grabbing at her own throat against the pain of his grip, and the illusion around them shimmered and dissolved, like pain running into the floor, changing from the interior of the stone fortress to the interior of a single-room house constructed of cut logs. There was a narrow bed in one corner, neatly made, and a fireplace in the middle of the back wall, constructed of stone bricks, with a burning fire beneath a bubbling pot of some kind of stew, and on the opposite end from the bed, a wooden table laid out for a dinner for one.

Shelves lined the walls, packed to bursting with satchels and bottles of varying shapes and sizes, each stuffed with ingredients for concoctions, some dried plant matter, others pieces of insects, and yet more simply filled with liquids of all kinds of colors and viscosities.

The woman herself changed in appearance as quickly as the environment, the Gerudo appearance rapidly shifted, the desert-darkened skin fading into the much paler complexion of a Hylian woman, and the fire-red hair turning black as moonless night. Even her clothes changed, the baggy and cool desert garb of linen fading into much more fitting forest garb of form-fitting leather, thick enough to protect from scratching branches and thorns, unsuited for desert heat.

When the woman looked up at him, still fighting for breath, he started to tell her to drop that illusion as well, then stopped himself, realizing she was not hiding her own face. Most older witches, struggling to keep up with their more rapid aging due to the dark power within them, would use their illusions to hide their aging features, keeping themselves looking young even as crow's feet and wrinkles covered their true features. They were vain, every last one. The only witches that were genuinely young were those just beginning down the dark path, or so he had thought.

This woman looked like she was no more than sixteen or seventeen years old, yet with such a mastery of illusion as she had just shown, she was no apprentice. She had to drain the youth of other women to keep herself young, just as any other witch, yet her skill was such that she was not merely slowing down death as so many others were, she was actually ahead of it, keeping it at bay indefinitely. As a result, she appeared young. Young enough to possibly fool less cautious people with a naive girl act. It didn't hurt that she was pretty, too. A perfect face, like one would expect of a sculpted statue meant to exemplify feminine beauty, and her skin completely unblemished by any marks or scars, with big lips that could be called "pouty," and big brown eyes that made one feel as if they could fall into them.

"You must be the head of a coven," Ganondorf said, looking down at her, "The question is, where does your coven stand in the overall hierarchy?"

"What hierarchy?" she said, and choked, taking another breath, "The covens are broken. Something happened a month ago, apprentices and sisters from every coven have broken ranks, turned on each other, and are betraying everything we are built upon."

"A month ago?" Ganondorf muttered, "We were still on the road then. The only one left who could have done this would be…" He suddenly reached down, grabbing the witch by the arm and lifted her up forcefully. "Is a man named Zero involved?" he demanded, "Has he done something that has broken the witch's covenant?"

"I don't know his name," she said, "I could draw nothing from his mind. He is certainly not human. His left eye is even gigantic and blood red, like an unholy union of human and demonic nature."

"I knew it," Ganondorf growled, releasing his grip on the witch and stepping back, though he did not turn his back on her, "No, there's no demon there, at least not the literal kind. He is a golem of flesh, with a human soul. A sadist and killer at heart. Yes, witches would have no defense against him, since your magic would not be able to affect his mind. But he's no wizard. He would need help to summon Shaklator into our world, even on Walpurgis Night."

"He lured the younger sisters who would listen with promises of power, and the coven leaders who resisted, he killed," the witch said, "He shows remarkable efficiency for hunting down our kind. The forest has protected me so far, but it will not last forever."

"Did he get to the Elder Witch?" Ganondorf demanded, "Your grand matron! Does she yet live?"

"So far," the witch said, "But I have a feeling the next few minutes are going to be vitally important to that answer."

Ganondorf smiled and found himself laughing. Oh, the blind, dumb luck. That certainly explained a lot. The strength of the illusion against her physical age. He had stumbled accidentally into the home of the most powerful witch in these lands.

"Well, this certainly saves a lot of time," Ganondorf said, "I'm sure you gave my mind a quite thorough reading while I approached, so you must know why I am here."

"Yes," the witch said, rubbing her throat as she sat down on the bed, "You're looking for help. To kill a being beyond you, to find a weakness in an enemy that seems to have none. And you also come ready to trade for the information. Reading the mind of a being so close to a god is no easy task, as you well know."

"Save us both time," Ganondorf said, "Name your price, witch, and if I find it disagreeable, we open negotiations."

"Well, being allowed to live will be a nice start," the witch said, "I'm in no hurry to face the reaper, whether by your hand or a vengeful goddess."

Ganondorf crossed his arms over his chest. "That seems awfully cheap for one of your kind," he said.

"I think I have a fair price," the witch said, "Maybe you can consider it a test of ability, since if you cannot accomplish this task, you will have no chance against the woman you seek dead, whether I provide you with a weakness or not."

"You do know who I am, right?" Ganondorf asked.

"Yes, yes," the witch said, rising to her feet again only to kneel down by her bed and reach under it, and with a few grunts of effort, drug a heavy chest out from beneath it. She blew the dust from the top and opened the lid. "You're Ganondorf Dragmire, the bane of Hyrule, most powerful wizard alive, and wielder of the Triforce of Power for the past four thousand years.

"And I happen to be Sibette Nohreen. If that name means something to you, then I've been doing a poor job of it. Put it this way: I'm older than you, by about a thousand years. I saw Koume and Kotake, your illustrious adoptive mothers, when they were taking their first steps down the witch's path. You caught me off guard. If I'd known you were coming and had time to prepare, you might not have resisted me."

She paused, pulling something from the chest and turning to him. "What ruined it, by the way?" she asked, "What let you escape the illusion?"

Ganondorf smiled and tapped the side of his nose with one finger. "Your smell," he said, "Nabooru wore a very specific perfume. I don't know the name of it or what it was made from, so you couldn't get the information from my head, but you didn't smell right. You smell like the flowers of your garden outside."

"You really are something," Sibette said, "I've had men break free when I was younger, for other reasons, mistakes I made, but never for a detail like a smell. I never even thought of that kind of detail."

"What's that?" Ganondorf asked, indicating the object in her hand.

It was a simple pendant, a cord to wear around the neck, and a bone tied to it. It looked somewhat like a wishbone from a bird, but much larger, almost the size of Ganondorf's hand. "This is a simple return talisman," Sibette said, "Think of it similar to a wizard's travel spell. Anywhere you are, in this world or others, break the bone, and you are brought to my magic circle in the basement. This has to do with the task I want you to do for me."

"Which is?"

"You know that in order to gain the power we have, a witch must sign a deal with a demon," Sibette said, "There are a few minor uses of our magic that can be learned by simple instruction. You could call them a taste to whet the appetite. More advanced magic, like our illusions, must be gained through a contract, and only then practiced and refined to increase our ability.

"The payment for this power is twofold: First, when we pass from this world, our soul does not face final judgment, as most mortal souls do, and instead collected by the demon we made our bargain with. From there, we are his to do with as he wishes for all eternity."

"I am aware of that," Ganondorf said.

"The second part is our aging," Sibette said, "We age more quickly than other mortals. This is a stipulation that the first witches accepted willingly. It wasn't until later that we added the clause of a spell to take the youth of young women and extend our time on this world. Most never reach the skill I have and are simply delaying the inevitable, but it does offer more time for those who are able. Without it, a witch would age and die in thirteen years after her deal began."

"Why is it always thirteen with your kind?" Ganondorf asked.

"It's our lucky number," Sibette said, "Now, here's what I want from you: The reason I've made sure to master the youth spell and keep myself alive this long. I want out of my contract. When I do eventually die, I want to face final judgment, whatever the outcome. I'm not going to spend eternity as Gandric's lap-toy."

"And what do you expect me to do?" Ganondorf asked, "Ask this Gandric to kindly let you out of the contract? I'm afraid this is a case of you signing the deal, and you have to deal with it. Name another price."

"But you see, I've already found the way out of the contract," Sibette said, "I just need outside help to do it. My contract is not the standard blood sacrifice and aging for power most witches jump into. There are two additional clauses in the contract. The first, which I added, states that should Gandric die before I do, regardless of cause, I am freed, my soul is my own, but I get to keep all the knowledge and power bestowed upon me by him. Essentially, he dies, and I am free and no demon has first claim to my soul.

"The second clause, added by him in response, is that if I should turn my powers on him, for any reason and any goal, my life and soul are immediately forfeit, and I belong to him for eternity. That's why I need you. The contract prevents me from killing him myself to take my freedom, but there is a loophole, the simple fact that it says nothing about me sending another to do the job."

"Why would he agree to such an alteration?" Ganondorf asked.

"I think he found it amusing," Sibette said, "He probably thought I was some foolish mortal who was trying to outsmart him, and would fail like every other than had tried."

"So you want me to kill this demon?" Ganondorf asked, "Then you'll help me?"

"That's right," Sibette said, "I wouldn't suggest it if I didn't think you had a chance, and like I said, think of it as a test. If you can't beat Gandric, you don't have a chance in hell against this Shaklator, with or without my help. Once he's dead, you simply break this talisman, and it will bring you back here."

"This is of course assuming I don't just decide you'll help me or die," Ganondorf said.

"If you were going to do that, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Sibette replied.

"All right, lets say I agree," Ganondorf said, "How am I going to find him?"

"That part's easy," Sibette said, "Every witch maintains contact with her demon master, and can travel to meet him in person with ease, should she need to."

She moved to the other end of the room, near the table, and lifted a rug with one foot, revealing the handle of a trap-door. She lifted it, revealing a wooden staircase descending into the basement below, and beckoned for him to follow her as she descended the stairs.

The darkness of the basement vanished as lamps along the walls flared into life as they entered. They were not fire lamps, but glass vessels, each containing a small light of unknown origin that brightened as one drew near. They almost resembled the classical stereotype of fairies placed in such vessels to provide endless light, but he could see no visible wings on the lights themselves.

The center of the chamber was dominated by the familiar shape of a magic circle, etched into the floor with care and precision, and then added on to. Outside of the circle, in line with each point of the star, were round pedestals about four feet tall, and each topped with a human skull facing inward. Inside the circle, just inside the lines of each point of the star, were burned down wax candles, each with barely any life left in them should they be lit again.

To the side of the circle was another pedestal, exactly as Ganondorf knew it would be, and laying atop it was a single book, in such a position that the one standing at it would be facing the circle as they read the book. It was Sibette's grimiore, the black book given to her by her demon master, filled with the knowledge he had granted, as well as all the additional knowledge she had gained herself over years of practice and experimentation. Rich collectors through the centuries promised fortunes for such a book, just to own it, but gaining one invariably meant slaying the owner, and her death would cause the book to burst into flame, destroying itself entirely and erasing the knowledge so no other gain the knowledge within. He had never seen the inside of such a book, but knew the stories, that the pages were made of human skin, and the words written in blood. The stories also said the cover would be made of human bones, but this one seemed like ordinary leather binding.

The far end of the room finally came into light as they reached the bottom of the stairs, revealing a line of cages. They were the size of those used to house dogs, such as war dogs in their kennel or perhaps those of a fighting ring. The light was too dim to see much other than the shadows of the bars, but he was certain more than one cage held eyes looking back at him, and on one he could see the filthy fingers of a small hand holding onto the front of the cage, the size of a child in their early teens maybe. Whatever they were, they made no sound as Sibette led him toward the circle, either out of fear, or they were well trained.

"You will have no difficulty finding Gandric, as I will send you directly to his lair," Sibette said, "Among the planes of reality there are realms that greatly resemble the mortal concept of Hell, even down to the denizens coveting the souls of mortals of more mundane realms. In this world, you may see imprisoned souls of humans and other beings. There is no point in trying to rescue them, as they are already damned. They made their deals and must live with them, as you so aptly put it. The realm you will be going to has no such souls that are not victims of such deals. It is not the Hell spoken of in the scriptures of the Golden Goddesses, if there even is such a thing."

"I've seen a few such worlds in my travels," Ganondorf said, "Now, tell me exactly what I'll be getting into."

"Gandric is no lesser devil," Sibette said, "When you arrive, you will be at the entrance to a large fortress, carved directly from the rock. It is filled with all the souls he has damned since time immemorial, and the lesser demons who serve him only to protect their own existences, rather than be snuffed out by those more powerful. I will make sure Gandric is present before sending you, so that you don't waste time attacking only to find him out.

"If you hold back your magic, and go in instead of trying to level the place, he is unlikely to send his entire force on you at once. As much as Gandric tries to act omniscient, I've observed him over the years, and he is far from it. When someone does challenge him, he finds it amusing. He enjoys seeing how far they can make it through his fortress, and while most never live to see him in person, the ones that do he crushes himself in his throne room. As soon as you enter his fortress, he will be focused on you, but I think his confidence will be his downfall.

"As I said before, I wouldn't be asking this of you if I didn't think you could win."

"And if he knows you sent me, what happens to you?" Ganondorf asked.

"I've been looking for someone to do this for millennia," Sibette said, "I didn't say you were the first ever I've sent. He was simply amused by my past attempts, but did admit to the loophole in the contract he couldn't change now. He practically invited me to send as many as I wanted. Mercenaries never seem to live up to their bragging, however."

"I feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick here," Ganondorf said.

"Yes, our positions seem to have reversed, haven't they," Sibette said, turning to him, "You let me name my price, this is what I want."

"I had wanted to negotiate possibly, but I'm not sure what I can offer, since you even seem to have plenty of blood on hand, in addition to the more mundane materials," he said, indicating the cages at the far end of the room.

"Yes, when it comes to the material items, I am more than content," Sibette said.

"All right," Ganondorf said, "I'll kill your demon. But when I return, I expect my answer."

"I will need about six hours to prepare the gateway," Sibette said, "You can go back upstairs and rest if you like, and prepare."

"I think I'll watch," Ganondorf said.

She looked over at him and he simply crossed his arms over his chest. She didn't have to look into his mind to know he didn't trust her, and she hardly expected him to. "Well, I will need to get a few things, and take the stew off the fire before it burns," she said, turning and starting back up the stairs.

"I smell chicken, what else is in it?" Ganondorf asked as he moved to follow her.

"Onions, carrots, potatoes, the usual kind of thing."

* * *

Something was wrong. That was Link's first thought as he sat up and discovered the bedroll next to him was empty. "Where's Midna?" he asked, looking up.

Kilishandra was sitting up by the fire on her watch. "She got up a few minutes ago and went outside," she said, turning to Link, "I think she was going to pee."

"Out into that storm? What the hell are you thinking?" Link said, snatching his sword and leaping to his feet.

"Uh, yeah," Kilishandra said, "It's not like there's anything dangerous out there."

Lightning flashed outside, causing shadows to leap up the hallway of the entrance as Link pulled on his boots and without another word, charged out into the still raging storm. Alex sat up, rubbing his eyes as Link moved past. "What's going on?" he asked, and thunder crashed outside, drowning him out.

Link dashed out into the pounding rain and noise. He shouted Midna's name over the cacophony. He was already paying for not grabbing his shirt as the heavy raindrops beat into his skin, but he stayed focused, shouting Midna's name again as he moved further out into the storm. Lightning flashed in the sky and thunder crashed directly overhead, paining his ears even as he desperately listened for any response from Midna. The flash of light kept him night-blind, even his magical night-vision refusing to function.

The wind was incredible, nearly pushing him over sideways as he moved further out. Another flash of lightning lit the area, and he saw her silhouette against the sky, atop a short rise. She was standing so still, in spite of the wind, only her hair blowing to the side.

Link moved toward her, desperately trying to rationalize why she would suddenly come out into this mess in the middle of the night, but only one terrible thought kept pushing to the surface.

"It was like being a prisoner in my own mind," she had told him, "No matter how much I screamed, how hard I beat on the walls, I couldn't escape. I couldn't make my arms move, my legs go where I wanted."

She turned, taking only one step, her shoulders rotating and her head turning to face him, and Link's breath caught in his throat. Her silhouette was broken by two lights. Her normal ruby eyes filled with green light, and in an instant, more lights appeared. Her tattoos flared to life, visible even through her clothing, glowing brightly across her body. She spoke, but her voice was not her own. Her voice was male, low pitched and powerful, like grinding blocks of granite, and perfectly clear, even through the sound of the storm.

"She is mine," she said.

"It's Cain..." Link whispered.

Link's first reaction was denial. It couldn't be. There had been no sign since what happened in the cave. And now, so suddenly. Exactly like a spider lying in wait, or a snake striking from the dark. The denial gave way to fear. Cain had always been there, and to dismiss him, even for a time, was foolish. But then the fear turned to rage. He would not let Cain have her. Not while there was breath in his body.

"Let her go, right now!" Link screamed as he drew his sword and tossed the empty scabbard to the ground. The white blade was clearly visible in the darkness, though as always, the glow shed no light on the surroundings.

"Kill me and you will kill her," Cain said, his voice perfectly level, betrayed not the slightest emotion. "But then, only if I do not kill you first."

Link was seething. His muscles were screaming for release, to make this bastard suffer, but Cain was right. He couldn't do anything to Cain without hurting Midna. But there was something else. He could feel the Triforce burning his hand. It was not the same kind of burning as when Ganondorf was near. Of course! It was reacting to his desires, and was trying to tell him something. Maybe he could use it somehow, to pull Cain from Midna without harming her. It pulsed as he thought this, as if to acknowledge his thoughts.

He had no idea what he was doing, but he had to try something. There were shouts over the rain and wind. Kilishandra's voice, and Alex's. They were looking for him. Lightning suddenly flashed again, and his Triforce suddenly burned even hotter, this time a deadly warning.

As the light vanished, a new figure remained, clearly visible in the night, on the other side of Midna, or rather, Cain. A glowing white form, astride a spectral white horse, clad in armor of ancient design. Studded leather, metal woven into the softer leather to protect the body, and a long spear clutched in one hand as he watched them.

His voice was loud and powerful as he spoke, as if his voice were the echoing thunder around them. "This is my domain, and you are not welcome here," he said, leveling his spear toward Cain, and in a flash of light, the white, transparent weapon became solid, a metal tip on a long wooden shaft. The spark of light traveled up his arm and across his body, his form darkening and becoming solid as it went, the rain originally passing directly through him now running off his armor in streams. The only white light that remained was in his eyes, glowing in just as maddening a manner as Cain's through the dark night. His voice took a dark tone, pronouncing his sentence, "By the grace of the gods, I shall exorcise you, demon."

He spurred his horse, and charged, the horse quickly reaching a gallop, barreling down on Cain, his spear-tip level and intent clear. Link swore to himself, leaping forward, sprinting as fast as he could toward Cain. He had no idea who this new figure was, but the Triforce's warning was clear, and he was going to kill Midna to get Cain. Link could hardly believe what he was doing as he shoved past Midna's body and slashed upward with his sword, knocking the spear away and the rider barreling past.

Cain stepped aside, allowing the horse to pass and Link reached out with his free hand, trying to snatch hold of the saddle. He instead caught the rider's leg, and clamped down as he planted his feet, trying to unhorse him. The rider shifted in his seat, but Link was snatched off his and his shoulder screamed in agony as he found himself being drug alongside the horse, inches from the pounding hooves. He tried to pull himself up, raising his sword to strike at the rider when the shaft of the spear struck across his head.

Stars filled Link's vision and the horse was suddenly pulled to a stop, sending Link rolling past and losing his grip on the rider as he rolled on the wet sand. The sand clung mercilessly to his skin and face, and Link wiped his eyes with his free hand as he stood up, looking up to see the tip of the spear rocketing toward him. It suddenly stopped as an enormous red hand reached out of the dark and rain, snatching the rider from his horse and dragging him away into the darkness.

There was a sound of pain. It was Cain's voice! Link charged after it. Lightning flashed again, and Link saw Midna's form on the ground, the rider climbing to his feet and lifting the spear to strike down. No, he wasn't going to make it in time!

A blue flash blinded him, and Link heard Cain roar. His vision quickly recovered, just in time to see the rider flying away to the right, landing hard in the sand, and a massive black shape rising up. Cain had donned the mask of his former power.

_This might be my only chance,_ Link thought, turning toward the growing shadow, _This damn thing better work, and it better work __**now**__!_

Link passed his sword to his right hand, and reached toward Cain with his left, putting every bit of willpower he had into demanding it pull Cain right out of Midna. The Triangle on his hand flared with gold light, responding to his desperate need. He was unable to connect, however, as a large blue hand appeared from the darkness and smashed across his face, sending him crashing sideways into the wet sand.

He looked up to see the enormous black silhouette turning toward him. Red light appeared at the top, framing the mask, and three red hands extended upward, and sprang toward him. Link pushed up and back as quickly as he could. The hands struck the sand, not landing anywhere near him.

"Stop fighting me," Cain said, "You are powerless now."

"Never!" Link shouted in response, "I won't let you have her!"

The red hands pulled back, and leveled toward him again, shooting forward, to then fly wildly off to the sides. Link watched this as none of them came even close to him. Cain wasn't talking to him, he realized. It was Midna! She was fighting Cain's control! She was getting through!

The Triforce flared in warning. A flash of lightning revealed the other warrior, charging at Cain from behind, his spear leveled. Link had no idea if this strange warrior could harm her in the shadow form or not, but he was not taking that chance. Link moved forward, right through the dark shadows of her body and out the other side. One deft swing of his sword knocked the spear aside, and then Link's shoulder crashed into the warrior's chest, both moving at full speed. The warrior was unable to shout as the wind was knocked from him and Link's superior bracing knocked him backward off his feet.

Link stepped around him, aiming a kick to knock him out, only to have the shaft of the spear strike across his own knees, and as he stumbled, one leg swung around and ripped his feet from underneath him even as the warrior rose in the same motion.

"Stay down if you know what's good for you," the warrior said, and turned back toward Cain.

Link pushed himself up as the warrior charged Cain, leveling his spear again. "No!" Link shouted, sprinting after him.

The red hands lashed out, grabbing for the warrior, who evaded their grasp with simple steps to the side, and as Cain's own hands reached out for him, the warrior leaped. An impossible jump that left Link unable to believe his eyes, the warrior rising a full ten feet off the group, aiming his spear high. Lighting flashed and the blade tip glinted.

There was a smashing sound and Cain howled. The light from the lightning faded as Link watched the spear tip pierce the mask, shattering it into the five pieces. The shadowed body roiled in agony, and started to shrink rapidly. In seconds, Midna crashed to the ground on her back, the last tendrils of black smoke running across the ground like the liquid of the rain before vanishing entirely.

The warrior landed on the other side of her. He spun the spear shaft in his hands as he turned, and stopped it with the blade pointed down. Link wouldn't make it in time. Another shape appeared through the rain, crashing into the warrior from the side. Alex's voice roared over the wind as he shoulder-blocked the warrior, and raised his sword to strike again. The warrior blocked it easily with the shaft of his spear, but Alex's particular style shone through as his right food connected with the warrior's left shin, causing a cry of agony and the warrior to stagger.

Kilishandra appeared on the other side of the warrior, her own weapon drawn as she charged him. Link stopped by Midna's body. This would be his only chance, while they bought time. He felt the Triforce pulsing again. It knew what he wanted. He knelt down, just as Midna's eyes opened, the venomous green hue looking up at him. He grabbed at her as she snatched for him. Both her hands when around his throat, and Link's went around hers.

Then he could see it all. Just like last time, when he had attempted to unravel the curse that had transformed her, he could see the lines of life that flowed through her body, the mana as Ganondorf called it, the essence of life itself. There was a bit of a shock at what he saw. Her lines had been a tangled mess when last he saw them, and he had failed to unravel them, but in her normal state, they should have straightened, they should have been in a predictable pattern.

They were just as much a tangled mess as before. In fact, they were exactly as before. She should have still been trapped in the form of an imp, not her natural shape. But he also saw the new addition. Red lines in a dense knot, with tendrils going in and among her green lines, weaving among them and clearly ready to resist removal.

That made sense. The magical vortex had not returned her to normal. Her shape had been restored by Cain. He had done it as he attached himself like a leech, feeding on her strength and now refusing to let go. Link could feel the hands on his neck tightening viciously. He only had a short time before he would lose consciousness. But this was no longer a physical battle, and he plunged himself into Midna and Cain's essences.

It would likely be the strangest battle Link ever fought. A conflict of pure will, as Link fought to force Cain's tendrils off of her. The last time Link had met Cain in such a manner, Cain had utterly destroyed him. Link didn't know if it was because Cain was distracted, or because he himself was so desperate, but as Cain's tentacles began to part and release their grip under Link's drive, Link could sense the seemingly immovable calm begin to fill with panic. Link was forcibly dragging him off of her, and Cain could do nothing to stop it.

"Now, monster," Link growled through his teeth as the final tendril pulled free of Midna's lines, "Just die!"

Link struck the red ball of essence with everything he could muster. To the others around them, it was as if lightning had struck the ground, and without thunder, there was an impact in the air that sent Alex, Kilishandra, and the warrior staggering. Link felt an intense satisfaction as the red essence crumbled in his vision, breaking away like glass and vanishing into nothing.

The warrior struck with the shaft of his spear, striking the wood across Alex's hand causing him to shout in pain, nearly dropping his sword, and a the same time the warrior stepping around a vicious slash from Kilishandra, the wooden shaft creating a loud whoosh as he spun around and struck across her back, sending her sprawling in the sand. He turned back toward Link and Midna when an arrow struck into his back, staggering him from the impact, and a second and third struck in rapid succession, dropping him to his knee.

But his attention was still on Link and Midna. The green glow of Midna's eyes and tattoos suddenly vanished, blinking out in an instant, and both of them collapsed to the ground.

"Enough!" the warrior shouted as Alex moved for him again, "I yield."

Alex stopped, unsure how to react as the warrior put the butt of his spear in the sand, using it to pull himself up. Kilishandra was on the other side of him, sword still at the ready, and Silviana materialized through the dark rain behind him, another arrow notched and ready. It was amazing to think she could shoot at all in this wind and rain.

"See to your friends," the warrior said, indicating Link and Midna, "When he wakes, tell him that he has won for now, but it has bought them only a temporary respite. I would have slain the demon permanently, though it would cost the life of the woman. His method has worked, but while the darkness has faded, it has not disappeared. The monster still lies in wait."

"What do you know of this?" Kilishandra demanded, "How much do you know of Cain?"

"Only what I have seen tonight," the warrior said, "He an abomination, and none of you will know peace until he is dead."

Lighting flashed, illuminating the area bright as day, and then the light was gone, and so was the warrior, vanished into the darkness, as if he had never been. The storm was already washing away the markings in the sand of the conflict, but if it hadn't, they would have seen the warrior's passage had left no trail, and no sign he was even there.

Kilishandra cursed, sheathing her sword as she moved over to the unconcious pair, and leaned down, checking to see that they were still breathing. She sighed in relief that they were alive and lifted Link's arm. "Alex, come get her, we need to get them back inside," she shouted.

"Right!" Alex responded, sheathing his own weapon and moving to help.

Silviana eased the tension on her bowstring, then slowly returned the arrow to the quiver as she scanned the area, looking for any sign of movement, something she could follow to where the man had vanished to. And even if there had been a trail to follow, she knew that by the time the storm let up, there would be nothing left to follow.

As the others carried Link and Midna's unconscious bodies back to the temple, she moved between them, so they could both hear over the storm. "This place doesn't seem as safe as we were told," she said, "From now on, nobody goes anywhere alone."

* * *

When he opened his eyes, the storm was gone. Link was lying on his back in his bedroll, back in the temple, and he blinked several times against the light before sitting up.

"Easy there," Silviana said. She was sitting next to him, with a small fire next to them, and Link could smell the fish cooking over it.

"Where's Midna?" Link asked.

"Right next to you," Silviana said.

Link turned the other way. There she was, lying under the same blanket. Her breathing was even, and she was sleeping peacefully. Link sighed in relief.

"What happened?" Link asked, turning back to Silviana.

"Well, we were fighting that man who attacked you, while you were doing something with her," Silviana said, "I managed to get a few shots in, but then you and Midna both collapsed. The strange warrior suddenly stopped fighting. He said to tell you something, then simply vanished, along with my four arrows in his back."

"What did he say?" Link asked, looking down at Midna.

"That you had won for now, but to be wary, because it is only a temporary reprieve, while he would have ended it permanently," Silviana said.

"It was Cain," Link said, "He was trying to kill Midna to get rid of him. I don't know why. But I killed Cain. I think I destroyed his soul."

"He said it was temporary," Silviana said.

"If he comes back, I'll do it again," Link said, "I won't let him have her."

Silviana did not respond, instead reaching down to turn the fish over the fire, so it would cook evenly.

"Where are the others?" Link asked.

"Outside, looking for any sign of that man," Silviana said, "Kilishandra seems particularly mad about what happened last night, though I'm not sure why."

Midna stirred. Link held his breath as her eyes fluttered open, and then, of all things, she yawned and licked her lips. Then she looked up at him, and smiled. Link smiled back, and she whispered, "Looks like you saved me again."

"Wait until you know this next part," Link said.

"What is it?" Midna asked, sitting up slowly, then gasped, rising quickly to her feet and her full height.

She found herself at eye level with Link, who was still sitting down. "No!" she said, looking down at herself, her hands darting over her body in fear that was quickly establishing itself as reality. She repeated the denial again, and then a third time in spite of what she knew to be true, as if hoping denial would change it, or perhaps wake her from a horrible dream.

"I'm sorry," Link said, "I didn't know until I saw it. That magic vortex didn't return you to normal. Cain did it, somehow. Your... energy, I guess... is still twisted and tangled. And when I removed Cain, it also removed whatever he did."

She had returned to the form she had when Link first met her, that of the imp Ganondorf had transformed her into. Midna sank onto her knees, and started crying, her eyes welling up and big heavy tears rolling down her face.

"I'm so sorry," Link whispered, "I will find a way to fix it."

"Link..." was all Midna said before standing up and moving toward him. She pressed herself up against his chest, sobbing quietly, his arm around her as she sought comfort and safety, when it suddenly seemed everything she had, she had suddenly lost. Cain had nearly taken her again, and Link had saved her yet again, only for _this_ to happen now.

Link didn't feel any better. Midna had given up so much, and asked for nothing in return, nothing except his love, and yet the world continued to punish her. He wished he could bring an end to it, to protect her from this experience, but right now, there was nothing he could do. Perhaps, with enough time, he could untangle her energy, but his first attempt tempered his approach now. He needed time, and experience. Going too quickly could endanger her life.

He hated this. He hated himself for this. Most of all, he hated Cain for bringing this about.

There was only one thing positive he could say about this mess: He had faced Cain a second time, and this time, he had not hesitated. And if Cain came back again, then there was only one possible outcome: Link would make sure to utterly destroy him. There wouldn't even be ashes left when Link finished with that monster.

"Link, what does this mean now?" Midna asked, "About... us?"

"Nothing," he said, "I love you, no matter what happens. That will never change."

Midna sniffed and wiped her eyes. "I love you, too. So much it hurts."


	121. Chapter 120

I actually didn't realize I had given the demon such a similar name to Ganondorf's until I wrote this chapter. I am glad I pulled the fight back a bit from what I first pictured, and it's much less Dragon Ball Z as a result.

**Chapter 120: Fire and Thunder**

The sun was barely peeking over the tops of the trees into the small clearing, but the lone cabin's occupants were descending into the basement, into the flickering torchlight. The circle etched into the floor pulsed with sinister red light, and the mounted skulls surrounding it each watched on with flames burning in their empty sockets.

"Here," Sibette said, and handed Ganondorf the bone charm, "Don't lose it or you'll have to find a way back yourself."

He took the necklace from the witch, eyeing it for a moment before tying it around his neck and tucking the bone under his shirt beneath his breastplate. "So what should I bring back to prove he's dead?" he asked, "You want his head?"

"Oh, I'll know if he lives or not," Sibette said, then paused for a moment as she considered the idea, "Though now that you mention it, his head would look impressive on the wall... No, actually I want something smaller. Cut his heart from his chest and bring it back to me."

"That's going to be messy," Ganondorf muttered, "I usually don't go for stuff like that."

"I didn't say he had to still be alive when you do it," Sibette said, "Bring me his heart, and by the time you return, I'll be ready to get the knowledge you want."

"You'd best," Ganondorf said, and stepped into the center of the pulsing circle when she gestured to it.

What she had enacted was a Travel spell, much like his own, but it was targeted at a specific beacon, instead of a general location. Sibette stood at the edge of the circle and brought her hands up in front of her chest, putting her thumbs and first fingers together in the shape of a triangle.

"By the way," Sibette said, "Good luck."

"In this kind of work, you can't depend on luck," Ganondorf replied.

The red light suddenly flared brightly, surrounding him and blocking his view of the surroundings. Then, just as quickly, it was gone, and he found himself in a completely new location. He was in the center of another magic circle, this one carved directly into the rock beneath his feet, the lines filled with smooth-cut obsidian.

The alien sky overhead was colored red, with brown clouds rolling across at a speed like human worlds never saw, with black silhouettes of jagged mountains on the horizon rising over a bleak valley of bare rock, split by rivers of flowing magma. The air smelled of sulfur and blood. "Yeah, it looks the part," Ganondorf muttered.

Ganondorf turned around, and on the other side of him was the fortress Sibette told him Gandric the demon inhabited. Four tall towers rose from each of the corners, surrounding the massive central keep. Ganondorf started walking toward the gate, marveling at the structure. It was as if it were carved directly from a single massive block of obsidian, the jet black walls showed no seams where bricks would fit together, and it was uneven and jagged along much of its surface.

The main gate was open, though as he approached, a lone figure stepped from behind the wall, into the gate, brandishing a wicked looking jagged edged sword. Goat-hooves and fur-covered legs led up to an almost human torso, with hands ending in sharp, filthy claws clutched around the hilt of the sword. Its face was a mouthful of sharp fangs and odd growths all over its skin that looked as if gray and purple rocks had been embedded in its flesh, topped with a pair of glowing yellow eyes and brown, crooked horns that twisted over each other in a completely useless fashion.

"I guess I kind of stand out, don't I?" Ganondorf asked it as he approached.

"Take one more step and you die, human!" the creature said.

Ganondorf came to a stop, and looked down at his feet. He then looked back up at the creature, and a smile appearing on his face, took a deliberate, pronounced step forward.

"I'll teach you to mock me!" the creature screamed, charging toward him, blade held high in the air.

Ganondorf stepped forward, inside the creature's reach, catching its wrist in his left hand, and struck his right fist into the underside of its elbow. There was a loud crunch as it bent backwards, and the monster howled in agony, the sword clattering on the ground. Ganondorf shove its arm aside, the force causing it to spin before falling on its knees with its back to him, and he grabbed hold of the twisted mess of horns.

"Here's all these are good for," Ganondorf said, and gave a sharp twist, and the creature's howls were suddenly silenced with another audible crack, and he shoved it forward, the creature falling limp and silent on the ground, a faint pained gasping for breath all the life left in it as Ganondorf stepped over it toward the fortress.

A ringing sound could be heard coming from high on the wall. The alarm, no doubt. "What, no screams of the damned?" Ganondorf asked, "And here I thought this guy was high budget."

The courtyard was barren and clear and the entrance to the keep lay straight ahead. The massive obsidian doors started to move, pulling inward, accompanied by wails of agony from men and women as green ectoplasm rose from the hinges like trails of smoke, occasionally carrying an empty face contorted in pain.

"That's better," Ganondorf said, facing the doorway and reaching slowly for his sword.

More of the weak creatures like the gate guard poured from the entrance, growling and barking like animals as they surrounded him. At least twenty of the things came from the door before the numbers tapered off.

"I did promise I wouldn't use my magic until I reached the throne room," Ganondorf muttered, and took his hand off the hilt of his sword, "But I don't think I even need my sword for you lot."

* * *

"You mind telling me what exactly we're looking for?" Alex asked, following Kilishandra at a somewhat halfhearted pace.

"Any sign of that horseman," Kilishandra said without turning to him, "No matter how small."

"You know the storm was still going for a while after he disappeared, right?" Alex asked, "And even then, we all saw him. He vanished."

"People don't just disappear," Kilishandra growled, "He's around here somewhere. He has to be."

"Bwaaaaarp," replied a loud bullfrog somewhere nearby.

"Bwaaaaarp," said another, in clear disagreement. Either that or they were flirting.

The transformation of the valley was mind-boggling. The rain of the previous night had soaked into the dry land fast enough, and already it was turning green. Short grass was starting over the valley floor, the cactuses had already bloomed, and loud buzzing insects were everywhere. Alex was frequently swatting those that came too close for comfort, and the bullfrogs that had surfaced appeared to be master orators with how well their voices carried across the valley. Life had sprung up in the valley literally overnight.

"Yeah, and I'm sure people usually have glowing white eyes and are riding around in the middle of killer storms," Alex said.

"Bwaaaaarp," replied the bullfrog thoughtfully.

"Oh, shut up. Who asked you?" Alex growled, following Kilishandra on her impromptu patrol of the valley.

Link, Silviana, and Midna emerged from the tunnel beneath the colossus, stepping into the sun and looking over the valley. "Wow, look at that," Midna said, not quite believing what she was seeing.

"Place really comes to life when it gets some rain, doesn't it?" Link said as they stepped off the stone platform, onto what had been nothing but sand before, but was already developing into a bed of short grass.

"Life always finds a way," Silviana said, "Even in the desert. This place will be alive like this for a few days, before the plants go to seed and the frogs and insects creep back underground to wait for the next rain. It actually gives one a little hope," she added with a smile, "Hope that someday life will return to Mystara, even if it is not in our time."

"Where is the mask?" Midna asked, changing the subject.

"Over there," Silviana said, pointing to the central area of the valley.

The three moved in that direction, and in a moment had reached the spot where Link had forcibly ripped Cain from Midna's body. Piled together were the fragments of the Fused Shadow, looking innocuous in there current state, like nothing more than a pile of rocks.

"According to what the man last night said, the creature will return," Silviana said, "So he's still in there?"

"No place else he could be, right?" Link asked, glancing at Midna, "Not anymore."

"I don't know," Midna said, not taking her eyes off the stack.

"So what are we going to do with these things?" Silviana asked, "Last night was the first time I saw this thing in person, and I'd rather not see it again."

"I'm done waiting for someone to help," Link said, suddenly drawing his sword.

"Link, no!" Midna said, but he did not stop as he brought the white blade down on the pieces of the mask.

A smell of smoke and fire filled the air and Link felt the heat as he was catapulted backwards, landing hard on his back. He looked up, fighting for breath, and quickly snapped his hand to his chest to pat out several small flames on his tunic.

"Are you okay?" Midna asked, rushing quickly back to him, though her own hands were already on his chest, searching for injuries herself.

"Yeah," he managed, "Yeah, I'm okay. What happened?"

"Think about it," Midna said, "When the Twili were banished from this world, the Fused Shadow pieces were sealed away, because they were beyond the power of the ones responsible to destroy. If just hitting them were enough, I think they would have figured it out."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Silviana said.

Link sat up and he and Midna both looked at where Silviana indicated on the pile. A jagged piece had come loose from where Link had struck, the new edges glowing red. Blue sparks danced across the surface and then, seconds later, the piece that had been struck free snapped back into place, and one more spark crossed the crack, then it was as if the piece had never parted.

"What the hell?" Link said as he climbed back to his feet.

"Something happened all right," Midna said, "It won't be that simple, though. The mask wants to be whole. That's why it always snaps together so easily. In fact, I'm wondering about leaving it piled together like that..."

"If it wants to be whole, why is it still in pieces like that?" Alex asked.

"It was whole once," Link said, looking at Midna, "Back when the Twili tried to conquer Hyrule."

"You're right," she said, "Something happened, something that fractured it. The people had the help of the guardian spirits of the land to defeat it and seal the pieces away."

"So we need to talk to them," Kilishandra said, "Maybe they'll know something."

Link returned his sword to its sheath and crossed his arms over his chest. "They couldn't destroy it even back then," he said, "That's why it was sealed away. Just like how Ganondorf was beyond the means of the Hero to Time to kill back then, so they had to resort to imprisoning him instead. I think our best hope for being rid of this thing for good is still him.

"If he hadn't taken off like he had, this might not be an issue."

"So what do we do now?" Midna asked.

"Don't really have a choice," Link said, "Unless we want to try to wasteland, we're stuck here. Is it safe to just leave this pile of crap here?"

"I wish I knew," Midna said, "Maybe better if we scatter it out."

"Okay, we'll take care of this," Link said, "Then I guess see about something to eat."

"Bwaaaaarp," said a bullfrog.

"Bwaaaaarp," replied another, still vehemently disagreeing.

"I've never tried frog before," Alex said, "Shutting them up will be a bonus."

* * *

The keep was not complex, and the resistance was not even close to what Ganondorf had expected. Less than thirty guards, not counting the scuffle at the gate, and compared to his knowledge of demons, severely lacking in variety, all of them the same kind of grunts. As he entered the eighth story, he was almost surprised as, stepping out of the stairwell, he entered a large open room, and found the continuous visual of black floors and walls suddenly shifted with a deep red carpet covering the floor and matching banners adorning the walls.

Far more interesting, though, was the crowd of creatures surrounding the chamber. There must have been at least a hundred of them, all waiting in perfect silence, perfectly still as they watch him. High on the walls, there were visible balconies, also filled with watching eyes. The silence of the room was oppressive. Ganondorf couldn't hear even the faintest sound from them over his own breathing.

At the far end of the room was a massive throne, at least ten feet wide and fifteen tall, carved of obsidian and polished to a mirror gleam, and seated on it was undoubtedly the one Ganondorf had come for, the demon Gandric. Red skin stretched tight over a massive barrel chest, with large, rock-hard abdominal muscles extending nearly three inches from his stomach, above a belt suspending nothing but a scrap of black cloth that fell to the knees of his powerful, red-skinned legs that ended in three-toed gargoyle feet with enormous black talons extending from each, and a fourth visible from the heel.

His arms were nearly as large around as a normal human man's chest, throbbing veins clearly visible along his massive biceps, extending to hands that would make fists as large as a human head, and three fingers that each ended in similar black claws as his feet, one idly tapping on the stone armrest as he watched Ganondorf walking toward him.

Orange colored eyes watched him, reptile-like pupils tracking his every step. Above them, two grand black horns emerged from Gandric's forehead, curving upward and rising to sharp points, in a shape far more likely to actually be used as weapons compared to the others around him. His wide jaw-line showed a large number of smaller growths of horn, as if forming a sharp, hellish beard, surrounding the aged, wrinkled face, which contrasted sharply with the powerful visage of his body.

"When you arrived, I wondered what kind of difficulty Sibette was having in finding volunteers recently," Gandric said, speaking in a low tone, but his unearthly deep voice carried across the quiet room with no difficulty, "Last time she sent nearly thirty hardened mercenaries. Based on their lackluster performance, I told the guards to go easy on you. But now that you're standing in front of me, I see why she only sent one."

Ganondorf stopped, nearly twenty feet from the throne, idly thumbing the pommel of his still sheathed sword. This Gandric enjoyed a show, and as the demon shifted in his seat, sitting up straighter and leaning toward him, seemed to like putting one on as well.

"How unexpected it is to have a bearer of the Golden Triangle appear in my own keep," Gandric continued, "I do not smell the witch's touch on you. Either Sibette has gained more influence than I realized, or Ganondorf Dragmire has fallen considerably to be selling his abilities as a common mercenary. Or maybe she has used some other means to buy your loyalty." Gandric paused, rising to his feet, and then was suddenly gone, brown smoke spreading into the air around the throne, and with another burst of smoke, appeared directly in front of Ganondorf, the enormous demon leaning down until his face was only inches from Ganondorf's own. "She should have sent all three of you..." he growled.

Ganondorf did not flinch, and returned Gandric's stare, keeping his face expresionless. The demon suddenly erupted, a loud roar directly into Ganondorf's face, red light and tongues of flame visible in his mouth, the scream going on for nearly ten full seconds before he suddenly stopped, the sound echoing through the room and a smile spreading across Gandric's face at Ganondorf still remaining utterly unmoved by the display.

"I'll give you this," the demon said, and was suddenly gone in another burst of thin smoke, and a second later reappearing back in front of his throne, sitting down as he continued, "You don't scare easy. But more to the point, this might not have to end in the obvious manner," he went on as he settled into the obsidian throne, "If the once great wizard has truly reached the point his skills are for sale, perhaps we can strike a deal..."

Gandric smiled as he said this, clasping his hands together as he watched Ganondorf. The wizard returned the smile, the first movement he had shown in the past moments, then slowly rolled his neck to the side. There was a loud pop from Ganondorf's neck that was audible across the chamber, and he let out a groan of pleasure as a result. Ganondorf's right hand then crossed to the hilt of his sword, and the glowing white sword hissed as it was pulled free of the scabbard, and moved across to hold to his right.

"You won't like my terms..." Ganondorf said.

Gandric's shoulders shook once with a silent laugh. "You'll deal with a witch, but not with me?"

"I would not deal with your kind even when I was young and foolish," Ganondorf said, "How many witches' souls are locked in torment in this place because they believed they were smart enough to find the hole in their contract? Or believed they could use the means of regaining their youth indefinitely, thus preventing its fulfillment entirely?

"Let me make things abundantly clear for you, devil," Ganondorf slowly took a step toward the throne, "I am neither a child on a power trip, nor am I seeking anything you can offer. I've dealt with your kind before. _You_ are neither immortal or all-knowing, and in spite of what you want those of us from more mundane planes to believe, you are not in fact a fire and brimstone, soul-consuming devil from the black abyss.

"The basic rules of reality function differently for your kind than mine, and the knowledge you have gained from your world makes up the gift you give the hapless fools of what you consider the lesser planes in exchange for the contracts which effectively amount to nothing more than thumbing your nose at the established order of reality.

"One rule stays just as true for you as us lesser beings," Ganondorf smiled, lifting his sword, turning the point upward and holding it up in front of himself, "This sharp object punctures your insides, and you bleed to death. There's nothing amazing or fantastic about it. You said I do not scare easy. That is because I do not fear you, because I am not foolish enough to deal with you."

He lowered his sword, watching Gandric for any reaction. The demon cocked his head slightly as he watched the wizard for a moment before finally responding, "Long-winded bastard, aren't you?"

Ganondorf burst into a grin. "Here's a short one," he said, and lifted his free hand to the side, his open palm held flat toward the shifting crowd of monsters. Gandric leaned forward in his seat, but Ganondorf did not stop. "_Daem!_"

The floor shook with the reverberations of the impact. A large hole was visible in the wall behind the crowd, open to the red sky beyond, almost twelve feet across. In the wrecked, a three inch deep and four foot wide trench had been carved into the floor, and the unlucky creatures standing in the patch were now settling to the floor as a thin red mist.

"That is how the magic of my world works," Ganondorf said, "No manipulation, no tricks. Just pure effect. And unfortunately for you, this is the first time in a long while I haven't had to hold back to avoid killing my own allies in the collateral damage."

Gandric glanced over the damage and the crowd of his followers looking between it and Ganondorf in the center of the room. The demon leaned back in his seat again, and then with two words, sent the room into chaos.

"Kill him."

Hundreds of monsters swarmed toward Ganondorf. The ones in the front of the pack charging at full sprints, some dragging their weapons along the floor, sending sparks flying into the air behind them.

_I can't waste my strength fighting these peons,_ he thought.

The Triforce of power flashed brightly, responding to his thoughts. Gold sparks danced from his hand, up his arm and across his body. More sparks danced across his flesh and down his legs. The floor under his feet cracked, splintering in a web like pattern as the sparks touched it and spread across the surface.

Gandric leaned forest in interest, and one of the charging monsters leaped into the air, raising its blade over its head as it came down toward Ganondorf. It was then swallowed in a flash of light. Gandric lifted one hand to shield his eyes against the intense glow as it filled the chamber, completely whiting out vision. The flying monster never reached Ganondorf, its skin peeling off its body and flying away behind it, followed by its muscle tissue and more, finally its bones crumbling to dust and being swept away in the intense force.

The light died mere seconds after it erupted. The floor and walls of the chamber were left smoking and glowing faintly red, and the only remaining evidence of the horde were the red-hot metal weapons scattered across the floor and piles of dust against the walls.

"And here I thought that was going to be dud," Ganondorf muttered to himself.

"I thought it was suitably impressive," Gandric said from his throne.

Ganondorf turned to him, noting the faint shimmer in the air surrounding him and his throne. The demon had erected a swift protective barrier and was unharmed by the display.

He shrugged, fully facing the seated demon. "Last time I tried that one, both the people I was trying to kill were unfazed," he said, "I think it was because they had the other pieces of the Triforce. It does provide natural shielding against its own powers. Same reason the princess it provides psychic empathy to can't read me or the other one."

"You don't say," Gandric said, rising slowly to his feet, "Back to business, however. You seem to believe I have no knowledge of the magic from your world, because I provided denizens of your plane with the magic of mine.

"I assure you, my range of knowledge is quite extensive."

The air seemed to pulse with sudden force as Gandric took a wide stance and spread his arms out from his sides. Though he did not allow it to show on his face, Ganondorf was shocked at the force emanating from the monster, a magical aura, like any spellcaster gave off, but rising rapidly. In seconds it had already reached the levels of freakish power that poured off Kilishandra during her most intense castings, and it was still going up.

"_Serif teah mxtecotal_," Gandric said, his voice echoing all around them in the telltale voice of spellcasting.

"Wait, that one, with this level of energy..." Ganondorf whispered, and braced himself for the coming onslaught.

"_I beseech thee, ancient spirits of fire, come forth and honor thy blood pact of old,_" Gandric chanting, flames rising in a ring around him as he spoke, then threw his head back, his hands clenching into fists, and screamed, "_Hellion!_"

Fire erupted from nothing, filling the room, shooting from the floor to the ceiling in an instant, the temperature rising rapidly, the only barely cooled walls glowing bright red and growing brighter by the second.

In the midst of the storm of flame, Ganondorf erected a swift barrier, a near invisible shimmer all that was standing between him and the intense flames, the flames wrapping around the invisible sphere, but unable to touch him. Ganondorf grunted with the effort of focus as the temperature continued to climb by the second.

"Not bad," Ganondorf said, even as he put more effort into maintaining the barrier, "Your Inferno spell is much more powerful than mine."

"I'm just getting started," Gandric replied.

The flames flared brighter, and the red glow on the walls began to shift in color, the intense red fading into white, and even as it did, the walls began to rapidly shift, as the volcanic glass started to melt, the white-hot liquid obsidian running across the floor, which was itself beginning to melt, sagging downward, the only piece remaining solid was the section under Ganondorf's feet, about two feet outward from himself in each direction. This same barrier was the only thing keeping Ganondorf's skin from melting in the ambient heat.

When the floor gave way, it was sudden. Caving away, and Ganondorf found himself falling, the flames almost instantly vanishing, giving him only a split second of warning. With a puff of brown smoke, Gandric was suddenly on top of him, the demon's enormous hands snatching hold of his arms. Ganondorf retaliated, striking his knee into the demon's groin, and being rewarded with a grunt and the demon's face contorting in pain.

Using his sword was pointless at this range, so Ganondorf took the opportunity to slip his free arm from the demon's grasp, and smashed his elbow into the demon's face. Gandric's grip released his other arm, and Ganondorf swiftly planted both feet in Gandric's stomach and pushed away, using the increased reach to lift his sword.

His sword struck nothing but smoke as Gandric vanished into nothing. Ganondorf landed on the floor, dropping to one knee to absorb most of the impact, and with the Triforce flashing, quickly reinforced his barrier over himself, the molten obsidian splashing down over him and rolling to the sides over the barrier and harmlessly away from him.

In the corner of his eye, Ganondorf spotted a small puff of brown smoke rolling over his barrier, and spun toward it. Gandric was nearly on top of him, a large sword with a blade of fire in the demon's hand and rapidly descending toward him.

A swift strike to the side turned the flaming blade away from Ganondorf, who quickly struck again, and again his blade cut nothing but air, the small puffs of brown smoke dissipating before his eyes, and he was suddenly struck across the shoulders by both of Ganric's fists, clenched in a powerful hammer blow, and Ganondorf hit the floor, full impact on his chest and head.

Gandric stood up, a smile playing across his features, and lifted one hand, the blade of flame appearing from nothing in his grip. "Humans never learn," he said.

His strike was interupted as an enormous impact struck him across the chest, catapulting him backward, residual sparks scorching his skin as he landed hard, digging the claws of his feet and one hand into the stone floor to stop his slide across it.

"As I said, your Inferno spell is more powerful than mine," Ganondorf said, slowly rising to his feet, golden sparks dancing across his body, "But fire magic was never my specialty anyway."

"How did you hit me without a enchantment?" Gandric demanded, rising slowly to his full height.

"I've always believed the words were not truly needed in spellcasting," Ganondorf said, "They're a catalyst, a solid point to grasp and help the caster focus. All that really matters is shaping the energy to your will. But that's hardly the limit of my power, demon. I've spent four millennia building my strength, and I intend to have you begging for your life before I kill you."

Gandric started to retort, but cut himself off as Ganondorf suddenly turned his head to face him, and the demon saw the golden glow filling the wizard's eyes. In the following seconds, Ganondorf's body began to shift. His flesh merged with the metal of his armor, the plating expanding and forming together, leaving no seams or gaps, and rising up from his neck and around his head. Two long horns appeared from either side of the black metal, rising high crowning the new helmet even as his body continued to grow, the already tall wizard rising to an imposing fifteen feet in height, and spikes growing from the shoulder plates as the metal creaked into place. Even his sword transformed, the white blade growing in length and width, then splitting in two and twisting around itself in a wicked looking double helix shape.

The golden glow of his eyes remained visible in the slit of the helmet, fixing on Gandric, who suddenly found himself feeling very small, facing the very image of the fairy-tale black knight, in the newest form of the creature Hyruleans referred to simply as Ganon.

"I have a riddle for you, demon," Ganon said, his voice low and powerful, not baring even the faintest hint of distortion one would expect from such a sealed helmet, "Would you like to answer?"

"Resorting to children's games now?" Gandric asked, "Perhaps you're not as imposing as you think."

"Let's find out," Ganon said, "Answer me this: The dice of life have fallen. The weak and the poor will lose. The rich in their ivory towers can't feel that their head's in the noose. No chance to talk me 'round, not when I'm spreading my wings. The form of unrivalled fear, I am the bane to beggars and kings.

"What am I?"

Gandric's response was a sneer. "If you think you're death incarnate, you're crazier than me."

"Let's find out," Ganon said, and charged.

The floor cracked under Ganon's foot as he pushed off, and bricks shifted as the damage added to the melting damage from the molten obsidian. Gandric vanished in a puff of smoke, and Ganon skidded to a stop, tearing more of the floor in the process, and pushed back the other way, striking his left elbow directly into Gandric's face as the demon appeared behind him, and Gandric's vision filled with stars as he staggered back from the impact. He was barely able to see as Ganon spun, aiming the deadly looking sword his direction, and vanished again.

Ganon spun, swinging his weapon wide, and striking nothing but air. With a roar, Gandric appeared in the air above him, his flaming blade gripped in both hands and coming down. Ganon was easily able to lift his weapon, blocking the stroke with one hand, and even as the weapon's collided, snaked his enormous free hand up and effectively palming the demon's entire head, threading his fingers between the horns, and spun to the left, dragging Gandric with him.

Gandric struggled, his flaming sword vanishing as both hands rose to the one holding him and lifting his feet to kick at Ganon's chest. Ganon turned, lifting his arm high and turning Gandric around so they were back to back in the process, then with a roar pulled forward, dragging the demon into the air, over his head, and slamming him facedown into the floor.

The groundshaking impact was the last straw needed, and the damaged floor gave way, and they were falling again. Gandric vanished in smoke and burst in again behind Ganon, wrapping his arms around the larger warrior's neck and dragging his claws across the metal plate of the helmet, sparks flying as he searched for a seam to get at the soft bits within.

There was no seam to find.

The pair struck the floor beneath them, the combined weight of the pair too much and they smashed through the bricks, the fall continuing, and they spun in the air as Gandric tried desperately to keep his grip as Ganon reached up, snatching hold of one of his arms and made to pull him off. Ganon landed on his back when they hit the next floor, smashing Gandric beneath him even as the floor gave way again, and their rate of rotation increased. The next floor, Ganon smashed into face-down, rattling his senses, and unable to locate which way was up as the fall continued.

Two more floors they smashed through, and Ganon suddenly realized that Gandric had released his grip and leaped away, vanishing once more in a blast of smoke, and then even harder than any of the previous impacts, he landed on his back on a rock floor, cracking the stone and creating a crater in the shape of his own outline from the impact. Stars and other shapes were swimming through his vision as he slowly picked himself up, and he was snapped back to reality when he heard the chanting.

"..._I summon a wave to rip, smash and tear..._" Gandric was saying.

The demon had leaped off and used his teleportation to spare himself the worst impact, Ganon realized, and was getting ready to try to finish it. He was barely on his feet when the demon finished the spell, screaming the final words, "_Rip Earth!_"

Ganon saw the approaching wave of destruction, the powerful blast of air ripping stone from the floor and picking up the debris to form a deadly bludgeon of rock shrapnel. Ganon knew that his current form was rapidly draining his strength. The risk of the power it granted him was that he would be exhausted in minutes, and he couldn't afford to raise a barrier over the top of it.

Instead, he planted his feet and lowered his head to shield his eyes, and felt the rocks smash into his metal body. He was forced back a step as more and more rocks the size of grown men broke themselves across his body, smashing into tiny pieces while doing no real harm to him.

The floor was shaking. Ganon looked up to see Gandric standing some distance across from him. They were on a small beach of rock next to a river of molten lava, beneath the fortress. Dust and chips of obsidian were falling from the ceiling around them, and Ganon realized that the initial damage to the structure, followed by the demon's spell, had destabilized the foundation. In a moment, the entire thing was going to come down on their heads.

A large chunk of obsidian splashed down in the lava river, bobbing on its surface. Gandric saw it, and looked back at Ganon, his expression making it clear he knew exactly what was about to happen. With a puff of smoke, he was gone, and then appeared on the top of the floating obsidian slab. The slab was only about ten feet wide, and it dipped noticeably under the demon's weight.

Ganon moved after him, having no intention of letting him slip away now. Ganon forced himself up to speed, ready to leap to the slab. He suddenly stopped, skidding to a halt and backing up as another large slab splashed into the river, sending the glowing red molten rock splashing nearly twenty feet into the air.

Gandric's laughter rose over the rumbling, and Ganon could see him riding the slab down the river, toward an opening into daylight on the far wall. "Rust in peace, oh great wizard of metal," the demon shouted as he passed under the arch of stone, "You'll be part of the foundation when I rebuild the fortress!"

Ganon took three steps to accelerate and leaped onto the slab that had previously stymied his jump. It bobbed noticeably under his weight as he landed, the thick molten rock creeping over the top as it shook, and he carefully minded his feet until it stabilized and the deadly liquid retreated.

He pulled his sword back, taking aim in the distance, and swung it forward. The helix blade warped and twisted, shooting forward nearly twenty feet to strike into the rock arch above the distant opening. His body responding to his will, small claws extended from the edges of his boots, digging down into the obsidian to maintain a grip, and then he pulled the sword back, dragging himself forward at great speed.

His platform sent waves of lava out to the sides with his sudden acceleration, more slabs falling from the ceiling behind him as he shot toward the opening. He gave a quick jerk to pull his sword free of the wall, returning to its original shape as his platform passed out the opening and into daylight as the final supports gave way and with great crashing, the fortress began to fall inward upon itself.

The platform surged forward as the collapse of the fortress caused a wave in the river, moving him forward with increased speed. Gandric's platform was rapidly coming into range, the demon was facing the other way, not watching what was going on behind him.

As the wave started to die and Ganon began to lose speed, he readied his sword again, this time sending the mutating blade forward to latch onto the back edge of Gandric's platform. The demon spun with a start, and Ganon pulled with his sword and a second later, the two platforms slammed together, sending a narrow streak of lava shooting upward between the edges.

Brown smoke puffed as Gandric vanished in a flash even as Ganon pulled his sword free, and turned. Gandric appeared directly to his side, and without even bothering to block the flaming sword, Ganon struck him across the face with his left elbow and at the same time hooked his foot under the demon's feet and swept them from under him, sending him crashing onto his back on the platform, which bobbed dangerously in the river from the impact.

Gandric looked up and saw Ganon's sword coming down, and then vanished in another puff of smoke. Ganon had fully expect that, and immediately took one step toward the edge of the platform and leaped. The platform turned over entirely as Ganon rose through the air. Gandric burst into view in another puff of smoke on the river bank. The demon barely had time to look up before Ganon came down on him with both feet, smashing the demon down under his enormous weight. There was an audible crack as Gandric's spine snapped in two and he howled in pain.

Ganon stepped off him, light welling up from his body and the metal plates shifted, and in a few seconds, Ganondorf had returned to normal as Gandric's screaming at last ended, and the demon looked up at him and gasped for breath.

"Hope your ready," Ganondorf said, pointing the blade of his sword toward Gandric's chest, "because this is the dream where you fall in the six foot deep hole."

"Wait!" Gandric said, lifting one hand in protest, "Tell me what the witch promised you! I'll match it! I'll give you more!"

Ganondorf smiled down at him. "I told you I'd have you begging for your life," he said.

"Please," the demon said, "I know the kinds of things humans desire. I can grant any wish you have."

Ganondorf slowly stepped over the demon, straddling his torso and placing his feet on each of the demon's wrists, pinning them down, and leaned down, not putting his weight on Gandric, but low enough he could rest one hand on the demon's chest and lean his face down to only inches away.

"One chance is all you get," Ganondorf said, "I seek to kill a monster named Shaklator. Either tell me how I may do so with the tools already at my disposal, to point me to a weapon that can do the job."

A smile slowly spread across Gandric's face, and he chuckled. A second later, the chuckle turned into a laugh. "Is that what Sibette promised you?" he asked, and laughed harder, "I know the one you speak of. You can't. It's that simple. I couldn't do it, I can't even kill you. Shaklator is so close to godhood, all she's missing is mortal idiots praying to her."

"She bleeds, I've seen it, and therefore she can die," Ganondorf said, "So then tell me something I can use to disable her while I bleed her. I don't give a crap how underhanded or despicable it might be."

"I already told you," Gandric said, "You can't beat her. You are not capable of killing her. It's not a matter of tricks or weaknesses, you cannot do it."

The demon's smile had vanished, and he stared up at Ganondorf with hard eyes, waiting for a reaction. Ganondorf's gaze did not falter, and he said nothing as he rose up to his full height, looking down at the helpless creature.

"I'll be getting a second opinion," Ganondorf said at last, and before Gandric could respond, drove the point of his sword into the demon's chest, just to the right of his sternum. Gandric howled in agony, and his scream redoubled and Ganondorf twisted his sword, snapping the demon's ribs one by one. With a grim methodical determination, Ganondorf leaned down and stuck his fingers into the slit in the flesh and pulled the bone and tissue aside, then plunged his hand into the bloody mess within.

With a sharp pull, he removed his prize, still throbbing in his hand and spewing blood from torn arteries, a fittingly black heart with sharp edges and spines that seemed to be formed of the same material as Gandric's horns.

Gandric's hands were still pinned under Ganondorf's feet, and he had been completely unable to resist, and now, he had but a few precious seconds, just long enough to watch his own heart stop beating before everything went dark.

"Damn, this thing's big," Ganondorf muttered as he examined his prize. The heart was nearly the size of an average human head, but it did make sense given the size of Gandric.

He sheathed his sword, and fished down the front of his collar for the charm that would return him to Sibette's home. "All right witch," he said as he snapped the bone between his thumb and forefinger, "You'd better give me the answers I want if you know what's good for you."

The transition was just as smooth as the first time, and he found himself back in the witch's basement, standing in the center of the circle. The torches on the walls flared into life at his presences. He heard something shift and turned toward it. The cages on the far wall. Whatever unlucky soul, or perhaps souls, locked within had been startled by his sudden arrival.

Ganondorf turned toward the stairs and started toward them. A shock startled him and he stepped back. With a growl of irritation he lifted his empty hand and reached forward. He could see it this time. The shimmer in the air surrounding him. A prison barrier tied to the circle, intended to hold him there.

"Sibette!" he shouted, his voice ringing off the walls, "You've got five seconds to let me out of here before I burn this building to the ground!"

The trapdoor at the top of the stairs opened, and the raven-haired woman leaned down to where she could see him. "Calm down," she said, "It was just a precaution in case whatever came back wasn't you."

"Remove the barrier before I remove it for you," he replied, a dangerous edge to his voice.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Sibette said as she descended the stairs, seemingly unconcerned, and as she turned to him noticed the shape clutched in his left hand, "Ooh, is that my trophy? Let me get you out of there so I can have a closer look."

Removing the barrier was as simple as Sibette turning one of the skulls around the circle away from the center, which caused the glows in the eyes of all five to fade away. There was a shimmer in the air around Ganondorf, and a sound like breaking glass.

"Come on, let's go up where there is better light," Sibette said, motioning for him to follow as she started up the stairs again.

Ganondorf stepped out of the circle and followed her. "Are you ready to get me the answers I need?" he asked as he started up the stairs.

"Nearly," she said, "I've finished the physical preparations, now we just need to wait for the right time."

"If you're ready, let's do it now," Ganondorf said as he stepped from the trap into the main room.

"That's the problem with you wizards, you have no patience," Sibette said, sitting down on her bed, "Remember the part where you resisted my magic? Your part-god freak is going to try that too when I start poking around her head. There are various ways to maximize my odds of having the time I need to actually find something useful, and one of them is timing. Waiting for the Walpurgis Night event would be the best, but I'm guessing we don't have that long..." She paused, looking at him for confirmation.

"It will be far too late by then," Ganondorf said.

"Then just after midnight is our best time," Sibette said, then motioned for him to come closer, "Now let me see it."

Ganondorf stepped toward her, and held out the black heart in his blood covered hand. Sibette stood up and move closer, leaning down to see it more closely, and reaching toward it with both hands. She stopped inches from it, not actually touching the heart, her hands hovering just over it.

"I should be overjoyed," she said, "And yet I'm overwhelmed a strange feeling of melancholy. He's gone, and I'm free. My soul belongs to me again. And yet..."

"Fear of the unknown?" Ganondorf suggested. "While he lived, you knew what awaited you after death. Now you're just as much in the dark as the rest of us."

"Maybe," Sibette said, "It's only natural to fear death, yet now I fear it for a different reason. What do you think waits for you on the other side, wizard?"

"I'm going to live forever," Ganondorf replied.

Sibette smiled. "Well, optimism never hurts, I guess. You may possess eternal youth, but you're not invincible."

"Plenty of people have failed to prove that theory," Ganondorf said, "Now are you going to take this or not?"

"I wanted to put it in a jar, but I don't have one big enough," Sibette said, turning away and scanning her shelves, then suddenly spun back toward him, "Better idea. I'll boil it down, shrink it until it will fit in a charm."

She retrieved a large pot from the pile near the fireplace and motioned for him to put the heart in. She filled it with water about halfway up, then added a chemical from a vial she produced from a pocket before covering it and hanging it over the fire.

"That will actually shrink it?" Ganondorf asked.

"Oh, yes," Sibette said, "Ever see shrunken heads? Same principle."

She moved back across the room, to the chest by her bed and opened the lid.

"Now, we've got hours to wait yet," she said, "Are you injured? Anything that needs attention?"

"No," Ganondorf said, "Just tired. And impatient."

"Well, if you've got the energy, there is something you can help me with," Sibette said, "Besides the timing, there are a few other things I can do to increase my odds of success by building my spiritual energy beforehand."

"Things like what?" Ganondorf asked somewhat warily, "I'm not going to help you feed on those things locked in the cages downstairs, if that's what you're saying."

"No, those are for my youth ritual," Sibette said, turning away from the chest and sitting on the edge of her bed. She closed the lid of the chest and placed what she had fished out on top of it. There was an empty glass bottle, about the size of her thumb, and the other was a simple string. For creating her charm, he guessed. She turned to him and went on. "Things like a good meal beforehand, meditation, all that can help. But there are other ways that are more effective, and also more fun because they're quite a bit more sinful."

As if to punctuate her meaning, she leaned back on her hands, thrusting her chest forward so her black leather bodice squeaked as it strained against the pressure of her breasts. Ganondorf showed no outward reaction, and continued to appear unfazed even as she smiled at him while splaying her legs open.

"Well," hefinally said at length, "it has been a while. And if it does help, I should do everything in my power to improve our odds..."

"Good to know you're willing to take one for the team," Sibette said as he walked toward her, dropping his belt and sword on the floor, and she stood up to help with the straps on his breastplate, "And don't worry, I promise you won't hate this as much as you might think. I just hope with how tired you are, you don't pass out too quickly."

"Woman, even in my current state, you'll be unconscious long before me."

"Let's see you prove that."

* * *

"Well, I hope Alex learns the problem with frogs from this," Link said, tossing aside the last bone, "Even when they're this size, there's barely any meat on them."

"I think I've got it figured out," Midna said, holding up what was left of her last frog-leg, "Little bites, chew slowly, starve to death."

"I think it did shut them up, though," Link said.

"Bwaaaaaaarp," came the announcement that he was wrong from what had to be a secret bunker somewhere in the oasis.

"Then again," Link said with a sigh.

He was sitting with his back against the trunk of a tree near the pond's edge, with Midna close by. Alex and Silviana were within sight, not far away, but out of earshot.

"I wonder what they're whispering about," Midna said as she tossed the last bone of her frog away, then moved closer to Link, up against his side so she could lean her head back against his chest.

He put his arm around her, not tight but holding onto her as she settled in comfortably. The clear sky and bright stars overhead a nice change from the previous night's storm.

"They're probably making plans for what they'll be doing when this is over," Link said, "I guess we're not the only ones who fell for someone in strange circumstances."

Midna closed her eyes, taking a moment to just enjoy the warmth and closeness to Link before she asked him the question that had been bothering her all day. "Link, about what you said earlier," she said, "Now that we've both calmed down, I need to know, what is going to happen with us?"

"I told you, nothing's changed," Link said, "Let me tell you something, this right here, just holding you close like this, it just feels right. You know I was with Ilia before you, but I never had this kind of feeling with her. I lost you once already, and I don't want to ever do it again."

"What if I'm stuck like this for good now?" Midna asked, "If we never find a way to return me to normal?"

"I already said it," Link said, "My answer hasn't changed. And I've no intention of giving up trying to help you."

"So you'd be willing to be seen with me like this?" Midna asked, "Even... make love to me?"

"Is that what it's going to take to prove it to you?" Link asked.

Midna chuckled. "I guess not, though I might have to call you out on it sometime soon," she said, "I'm sorry, I just... I don't know what to think right now."

"We'll figure it out," Link said, "You know I don't give up easily."

"Yes, you're more stubborn than an angry mule," Midna said, and smiled at him when he gave her an indignant look, and she shifted her postion, leaning more on him, and whispered, "Gods, I love you, Link."

He leaned down, gently kissing the top of her head. "And I love you," he said, "No matter what."

"How could any man be so perfect?" Midna asked.

"Must be genetic," Link replied.

"Must be," she said.


	122. Chapter 121

I couldn't resist making the witch sing, it was just too fitting. Lyrics used are from Running Wild's song _Preacher_. Hey, it's better than resorting to "Double, double, toil and trouble."

**Chapter 121: Trinity**

"You look like you're in a good mood," Arthur commented as Zelda sat down on the other side of the fire from him.

"We are making excellent time," Zelda said, adjusting the position of the sword at her belt so it wasn't in the way, "Weather's stayed calm and we haven't had any more difficulty. Things are going our way for once, it seems."

The stars were out in the clear sky and the wagon train had settled down for the night, the wagons pulled into a circle around the camp and the night watch keeping eyes in all directions.

"Seems like ancient history now," Zelda said, "Link was worried about the weather affecting the people caught outside when they were petrified, so I used a spell I knew that had a calming effect. It's long since expired now."

"How long would something like that last?" Arthur asked.

"With me using it, about an hour," Zelda said, "I don't know how long he thought we'd be gone, but Hyrule has a fairly mild climate, at least compared to Darimar. It'd be decades before the statues were actually damaged by the weather. Can't say the same for their clothes, though."

"Their clothes?" Arthur repeated.

"Yes, you see, only living things were affected by the curse," Zelda said, "People, animals, plants. Though their clothes remained on them, they were still just cloth. The first hour or so after it's broken is likely to be interesting for everyone concerned."

"I bet," Arthur said, leaning his head and looking past her, "That's strange, I don't see your shadow for once."

She knew he was referring to the ninja that were becoming a common sight near her at all times. "There are a few out there that you wouldn't see anyway," she said, "Vargus already retired for the night."

"So they do have to sleep sometimes," Arthur said.

"Speaking of sleep, why are you still up?" Zelda asked.

"And what if I said I was waiting for you?"

Zelda gave a slight chuckled. "I'd say you should have just gone to sleep," she said, and barely finished the sentence before letting out a yawn. "Gods, the best part of getting home will be sleeping in a real bed again."

Arthur slowly rose to his feet. "I thought you'd be used to the road by now," he said as he walked around the fire toward her, "More than I am, anyway."

"Used to it is one thing, liking it is another," she replied, "I'd walked any real distance in my life before this started. I do think it's a good thing I've gone through this, but it's not the life for me. Especially not since I have a kingdom to lead. Wait, what are you doing?"

He had circled around the fire and her reaction had been caused by him kneeling down behind her. "It's all right," he said, "Just relax. Don't forget I had another life before you came along on your trip, and this is the kind of thing I became very good at."

She nearly jumped when his slipped his hands under her hair to her neck, where he slowly and gently began to kneed his thumbs into her skin behind her shoulders. Zelda started to protest, but was cut off when she let out a groan of appreciation. Her tunic was too thick for good purchase, so Arthur moved up and slipped his fingers in under the neckline.

"You've got a lot of tension built up, not that I blame you," Arthur said as he massaged her shoulders, "I think I could do you some good."

"I think if you can stay awake another hour, I want you to work over the rest of my back," Zelda said. He had skill all right. In just a few moments, she was ready to declare him a far better masseuse than any of her attendants back in Hyrule.

"I don't have to stop with just your back," Arthur whispered, leaning close to her ear.

"I think it's a good idea to stop with just the back," Zelda said.

"Sorry, I didn't mean..."

"I know what you meant," Zelda said, "Remember when we first met, you asked how you could become a man worthy of me. And I said you were closer to being that man then, when you stopped lying to me, than you'd ever been before. If I didn't have other responsibilities... Look, can you be patient just a little longer?"

"Probably something about you having to marry politically, right?" Arthur asked.

"That used to be it, but I'm not so sure anymore," Zelda said, "I do want to spend more time with you, to get to know you. Just... can you wait until we get to Hyrule and things settle down a bit? When we'll actually have the time?"

"Yeah," Arthur said with a sigh, "Yeah, I can. I've been waiting for almost a year now. A few more weeks won't kill me."

"Sorry, I've just got too much on my mind right now," Zelda said.

"Well, not to add to your worries, but I just want you to remember, you changed my life forever," Arthur said, "I don't understand how you did it, but you're the only woman I went after and didn't win. And because of that, I don't think I'll ever be happy with anyone else."

"Make it even harder, why don't you," Zelda said, "That's enough on my shoulders. Come on, let's go find somewhere I can lay down and let you work on my back."

"As you wish, my princess," Arthur said.

* * *

Just before midnight, they rose from the bed and began the final preparations. Sibette led Ganondorf outside, to where a large iron cauldron rested on an arrangement of oiled firewood, the cauldron filled about halfway with crystal clear water. With a snap of Sibette's fingers, the wood leaped into flames around the base of the cauldron.

Gandondorf hadn't spent time donning his armor again, though had pulled on his trousers and belt in addition to his boots, and was adjusting the position of his sword as they walked. Sibette had slipped directly into a loose-fitting black robe that rattled and clinked as she moved, an indication that it was doubtlessly lined with a large number of inside pockets that were filled with bottles and vials of various sizes and were themselves filled with any number of sinister ingredients for her concoction. She only loosely tied the robe closed with a cloth belt, barely concealing her nudity beneath as she walked barefoot around the cauldron, waiting for the water to heat.

While Ganondorf was far from collapsing from exhaustion, he could feel the toll his recent battle had taken on him, in comparison to the witch, who seemed even more energetic after their activities of the past several hours.

"I know you have some knowledge of what this involves, but the question is how much?" Sibette asked as they waited, "Do you know why we do this?"

"I know your concoctions are used to get attention of certain entities," Ganondorf said, "I've used one myself to speak to the dead fairly recently."

"That's right, actually," Sibette said, looking somewhat surprised, "That's more than most know."

"I learned everything up until the moment I would have to sign a contract with a demon," Ganondorf said, "I cut it off there, and I am fairly rusty, since I've avoided using it unless absolutely necessary."

Sibette held her hand over the cauldron, checking the heat. Finding it not yet ready, she went on. "So you know, I'm going to be using this to get the attention of a minor demon," she said, "Barely animalistic intelligence, essentially enough to serve as a watchdog. If all goes well, we can dive into the devil woman's mind and find what we need, and be gone before she notices us. If she does, then the demon will alert us, and then bear the full brunt of her attack while we get the hell out."

"What do you mean 'we?'" Ganondorf asked, "You're the witch here."

"Of course you're going to come with me," she said, "This way you'll have any knowledge I extract first-hand, and I also don't need to worry about you accusing me of lying if you don't like the answers I give you. Not to mention I've never met the woman in person, so you'll have to be the focus to draw us toward her."

"Precautions for everything I see," Ganondorf said.

"You don't live as long as I have without learning to be careful," Sibette said with a smile.

"Just get on with it," he growled.

Sibette tested the heat over the cauldron again with her hand. Finding it satisfactory, she reached inside her robe, drawing three vials from several of the inside pockets. Pulling the stopper of the first, she emptied it into the pot. The heat from the water suddenly flared, red smoke curling upward over the lip of the pot and drifting downward over the sides. She emptied the second vial into the cauldron and the smoke shifted in color, toward a more purple hue.

The contents of the third vial caused the smoke to suddenly shoot upward and Ganondorf shielded is face from the blast of heat with his arm. The smoke fell low again, now spreading across the ground around the fire as it returned to the original red hue.

Sibette reached into her robe for more vials, humming quietly to herself. Ganondorf did not remember Koume and Kotake ever practicing the witch's cliche of singing as they concocted, but he wasn't so sure this one wasn't about to start.

Smoke swirled above the pot, like a rolling storm as she added more vials of gods knew what to the mix. There were all kinds of stories of what witches concocted in their cauldrons, and some people even believed it most likely they were making some kind of stew. If they only knew the deadly mixtures that went into them. The poisonous flowers in a witch's garden were not for show.

As if only to confirm the cliche of storytelling, Sibette's humming turned into words, soft and low at first, but with growing intensity as she moved around the cauldron, now putting a sprinkle of powder from another vial that caused light to glow from within the smoke.

"_Friday night the thirteenth_

_At the ruins of Adrau,_

_Dark figures come together_

_For an awful row._"

She paused to pass her hand through the smoke, lifting it up and sniffing, and reaching into her robe even before it fell away to draw out something else, continuing her singing with growing volume as she added another vial.

"_They have sworn to Satan_

_To celebrate a black mass._

_Damned rites are prepared,_

_Like angels they dress._

_Dealing with the devil,_

_Preacher's peril._"

She smiled across the fire at Ganondorf as she sang these lines and reached into her robe, this time drawing out a long wooden spoon, much longer that Ganondorf believed should have fit within, and used it to stir the horrid mixture. The smell was growing more powerful by the second, like a mixture of rotting meat and human excrement.

He couldn't help but analyze the song as she sang. The name "Satan" was just one of many across the world's cultures for a penultimate demon, the dark figure who tempted mortals to damnation with promises of power and wealth. Ganondorf had his doubts as to whether or not such a being actually existed, since lesser devils were certainly capable of the act, but regardless of the people, culture, or telling, it was a common theme to believe the root of all evil existed in a living, intelligent form.

But Ganondorf knew the root of evil, if you could call it that, lay in the hearts of mankind. Selfish, greedy, fearful, hate-filled, ignorant mankind. Most just preferred to blame some outside force instead of coming to terms with the truth.

The song she was singing was a habit, he realized, not for his sake or hers, but something witches did to play on the fear of others. If someone did happen to be listening in, it would reinforce the fears of her kind, and likely frighten away witnesses, though also potentially bring the crowd of torches and pitchforks. That was why when witches gathered for these acts in groups, they did it far from any of their homes. Surrounded on all sides by the Lost Woods, Sibette knew there was very little danger of outside eyes on them right now, so maybe she was in fact doing it for him, trying to send a chill down his spine.

Too bad for her, he thought. She continued as she drew two more vials from her robe, adding them to the mix.

"_Snake blood and poison,_

_The cauldron in boiling._

_Condemn the Holy Word,_

_Black rites are soiling._

_Witches are dancing_

_Around the altar,_

_Praying to the Master_

_To celebrate the holy war._

_Dealing with the devil,_

_Preacher's peril..._"

She finished by hurling a handful of sparkling dust. The smoke rushed, surging upward as it turned an acidic green and took on a mushroom shape. As it started to recede, the mushroom changed shape, becoming an eyeless skull, the green color fading as the smoke turned pitch black and fell back into the cauldron, and the bubbling, roiling mess subsided to a low simmer, and the smoke stopped pouring onto the ground, becoming a gently bubbling mist at the rim of the pot.

Sibette stepped back from the fire, crossing her arms and inserting each of her arms into the opposite sleeves of her robe as she watched the simmering smoke. Ganondorf started to speak, to ask what now, when it started to sink. The smoke receded into the pot as the level of liquid within rapidly diminished, and a second later a red clawed hand reached up from the smoke, grasping the lip of the cauldron.

Two large yellow eyes peeked over the lip, looking all around before rising higher, perched on a head that was nearly twice as wide as it was tall, with nearly a foot-wide expression that could only be described as the most ignorant, stupid grin Ganondorf had ever seen. Sibette moved forward, cooing gently at the creature and ran her hand over the top of its head. The thing rolled its eyes in pleasure, and a banging on the inside of the pot said it was likely kicking with one leg, like some kind of dog.

"That's disgusting," Ganondorf growled.

"Well, this little guy also has a good sense of smell, so while we're away from our bodies, he'll still be able to alert us if there are unwanted visitors on this end, though the odds of that are unlikely," Sibette said, "Now, if you're ready, come over here."

Ganondorf stepped toward her, and at her instruction, laid his hand over her own which was on top of the creature's head.

"Now, you've met our target in person, right?" Sibette asked, and when he nodded, went on, "Just checking. Now, you're going to need to focus your thoughts on her, and at the same time, let me into your mind. Just enough to get things going, I'm not going to dive into your secrets."

"Just to be sure, remember that I'm close enough to snap your neck before you could hope to escape," he said.

"If I was going to turn on you, I wouldn't have waited this long," Sibette said, "Now focus."

Ganondorf did so, picturing the woman in his mind. He had seen her for only a few precious seconds, but the image burned into his memory like a beacon. The dark red hair, the same color as blood, and red armor, as if glowing hot metal, that concealed her womanly shape behind the plates. And the eyes, pitch black with no hint of retinas or whites, yet there was no doubt where her gaze fell, and felt as if it could pierce the soul.

"Try to remember what being in her presence felt like," Sibette said, "Was she imposing or did she seem to radiate a particular feeling? Give our hound a scent to find."

Ganondorf forced himself to not fight back as Sibette's words came from within his own head. There was an element he recalled, beyond just the presence of sheer power, that being a feeling of awe, caused by the sense of a being so old, so much older than any person should be, and rooted within that a feeling of madness so deep and strong, whatever human emotions she once felt had long been overpowered and lost.

"Now open your eyes," Sibette said.

He hadn't realized he had closed them. What he saw when he opened them was like nothing he expected. They were floating in space, surrounded by endless globes of light, stretching infinitely into the distance in all directions. He could see Sibette and the demon hound nearby, and realized he could see the lights through them as well.

It wasn't simply that they were transparent. Their bodies were barely visible, with glowing blue outlines barely making out their shapes. Looking down at himself, he could see that he was the same, the glowing blue outlines around the edges of his visible muscles, yet seemingly empty space within.

"This is similar to astral projection," Sibette said, "It's not quite the same, however, as our souls remain behind in our bodies, and the only part of us here are our minds."

"Some things are the same," he replied, looking down at the unusual image of their nudity in this form.

"You appear as you believe you do," Sibette said, "If you desired it, you could appear with clothing as well. I find it's just not worth the effort."

"Where are we?" Ganondorf asked, turning his gaze to the lights surrounding them.

Sibette slowly reached out, the outline of her fingers barely brushing one of the lights, barely the size of a coin. "Think of this as a world beneath our world," she said, "Every one of these lights represents a mind in our world. Animals, insects, people, all of them. Watch this."

Though she appeared to make no outward effort, the lights suddenly began to flow by them, faster and faster, and then they suddenly vanished, stopping with empty blackness all around. "Here is Hyrule, right now," Sibette said, "All the minds here have vanished, locked away in their stone prisons."

"So this is how witches find people," Ganondorf said.

"Yes, though it's not as simple as it might seem," Sibette said, and a moment later, they were surrounded by the glowing lights again, "Finding a specific person amidst all the minds in the world is more difficult that it can appear. It is easier when we have something from the one we seek, such as a blood sample, or something they own."

"But me thinking about her is enough this time?"

"If it weren't for the fact she is a prisoner in the Void, I'd doubt our odds," Sibette said, "But the number of minds capable of functioning in the Void is severely limited. There are lost souls other than our target there, but watch this."

The lights shifted again, moving upward and away as they fell into darkness. More lights, much fewer in number and further apart, moved up from beneath them and slowed to a stop.

"Now look here," Sibette said, cupping her palm underneath one of the lights. It was dimmer than the others they had seen, and as Ganondorf watched, was flickering, like a candle flame struggling against the wind. "This is a mind that is nearly broken, and struggling to hold onto itself. I've no idea who it is, nor do I truly care, but delving into it would make for interesting experiences, in addition to a likely danger to our own sanity."

As Ganondorf started to respond, the demon-dog perked up, and suddenly started away from them.

"He has the scent of your target," Sibette said, and the lights began to move as she pulled them across space, the lights of minds flitting by, dim and widely spaced bulbs in the darkness. When they came to a stop, Ganondorf wasn't sure exactly what they were looking at.

"What is this?" he asked.

"It is a strong mind," Sibette said, "But unlike any I've ever seen."

The globe of light was nearly the size of Ganondorf's fist, yet even "light" was inaccurate to describe it. It was a white line, barely there, wrapped around a dark circle. No matter what angle he looked at it, it was the same, the thin white glow around the edges of a black circle.

"The light dims as their mind fails, right?" Ganondorf said, "I've got plenty of reason to believe she's crazy."

"Not like this," Sibette said, "The light fades and when it's gone, the person in question will die. This is as if all the light is gone, and yet she clings to life. It shouldn't be possible."

"I'm thinking you'll be better off if you just believe nothing is impossible," Ganondorf said, "So what now?"

Sibette shook her head. "I don't know what will happen if we enter a mind like this," she said, "But like anything else, if she becomes aware of us, we will be in danger. And if this little guy," she motioned to the hound, "isn't enough to keep her occupied, it will come down to a battle of wills. And if she is stronger, she will crush us."

"Unless there's some means I can break her while I'm in there, I'm not planning on it," Ganondorf said, "I want to know how to kill her for real. So let's get on with this."

"Okay, now brace yourself," Sibette said, "When diving into a mind, we will likely find ourselves in a random memory. Until I am able to get my bearings and get us between the memories, it is vital that you do not interfere with anything you see, no matter what it is. Do you understand?"

"Or she'll become aware of us, I get it," Ganondorf said, "Get on with it."

"All right, gird your loins, tough guy, in we go."

Ganondorf felt the witch's icy touch in his own mind, and then saw her image reach to the globe and reach her hand directly into the light. Suddenly their surroundings shifted violently. A crash of thunder and earth flying into the air, followed by a sudden shift in terrain. Soldiers in formation, breaking into a charge, screaming battlecries as they ran. Ganondorf involuntarily stepped back, out of the path of the screaming red-haired barbarian clad in bearskin over chainmail, who used her enormous two-handed sword to send the head flying from one of her foes in a single swing.

"Gods, that's her," Ganondorf whispered.

Shaklator moved through the soldiers like a graceful dancer in a ballet of blood and flying limbs. Ganondorf moved to follow her. They were outside, under the blistering sun of a hot summer day. Nearby, a fort had been constructed to block the entrance to a narrow pass through a canyon, the only road through the rocky terrain. It only took a moment for Ganondorf to surmise she was among the defenders, fighting to keep the attacking soldiers out of the smashed gates, which had been struck open either by siege engine or magic spell.

The defenders were hopelessly outnumbered.

"Stay out of her way," Sibette said, appearing at his side, "Anything that doesn't match her memory will cause her to realize something is wrong."

"This is a moment of the ancient war," Ganondorf said, "She fought with the kingdoms against Tharkus and the rebels, only to betray them later."

The air around them seemed to sizzle, the environment growing rapidly dark as the sun moved down through the sky in leaps, hours passing as if in seconds.

"This memory is unstable," Sibette said, "It is likely this was an extremely traumatic event for her. Stay put and let me try to find a way out."

The cries of battle and agony vanished instantly, the sky growing dark in a heartbeat, and Ganondorf found himself in the aftermath of the fight. Survivors moved across the field, searching for wounded, and if they were too far gone, eased their passing.

There was Shaklator, on her knees in the middle of the field. She was covered in blood, though Ganondorf could see no wounds on her. None of it was her own. He moved closer to get a better look. She was crying, tears streaking the blood on her face as she knelt by a still body. It was a dark elf man, life long faded from him, his empty eyes staring toward the sky. A bloody axe lay at his side, dislodged from the gaping cleave in his chest and blood drying on his armor and pads.

Shaklator suddenly looked up, and Ganondorf took an instinctive step back, thinking he had just been discovered. Another person walked past him, toward her, oblivious to his presence.

It was Darius. The ancient wizard hero who even now resided in the Temple of Light, defying death even as his body rotted on his bones. Here, he looked so young and strong, his hair black without any streaks of gray, no sign of the cracking skin and decay the Sage of Light now held on his face. Though he wore the cloak of a wizard, beneath it a suit of chain was visible and rattled as he walked, and a battle axe hung from his belt.

"I should kill you where you stand," Shaklator said, picking up her sword and rising to her feet.

"I'm sorry," Darius said, "I tried. But they split their forces and would have razed the village. The people needed my help."

She was suddenly in his face, grabbing his cloak with her free hand, screaming at him. "_We_ needed your help! You told me, you _promised_ me that you would be here! And then you didn't show! Patrick is dead because of you, you bastard! Because you weren't here!"

Darius did not flinch even as her rage sent spittle flying from her teeth into his face. "I had to make a decision, and I made it," he said, his voice perfectly calm, "Right or wrong, I can't change it now. I save several thousand lives today."

"You saved farmers and beggars," Shaklator spat, "What good are they going to do us now, compared to the hundreds of dead soldiers, good and _useful_ men? And Patrick... He..."

She choked on the words, releasing her grip on Darius' cloak, and fell into him, her sword falling to the ground from her limp grasp. Darius put his arms around her as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"He saw it coming, and stepped in front of the axe," she whispered at last.

The dark elf, Ganondorf realized. Her lover, if not husband.

The image around them wavered, and faded away. "I did it," Sibette said, "We're in."

Once again surrounded by darkness, small globes of light popped into existence.

"I see now," Ganondorf said, turning to Sibette, "That moment, that was the key to it all."

"What do you mean?" Sibette asked.

"She didn't turn on Darius immediately," Ganondorf said, "But she never actually forgave him for abandoning them, letting the man she loved die. That wound festered and turned into hate. She didn't help Tharkus and the rebels because she believed in their cause, but merely because she wanted to kill Darius.

"No, not kill, she could have done that with a knife in his back," he already amended his analysis, "She wanted to destroy him. To take away everything he loved, everything he fought for, just like she had lost everything she held dear. He wanted to protect the people, and chose the common man over her, so she would wipe out the common man.

"But then, why her interest in Link now?" he asked himself, pausing as he thought, "Maybe his relationship with Midna... Yes, she loved across races in a time when dark elves were through to be less than human. She must have drawn a parallel between her love and Link's attachment to Midna. And maybe she was lonely, but regardless of why she decided she wanted him for herself, so she engineered the event with Midna's murder... Yes, she was trying to get Link to lose himself in hatred just as she had, believing it would give them a common ground, if he hated Khall as much as she hated Darius.

"What she wasn't expecting was Link's penchant for doing what most would call impossible. Instead of drowning in hatred, he found a way to bring Midna back by manipulating the Master Sword's ability to travel through time. Link also pieced together the facts regarding her manipulating Khall, and while Link certainly didn't like Khall, the only thing her scheme accomplished was turning Link utterly against her. She could no longer manipulate him because he refused to listen. In trying to make him like her, she actually turned him into her own antithesis."

He turned to Sibette. "I want to see her memory of when Darius bested her. Can you find it? It might have the answer to our problem, in addition to satisfying my curiosity on another matter."

"I think I can find that," Sibette said, "Sounds like this mess you're in will make quite a story when it's done."

He didn't respond, and she reached out to the small globes of light, gently running her finds through each. There were uncountable numbers of the things all around them. If they were all memories, Ganondorf surmised, there was no telling how long this could take.

"Here," Sibette said, cupping her palm around one and reaching out her other hand for Ganondorf to take.

When he did so, the memory filled his vision. A dark and stormy night, lightning cracking in the sky, rain coming down in hard sheets, and the mud of the road as she ran. Shaklator leaped nearly fifteen feet with each bound, power coursing through her body, three glowing triangles burning brightly on the back of her hand, and her eyes filled with the same bright golden light.

Now she wore the red armor Ganondorf expected, her hair was matted down by the rain, and as lightning crashed, he saw what she pursued. Three riders, pushing their horses for everything the beasts had to stay ahead of her and her inhuman leaping bounds that covering huge reaches with each step she took.

One of the horses fell, the beast collapsing from exhaustion, rolling over the earth, the rider leaping clear and landing with a splash in the mud, drawing his sword. The other riders looked back but did not stop. The lone fighter faced Shaklator as she came closer. He didn't stand a chance, his sword glancing harmlessly off her armor as she came down on top of him, grabbing his wet hair in her hand and in the same motion of her landing, drug him down and smashed his head open on a rock, blood and bone chips flying, mixing with the mud on the road, and without even losing a step, she was after the riders again.

One of the other riders, perhaps sensing his mount was near its limit, slowed and turned around, charging back toward her, his own sword held high in the air. He fared no better than the first, Shaklator's red sword appearing in her hand and cleaving both him and the horse in two as she came down on them.

The final rider leaped from his horse as it fell, exhaustion pulling it down, and landed at a run, off the road and into circle of stones about ten feet high each. In the center were two objects familiar to Ganondorf. A single pillar of obsidian stone, and the Twilight Mirror. This was where Darius had led her into the trap that took her into the Void.

Shaklator leaped up over the stones, gripping her sword in both hands, coming directly down on the lone figure. A unique metallic ring that Ganondorf would never forget was heard over the rain and thunder. The Master Sword came up to meet Shaklator's blade and managed to stop her stroke. The figure's hood fell back, revealing Darius' face as he stepped back, evading a wide swing from Shaklator.

Instead of advancing, she struck her left hand forward, and gold lightning leaped from her fingers across the gap, striking Darius full in the chest. No, Ganondorf corrected, it didn't quite make it. It struck the blade of the Master Sword, which sparked and glowed with a blue light before the effect vanished entirely.

_The Master Sword can neutralize the Triforce's power, I know this already,_ Ganondorf thought.

"You're wasting your time, Jazeira," Darius said, "All that power and you know you can't touch me while I have this."

With a wordless roar, she charged him. Their swords met twice as he parried her powerful swings, and then lunged forward with a stab of his own. The superior blade pierced her armor, and though she backed up quickly, the tip pierced her flesh at least a full inch. She looked down, apparently surprised when the wound did not immediately close.

_Of course,_ Ganondorf thought, _She would have quick healing too, but because the Master Sword neutralizes the Triforce, wounds it leaves won't heal. Just like with me._

"One last chance," Darius said, "Give up, or I'll have to kill you."

Shaklator looked up at him and smiled. "How stupid do you think I am, Darius?" she asked.

He took a step back from her, but there was no escaping what she did next. The Triforce on her hand flared brightly, gold sparks shooting across her body. It was reacting to her will, and Ganondorf knew immediately what this was. She was using its power to permanently alter her own physiology, granting herself the inhuman strength and eternal youth, and whatever other abilities she still possessed to this very day. Suddenly she shot her right hand forward, and a golden streak of light cross the distance between herself and Darius, this one bypassing the blade and striking him full in the body and sending him sprawling in the space between the mirror and the obsidian pillar.

He picked himself up, and when he did, Ganondorf saw the change. The gold glow had filled his eyes. The Triforce was now in his possession, flaring into life on his hand and in his eyes. And as Ganondorf watched, the glow faded from Shaklator. But as the light faded from her eyes, they did not return to a normal human's visage, instead growing dark as the light faded from her, leaving only darkness behind.

"Now there's nothing for that sword to stop," Shaklator said to Darius, "Let's see you stop me with a power you have no idea how to use."

She ran at him, and Darius was barely able to get his sword up. He tried to step around the side of the blow, but she turned and rammed her shoulder into his chest, forcing him further back. He crashed into the obsidian pillar, and Shaklator smiled as she pushed more force into him, trying to crush him against the black stone.

He still had one ace in the hole, though, and Darius ran his thumb over the ring on his first finger. The key he had made to the Twilight Mirror, the ring flared into life, and the mirror projected its portal onto the obsidian, and then the two of them fell through.

Into the Void they fell, passing from the world of the living into the gap between dimensions, tumbling through space with no gravity, until they collided with a ruin of a church, a leftover of a reality that no longer existed. Darius quickly rolled away from her.

"What... what kind of place is this?" Shaklator said as she braced herself on the outside wall of the church, "A world without heat or wind or air..."

"A world that exists in different rules than our own," Darius said, and without further warning, leaped from the wall. Shaklator looked up and saw the portal, the only way back.

With a roar of fury, she leaped after him, her greater strength propelling her faster, closing the distance between them quickly. But she was not fast enough. Darius was through the portal, vanishing from her vision. She reached out toward the portal, but it vanished just as her hand reached the spot. She screamed in rage, a bloodcurdling cry of pure and unrelenting hatred and malice.

Ganondorf found himself back among the globes of light. "That was it?" he asked, turning to Sibette.

"That was all," she said, running her fingers through more of the globes, "Everything after that point, she is in the Void and trying to find methods of breaking back into the world. Her hatred of Darius grows to the point she loses all reason more than once, yet she manages to recover enough to think of methods beyond beating her head against the barrier. Yes, that would be the barrier Darius created using the Triforce's power, the very barrier that you weakened by taking the Triforce four thousand years ago."

"And come this Walpurgis Night, the barrier will be so weak that she won't need the Twilight Mirror to cross into our world," Ganondorf said, "Yes, I'm well aware that what's happening now is partially my fault. If it wasn't me, someone else would have done it eventually, though."

"Most probable," Sibette said, "But unfortunately, I don't think there is a weakness such as you search for. In all her memories, I'm finding a lot of trauma and agony, but nothing to help you find a weak spot and tear."

"As the demon said," Ganondorf muttered, "There has to be something. Something I haven't thought of yet. She bleeds, so she can die, it's as simple as that. I just need to figure out..."

The demon-dog barked, causing both of them to turn to it.

"We've overstayed our welcome," Sibette said.

"Then get us the hell out of here!" Ganondorf replied.

The dog barked again, and then collapsed in front of them. It may have been a spirit, but as its body crushed, bones and blood were all too visible as they pushed out through its skin, and its cry fell silent. Ganondorf and Sibette started to rise quickly, away from the cluster of memories, toward what he hoped with the surface.

Looking down, he saw it against the white, as two dark holes appeared over the lights, in the shape of eyes, and he knew they could see them. "Get us out now!" he shouted.

"She's fighting me!" Sibette said, "She's trying to keep us here!"

Suddenly, two enormous hands appeared in the darkness, reaching up for them. The skin of a face appeared around the dark eyes, and Shaklator smiled as she moved up after them.

"Don't even think about it!" Ganondorf said, and struck out at her. He wasn't sure if it was the Triforce, his own magic, or just a blast of his will, but he struck Shaklator's gigantic face with an invisible force that caused her to flinch and back off just a bit. "That's right, now die!" he shouted, striking her again and again.

Her hands shot upward at increased speed, fingers spread wide as she reached up for them. Though he would never admit it, Ganondorf started to panic just a little. "Die!" he shouted as he continued to strike out at her, "Die, damn you, you bitch!"

He felt the icy grip of her fingers around his legs, or what he thought was his legs, and felt himself start to be dragged back down. "No no no!" Sibette was shrieking as she was similarly grappled.

Ganondorf slammed his fists into the hand that held him, but it refused to release its grip. He couldn't believe it, after four thousand years, this was how it was going to end. No, there had to be something, anything, he could do. He always found a way, even if he was barely alive at the end of it, to pull through. But nothing he did was affecting the monster, and he had no idea what she was going to do to them.

There was only one thing he could think of that had any chance of success, and though it disgusted him to do so, he focused on the Triforce of Power, and sent the cry for help.

* * *

Link had been so hesitant to try the dream magic again, but Midna had been insistent, saying it was probably the only way she would get any sleep that night that he had relented, and he was glad he did. It was a wholly unique experience to actually be able to control one's dreams, and it made him feel better to shape the dream into his house back in Orden, built into the limbs of the great tree, with the basement carved directly into the enormous trunk below. Midna seemed to enjoy it a great deal as well, but that was also because in spite of her current situation in the real world, here she was still able to appear as she truly was, the beautiful and exotic Twili woman.

Link wasn't sure what would have happened if the call had come if here weren't conscious of the fact it was a dream, whether it would have awoken him or not, but he was able to respond instantly to the burning sensation in his hand and even with his lack of skill in the matter, found the tendril to guide him to the source, suddenly rocketing out the bed where he had lay with Midna, shooting through the roof and into the emptiness beyond the dream beyond.

It took mere seconds, and he found himself floating in empty space, and was able to see it before him, the enormous visage of Shaklator with Ganondorf and a raven-haired young woman held helpless in her giant hands. And at his side was the last person he expected.

"What is this?" Zelda asked him.

She must have come on the same call for help he had received, and acted just as reflexively as he had.

"I guess he found his witch and got more than he bargained for," Link said.

Shaklator lifted her gaze. She had seen them, and a smile appeared on her face. Link reached for his sword, and found only empty air. He looked down at himself and realized he was still naked. Or maybe it was because he was only here in spirit. Come to think of it, Ganondorf and the witch were too, and so was Zelda.

"One of these days I'm going to figure out how to take my clothes with me when I do this," Zelda muttered as she tried to cover herself.

"Hey, you can use that Triforce of yours, right?" Link asked.

"Somewhat," Zelda said.

"Hit the giant face as hard as you can," Link said, "I'll get in close and try to get them free."

"Okay," Zelda said, "Ready?"

"Go!"

Link wasn't sure how he propelled himself forward, but he flew at Shaklator as a streak of gold passed his should and struck her in the forehead. Her head jolted back and he landed on the hand holding the young woman and gripped the fingers and pulled.

"You'll get nowhere like that!" Ganondorf shouted, "Use your Triforce!"

"I don't really know how!" Link shouted back at him.

"It reacts to your emotions and desires, idiot! Just imagine what you want it to do!" Ganondorf shouted.

Link made an effort, imagining himself pulling the giant hand open with inhuman strength. The Triforce of Courage flared, and he felt the fingers start to give. That's right, he thought, he also was able to use it by reflex when in desperate need. He focused everything he could manage into telling it he needed it to do this.

Another streak struck Shaklator in the face, and her hand released its grip on Sibette so she could lift it to shield her face as a low and powerful growl escaped her teeth. Link threw Sibette back in Zelda's direction and flew himself across to Ganondorf, to find the wizard had gained enough leeway on the hand that held him to get his own arms up to push on her fingers from the inside.

"You could have done this yourself," Link said as he took a grip and started to pull.

"Not going to let a whelp like you show me up," Ganondorf said, and in a second was free.

Both of them quickly moved away from Shaklator as she snatched at them again.

"Well, we're here now," Link said, "You have a plan?"

"Yeah," Ganondorf said, "This."

He suddenly moved the other direction, back toward Shaklator. He moved fast enough to avoid the hand that snatched at him, and the Triforce of Power flared brightly as he drew back his right hand and struck it directly into the giant's face. She cried out and moved back, as if staggering back under the force of the blow. He moved in and delivered another earth-shattering punch to her face.

Sibette moved up beside Zelda. "They're holding her off for now, but there's no way we can beat her on her own turf like this. I need you three to keep her busy while I make a path for us to get out of here," the witch said.

"Do it fast," Zelda said, moving after them to try to get a clear shot at the giant figure.

Link moved in to strike at Shaklator only to be snatched from the air by her hand. "Look what I've got," she whispered, "I can't really describe how much I'm going to enjoy crushing you."

"Get in line," Ganondorf said, and came down on her wrist with both feet, sending an electrically charged jolt through her arm that caused her to release her grip. Link climbed out of her hand and ran up the length of her arm onto her shoulder, then leaped up under her chin, sending a massive left-handed uppercut through her jaw and rocking her head back.

With a growl, she lunged back forward and in the span of a heartbeat, snatched hold of both of them. "I've had enough of you insects," she growled, and started to squeeze down to crush them both.

A blast of gold light struck her in the chest and her grip failed, and both moved quickly out of her reach. They stopped some distance away, turning back to her as Zelda moved up next to them.

"I don't think any of this is even fazing her," Link said.

"Too bad," Ganondorf muttered, "Our bodies wouldn't stand up to the kind of trauma doing this would have in the real world."

"I'd have passed out after the second or third shot," Zelda said.

Further from them, Sibette silently cheered as she was able to force a hole open in Shaklator's defenses and turned to call out to the others. She stopped short at the sight before her. The three of them there, across from the giant that was even now recovering her equilibrium. Ganondorf in the center with Link on his right and Zelda on his left. Something else had changed as well. Where she and Ganondorf had entered with the blue lines she found so familiar, the three of them were now outlined in pure gold.

The triangles on their hands were glowing brightly, and the air between them was practically crackling with energy. And while they were unable to do any permanent damage, they were holding off this insane mind and had yet to start to tire.

"That's it," she whispered, "They could do it. They really could."

Not wasting any more time she shouted that the path was open. They glanced toward her, and with a nod, Link and Zelda started to move toward her, Ganondorf following a second later. With a cry of frenzy, Shaklator reached out toward them, but was unable to reach them in time, and they were gone from her mind. Later she would decide the entire experience had been a bad dream.

* * *

Ganondorf opened his eyes, sitting up on the grass. The fire was long cold under the cauldron. Sibette was nowhere in sight. As he stood up, Ebony approached from where he had been standing, nuzzling the wizard, who gave him a few soft strokes as he walked toward the cottage.

"Sibette," he said as he opened the door, and stopped cold.

The building was empty. He waited a moment, trying to force his mind through, but then realized it was no illusion. The furniture was gone, the shelves all swept clean of their contents. The only things that remained were his undershirt and armor. He rushed over to the trap-door, opening it and moving into the basement. Two bodies lay in the magic circle on the ground, shriveled and dried. Both young girls, or at least from what he could tell, used to be. The occupants of the cages. The witch had brought them out and drained them dry, evidently unable to take them with her.

The sun was coming up as he stepped back outside. He'd been out most of the night. What had she done to leave him so helpless? Ebony moved over to him again, and as Ganondorf stroked his mane, noticed a paper pinned to the leather of the saddle. He pulled it free and found it to be a letter, penned in a rushed hand.

_Sorry I won't be there when you wake up. Folks not used to the out-of-body experiences we do tend to take longer to get things back in order. There was a limit to how much longer I could stay there anyway, with that flesh-golem witch-hunter on the loose. Call it an act of caution on my part because of you as well. I know you spoke to Gandric, and tried to get your answer out of him. And then tore out his heart when he couldn't give it to you. Well, I can't give you the answer you wanted either. Shaklator has no weakness, no trick knee or bad heel you can aim for. And you said it yourself that what you were doing in her mind, if attempted in the real world, would kill you quite quickly._

_Not that I'm abandoning with nothing. I saw something in there, in the least of places I'd expect, given your history with Hyrule. I saw three glowing figures, working in perfect unison. I saw three who could stand against this coming darkness, if they stand together. I don't know how you're going to do it, but I am firmly convinced you have everything you need to win. You just have to figure out the how._

_Don't be too quick to write me off as a coward, though. It's just in interests of living and dying, I prefer living. And I am fully aware if this thing gets past you, it'll catch me eventually. I've gone to find one of my sisters of the order, the one I think I can still trust, and then we'll be going to Hyrule. We should arrive shortly after the princess gets it up an running again. Yes, I peeked into her thoughts, and they're only a short way out. You'll have our hand in the coming battle, provided you can help keep the people from burning us at first opportunity. See you soon._

_Hugs and kisses,_

_Sibette_

Ganondorf idly stroked Ebony's neck as he read the note. When he finished, he crumpled it up in one hand. "Well, that beats the hell out of how I thought this would go," he muttered, "Guess I'd better head back to the desert and check on the others. Link's probably going to be in a panic."

He dressed and put on his armor, adjusting his sword and climbed up onto Ebony's back.

"Actually," he said, glancing toward the southwest, "We have time now, and I think it's fair to say Hyrule's going to need reinforcements... I think I know exactly where to get some."


	123. Chapter 122

**Chapter 122: The End of One Journey...**

Link sat up suddenly, his hand reflexively going for his sword laying next to him, the blade half-drawn before he realized where he was. Midna had jumped back as he sat up, more for the sake of not getting struck by accident than surprise. Now she moved back toward him as he slid the blade back home into its sheath.

"Link, are you all right?" she asked.

He turned to her, then let out his breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding in a long sigh. "Yeah," he said, "Yeah, I think so." Then with sudden concern, leaned toward her to ask, "Are you? Did I do something that hurt you last night?"

"No," she said, "I woke up when you broke contact. I was worried when you didn't wake up and I couldn't stir you."

"Something happened," Link said as he relaxed again, "It was Ganondorf. I felt some kind of signal, and just jumped after it. He'd made a kind of trail for me to follow, and then... Weirdest damn dream I've ever had. Zelda was there, too. Ganondorf was being held by Shaklator, and some woman I don't know...

"Sudden idea, I'll just ask him," Link decided, sitting up straighter and pulling his legs up to sit cross legged as he looked around, "Hey, where are the others?"

"Over there somewhere," Midna said, waving in the direction of the pond, "A lot of the plants are going to fruit pretty quickly, so they're looking for whatever will be ripe in a few days. And I think Alex is trying to commit a complete genocide of the bullfrogs in the area."

"Bwaaaaaaaaarp," came a response from near the pond.

"Well, he hasn't been successful yet," Link said, "Keep your ears open, I'm going to try to reach Ganondorf."

"Are you sure you can do that?" Midna asked.

"I did it once before," Link said, "Just have to hope he's listening."

Link did as before, closing his eyes and trying to reach out with the Triforce's power. He hoped the fact his target was at a much greater distance would not be a problem. He wouldn't have even known how to desribe the feeling of reaching out beyond his own body in this way, and he nearly lost his concentration when something reached out of nothing and snatched hold of him.

_Don't panic, kid, you've got to focus, _Ganondorf's voice said in his head.

_There's got to be a better way of letting me know you hear me,_ Link said.

_It gets easier after the first few times,_ said another voice.

_Zelda?_

_That's me._

_You weren't the only one who immediately came running to me,_ Ganondorf said.

_So what the heck did we do last night?_ Link asked.

_I got in over my head,_ Ganondorf said, _Like I told you, Link, I went looking for a witch to peek in Shaklator's own memories, looking for some kind of weakness we could exploit._

_A witch?_ Zelda asked, _By 'witch,' you mean..._

_Sacrifices children to the devil, devours the youth of young women, grab your torch and pitchfork, yes to all of that,_ Ganondorf said.

_Every time I start to get used to trusting you, you do something that throws that completely away,_ Zelda said.

_In this case, the end justifies the means,_ Ganondorf said, _Suffice to say, things didn't go quite as planned. The signal you two recieved was from me. And as much as it pains me to admit, you saved both my life and the witch's._

_I'm still not even sure what happened,_ Link said.

_It was like astral projection,_ Zelda said, _We were spirits outside our own bodies. In that case, it's why we were capable of the feats of strength in that moment. You can do pretty much anything you can imagine._

_Close enough, though not exactly accurate,_ Ganondorf said, _Even with you, we were still outmatched._

_How about some good news?_ Link asked, _Did you find anything? A trick knee or anything at all that I can kick or stab?_

_No._

There was a moment of silence as Link and Zelda both waited for him to say more, but that was simply it, a single blunt answer. "You've got to be kidding me!" Link growled out loud, causing Midna to suddenly look up at him.

_I'm not,_ Ganondorf said, _There's no easy solution to our problem._

_So you left us here to run off on a wild goose chase, and we've got nothing to show for it,_ Link said.

_I wouldn't say that,_ Ganondorf said, _There was some kind of reaction between the three of us. The witch saw it too._

_I did feel something there,_ Zelda said, _Was it the Triforce?_

_That's the only thing it could be,_ Ganondorf said, _It's too early for me to make any promises, but as soon as the three of us are in the same place, you two are going to have to help me with some experiments. Shaklator might not have a specific weakness we can exploit, but if all else fails, we could incinerate her if we can manage enough force._

_I'm starting to think it's a better idea to hunt Zero down and stop whatever he's going to do to let her out,_ Link said.

_Even if we did find him in time, that would be only a temporary solution,_ Ganondorf said, _She has means of gaining allies across dimensions. She'll try again, and that's if she can't force a way in herself. We need a permanent solution. More than anything else, don't forget, she bleeds when she is cut, regardless of how quickly the wounds seem to close. And a simple fact is if something bleeds, it can die._

_Well, since you've effectively tied my hands, what's the plan going forward? _Link asked.

_I'll be back there by the end of the week,_ Ganondorf said, _Finding the witch so quickly saved a lot of time. Be ready when I arrive. We're going to be leaving immediately. And then you, Link, are going to show me the way to the ruins of the Temple of Time._

Link immediately disliked the idea, so close as the temple was to his home. Not to mention he wasn't sure he wanted to see it still petrified. His friends and the people he considered his family, still trapped in stone. The children would be the worst.

Working with Ganondorf was one thing, but the idea of the wizard walking in the village sickened him, as if every step he took would profane it. _Why do you need to go to the temple?_ Link asked, making an effort to keep any trace of emotion from the words.

_Because the last time the three of us spoke to Darius, he mentioned something about a possibility of the Triforce, _Ganondorf said, _A Holy Trinity, he called it._

_I remember,_ Link said.

_His theory was based on nothing more than a hunch,_ Ganondorf said, _Now I've seen evidence to support the theory, and he clearly had the right idea. Even if all he has to offer is theories, if I can brainstorm with him, it'll be better than starting from nothing. He might think of something I don't._

_Fine,_ Link said, _But if it only took two days to get this far, why will it be the end of the week before you're back?_

_Well, if all else fails, having plenty of soldiers to die for your cause is never a bad idea, _Ganondorf said, _I'm going to arrange some reinforcements. And I'll promise they won't mind dying, since most of them have probably been begging for it for a few thousand years at least._

_What does that even...?_ Zelda started to ask, but before she finished the thought, something changed about the connection. Even Link realized Ganondorf had just broken the connection and shut them out.

_I really hate that man,_ Link said.

_Well, one way or another, we won't have to put up with him for too much longer, _Zelda said.

_What's that mean?_ Link asked.

_Being realistic, he will not be walking out of Hyrule when this is over,_ Zelda said,_ Even if he doesn't turn on us after this is over, I will have to hold him accountable for his past crimes. And nothing short of his death will suffice._

_I didn't really expect that from you,_ Link said.

_Link, in the end, my first responsibility is to my people, and that includes you, so you know, _she said, _Just as one act of heroism does not redeem a lifelong murderer, Ganondorf aiding us now does not repay the pain he has brought to so many all his life. His life that has been as long as four hundred lifetimes of anyone else. I cannot in good conscience allow him to simply walk away._

_Pretty harsh, but I can't fault you, _Link said, _I wouldn't let him go either._

_It's more than just that, though, Link,_ Zelda said, _I actually spent a short period soul-bonded to him, as I did with Midna to save her life. I had to do it to awaken him when he nearly killed himself by breaking a curse Tharkus had placed on Kilishandra._

_This was while I was... gone,_ Link said.

_That's right,_ Zelda said, _There is a part of the process I never told you or Midna about. You know I shared in Midna's experiences between the bonding and when you returned me to my own body at the end. I didn't tell you that I also inherited her knowledge, memories, everything she knows, I do as well because of the time with her._

_It's not a two-way process,_ Zelda continued before he could interrupt, _She did not inherit my memories, because I was the one joining with her. Keeping her alive, at least until her body permanently adjusted and could survive in the light of our world unaided. In this case, I also inherited Ganondorf's memories._

_Are you all right?_ Link asked, _Can this have a bad effect on you?_

_Not in the manner you think,_ Zelda said, _It is only a problem if I confuse which memories are my own. Midna's life, fortunately, is so disparate from my own, there is no danger of that. It was her emotions that were more difficult to separate from my own, especially during the time after you defeated Ganondorf._

_Wait... You mean you...?_ Link realized what she was implying.

He could sense her smiling, though with sadness. _Her love for you is so strong, Link, and so real. I'm sure you don't need to be reassured of that at this point, but there is very little she would not do if you ask her. She chose you over her only chance to return to her people, after all._

_No,_ Link said, _She chose all of us. She is much better than I deserve._

_There's no reason to degrade yourself,_ Zelda said, _Just make sure you never hurt her, or you will answer to me._

_No fear of that. You've also got Ganondorf's memories,_ Link said, _So you see everything he's ever done?_

_Not exactly,_ she said, _My time with him was brief, a matter of hours, compared to the two months I spent with Midna. His memories are a blur in my mind. Images that melt and blend together. I can't make sense of them, much less even be sure of what order they belong. Not to mention his extended lifetime, which I believe is also partly to blame, having so much information pushed onto me all at once, it's hardly a surprise it's confused. Memories that stand out to him are more prominent in what I can see, and the most vivid images are nearly all of violence._

_The images are most clear when I dream,_ she continued, _They are less frequent now, but shortly after the bonding, I was having nightmares every night that were actually his memories, as clear and vivid as if it were me standing there, and I see them from his perspective. I watched from his eyes as he stole the Triforce from the Temple of Light and used it to almost single-handedly siege the old Hyrule capital, when his reign of darkness originally began four thousand years ago. I felt the pain he felt as the Hero of Time struck him down, and for seven years he relived that moment endlessly._

_Link, I saw what caused the Great Flood, when Ganondorf escaped that prison and the Hero of Time did not return, and the Sages were forced to spring another trap on their own. The legend says that the Gods came to the people's salvation, sacrificing Hyrule beneath the waves to save the people from him. It was the Sages, in a last ditch effort to imprison him that caused the flood, and then held the ocean in place for so long, until Ganondorf managed to slip through a crack. It was the Hero of Winds that started the receding of the ocean, by taking the Master Sword from its place in the trap and broke the spell._

_And the worst part of it all, Link, is that I am coming to understand the man. A very powerful, prominant memory among the mess I gained is Kilishandra. She indelibly changed him, simply because of what he saw in her. She was alone, her only family dead, everything she knew in ashes when he found her. And when he looked at her, he saw himself, and in that moment realized how far he had fallen, and swore that she would not follow the same path._

_I can't hold onto my personal hatred for him,_ she added somewhat sadly, _What I have to do would be easier if I could. I know you're not a very religious person, Link, but do you remember the three tenets of the goddesses regarding villains, those proven to be truly evil?_

_Uh, maybe..._ Link said, stalling a bit while he thought, _Let's see, the Goddess of Power said to show no mercy... I think?_

_"Spoke the golden figure of Power, When thy blade be drawn, thy wrath shall undo the wicked in final combat, direct and glorious,"_ Zelda quoted, as if straight from the scriptures, _"Spoke the golden figure of Wisdom, Falter not in thy steps, for all that evil requires to triumph is for good men to do nothing._

_"And thirdly spoke the golden figure of Courage, Do not allow fear to force thy hand. Should they be willing, every being deserves a chance at redemption."_

_Okay,_ Link said, _So are you afraid you're violating the last one if we deal with Ganondorf before he can do more harm?_

_If he has genuinely repented, and I do not give him the chance, what does that say about me?_ Zelda asked.

_You are a better person than he could ever be,_ Link said, _Like you just said, one good act does not make up for a lifetime of villainy. If you don't want to do it, I will. I've beaten him before. I know I can do it again._

_I'll think about the offer, _Zelda said, _We do have to make sure we survive whatever is coming in the next few months first._

_Right, _Link said, _Kill the devil woman, then we worry about the immortal wizard._

_So you're informed, I think we're going to be back in Hyrule by the end of the week,_ Zelda said, _We're making excellent time, and if nothing unforeseen happens, you might be able to see your friends if you stop by Ordon on the way._

_That's a tempting idea,_ Link said.

_All right, we were already moving when I woke up, so I need to pay attention out here,_ Zelda said, _We'll talk later. Stay safe._

_You too._

"So, what's the verdict?" Midna asked as Link opened his eyes.

"Bit of a story," Link said, and started to climb to his feet, "Come on, lets see if Alex has had any success, and I'll tell you while it cooks. Actually, we might go digging around and see if we can find any Peahats. Their fruit would make for a nice change."

"I hear that," Midna replied, "Frogs don't go far, and don't taste that good anyway."

"That's why nobles love them," Link said, "Along with things goose-liver and fish eggs. Don't know what it is about nobility that makes them want to eat the garbage parts of the food."

* * *

"Take as long as you need," Silviana whispered in Alex's ear

He took a long, slow breath, trying to steady himself and calm his racing heart.

"Stay calm, we've got all day," she whispered further encouragement, "Calm down and you'll have more control. Try to feel the beating of your heart. Now, hold your breath, find the gaps between the beats, and release."

Alex's fingers strained against the string, gritting his teeth as he focused, then with a whistle, the arrow was away. The distant bullfrog gave a sound he could only describe as halfway between a croak and a screech as the arrow punched through its flesh, pinning it to the ground.

"Good shot," Silviana said, patting his shoulder as she stood up.

"Thanks," he said, handing her the bow as he stood up, "I think I'm getting the hang of this."

"Tonight you'll be helping me put the heads of the nine you broke on new shafts," she said as they moved up to where the dying frog was pinned down, "My bow's a bit small for you, though, and I think you'll fare better with a stronger draw. Though you'll have to get the hang of judging your heartbeats down eventually."

"And how can you even tell I don't already?" Alex asked as he pulled the arrow from the ground, the feebly kicking frog putting up a weak struggle.

She caught his free hand in her own and pulled it up, holding him by the wrist so that his fingers were pointed upward in the air. "Every heartbeat causes the smallest of motions in your whole body," she said, "It means nothing at this range, but if you intend to use a bow at any kind of real distance, that small motion could cause your shot to go wide by ten feet or more. You have to feel your heartbeat, and while holding your breath, fire between beats."

They both turned as Kilishandra approached them, carrying the makeshift wooden spit over her shoulder with four of the frogs already hanging from it, two on either side of her shoulder. "You two have the weirdest way of flirting I've ever seen," she commented.

Alex couldn't help but chuckle. More footsteps alerted them to Link's approach, with Midna close by his side. "Oh, great, you've already got that many of them," Link said as they turned, and he was eyeing the spit and dead bullfrogs

"Something wrong?" Alex asked.

"No, just can't waste them," Link said, "After this meal, no more frogs. There has to be something better around here to eat."

"Are you all right?" Kilishandra asked, "When you didn't wake up this morning..."

She trailed off, her eyes going to Midna, who met her gaze but didn't say anything.

"I'm fine," Link said, "Got a story to tell involving your dad, a witch, and an eyeless giant."

_I'd better leave out my conversation with Zelda,_ he added silently.

"Good news is I talked to him last night," he went on, "and we might be out of here in just a few more days."

"Let's get a fire going so we can cook these and you can tell us the whole story," Silviana said.

* * *

The days passed uneventfully. On the second evening Ganondorf finally emerged from the oppressive forest, pulling Ebony to a halt in the familiar clearing. It wasn't exactly as he remembered, but considering all it had weathered, that was to be expected.

He'd found it merely by continuing to go uphill as he moved southeast, until he found the spot surrounded by rock walls, cut off from the rest of the forest at it's highest point, yet located in a bowl valley in the center of the rock. He had stood in this clearing so long ago, it felt like a different lifetime, and his reason for coming here was so far from the original goal, he nearly felt as if he were intruding. But he knew that in spite of how strongly the forest tried to keep him out, would try to force him out even now, it could not stop him.

But another thirty-six hours with no sleep was taking its toll, even with the short rests he was able to take at the witch's home. Ganondorf estimated at his best he could manage a week without sleep, and he was nearing that limit. Not to mention the recent use of his transformed body, as the creature history called simply "Ganon," had sapped his strength considerably as well. His limbs felt heavy as he climbed down from Ebony's saddle, and each step felt as if he were dragging it through a thick mire.

A single tree dominated the center of the clearing, its mighty trunk rising over one-hundred-fifty feet into the air, spreading its branches and bright foliage, casting shadows that danced as the leaves swayed in the wind high above, though the valley floor was still as a tomb.

"Each step you take into this valley is a sin, wizard," said a low voice that echoed off the rock walls and caused the ground to rumble under Ganondorf's feet, "Every footfall is a profanity upon those who hold this place sacred. Your presence is an affront that cannot be forgiven. Yet the most infuriating is that I know I cannot stop you."

"Very wise," Ganondorf said, "But I'm only here to talk."

He came to a stop about twenty feet from the enormous tree. The base of the trunk must have been nearly fifty feet around, with thick, powerful roots that must extend for miles. The legend said all the forests of the world grew from this tree's roots, but it was not this part of its history Ganondorf was interested in.

With a loud creak of wood, the surface of the trunk shifted, the bark rolling and stretching before Ganondorf, bulging outward, then beginning to take familiar shape, starting with a jutting pair of eyebrows over empty eye sockets, with a large, bulbous nose, and a wide horizontal split nearly ten feet wide, over an enormous jaw and round chin.

The empty sockets fixated on him as if they had eyes, the brows furrowing, the wood creaking as it moved, before the mouth opened and the low, powerful voice of the Deku Tree spoke again. "My memory is much longer than that of mortals," it said, "I remember the crime you committed when last you stood before me."

"You're looking good for having been petrified after my last visit," Ganondorf said, "Or are you the sprout that grew seven years later? It's hard for me to keep track of that general period, with all the time travel nonsense. Also the fact shortly afterward, there's a point in my memory that I am reasonably sure I went raving insane from pain, only recovering my faculties some number of years later."

"It matters little," the tree responded, "Tell me why you profane my glade once more with your presence, wizard. Have you come to finish what you started back then?"

"I already said, I'm here to talk," Ganondorf said, "In fact, I've come seeking your help."

"You do not lack for gall, wizard," the tree said, "and you have wasted your time. I would never aid one such as you."

"Now hear me out at least," Ganondorf said, "Something far worse than me is approaching the world right now, and it is going to be centered on Hyrule, just north of your forest's borders. Unless your omniscience is greatly exaggerated, you must have had inklings of the battle against the necromancer."

"I saw the wizard of ice, and then you made your way the west, and there was some kind of battle atop a tower, but I saw only you and those with you," the tree said, "There was no necromancer that I saw."

"Well, that's interesting," Ganondorf said, "Obviously, not being truly alive, flesh golems, even those with souls like Tharkus and Zero, are invisible to you. And Sibette said the witches couldn't affect Zero's mind either. Seems like they have all the advantages."

"I see no threat other than you, wizard," the tree said, "If you are trying to mislead me, you have failed."

"No, you great block of firewood, I'm trying to convince you to help," Ganondorf said, "Preserving life and all that, that's something you've always struck me as being in favor of. There is a darkness approaching Hyrule even as we speak, and if Hyrule should fall, it will spread and envelope the entire world. Hyrule is a nexus of magic energy, and within this nexus, on Walpurgis Night, a flesh golem that you apparently cannot see is going to let a real monster loose, and I'm going to be working with the very kind of people you aided beat me, to stop it."

"Even if I did believe you, what do you need my help for?" the tree asked, "If one monster is all, there's hardly anything I can do to aid."

"The Sacred Realm is filled with monsters even as we speak," Ganondorf said, "Monsters that are not of my creation. It has been thousands of years since I set foot there. The monster has been seeping her influence into it for gods only know how long. When the flesh golem tears a hole in reality to allow her passage, I am convinced she is going to be bringing those monsters with her.

"What I need from you are the lost souls of the forest," he continued, "The veritable army of undying soldiers that are slaves to your whim. Give them a chance to earn their release, defending Hyrule to give us time to stop this monster."

The tree's face gave a grimace, the eye sockets twisting shut in a remarkably human expression as it thought about his words. Finally it said at length, "Even if I were willing to help you on nothing more than your word, this is something I cannot do. These souls are not lost, they defend the forest if other defenses fail. Were it not a wasted effort, I would have turned them on you already."

Ganondorf took a step toward the great tree. "Now you listen here, you overgrown fencepost," he growled, "I've gone days out of my way to come here and humiliate myself by asking for your help. I know full well that killing you will do no good, because will still not have the army I need. There is enough at stake here that Hyrule's princess and... 'hero...'" he slowed on the word, as if it were distateful to say, "...have agreed to work with me. That alone should tell you something is going on, even if you can't sense what is coming.

"You've got one more chance, and think carefully before you answer, because I guarantee, if you say no, and I survive this mess, my next task will be a massive deforestation effort. Most likely by fire."

"You cannot intimidate me, wizard," the Deku Tree said, "If there's nothing else, be on your way. I will only promise to watch, and if what you say turns out to be true, I will intervene if I feel it is necessary."

"Well, it's obvious I've thoroughly wasted my time," Ganondorf muttered, then put two fingers in his mouth to whistle. Ebony perked his ears and moved toward him. "You turn up tree, because if you don't, it won't matter if it's me or Shaklator, you're going to end up as a massive pile of firewood."

He caught Ebony's reigns and stepped up into the saddle. Without a further word to the mighty tree, he spurred the otherworldly horse into a galllop, riding swiftly westward. It was a straight shot through the forest across what was formerly the open plains of old Hyrule, and he had no intention of stopping until he reached the desert oasis.

The great tree watched him disappear through the pass leading out of the valley, back into the forest.

"In all my years of life, I thought I'd truly seen everything," the tree said to itself, "but there's one more. The world is becoming a strange place."

The face of the great tree sank inward, vanishing once more into the trunk, but it did not sleep. The ancient, powerful tree sent its signals outward. Every tree in the world, no matter how small or how far, were its eyes, and just as distressing as ever, Hyrule continued to be a blind spot in its vision.

* * *

"The gates are open?" Sheila asked as the wagon train came to a stop outside the city.

Four days following her conversation with Ganondorf and Link, Zelda stepped down from the wagon with palpable relief. She was finally home. The countryside was dismal yet, and the wagons had passed by innumerable trees and animals, people, all petrified still. Now, standing just outside the north gate of the city, the end finally seemed at hand.

She reached down to the sword at her hip, clasping her hand around the hilt, and slowly slid it from the scabbard. The Master Sword's unique sound was even more pronounced over several seconds. She lifted the blade, looking at the red letters along the cool white metal. They were not etched into the blade, nor did they appear to be dye, instead seeming to glow from beneath the surface of the metal itself.

The ancient artifact had been forever changed for the sake of saving the kingdom from this peril. Zelda felt as though the blade on some level knew this, and would not have allowed such a change unless if agreed with the purpose.

She turned away from the gate. Many of the refugees had been walking through the countryside, and now they were helping those unable to travel such distance down from the wagons, and passing waterskins around. Sheila was nearby, and Zelda knew Vargus was not far. Maylow appeared from behind the wagon, moving toward them.

"Maylow, I want you to stay here," she said, "Just keep things under control for now, and once we break this spell, I'll send guards to guide you and the refugees into the city."

The former king simply gave a swift nod and turned around, moving the other way to take control of the situation.

"Sheila, you're coming with me," Zelda said, "I'll need you to work the spell."

"Of course," Sheila said, then added, "I'm sure it will work."

"It has to," Zelda said, betraying no emotion, "Vargus."

At his name, the ninja all but materialized from the crowd. "Should I send in advance scouts?" he asked.

"I'm surprised you didn't already," Zelda said.

"I did, actually," he replied with a smile.

"I'm fairly sure Zero had time to get here before us," Zelda said, "I don't know if he's in the city, but if he is, I don't want to be surprised."

"He'll be the only one with a surprise," Vargus said.

"You mind if I come along?" Arthur asked, approaching from the direction of the back of the wagon.

"Sure," Zelda said, "Now, I'll warn you all, what you've seen so far doesn't really compare to what is within. It's not a pleasant sight."

"This whole place has been pretty depressing so far," Arthur said, "No offense."

"Hopefully it will be much better in a few minutes," Zelda said, "Come on, we'll need to circle around the castle itself to reach the central square. That's where the curse began, that's where it will end."

Zelda, Sheila, and Arthur walked toward the gate. Vargus followed a few steps behind, lifting one hand to make a barely visible motion with two fingers, and those watching close enough might have seen the shadows of ten ninja appear and move across with them, spreading quickly into alleys and climbing onto rooftops.

"Not a place I'd have chose to build a capital," Vargus commented as they walked, "In the center of the plain, open from all sides. Hard to defend in an attack."

The group moved past stone visages of guards on patrol, their armor and weapons the only things that were not stone, but were rusted from exposure to the weather for so long. Zelda knew Vargus was mainly trying to make conversation for their sake, to lighten the situation.

The east is actually impossible to attack," Zelda said, "The wall is built next to a ravine, and the river pours directly into the moat which protects from the other directions. At one point there had been discussion to open a route through which the Zora could enter the city directly from the moat without having to climb out, but it was denied because it would be an obvious weak point in an attack."

"What is that?" Arthur suddenly asked, pointing at one of the statues on the side of the street.

"That would be a Goron," Zelda said. The enormous round figure was seated crosslegged and had apparently been asleep with his back against the wall when the spell struck. "Probably a merchant," she added.

"When you told me about them, I didn't think they were that big," Arthur said.

"That one's small," Zelda said.

The city seemed so small for some reason, but Zelda could only explain it by being in Darimar for so long, such a massive place with literally millions living in its walls, while her own capital was maybe a hundred thousand. No, it had to be bigger than that. Closer to two hundred thousand, maybe. It had been a long time since she had actually read a census report.

The sun was nearly at the midpoint of the sky, and Sheila shielded her eyes as she looked up toward the castle. "No towers on your castle?" she asked, "That's interesting design."

"It's not finished," Zelda said, "We were in the middle of rebuilding it when all this happened.

"What happened to it?" Sheila asked.

"Ask Ganondorf," Zelda said, "He had a hand in it."

It was not long before they emerged into the central courtyard. There were more petrified guard patrols near the castle gate and the southern exit. Zelda led the group to the fountain in the center. Incredibly, the water was still running, though the level in the basin was lower than she remembered. Evaporation and the closed system not being refilled by the staff.

"Don't drink the water," she warned as they came to the edge of the fountain, "There's some kind of system that recycles by using pressure as it drains to spray it back out. That's not really the issue, though, I've no doubt people have likely peed in it over the years."

"And there's an image I could have lived without," Arthur muttered.

"So what do we do?" Zelda asked, turning to Sheila.

"Well, we need to put the sword in the center of the effect, or as close as possible," Sheila said, "Where did Link find the spell trigger?"

"The red gem? It was in the fountain basin," Zelda said.

"Well, then we won't be drinking it, but we will be climbing in," Sheila said.

"Great," Zelda muttered.

Sheila moved first, pulling off her boots, then hiking up the skirt of her travel dress and stepping over the side of the basin, and Zelda moved after. The water was icy cold, making Zelda want to reflexively curl her toes as the ankles of her pants soaked up water. Sheila had her place the sword, point down, on the floor of the basin, holding the pommel as the blade dipped into the water. She then leaned down to more closely examine the magic lettering.

"All right, I'm going to begin," she said after a moment, rising back up to her full height, "I need all of you to remain silent while I cast the spell, as it will require every bit of my concentration. I've never used a magic of this level before, so let's hope for the best."

"Not for inspiring confidence, are you?" Arthur asked.

"Arthur, not now," Zelda said.

Sheila leaned back her head, closing her eyes as she cleared her mind, focusing on the task at hand. She found herself very grateful for the time she had spent with Ganondorf, honing her skill. She needed to gather a lot of magical energy before the incantation even started. Wind began to build rapidly as she focused, spinning around them like a twister, dust being carried into the air in a wide circle around the fountain, and the water around her began to ripple.

When she spoke the words, it seemed strange. Her voice carried the same tone as when she normally used her magic, carrying easily through the surrounding area and seeming to come from everywhere at once, yet it lacked the usual echo of power, instead sounding as soft and gentle as her normal speaking voice.

"Eternity, Goddess of Time, hear my plea," she said, "Your kingdom has been wronged, and your domain violated. Time has been stolen from these victims, time that you granted them, and only you have right to end."

The winds were building, and had Sheila looked down, she would see she where she was standing was now dry, the water in the basin being forced away from her in the shape of a bowl by the energy coursing through her and radiating from her body.

"I would repair the damage that has been wrought, and restore your precious time to these people. Grant me your strength, and release these poor men and women from their prison of silence," Sheila threw her arms wide, her eyes shooting open as she cried the final word, "_Rapture!_"

The energy suddenly ripped away from her body, and in visible streaks of light, shrunk to a single point high in the air, burning in the sky like a second sun, which then detonated. Arthur, Vargus, and Zelda raised their hands to shield their eyes. The red lettering on the Master Sword's blade flared brightly, then shot up, tearing away from the blade, leaving it shining white once again.

"No... no way," Arthur whispered as the light started to fade and he dared a look past his hand.

A woman was visible in the light. The red light that had been the letters on the blade formed into her outline, marking her features which were themselves either completely invisible, or directly part of the white light behind. She wore a long cloak, and the only visible part of her other than her face were her hands. In her right hand she held a quill, and her left held a tome.

The rest of the group looked up and saw her as well, and as they watched, she opened the top, leafing through the pages, then apparently finding what she wanted, wiped the back of her right hand across the page, sending sparkles of light into the air that drifted slowly downward.

The light faded and the woman vanished, but the sparkles continued to fall like shining snow. Zelda turned in place, looking toward the petrified guards, waiting for some kind of change. Where the falling sparkles landed on her skin, Zelda could feel a tingling sensation.

"Did it work?" Arthur asked.

"I'm not seeing anything," Zelda said, and she turned back to Sheila, "Shouldn't something be happening by now?"

"I don't know," Sheila said, "It might take a few minutes... No wait, look!"

She pointed at the group of guards. Cracks were forming along the surface of their stone skin. It was startling when suddenly they shattered entirely, stone chips raining down on the street as the stone fell away from their flesh. All of them stumbled and most fell to their knees before regaining balance. There was cursing from them about the stone chips inside their padded undershirts beneath their armor and wondering what was happening. The next thing they noticed was the sun, and Zelda remembered it had been at night when the country was petrified.

More shattering stone could be heard from nearby streets, and though they did not see it, the spell's effects were rapidly spreading outward from the center. The refugees outside the city gate were witnesses to a remarkable vision as the grass closest to the moat turned green and it rapidly spread outward, beneath their feet and continuing on toward the horizon.

"You there, guardsman!" Zelda called as she and Sheila stepped out of the fountain. The guards looked and seeing the group for the first time, came over at a quick walk. It wasn't until they were fairly close that they suddenly stood at attention.

"Princess Zelda! So sorry," the first one said, "Forgive me, I almost didn't recognize you!"

"What? Why?" Zelda asked. She was wearing her hair down. There wasn't a person in the city who didn't recognize her. The guards were frequently in the castle and she made a point of speaking to each guard personally when they graduated from basic training.

"Well, you're so tan!" the guard said, "I saw you earlier today and you were much paler! Um, sorry, I didn't mean..."

"It's all right," Zelda said, "Listen, I know you're confused. There's a lot to explain. I need you to alert the rest of the guard and be ready to prevent a panic in the city. Also, I need a squad to go to the north gate. There are war refugees waiting with wagons and they need an escort into the city. One more thing," she added, catching him as he turned to his patrol, "I'm going to give a speech. Spread the word to gather the populace here in the square in one hour. You have all that?"

"Yes, princess," he said, turning to issue orders to his patrol, and then they were off.

"You know, that was sexy as hell," Arthur said as she turned back to the others.

"Am I really so tan?" Zelda asked, looking down at herself.

Sheila shrugged. "You were pretty tanned when I met you," she said.

"Yeah, same for me," Arthur said.

"Well, I guess I have gotten more sun during this trip than I think I have in my life," Zelda said, "Anyway, if I'm going to give a speech, I need to get changed."

"Changed? You need to get a gown?" Sheila asked, "Do you need help?"

"No to the gown, but yes to help," Zelda said, starting toward the castle gate and motioning for them to follow, "I need to send the right message. I need my armor."

* * *

Zelda's armor was designed as much to make an impression as for protection. She had rarely worn it because it was so damn heavy, though the amount of muscle she had put on in the past year had an effect on that. It wasn't nearly as bad as she remembered, though it was still heavy. As she marched down the stairs before the castle back toward the square, she vowed that she was going to be in the training yard and doing whatever it took to get accustomed to the weight.

It certainly did make an impression. The armor was an exquisite piece of work, made specifically for her. The protective steel breastplate decorated with thin adornments of silver and gold, with an image of the royal crest, the gold triangles of the Triforce between a pair of golden wings, outstretched to the sides and wrapping around under her arms, and directly underneath the triangle the body of the eagle with extended talons, and all of it polished to a mirror sheen. With the sun high in the sky, if she turned correctly she could likely blind a would-be attacker with the glare.

The leggings and arms were less decorated, preferring simple steel. The pauldrons of her shoulders were more intricate, the steel shaped to resemble feathers, similar to feathered shoulders of a dress cloak. She had not worn the helmet, instead opting for her normal crown, the inch wide gold band visible on her forehead.

Flanked by Vargus and Sheila, she entered the central square, where in the past hour had gradually filled with citizens and soldiers alike. The refugees had been escorted into the city and Zelda saw them at the far end of the square, a rather small portion of the total number gathered, and the wonder of who they were and where from were evident in the Hyrulean citizens.

"Her highness approaches!" came a shout from a guard over the noise of the crowd. The voices died away as the crowd turned to Zelda, where she stood in front of the castle gate.

"My people," she said, raising her voice to carry over the square, "You are all no doubt confused about what is happening here. For you it has been an overnight sleep. I have actually been gone from the city for over a year, and only recently returned."

She had their attention, and took a breath before continuing. "Our great kingdom was the victim of a sinister attack from a villainous wizard. He transformed every inhabitant of our kingdom to stone in a heartbeat, the only ones spared were myself, and Link, the warrior who saved us all from the wizard Ganondorf. We were protected by none other than the power of the gods we wield, the Triforce of Wisdom, handed down in my family for generations untold, and the Triforce of Courage, granted to him by a power high than ourselves.

"To save our land, we were forced to leave it behind, to seek out an ancient magic in distant lands. In the course of this journey, we were drawn into a brutal conflict with the very wizard who engineered the attack on Hyrule. He and his forces have been slain, but at terrible cost. Five noble lands have been lost, their populations casualties in the conflict, and the lands themselves have been tainted so that no crops will grow and water has turned to poison.

"In the corner of the courtyard there, you will see the only survivors of this battle, refugees we have brought back with us. If the wizard's forces had not been stopped in the lost kingdoms, they would have eventually come here, regardless of us finding the solution to our own problem. Their sacrifice has spared us the brunt of a deadly war, and we must do all we can for them, and welcome them as if they were our own.

"Now, while the wizard in question has been dealt with, and his primary forces stopped, I cannot say it is over yet. The one he served yet lives, and all I can say for certain is on her way here with the intent of finishing what he started. Exactly what we will face, I do not know, but war is coming to Hyrule, and we must be ready when it arrives.

"Good people, remain calm, please. There is time to prepare, and we will be ready when the time comes. Look at our history. Hyrule was born when a warlord named himself king and united previously warring tribes, and he is my distant ancestor. Our kingdom has been won and lost a dozen times over, and yet always endures. Our history is written in the blood of the fallen, both ours and our enemies'.

"Already plans are in motion. I have recruited the aid of powerful foreign wizards and sorceresses, and calls for aid will be sent to our allies, both within Hyrule and without. When the threat arrives, I intend for them to find a bristling wall of fury, of courageous men and women ready to fight. And I will not lie, this is not simply a fight for our land. It is a fight for our very survival. Our enemy will not settle with taking our homes, our culture, and our lands from us. They intend to tear down everything we stand for, to destroy all that is good and just in the world, and to leave none of us alive."

Zelda paused for a moment, letting this sink in before concluding, "Hyrule has survived worse than an invasion and war criminals intent on genocide. My friends, my people... My family... Stand with me, and I swear, we will survive this. We will send these monsters where they belong, and when the smoke clears, Hyrule will still be here, a beacon of light in the darkness that cannot be extinguished."

She fell silent and waited. There were murmers in the crowd. There were so many, Zelda had a very difficult time predicting the final reaction, her empathy confused by the sheer number of incoming emotions. That changed when a Goron near the back of the square raised a fist over his head, high over the Hylian and Zora members of the crowd, and simply roared, a wordless battlecry that rose high over the city.

More voices joined his, fists rising into the air, guardsman lifting spears and swords high, adding their voices to the cry.

Zelda found herself smiling. Yes, that was what she hoped for. One warrior raising his voice, and many others following suit. The initial enthusiasm would die off after just a few weeks, but by then, hopefully things would be well underway.

She motioned a nearby group of guardsman, three of whom quickly jogged over to hear her.

"I need runners prepared," she said, "I'm going to need messages sent out to all the outlying villages with this news. Also, runners will need to be sent to find any of the Royal Council members at their estates. I need them in the city as soon as possible. Can you take care of this?"

"I'll pass the word to those who can," he said, and with a salute, turned and moved away quickly.

"Next," she said, pointing at the second guardsman, "I need an emergency tally taken of stored foodstuffs in the city. Everything perishable is most likely long rotten and I need to make sure there's enough to keep the population fed. Get a message to the merchant's guild and the royal bookkeepers, and tell them to get the information to me as quickly as possible.

He saluted and turned to leave as Zelda turned to the final of the three, "An you. Inform the castle staff that we need rooms and barracks prepared for just under a thousand people. Tents and bedrolls and such, we're going to have to camp a lot of them in the courtyard until more permanent lodging can be found."

She waved him off and with a salute, he ran for the castle grounds.

"Well, off to a good start, I think," Sheila said as Zelda turned back to her.

"This was the easy part," Zelda said, "Next I have to deal with the council."


	124. Chapter 123

The "all over the place" nature of this one kind of reflects my past couple of weeks, to be honest. And I decided to cut it off earlier than originally planned anyway, saving what was going to be the final section for the next chapter.

**Chapter 123: Home of the Princess**

"A little sparse in furnishings, isn't it?" Maylow commented as he seated himself on the wooden bench, one side of a wooden table roughly the size of a family dinner table. These were the only furnishings in a room much too large for it, with a great amount of empty space surrounding the group.

"The castle is only half-built," Sheila said, sitting down next to him, "I saw the princess's bedroom along the way to help her into her armor. Bare stone floor and walls, and an extremely plain four post bed. They've got a long way to go before the castle is finished, and I think things like carpet and decor are secondary to getting the walls up."

"So is this the war room?" Maylow asked.

"This is the royal dining room," Zelda said, appearing in the doorway at the north end of the room, "The war room will be at the east side of the castle, when it's finished, that is."

Still wearing her armor, it rattled loudly as she walked, the fingers of one hand working at the bindings on the opposite forearm, undoing them and laying down the gauntlet on the table as she came to a stop. Accompanying her were four Hylian guards, who silently took their places by the doors, as well as Vargus who was never more than a few steps behind her.

"Are the refugees getting the supplies I ordered?" Zelda asked as she started undoing the binding of the other gauntlet.

"Yes," Maylow said, "Getting everything set up as we speak. You'll practically have a nomad camp in the courtyard by evening."

"Good," Zelda said, laying down the other gauntlet on the table, then settling into the seat at the head of the table with a sigh and clanking of the remaining armor plates, "Gods, I remember why I hate this thing now. It's so damn heavy..."

"Any idea how we stand on getting other supplies?" Maylow asked, "Food and such?"

"Well, the situation so far is exactly as I thought," Zelda said, "The petrifaction only affected living things, be they plants or people. Every bit of perishable food has rotted to mush. Fortunately, the long term storage of grains, dried meat and fruit and such, as well as things like flour, are all intact. So it might be equivalent to travel rations for a while, but you'll have food."

"At least the bread will be fresh," Sheila said.

"That it will," Zelda said, and glanced up at the tall ninja standing to the right of her seat, "Vargus, sit down. You don't have to leer over my shoulder like a hawk."

"I'd rather stand," he replied, "Old habits, and I'd be more uncomfortable sitting down."

"At least take the hood off, then," Zelda said, "I'd rather you not look so sinister when Rayham arrives."

"Who's Rayham?" Sheila asked.

"One of the members of the Royal Council," Zelda said, "He's the only one in the city at the moment and I've asked him to join us here as soon as he can. I also think he'll be the easiest to get to listen to me, and maybe he can help me sway the rest of the council."

"Why do you think they'll all be against you?" Maylow asked.

"Because..." Zelda started, but paused as a young man paused at the far door and cleared his throat, "Yes?"

"Pardon the interruption, your highness," the youth said, "But Councilor Rayham has arrived."

"Show him in," Zelda said, and started to stand up, only to pause, then take a deep breath and groan as she hefted up the weight of the armor.

"If the weight is that bad, I'd suggest some doing some weight training with it," Maylow said, "Unless you have a lighter set you'd wear in combat."

"That's a good idea, but I'll worry about it tomorrow," Zelda said as the young man reappeared in the doorway, stepping in and to the side.

"Presenting Royal Councilor Rayham, Duke of-" he began, only to be cut off as the silver haired man stepped through the door at a full stride.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up," the man said, motioning for the youth to move away, "She knows who I am."

The man paused a few steps into the chamber when he spotted Maylow and Sheila sitting at the table. Maylow coughed and elbowed Sheila as he stood up. She grunted in pain from the elbow to her ribs, then realizing what he meant, started to rise as well.

"My apologies," Rayham said, "I did not realize this wasn't a private audience."

"It's all right, Rayham," Zelda said, "I'm not in the mood for formalities either."

Rayham cut a striking figure in spite of his age, even with the loose fitting red shirt, his powerful frame was very evident. His hair and beard were completely gray and his eyes surrounded by lines of age, but it was clear he was not one to let time slow him down. The only break in his finely groomed beard was a very visible vertical scar on the left side of his face, running from just outside his eye all the way to his chin. Though he had not always been gray in her memory, the scar had been there as long as Zelda could remember, an old trophy from her mother's time.

Zelda motioned for Maylow and Sheila to sit down as Rayham approached her. He looked up at Vargus, who had not moved from the spot he had chosen by Zelda's seat, and was caught off guard as Zelda stepped into him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Gods, Rayham, you've no idea how glad I am to see you," she said, her head resting against his chest.

Rayham returned them embrace, if a bit awkwardly, not sure how to react. He was used to informalities with the princess, at least when they were alone, but not with an audience. "Sorry," he said, "I caught the gist of your speech, but I'm still trying to understand it. If I understand correctly, you've been away for a year, but it has only been a single night for us?"

"Not even that," Zelda said, finally releasing him and stepping back, "If you want to sit down, I'll explain in detail, but right now, I need to prevent a panic among the citizens, so what I tell you cannot leave this room, at least for now."

"You know you can trust me," Rayham said.

"Guards, if you'll wait outside, close the doors, please," Zelda said, and with a quick salute the guards marched out each of the doors and shut them behind themselves.

"And these people?" Rayham asked, glancing at Vargus, then at Maylow and Sheila.

"They are already aware of what I'm about to tell you," Zelda said, "They've lived it. And I'll introduce you as we go along."

Rayham sat at the corner of the table closest to Zelda's seat as she explained what happened, starting with the curse laid on the kingdom, and setting out with Link and Midna, crossing the desert and ocean, and Rayham commenting on that being where she must have gotten such a dark tan overnight from his perspective.

It was a long tale, taking much longer to tell than she expected, and she concluded with escaping the blighted men on the ships to cross the ocean again. She had skimmed over the parts relating to Ganondorf, not sure what the reaction would be just yet.

"These two here are Sheila Anthress and King Maylow," Zelda said, concluding her story, "They survived the disaster in Darimar and helped me lead the refugees back to Hyrule."

"Nice to meet you, I guess, but I don't think that really suffices," Rayham said, "Give me a minute, this is a lot to take in."

"I understand," Zelda said, "And unfortunately, I haven't even told you the worst part yet."

"I thought you did," Rayham said, "The person that these villains worked for, he's coming this way now, probably with everything that's left of his army, right?"

"There's no 'probably' about it," Zelda said.

"The part I'm having a hard time believing is this parallel world stuff," Rayham said, "If that's true, there is literally no way to predict the kind of resources we'll be up against."

"Rayham, you can't have forgotten the invasion we faced two and half years ago," Zelda said, "Those were not creatures of this world we faced then."

"Of course I haven't," Rayham said, his gaze lowering, "In spite of my desire to do so..."

"That was the Twili invasion, right?" Sheila asked, "I do remember you telling me about it at some point."

"That's right," Zelda said, "Councilor Rayham here was General Rayham back then, the supreme commander of Hyrule's armed forces."

"I failed to protect the kingdom I swore to," Rayham said, "When the disaster was over, no thanks to me, I stepped down. The princess insisted I take a seat on the Royal Council rather than leave her service entirely."

"I wasn't ready for you to go, Rayham," Zelda said, "You've been here longer than I have. And I need your help with the council. What you're having a hard time believing, they're going to be a hundred times worse."

"Those nobles aren't fond of listening to a common-born like me anyway," Rayham said.

"I know that, but we'll have to make them listen," Zelda said, leaning toward him and clasping her hands as she rested her elbows on the table, "And like I said, I haven't even told you the worst part yet. That being the enemy we face is not human. She is in fact over eight thousand years old, and while all evidence I've seen points to her not truly being a goddess, she is so close it makes no difference to the likes of us. I did not tell this to the public because I'm sure it would cause a panic."

Rayham did not respond immediately, but he kept his gaze locked with Zelda's for several moments before he responded. "You're serious," he said.

"Deadly," Zelda said.

"I'm going to need to think about this," he said.

"I understand, but please understand me," Zelda said, "We cannot wait for the council to begin. I intend to immediately step up military recruitment and training, and prepare the city for a siege. I've already sent out urgent messengers to the outlying villages. I expect Patriarch Darbus will respond first, he is usually very quick to do so. But when the council does convene, I'd greatly prefer you to be on my side."

"You do realize you don't need the council's permission?" Rayham asked, "Our job is to advise you on the best course of action, but you ultimately hold the power in this kingdom. Regardless of what we think, if you truly believe the kingdom is in danger, then you have to do everything you can to protect it."

"But I might have to order things that people will not like," Zelda said, "It would be much easier to maintain order and have the public on my side through it all if the council is on my side to begin with."

"If they are set against you, some of them will be hard to sway," Rayham said, "And what about this goddess? If that is true, how do you expect to defeat such a being?"

"Link and... our wizard will be joining us soon," Zelda said, "Between the three of us, I believe we can find a way to stop her."

"This is the Triforce you're speaking of using?" Rayham asked.

"Yes," Zelda replied.

"Okay, that's all I want to know," Rayham said, "I need to think about all this, and I'll let you know where I stand soon."

"That's all I can ask," Zelda said as he rose from his seat, "Give my regards to your wife."

"Lady Anthress, your majesty," Rayham nodded his head in acknowledgement of the others before turning to Vargus, "And... I don't think you introduced us.

"Oh, sorry, this is Vargus, current leader of the Dra'thul ninja I mentioned," Zelda said, "He is here in the capacity of my personal guard."

"Ah, I see," Rayham said, "So you're one of the people from this other world, are you?"

"That's right," Vargus said, "Pleased to meet you, my lord."

"Not to offend, but it seems strange the princess would select a former member of the enemy as her personal guard," Rayham said.

"The ninja have given me no reason to distrust them," Zelda said, "And I felt it appropriate, since there was a time my family was guarded by shadow warriors of a sort. Not to mention they have nothing to gain by betraying me at this point."

"How many of you are there?" Rayham asked Vargus.

"Of the original three hundred we arrived in this world with, about ninety remain," Vargus said, "You may doubt us, but we have already bled for this fight."

"I can certainly respect that," Rayham said, then turned to Zelda, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must be off."

"Goodbye, Rayham," Zelda said and he turned, walking out of the room without another word.

"He seems a good man," Maylow said after he was gone.

"He is," Zelda said, "And the only member of the Royal Council that wasn't appointed during my mother's time. Not to mention he was the son of a blacksmith. He earned every bit of respect he has gained, and he certainly deserves it."

"He doesn't trust me," Vargus commented.

"Only because he doesn't know you," Zelda said and with a grunt, heaved the weight of her armor up from her seat and turned to Maylow and Sheila, "Now, is there anything else the refugees need?"

"Not that I can think of," Maylow said.

"Sledge told me to tell you he wants to see you at the first opportunity," Sheila said.

"Oh, gods, I forgot," Zelda said, "I'll need to have one of the Zora pools in the city converted to salt water for them. There's just so much to do..."

She started to the door, pausing halfway there to turn in place. "Vargus, you haven't been out of my sight since we arrived," she said, "Why don't you go into the city? Take some time off, have a drink or something."

"I would hardly know where to start," Vargus said.

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know the city," Zelda said, "On the east side of the central square is a bar the off-duty guards frequent called the Drunken Monkey. Maybe you could start there?"

"I mean, what would the reaction be?" Vargus said, "I mean, the ninja were valued in my homeland, but we were less than nothing, even among our own kind there."

"It'll be fine," Zelda said, and then with a sudden idea motioned for him to follow her. She opened the door and stepped into the hall, the guards outside suddenly jerking to stiff, alert stances as she stepped into the hall. She pointed to one at random and said, "You, give me your crest."

Not sure what was happening, the guard undid a chain hanging from around his neck and handed it to the princess. She turned, holding it up where Vargus could see it. A circular medallion hung from the chain, depicting the same image as her armor, with the Triforce surrounded by the image of a hawk spreading its wings.

"These crests are worn by every member of the royal guard and army," she said, "All the ninja are going to need them so they're identified correctly. Here," she handed the guard the crest back, "Take Vargus here down to the armory so he can be issued one," she turned back to Vargus, "And then I want you to go out and get acquainted with the city and people. I promised you that when you came here, you'd be accepted by the people, and I meant it. You're a stranger in this place, I'll give you that, and that needs to change. In fact, every ninja who is not left on duty around me should do the same, and when the shift changes, they will have their chance."

"I don't see the purpose of this," Vargus said

"In Darimar, you fought for a people that were not yours, and a kingdom you did not know," Zelda said, "That's not going to be the case here. If you intend to remain, you will be a part of this kingdom, with everything that means. The good parts too. So go out there and have some fun. That's an order," she paused at this point as she realized something else, "Oh, you're going to need some money too. All right, maybe hold off until tomorrow on this. It's getting late, and we're going to need to get you and the rest of the ninja registered on the military payroll so you can collect it."

"You're going to pay us?" Vargus asked. It was the expression of genuine shock on his face that really sold his incredulity.

"Of course," Zelda said, "Room and board will be taken care of, the same as any other soldiers who sleep in the barracks, at least once we get that arranged. At least for now you'll be sleeping wherever we can find available. The ninja will need their own barracks eventually, and we'll need to build a training ground for your specific skills when we can. That reminds me, we'll need to handle the formal introduction to the military tomorrow, get all the ninja in one place to swear fealty and then there's registering for official citizenship... Gods, there's just so much to do."

"A barracks and training ground, you do remember there aren't many of us left, right?" Vargus asked.

"Oh, that's right, I haven't discussed it with you yet," Zelda said, "Okay, look, I know the state your people are in. There are so few of you left, and all that remain are men. I was hoping that you would be interested in new recruits from my people, since if you intend to stay in Hyrule, they are your people now, too, because that's how this works in Hyrule. Your culture and lifestyle remain your own, but you will be a part of Hyrule."

"I suppose I hadn't really thought about it that way," Vargus said, "That's an awful lot to heap on me all of a sudden."

"Seems to be the only way I can do things lately," Zelda said.

"Well, strictly speaking the training of a ninja is a secret," Vargus said, "Though since that kingdom is long dead, there's no reason it has to be. But the training of a ninja takes years. It's why we're selected so young."

"I'm afraid that cannot be an option here," Zelda said, "You'll have to start with adults, at least sixteen years, and then volunteers only, especially if it takes so long."

"That certainly limits options, especially with the already high attrition rate," Vargus said, "We likely would not be able to have more than a few hundred ninja at any one time."

"Maybe that's a good thing," Zelda suggested, "Quality over quantity."

"With volunteers, they'd no one to blame but themselves for getting into it," Vargus said, "Their sense of pride would keep them going beyond what had previously been normal limits. We could push harder than ever and created the greatest ninja the world had ever seen. And would retain the rights of full citizens in our off ours?"

"Of course," Zelda said, "I know you were basically slaves before, but you will be a full part of our kingdom with everything that entails."

"I'll need to discuss this with the others," Vargus said, "But I'm fairly sure what the answer will be. I'll be able to answer you tomorrow, but just to warn you, there's no point in worrying about recruits one way or another, because as I said, it takes years to train a ninja. It's something to discuss later."

"That's fine," Zelda said, "Now, I need to go see to Sledge, even though I have a fair idea, and then I will likely be retiring for the night."

* * *

The following morning, Ganondorf emerged again from the blowing sands of the Haunted Wasteland. The effects of the tumultuous rainstorm were fading nearly as quickly from the valley as they had appeared. This morning no flying insects or bullfrogs could be heard, and the grass that had sprung up so quickly had already gone to seed and the stalks were drying out.

It was nearly midmorning when he arrived, and to pass the time, Link and Alex were sparring bare-handed in the open middle of the valley as the others watched, though they paused at the sight of the coal black horse being ridden by the tall wizard into the valley.

"Get your things together, we're leaving now," he shouted at them as he leaped from the horse.

"That's it?" Link shouted back, "Not even going to bother telling us what you were up to?"

"No. Hurry up," Ganondorf replied, "Kili, come here and help me."

Silviana handed Alex his shirt as Midna helped Link into his, while Kilishandra picked up her sword and jogged over to Ganondorf, where he had already started to pace out the space he needed. "Help me draw a circle for a travel spell," he said as she came closer.

"You can't be serious!" she said, seeing the deep rings under his eyes, along with his exhausted steps and slumped shoulders, "Gods, have you slept at all since you left?"

"About six hours, I think," he said.

"In six days?!" she said, "You can't use a travel spell like this, you'll kill yourself!"

"I know my limits," Ganondorf said, looking up as the others approached, his eyes settling on Midna where she was at Link's side, "What the hell happened to you?"

Link spoke first. "We were visited by Cain, in person, so to speak, after you left. I had to forcibly pull him away from her, and that caused her to change back."

Ganondorf glanced at Kilishandra, who shrugged. He looked back at Midna, once again reduced to the form of the imp she had been transformed into when she fought Zant on her own. "Always thought that was too easy," he said, "Where's the mask?"

"We split the pieces up," Midna said, "They're scatted across the valley, as far from each other as we could manage."

"Well, that was dumb, because now you need to go get them," Ganondorf said, and when Link started to protest, added, "We can't leave them here. We've obviously got a hostile being in them, but better to have them where we can see than someplace far away. Go get them, and we should be ready to begin by the time you get back here."

"So we're going to Hyrule now?" Silviana asked.

"Not yet," Ganondorf said, motioning for Kilishandra to start working on the circle, "Link and I need to speak to someone at the Temple of Time, or what's left of it. In the meantime, I think his home village is nearby and should be fine for the rest of you to wait in."

"I'm getting sick of you making these decisions for me," Link said.

Ganondorf turned back to him. Even past the heavy circles, his eyes were alert and dangerous, and informative enough that his patience was short. "I told you when you came to me for help, Link, I am in charge, not you," Ganondorf said, "Now go get the pieces of the Fused Shadow."

"Those things have gods damned demon in them," Link said, "And you expect me to just let her carry them around after finding that out?"

Ganondorf suddenly stepped toward Link, growling through his teeth. Link didn't flinch away as the wizard drew up to his full height, towering over Link and forcing the smaller warrior to crane his neck up to keep his eyes locked on Ganondorf's even as the wizard's breastplate nearly collided with his face.

"The only other choice is to leave them here," Ganondorf said, practically spitting the words through his teeth in front of his barely controlled temper, "We are not doing that. So long as your girlfriend doesn't put them on, she will be fine.

"In case you've forgotten, the world in on the verge of a catastrophe that makes everything I've done look like an uncomfortably hot summer in comparison. I'd solve it myself if I could, but right now it looks like you must be an integral part of my plan. She, however," he paused, pointing at Midna, "is not required. Consider that your incentive to shut up and do what you're told."

"Don't you dare threaten her," Link said, his voice taking a deadly edge as his hand slowly reached for his sword.

"Link," Midna put a hand on his shoulder, "Let's not start this now. Please."

"Fine," Link growled, turning away and motioning for Midna to follow him, "But in the near future, you and I are going to have a nice long chat."

"There will be a time for us to settle it once and for all," Ganondorf called after him, "But until that day arrives, save your breath, because I don't care what you have to say."

He leaned down, helping Kilishandra draw the lines in the sand with his finger while Silviana and Alex watched. "Are you really sure about this?" Alex asked after a moment of silence, "I mean, Kilishandra's right, you look like a wreck. What happens if you can't hold the spell?"

"Like I said, I know my limits," Ganondorf said, "I'm pushing close to the edge, and I wouldn't be any good in a sustained fight right now, but I can manage one more before I collapse. The past few days haven't been that strenuous, other than the encounter with the witch."

"Can't Kilishandra cast the spell? Just to be sure?" Silviana asked.

"She never managed to get the right sense of control for travel spells," Ganondorf said, "I'm sure she could get it cast, but we could end up at the far end of Hyrule, and we need to aim at the close end."

"No, Khall was the one who really mastered travel spells," Kilishandra said, "I swear he could jump a hundred miles or more and land tiptoeing on a gold coin used for a marker."

"Khall was an excellent student, and a hard worker," Ganondorf said, "Came from refusing to let you show him up, even though he lacked the natural talent for spell casting you have, Kili. What he lacked in natural ability, though, he certainly made up for in sheer genius at working the energies."

"Wait," Alex said, "Explain this to me, what do you mean she has a natural talent for magic?"

"It's like when someone is a natural at any task," Kilishandra said, "Be it fighting, art, or whatever. I've always been able to learn spells more easily, and generate bigger effects, than most people."

"You've never seen her really turn it loose," Ganondorf said, "I'm sure you'll have a chance in the near future. But Kili is unique in my experience. I've got a natural talent for magic, but it pales compared to her. In fact, if I didn't train her in its proper use, she would have become a danger to both herself and everyone around her because of how easily she manipulated the energies around her."

"What does that mean?" Alex asked.

"It means she could cause effects similar to spells without intending to," Silviana said, "At least that's what I'm gathering."

"That's basically it," Kilishandra said, "I still remember the first time I did just that. There was a group of children in my hometown who went out of their way to try to make me miserable. One day, I got really angry more so than ever before, and set one of them on fire. Didn't know how I did it, and didn't even realize it was me that did until later."

"That's enough, pay attention," Ganondorf said, "You're going in the wrong direction with those lines, Kili."

She apologized, and in a few moments they were finished. Ganondorf had already begun the casting when Link and Midna returned. Alex, Silviana and Kilishandra were watching from outside the circle.

"You sure you can't talk him into resting first?" Silviana asked in a whisper.

"I'd have more luck trying to talk a wolf into giving up its meal," Kilishandra replied.

"I might be convinced under the right circumstances," Link said as he and Midna moved up beside them, and immediately commented on Ganondorf in the center of the circle, "So why is he in such a hurry? This took a lot longer last time."

"Last time we were jumping halfway around the world," Ganondorf said, his hands clasped and not opening his eyes as he maintained focus even as he spoke, "This is a short hop in comparison. This will only take a few minutes."

* * *

"Enter," Zelda said in response to a knock at the door.

"Your highness," a guard leaned in to address her, "There is a man here saying he wants to see you, that you know him. His name is Arthur..."

"Let him in, he's fine," Zelda said, leaning back in her seat.

The guard bowed his head and disappeared out the door. A moment later, boots on the bare stone made his entry clear as Arthur stepped into the room, looking around the room as he did so. "Wow, not much to look at," he said, seeing the single bed and unadorned table at which Zelda sat. The only form of high living was the golden trim and magnificently polished mahogany wardrobe and desk.

Remembering whom he was speaking to, he suddenly stopped himself and made an effort to bow. "Uh, sorry, your highness," he said.

"Don't you start that 'your highness' garbage," Zelda said, "I never realized how much I hate it, not until I've spent this past year on a first-name basis with most people." She paused, as he stood up again, then added, "Well, at least when we're alone you don't have to worry about it. In public is another matter."

"Right," Arthur said, and stopped in his tracks as he looked straight at her for the first time.

Zelda was dressed in a regal gown, with a nearly floor-length skirt, which was almost perfect white fabric, with the barest hint of purple, the front of the skirt across her knees a darker area, almost black, with the image of the royal crest stitched across it just above her knees, with crisscrossing colors reaching down nearly to the hem. Above that, the torso was a deep royal purple, void of further decoration until the shoulders, where she wore metal pauldrons, similar to those of her armor, but much smaller and thinner, gold in color with feathers etched into their surfaces. The dress was sleeveless, but she wore long regal gloves that reached up past her elbows, halfway to her shoulders the same faint purple, almost white color as the sides and back of the skirt.

Her hair, freshly washed and brushed, fell nearly to her hips, with two braids hanging by her temples falling in front of her shoulders as the rest cascaded down her back, the ends bound together in a loose braid. The band of gold across her forehead was all that was visible of her crown, but this was the first time Alex had seen it this close, and saw that it was no simple band, but an incredibly intricate piece, resembling the spread wings of an eagle, open to either side, incredible small detail of the feathers etched into the metal, and a single amethyst stone set in the center of her forehead, where the wings began.

The only other jewelry she wore were a pair of earrings, hanging on short chains were small renditions of the Triforce, the same image in the center of the royal crest. She was also wearing a small amount of makeup, which he noted was very minimalist in its nature, just enough to accentuate her natural beauty.

Arthur had never had difficulty believing she was a princess, but for the first time he really saw it, and her majesty seemed really out of place in the minimalist bedroom, though he knew it was because the royal bedrooms were not yet finished in the half-built castle.

Zelda picked up a bottle from the table in front of her, pouring some of the contents into a lone glass in front of her. "Did you need something?" she asked as she did so.

Arthur realized his mouth was hanging open. He quickly snapped it shut, trying to get his thoughts straight again. "Uh, yeah, there was something, but..." he realized he was staring again, "I seem to have completely forgotten."

"Well, one way or another, I'm sure I'll hear about it," Zelda said, "Hazard of the job. It would have to wait until after the ceremony anyway. Would you like a drink?"

The ceremony she referred to was the official induction of Vargus and the ninja into the Hylian military. They had conducted a private meeting amongst themselves the previous night, as they tended to, and even though so few remained, they had voted in agreement, or whatever process they used to reach the agreement. Along with swearing fealty, they would also be becoming full citizens of Hyrule. It was almost strange to think it was her doing that was going to introduce such a culture into Hyrule in such a manner, but she decided it must have been strange when the Gorons and Zora were first brought into the single nation as well.

"Liquid courage, huh?" Arthur said as he sat down, "You never struck me as the nervous type."

"More of spoiling myself just a bit after being on travel rations and fish for so long," Zelda said, and lifted the glass to her lips, draining in in seconds. She did not immediately swallow, instead closing her eyes and rolling the liquid across her tongue for a moment. "Oh, gods, that's good," she whispered finally.

"Oh, it's one of those kind of drinks?" Arthur asked, "Never been into sipping wines myself."

"You'll understand why after you try it," Zelda said, picking up the bottle and pouring a small amount in the glass, then pushed it across the table to him.

Arthur picked it up, raising the glass to the light to eye the liquid for a second. "This... it's purple..." he said.

"It's Snowberry Wine," Zelda said, "Only fruit in the world that makes wine that color."

"Snowberries, huh? Never heard of those," Arthur muttered, but lifted the glass to his lips.

He would never really be able to find a way to describe the drink, no matter how much he tried. An explosion of flavor, like nothing he had ever tasted, and so incredibly smooth, without any sort of fizz or bite usually associated with alcohols. He was almost loathe to swallow it, but had to in order to speak.

"Wow..." he whispered, lifting the glass up to stare at it a moment, "That's... the best damn drink I've ever had."

"Now here's the part that'll really startle you," Zelda said, unable to hide her smile, "This bottle costs as much as a small estate, complete with buildings and animals."

Arthur looked at the bottle, then the glass. "So that little sip..."

"Is about a year's pay for a castle guard," Zelda said.

"Good gods," Arthur muttered, "It's good, but to justify that..."

"It's the snowberries," Zelda said, "They only grow in inhospitable environments for most creatures. The kind of mountains that have snow all year may have them, but even then they're rare. Maybe in the artic. That's why it's impossible to grow them in an organized fashion. And why the wine is so rare and expensive.

"And unfortunately," she added, replacing the cork in the bottle, "That's all either of us are going to have for some time."

"I thought wine had to be drank once the cork was removed," Arthur said, "It loses the flavor or something."

"Some do," Zelda said, "Though I'm not sure if this technically already has. This bottle is older than I am. I think my mother received it as a gift from a noble attempting to court her when she was young."

Arthur looked closer, realizing the bottle was just over half empty. "Speaking of your mother, is she here somewhere?" he asked, "I haven't met her yet."

"She passed away eight years ago," Zelda said.

"Oh, gods, I'm sorry," Arthur said, regretting what he said immediately.

"It's all right, not like I'm still grieving," Zelda said, "I did plenty of that when it happened. I was only fourteen at the time and certainly not ready to lead a kingdom."

"Can I ask what happened?" Arthur asked, "She must have still been fairly young at the time..."

"It was pneumonia," Zelda said, "We don't have much knowledge of healing magics like Mystara healers used, and the doctors couldn't help her."

"Do you have any other family?"

"Well, of course. It's in the interest of the kingdom to make sure there are heirs, even if one line dies off. I don't have any brothers or sisters, but cousins aplenty, two uncles and four aunts, not counting their spouses. The Daphnes family estate is fairly sizable, and located south of Lake Hylia. They come through the capital every so often, trying to make sure the other nobles remember their branches still exist."

"So, only the direct royal line adopts 'Hyrule' as their surname?" Arthur asked.

"That's right," Zelda said.

"So, what about your father? Is he still around?"

"No," Zelda said, "He died before my mother. I was too young to remember him, I'm afraid. If you see Councilor Rayham around... the gray gentleman with the long scar on the right side of his face... The same battle that gave him that scar is what killed my father."

"Wow, that must have been lonely," Arthur said, "I at least had my father when I was growing up. Though I guess it's not much better, since he died when..."

He paused, not sure if he should press the subject. "When Kilishandra destroyed Whitos-Neiki," Zelda said, "I know. And I'm sorry."

"I guess if this thing about her being cursed is true, I can't hold her accountable," Arthur said, "I don't really like when she's around, though. Reminds me too much."

"I know," Zelda said, "Maylow is the same. Actually, he presses much harder on the matter. Honestly, I haven't decided what I'm doing to do with her yet. And it doesn't matter until this is all well finished."

"Will it ever be?" he asked.

"We can only hope," Zelda said with a sigh, "Thanks for coming by, though. I appreciate the talk."

"I was hoping finally getting here would mean that we could talk more often," Arthur said, "You know, try to get to know each other a bit more?"

"There's a lot to do, and I'm going to be incredibly busy," Zelda said, "When I have time, though, I wouldn't mind."

"I guess that's enough," Arthur said, "I should go, and let you get ready for the ceremony."

"Well, I'm ready now, but I need to get over there," Zelda said, "I'll see you later, Arthur."

"Yeah, see you," he said, rising from his seat and moving to the door.

The door was pulled shut behind him and Zelda leaned back in her seat, looking up toward the ceiling. She smiled to herself. Gods, he was managing it, she thought. She couldn't help but like him, and he was winning her over. It was hardly the kind of events that novelists and romantics spoke of in regard to love, where two people's eyes met and they instantly were bonded forever. Of course, she had Link and Midna as an example, and Link had even stated he had hated her at the start, and very gradually had found himself falling for her. And look at them now... Not constantly fawning over each other, but they were rarely apart, and they both had those stupid smiles whenever they looked at each other.

But no, Zelda was a long way from declaring love for Arthur, if she ever reached that point, but right now, a sympathetic ear was just what she needed, and he had provided, even if he hadn't intended to. He'd come a long way from the womanizing liar she had met in Whitos-Neiki, but he had quite a distance to go yet.

She couldn't focus on him, though. She had work to do, and a lot of it. Her personal life would have to wait.


	125. Chapter 124

Okay, okay, I did make a couple of bad jokes just for the sake of having the references to the actual game. They made me laugh, at least. Also, see if you can spot a character making a commentary on my own work. No, there's no prize, I just had an opportunity to make fun of myself and took it.

**Chapter 124: Homecoming**

Zelda was surprised at the turnout as she walked through the castle gates into the city square. It was packed with men and women of all ages, eager to see what was going on. This ceremony was normally conducted in the castle's grand ballroom, but it had yet to be furnished, and was also missing its ceiling. But also by conducting it in the public eye, she hoped it would both help endear the dark elves to her people, and reinforce the fact she was finally intending to step up as the kind of leader they deserved.

Too many years since her mother had died, she had allowed the Royal Council to control the kingdom's future, and that was going to change, starting now. Most of the council were not present in the city, and she knew at least three of the missing five would urge her to not admit the ninja so quickly. It would send a message to them of how intent she was on this course, and it would enforce the urgency of her current actions on the people at large.

There had been murmuring among the gathered crowd in the square as she exited the courtyard with Vargus at her side, and two more ninja stepping into the open from the sides of the gate and taking their places in line among their fellows. Vargus himself stepped into position in front of the formation, pulling up his own hood and mask to conceal his face, and then without any other signal, all the ninja suddenly drew their swords, turned the blades over, resting the points on the ground, and fell to one knee, lowering their eyes as they bowed their heads.

Zelda signaled the captain nearby, who collected himself after being shaken by such a perfect display of choreagraphy, and barked an order, as two lines of men in full plate marched up alongside the lines of ninja, loudly slamming the butts of their speaks on the ground, then lifted them in unison and raised their voices in a wordless shout.

"Please rise, gentlemen," Zelda said, and as the spears came back down to the attention stance, the ninja rose as one, sheathing their weapons as one, the sound of sliding metal audible across the square.

Zelda looked down slightly, lifting up the card with the prepared speech she was to give for these ceremonies. She was never able to remember the words, and fortunately, no one minded it. Even as she started to reach the first line and opened her mouth to speak, she stopped.

"On second thought," she said, and ripped the page in two, letting the pieces fall to the ground and raised her voice as she went on, so everyone gathered could hear, "I don't need this for this moment, because this is so much more than simply inducting new members of our military.

"People of Hyrule, the men standing before you now are not simple soldiers. Compared to what we know, they may as well be from another world," she allowed the slightest smile, knowing it was better to keep this quiet, at least for now, "In their own tongue, they are the Dra'thul, or dark elves as they are known to other peoples. They come from a land in which they were outcasts from the other races, because of an event long past, long before their time, but these men standing before you were outcasts even among their own people.

"They were selected at a young age, no more than fifteen, and taken from their families. They lost everything, from their friends, their lives, even their names. Those who completed the training lost more. So vital they were, and they were little better than slaves among their own people. They were trained to use darkness to their advantage, to fight from shadows," she turned to face Vargus directly, "In their own words, they are not warriors. They are spies, thieves, and assassins. They specialize in moving unseen in enemy territory and dismantling the war machine from within."

She raised her voice higher as uncomfortable murmuring became audible in the gathered crowd. "Hyrule was home to such a people once before. The Sheikah were a people of the shadow, just as these men are. The Sheikah were instrumental in the unification of Hyrule, when my ancestor, the first and only king our nation has ever known, brought the disparate people of the Hylians, Gorons, and Zora together under a single banner.

"In the years following the initial bloodshed of that tumultuous time, the Sheikah became the personal guard of my family. Never was a member of the royal blood seen without a Sheikah close by, and at least three more that weren't seen. It was not a statement of fear for the royalty, but one of loyalty and honor by the Sheikah. They selected among their own who would guard the family, and only the best were permitted to do so.

"The Sheikah are gone now, tragically lost to the sands of time. You men, who stand before me now, cannot truly replace them. But this is not about trying to reclaim something we have lost. It is about building new for the future.

"The Hyrule you see today exists because of the peoples that were brought together long ago. The four unique cultures stand even today, but what makes Hyrule the glorious nation that it is, is that in spite of our differences, our cultures, we are a single people. Our differences do not separate us as in other lands. We celebrate our differences, and rejoice in that any people tired of living divided are welcome among us. We stand as one against any and all who would threaten our people, our ideals, or our homes."

Zelda had begun slowly walking toward the ninja, and stopped in front of Vargus. "And if you deem us worthy, my friend, I would be honored to welcome you into our home. Your home."

Vargus did not react for several seconds, then finally gave a single slow nod of his head. Zelda could help but smile. She'd managed to work the crowd up to the point they erupted into cheers at his acquiesce, but Zelda knew he had hesitated purely for the theatricality.

"Do you swear to uphold our laws and beliefs with your life? Do you swear your loyalty to Hyrule and her people, even upon pain of death? Do you swear to protect her until the day you pass into the next life?" Zelda said.

"I do," Vargus said.

One by one, she repeated the questions for each and every one of the ninty-three ninja standing before her, and each answered the same.

"Please kneel before me," Zelda said, and with one hand signaled one of the men standing behind her.

As Vargus knelt, the soldier offered Zelda the hilt of the Master Sword, his own stance almost reverant as he gripped the sheath. She pulled the blade free, the unique metallic ring echoing across the square, silencing what remained of the crowd's noise.

She turned back to Vargus, who lowered his head without a sound. Zelda turned the blade and laid the flat gently on his shoulder, then lifted it over his head to the other before pulling it away. "Rise now, Vargus, knight of Hyrule. Stand tall and stand proud. We welcome you into our home with open arms, brothers."

Zelda gave a bow of her own head, which was returned by all the ninja, and the lines of spearmen raised their weapons in the air to give a whooping shout of approval, concluding the ceremony.

She turned away from the crowd to see Counciler Rayham standing in the courtyard gate behind her. He smiled. "Well done, your highness," he congratulated her, "When you threw away the prepared speech, I was worried for a moment."

"I'm just glad it's finished," she replied, glancing back to see the crowd beginning to disperse, though many remained behind as the ninja, at first hesitant, but with growing confidence, began to spread out and mingle, as the crowd and Hylian soldiers alike began to assault them with questions about their homeland and training. "Now, if Link and the others will just get here before the rest of the council, things will be going the way I'd like them to, at least for now."

"Now, what do you intend to do with the refugees?" Rayham asked, indicating the assortment of tents set up in the castle courtyard.

Zelda sighed. "Unfortunately, they're just going to have to stay where they are for now," she said, "At least until we're able to provide a more permanent solution. Oh, no, I completely forgot about her..."

Rayham turned where she was looking. A young, blonde woman was approaching from the camp, somewhat hesitantly, until Zelda motioned her forward.

"I'm so sorry, Ilia, I completely forgot," Zelda said, "I sent messengers to the outlying villages, Ordon included. If I'd remembered, I could have sent you home with him."

"Oh, that's what I wanted to ask about," Ilia said, and with a glance at Rayham, hastily bowed her head and added, "Your highness. But I've been helping with the refugees, mainly cooking and helping with the tents. I'm actually enjoying it, I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile."

"I'm glad to hear that," Zelda said, "We need all the willing hands we can get right now."

"But would it be possible to get a message to my father?" Ilia asked, "That I'm all right?"

Zelda nodded. "I can take care of that. He'll know before the day's out."

* * *

At that time, far south of the capital, on the borders of the Lost Woods, in an insignificant, remote village barely within Hyrule's borders, a homecoming of another sort was occurring. The villagers of Ordon were as yet uninformed of the nature of their release, and the streak of light, coupled by a thunderous boom across the sky did nothing to ease their current worries, and the rumbling of the ground following only made it worse.

Rusl had wasted no time picking up his sword, saddling his horse and riding toward the point where he was sure the streak impacted. He wasn't able to move quickly through the thick foliage, but some distance away from where he believed it had landed, he reigned in his horse, slowing to a stop and listening intently.

Voices. They were too far yet to make out the words over the sound of the nearby river, but there were at least two, maybe three men. Then a woman's voice as well, and all coming closer. Rusl started to climb down from his saddle, looking for a place to tie the reigns so he could move in for a closer look when one of the voices was now close enough make out, and was instantly familiar.

"Trust me, I couldn't be lost here if I tried," Link's voice was saying, "I could find my way home from here with my eyes closed."

"It's because the river cuts right through the center of the village," said a feminine voice, also familiar to Rusl. It must have been that small creature Link had brought with him after the battle with the wizard last year.

Rusl smiled. If it was Link, maybe some answers weren't far either. He remembered the night before, that something happened, but the next he or anyone else knew was the following morning, when they apparently suddenly snapped awake from whatever it was that had happened, though the stone chips raining from their cloths, clothes worn nearly to shreds in an instant, gave him a rather strong idea. The food in their stores was another strong clue, so rotted it was. Depending on how long it had been, there likely hadn't been any carrion feeding insects to progress it further.

What had worried them most, though, was that Link and Ilia had both vanished. They'd spent nearly the entire day yesterday combing the village and surrounding area for them. Hopefully, what he was hearing was the two of them returning.

Rusl stepped around a tree into the open. Link snapped his head toward him instantly, hand reaching to his sword by reflex, though stopping when he realized who it was. "Rusl!" he shouted, suddenly throwing his arms wide.

"You've got some explaining to do, boy!" Rusl said, walking toward the group, trying to look angry but unable to hide his own smile.

"Well, I guess Link knows him," Alex said, slowly relaxing his grip on his own sword.

Rusl grunted when Link grabbed him in a powerful hug, and Silviana leaned closer to whisper to Alex, "I'd say he does, since Link never struck me as the type to hug strangers."

"Okay, easy on the rib cage," Rusl groaned, pushing Link off himself, "So... Wait... Where's Ilia?"

"In the capital," Link said without any hesitation, "The princess herself told me she's helping in the refugee camp."

"Refugee camp? Does this have something to do with what happened two days ago?" Rusl asked.

"Okay, this is going to take some explaining," Link said, "It might have been two days from your perspective, but I've actually been gone for over a year."

"A year?" Rusl said, "Well, that does explain a few things, like the food and clothing and such."

"Remember when you said you wouldn't have believed half of what happened last time if you weren't involved yourself?" Link asked, "Well, just wait until I tell you this one. In the meantime, though," he turned back to the others, "You know Midna, and these two here are Alex and Silviana, friends of mine I met over the course of this mess."

"Nice to meet you, call me Rusl," Rusl said, shaking Alex's hand.

"Alexander Ragefaust," Alex said, then paused as realization hit him, "Wait, Link has mentioned you... You're the guy who taught him to fight, right?"

"In a manner of speaking," Rusl said, "I tended to just toss him in the dirt until he figured it out himself."

"Whatever you did, he fights like a damn demon," Alex said, "Never seen anything like it."

Rusl turned to Silviana. "Oh, aren't you a pretty thing?" he asked with a smile, and gently took her hand, lifting it to kill her knuckles, "My lady.

Silviana giggled. "I'm not used to that kind of treatment," she said, pulling her hand free.

"Well, that's too bad," Rusl said.

"Moving along, married man," Link said.

"Oh, you know me better than that," Rusl said.

"They don't, though," Link said, "Anyway, this here, leading the horse, is Kilishandra."

"I wish I knew your secret to surrounding yourself with beautiful women, Link," Rusl said, but even as he approached to introduce himself to her, stopped, and suddenly with a scream of sliding steel, his sword was loose from its sheath.

Kilishandra was moving back, hand going for her own weapon, when she realized it wasn't her he was after. "Wait wait wait!" Link was shouting as Rusl aimed his sword at the unconscious form on the back of the enormous black horse.

"Talk fast, Link," Rusl said, aiming his sword at Ganondorf's throat, "What the hell is going on?"

"It's complicated!" Link said, "Like I said, I've been gone a long time and a lot has happened. Short version is we have a common enemy, and as much as I hate to say it, we need Ganondorf's help."

"It's only because it's you, Link, that I'm listening to this," Rusl said, "But have you lost all sense? Bringing this monster here? To our home?! Have you forgotten what he did?"

"Believe me, the only one who wants him dead more than me is her," Link said, pointing at Midna, "But take this as evidence of how serious what's going on is. If you'll give me a chance to tell you the whole story, you'll understand."

"Why here?" Rusl demanded, "I don't want this monster anywhere near my family, Link!"

"Enough shouting already," Ganondorf growled, pushing himself upright in the saddle. Rusl didn't back down, keeping his blade aimed at the wizard, "I've no intention of bothering your little village. It's rather irrelevant in the current events. Link and I need to go to the ruins of the Temple of Time in the nearby forest."

"The ruins..." Rusl said, glancing at Link, who nodded affirmative, and Rusl turned back to Ganondorf, "I know the ruins you speak of, wizard. And Link is going with you?"

"That's right," Ganondorf said, "As soon as we're done there, we'll be leaving for the capital. The problem is I'm barely conscious after that last jump and need to rest before we go."

"Sorry, but you're not coming into the village," Rusl said, "I'll kill you first."

"My place," Link said, "It's far enough from the rest of the village, and he won't set one foot closer."

"That works for me," Ganondorf said.

Rusl glared at Ganondorf for a moment longer before lowering his sword and returning it to his sheath with a growl of "Fine."

He nearly jumped out of his shoes when Ebony snorted and small jets of flame erupted from the stallion's nostrils. Turning to Link, Rusl repeated, "Fine. But this is on your head, Link. If he does anything to endanger any of us, so help me..."

"If he makes one wrong move, I'll kill him myself," Link said.

"And then you'll all die in a few weeks, because you won't have the slightest clue how to stop what's coming," Ganondorf said, "Enough posturing already."

"Everything we went through to stop you," Rusl growled, then turned to Link, "If it was anyone but you asking this..."

"Believe me, the sooner I can get him away from here, the better," Link said, "But he's a wreck right now, and a strong gust of wind could probably knock him out. I need him able to stand on his own when we go to the ruin."

Rusl retrieved the reigns of his own horse, glancing back at them. "You've only got the one horse, so I'll ride ahead and let the others know you're coming."

Rusl climbed into his saddle and spurred his horse without another word, riding away through the trees.

"I was a little worried for a second there," Alex said.

"That's probably going to be the typical reaction to Ganondorf wherever we go now," Link said, glancing up at the wizard, who was already dozing off again, even sitting upright in the saddle.

Kilishandra had remained silent during the exchange, but only now took her hand off her sword. She kept her thoughts to herself, though she glanced between the dwindling shape of Rusl and up at Ganondorf as they started walking again.

A mere twenty minutes found them entering the clearing just north of the village, and Link was pointing to the tree in which his house was built among the branches. The tree itself was one of the largest most of them had ever seen, with a trunk nearly fifteen feet in diameter and branches seeming to reach endlessly toward the sky.

"You live in a tree..." Alex said, "You got a problem with gravity or something?"

"No, we just didn't want to block the clearing with a house," Link said, "It's a lot bigger than it looks on the outside, and the trunk is hallowed out as the basement."

"I am not climbing up there," Ganondorf muttered as he slid from Ebony's back.

"Well then, Midna, get him a bedroll and he can sleep out here," Link said, "Maybe we'll be lucky and he'll get snake-bit."

"One can hope," Midna said, her red hair shaping into the glowing red hand and producing one of the bedrolls as if from thin air, and she laid it down near the tree trunk.

"Now just to be clear," Link said as Ganondorf sank down on the bedroll, "You're staying right here until we leave."

"Don't worry, I'll behave," Ganondorf said, "I'm not going anywhere until tomorrow at least in any case. Go feed yourselves, say hi to your friends, or whatever. And when you do get food, bring me some."

"Will you be all right by yourself?" Kilishandra asked.

"I've been by myself longer than any of you have been alive," Ganondorf replied.

"Not what I asked, but okay..." Kilishandra muttered.

"Come on, the village is this way," Link said, motioning for the others to follow him down the path toward the sound of the river. It took another moment before he suddenly realized he was being hypocritical, since he didn't want Ganondorf any closer to the village than necessary, yet he hadn't thought twice about inviting Kilishandra in.

But then again, he was much more comfortable around her than he had ever expected to be. If her loyalty was put to the test, he wasn't sure whose side she'd be on, but so long as that question hadn't come up, he felt she was safe enough.

The group was barely over the hill and within sight of the village proper when they saw the gathering group waiting for them. Bo, the enormous bear of a man who was the village mayor turned when Rusl pointed toward them. Like also saw Hanch, Jaggle, and Pergie waiting near the river edge, and of course the children, Talo, Malo, Beth, and Collin.

"Rusl tells me you know what happened," Bo said as Link approached, not waiting for anyone else or bothering with pleasantries, "First thing's first, though. Ilia's in the capital?"

"Yes, Bo," Link said, "She's fine. She's helping with the refugees."

"I'm quite eager to hear the whole story, but introduce everyone first," Bo said.

It took several minutes as the introductions were made all around, as Alex, Silviana, and Kilishandra exchanged greetings with Jaggle, the village woodcutter, his wife Pergie, and Hanch, the owner of the local supply shop, as well as the four children.

"The ones that aren't here are Sera, Hanch's wife, and..." Link was suddenly cut off by a loud shout over the village.

"HEEEEEEEEEEY! Got a goat loose!" came the shout.

"Well, that would be Fado at the ranch," Link said with a sigh.

Sure enough as the gathered group turned in the direction of the ranch, a large horned goat was charging down the path as fast as its hooves can carry it. "Link, you're the fastest runner..." Bo said.

"I got it," Link said, dashing into the path, directly in front of the goat.

"That thing's as big as he is!" Alex said, "It's gonna trample him!"

Link reached up with both hands, grabbing the goat's horns, twisting them and stepping to the left, and used the goat's own momentum to hurl it around to the right, landing it heavy on its side, knocking the wind and fight from it in one move.

"He's obviously done that a few times," Kilishandra commented.

The goat was slowly climbing to its feet, clearly disoriented and dizzy. Fado was visible at the far end of the path leading to the ranch, and had stopped running when he saw Link had the goat. "Go on now," Link said, smacking the goat on the rump, causing it to start walking rather slowly back toward the ranch, "Get back where you belong."

"I swear, that man's helpless without you, Link," Bo said.

"Well, unfortunately, we're only going to be here a couple days at most," Link said, "After I'm done in the forest ruins, we're going to be heading for the capital."

"Well you have time to at least eat first, right?" came a woman's voice from nearby.

Coming up the path alongside the river, from the opposite direction of the ranch, was Uli, Rusl's wife, and riding in the carrier strapped to her back was Sarah, their one-year-old daughter.

"Actually, are you all right on food?" Link asked, "Rusl mentioned the stores were rotted."

"They were, but what was in the fields, as well as the animals, were all fine," Bo said, "We're not going to be shipping as many of the beef cattle to market as we had expected, since we had to slaughter a few more yesterday to feed ourselves, but we're fine for ourselves. Depending on how far this strangeness reached, I'd be more worried about the people in the city."

"From what I saw, it covered the whole country," Link said, "Come on, let's go somewhere we can sit down and I'll tell you the whole story."

"Well, it's almost time to start lunch," Uli said, "Come along, Collin, I'll need help if I'm cooking for four extra mouths."

"Speaking of which, Beth, you'd better get home to help your mother," Hanch said, "I'm going up to the ranch real fast to see if I can help Fado clean up whatever other mess he might have made by now."

Talo and Malo were also dragged away by their parents, much to the disappointment of all four children that they had no part in the conversation.

As Uli walked past Kilishandra, back toward her house, she paused. "Do you have something other than that armor to wear?" she asked, "It can't be comfortable to wear all the time, especially if you're going to be here overnight."

Kilishandra glanced down at her breastplate and greaves. "No, actually," she said, "This was all I brought with me."

"We can fix that," Uli said, "Come with me. I don't have any leggings your size, but I think one of my longer skirts could manage knee-length on you. Let's go have a look."

Kilishandra hesitated, looking over at Link. "Go ahead," he said, "Rusl and I are going to Bo's house, so we can sit down and explain this."

"And us?" Alex asked, gesturing to himself and Silviana.

"Oh, you come along too," Uli said, "If you want, you can help with the meal."

"A fresh meal that doesn't involve dried bread and meat?" Silviana asked, "Try to stop me."

"Hell, I feel like dumping what's left in the river for the fish," Alex said.

"YO! Don't waste food!" came a shout from Jaggle, not yet out of earshot.

* * *

"So what's that?" Alex asked as Uli scooped a generous portion of a thick, creme-like substance into the skillet hanging over the fire.

"Fat from the beef we butchered yesterday," Uli replied, "You can't cook this kind of meal in a dry pan. It will just burn the outside and leaves the inside raw."

Uli, Alex, and Silviana were seated outside the front of Uli and Rusl's house, with an open fire for cooking the meal. Silviana was in the process of peeling a clove of garlic, which Uli took the smaller pieces of and dices on a wooden cutting board before tossing them into a bowl of flour, which she then kneaded with a pestle to spread the juice and flavor through it. Little Sarah had fallen asleep in the carrier, so Uli had taken her inside to put in the crib.

"Now, we have fresh eggs from this morning," Uli said, cracking six into another bowl, then using a whisk to smash the yolks and mix them into a single yellow paste, and she threw a handful of ground pepper and salt into it and mixed it together.

"Never seen beef that needs eggs," Alex commented.

"Oh, you'll understand," Uli said, picking up one of the already cut steaks from the nearby plate, "And keep in mind, these have already had the bones removed. Looks like the fat is getting hot enough.

She laid the steak first in the bowl of eggs, turning it over to ensure a thick coating, then quickly moved it into the bowl of flour, causing the flour to stick thickly to the eggs, and turning it over to completely cover the steak in the flour, and from there moved it into the pan with a satisfying sizzling in the hot fat.

"Oh, boy, I can tell already, this is going to be rich," Alex said.

"You look like you get plenty of exercise," Uli said, "I'm sure you'll be fine."

She repeated the process with the rest of the steaks and soon had a pan full of sizzling breaded meat, and a pleasant aroma drifting out from the fire.

"Collin, do you have the potatoes?" Uli asked.

"Huh?" he asked, looking over at her, turning away from the window into the house.

"Collin, get away from that window!" Uli said, "The potatoes!"

"Oh, yeah!" he said, quickly scooping up the bowl from near his feet, full to the brim with peeled potatoes cut into long strips.

"Boys that age," Uli said, shaking her head in mock disapproval, "Can't let a girl even change her clothes in peace."

Collin sheepishly handed her the bowl.

"Oh, it's all right," Uli said, "Your father was the same way before we were married. Hell, he's the same way now."

The door to the house opened and Kilishandra stepped out, now dressed in a knee-length red skirt and white sleeveless blouse.

"Oh, how about that, she looks like a girl for once!" Alex said.

"I can still burn you to a cinder in seconds," Kilishandra growled.

"I think it looks good on you," Uli said, "Mainly it should be lighter and more comfortable than the armor and padded clothing underneath."

"It is, thank you," Kilishandra said, "I'm just not used to wearing skirts. It's a bit airier than I'd like."

Uli nudged Collin, whose eyes had been transfixed on Kilishandra since she stepped out the door. "Stop staring, it's not polite. Run and find your father and Link, tell them it's almost ready."

"Uh, okay," Collin said, keeping his eyes on Kilishandra even as he started to move, until he broke into a run and was forced to watch where he was going.

Uli chuckled as she turned the steaks over with a knife. "I think someone has a crush on you," she said.

Kilishandra smiled a bit as she sat down on the porch, remembering a second later to cross her legs to conceal herself under the skirt. "Well, I'll have to break it to him that I prefer someone old enough to grow a beard," she said.

"Well, he's not that far off," Uli said, "He's old enough Rusl has started teaching him to use a sword."

Uli tested the steaks with her knife and deciding they were done, moved them from the skillet onto a plate, sitting it aside so she could take the bowl of potatoes and dump the lot into the already popping and sizzling fat, and stirred the mass until it was spread out to cook evenly.

"Actually, I'm curious," Uli said, looking up from it, "Link introduced you as his friends. How did you all meet?"

"Well, I met him on the ship going over the ocean," Alex said, "Ran into him again later and got into a fight with him. I beat him, but the next morning he came back and planted my face in the dirt quite effectively. After that I went home and the war started, and I met up with him again later. Been kind of following him around since."

"Oh, no amazing story of pulling him from a dragon's mouth?" Uli asked.

"No," Alex said, "I learned a while back I'm not the type for real heroics. I just get pointed in the right direction when the fighting starts."

"And staying behind to fight a horde of monsters to give the rest of us time to finish in the tower wasn't heroic?" Silviana asked, nudging him with her elbow.

"I didn't actually expect to get out of that alive," Alex said, and reached over to put his arm around her shoulders, "And I've got good reason to not test my luck again."

"You've been awfully quiet, though," Uli said, looking toward Silviana even as she stirred the potatoes.

"Well, there is a reason for that," Silviana said, "You have to understand, where I came from, people like me, pretty much based solely on our skin color, were second class citizens or slaves. I've still got the mark on my shoulder where I was branded as a man's property."

"There's still slavery in the world?" Uli asked, "I can't believe someone would do that to another person."

"Not legal slavery, anyway, as far as I know," Silviana said, "I was rescued by a law enforcement group called the Judges. Later I was allowed to join their ranks, though my approach was somewhat different. I lived alone in a forest in which bandits had been known to raid from. I kept the roads safe and helped the local villages. Yet even after they came to know me, I could see in their eyes that they did not trust me, and did not want me around."

"The weirdest part is dark elves like Sil here are extremely rare these days," Alex said, "So it's likely these people had never even met one before her."

Uli stirred the potatoes again. "Well, I think when people are taught to believe something like racism, it takes a strange root," Uli said, "These people knew you, knew you were a good person, and yet were still unable to shake the feelings. That's what racism is all about, I think. So that even when people have been proven wrong, they can't shake the feelings. Well, you've certainly got nothing to worry about in that regard here. The worst I might tell you is that gray really isn't your color."

"Oh, the outfit," Silviana said, "I haven't had a chance to change into something else. I don't wear it for looks, it's for effect. Camouflage. I wear gray in the dark, different shades of green and brown when I'm in the woods, depending on what time of year it is, and in winter snow, white is most effective."

"Why gray for the dark, though?" Uli asked, "Why not black?"

"Because in what is considered 'pitch black,' such as a moonless, starless night, or indoors with no light, black casts a well defined silhouette," Silviana said, "When it's so dark that even someone whose eyes have properly adjusted can barely see, a black outfit will have very clear, sharp edges and be very easy to see movement of. Gray, however, casts a much less sharp silhouette. Essentially, it's blurry and harder to make out."

"Well, those ninja all wear black leather," Alex commented, "Maybe you should give them some pointers."

"The ninja have a different approach," Silviana said, "I prefer to remain undetected entirely, and they're mainly worried about remaining unnoticed until it's too late for the person they're sneaking up on."

"So what about Link?" Uli asked, "How did you meet him?"

"Well, he was coming through the forest I was watching," Silviana said, "Some people working for the bad guys kidnapped one of his friends, and I helped a bit in the rescue. When they told me what was going on, what was coming, I couldn't simply sit still."

"Link has a way of bringing out the best in people, it seams," Uli said, "So what about you?"

Kilishandra remember Rusl's reaction to Ganondorf, and wondered if stating she was his adopted daughter would go over similarly. "Why so curious?" she asked.

"Well, because he grew up in my house and I'm as close to a real mother as he has, for a start," Uli said, "So, please forgive me for intruding, but I do like to know a bit of what he's doing and who he's with."

"All right, might as well hold nothing back," Kilishandra said, "I met him in Darimar, during the war. I had recently be saved from a curse on my life by my father, and changed sides by swearing loyalty to Princess Zelda, so I'm now effectively a soldier of Hyrule."

"You changed sides in a war?" Uli asked.

"Yes," Kilishandra said, "It's a bit more complicated than it sounds. I was forced to endure a curse that would kill me if I betrayed them, and was led into this world under false pretenses. I believed we were going to take the lands for our people, before the blight kills them all, but the real intentions of Khall and Tharkus were to utterly destroy everyone in this world and... I just couldn't go through with that. War for land, resources, might be able to be justified in some way, but pure, unadulterated genocide...

"I just wish I'd changed sides sooner, before I made so many horrible choices."

"Well, if Link trusts you..." Uli said, looking up as Collin came running back at nearly a full sprint, "Goodness, Collin, calm down. You didn't have to hurry like that."

"Dad and Link are-" Collin paused as his voice cracked embarrassingly, and he shot the briefest glance in Kilishandra's direction, and cleared his throat before continuing, in a forced lower pitch of his voice, "Dad and Link are on the way."

His effort caused Kilishandra and Silviana to fight back laughter. Alex made no effort to fight it back, letting out a chuckle.

"Come here, start making up plates," Uli said, as she began moving the fried potatoes into a colander to drain the extra fat from them.

Collin did as he was told, and plates were passed out to the others when Rusl and Link arrived with Midna close behind. "Oh, that smells good," Rusl said, leaning down to give Uli a quick kiss before finding a seat.

"So how'd the story turn out?" Uli asked as Collin handed his father a plate with a steak and generous helping of potatoes.

"Long and convoluted," Rusl said, "I'll tell you later after I think about it some more."

"Hey, hey!" Uli said as Link started to seat himself on the porch, "Don't you sit down until you give me a hug, boy!"

"Oh, sorry," Link said, a grin appearing on his face as he moved over to Uli and embracing her, "Gods, I did miss you, and everyone else."

"I do worry about you, Link," Uli said, "And none of us knew what happened..."

"Don't worry," Link said, "So long as I'm able to come home, my home is here."

"I need a plate to take to my father," Kilishandra said as Link released her.

"I can do it faster and easier," Midna said, "Give it to me and I'll be right back."

"Are you sure?" Link asked.

"Relax Link," Midna said, "In the condition he's in, he wouldn't be able to take me."

Collin slowly handed Midna the plate, who nodded, then suddenly shot upward into the air, and was heading to the north end of the village, where Link's treehouse was.

She slowed down, descending into the clearing. Ganondorf was exactly where he had been left, lying on the bedroll in the shade of the tree, his eyes closed as he slept, regaining his considerably strength.

An odd thought suddenly struck Midna. Here was the man behind so much pain, not only for Hyrule, but for her people, and herself. She looked down at herself, the shrunken, small body, covered in a light layer of hair. It was him that did this to her in the first place. And when this was over... what then? Would he go on his way, or possibly once again try to take Hyrule for himself?

It would be so easy, she thought. He was completely helpless right now, right in front of her. She didn't have the considerable power the mask had granted her, fearful of the monster within the mask, but when she made and effort...

It was not the black lightning that emerged from her hand, but more like a small blade. The same strange color that seemed to suck all the light from the surrounding area. She could feel it tingle in her palm. They were alone, and no one could stop her, not even him. Her jaw ached from how tightly she clenched her teeth as she drifted closer to where he lay.

What he had done recently, it wasn't enough to make up for the horrors he had caused. For the pain he had given so many. And he had just threatened her life, hadn't he? He'd done it to cow Link into submission, and if she hadn't intervened, she was certain Link would not have backed down.

Keeping him around was growing more dangerous by the day. The black blade from her hand hummed softly.

Ganondorf's eyes suddenly shot open, looking straight up at her. Her heart nearly leaped out of her chest, and she moved back a bit. He started to sit up, and his eyes fell to the black blade.

He smiled. The act only made her angrier.

"Is this how it ends?" he asked, "To be murdered by you while I'm weak and helpless? Well, if you intend to take my head, you'd best do it now. I guarantee you'll never have a better opportunity."

"Gods, I want to," Midna said, "You sure as hell deserve it."

"Maybe I do," Ganondorf said, "But then just ask yourself if you think you can handle what's yet to come without me. Link and I have both met the bitch directly, and she was too much for either of us."

"Link always manages to find something," Midna said.

"He has in the past, but will he this time?" Ganondorf asked, "Do you believe in your hero so greatly that you are willing to remove the only other one who might be able to find a way to stop her?"

Midna was silent a moment, her breath hissing through her clenched teeth as she desperately through for something, anything, that would prove him wrong. Finding nothing, she grasped at what she knew was a pointless straw, "My people, and the people of Hyrule deserve justice..."

"Is this justice, though?" Ganondorf asked, "Killing a man in his bed, when he is too weak to fight back? Is that justice, or is it simple revenge?"

"This is not just about me," Midna protested.

"Oh, but it is," Ganondorf said, "You know the plan, the agreement, and here you stand, ready to kill me anyway. Don't be ashamed. I actually rather like revenge. It's simple and easy to understand. No room for doubt. You want me dead because of what I did to you. Here, let me sit up. I'll even give you a clear shot at my neck."

His behavior was only even more infuriating. Midna cocked back her hand, fully ready to strike his head from his shoulders with one stroke. It was a sudden snap realization that stopped her.

What would Link do here? This was for the benefit of the world. If this man was allowed to live, and survived the coming conflict, he wouldn't change. He'd just go out and do it again, hurting so many more. So many that could be spared such pain right now, if she ended his life.

Midna slowly lowered her hand. No. Link wouldn't kill him. There was a difference between killing and murder. This was murder, no doubt. Link kept his own hatred under control when it mattered, and she needed to as well.

The black blade vanished, the tingle fading from her hand as she released the magic.

"I knew you wouldn't go through with it," Ganondorf said.

"I don't think it's the for the same reason you do," Midna said, "I won't kill you here because I'm better than that. I'm better than you."

"If that makes you feel better," Ganondorf said.

"Here's your damn food," Midna said, handing him the plate, "Try not to choke on it. It'd only make me happy."

"Oh, boy, this looks rich," Ganondorf said.

Midna floated upward and away without another word, heading back into the village.

"I wish the world was as black and white as the old legends made it out to be," she muttered, "This would be so much easier if it were."


	126. Chapter 125

It seems utterly ludicrous now that I was estimating being finished at this point. I've got a couple more sub-plots to work through before we get to big finale, but they're simultaneous, and work with the main plot advancing, instead of being side-stops along the way. Honestly, I'm going to be kind of sad when this is finally over. Even though I'll be moving on to new stories, this one has been part of my life for nearly seven years now. Maybe that's why I'm dragging it out a little bit with shorter chapters at a time.

**Chapter 125: Setting the Stage**

The hours following the ceremony, the city resumed its daily routine, as best it was able. The princess's warning the previous day caused a sudden influx of fearful attendance to the churches. Such was typical of mankind, to become fearful for the next life only when they saw it looming near.

Not far from the central square, the largest church in the kingdom was filled to capacity as nearly eight hundred men, women, and children filled the pews, the hall filled with the sound of each holding their own conversations with their neighbors, some focused on the recent ceremony in the square, but the more popular gossip centered on the fact more and more of the food stores around the city, both privately owned and merchants' stores, were turning up filled with rotten mush. Though no official word had been released, the assumption was that the royal stores were the same.

The conversations began to quiet as the bishop entered from the far end of the room, his white robes swirling behind him as he took his place at the podium before them all. He opened the large, waiting book to one of the page markers, taking a breath to begin, looking up, and stopped.

Two sights were before him. The first were the three figures walking slowly down the aisle in the center of the massive hall, their footsteps echoing in the massive chamber, but their visages hidden by the heavy cloaks and dark hoods. The second sight was that every member of the congregation was now staring blankly ahead at nothing.

"Who are you?" the bishop demanded.

"This one has taken priestly vows," said one of the figures. It was an older woman's voice, likely in her sixties or even older.

"And that means...?" prompted a man's voice from the center figure of the three.

"He is immune to our suggestions," said the woman.

"Too bad for him," said the man.

Before the bishop could respond, the center figure's cloak flew off as the man dashed forward, crossing the distance between them in seconds, leaping over the podium as the bishop backed away, snatching hold of the bishop's robes with one hand.

"Dear goddesses..." the bishop whispered at the sight before him.

The man's face was horribly scarred, the entire left side covered in a single massive burn scar, surrounded by hair white as snow, but most disconcerting was his left eye. It was nearly four times the size as the other, and bright red with a dark, emerald iris, surrounding a large pupil as black as the void.

The bishop's hand clutched the holy symbol hanging from his wrist. "Golden goddesses, protect your faithful..." he whispered, and was interrupted as Zero placed a finger on his lips to silence him.

"They don't care," Zero whispered.

The bishop did not get a chance to scream as Zero's hand moved to his throat, and with one motion, squeezed it shut, and the sound of his neck snapping echoed across the room.

The bishop fell to the floor as Zero dropped him, completely paralyzed and unable to draw even the slightest breath. "We have two hours before the mass is supposed to be over," Zero said, turning to the other figures, "Start your brainwashing."

"We will be ready in time," one of the two witches said, pushing back her hood and smoothing her gray hair around her aged face, "The princess will never expect the attack to come from her own people."

The poor bishop's life was rapidly ebbing away, and the darkness closing in, despair taking his heart as he watched the witches moving to the people, who still merely stared blankly toward the front of the room. The last words he heard were Zero saying, "Walpurgis Night is only a few weeks away. This will all be coming to an end very soon."

"Watch the moon," the witch said, "When it is completely black is the night we can act."

* * *

"Look at 'em go," Alex muttered, "How anyone can work like that after that meal, I'll never know."

He, Silviana, and Kilishandra watched from the fence around the ranch as the villagers returned to work. Rusl had commented to Link about the six calves from the cattle herd needing brands, and Link had practically leaped at the suggestion. The calves had already been separated from the herd and locked in the fenced-in area of the ranch. It was too large an area to chase them down on foot, but as soon as they group moved into the area, Epona had come at a trot and butt her head into Link's chest, and he had no choice but to respond to the horse's affection with scratches around her ears and along her neck.

Kilishandra almost didn't believe her eyes. The mare was nearly as large as Ebony, but certainly all of this world, and as she watched, the mare was hellaciously agile for a beast her size. The horse was able to keep up with the much smaller, and much faster turning calves, getting close enough for Link to leap right out of the saddle, coming down with his arm over their necks and dragging them to the ground with his weight, sliding to a halt in the dirt as Fado and Rusl rushed over to help hold the animal, which was already nearly twice Link's weight and he couldn't hold down alone.

Link did his best to bring them down as close to the fire as he could, where the branding irons were heated to a red hot glow, and taken from the fire to the downed calf to burn the mark of ownership into its right hip. Uli was tending the fire while Jaggle handled the branding, and Collin was close by, watching everything though he wasn't yet big enough to help. Or so he thought.

"Hey, let Collin do this one," Link suggested as Jaggle approached with the hot iron.

"Me? Why?" Collin asked.

"You're old enough for your dad to kick you around and knock you in the dirt like he did me," Link said with a grin, "You can learn to do this. I did too."

"You learned on goats, though," Rusl said from where he lay all his weight in the middle of the three hundred and something pound animal, "We didn't have cattle back then."

"Well, there's less hair to set on fire," Link said, adjusting his grip on the calf's neck as it bellowed unhappily.

"You got a hold on it, Fado?" Rusl asked, looking at the muscled youth with both arms around the animal's hind legs, holding them tight against his chest as he lay on the ground behind it.

"He's not going anywhere," Fado said.

"All right, then," Rusl said, "Collin, take the iron, and Jaggle, show him how to do it."

"You'd never catch me doing this kind of work," Alex said as Jaggle guided Collin, and soon there was a plume of smoke accompanied by the bawling complaint of the struggling animal.

"Because you're a lazy city-slicker?" Silviana asked with an amused smile.

"No, because of what's next," Alex said as the irons were returned to the fire and Jaggle drew a knife, telling Collin to watch closely, "That animal's a bull and it's about to be a steer."

The look on Collin's face made it evident he was even less enthused about the process, even as he watched.

"Actually, I like this place," Kilishandra said, turning around to rest her back against the fence, looking back down the hill toward the center of town, "It's small enough that everyone knows everyone else, and far enough out of the way that it will stay that way, and fairly quiet. I could see myself staying in a place like this..."

"Well, the food's amazing," Midna commented as she appeared from the side, sitting on the top of the fence, facing the working group as Jaggle was now demonstrating to Collin how to apply the powdered plant substance he simply called "blood-stopper." "But you have to admit," Midna went on, "it would get fairly boring after a while."

"I'd be more surprised to see a sorceress like her living in a farm hamlet like this," Alex said.

"Sorceress..." Kilishandra muttered, "Only thing my magic is good for is killing. At least there's honesty in this kind of work."

"Killing, when done righteously, is just a chore, like any other," said Bo as he approached the group, causing all four to look up at him. The enormous man moved surprisingly quietly for someone his size. "Rusl told me that once," he said, moving up to the fence and leaning both hands on top of it, "I told him that was just an excuse a killer would use. That was when I first met the man, in the capital. The entire reason we live so far out of the way as we do is to be outside the problems of the kingdom. That was before he saved my life, and my wife's life.

"We were on our way home after selling what we could in the capital, and were bringing back the supplies we'd purchased, and were attacked on the road by a group of bandits," Bo went on, "Now, I'm not exactly a pushover. Wasn't back then, either. There were at least fifteen of them, though, and were much better armed. I was stabbed several times, had at least five arrows sticking out of my back, and was bleeding out. I'd taken down at least three. Snapped the necks of two and crushed the ribs of at least one other, but they overwhelmed me, and was blacking out. Last thing I heard was the things they were saying they were going to do to my wife...

"I didn't expect to wake up again, and was rather shocked when I did. It was the next day, I was bandaged up, and Rusl had been the one to save us. My wife told me he'd taken the archers by surprise, cutting their throats one by one, and then waded into the rest of the group like a man possessed. Every stroke of his sword caused showers of blood, she said, without a single wasted move on his part. It was over in just seconds. Rusl escorted us the rest of the way home, and when he was leaving, I finally brought myself to thank him. Let's say in a very short time, I'd learned what he meant about killing righteously, and promised him that he'd be welcome in my home any time.

"It was about three years later he showed up here again with Uli, and they were looking for a place to stay. And they just never left."

"Okay..." Alex said, "Not sure why you're telling us this..."

"It's not for you, boy," Bo said, taking his hands from the fence and walking over in front of Kilishandra, "I've been thinking on what Link told me a few hours ago. He told me who you are, and the things you've done."

"I understand if you don't want me here," Kilishandra said, "When we leave, I won't be back."

"Link also told me that he trusts you," Bo said, "He said there are moments when you let your defenses down, and he can see the kindness, and sadness, in your eyes. In fact, he told me you're not dangerous."

"That part at least isn't true," Kilishandra said, "I'm actually a very dangerous person."

"Rusl is a dangerous man," Bo said, "Link is a dangerous man. I am a dangerous man. But in all three cases, it depends on who you are, and what your intentions are. I can crush a man's throat in one hand," he held up his enormous hand, clenching it into a fist for emphasis, "But you see Collin over there? The other three children fishing in the river right now? I held all of them in my arms as babes. Their mothers trusted a man like me with their helpless children. As dangerous as I am to the wrong kind of person, I'm as harmless as a big teddy bear to them. You couldn't make me hurt them. Do you understand my meaning?"

"I'm fairly sure I do," Kilishandra said, "It's the difference between the acts I am physically capable of, compared to what I will actually do."

"Exactly," Bo said, "It's your intentions that matter, and Link, for whatever reason, trusts your intentions."

"And you?"

"I haven't made up my mind yet," Bo said, "I don't see what he says he has in your eyes. All I see is an emotionless rock. The defense you put up that he mentioned. I'll trust his judgment for now. But the same goes for pretty much any stranger in our home: You hurt anyone here, and I mean anyone, and you'll regret it."

"I'm not going to cause trouble," Kilishandra said.

"Then we'll have no problem," Bo said, turning back to the group in the pen, who were finally letting the beleaguered former bull to its feet, "I wasn't exactly eavesdropping, but I did hear your comment about staying in a place like this and honest work. If you'd like to help, there are still chores to be done this afternoon. If nothing else, Uli might like some help. She said she's going to make a batch of butter this afternoon, and an extra set of hands to run the churn might be appreciated."

"I'll think about it," Kilishandra said.

Bo looked up, moving around her to the fence, and she turned to see Link approaching them on foot. "Something wrong?" Bo asked.

"No, just taking a short break," Link said, "We've only got two left to do, and I think both of them are heifers, so at least there won't be any more blood."

"Good," Bo said, "In a few weeks, we'll be able to run a decent number up to sell as beef. Hope the cities last that long without food."

"They should still have their dried stores," Link said, "Speaking of which, out of curiosity, how's your store?"

"Your store?" Alex asked, glancing at Bo.

Bo, of course, knew exactly what Link meant. "What was in the stills is a total loss. Not all bad, since the batch I'd just put in casks to cure is pretty much ready to drink now."

"Oh, your secret brewery I've heard so much about," Midna said.

"Not exactly secret," Bo said, "It's not illegal to brew the stuff without a license, just to sell without one. And mine doesn't get sold, it gets consumed."

"He's been trying for six years now to recreate a recipe he forgot to write down," Link said, "Hasn't had the success yet."

Bo chuckled. "If I could figure out how to make beer like that regularly, it'd be worth paying for a license to sell it."

"Don't know if I'd let them have it," Link said, "That was good beer. And the blindness was temporary."

"Wait, what?" Alex asked, turning directly to Link.

"He's kidding," Midna said.

"Hey, Link!" Rusl called from by the fire, "Come on, let's finish up!"

"All right, coming," Link shouted back, and whistled as he turned away from the fence, causing Epona to immediately start toward him, and in a moment, he was back in the saddle and moving to the group of calves, ready to single out another.

"Well, I need to get back to work, too," Bo said, "I'll talk to you all later. Nice to meet you two as well," he added to Alex and Silviana as he turned and walked away.

"He has a way of making you feel unwelcome, then goes right back to being friendly, doesn't he?" Midna asked, glancing at Kilishandra.

"Actually, it's completely understandable," Kilishandra said, ignoring the obvious barb in Midna's comment, "Though he has me curious now. Rusl and Uli came here, needing someplace to stay, apparently just for a while, and then just never left. I wonder where they were actually going back then..."

"Does it matter?" Alex asked.

"Maybe they just decided they liked the place," Silviana said, "I could actually see myself staying here."

"You could?" Alex asked.

"Well, maybe somewhere on the edge of town," Silviana said, "It's a nice forest around here, but when it comes to it, the only defense they've got against raiders would be Rusl and Link, if Link is here. It's a lot of ground to cover for one person, too..."

"Well," Alex said turning back toward the village center, "I think I could get used to something like that."

"Sorry," Midna said, "It seems kind of strange that you two are making plans like that, and apparently are going to get married, and I'm not sure you've even kissed each other before."

"Now that you mention it..." Alex said, but was quickly cut off.

"And he's not going to get one until he shaves that off," Silviana pointed at Alex's several weeks' worth of beard.

"Aw, now you're breaking my heart," Alex said, "I mean, we've been on the road..."

"Link's kept himself clean-shaven," Silviana pointed out.

"I guess I need to get a folding razor I can keep in my boot, then," Alex muttered.

"Were you serious?" Midna asked, moving a bit closer to Kilishandra and lowering her voice, "About this being the kind of place you'd want to live?"

"Given a choice, yes," Kilishandra said, "I'm not fond of city noise or large crowds. I guess it's kind of like my claustrophobia. I feel closed-in when I'm in a crowd. But you'd get bored, you said?"

"I didn't say that exactly," Midna said.

"Well, by the looks of Link, he intends to stay," Kilishandra said.

"For a while," Midna said, "The thing about Link, he loves adventures. That look in his eye when this started. In spite of all the bad things happening, he was excited by the prospect. He'll only be able to sit still for so long. This will always be his home, and he'll always come back here. But if adventures don't find him, he'll go out looking for them eventually."

"Wanderlust," Kilishandra said, "That won't last. By the time he's thirty, maybe a little later, he'll start to settle down. Probably want to have kids. Where does that leave you?"

Midna shot her a glare. "My home with is with Link, no matter what," she said.

"Well, hopefully you'll be able to get that little problem of yours fixed soon," Kilishandra said, not elaborating further, but her meaning obvious.

"Link is not that shallow," Midna growled, "He even sees good in you, though I'm having a damn hard time right now."

"Sorry, I'm not trying to get under your skin," Kilishandra said, "Just being realistic."

"Next time, keep it to yourself," Midna said, standing up on the fence, then levitating herself and floating away, to vanish into a shadow of a nearby tree.

Kilishandra turned back to the pen, where Link had tackled the next calf and the others were rushing over to finish the job. She actually hadn't intended to try to get under Midna's skin, or make her doubt her relationship with Link, but now that it was over...

Kilishandra watched Link where he lay with his arms around the animal's neck, leaning his weight down on its shoulders as Rusl and Fado helped hold it down, and thought to herself again, yes, I could stay in a place like this. But in the end, it might not matter anyway. One thing she was constantly reminded of was that it was not over yet, and she might not even survive to worry about where she would live. In fact, considering who she knew was among the surviving refugees, it might not matter if she did survive, considering what she knew they'd want, and if the princess intended to maintain her standing, she would have to do something with her.

* * *

Some distance from Ordon, a life was ending at that moment. With a scream, the witch was pushed back onto her dining table, the knife twisting in her chest, the long blade pushing out her back and digging into the wood of the table. Her flesh began to twist, drying grotesquely and turning green, sucking in on her bones before crumbling to dust, and in a few seconds, all that remained was a skeleton draped in the clothing she had been wearing, laying in a pile of dust.

Sibette released her grip on the knife, backing away from her grisly work, taking a deep breath, then dusting off her clothes. "Sorry, sister," she said, "I haven't lived this long by falling for weak stories like that."

The one member of her coven that she had believed remained outside of Zero's influence had been lying in wait for her, an offer in one hand, and a knife in the other if she refused. The witch covens were now officially dead, all except for her. And thanks to Ganondorf, her soul was free.

"Let's see now," Sibette said to herself, "I can run and hide, wait for all this to blow over and hope for the best. But if it doesn't, I'm dead anyway. There won't be any place left to hide from that monster when the whole world burns. Unless I jump to another plane of reality...

"On the other hand, though, Hyrule represents the best chance to stop this mess in its tracks. If they are prepared, the tide of darkness will break on the kingdom's walls like water on rock. If the so called 'heroes' win, I will be the only witch left in the world, and my soul is free... And if their princess owes me a favor for my aid..."

Sibette smiled to herself, turning to the shelves of supplies, looking through what her former sister had, looking for anything she might need or at least be able to use. In another moment, she found the trapdoor leading down into the basement. A similar magic circle to her own was set up, along with several animal cages on the far wall. She lifted a torch from its bracket, moving over to the cages and shining the light into the bars.

One cage held a young girl, about twelve years old, who moved away, pressing herself against the back wall in an effort to get as far away from the witch as possible.

"Well my dear, I could leave you here to starve," Sibette said, "Or I could be especially cruel and just let you loose in the wild. No, I know what I'll do with you. No sense letting you go to waste, after all, and I won't have the time or the freedom for this sort of thing in the capital."

* * *

"Hey, what are you doing in here?" Link asked, stepping across the threshold into his treehouse. Midna was sitting on the edge of the dining table, her back to the door.

"Oh," she said, turning to look over her shoulder, "You were looking for me?"

"Um, yeah," Link said, annoyance creeping into his voice, "You just disappeared and no one had seen you. If you hadn't been in here, I was going to start asking questions of a certain wizard."

"Sorry," Midna said, turning away from him, "I just needed some time alone."

"What happened?" Link asked, moving over to the table.

"Nothing important," Midna said, and sighed, "I just... I let something get to me that I shouldn't have. It doesn't matter."

"Hey," Link moved around her, kneeling down so he was at eye level with her, "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"I know," Midna said, "But it's really not important. I just needed some time alone."

"Okay," Link said, standing up, "If you change your mind, I'll be here."

"Hey, when this is all over, you'll be coming back here, right?" Midna asked, "Back home?"

"Well, yeah," Link said, "Why would I go anywhere else?"

"You won't get bored? Want to see more of the world?" Midna asked.

"Eventually, I think," Link said, "There's still plenty out there to see and do. Given a choice, it'd be when the world's not trying to fall to pieces around us for once. Why? What's bringing all this on?"

Midna lifted herself up, floating just above the table so that her face was even with Link's. She tried to keep her expression straight. "Your home is here," she said, "My home is with you, wherever that might be. I want you to know that."

"Are you sure okay?" Link asked.

"I'm fine," Midna said, "I love you, Link."

Link couldn't help but smile. "Till the end of time," he whispered, putting one arm around her and hugging her to his chest.

"Now," he said as they parted, "There's a lot of daylight left. Bo took a plowhorse out to the field, and I'm going to take him a drink and a bit of a snack. You want to come with me?"

"Hmm... I think I'll just stay here for now," Midna said, "Maybe at least one of us should keep an eye on Ganondorf."

"Good idea," Link said, "But if he gets up, just come get me, okay? Hide in a shadow or whatever and don't try anything yourself."

"I can do that," Midna said.

"Okay, I'll be back in a while," Link said, turning and walking toward the door.

* * *

"What is it?" Zelda asked as the messenger was admitted to the room.

The messenger held a sealed message tube, which he offered to her where she sat at the table. "The emergency tally you requested of all available foodstuffs in the city," he said.

"Good," Zelda said, breaking the seal and dumping a single rolled sheet of paper into her hand. She unrolled the sheet and scanned the contents quickly. "Not as bad off as I expected," she said, "A lot of people are going to be on a vegetarian diet for the foreseeable future... Wait... Why is there no entry for the Merchant's Guild?"

"As I understand, they refused to open their stocks for counting until all the guild leaders could convene and gain majority approval for the action," the messenger said.

"Damn merchant bureaucracy," Zelda muttered, then said in a louder voice, "Please inform the guild that if they have not reached majority approval in six hours, the royal bookkeepers will be paying a visit with an armed escort to get the count."

"Of course, your highness," he replied, "Is there anything else."

"Not for now," Zelda said, "You're dismissed."

With a quick bow, the messenger turned and marched from the room. As he left, the door guards admitted the next person, the guard captain in charge of training the new recruits marched in and saluted smartly.

"Relax, Guard Captain, this isn't an official inspection," Zelda said, without looking up from the reports spread on the table in front of her, "Just checking in and seeing how things are going with the surge of recruits we've had today."

"It is a bit more than we're used to handling, but to be expected," the captain said, "When warning of incoming danger, there's always a surge of patriots who join up immediately."

"What about the previous batch of recruits?" Zelda said, "Says here they're near the end of the first month."

"Conditioning is nearly done," the captain said, "They'll be in full metal by week's end and we can start the real training."

"Good, that's good," Zelda said, looking up, "Now, the real reason I called you was to see about scheduling exercises for myself."

"For you, your highness?" the captain asked, clearly perplexed.

"Guard Captain, though the timeframe is still a little weird for everyone, I'm in much better shape than I was," Zelda said, "but my armor is still far too heavy to use practically. I want some conditioning exercises to build myself up so I can use it."

"No offense intended, your highness, but that armor of yours would be too heavy for me," the Guard Captain said, "It's much closer in terms of weight to the armor cavalry would wear. And if they get knocked off their horse, they're pretty much finished. They can't lift themselves under the weight of their own armor."

"So what would you suggest, then?" Zelda asked.

"Well, there isn't really time to train you alone," the captain mused, "But we could put you in the conditioning exercises with the new recruits each morning. We can also get the smiths to produce a suit your size. Again, no offense, but our standard suits would be much too big for your frame. But it would be considerably lighter than that monster you were wearing yesterday. It won't look nearly as impressive, though."

"I think a sword will make a better impression if I'm fighting for my life," Zelda said, "All right, I'll be there in the morning. What time do you start?"

"Dawn, every day," the captain said

"Since you're going to be heading that way, do you mind taking the requisition order for my new armor, then?" Zelda asked.

"It would be no trouble," the captain said, even as Zelda pulled a blank sheet of paper and dipped the quill pen in an inkwell, quickly writing down a general order for a set of armor for the princess, then signed it, picked up the candle from the table and pouring some of the hot, liquid wax onto the page and stamping the ring with the royal seal under her signature.

"Here you are," she said, handing him the order, "If there is nothing else, you are dismissed."

With a bow, the captain retreated from the office. A few seconds after the door shut, there was a knock, and one of the door guards leaned in. "Your highness, the paperwork for the ninja is here," he said.

"Oh, great," Zelda muttered, clearing a spot on the desk, "Well, bring it in."

The young man who came in was carrying a heavy stack of paperwork. Each of the ninety-some-odd ninja had a pack of three pages, consisting of information regarding the military role, pay grade, and duties, along with a certification regarding their induction. Zelda could have delegated this to the chamberlain, and was regretting that she didn't as she watched the courier deposit the heavy stack on the desk, and a moment later, a second entered the room with another stack. Every individual pack needed her signature and seal to officially approve their membership in the military.

As the two couriers left, before the door was actually shut, one of the door guards leaned in. "Your highness, the young man, Arthur, is here to see you."

Zelda looked up from between the two large stacks of paper, pen still clutched in her hand. "Tell him I'm busy," she said and turned back to the paper before her, and muttered, "I don't have time for him right now."

The guard pulled the door shut and turned to Arthur, who was waiting in the hall. "I'm afraid she is too busy to see you now," he said.

"Oh, all right," Arthur said, "I guess I'll come back later."

"She looked like she will busy for some time," the guard said.

"Well, maybe they need some help in the camp," Arthur said, "I'll just go find something else to do."

* * *

The sun gradually sank in the sky. A slow day for most of the inhabitants of Hyrule. A single lonely crow called in the distance, barely audible over the city, and unheard in the Drunken Monkey, the tavern just off the central square. The bar was owned by a woman named Telma. In the year following the Twilight Invasion, she had been able to expand her business, and buy the competition, moving her own business into the larger building, more centrally located in the city traffic.

As it was every evening, the bar was filled nearly to bursting with off-duty guards and soldiers, come to spend their hard earned pay on Telma's drinks and food. The numbers were not that different from normal, though new faces were in the crowded room this night. The dark elf ninja were interspersed in the crowd, while most of them were initially shocked by the open acceptance they found among the guard, they were now involved in both drink and competition. A wooden target at one end of the bar was being peppered by throwing knives as soldiers and guards tried to best the much more skilled ninja, and were losing rather large bets in the process.

Vargus was seated at the bar, mug in hand, as he told quite a few eager faces, including the owner, Telma, a story of one of his early assignments after he first became a true ninja. "...so I slipped into the water, submerging entirely and waiting for the guard to pass before I came up for air," he was saying, "I didn't realize until after I came up that the pool was the damn latrine."

This elicited groans from the listeners, but they remained smiles all around as he went on. "An idea hit me, though, and I waited there for nearly an hour, breathing through a straw, until my target paid a visit after his last meal. He never saw me coming. In fact, you could say I caught him with his pants down. I don't know when they found the body, because I was gone as fast as possible, and as soon as I was safely away, I found a river and must have scoured myself for three hours."

"I wouldn't be able to do that," one of the soldiers said, "Lie in shit for an hour... Gods, that sounds awful."

"Oh, it was," Vargus said, "There was another time, there were six of us, sent to take out a patrol of about ten men. It was raining really hard, and the mud on road was nearly a foot deep. We all essentially buried ourselves in the mud ahead of the patrol, again breathing through straws, and waited until we felt the footsteps above us, and sprung up out of the mud. They must have thought we were demons springing up from the earth, the way they screamed. They didn't have a chance."

"So is that how you operate?" the soldier asked, "Always ambushes and surprises?"

"Pretty much," Vargus said, "A good job for us is when no one realizes anything is wrong until we're long gone."

"Here, have one on me, new blood," Telma said, sliding him a full mug of ale, "I expected to see more of you guys here tonight, though."

"Well, those on duty are near the princess as her guard," Vargus said, "The others... Well, we actually have a few who have gotten so acclimated to sneaking around, they're actually fairly uncomfortable in public view."

"Hmm... I think there's a term for that," Telma said, the guards and soldiers around them turning away to other conversations, "Damned if I know it, though. Looks like not all your men are so shy though."

Vargus turned to where she indicated, and saw one of the other ninja chatting up a pretty brunette woman at the end of the bar. She was smiling and laughing, and as he watched, the elf reached out to touch her hand, and she took hold of his with her own. Well, at least one of them probably wasn't going home tonight, he surmised.

"I'm surprised a girl hasn't snatched you up already," Telma said, winking at Vargus, "You're obviously well weathered, but still fairly handsome yourself."

"I'm afraid I'd have to let her down," Vargus said, "There's compelling reasons to say I'm not interested."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Telma said, "If it's not too personal, does it not... work anymore? I hear that happens with age."

"That's not the problem I'm afraid," Vargus said.

"Oh, I see now," Telma said, winking at him again, "No worries. When the lights go out, it's nobody else's business what happens between two consenting adults. Hey," she beckoned him with a finger, leaning in conspiratorially, "Look down at the other end of the bar. See that young man there? He's a good looking one, right? Now, he always sits down there alone, drinks by himself, and a few of the ladies have made moves on him, and he always turns them down."

"You think he's...?" Vargus prompted.

"Either that or he's the most honorable unmarried man this bar has ever seen," Telma said.

Vargus lifted his drink, downing it in just a few swallows. "Give me a minute, then come down with a couple of drinks," he said.

"You got it, hun," Telma said.

Vargus stepped away from the bar, slipping through the crowd toward the end of the bar. The man sitting there alone was in a guard uniform, like most of the others in the tavern. He was fairly young, looking like his early to mid-twenties, and was fairly good looking, with sandy-blonde hair.

"Nobody should drink alone," Vargus said, stopping next to him.

The young man looked up. "Some of us prefer to," he said.

"In my experience, if someone is drinking alone, they're trying to drown a problem," Vargus said, "And it never works." He offered his hand to the man. "My name is Vargus, by the way."

"I know," the man said, though he took Vargus' hand and shook it, "I'm Arin. I was at the ceremony this morning. The princess seems quite taken with your bunch."

"We're actually quite taken with her as well," Vargus said, "I've never met a ruler as honest and open as she is."

"I've never actually met her," Arin said.

Telma approached them sliding two frothy mugs of ale in front of them. "Here you go, boys," she said, "Don't have too much fun," she added with a wink as she turned and walked back up the bar.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Arin asked.

"It means you should never drink alone," Vargus said, tapping his mug gently against Arin's, "You could be missing out on a golden opportunity."

Arin gave him a searching look before shrugging and taking a drink.

* * *

The sun had set over Ordon, the sounds of crickets the only thing piercing the night. It was a clear sky, the stars shining brightly in the night, and a bright three-quarter-moon rising high. Midna smiled to herself, watching out the window. It was good to see the constellations back in the places she knew. This was always her favorite part of the day. The perpetual twilight of her homeland never allowed the stars to show, if any even existed there.

Link was seated at the table with a hand-mirror and a bowl of soapy water, shaving off the day's growth of beard. One thing he liked about his night-vision, he didn't need a light to do this anymore. He could do it in the morning, he knew, but at the rate his beard grew, even shaving at night, he wouldn't have a five o'clock shadow until the afternoon the next day.

Laying down the razor, he ran a hand over his face, checking for any places he missed before wiping the rest of the lather off his face and laying the water bowl over with the dinner-plates.

"Hopefully Ganondorf will be up tomorrow and we can get moving," Link said.

"What's the sage going to tell you that's so important?" Midna asked without turning to him.

"No idea," Link said, "I think he just wants to know what Darius knows about the reaction between Zelda, himself, and me."

"You think it could be the ace we need?" Midna asked.

"I don't know," Link said, "There was definitely something there, but I don't know what to make of it."

Link pulled his shirt off over his head, laying it over the back of the chair, then sat down on the bed to pull of his trousers.

"Honestly, I'm more and more looking forward to some period of time we're not constantly on the run to or from something," Midna said.

"I hear that," Link said, tossing his trousers onto the chair and rolling up onto the bed, laying down with his head on the pillow, "Though honestly, I wouldn't mind if I could just have one of these world-shaking events happen where we're not cutting it nearly so close all the time."

Midna leaned up on her side to look up at him. "You want to save the world a year or so before it's actually in danger?"

"It'd be a nice change of pace," Link said.

"Well, keep wishing," Midna said, standing up and walking toward the head of the bed, "I don't think the next big nasty is going to announce itself even as readily as this one did."

"There's going to be a next one?" Link asked, "Gods, I think I'm just going to give up."

"It's not all that attractive when the hero surrenders, just so you know," Midna said.

"It also helps when he gets some encouragement sometimes," Link said.

Midna found herself smiling again. "Well, depending on what you mean by that," she said, stepping across him and straddling his stomach, sitting down on top of him, "I think I might be able to cheer for you. Maybe dust you off when you fall. Kiss your ouches."

"I bet you think you're cute," Link said, "Well, you know what? You're right."

Midna giggled, leaning forward and laying her head down on Link's chest. "I never want to move again," she whispered, holding onto him.

"Well, you're going to have to," Link said, "That necklace is jabbing me in the chest."

Midna sat up, touching the leather string tied around the star-cut emerald, still hanging from her neck. Somehow, she'd managed to not lose it in all this time, and all the chaos. And she intended to never lose it. She started to lay back, intending to lay her head on his legs, when an unexpectedly stiff obstruction poked her in the back.

"What the...?" she said up, turning to look over her shoulder, then slowly looking back toward Link, "So, even like this, I have that kind of effect on you?"

Link reached up, cupping the side of her head with one hand. "'Even like this' has nothing to do with it," he said, "I love you. That's all that matters. And I can't really help it if some parts of me are a bit less subtle about it."

"Well, I guess we've got two options, then," Midna said, standing up, looking down at him, "You can either go take a dunk in the river, or since this is partially my fault, I can help do something about it, if you are really okay with me like this."

Link chuckled. "Given a choice, I don't prefer the river."


	127. Chapter 126

This would have been up last week, but I got sick, and it flattened me for a couple days solid. Seriously, I hadn't been this sick since a time in high school when I missed two weeks (though the second week was because the doctor gave me a prescription I was allergic to and it nearly caused my throat to swell shut). It was gone just as fast as it hit me, though, only lasting about two days. But then I legitimately wasted time by renting Tomb Raider and putting all effort into finishing it within three days. Not to waste more space here, but my final opinion is "meh."

In regard to this chapter, I kind of went a little overkill with Uli. You'll see what I mean. I wanted to expand her and Rusl's backstory a bit, since I've made them Link's adoptive parents, and it kind of just kept going. I've found that usually means I'm onto something good, though, it's like the character has just taken over and is acting on their own. Also, I do finally mention why Zero's name is what it is in this chapter, in answer to some people who have been bugging me about it. And it's probably not nearly as cool or deep as you might think, but that's entirely the point, and yes, it was the conscious choice on my part when I named him years ago.

**Chapter 126: Origin of a Devil**

The rooster's crow was heard over the village as the sun slowly emerged over the horizon, bringing the morning rays of light across the sleepy village. Midna opened her eyes, blinking against the light coming in through the window on the east side of the room. She didn't want to get up, so secure she was snuggled against Link's side with his arm around her. She could hear his heartbeat, her head resting on his chest, and thought to herself this was the perfect moment.

The previous night had certainly dispelled her worst fears, that Link would be unable to bring himself to be with her in her current state, in spite of his claims, and like any young man, he would go looking for something more normal elsewhere. It seemed the impossible had become real, and she was in the kind of relationship that most would say only existed in fairy tales, so perfect and pure, a love so unrestrained that literally nothing could separate them. And what she felt when she and Link were together was amazing beyond anything she had ever dreamed of, as if their souls were mingling even as their bodies did. She wished it never had to end.

Yet even in this moment, a nagging thought kept pushing into the back of her mind. It was Cain, or more specifically, what they intended to do about him. Even if Shaklator was stopped, he was still there. Midna couldn't believe she had let the monster into her mind so easily. She hadn't had any more nightmares since Link had separated them, that night in the desert, so that at least was fortunate, yet she still had the pieces of the mask, which now doubtlessly contained his spirit.

She sat up slowly, trying not to wake Link, and failed, his eyes opening instantly, so self-trained he was to be instantly aware upon waking, and he gave her a smile before sitting up himself and pushing the blankets back off them.

"Okay, first thing's first," he said, reaching for his leggings from the previous day, "We'll check on sleeping beauty, then head down to the river for a decent scrub."

"Well, good morning to you too," Midna said as he slid off the bed past her.

Link laughed as he got a set of fresh clothes from the dresser, then stopped to beat each piece on his hand, dust flying into the air from them, the year of nothing taking its toll. "I figured it was a good enough night that the morning went without saying," he said.

"Well, I'll admit I won't complain about that," Midna said.

"Good, though I might have to disappoint you now," Link said, picking up his baldric and hefting his sword up over one shoulder, "I think from now on we're going to cut it off at twice because last night almost killed me."

"I'll just bet," Midna replied.

She was certain his ridiculous stamina stemmed from his continued use of the Triforce, as both it and the rapid healing, which while still nowhere near Ganondorf's healing ability, were becoming increasingly stronger, along with the other abilities he had demonstrated. Doubtlessly, because these abilities were so rapidly tiring, the Triforce was gradually acclimating him to them, slowly and steadily increasing his endurance to better accommodate their use.

It suddenly seemed incredibly strange, thinking of him like this, as he threw a towel over one shoulder and retrieved a small burlap bag that contained a yellow bar of soap. Picturing any kind of mystical hero in the motions of everyday life would be strange, she surmised, and Link was certainly already a legend in her eyes.

So now how much further would he go? She remembered that the reason he had so forcibly rejected using the Triforce's power before was because he had feared what he would become. What was the point when the person became overpowered by what the Triforce was doing? He had stopped resisting it, embracing the power it offered, for her sake. Slowly learning to control it, so that eventually he'd be able to break the curse upon her himself.

And what about when this was over? What then? Would Link be able to return to his normal life, or would he be so permanently altered, like that Shaklator woman, that he wasn't even truly human anymore?

Could she live with herself if she allowed him to take that kind of step for her?

* * *

Meanwhile in the capital, the princess was very quickly coming to regret her choice to join the military training regime, which at this point consisted primarily of jogging in heavy chain shirts around the yard for an hour until the instructor called for a halt and permitted the recruits time to get some water.

The day wasn't even hot yet and Zelda found herself soaked with sweat, leaning with her hands on her knees as she fought for breath. The little bit of pride she felt came from the fact she had lasted the entire hour, while the majority of this bunch of recruits had fallen before the halfway point, unable to go on. Now the instructor was marching through the group, chastising them for being such pathetic women that a girl half the size of any of them was making them look like complete wimps in fairly colorful terms, and loudly enough the entire training yard could hear them even over the sounds of clashing steel and constant arrow impacts into the wooden targets.

"Here you are," Vargus said, reappearing at Zelda's side and offering her a waterskin, which she eagerly snatched hold of, but he pulled it away as she greedily started drinking huge swallows and added, "Easy, not too much. You've got about ten minutes to rest before going again, and you'll make yourself sick. Just take small sips."

"This feels so unfair," Zelda said, looking up to him, "You've been running even with me the whole time and you're not even winded."

Vargus chuckled. "I went through this sort of thing a long time ago," he said, "I remember being constantly exhausted, and plenty of recruits collapsing mid-exercise. Main difference is ninja are trained for light weight loads, and for endurance over long distance. This is mainly training to carry that heavy armor you people seem to favor without collapsing in two minutes. You seem to be doing well compared to the other raw recruits, though."

Zelda took another swallow of the water as she glanced back at the mess of young men seated on the ground, slowly recovering themselves with waterskins being passed around. It had been made clear to the instructor that she was not able to participate in all the daily exercises, because she had other work to do. She needed to be preparing what she intended to say to the royal council when they arrived and convened, as she was sure the messengers had already reached the closer estates, and if the councilors had any sense, they'd leave for the capital within the day.

"I will promise this," Vargus said, interrupting her thoughts, "Once you reach the point you need to be at, maintaining it will be much easier and less painful than the initial reaching it."

Zelda looked up at him, simply standing there with his hands clasped behind his back, eyes not really focused on anything around them, though she was certain he was fully aware of everything happening nearby, and a faint smile on his lips. That was strange, she suddenly thought. She couldn't remember ever seeing him actually smile. Even her subconscious empathy had difficulty reading him, and she had always assumed it was because of his training, that he was cold and efficient. When he had told her of his past had been the only time she had felt stronger emotions from him, both a strong anger and powerful sadness.

She had been feeling a strange vibration from him all morning, and along with that small smile, she realized, he must actually be happy.

"You seem to be in an awfully good mood this morning," she commented, "For you, anyway."

"I'm feeling good this morning," Vargus said, "We've only been here a few days and yet... I don't know. I was certain your people would not be as welcoming as they have been, and it was a pleasant surprise. I went to the bar last night, with a few others, like you suggested. We received strange looks when we entered, but the crowd warmed up very fast. They were very eager to hear old war stories, so to speak. I think in the future, I'd best warn them not to bet on throwing knives against my men, as I think mine made quite a bit of money off them last night."

"That's good," Zelda said, "It's like I told you, Hyrule is already very diverse. And it is the fact our nation is a combination of cultures, yet one and the same. Rather than allow our differences to divide us, as some other nations do, we celebrate them and they make us stronger as one people."

"There is a certain sense of wonder to this place," Vargus said, lifting his head to look up at the sky, "This place is like no other I've ever seen. And I want to see more of it. Knowing that there is still something more coming, something terrible for us all... What happened in Darimar is a tragedy like no other I've seen. Yet if this nation dies, it will be all the more terrible, because the world would lose such a shining beacon of humanity."

"I've seen the enemy we've yet to face with my own eyes," Zelda said, "Knowing what she is, what she's capable of... It's the stuff of nightmares. That's why I haven't told the full story to anyone other than Rayham yet. Panic among the populace would not help anyone."

"I understand entirely," Vargus said, "And not to be rude, I'd like to hold onto my good mood for the day, so perhaps we can change the subject."

"I wish I could," Zelda said, "But I've got so much to do, it's never far from my mind."

"If you don't at least take some time for yourself every now and then, you'll collapse from mental exhaustion just as quickly as from physical," Vargus said.

"My turn to say it, not to be rude, but I have a nation to look after," Zelda said, "That's not exactly comparable to you standing nearby as a bodyguard for the majority of each day."

"Everybody needs time off from work," Vargus said, "Even if it's just a few minutes a day. Just because I'm near you all day doesn't mean that's my only thought at night. In fact, depending on how things go in the near future, you're probably going to be the last thing on my mind."

"What do you mean?" Zelda asked.

"Well, let's just say last night I might have met someone," Vargus said, and before she could respond added, "It's nothing solid yet. I'm actually not sure if he'd even be interested yet. Depending on the circumstances, it can be a fairly touchy subject to broach without offending someone."

"Well, I'm happy for you, at least," Zelda said, "I can't claim to know how these kinds of relationships work."

"Pretty much exactly as it would between a man and a woman," Vargus said, "First we get to know each other, and see if both parties want to go further. Problems arise if one party does and the other isn't interested. Even if he is interested in other men, he might not be interested in me specifically.

"But more to my point, you really should set aside some time to relax, maybe in the evenings before going to bed," he went on, "Just find a friend you can talk to and take your mind off things for at least a few minutes."

"I don't think that will work," Zelda said.

"What about that blonde kid that's always making goo-goo eyes at you?" Vargus asked, "What's his name? Artemis or something?"

"That's Arthur," Zelda said, "I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"Why not? I don't think he'd mind," Vargus said.

"I am royalty, and have certain responsibilities about the kind of relationships I can have," Zelda said. This was exactly the thing she had been pondering the previous night, yet the more she thought about it, the more she realized she simply didn't have time to try to really build a relationship right now.

Vargus shook his head, about to respond, but the instructor gave the call for the recruits to get their sorry asses back on their feet for the second round.

Zelda started to move toward the line that was forming, but Vargus stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "You know," he said, "If being a monarch is such a punishment on your basic human rights, why do so many people want the job?"

Zelda was silent for a moment, then looked back at him. "The greatest leaders bear the crown as a responsibility, not a right," she said, "Completely honest, if I could give it up right now, I would. But the only person I'd be willing to trust it to would never allow himself to be confined in such a way."

* * *

Link and Midna returned to Link's treehouse after the quick dip in the river to find the bedroll where Ganondorf had still been asleep when they left was now empty. Immediate panic vanished just as quickly when the wizard stepped out from behind the tree, hitching his pants back up.

"You ready to go, boy?" Ganondorf asked without any preamble.

"Of course I'm ready," Link said, "Are you up to it?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't," Ganondorf said and glanced at Midna, "Speaking for your girlfriend's safety, she'd best wait here. Her immunity to light hasn't proven infallible in the past, and I'm betting the Temple of Light would not be welcoming for her."

"Oh, now you're concerned for her safety," Link said, "Funny, I seem to remember you threatening her just a short time ago."

"Now, Link, let's stay cooperative here," Ganondorf said, "I need you cooperative. And if I have to hold something over your head to keep you cooperative, I don't have a problem with that. Are we clear?"

"You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to this being over and not needing your help anymore," Link said.

"You're not the only one," Ganondorf said, "So, is she staying here?"

"She has to go," Link said, not waiting for Midna to respond. "We're going deep into the thickest part of the Lost Woods. I'm going to need her help to assume the wolf form to find and keep us on the right trail. I'm sure you know all the nasty stories about getting lost in this forest."

Ganondorf pulled on his shirt and picked up his sword belt. "Oh, yes," he said, "At least a few of them, I'm the author of. Others were there before my time."

"Will you be okay waiting at the Temple of Time's ruins?" Link asked, turning to Midna.

"If you promise you'll be all right," Midna said.

"It's me, remember?" Link asked with a smile.

"Speaking of stories about the Lost Woods, though," Ganondorf said, walking closer to the pair, and lowered his voice to a whisper, "They're not all stories."

"All the more reason to be careful," Link said.

"I wonder if it would even be possible to find the old temple now," Ganondorf said, mainly to himself as he walked past Link and Midna, "I found the tree, but that clearing with the village was gone. Was it moved, or did they die out or... change form? Some magic creatures do that over the centuries... Eh, doesn't matter now anyway."

"Should we tell anyone we're going?" Midna asked Link as he turned to follow Ganondorf.

"I think they'll put it together when the three of us are all gone," Link said, "Let's just get this over with so we can get on our way to the capital, find out what Zelda's doing, and then decide how to proceed."

"I agree with that," Ganondorf said, "She has doubtlessly called for the Royal Council to convene as soon as possible, and I want to be there when they do."

"Well, the others seem to have plenty to do," Midna said, "I saw Kilishandra working a butter churn on our way back."

"Uli certainly has a way of getting people to do what she wants," Link said with a smile, "It's something in the way she talks. No idea where it comes from."

* * *

"You seem so fascinated by that," Uli commented, coming back out of the house behind Kilishandra, who was watching the system of gears on the grip of the churn turn as she rotated a handle sticking out sideways.

"I've never seen a churn like this one," Kilishandra said, "I'll admit, it's not nearly as harsh on the arms."

"It's a relatively new invention," Uli said, setting down the bassinet containing the recently fed and contentedly sleeping form of Sarah, then sitting down on the grass next to it, "Rusl brought it back the last time he was in the capital. I didn't believe it would actually work at the time."

"How does it work?" Kilishandra asked, trying futilely to figure out how the pattern of gears could possibly be moving the slats in the barrel to churn the cream into butter.

"The slats are vertical in the barrel, instead of horizontal," Uli said, "The gears rotate the center axle, and spin the slats around and around. It does take a little longer than the up and down motions in a normal churn, but as you said, it's not nearly as hard on your arms."

Kilishandra glanced toward her. Uli was looking down toward the river, where Collin and the other children could be seen, already fishing in the water, probably thinking they were going to bring in lunch. Uli glanced back at Kilishandra, who realized she was staring. "Something wrong?" Uli asked.

"Oh, no, nothing's wrong," Kilishandra said, "Well, don't take this the wrong way, but the way you talk... You sound somewhat more educated than a someone who typically lives in a small village like this."

"I suppose I do," Uli said, looking back toward the river, "I suppose it would take an outsider who didn't know me to notice at this point."

"Should I not have asked?" Kilishandra said.

"No, it's fine," Uli said, "Just not something I talk about much anymore. There have been other comments from people who have come through sometimes. Usually about the way I walk or how I stand not being what is typical of someone peasant-born. Old habits really are hard to break, I guess."

"I thought you were born here," Kilishandra said.

"Oh no," Uli said, "My family... Actually, before I tell you this, I want you to know something. My past is just that: My past. This is the life I've chosen, and I'm happy here, and to raise my children here. Only Rusl and Bo know who my parents are. The others... Well, they don't need to know, and nobody worries about it. If someone were to ask me directly, I would tell them. It's not a painful subject for me, but if someone like, say, Link, did want to know, I'd prefer he ask me himself. Understand?"

"I understand," Kilishandra said.

"So, do you really want to know?" Uli asked.

"Now I'm really curious," Kilishandra said.

"All right," Uli said, "I am what you'd call of noble birth. I was born into the Daphnes family, in a fairly large estate south of Lake Hylia, the large lake in western Hyrule."

"Wait, Daphnes?" Kilishandra said, "You're related to the princess?"

"Yes, but only a cousin, four or five times removed, if I remember correctly," Uli said, "And that may have changed in the generation since, with the princess on the throne now being the daughter of the woman I always knew to be the ruler of Hyrule. You see, the worst part of nobility is all the scheming. Some of them are genuinely decent people, but you'll find most families have at least a few trying to find ways to scheme their way into in the first line, usually through marriage, sometimes through adoption."

"Adoption?" Kilishandra asked.

"Oh, yes, political adoptions are almost as common as political marriages," Uli said, "Usually when the parents from one of the higher lines are either ashamed of their actual child, or find they cannot conceive, they may adopt from one of the other families. On paper, they will be that couple's son or daughter, even though they do not carry the blood. It's certainly the strangest part of the process, since if you believe the line of lineage, that the current princess is descended all the way from the first king of Hyrule, you'd think the blood would be the entire point."

"In all the monarchies I've seen, it is," Kilishandra said, "Though blood alone doesn't make for a good ruler."

"You're right about that," Uli said, "Anyway, my mother was one of the schemers. She was constantly making efforts, ever since I was a little girl, to either get me adopted into one of the higher lines, or married into one if possible, so that even if she did not improve her own lot, her blood would carry on in more glory, as she put it. She was one of the schemers who wasn't actually good at it, though. None of her plans bore fruit, but that didn't stop her from trying. When I turned sixteen, she was convinced if she didn't manage to marry me off soon, I'd do something to ruin everything for her, so she hired a bodyguard for me, to keep me out of trouble.

"That very same bodyguard is now my husband."

"Oh, really?" Kilishandra asked, "Bo told me Rusl used to be a mercenary."

"That's why he was hired," Uli said, "My mother didn't trust any of the house guards with my chastity, and Rusl had a reputation of being a consummate professional in his work. There are some mercenaries you can't trust any further than you could throw them, but Rusl had never broken his word, and even refused payment on jobs he was unable to complete. And he had worked as a bodyguard several times over the years, usually for paranoid merchants. He told me later those were the easiest jobs he ever had, if fairly boring.

"He was my bodyguard for two years before it happened. My mother was so paranoid about her schemes that she started keeping me locked in my room, and other than the servant that brought my meals and filled my bath, Rusl was the only outside contact I had. And he was the only male contact I had."

"So you moved in on him?" Kilishandra asked.

"Yes, actually," Uli said, "We would sit for long hours, and he would tell me stories of his adventures over the years. Other than that, my primary entertainment were novels from the estate library, usually of fairly saucy romantic nature... And when it happened, well, there's not really a better way to describe it, I was practically in heat. Like an animal. But he was a professional. He tried to let me down gently, telling me why it would never be able to happen, but I was going absolutely crazy.

"Then my mother burst into the room, announcing that she had finally succeeded. She'd found a husband for me, and spouted off a name that I don't even remember now. All I knew was that I didn't know the name, and had never heard of him before, and that night, I spoke to Rusl before he retired. I was in tears, pleading with him. I didn't want to live that kind of life, in the gilded cage I had been trapped in for so long now. I begged him to help me escape, to run away from all the political machinations and nightmares.

"And he gave in to me. For the first time in his life, he broke his word, his contract, and under the cover of darkness, we fled my family's estate, and made our way to the capital. Rusl bought a room in a dingy inn, somewhere out of the way, out of sight, and there he told me the truth, that our time together had affected him as well. That he loved me. I asked him if there was any place we would be safe from my family trying to find us, and he said he did not know, but we'd find one.

"We came here, to Ordon. Rusl said he knew someone here that owed him a favor, and would let us stay for a while. And then we never left. My parents of course offered a reward for anyone who would bring me back, but this village is remote and out of the way, and the few bounty hunters who did come this way did not recognize me with my hair cut short and my face covered in dirt. That was more than twenty years ago at this point. In fact, Rusl found Link, poor child, abandoned in the woods about two years after we arrived here. And he's approaching his twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year now. We're not exactly sure, to be honest."

"You look good for a woman approaching forty," Kilishandra said.

"Well, thank you, I think," Uli said, "Though I'm not approaching it anymore."

"This is getting harder to turn," Kilishandra commented, having to turn the handle harder to keep it moving.

"It's nearly done, then," Uli said, "Keep going, though. When it sets up, it will do it fairly fast."

"So, you've had no contact with your parents since you left?" Kilishandra asked, curious for more details.

"None," Uli said, "Eventually, the bounty hunters stopped coming, and the reward, which had been steadily growing, disappeared. My guess is they finally gave up. Maybe they even think I'm dead. All the better, because I don't want any part of that world."

"So you don't regret it?" Kilishandra asked.

"Rusl always says life is too short for regrets," Uli said, and leaned over the bassinet at her side, gently running her fingers over Sarah's hair as she slept, "And all I have to do is see Collin and Sarah here, and no, I honestly don't regret a thing. All those things I left behind, they were what my mother wanted. I've found the life I want, and wouldn't give it up for anything in the world."

The two of them fell silent for a moment, and glanced back down toward the river. Alex and Silviana were with the children now, and Silviana was demonstrating how to fish with a bow and arrow, by firing a shot into the water, then retrieving the arrow with a fish impaled on the shaft, through still flopping and fighting.

Uli chuckled to herself as the children wanted to try, but even Beth and Collin, the oldest of the four, were unable draw back Silviana's bow more than about an inch.

"So what about you?" Uli asked, "I've indulged your curiosity, now you indulge mine. This war that happened overseas, you said you were on the other side at the start."

"Well, the story leading up to that is fairly long, and for me start when a man named Reaper..." Kilishandra paused, glancing over at the sleeping baby, "I'd actually rather not talk about it where a child can hear."

"Fairly grim, then," Uli said.

"Yes," Kilishandra said, "You might not have any regrets, but I have quite a few. And a lot of them are recent."

"Well, it might not mean much coming from someone you've just met, but maybe you need to find a way to make peace with your regrets," Uli said, and looked down at Sarah again, "Something you can invest your future in."

"I've been trying," Kilishandra said, "There is one thing. But I'm not sure I can make it work yet."

The handle she had been turning suddenly ground down to a halt, requiring a great deal more force to turn any further. "That did set up fast," she commented.

"Well, let's get the lid off and see how it turned out," Uli said, standing up and walking closer.

They undid the locks on the lid, lifting it, along with the entire gear contraption, away from the barrel. With a quick jerk, the slats slid out of the golden block inside.

"Now that's a beautiful sight," Uli said.

"I don't think I've ever seen that much butter in one place," Kilishandra said.

"Well, it does shrink a fair bit when you wash it," Uli said, "Come on, we'll get Bo to carry the barrel down to the river while I get the bowls and then I'll show you how. And in the meantime, since you've been around Link for a while, you can tell me what you know about why he now has such an ugly tattoo on his face."

* * *

About an hour had passed when Link emerged from the bushes into the clearing, sniffing the ground to confirm what he already knew, they had arrived. Ganondorf shoved through the undergrowth, kicking branches aside and growling under his breath as Link rose before him, the fur withdrawing into his body and teeth receding as Midna helped him shift back to his natural shapes.

"I see why you needed the wolf's senses to follow that path," Ganondorf said, "Gods, how'd you find it in the first place?"

"They say necessity is the mother of invention," Link said, leading them into the clearing.

"We weren't left with much choice, with Zelda apparently dead and Zant laying a curse on Link," Midna said, "Speaking of which, something I've never asked that I should have. How much of what he was doing was at your bidding?"

"Oh, Zant was very enthusiastic," Ganondorf said, "He was an outcast among his own people, and powerless as he watched the powerful. He was exactly the kind of person that giving him power would spark instant megalomania. When it came to you, getting you out of the way was necessary to my plan, but after that, he was acting on his own. Cursing Link and throwing you into the light was all him. If you hadn't survived that and found a way to cure Link, it would have ruined my plans anyway."

"You really did want to fight me that badly, didn't you?" Link asked.

"Yes, my ridiculously circuitous plan to train you through various trials solely to face me in battle," Ganondorf said, "There actually was a lot more going on than just you. Like the fact I knew Shaklator was coming even back then and intended to turn Hyrule into the ultimate bastion of power to fight her. By the time we met face-to-face, yes, I spoiling for a fight. You were very much getting in my way."

"And here I was starting to think you had the children kidnapped just to draw me out," Link said.

"Well, I did," Ganondorf said, "I needed you capable and trained, because you factored into my plan. If it was just about the Triforce of Courage, I could have gone to Ordon and collected you myself, but I didn't have time to deal with you. I left you alone too long, though."

"That's not what you told us before about this," Midna said.

"You know exactly as much as I want you to," Ganondorf said, "That's never been in question."

"So you do have a plan for how we're going to deal with this?" Link asked.

"My original plan is shot to hell," Ganondorf said, "There's not enough time. We have you two to thank for that. I've got an idea, but I need to talk to Darius first and get more of what he knows, to see if it's even possible."

The clearing opened wider and the familiar ruin came into view. No walls or ceiling remained to the once center of Hyrule's religious worship. A few stone columns, overgrown with ivy, marked the corners of what was once the grand entry hall. The group moved out onto the stone floor, long worn away by the wind and weather, only the barest remnant of the original etched designs. The only part that could be made out was the Triforce symbol, near the base of two large statues on either side of a path that led a short distance away into what would have originally been the main audience chamber. Beyond would have waited the labyrinth that made up the rest of the temple, but had long since fallen into completely impassible collapses.

In that smaller clearing awaited the empty altar, which stood strong even now, millennia after the collapse of the original Hyrule. Link's steps slowed as he took in the surroundings. Midna moved closer to him, putting one hand on his shoulder. Link glanced at her, and she gave him a small smile. They both felt the same wave of nostalgia, the last time they had been here to use the Master Sword's control of time to travel back and enter the Temple of Time while it still stood, and their visit before that to find a way to break the curse Zant had placed on Link, and found it in the Master Sword.

"Now this brings back memories, I'll tell you," Ganondorf said, interrupting their silent moment as he moved past them, toward the altar, "The last time I was here, my goals were much different. The great door stood back there, and the Master Sword here, both blocking my way into the Sacred Realm. And that boy, the would-be Hero of Time. Trying to beat me to my prize, he opened the way, and let me walk right in..."

"The great door..." Link said, "That's right, there was a seal we had to break to reach the Master Sword. I thought this was the main audience chamber, though."

"No, no," Ganondorf said, "The great stone door, the Door of Time, they called it, was always closed. It closed this chamber, and everything beyond, off from everyone on the outside. I'm surprised the two of you managed to open it without the Ocarina of Time. Maybe the two of you found a failsafe, another way to open it if the ocarina were ever lost, or its song forgotten."

"So where's this ocarina now?" Midna asked.

"I believe it was lost beneath the ocean when Hyrule was," Ganondorf said, "There's no telling how far the waters may have carried it, or it may even be within a hundred yards of us right now. But in this overgrown area, you'd likely have to burn the whole place clean to have any chance of finding it."

"And likely destroy it in the process," Link said.

"Quite possibly," Ganondorf said, "Just one more artifact lost to the sands of time."

"So how do we do this?" Link asked, moving toward Ganondorf, who had stepped onto the first level of the altar.

Ganondorf held one hand out, palm open toward the altar. The Triforce on his hand lit up, and an audible hum filled the area as the lines on the edges of the stone began to glow. "Link, stand here by me," Ganondorf said, "Midna, outside the ring."

"I'll be back," Link said to Midna.

"Be careful," she said.

Link stepped onto the altar, next to the wizard. "Looks like when you drew the sword, you managed not to rip open reality like the Hero of Time did," Ganondorf said, "The gateway is still closed, but without the sword's seal, it is not difficult to open."

"How far are we going to have to go?" Link asked, thinking of his previous journey through the Sacred Realm, which was more of a land of nightmares.

"Not far at all," Ganondorf said, "This gateway leads directly to the Temple of Light. Now, here we go."

The glowing lines around them flared and shot upward, walls of light reaching infinitely into the sky, and then just as quickly, vanishing into nothing, darkness surrounding them. Link's eyes were quickly adjusting, but as he turned, he saw the blue walls of the temple less than thirty feet away. The long climb up the stone stairway was waiting, and as the two of them started, Link saw the bodies lying on the stairs.

Still fresh pools of blood pouring from the open wounds on the bodies of the winged guardians that had been slain by Ganondorf four millennia before on his initial climb to take the Triforce for himself.

The two of them stepped over the bloody forms, and reached the large stone doors, glistening with liquid light under the surface, and pushed the doors open, stepping into the temple, and through the entry hall and into the Chamber of Sages in the center of the structure.

"Darius!" Ganondorf shouted as they walked into the center of the chamber, "Show yourself, old man. I need to talk to you."

The symbol of Light on the floor began to glow, and in a flash, the old sage appeared before them. He was wearing the same orange robes Link remembered, but his face had become increasingly pale, the cracks running across his flesh more numerous and more visible than before.

"I hope your presence here is not becoming a habit," Darius said to Ganondorf.

"Are you all right?" Link asked, the sage's tired eyes flicking over to him.

"The temple has kept me alive for nearly eight thousand years," Darius said, "My time is nearly at an end. There is no perfect form of immortality. My life is spread thin, like a cloth stretched to its breaking point. If not that, other pitfalls could await. Senility, or madness."

"Well, there is one perfect form," Ganondorf said.

"Give it another four thousand years, and see if you're still holding up nearly as well," Darius said, "When I was the same age as you, I was holding up well, too."

"Enough time wasting," Ganondorf said, "Tharkus is dead. You're aware of this?"

"Yes," Darius said, "I have been watching your progress. As much as that man needed to be dealt with, I do wish things could have been resolved differently. There was a time I considered him a friend, but his madness ran so deeply... Like me, his time was over."

"Now, a short time ago, we had an encounter with Shaklator," Ganondorf said, "Myself, Link, and the princess. There was a reaction between the three of us, and it was like nothing I've experienced before. You mentioned something about a trinity the last time we were here, and I believe it was what you were speaking of that we experienced. Now, what I want is what you know about this."

Darius shrugged. "I hardly know much," he said, "It is not a subject with real study. What I am certain of, if two Triforce bearers directly link their energies, they can produce effect considerable more powerful than either on their own. If the third joins, which I have never been able to see directly, I believe it would increase the effect exponentially. More effective than two, or what a single person with all three pieces is capable of."

"That doesn't make sense," Ganondorf said, "The Triforce is a singular object. Divided in three, it cannot produce the same effect as if it were whole."

"Remember, though," Darius said, "This world was created by three goddesses. Other gods came in their aftermath, but the original three were the first. There are three gateways between our world and this Sacred Realm. When the Triforce divided, it split in three. Keep looking through our history and you see the pattern. Three, three, everywhere three. Our world is built on a law of three."

"But the entire reason the Triforce divided was the keep the other parts from me!" Ganondorf said, and before Darius could respond, kept going himself as things clicked together in his head, "Unless there was more to the conspiracy behind it. It divided because my heart was not in perfect balance, and gave the other two pieces to my enemies. But what if there was more? If the Hero of Time or princess had beaten me to the Triforce, would it have split in their grasp? I may have received my piece even if I had failed.

"And creating a division in the power, one such as I was back then would obviously seek the other pieces, taking them by force if necessary, and lock himself out of the greatest power. A power forged through an alliance of wills, an alliance that because the other pieces went to my enemies, should be impossible to create and sustain because of the division. Because there were three gods, the greatest power of the Triforce is only accessible by a similar allegiance. That's it, Link!"

He suddenly turned to Link. "That's what happened to us that night! I sent a call for help, and you and Zelda both arrived, your energies in sync with mine, because you followed my trails. If we'd know what was actually happening and focused on it, we might have been able to win that!"

"Maybe, but all I remember was even then we couldn't even scratch her," Link said.

Ganondorf turned back to Darius. "So, if we figure out how to do this right, to link our energies on demand, you think we'd have what we need to kill that bitch?" he asked.

"That would be the least of it," Darius said, "I think such a unity would be capable of reshaping the world as it saw fit. To create new life at a whim, or destroy all the exists just as easily. It's very obvious why such power would need to be so nigh-impossible to gain. In the right hands, it could lead the world to a never-ending paradise. and in the wrong hands..."

He let the thought trail off. "I'm not interested in that kind of power," Link said, "All I want is to make sure the world doesn't end in the next few months. I've got a few reasons for wanting to stay alive and be able to live my life."

"And maybe that's for the best," Darius said, looking from him to Ganondorf and back to Link, "I had my doubts that this alliance of necessity would even last as long as it has. But I see now it's the best way to proceed. You will work together as long as needed, and after that, it's simply over, and the Triforce will be divided again."

"Well, unless someone here has a change of heart," Ganondorf said.

"Go to hell," Link replied.

"Not today," Ganondorf said, "As soon as we're back with the princess in the capital, we'll need to experiment with this to see what we can do. Which reminds me. The princess has a bit of a problem with using her Triforce. Every time she directly discharges its energy, she experiences pleasure of a physical nature. At one point, it even drove to orgasm and she blacked out. She cannot use it for sustained periods as a result."

"Oh, that," Darius said, "I've seen it before, in Shaklator herself when she used the Triforce of Courage. It's because she's a virgin."

There was a moment of silence as both of them expected him to elaborate, but that was where he stopped. "You can't be serious," Link said.

"I'm afraid I am," Darius said, "Maybe it's a bad joke by the gods. Because a virgin is considered by our own religion to be pure of body as well as spirit, using the Triforce's power directly causes them to experience sexual release in the process."

"Now hang on," Ganondorf said, "Is this specific to women, or would it affect men as well?"

"Why? Are you claiming you were a virgin when you took the Triforce?" Darius asked.

Ganondorf chuckled. "Not even close," he said, "More than a few of the 'heroes' I've faced over the years have been fairly young, though. Of course, they were only using it by reflex. Zelda's trick with reading emotions doesn't seem to bother her, so maybe that makes a difference."

"So, how do we fix the problem?" Link asked.

"I should think it would be obvious," Darius said.

"It can't be that simple!" Link said.

"I'm afraid it is, Link," Darius said, "That's what solved Shaklator's problem back then, and it's what will solve the princess's problem now."

"And you expect me to just tell her that she needs to get laid so she can help us save the world?" Link asked, still incredulous.

"The original princess of Hyrule, who used the power of the Triforce of Wisdom to hide from Ganondorf for seven years," Darius said, pausing to glance at Ganondorf as if to make a point before going on, "She faced this same problem. She solved it, simple as that, because it was something she had to do. Perhaps the current princess can at least fulfill the deed with someone she actually cares about and have a more pleasant experience, but what's important is that it gets done."

"So Zelda needs to get lucky," Ganondorf said, "I can think of worse ways this could have turned out. We're done here. Let's go, Link."

"Wait," Link said, motioning him to stop as the wizard started to turn to leave, and turned back to Darius, "There's one other thing that's been bothering me. It's about Zero."

"The flesh golem Tharkus created from your blood and a fragment of your soul," Darius said, "What about him?"

"I've been turning this over in my head ever since the battle with Tharkus," Link said, "When Tharkus died, all of the golems created with pieces of his own soul died as well. And if Zero was created from me the same way, wouldn't he die if I do?"

"Without any doubt," Darius said.

"When I fought him in the Void, though, he seemed convinced he'd be fine," Link said, "In fact, it's like he knew he was just a copy of me, but with me out of the way, he'd no longer be a copy."

"It would seem he believes wrongly," Darius said, "What I have seen of him, he is certainly crazy, but maybe he doesn't realize he is being used."

"My question, why is he so different, personality-wise, from Link?" Ganondorf asked, now interested in this conversation.

"The creation of a golem like Zero does not grant memories," Darius said, "And Link was nothing more than an infant at the time, so even if it did, Zero would still have come into existence with nothing. He would have been shaped by his experiences."

"He thinks himself beyond human emotion, but he seems to be completely controlled by rage and hatred," Link said.

"Shaklator wants him to kill you," Ganondorf said, "And yet if he does, he dies as well, even if he doesn't know that yet. She must really want you dead."

"No, she doesn't," Link said, "Quite the opposite, in fact. She's been trying to turn me, first by being friendly, then with threats and bait, to try to get me to join her. I don't know why."

"I can answer that," Darius said, "It's because you're so much like her. Before she was consumed by hatred and went mad, that is. When she was a good person. Perhaps she sees you as a kindred spirit, and a potential end to her endless loneliness since the death of her husband so long ago. That may be why she had Tharkus create Zero in the first place, and he did not fill the gap she desired. Even his name, Zero, speaks that he is nothing to her."

"Why go to all that trouble then?" Link asked.

"Even if she seems reasonable on the surface, her madness runs deeper than the oceans, and makes her impossible to predict," Darius said.

"But Zero is now all she has left," Ganondorf said, "I've no doubt he is going to open the gateway to allow her passage into our world on Walpurgis Night."

"This is occurring after Tharkus' failed attempt at the same," Darius said, "Zero was her contingency, or perhaps simply a last resort now that she is out of options."

"What his is makes him impossible to track, though," Ganondorf said, "Do you have any idea how we can find him?"

"I'm afraid the only option I can suggest is to learn how he thinks," Darius said, "Unless, if you're brave enough Link, you are connected to him. You might be able to see into his mind."

"What would that involve?" Link asked, not sure he liked the sound of that, but wondering if they could find a way to cut Zero off quickly.

"By strengthening your bond with him, you will be able to create a temporary telepathic link," Darius said, "I'll warn you now, it will take several attempts, and is not wise to try more that once without at least a few hours of rest. The first few attempts, you will likely see his memories instead of his current thoughts, but I can help you the first time, and you should be able to manage it on your own later, when you are actually able to search for him."

"Will I be in danger when I do this?" Link asked.

"Physically, no," Darius said, "If the memories you see are particularly traumatizing, however, there may be physiological risks. You will see what he saw, and feel what he felt, even if only for a few minutes. A will of iron will be your only defense."

Link thought about this for a moment, then looked up at Ganondorf, who was waiting silently with his arms crossed. "No time to really thing this over," Link said, "Okay, show me how to do this, and depending on how this first time goes, I'll decide whether to try again later."

"Sit down while I gather the other sages," Darius said.

* * *

Seated cross-legged in the center of the chamber, the five sages gathered around him, Link felt like a fool. Ganondorf waited outside the center ring of the chamber, his arms crossed and clearly impatient.

"Now, Link," Darius said, "You're going to have to do most of this. We're going to help push you in the right direction, but once you get started, we'll be of little help to you."

"I understand," Link said.

"All right," Darius said, "Now focus your thoughts on Zero. Think of how he looks, how he speaks, everything."

Link did so, trying to keep the mirror image turned scarred horror show freak in his mind.

"Now, lower your protection, the division between yourself and him," Darius said, "You are him, and he is you, and move toward him. Your eyes will try to go out of focus. Let them. Relax, and if you need to lay down, do so..."

Darius' voice seemed to be coming from further and further away, until it fell silent, and he found himself in darkness. Something was wrong, and no matter where he looked, all Link could see was darkness. Even his darkvision was having no effect and piercing it. He tried to stand and found he was being held down, something wrapped tightly against him. Panic set in quickly as Link struggled. Something started to give, with a ripping sound. Link grunted, pushing harder, and the ripping brought with it light. He didn't know what was happening or why, but he reached for the light, grabbing either side of the rip and redoubling his effort, tore it wider.

It gave way all at once, and Link fell forward, landing hard on his side on the stone floor. Link pushed himself up, his first sight that of one of incredible majesty. Great structures, floating on massive platforms of rock, separated by great space, some spinning.

Link searched his memory, trying to figure out where he was or for what reason, but could find nothing. Another wave of panic set in as he drew a blank, nothing in his mind he could grab hold of. There was something, but it was like trying to grab a fish from a stream in the dark, just out of reach, and each time he felt he had it, it slipped away.

Then the real nightmare started, when something grabbed him from behind. Arms wrapped around his neck, claws digging deep into the flesh of his chest. Link grabbed hold of one, and with strength he did not realize he had, dragged the beast over top of him and slammed it down hard on the ground, where it screeched and bones shattered, and the monster crumbled to dust before he even had a good look at it.

Chittering noises surrounded him, causing him to turn, to see them now, dark shades with glowing eyes, crawling up over the edges of the rock platform he was on, surrounding him and moving in toward him.

As frightful as they were, they broke easily. As each attacked, he twisted arms, smashed skulls, and crushed ribs, the creatures crumbling to dust as their lives ebbed away, instinct and reflex driving Link onward, fighting with unending stamina. How long he fought them, he had no idea, nor how many he slew, until finally, the last one in his grasp crumbling away, it's life ended, and the others fell back, vanishing over the edges of the platform from whence they came, the chittering dying away.

Link's fear melted away, replaced with triumphant euphoria. Link couldn't help himself as he threw his head back, laughing his triumph and throwing his arms wide to everything before him. His laughter died away as he felt another presence come close to him. He turned slowly, his arms falling back to his sides, his hands starting to shake as he saw the monster behind him.

A woman, at least fifty feet in height, looming over him, dark red hair like it was stained with blood, and eyes so dark, like a great empty darkness was all that remained of her soul. A chill ran down his back as she smiled at him. "There you are," she said, her powerful voice sounding all around him, and she reached down for him.

Link screamed, sheer terror taking over as her great hands closed around his body, and all he knew was darkness once again.

Link suddenly sat up, screaming again, and found himself once again in the Temple of Light. He was gasping for breath and covered in a sheen of cold sweat. Darius kneeled down by his side, putting a hand gently on his shoulder, and even this caused Link to start, turning quickly to him and one hand reaching reflexively for his sword.

"Are you alright?" Darius asked, "Calm down, you're safe."

"Oh, gods," Link whispered, "That was... That was horrifying."

"What did you see?" Darius asked.

"It... It must have been Zero's first memory," Link said, "The very first things he knew were fear and violence. Gods... There is something I'm afraid of, and even it pales compared to what I just felt."

"Zero's fear is not yours," Darius said, "That is what is dangerous about doing this. And the longer you remain in his mind, the harder it will be to distinguish between what is him, and what is you."

"I get it," Link said, "Well, thanks, for what it's worth. I don't know if I'll be doing that again."

"If you're finished, let's get going," Ganondorf said, "We've got a two day ride to the capital, after all."

"Be careful, Link," Darius said, "I wish I could say I have high hopes for how this is going to end..."

Link climbed to his feet, adjusting his baldric so it wasn't digging into his chest so much. "Not to be cliche, but it's not over until its over," he said, "My biggest worry right now is how Zelda is going to react when I tell her what you've told us."

"I'll tell her if you don't want to," Ganondorf said with a big, stupid grin.

"Well, it should be someone she can take a swing at," Link said, "and I don't trust your reaction if she does."

"You're no fun," Ganondorf said, "Come on, we're losing daylight."


	128. Chapter 127

One of the shortest individual chapters, coming in at just over 6000 words, but I can't help but feel really proud of this one. I think I've got a lot of genuine emotion packed into this little package.

**Chapter 127: Goodbyes**

"Hey, Alex! Sil!"

Alex and Silviana both turned to Link's voice, calling to them from across the village from where they sat by the river.

"Get your things together, it's time to go!" Link shouted at them.

"That was fast," Alex said as they climbed to their feet.

"Too bad, I was getting used to this place," Silviana said.

Within the next few minutes, a crowd had gathered in the clearing near Link's treehouse, where he was busy tightening the straps on Epona's saddle, readying the great mare for travel. The children were nearby, eagerly asking questions about what was happening, and where they were going, while their parents made an effort to hold them in check. Ganondorf stood with Ebony near the path leading out of the forest and into Hyrule proper, waiting for the others.

"I hope you're not expecting to put us all on two horses," Kilishandra said as she approached Link.

"Of course not," Link said, "Rusl's bringing three more for you guys. The village does keep a few replacements, for messengers or such that come this far and need a fresh horse. They're not nearly as fine of animals as Epona here, but they're ones the village can afford to part with."

"Did you find what you needed?" Silviana asked.

Link turned, looking at her over his shoulder, his hands still resting on the saddle. "I hope so," he said.

"You sure they can spare this horse?" Alex asked.

"Well, aside from the fact she's my horse," Link said, "She won't do much good here anyway. She won't let anyone but myself or Ilia near her. Don't get too close to her head, Alex. She'll bite."

Alex took a step back, eyeing the horse suspiciously. "I hate biters," he muttered, "Never been able to deal with a horse that'll bite you."

"Well, she won't bite me," Link said with a smile, and scratched Epona's neck under her mane, causing the mare to snort in appreciation.

"She still doesn't appreciate me too much, either," Midna said, appearing near Alex's side and causing him to jump in surprise.

"Stop doing that!" Alex said, "Gods, I hate that crap..."

The crowd of gathered villagers parted, allowing Bo and Rusl through into the clearing. Bo held the reigns of a horse in each hand, and Rusl led a third, bringing them to the group. The reigns were passed to Alex, Silviana, and Kilishandra, who each gently took some time to inspect the saddles and get the horses used to them.

"You have everything you need?" Rusl asked Link.

"I hope so," Link said, "If we don't... Well, it won't be any of us coming back here."

"We haven't told everyone everything that you told us," Bo said, "There's be a panic. The children especially would be terrified."

"Are you sure this is going to hit the capital first?" Rusl asked.

"The thing leading whatever is coming wants me dead more than anyone else," Link said, then motioned toward Ganondorf, "Well, maybe him too. The capital is the one place we might have a chance of fighting this off. The city's walls are the anvil against which we need to beat it, pardon the analogy."

"Works for me," Rusl said, "Question is what you intend to use as the hammer."

"That's what he's for," Link said, indicating Ganondorf again, "As much as we hate him, he's the world's greatest wizard, and a frigging genius otherwise. Between him, the princess, and myself, I think we'll figure something out."

Rusl looked back at the other villagers, waiting in silence as the group made their final preperations, then turned back to Link, his expression sad. "I wish I could go with you," he said, "But in these kind of circumstances..."

"I'd rather you stay here," Link said, turning fully toward Rusl for the first time, "If we can't do this, if the city does fall, you two are going to need to take everyone as far away as you can. Don't even wait for survivors from the capital, because there won't be any."

"What makes you sure of that?" Rusl asked.

"Because of what I already told you," Link said, "Five kingdoms have already fallen to this nightmare. The fifth was the only one I saw firsthand, but I know the kind of lengths this monster will go to. I can't..."

Link trailed off, his gaze falling to the ground. Rusl put a hand on his shoulder. "What is it?" he asked.

"I don't understand it myself," Link said, "I've always told myself that this is what matters. You, and the others. My home here. That's what kept me going last time, for the sake of the children, and all of you. If it wasn't stopped, it would eventually find its way back here again. Saving the kingdom was just a fortunate coincidence, and yet..." He raised his head, locking eyes with Rusl. A passion, fiercer and hotter than the older man had ever seen was burning bright within. "I've seen what is going to happen if Hyrule falls, and I can't let it happen. Not to anyone else, ever again."

Tears were forming in Link's eyes, so powerful this passion was. Rusl smiled. If there had ever been any reason to doubt what was in Link's heart, it was now banished permanently. "Well, I certainly can't look at you as a child anymore," Rusl said, "The world might not be as black and white as we like to think, and good and evil often merely matters of perspective. But you, Link, you have seen into the face of true evil, and you are not fleeing, as most would. You're standing to fight, to stop it dead in its tracks and protect others, regardless of risk to yourself.

"You're the real thing, Link, more than myself or any mercenary or soldier I know can claim. You have no idea how proud of you I am right now."

Link found himself chuckling, and wiped his eyes. "Maybe you should wait to declare that until after we see if I am able to pull this off."

"Link," Bo said, "I know this is selfish of me, with everything else that's going to be happening. But if it's at all possible, please bring my daughter back alive."

"Don't worry, Bo," Link said, "She might already be on her way here. If not, I'll do everything in my power to keep Ilia safe."

"That's all I can ask," Bo said, sighing deeply.

Rusl stepped aside as Uli approached them, with Collin just a few steps behind her. "Here," Uli said, offering Link a bundle she carried in her arms, "A few things you might need. I surprised you left them here to begin with."

The first items in the bundle were Link's bow and quiver, full of arrows. The wood of the bow shaft had been freshly polished, and the reinforcements were tightened, ensuring more draw without snapping the shaft. The string had also been freshly waxed, likely just the previous night, and gave a reassuring "twang" as Link made a small test of the draw. Also in the bundle was Link's boomerang, as strange artifact found in one of the old temples that, as it spun, conjured up the wind in a small whirlwind, which at its strongest was capable of throwing men in its path off their feet. Not a lethal weapon, but a useful tool otherwise.

"I'd almost forgotten about these," Link said as he pulled the quiver on over his shoulder and hooked the boomerang into his belt, "Thanks, Uli. What's this?"

The last item in the bundle was a simple wrap of cloth in the shape of a bag that contained a number of spherical objects. "Well, after the branding yesterday, I fried up some mountain oysters," Uli said, "I figured it was only fair you get most of them. The children will have to live with just one each."

"Ooh, these might as well be candy, it's been so long," Link said with a smile, and leaned forward to kiss Uli on the cheek, "Thank you."

"I didn't know there were oysters in the mountains," Alex commented, standing over by his horse with the others. Silviana smiled, leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Oh, that's just wrong," Alex muttered in response, turning slightly green.

Uli didn't stop at the kiss, and pulled Link into a tight hug, which he returned, gently to not hurt her on his baldric. When they parted, she smiled at him, though it was a sad smile. "Link, Rusl and I never lied to you about not being your real parents," she said, "But you're still our son, regardless of blood. Promise me you'll be careful?"

"I can promise that," Link said, "Nothing's going to kill me without one roaring pig of a fight."

"You need some new analogies, Link," Rusl said, "You've been using that one since you were twelve."

Link chuckled. "How about for every new scar I get, I promise the other guy will lose a limb?"

"Please, the tattoo's bad enough," Uli said, "And don't think you're not going to have to explain that when we have time."

"I thought it looked kind of dashing," Link said

"It makes me want to vomit," Uli said.

Midna visibly bristled at the remark, but kept her mouth shut.

Collin slowly stepped around Uli, nervous about interupting, but managing enough courage to ask Link's name, which causing him to look down.

"Yes, Collin?" Link asked.

"You... You're coming back, right?" Collin asked.

"If at all possible," Link said.

"You think you're going to die," Collin said.

"Well, I'd like to think I'm not going to, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't possible," Link said, and when Collin's expression contorted, another thought struck him, "Hey, I've got an idea. How about you hold onto something for me?" Link reached up, pulling the tired green cap from his head. "Here, Collin. I was given this when I was first called a hero. It's a hero's cap. And I want you to have it."

Collin's eyes lit up with wonder, staring at the dirty, worn hat, and one hand reached for it. Link pulled it away at the last second. "There's a catch, though," Link said, "You can only wear it if you're brave, understand? That means you have to look out for everyone smaller than you. Can you do that?"

Collin looked back at the other villagers. The only ones smaller than him were the other children, but that was entirely the point of Link's idea. "Yes," Collin said, turning back to Link, "Yes, I can do that."

"All right, then," Link said, offering him the cap again, "It's yours now."

Collin took it gingerly, as if it were a sacred treasure, before pulling it onto his head and smiling up at Link.

"About time for us to go," Link said, turning back to Rusl, "Hopefully this is the last time I'll have to do something like this."

"We'll all be praying for you," Rusl said.

With a final goodbye, Link turned and led Epona toward where Ganondorf was waiting, the others following him.

"Someone's coming!" Ganondorf suddenly said, and listening, they heard the sound of hoofbeats on the path leading out of the forest.

A moment later, a rider appeared in the clearing, dressed in the uniform of a Hylian soldier. "Royal messenger!" he said, "I come bearing tidings of a threat to the kingdom! All the border villages are being warned-"

He was cut off by Link. "Everyone here knows already," he said, "Better late than never, though. We're leaving right now for the capital."

The messenger looked down at Link directly. "Oh, it's you," he said, "I see. I apologize for the delay, then."

"It's all right," Link said.

"I need to report back as quickly as possible then," the messenger said, "Do you have a fresh horse I can trade this one for?"

"Of course, follow me," Rusl said, "There's fresh water in the river if you need to refill your skin as well."

The messenger dismounted, and led his tired horse as he followed Rusl.

"Well, he actually made good time, if he left as soon as Zelda and the others arrived in the capital," Link said, "Average is a three to four day trip from here, and he did it in two. I'd have a hard time going faster on four feet."

"Please, we could do it in about a day and a half," Midna whispered in his ear, causing him to quietly shush her.

"Can we get going already?" Ganondorf asked, "The end of the world's not going to wait for us."

Link pulled himself up into his saddle, and the others did the same. "Let's go," he said, nudging Epona into a trot, "And maybe on the way I'll figure out how best to explain this to Zelda."

"I still say to use that telepathy you three have," Midna said, "Then she can't smack you."

"Yeah, and then I stabbed by the guards on the way in," Link said, "No, if I have any respect for her at all, I have to do this face-to-face."

* * *

At that moment, the princess was getting an only somewhat expected visitor of her own. One of her ladies in waiting was fussing over her at that moment, even as she marched from the training field around to the front courtyard, passing through the refugee camp along the way.

"You're in no condition to be seen by the public, let alone the Partriarch!" the lady-in-waiting was saying, even as she desperately attempted to knock the dust from Zelda's clothing with her bare hands.

"Most Gorons don't wear more than a loincloth and maybe a bead necklace," Zelda said, "You honestly think Darbus will care that I'm a bit dusty?"

"It doesn't do for anyone to see the princess sweating like a mule!" the lady chided.

"I'd say it's worse that you're making me look foolish in front of these people!" Zelda said, indicating the people around them, amidst the tents erected in the courtyard, "Now keep quiet before I put you scrubbing the floors in the west wing."

The only other visible member of Zelda's entourage was Vargus, who was walking a few steps behind the pair. Though he appeared casual, with his hood down and mask off, Zelda was certain he wasn't missing anything around them, and there were at least six other ninja close by that weren't in immediate sight.

"Hey, what's going on?" Arthur asked as he appeared from the camp, approaching them, "Did something happen?"

"The Goron Patriarch is here," Zelda said, "I'm going to see him now. Don't worry about it, Arthur."

"Is there something I can do to help?" he asked.

"No," Zelda said, "Just stay here in the camp. I'm sure there's someone around here that could use your help."

"Not really," Arthur said, "Everyone's pretty much settled for now and things are stable. No, if there's anything I can do to help you-"

"There isn't, Arthur, okay?" Zelda said, annoyance clear in her voice, "I have to talk to Darbus. I don't have time for you right now. Just stay here."

She turned and started walking without waiting for a response. Arthur watched her go, and Vargus merely shrugged at him as he followed. "So," Arthur said to himself, "That's how it's going to be now."

There was no missing the Goron Patriarch, waiting in front of the main entry of the castle. He was without an entourage of his own, but he hardly needed one to be intimidating. Darbus was a genuine giant, standing just over fifteen feet in height, and nearly as wide from side to side. He was without his preferred weapon, a steel warhammer with a weighted head as large as a grown man, but there was no doubt he was capable of tearing a person's limbs off in his bare hands without much difficulty.

And if you believed the stories, Darbus was one of the small ones. There was even a tale of a Goron as large as a mountain, but even the Gorons themselves passed this off as merely a legend. In the modern age, there were only two or three other Gorons as large as Darbus, and most were much smaller, though still larger than any Hylian or Zora. They were also few in number compared to the other races, but their tough hides and powerful blows made them individually worth much larger numbers of soldiers of the other races. Hyrule had been attacked by neighboring kingdoms in generations past, and the Gorons had fought bravely on the front lines, decimating the enemy forces, taking hundreds of the enemy for each Goron that fell.

"Patriarch Darbus," Zelda greeted him, coming to a stop and bowing at the waist, "It's an honor to see you again."

"Your mother knew better than to waste both our time with formalities," Darbus said, "I'm here because your messenger reached my people in Kakariko earlier today. He was a bit short on details, though."

"Yes, about that," Zelda said, looking up at the tower of muscle in front of her. For a people who were once believed to be made of stone, the Gorons, or at least Darbus, certainly didn't have the patience of rock. "We should move to the audience chamber and discuss this in private, if you don't mind."

"That bad, huh?" Darbus asked, "All right, lead the way."

In the audience chamber, Zelda dismissed all the guards and her lady-in-waiting, so that the only ones in the room other than herself were Darbus and Vargus, and spent the better part of three hours explaining to Darbus the full story of what occurred in Mystara, not leaving out any details, even regarding the unlikely alliance with Ganondorf. For the first time, the Goron listened patiently, only interrupting to ask for clarification on certain points.

"And that's why I'm subtly trying to prepare for war," Zelda said, "I don't want to cause a panic, but I've stepped up military recruitment, and we're stockpiling medical supplies and food for a siege."

"Do you have any idea what we're actually going to be fighting?" Darbus asked.

"The main thing I think of are blighted people we fled from," Zelda said, "Ganondorf informed me that he purged an entire city, but of the four kingdoms the blight effected, that's hardly a drop in the bucket. They've made an army of those monsters, and I'm certain they'll direct them this way."

"Across the ocean?" Darbus asked, "If they're barely more than animals, as you described, I have a hard time believing they can sail a ship, let alone a fleet."

"Vargus here encountered one that was smart," Zelda said, indicating the ninja, "Tell him."

"This one wasn't like the others," Vargus said when Darbus turned to him, "While the others raved and screamed like animals, he was silent. And he was far more dangerous. The others followed his direction as well. A raving horde they may be, but they do have leadership."

"And if there is one like that, I'm certain there must be more," Zelda said.

"Well, thank you, princess, I appreciate having all the information," Darbus said, "Don't worry, I can keep my mouth shut when I need to. If it gets out too quickly, it won't be from me. But you can count on the Gorons to be here when you need us."

"Thank you," Zelda said, "That's all I want. Well, no, that's not entirely true, there is one other thing. Since Goron engineers know more about explosives than anyone else alive, I'd appreciate it if you can pass it along."

"What is it?" Darbus asked.

Vargus produced a roll of paper and handed it to Zelda, who spread it out on the available table. "Forgive the very crude drawing, I had to do it myself," she said, but directed Darbus to the design, "This is a device that was created in Darimar. It's the one used to fire harpoons and drag the flying castle from the sky. Their explosive powder wasn't nearly as refined as the Goron variety, but the function is easy enough to understand. The fuse runs into the back of the device here, to a packed down batch of the powder, which when it goes off-"

"The tube directs the blast forward, propelling the projectile from the device," Darbus finished, leaning down to see the drawing, "Yes, I see... Honestly, I'm surprised we didn't think of something like this sooner. You intend to use this as a weapon."

"I think the defensive value will be substantial if we can mount something on the walls," Zelda said, "That way we can fire outward at attacking forces."

"You'll need a better projectile than a harpoon," Darbus said, "Something that can do more damage than a bow. I think we could enlarge the device, a bigger tube with a bigger charge to propel a larger, heavier projectile. Throw it hard enough, and the concussive force alone could cause an effect similar to an explosive device."

Zelda was for a moment taken aback at Darbus both using what amounted to her as technical terms, and his knowledge of what she had in mind, and then had to remind herself the average Goron had likely forgotten more about blowing things up than the greatest Hylian engineers would ever learn.

"Yes, I see what you have in mind," Darbus said, "I'll speak to my engineers and see what they can come up with. Will need the smiths, too, to make tubes capable of taking the blast without shattering. I honestly think, if this works, it should not leave this kingdom, ever, and should only be used for defense. Otherwise, a device like this could change the way war is waged forever, and likely substantially increase body counts all around."

"I agree," Zelda said, "Wizards are capable of enough, without a device that makes anyone using it as destructive as this will likely be."

"May I take this as a reference?" Darbus asked.

"Oh, certainly," Zelda said as he took the paper, "I'm not sure how much help it will be."

"It'll help get the idea across," Darbus said, "Now, if there is nothing else, I need to be on my way back, and the trip back takes longer because it's all uphill."

"That's all, so I won't keep you," Zelda said, "I appreciate everything, Darbus."

"Don't let the pressure get to you, princess," Darbus said, "You're not alone."

Saying his farewell, the Goron excused himself, making his way out of the room, ducking down to get through the door, and Zelda sat down at the table, taking a moment to relax. It was just a moment though, as a member of the castle staff enter the chamber slowly.

"What is it?" Zelda asked when she saw him stop just inside the room.

"Pardon the intrusion, but the royal smith has requested your presence," the messenger said.

"The armor," Zelda said, "He must need to take measurements. All right, let's get this over with."

* * *

The royal smith's forge was originally housed in a back chamber of the castle itself, but when the structure was destroyed during the battle with Ganondorf, a new forge had been built in the back courtyard in its own building, near the training field. There were many workers and many anvils, all banging loudly as the smiths hammered out armor plates and weapons for the military on a regular basis. Out front of the building, away from the heat of the fires, a circle of women were gathered, chatting about nothing while they knitted together the metal links of chain mail shirts.

The title of the royal smith was given specifically to one man, however, whose primary duty was overseeing the operations, but was also the finest smith the kingdom had seen in centuries. Balthazar was a large, dark-skinned man from far southeast of Hyrule. He had come to Hyrule during Zelda's mother's time, and impressed her with his skill at the forge, and had been working the royal forge as long as Zelda herself could remember.

As Zelda entered the building with Vargus behind her, she saw Balthazar by the far wall, testing the balance of a sword by balancing it perfectly on his finger, right at the hilt. When he saw her, he immediately turned, placing the sword on a rack next to numerous other identical swords, and moved across the noisy room toward her.

"I assumed this is about the armor I requested," Zelda said, nearly having to shout to be heard over the banging hammers on metal.

"Yes," Balthazar said, and gestured to the left hand side of the large room, "If you don't mind, princess, over here."

Situated in the far corner was Balthazar's personal work area, with its own forge and anvil, and a complete set of tools for his own use. Quite an extensive setup compared to how closely spaced the other stations were. Zelda was just glad it was far enough from the others that the noise wasn't so overpowering.

"So if I understand this correctly, you want a real set of armor, not a glorified parade set," Balthazar said, turning to her.

"Something combat-worthy, yes," Zelda said.

"Because it's you, I'll make it myself, of course," Balthazar said, "At the same time, I don't want to make just any set and then make it fit with strap adjustments. Something made specifically for you would of course be the best option, so if you don't mind, I need to take some measurements."

"That's what I was expecting," Zelda said as Balthazar produced a measuring tape from the pocket of his apron.

It only took a moment as Balthazar took measurements of the length of her arms and legs, width of her shoulders, and jotting down the results on a notepad. He did make her blush as he measured around her chest and hips, though he remained entirely professional the whole time.

"All right, that's all I need for now," he said at last, tucking the tape and notepad into his apron pockets, "Thank you for your patience, princess. In a few days, I'll have a set of armor ready for you that will make every king on the continent envious."

"I'd settle for something that will stop a sword from cutting me open," Zelda said.

"That's the boring stuff," Balthazar said, "One of these days I'm going to figure out how to put a little real magic in the things I make, and then I'll be making weapons and armor that'll put the fear of death into the gods themselves. For now, you'll just have to settle for a perfectly normal set of the finest armor you've ever seen."

"Thank you, Balthazar," Zelda said, "I need to get back to work myself, however."

"I won't keep you," he replied, "Have a good day, princess."

* * *

Hours passed, and the sun was sinking into the west before Zelda was finally able to find a few moments for herself. The seemingly endless reports and requests finally slowed, and she was able to step outside the castle once more and take a breath of the cool evening air.

Vargus had already retired for the evening, the ninja now following at her heel was a different man, much younger, and at the same time, much stiffer. He didn't seem to care for idle conversation and didn't indulge her the way Vargus would. But it was nearly dinner time, and Zelda wasn't eager to eat her meal alone, and was making her way gradually to the refugee camp, deciding extending an invitation in person would be better, given the way she had treated him earlier in the day, and wanted to apologize as well.

She spotted Sheila and Maylow sitting by a low fire in front of one of the tents, taking their time with a delicious smelling stew that was being handed out in the camp.

"Hello, you two," Zelda said, moving into the light where they could see her.

"Well, there's the princess herself," Sheila said, though she was smiling, "What are you doing out here."

"I haven't completely forgotten you, you know," Zelda said, "How are things out here, by the way? Are you getting everything you need?"

"We're comfortable enough," Maylow said, "Nobody is going hungry and there are enough tents and blankets to keep the weather off us."

"I promise as soon as better accommodations are available, we'll be moving everyone indoors," Zelda said.

"Honestly, this is already a lot better than things in the wagons," Sheila said, "But I'm sure you didn't come out here just to small talk. Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm just looking for Arthur," Zelda said, "Have you seen him anywhere?"

"I think he went into town, actually," Sheila said, "About the same time that group of the dark elf ninja came through. Actually, it's kind of weird to see so many of them walking out in plain sight."

"I see," Zelda said, "No idea where he probably went, in that case. Well, if you see him, tell him I was looking for him, okay?"

"You got it," Sheila said.

* * *

Arthur hadn't actually gone far. He'd gone to the Drunken Monkey, the tavern just off the center square of the city, and was now seated at the far end of the bar from Vargus. The other ninja were up to what they enjoyed, some engaging in games of throwing knives, others drinking and sharing stories with the Hylian soldiers, and others not so casually chatting up friendly women, whether they worked in the tavern or not.

Vargus had waited in a dark corner until he spotted Arin, the young soldier from the previous night, sit down in the same spot as before, order a drink, and silently sip it, in spite of the noise and activity around him. Vargus waited a minute, for him to get comfortable, before coming up beside him and ordering a drink of his own.

"You again?" Arin asked as Vargus took a seat next o him, "I'm starting to think you're up to something. What's your game?"

"No game," Vargus said, "It never is. Maybe I'm genuinely concerned when I see someone drinking alone, and just want to be friendly."

"Or maybe the rumors that have been going around are true," Arin said.

"What rumors would those be?" Vargus asked, though he knew full well what the response was going to be, having heard said rumors through his own men, who had been keeping their ears open to everything.

"Rumors about you ninjas," Arin said, "About the fact there are no women of your kind to be seen."

"It's ninja, by the way," Vargus said.

Arin blinked. "What?"

"The plural of ninja is ninja, not ninjas," Vargus said, "What's this about no women, then?"

"Well, the fact there's no women, people are saying you're all a bunch of man-lovers," Arin said.

"Is that so?" Vargus said, glancing down the bar, "I think there's evidence right here otherwise."

Arin leaned back to look past him, and sure enough, more than one of the dark elves had a Hylian woman in their lap, and weren't exactly shy about where their hands were going, causing a great deal of giggling from said women.

"All right, fine," Arin said, turning back to Vargus, "But you don't have a woman hanging off you. You're here talking to me. What am I supposed to make of that?"

"And with this many attractive women in this tavern, you're sitting here drinking alone," Vargus said, "What about that?"

Arin had lifted his drink, and now suddenly slammed it down on the bar, sending fizz into the air from the impact, and he whirled on Vargus. "I am not a stinking man-lover," he growled.

Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked away angrily, leaving Vargus sitting alone. "Well, that's not how I wanted things to go," Vargus muttered, and took a sip of his drink. He hadn't wanted to press the issue so quickly, but the young man had been the one to bring it up first. Now, Vargus could think of three possibilities for the situation. Either Arin actually was straight, or he had yet to come to terms with himself. He was young enough that the second was certainly a possibility, and society had a way of training one to think in certain ways. The third possibility was that the Arin was a eunuch.

As Vargus finished his drink, he hoped it wasn't the third possibility.

At the other end of the bar, Arthur had already spent what little Hyrulean money he had on a few drinks as he mulled over things in his head. The alcohol had a calming effect on him, his initial anger at Zelda brushing him off, and her tone, fading. He didn't know what to think, though, considering she used to always have time to at least simply talk to him.

He nearly jumped out of his seat when someone appeared to his left, leaning her back against the bar, and said, "Hey, there, handsome."

Arthur looked up at her. An attractive blonde woman, somewhat older but certainly still pretty, in spite of the lines forming around her eyes. Middle-aged, he guessed. And she was putting the moves on him.

"Sorry," he said, and indicated his empty cup, "Just spent the last money I had on this."

"I didn't come over here because I wanted a drink," she said, leaning down and whispering the next in his ear, "I came over here because I think you are the sexiest man in this place."

She leaned back again, a sultry smile on her face. Arthur swallowed hard.

Vargus had gotten up and was moving to leave when he saw Arthur speaking to the woman. He was too far away to make out the conversation over the rest of the noise in the tavern, but it was fairly obvious what was going on.

"Don't you do it, kid," Vargus muttered under his breath, "Don't do it..."

Arthur got up from his seat and the woman, still smiling, took him by the arm and started to lead him toward the door.

"And you blew it," Vargus said as the pair left out the front.

* * *

Even as he walked with her, Arthur couldn't shake the odd queasiness in his gut. It wasn't from the drink, and he chided himself, telling himself this was exactly the kind of thing he used to do all the time. Before Zelda... Before she...

He shook his head, trying to force the thought from his mind. This woman, Claire, had approached him. She was far more interested in him, right from the start. Forget about Zelda. She was clearly ready to forget about him.

Claire guided him through the streets to her house. Not a bad place, actually, situated near the east wall. Looked like at least five rooms, which was fairly sizable for a woman living on her own. She unlocked the door and led him in.

The main room was lightly furnished, a low table and a few cushioned seats. It wasn't the cleanest place he'd ever seen, with dirt building up in corners, and he thought he saw a roach move across the far door, but he'd seen much worse, too.

"Wait here for just a minute," Claire said, opening to door into the room to the right and disappearing from sight.

Arthur glanced around the room again. The far wall had a fireplace, though it was long cold and full of ash that had yet to be cleaned. The sick feeling in his gut hadn't gone away yet, and the more he focused on it, the more he was certain something was wrong, but it wasn't something he ate or drank.

The door to the right opened again, and though he expected Claire, instead a small boy, maybe six or seven years old, walked out, his eyes half-shut with sleep, carrying a blanket with him. "Wait, what?" Arthur asked, not sure what was happening.

"Mom said she needed the bed," the boy said, moving over to one of the larger chairs, climbing into it and pulling the blanket over himself. He didn't elaborate further.

A moment later, Claire appeared from the door, looking over at Arthur with that same sultry smile from the bar. "Come on in," she said.

Arthur glanced over at the boy in the chair, then turned back to her. "Wait, with the kid right here?" he asked.

"He's used to it," Claire said with a shrug.

That sick feeling suddenly got worse, and now he was certain there was more than one reason.

"I don't think I can do this," Arthur said.

Claire's smile vanished. "All right, now listen here. Either get your ass in here, or get the hell out of my house!"

She stepped into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Arthur stared at the door for a second, and shook his head.

_What the hell am I doing here?_ he thought, and turned to leave.

He paused at the threshold, glancing over at the boy, trying to sleep in the large chair. The blanket had fallen to his waist, leaving most of him uncovered. Arthur quietly walked over to the chair, and lifted it over the boy's shoulders, tucking it gently behind him to keep it in place. The boy didn't react, already asleep again.

With a soft sigh, Arthur walked back to the front door and stepped outside, closing the door quietly behind himself.

The sick feeling was finally fading, and he felt as though he'd narrowly avoided a serious mistake.


	129. Chapter 128

So, Vargus has another conversation with Arin in this chapter, and looking at it now, it tends to come off a little preachy about the subject of homosexuality. I didn't really intend it to be that way, and more that Vargus was simply explaining a bit to Arin, but it comes from the fact this is effectively a big part of the sub-plot I wanted to center on Vargus (and he deserves it, considering how late I waited to start developing him at all), and while I'm not exactly sure how far I can take a male-male relationship without making some of you guys uncomfortable, I didn't want to glaze over the development entirely. I tend to think I have a fairly open mind when it comes to sex in general (though I don't think I crossed the PG-13 line previously with Link and Midna, it's safe to think I was toeing the line pretty close), and while I'm not gay myself, I'm totally comfortable with the subject, so I'm not sure how far I can go with it without pushing other people's limits. Don't fear, this is not suddenly going to become a yaoi fic, but I do want to give the relationship the respect I think such things deserve. Fortunately, the preachiness will pretty much end with this chapter, though I've got a few more chapters to go before the sub-plot concludes, and some other ends to tie up before the finale.

I'm not going to guess at chapter numbers again, but the end of the story is looming pretty big on the horizon. And I don't intend to leave any cliffhangers with this one. I promise, once the fighting starts, I'll just keep writing that one until it's all done, regardless of how long it goes, it'll be the final chapter. Think of it as making up for the shorter chapters along the way at this point.

**Chapter 128: Shadows in the Night**

"Vargus, starting tomorrow, I want your men to start accompanying our regular patrols into the countryside," Zelda said, "I think one or two with each patrol will suffice. You need to start familiarizing yourselves with the countryside, if I'm to make use of your skills and scouts."

"You expect something to happen soon?" Vargus asked, moving to where he could see the map laid out on her desk.

"I'm not sure," she said, "Ganondorf believes we have a few weeks left at least. He informed me that he and the other members of his party will be arriving in the city no later than tomorrow morning, and we'll finally be able to start preparing in earnest for whatever is coming. But there is something..."

Vargus waited patiently as she trailed off, looking over the map. Her office was rather spacious and had a great deal of seating space, no doubt for meeting with her officers in number, and the desk occupied only a small area, and the edges of the map were hanging a few inches over the front and back, while other papers were pushed to the sides. The map itself was a high quality rendition of Hyrule and some lands just beyond its borders, complete with elevation and other terrain details. When she first laid it out, he had taken time to memorize it, as there was much of the kingdom's territory he was yet unfamiliar with. One thing he was certain of was that any serious invasion force would have to approach the capital from the north. High mountains bordered the land to the west, and there were numerous rivers and a large lake in the area that invaders would have to keep clear of, or the Zora warriors would pick them off from out of the water itself, vanishing back into the river before a counter-attack could truly start.

On the east was another thick mountain range, and while it did not extend as far north as the western mountains did, deep ravines would stop an invading force in its tracks, one almost directly on the east wall of the capital's border, and the other was crossed by only a constructed stone bridge barely wide enough for wagons or six men abreast, and could easily be held by even a small defending force. Not to mention any hostiles trying to cross would be easy targets for marksmen in the towers.

And to the south was the forest. When Vargus had asked about the potential of invaders using the forest as cover, Zelda had dismissed it, explaining the cursed nature of those woods, and that becoming lost within, even for a moment, was as good as being dead, if not worse. Skilled trackers could doubtlessly make their way through, but the forest had other defenses as well, and there was no chance of a substantially sized group coming through.

"I actually don't know how to say it," Zelda said, picking up the conversation again, "There's something wrong. And it's close. The hairs on my neck are tingling, so to speak. But I'm not sure if it's out there, or possibly even in the city."

"A healthy amount of paranoia is normal," Vargus said, "I'm getting curious too, about the guard reports that mention an unusual number of people gathering at night lately."

"You've been reading the reports over my shoulder," Zelda said, looking up at him from her seat.

"Force of habit, I'm afraid," Vargus said, "The city guard thought it was significant enough to mention, but they have yet to investigate."

"The guard captain thinks it's nothing," Zelda said, "I could give them the order to kick down the doors and see what is going on at these gatherings, but without decent evidence that something is going wrong in advance, it may turn out to be nothing. If someone misunderstands, and someone is killed for nothing..."

"It could cause unrest, both in the populace and the guard," Vargus said, "I understand. Still, if something is going on..."

"We need to know," Zelda said, leaning back, away from the map, and into her seat, "Is it possible to find out, on the sly, as it were?"

"With your permission, I'll take three of my men to one of these gatherings tonight," Vargus said, "Investigation only, no death or evidence we were even there, and I will have an answer for you by morning, and you can decide how to proceed from there."

"Do it," Zelda said, "I hope it's nothing, but I'll sleep easier actually knowing."

"As you wish," Vargus said, and looked up, "Lacard, come down."

Another ninja dropped from the rafter ten feet above them, landing without the slightest sound on the soft carpet, immediately dropping to one knee and bowing his head before the two of them. Unlike Vargus, he kept his hood and mask up, concealing his features within.

"Go get me three fresh volunteers and tell them to meet me outside the Drunken Monkey just after sundown," Vargus said, "Tell them to be rested and fed at least an hour before. Go."

With a silent nod, the ninja was up and moved out of the room, closing the door behind him nearly as quietly as his initial drop.

"I knew he was up there, and it's still frightening to see him come down like that," Zelda said.

"I was rather hoping it would make you feel safe," Vargus said.

"Actually, it does in a way," Zelda said, "With you standing in the open, anyone intent on my life would be focused on you, and likely never see one of the others coming."

"Distraction is a key element in how we operate," Vargus said, "Once we are able to begin training more to add to our numbers, perhaps you'd like to sit in on some of the sessions and see?"

"Maybe," Zelda said, "We've still got other problems to deal with first."

* * *

It was mid-afternoon, the second day after that night in the bar. Arthur sat in the sun, his back against the outer courtyard wall, shaded from the sun, as he watched the training fields, where young recruits were being molded into the soldiers that would likely soon be fighting for their nation. A lot of them would be dying for their nation, he had no doubt.

Gods, how did he make it this far? He remembered signing up for Darimar's military, the intense weeks of training, raising him to his physical peak, the fittest he'd ever been in his life, and teaching him to fight. He could see several groups going over sword techniques, and sparring with blunted weapons, hammering away at each other in that heavy plate armor. The overall style was certainly different than what he'd been taught, but the basics were still the same. Put the pointy end in the other man while making sure he couldn't do the same to you.

It actually surprised him at the number of women he saw on the training fields and well, and not simply fetching water for the recruits. Many of them were recruits themselves, and standing even with the men in most fronts. Some were being taught different fighting styles as well. While the men were in the heavy armor and effectively being taught to hold the line, the women, and some of the smaller men, were being taught techniques to evade strikes and counter-attack in the resulting opening. They ones that were successful were actually quite graceful. The lighter armor they wore, of hardened leather and chain mail only, would not stop blows as effectively as plate, but that mattered little when they avoided the strikes entirely.

Hyrule was certainly an interesting place, with not just the intermingling of races, but also of the sexes, with women in many occupations one would never have seen them in his homeland. That woman he had met two days ago, Claire, was an oddity in herself, at least from his perspective, unmarried but with a son. Or maybe she was a widow? He wasn't sure, but it had been clear that bringing a strange man home was nothing new to her.

He still wasn't sure how he should go from there. Should he tell Zelda? Or was it better to just forget about it? He hadn't actually done anything, so it wasn't like he'd done something wrong. Well, until he found a moment she wasn't constantly busy, it wouldn't matter. Best if he just stayed out of her way for now.

"Where have you been hiding?"

He looked up at the voice to see Sheila stop just a short distance from him.

"You need something heavy moved?" Arthur asked, looking back toward the training field.

Sheila crossed her arms. "Really? That's what you expect when you see me?" she asked.

"It's apparently all I'm good for now," Arthur said.

"So that sharp length of steel on your hip is just for show, then?" Sheila asked.

"If you're just here to mock me, you can just go," Arthur said, "I've got plenty of my own reasons to feel like a heel."

"I actually happened to notice you and came to tell you that Zelda came by looking for you the other night," Sheila said, "When you went into town."

It hadn't been intentional on her part, but the mention of that night sent a stab of nausea into Arthur's gut as once again, he remembered Claire in the bar. He hoped he kept the feeling from showing on his face. "She found time, and I wasn't here," he said, "Typical."

"Well, she did look pretty disappointed when you weren't here," Sheila said.

"Well, I guess that's too bad for her, since every time I've tried to see her lately, she's been busy," Arthur said, "Maybe good for her to get a taste of what it's like."

Sheila stared at him for a moment, incredulous, then she laughed. "Are you serious?" she asked, "You're jealous of the fact she has things to do? You must be as thick as Alexander."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Arthur demanded, suddenly climbing to his feet.

Standing up, he was nearly a foot taller than her, but she only chuckled softly again, shaking her head as she looked up at him. "In case you didn't notice, _Princess_ Zelda is the ruler of this country. Do you even know what that entails? It means that every day of her life, she is going to be busy. Leading this nation is her _job_. And she doesn't get days off from that.

"Now, I've seen you two together. I think she really does like you. But you're obviously not understanding a simple fact: You cannot be her first thought. She cannot just have time for you whenever you want. The first thing in her mind is and will always have to be her kingdom and its people. They will always come first. It's just how it has to be. If you have any intentions on a woman like her, you will have to accept the fact that you will never be better than second place in her mind."

She paused a moment, letting that sink in a bit, and he had visibly deflated as she spoke. Then she asked, "Did you meet Prince Richard in Darimar?"

"Uh, no, not personally," Arthur said, surprised by the sudden shift of topic.

"I knew him since he was about this big," she said, holding her hand down about level with her knee, "To his eyes, I was always a gown woman. But when he grew up... Well, let's say we were getting serious, even with the war going on. I knew I was facing this same kind of dilemma. One day he would be king, and I'd have to live with him being busy most of each day. And I was honestly willing to accept that, even as I was willing to accept that I would outlive him by five centuries at least.

"It broke my heart when I saw him die in front of me. Now, I'm not trying to get your sympathy. There was a lot happening, and I had to keep going. I've made my peace. Richard is with the gods now, or he's not. Either way, he knows no pain.

"Maybe instead of whining about how little time you have with Zelda, you should treasure what time you do have. Because it could suddenly and irrevocably end, and with no warning. She seems to have free time in the evenings, before she retires to bed. Maybe that's when you should try to see her."

Arthur sighed. She had quite effectively deflated him and his irritation, and made him feel quite foolish at the same time. She was right, of course. Zelda had responsibilities that she couldn't ignore, and he ultimately was not directly a part of them. The best he could do would be to be patient, maybe give her a friendly ear to talk to in the evenings.

Gods help him, if he was really serious about pursuing a relationship with a woman like her, he'd have to accept that he'd basically be the wife.

"Look, I'm sorry to dump it all on you like that," Sheila said.

"No, you're right," Arthur said, "I've been being an idiot. Not that I didn't know that, but worse than I'd thought. I need to talk to her. This evening, that is."

"Well, I only meant to tell you she had been looking for you," Sheila said.

"Well, thanks for that... Wait a second," he said, moving toward her, looking at something past her.

Sheila turned, looking for what he saw. "What is it?" she asked.

"That boy, there," Arthur said, pointing, "He's not one of the refugees, is he?"

"I'm not sure," Sheila said, "I don't recognize him, but there are a lot of use around here..."

"I think I saw him the other night," Arthur said, walking past her.

The boy in question was leaning on the wooden stake fence on the far end of training fields, watching the soldiers. Brown hair and in raggedy clothes, he plenty dirty, but as Arthur came closer, he became certain. It's was Claire's son.

"Hey, you," Arthur said, leaning on the fence next to him, "What are you doing out here?"

The boy looked up at him. He wasn't afraid, but he did seem uncertain.

"You don't remember me, do you?" Arthur asked.

"I remember you," the boy said, "You came in with my mother the other night. And then you left immediately. Most of the men she brings home don't leave until morning."

"Well, no offense, but I regretted following her home at all," Arthur said.

"I always thought that was why the other men she brought home never turn up again," the boy said.

"I don't think that's the whole reason," Arthur said.

"I know what she does in there with them," the boy said, "I don't know why most of the other kids' parents try to hide it from them. I guess it must feel good, she brings home men to do it with so often."

Well, if the kid already knew that much, no point in lying to him. "Well, it does," he said, "But I think it's much better if you're with someone you really care about. I actually used to be a lot like the guys your mother brings home, and I nearly slipped back into it that night, but... I have met someone I want to really be with, and it's because of her that I don't want to fall into that pattern again. I've seen people actually with the kind of relationship I want now, and... Let's just say the two of them seem to have so much more going for them just by being together, not just in bed."

The boy turned to look up at him again. "I've just never seen a man who left after my mother brought them home at night."

"Maybe if she met the right one, she'd change the way she does these things," Arthur said.

"I don't know," the boy said, "The newest one, Clint, said he'd be back. I don't like him. He gave me a scary look last night."

"Sounds like and unpleasant guy already," Arthur said, "Hopefully he won't stick around long, then. By the way, my name's Arthur. What's yours?"

"Eric," the boy said.

"Well, Eric, what brought you out here?" Arthur asked.

He shrugged. "I just like to watch the soldiers," he said, "Maybe when I'm old enough, I can join them?"

"I don't see why not," Arthur said, "I was in the army back where I come from, at least for a while. It was quite an experience."

"Did you kill anyone?" Eric asked.

"A few people, yes," Arthur said, "But they'd have killed me if I hadn't."

"Is it easy to do?" Eric asked.

Arthur thought about this a moment. It was easy at the time, when he'd been riding on fear and adrenaline, but even now, so long after...

"Their faces are still with me," he said, "I remember their faces. Every man I killed, his face is burned into my memory. They follow me, every day. I can never forget them. And if I kill again, their faces will be added to the number. It will just keep growing. I doesn't matter how easy it seems at the time, you have to live with what you've done for the rest of your life, every life you've taken. I know people who have killed a lot more than me, and I honestly wonder how they live with themselves."

"That sounds awful," Eric said.

"It is," Arthur said.

"Not sure I want to do it anymore, if it's like that," Eric said.

"I wouldn't say that outright," Arthur said, "These soldiers here, they do it to protect people. You see, there are bad people in the world. Even the kind that can kill others without thinking about it. They even enjoy it. It's a soldier's job to fight those people. To protect the ones who can't protect themselves. That's why they train like they do. So that when the bad people come, they're ready for them."

"That's why you were a soldier?" Eric asked.

"That's right," Arthur said.

"Where are you from?" Eric asked.

Arthur turned, pointing west. "That way, you keep going until you reach the ocean, and then you get a ship to cross all the way over to the other end of the world. The land there is where I'm from," Arthur said, and leaned back against the fence, "Why do you ask?"

"I was wondering," Eric said, "You talk kind of funny."

"Oh, the accent," Arthur said, "Back where I'm from, everyone talked like me. Honestly, everyone here are the ones that sound funny to me."

Eric smiled, but just turned back to the field. "That's what I want to do," he said, pointing to the archery targets, and the men and women lined up to take shots at the targets.

"A bow?" Arthur said, "Do you have one?"

"No," Eric said, "I've never seen one up close."

"Heck, I can teach you to shoot, if you want," Arthur said.

"Really?" the boy asked, looking up at him suddenly, "You mean it?"

Arthur shrugged. "Yeah, I can," he said, "I've got plenty of free time. I'll just have to find a bow your size. Though I'll have to ask your mother first. Don't want her thinking I kidnapped you after all."

"She won't care," Eric said.

"Just the same, I'd feel better asking her," Arthur said, "Speaking of which, when do you need to get home?"

"I don't really have to worry about time," Eric said.

"What about dinner or anything?" Arthur asked.

The boy just shrugged.

"Tell you what, then," Arthur said, "I'm just going to go sit over there in the shade by the wall. When you're ready to go, come get me, and we'll talk to your mother about this, okay?"

"Okay," Eric said.

Arthur had surprised himself. The way the boy's eyes lit up when he offered to teach him to shoot, it was almost magical. He found himself smiling. Yes, he definitely wouldn't mind having one or two of his own at some point in the future.

The sun was just starting to sink behind the castle walls when he and Eric were walking down the street toward Claire's residence. Arthur made sure to memorize the street and address this time, so he could reliably find it in the future.

Claire opened the door, stepping out before they had actually reached the house, and she stopped on the threshold, watching them approach. She certainly put effort into her own appearance, Arthur thought, with her hair freshly washed and brushed, wearing a gold necklace and earrings, with a dark red top, the image only slightly ruined by the fact she was wearing a man's cowhide jacket over it all.

"Well, if it isn't the white knight come back," she said, a faint sneer in her tone as they approached, and she looked down at Eric, "And where were you?"

"I was watching the soldiers," Eric said.

"I found him by the training field," Arthur said when she looked up at him, "I walked him home so we could ask you if you'd let me teach him to use a bow."

"A bow?" she asked, looking down at Eric.

"Yeah, please, Mom?" Eric asked, "Please, I promise I won't shoot it inside."

Claire shrugged. "I don't have a problem with it," she said.

"Yes, thank you, Mom!" Eric said, hugging her around the waist, which she only half-heartedly returned.

"Well, that was easier than I expected. Alright, I'll come get you tomorrow," Arthur said as Eric turned back to him, "I need to ask around about where to get a bow your size. After noon all right?"

"Yeah," Eric said.

"See you then, white knight," Claire said, waving her fingers as Arthur bid them farewell and turned to leave.

The pair watched him walk away, back toward the castle. Once he disappeared around the corner, Claire turned back toward the door to their house, glancing back at Eric as she paused halfway in.

"Clint was looking for you earlier," she said, and then stepped inside without another word.

Eric's happy feeling evaporated quickly. He couldn't fathom why his mother's latest lover would be looking for him.

* * *

The sun was setting. Vargus was watching the crowds in the market square from an inconspicuous corner, waiting to try to spot people moving in unusual groups, either of group size or simply strange combinations of either gender mix or social classes. The other three with him were hidden in other spots in the market, watching for similar signs. The difficulty was that they didn't know exactly what they were looking for. Maybe he should have brought more eyes, he thought to himself, there were a lot of people here.

But with the sun setting, the stalls were closing, as the merchants packed up their goods and the citizens hurriedly finished last minute purchases, and started clearing from the square to make their way home.

The rattle of armor caused Vargus to turn, finding a city guard not far from him, who came to a stop when he saw Vargus had heard him. "Now, usually when a guard finds someone lurking in the shadows like this, they're up to no good," the guard said, "I hope you're not intending to cause trouble."

"Not tonight," Vargus said, "I'm on official business for the crown."

"You have proof of that?" the guard asked.

Vargus turned his eyes back to the dwindling crowds, though he hooked his thumb under the chain around his neck, pulling the royal crest out the front of his vest, holding it up where the guard could see it. It was the same chain worn by every soldier in royal employ, as Vargus understood, and should suffice, though there was something else he was curious about.

"You've got an awfully friendly tone for a guard who just caught a man lurking in a shadow, as you put it," Vargus said, "Though I guess it doesn't matter when I recognize your voice through your helmet anyway. Hello, Arin."

The guard lifted his hands to his helmet, pulling it off his head, and holding it under one arm as he smoothed his sandy-blonde hair back after the process. "Yes, and I knew it was you, as well,' Arin said, "And... well, I need to talk to you, and I didn't know if you'd be at the bar again or not."

"Aren't you on duty?" Vargus asked.

"No, the shift changed about half an hour ago," Arin said, "I just haven't traded my armor for my uniform yet. What are you doing out here like this, though?"

"Like I said, official business," Vargus said, "You wanted to talk to me, though?"

"Well, I think I owe you an apology," Arin said, turning to look out over the crowd, "What I said to you the other night... The whole thing, it was uncalled for. You... That is, I think I misread the situation."

"Actually, you weren't far off," Vargus said, "I was trying to get close to you, and if that makes you uncomfortable, I was obviously wrong about the situation."

"Well, that's not exactly..." Arin started and paused, glancing around as if to check that no one was in earshot, and lowered his voice anyway, "I actually... I bought the time of a woman last night and..."

"And you need to gloat," Vargus said, "I get it."

"No!" Arin said quickly, "No, I mean... Gods, I can't believe I'm going to say this. I wasn't able to... perform. I mean, at all."

"Probably for the best," Vargus said, "You never know who a prostitute has been with. Probably even possible to catch some kind of new disease that mutated from a lot of old ones that way."

Arin turned toward him. "I honestly can't tell if you're being sympathetic or making fun of me."

"A little bit of both," Vargus said.

"I probably deserve it," Arin said, "But are you going to let me finish? Okay, like I said, last night, I took a woman home, and nothing happened. I wasn't able to, you know, do it. It's not like I haven't been with women before, though it wasn't often, I have. I was up late last night, just thinking about everything, my life, and so on.

"I don't know how to say it, but I'm starting to think the reason I've never been in a real relationship for any length of time might be... you know..."

"I think I do," Vargus said when he trailed off, "Look, there was a point for me too, when I didn't really know what was wrong with me, and the simple fact was I wasn't feeling anything, any attraction, to a woman like everything I knew said I should. I didn't exactly have someone to explain it too me and sort of have to figure it out on my own. I even thought I was twisted and perverse at one point.

"In the years since, I've not just learned to live with it, I've embraced it. It's who I am... no, that's not right. It's a part of who I am, but it doesn't define me. It's just one piece of what makes up who I am as a person. I've met plenty of negatives about it, especially among religious sorts. They're the most dedicated to opposing it because of the fact such relationships can't exactly have children, and that makes it unnatural."

"You don't think it isn't?" Arin asked, "I can't help but feel they have a point, about the children, I mean."

"Maybe it is to some degree, but I'm long past caring," Vargus said, "I didn't make a choice to be the way I am. It was there to begin with. The only choice I made was to stop fighting it. I've been a lot happier, and I think healthier, too, since I did."

"And you're not bothered by what other people think of you?" Arin asked.

"I don't exactly shout it from the rooftops," Vargus said, "For most people, what they don't know won't hurt them. Besides, I tend to think it's none of their business what goes on in my bedroom when the lights go out. There's a lot worse kinds of people out there than the men who prefer to share their bed with another man."

"I can believe that," Arin said, "I joined the city guard about five years ago and... Well, there are some things I've seen in that time I wish I could forget. There was a man in my first year we found... He was a sick bastard. He... well, he had something for young boys, and when he was done, he'd kill them and bury the bodies outside the city. Fourteen boys had gone missing in six months since he started his acts, and the guard didn't find any evidence until I saw a child's foot sticking out the back of his wood cart as he was leaving the city, to bury his latest victim."

"I hope he got what he deserved," Vargus said.

"He didn't make it to his execution," Arin said, his tone grim, "Only one night he had to spend in the dungeon, and he didn't survive until morning. He was murdered by his cell-mate. Even a man himself imprisoned for murder can't stand that kind of evil.

"But in regard to me," he went on, turning his head toward Vargus, "This isn't the first time I've wondered... The thing is, there are people who lump such men in with monsters like that. It's been that way ever since I was a child, and more than a little ingrained, if you know what I mean."

Vargus smiled. "I do, all too well," he said, "I suppose it was too much to hope for that with ignoring racial differences, Hyrule would also be more accepting of everything else. Let me tell you something about where I come from. My people, the Dra'thul, or dark elves, as the human races called us, were already nearly extinct. We held a single piece of land with only one true city, and even had difficulty getting any outside trade from our neighbors because of one thing: what we were.

"My skin and hair immediately identified me when outside our lands as a Dra'thul, and we were hated by everyone else because of an act our ancestors committed. It wasn't even something atrocious or a real crime. When mankind rebelled against the race of beings who once controlled us all, whom we now call demons, my ancestors sided with the demons. It was a bid for freedom, according to the history books, and my people were villains for siding with the evil oppressors. And now, thousands of years later, we were still being punished for simply being descending from the people who joined the 'enemy.'

"If the rebellion had failed, I can guarantee things would have been vastly different. But no dwelling on a what-if like that, since it was thousands of years before my time. But not only among outsiders, I was even an outcast among my own people."

"Because of your... preference?" Arin asked, still uncomfortable talking about the subject directly.

"No, that was the least of the problems there," Vargus said, "I am a ninja. I wouldn't expect you to know all that means. The short version is that I was selected for training at a young age and taken from my family before I was even a man. When other children were playing and being exactly that, children, I was training. Exercises, practices, fighting, sneaking... It takes nearly a decade to train a ninja. Those without the aptitude are allowed to return to their families. The training has nearly an eighty percent attrition rate, meaning for every ten brought in for the training, only two will actually complete it. And faking ineptitude to try to be allowed out doesn't work. The instructors always knew the difference between an actual lack of ability or a fake. And trying to fake it only made things worse next time, when they pushed even harder.

"You'd think becoming a ninja would mean something, since it was the one real station of standing that men could achieve. You see, where I come from was an extremely matriarchal society. Women were in higher standing than men in everything. Only women were nobility, and even sons of nobles were less than peasant women. Men were mainly craftsmen and manual labor, though always in business owned by women. Even the army, which allowed men to join the rank and file, were overshadowed by all female squads of elite trained fighters. They had everything, from better weapons and equipment to better training, and better assignments. Men couldn't really be anything other than basic foot soldiers.

"Ninja were unique. Only men could be ninja, and we received far more extensive training than any other military outfit, and our weapons were the finest in the land. Our smiths had perfected techniques of removing impurities from steel in ways other lands could only dream of, crafting weapons that would hold their edge longer than any other known form, and were also highly resistant to shattering. Do you know what I mean when I say a weapon is a ten-body blade?"

Arin shook his head. "Never heard that term before," he said.

"A ten-body blade is a measurement of a weapon's quality," Vargus said, "It means that a sword, with our unique design, could slice ten men clean in half, from forehead to groin, including armor and bone, before its edge began to dull. The sword I have here, and all the other ninja carry, are what we call hundred-body blades. The finest our smiths were able to make. And only the ninja were allowed to carry such weapons."

"They can slice through armor?" Arin asked, not quite believing it, and tapped his chestplate, "This I'm wearing here has stopped quite a few blades in the course of my career."

"It's a different manner of crafting the weapon," Vargus said, "I've seen a few smiths around here, and they seem to prefer the inferior method of simply heating steel and beating it into shape, using heating and cooling to strengthen the steel. Admittedly, our techniques are the same, but the steel is refolded and shaped far more times. More than a thousand times, in fact. It takes weeks to craft a single blade of this quality. There are legends, of course, of smiths who perfected the craft and spent months or even years making a single sword. So called thousand-body blades. Never seen one myself, but there it is.

"But I digress. Becoming a ninja, to anyone hearing what I've been saying, would likely think it is an honor. I promise you it is not. You leave behind everything, from your family to any sort of life you would have had, even your name. Vargus was the name I was given when I completed my training. I was named Danial by my father, but haven't been called that for the majority of my life."

"Why would you have to take a new name?" Arin asked.

"It's part of letting everything go," Vargus said, "As a ninja, you are essentially already dead. You are send on dangerous expeditions into neighboring lands. You are a spy, thief, and assassin, rolled into one. The earliest thing I remember of my training was being told by the instructor that no one would want to be a ninja if we were not drafted, because of what we are. Soldiers want to be heroes. The best thing a ninja could hope for would be to be discovered deep in enemy territory, and go down fighting, taking at least a hundred enemy soldiers with him, because that is the closest he will ever get to being a hero.

"But it also means that a ninja in his own homeland is effectively nothing. We were actually less well-off than slaves. Short of killing us, the nobles could do pretty much anything they wanted with us, and if we fought back, we were put in the pit for a week to learn our lesson. I'll not talk about the pit, because it's a very unpleasant experience, even more so than what one noblewoman did to me.

"Hold on a moment," Vargus put up a hand when Arin started to ask, "You see, I came to terms with my sexuality while I was young, during the time of training. Let's say a few of the other boys experimented too, mainly having to do with the fact we were all young men coming of age, getting restless, and had not seen any girls for nearly seven years at that point. Most of the others it didn't stick, and a couple found they enjoyed the company of both men and women.

"After the graduation, all of us real ninja and finally allowed back into public again, there was a particular noblewoman who took a shine to me. Maybe she even loved me, in her own way. But she had her own twists. Let's say she liked being in control, and had an affinity for leather bullwhips. And after two trips to the pit, I decided that she was the preferable choice. She explained it to me, once, that she was going to beat it out of me. My preference for men, that is. She intended to 'show me the way.' And if she ever saw me with another man, the next time she ordered me to her chambers was all the worse for it.

"My people live a long time, compared to most," Vargus turned to face Arin for a second, smiling sadly, before turning to watch the crowd again, "It has been nearly six centuries since the last time I ever saw her, but the scars she gave me have not faded. My back and legs are like a patterned quilt."

"Gods," Arin whispered, "My insecurities seem pretty small compared to what you've gone through."

"What I regret the most is how much she made me hate her," Vargus said, "You see, while I lead the ninja now, I was only second to Mur'neth until recently. He was a much braver man than I. We heard reports of a wizard warlord moving north of our kingdom, essentially rolling over everything in his path and conquering kingdoms by the handful, and he was heading our way. During this time, ninja were recalled from the field, to act as bodyguards for the nobility should the city be breached, and we were watching this unstoppable tsunami of conquest heading our way.

"Mur'neth enacted the right of combat. It was one loophole in the laws of the ninja, that one could challenge another over virtually any affront, but the one he demanded to face was the warlord. The queen was impressed, and gave him leave to battle the warlord. He lost the battle, but the warlord spared his life, and allowed him to return to us. And when he returned, he brought with him a reckoning. Mur'neth inspired many of the ninja, including myself, to rise up against the nobles who held our leashes. There was not battle for the city, as we opened the gates and let the enemy forces in.

"And then came the slaughter. The palace corridors were practically rivers of blood. The ninja were ultimately the best trained killers in the city, and working in unison, the guards had no hope of stopping us. The nobles died in droves. And the one that scarred me, that pushed me so close to breaking, I killed her myself. And I took a great deal of pleasure in it. Ninja are taught to kill without emotion, to neither enjoy it, nor fear it, so that it does not affect us. But I greatly enjoyed feeling her neck snap in my hands, her blood on my skin.

"And I truly regret that she was able to cause such hatred in me," Vargus went on, before Arin could interrupt, "We often wonder what makes someone become a serial killer, someone who delights in the deaths of others. Some people are simply broken, it seems, but I realize now how close that woman came to breaking me."

"You betrayed your own people?" Arin asked, "Why does the princess trust you, then? Why should I?"

"Because there's nothing left," Vargus said, "My people are dead. We have paid the price for that betrayal and slaughter. There are less than a hundred of us still alive, and all men. We are doomed as a species. That was why we threw in with the warlord. He treated us with respect, and while our task and role did not change overmuch, we were allowed to self-govern, to do it on our terms. The princess did invite us here, but we chose to come ourselves. And I have already fallen in love with this place.

"I can walk the street with my hood down without fear. I get looks from strangers, but it simply because I stand out from the crowd, not because of hatred for my skin color, or as it was among my own people, fear of my skills and abilities. And the princess has a way of inspiring loyalty. I would describe her as more of a leader than a ruler. The way she speaks to me, and to others... She makes one want to follow her, and doesn't simply demand you do so. She knows I and my men guard her constantly now, but I don't think she realizes how many of us would already be willing to step in front of an arrow or sword to protect her.

"While we are doomed as a species, the princess wants to save us as a culture. She was already speaking of training more ninja from among the people of this kingdom. It takes too long to train them to be immediately helpful, but when things settle down, I think it would be possible. To train Hylian men as ninja. I'm actually intrigued by the Zora. People who can naturally breathe underwater would have a distinct advantage to some aspects of the training."

"I don't think she'd approve of taking children from their families," Arin said.

"No, and I'd rather discontinue that practice anyway," Vargus said, "What is the minimum age for joining the army? Sixteen?"

"That's right," Arin said.

"That would be feasible," Vargus said, "And if we take volunteers instead of drafting them, we'd able to push the training even harder than before. Someone who wants to be there would work much harder than someone being forced to do so."

"Would you even want to do that?" Arin asked, "If you were forced to become this, wouldn't you stop, given the chance?"

"It's all I know," Vargus said, "I'm over seven hundred years old, and in the latter half of my life. I suppose compared to a human I have plenty of time left, but I've spent so much time perfecting my skills and honing my body to the condition it is in, I don't want to throw all that effort away. And as much as I can say these skills have ruined my life, they can be used to do good now. And that's what I want to spend this part of my life with, knowing I'm doing something good for once."

"So, does the princess know about your other preferences?" Arin asked.

"She does," Vargus said, "I told her. She seemed surprised at the time, and maybe a little unsure about it, but effectively told me the same, that what goes on between two consenting adults is no one's business but their own. I think that so long as I do the job she expects of me, there won't be an issue. And there's plenty of other things besides a person's sex life that can be allowed to get in the way of work."

"True that," Arin said, "Well, look, I'm still not sure I'm comfortable with this, but... Will you be at the bar tonight?"

"Doubtful," Vargus said, "Like I said, I'm here on business."

"Some other time, then?" Arin asked.

"Of course," Vargus said, "Tomorrow, if I can manage it. And if things do turn out that we're both off the mark here, I won't bother you about it anymore."

"So if I decide I'm not... like you, you won't push it," Arin said.

"More accurate to say if you realize you're not like me, not 'decide,'" Vargus said, "And I wouldn't really want to push it. Last time I was with a straight man... Well, let's just say I'm pretty sure everyone had fun at the time, but it was very awkward later on, when he wouldn't look me in the eye, or even be willing to speak to me again. Made things even more difficult when I needed my armor repaired, since he was the leatherworker."

"And if you ninja are the princess's personal guard now, you might have to work with the city guard, including me," Arin said.

"Exactly," Vargus said.

"Well, thanks for the talk, I guess I should let you get to whatever it is you're-" he suddenly stopped, pausing midsentence as his casual glance over the now considerably thinned crowd caught a strange sight, "What the hell is that?"

"What?" Vargus asked, "What did you see."

"There," Arin said, pointing, "See the brown hood there? When he looked at me, I'd swear he had a giant red eye."

"Finally got something," Vargus said, raising his left and making a signal to the other ninja hidden in the area, and indicated the cloaked figure Arin was pointing at.

"That's what you were watching for?" Arin asked.

"I was actually watching for anything unusual or strange," Vargus said, "A giant red eye meets those requirements."

"What now?" Arin asked.

"Now, you're going to go home, to the bar, whatever, while I get to work," Vargus said, pulling up his own hood over his hair. It was getting dark enough that the shadows would be heavy enough, he should be able to tail the figure unseen.

"If this is serious, I should get more guards," Arin said.

"We don't know if it's serious yet," Vargus said, "That's what we're going to find out. Don't worry, you're not going to hear about a bloodbath tonight. But that's all I can say right now. Go home."

"Let me come with you at least, then," Arin said.

"In that armor? You'd give us away in an instant," Vargus said, watching the hooded figure move out the west side of the square, and started walking after it, "No more arguing. You've done your job for the day, now let me do mine."

"What's so important you're going after it alone?" Arin demanded.

Vargus turned back to him, pausing in his steps for just a moment. "I never said I was alone," he said, "You should pay closer attention, if you missed the signal I gave my men."

Vargus turned and started walking away, Arin watching him leave. A moment later, the young guard saw a pair of shadows moving on the rooftops on the western side of the square, then a third leaped the gap between two buildings, joining the others as Vargus himself vanished from the square on street level.

The hooded figure made himself easy to follow when he turned into the narrow alleyways in the western part of the city. Mostly empty of life, the filthy alleys twisted and turned in irregular manner, speaking of the city expanding from its original size in a fairly unplanned manner. Vargus silently thanked the figure, so much easier it was to follow him in this terrain than it would have been to keep track of him in the streets among the rest of the crowds.

He took a weaving path through the alleys, pausing at moments and suddenly changing directions at others, in a manner clearly intended to lose pursuers. During one of these moments, and Vargus waited just around the corner behind him, one of the other ninja descended to Vargus' position.

"Did he see one of you?" Vargus asked.

"No," said the ninja, "I was coming to ask if you thought he had seen you."

"I don't think he knows he's being followed, but he thinks he might be," Vargus said, "Tell the others to spread out a little more."

Silently, the ninja crept off, finding a way quickly back to the rooftops. Vargus leaned just enough around the corner to see the figure, looking back and forth at an intersection in the alleys.

"Are your neck hairs tingling, my friend?" Vargus whispered to himself.

The path the hooded figure chose weaved westerly and then circled back southward. He stayed out of the residential district, moving back toward the southern side of the square. The sun had vanished behind the city wall, only the faintest orange glow remaining in the sky by the time he reached his destination.

On the southern road, leading directly the southern gate, there was a church on the west side of the road. The largest church in the city, and the primary place of worship for the devout, and this was where the hooded figure went. There were a large number of other people entering the main entrance of the church as well, in groups of five or six people at a time.

Vargus joined his men on the rooftop of the building just north of the church, looking down toward the entrance. "I didn't realize they had evening masses here," one of the ninja remarked.

"They don't," Vargus said, "They worship the golden goddesses of power, wisdom, and courage in this kingdom. Their practices allow for morning and noontide masses, but not in the evening. Not to mention it's the middle of the week."

"There are windows on the second floor," one of the ninja said, "We can probably get in there, see what they're doing from the rafters."

"All right, remember, no casualties," Vargus said, pulling the cloth mask up over his nose as he spoke, "We're deadly silent on the inside."

Without another word, the other ninja similarly masked themselves and moved toward the church. The building they were on had only a narrow alley between itself and the church, allowing them to easily jump the gap to the eaves of the church. The second floor windows were all stained glass, and would not open, and rather than break one to enter, they climbed up to the steeple where the bells hung silent. If there were a mass, they should be ringing. The trapdoor leading into the building was locked, but a moment with Vargus' lockpicks had it open, and the four descended the ladder within into the church.

The "second floor" was a glorified wooden walkway suspended high over the lines of pews below, and even as the ninja arrived, already the signs of something wrong were visible. The pews were being dragged aside and used to block the room entrance as others pulled back the carpet in the manner of a rug, revealing the stone floor beneath. Vargus was now grateful they were above the group, as what he now saw would not have been as readily visible from the floor.

With hammers and chisels, the people began to fall to the floor, continuing the shape they were carving directly into the stone floor. The outer circle was finished, and Vargus could make out three of the six points of the star within. He did not know the actual workings of magic, but he could recognize a magic circle when he saw it. And he also knew they were drawing it in reverse, from the outside in, making it both more powerful and more unstable.

At the rate they were going, it would be days yet before the carving was finished, but that was entirely understandable. Messing with stuff like this, precision was far more important than speed. To think they would desecrate a church to do it, though...

The hooded figure they had followed in stepped up at the front of the room, where the preacher would normally stand during sermons. He threw back his hood, revealing a head of snow white hair, and as Arin had described, a single massive red eye on the left side of his face, several times larger than his other eye. Vargus leaned a bit more over the rail. It was hard to tell from this distance, but other than those traits, he looked exactly like the Hylian man with the princess back in Darimar. Link was his name.

Two older women stepped away from the crowd, walking toward him. The way they held their heads, not looking him in the eye, it was clear they were subservient to the man. What they were discussing, Vargus could not make out at this distance, but there was no way he could get closer without giving himself away.

But he had seen enough. He silently motioned to the others, and they moved back toward the ladder leading up the steeple. He had expected to find a meeting of would-be rebels, maybe a bunch of kids who fancied themselves toughs, but now he had to explain to the princess that she had a cult in her city.


	130. Chapter 129

**Chapter 129: The Royal Council**

"I'll admit, I wasn't expecting an armed escort to be waiting at the gate," Ganondorf said as he stepped into Zelda's office, ducking his head under the door that was too short for him, and stopped as Zelda and Vargus both looked up at him. The princess had been holding the first finger and thumb of one hand on her temples, seemingly deep in thought. "What happened?" the wizard asked, moving toward her desk.

"Vargus has just informed me that there is a cult in the city," Zelda said, "He and several of his men witnessed them meeting last night, carving some kind of magic circle into the floor of a church. And then there's the best part. They're apparently being led by Zero."

All business, Ganondorf crossed his arms and turned to Vargus. "Did you see women with him? Likely old women, garbed in black."

"He was speaking to an old woman, I'd say in her sixties," Vargus said, "We weren't able to overhear anything, though."

"No need," Ganondorf said, turning back to Zelda, "She'll be one of the witches. I spoke to Sibette, the head of their coven. For at least a month now, Zero has been tearing through their coven, killing every witch he found that wouldn't submit to him."

"Almost sounds like he was doing me a favor," Zelda said.

"Almost, but not truly," Ganondorf said, "I've had experience with witches in the past. Hell, I was practically raised by a pair of them. Typically, there will be a single coven of thirteen in any particular region. How many of this coven are still alive, I don't know, but the ones who are, are now working with Zero."

"And the witches are responsible for this?" Zelda asked.

"That's right," Ganondorf said, "Their magic is the real definition of the black arts, capable of snaking into a person's mind and creating thoughts they have no way of knowing are not their own, or even causing one to see that which is not there. Truly powerful ones can shatter a man's mind with a thought of their own. This cult is not truly a cult, but a populace controlled by their power."

"So, if the witches are killed, will that free them?" Zelda asked, leaning forward and putting her hands on her desk, the answer she wanted very obvious.

"Unfortunately, no," Ganondorf said, "The effect they had is fairly permanent without a manner of actually repairing the damage, and I'm afraid that's far beyond my ability with this type of magic. Though if we had a witch of our own..."

Zelda had groaned through her teeth at the first answer, but at the mention of a witch of their own. "Absolutely not," Zelda said, "One monster in my city is too many, and I've already got two."

"Ah, that explains the armed escort," Ganondorf said with a chuckle.

"I had an image in my head of you kicking down the doors of the castle, and the dead guards who were just doing their jobs when they tried to stop you," Zelda said, "I had the gate guards aware of your arrival days ago so that wouldn't happen."

"Every time I start to think you're trusting me, you manage to surprise me," Ganondorf said.

"I'm not intending to offend you, but my point of view," Zelda said.

"No, I understand completely," Ganondorf said, "Good for you. A healthy amount of paranoia will keep you alive."

"So what do I do about this?" Zelda asked, "I want Zero and those witches gone. Dead preferably. But then what about the people under their power?"

"They will no doubt have been programmed to defend the witches and Zero to the death," Ganondorf said, "Given the circumstances, there is only one option: The entire group must be purged."

"You do realize you're talking about children, too," Zelda said, "I seem to remember you saying something about not killing children."

"And I don't," Ganondorf said, "But this is a different kind of situation. Those children the witches have touched are in the same situation as the adults. If you don't do something about them, they're effectively bombs, just waiting for someone to light the fuse.

"Think of it this way: When there's a plague, you don't spare the infected children out of sympathy. You burn the entire village, children included, to prevent the plague from spreading. And if you intend to be a proper ruler..."

The door slammed open behind him, causing him to turn and the others to look up as Link stepped into the room. "You're telling me this guy gets walked right in," he said, pointing at Ganondorf, "and the guards try to put me in shackles when I say I need to talk to you?"

Zelda leaned to the side, looking past him, and several guards were moving into the room behind him. "Stand down," she said, causing them to halt in their tracks, "It's all right, my fault for not mentioning him. Return to your posts, please."

"As I was saying," Ganondorf said, turning back to Zelda and holding up his hand to Link before he could interrupt again, "You have impressed me in the past few months. You've grown up a great deal from the helpless child you were when I first met you, and are reminding me more and more of your namesake, the real Princess Zelda. But if you intend to be a proper ruler, you're going to have to make these kinds of hard decisions."

Zelda nodded slowly. "You're right, of course," she said quietly, then looked up at Vargus, "How much time until the circle is finished?"

"At the rate they were going, I'd say three days at least," Vargus said.

"You don't want to let this go on too long," Ganondorf said.

"One day," Zelda said, "Give me one day to think this through. I'll know how I want to handle this by morning."

"Good," Ganondorf said, "Now, I think I'll step out since Link has insisted on hitting you with this next one himself. Vargus, would you come with me?" When the ninja glanced down at Zelda, Ganondorf added, "Just outside the room. This is going to be a fairly personal matter for the princess."

"Go ahead," Zelda said, and Vargus silently nodded, following Ganondorf out of the room, who pulled the door shut behind them. "Now, what is it you need to tell me that's so important we needed to be in person?" she asked Link, leaning her elbows on her desk.

"I thought it'd be more appropriate," Link said, "And I just want to warn you, this is going to sound pretty weird."

"The past couple years, I feel like I've been redefining 'weird' on an hourly basis," Zelda said.

"Well, we think we know why you have a... um... problem when you try to use your Triforce," Link said.

"Suddenly, I don't think I'm going to like what you're about to say," Zelda said.

Link cleared his throat. "Gods, I didn't think it was going to be this hard to say," he muttered, "Apparently the... uh... episodes you have when you use your Triforce is because you are... that is... a virgin."

A heavy silence followed, Zelda watching him silently, with no reaction, until after what felt like an eternity, she responded with a single word. "What," she said.

It wasn't even a question, more of a statement of pure and utter disbelief. Either that, or her brain had shut down and was refusing to process what she'd just heard.

"Okay, I hate awkward silences, so why don't I take over?" Midna said, suddenly materializing behind Link and leaning over his shoulder, "So, look, princess, you need to mmmph!"

She was suddenly cut off as Link clamped both hands over her mouth. "Sometimes, I swear I forget you're supposed to be a princess too," he said.

Midna pulled her head away from his hands. "Yes, because you stumbling around the issue is really going to help," she said

"Link," Zelda said, her tone carrying a deadly edge, and interrupting the pair's repartee before it could actually get started, and when he looked down at her again, she leaned a bit more over her desk, and crooked one finger, motioning him toward her, "Come down here and look me in the eye."

Link leaned over the desk, bringing his face level with hers.

"You tell me right now, if this is some kind of sick joke," Zelda said.

"No," Link said, "Ganondorf, and I, feel that we're going to need you able to use your Triforce freely."

"This coming from the guy who barely knows how to use his," Zelda growled.

"I am learning, though," Link said, "And if you're going to be able to use yours properly..."

Zelda suddenly sat back in her seat, moving away from him. Link slowly rose back to his full height.

"Link, I have certain responsibilities," Zelda said, "Because of my position, I have to-"

"Give up your basic human rights?" Link asked, interrupting her, "Now look, sorry in advance for this, but these rules you put on yourself are complete bullshit. First of all, I know you're almost the same age as me. If this arranged marriage nonsense was going to happen, it would have been years ago. Sure, I'm not educated on the ways of royalty, but I know you're too old for that."

Zelda slammed her hands on her desk, rising to her feet. "And what would you do?!" she shouted, her temper rising as she shouted loudly enough for the guards outside the door to hear, "But that's right, you don't want any kind of responsibility! What you do is show up and play hero, take your praise, and then just disappear! Don't pretend you understand my life, you gods damned opportunistic _bastard!_"

Her voice rose practically to a shriek on the final word, leaving Link's ears ringing. Almost as soon as she said it, though, Zelda's expression softened. "I'm sorry," she said more softly, "You didn't deserve that..."

"Actually, that's not too far from the truth," Link said.

"Do you feel better now?" Midna asked, and when Link shushed her, added, "No, I'm serious, if she's going to yell at you, the least she could do is feel better afterward."

"I suppose I am under a lot of stress right now," Zelda said, settlings slowly back into her seat, "I'm sorry."

"Well, I know there's plenty of people you probably have to play nice to," Link said, "If you need someone to yell at, I'm probably the best choice."

Zelda brushed her bangs back with one hand, her fit having caused them to become disheveled. "Link, I'm so lost right now," she said, "As if Shaklator isn't bad enough. She's nightmare material by herself, and just now I've found out she's got a cult in the city, turning my own people against us. And your news, it's just the straw that broke the horse's back."

"Let me say something," Midna said, moving around Link's shoulder toward the desk, and when Link moved to shush her again, quickly added, "No, no more jokes. You are the Princess Zelda of Hyrule, right? You are the ruler of this kingdom. Your people are your responsibility. Is that right?"

Zelda nodded. "That's right."

"And you will do whatever it takes to protect them," Midna said, "Right?"

Zelda didn't respond immediately. Her gaze drifted from them, her eyes seeming to glaze over, as if she were looking far into the distance as she thought about what was just said.

"Yes," she said at last, "I will."

"Then the decision is already made," Midna said, moving back beside Link and leaning one arm on top of his shoulder.

"I suppose it is," Zelda said, "Now I just have to go through with it."

"If it's any consolation, I had to convince myself of the same thing," Midna said, "Except my commitment was to premeditated murder."

There was a knock at the door, interrupting further conversation. Zelda gave permission to enter, and a man in a guard uniform leaned in the door. "Your highness, you asked to be informed when the councilors began to arrive," he said.

"How many are here?" Zelda asked.

"Four, other than Councilor Rayham, and the final has been sighted by the watchtower guards, and will be here within the hour," he replied.

"Very well, inform them that in one hour, they are to report to the war room for the meeting," Zelda said.

"One other thing. The royal smith has requested your presence, and says it is important."

"Oh, that'll be about the armor," Zelda said, looking down at her desk, "Well, I suppose I have time, and don't want to get into anything else before the meeting. Tell Balthazar I'm on my way."

* * *

As Zelda made her way to her other business, Link and Midna exited the castle, moving out into the courtyard, and for the first time, took a moment to look over the refugee camp. A collection of tents and campfires, without any readily apparent sense of order. And the image it brought to both of their minds was that of the citadel falling from the sky onto the city of Darimar. The earthquake it caused leveling everything that wasn't actually crushed, and so much life stomped out in an instant. It was an experience neither of them would ever forget.

But there was another unpleasant experience Link was thinking about, and it hadn't occurred yet. Midna produced Ralthas' sword, and Link looked down at the weapon as he held it in his hands. That man's superior attitude infuriated Link from the first time he met him, and yet in that final moment, he had given up his own life to buy them time.

It was a strange thought. People called Link a hero, yet never in any event had the thought crossed Link's mind that he might die in what he did. The thought of giving up his own life for the sake of the mission, even in his most dangerous moments was something completely foreign to him.

He and Ralthas would never have been friends. Their personalities conflicted too much. But the world was a poorer place for the death of such a man as the Judge.

It only took a few minutes of searching before he found Sheila, seated by one of the fires, tending a pot of beans. She rose when she noticed his approach, then her eyes fell to the weapon he held in his hands.

"I'm sorry," was the first thing he said as Sheila approached him.

She silently took the sword from him, holding the sheath just below the hilt, turning it over almost reverently with the other. Finally, she looked up at Link. There were no tears, and her voice didn't shake as she asked, "How did he die?"

"A real hero," Link said, "That's how."

"I expected it, honestly," Sheila said, looking at the weapon in her hands again, "I always knew being a Judge would kill him one day. And when he decided to go with you, I didn't think he'd come back."

"You seem awfully calm about it," Midna commented.

"I don't know," Sheila said, "I don't remember him being around that much when I was child. It was always his duty first, you know? He really wanted to make the world a better place. And look at it now, falling apart around us."

Link put his hands on her shoulders, giving them a gentle squeeze. "He did love you, even if he wasn't good at showing it," he said, "Making the world better for everyone, it was for you too."

"But what's the point?" Sheila asked, looking up at him, "He's dead and so is everything he worked for. You've seen it yourself. It's not over yet, and the worst is yet to come."

"If he hadn't done what he did, I would not be standing here now, and it would already be over," Link said, "What he fought for is not dead, because it lives on in all of us. Because of him, we have a chance at winning this."

And suddenly, Sheila broke down. She buried her face in Link's chest, sobbing, the tears coming all at once, and he hugged her, giving what comfort he could.

"I wasn't ready," she managed between sobs, "to say goodbye."

Link waited patiently. It no doubt didn't help that the last time she had spoken to her father was nearly a fight, and now she'd never see him again. He couldn't think of anything to say that would make things any better.

After several minutes, she finally began to calm down, and pulled away from him, turning her tear streaked face up toward his. "It's all gone," she whispered, "My home, my family, all of it. I have nothing left."

"No," Link said, "You're still alive. That is something. "Everything you care about, that you fought for, lives on in you. Your friends are with you. You're not alone."

"You watched everything die, just as I did," Sheila said, "How heartless are you to be so unaffected by it?"

"Is that what you think?" Link asked, "I feel that weight on my shoulders all the time. Every time I close my eyes, I see the city dying under that citadel. Don't let it destroy you. Instead, let it inspire. Let the hate you feel for monsters that would commit such an act turn into rage. A driving righteous fury that pushes you to never allow it to happen again. Then you will know what I feel."

Sheila looked away from him, shaking her head sadly. "We can't all be heroes like you, Link," she said.

"If there's anything I'm tired of, it's being called a hero," Link said, "I just do what has to be done, and have a habit of being in the right place at the right time."

"So what would you have me do, then?" Sheila asked.

"You look deep in here," Link said, putting one finger on her chest, just above her heart, "You find something worth living for, and you grab hold of it. It has to be something real, something you really believe in. Something that will keep you going, no matter what stands in your way. I have something like that. That's what keeps me going. You need to find yours."

"It's not as easy as that," Sheila said.

"I didn't say it would be easy," Link said, "Just promise me you'll try. That you'll think about it."

"Okay, I'll try," she said.

"That's all I want," Link said, "I'm going to be around the castle. If you need someone to talk to, you can always talk to me. Okay?"

"Yes, okay," she said, then moved in and hugged him again, "Thank you, Link."

Another moment and they parted, Sheila wiped her eyes, and taking her father's sword, returned to the fire, tending the beans she had nearly forgotten.

"So, tell me when you became so deep and philosophical," Midna said to him.

"Wish I could tell you," Link said, "I don't where that came from."

"So, what is this thing that you hold on to, that keeps you going no matter what?" she asked as they turned and started walking through the camp.

In the multiple times he had told her of his journey through the Sacred Realm, Link had always left out one detail, that being the word of hope that had freed his sword from its rust and trappings. Exactly why he had withheld it, he wasn't sure, but he always felt it wasn't something he should share, even with her. Now, he glanced sideways at her, giving her a sly smile. "That's my little secret," he said.

Midna gave him a smile herself, content in that she was pretty sure what it was.

* * *

"It's certainly a fine suit," Zelda said, looking down at the armor she was now wearing, "But it's too light, isn't it?"

The suit was incredibly intricate and took nearly twenty minutes and three people to help her into it, but once all together, it almost looked like a single piece. Starting with a perfectly smooth breastplate, sloped to the side to cause blows to glace to the sides, to the shoulder pauldrons, and arms, with nearly sixteen small, complex overlapping plates at the elbows to provide maximum protection without restricting movement, and even more plates in the gauntlets along the fingers.

The leggings and greaves were jointed at the knees by similarly complex mechanisms, and like the upper body, remained unadorned, all perfectly smooth metal, polished to a mirror sheen. Zelda's problem with it, however, was that the metal was barely as thick as a fingernail and weighed less than some of her formal gowns.

"It certainly looks impressive," she said to Balthazar, waiting nearby, "But something this thin wouldn't stop a knife, but less a sword or mace."

"I agree," Vargus remarked, "That looks like anything in the world could tear through it like foil."

"Have a little faith," Balthazar said, glancing at the ninja, then moving over to Zelda and rapped his knuckles on the breastplate, "I recently found a new way to heat the steel. It's thinner. Lighter. But just as strong. This is, in fact, the best suit of armor I've ever made. This armor would stand up to a charging rhinoceros."

"What's a rhinoceros?" Vargus asked.

"Big animal from far south," Zelda said, "Never seen one myself. But are you sure about this, Balthazar? This still seems wrong to me."

"Do you at least have the courage to test it?" the smith asked her.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked in response.

"Just a simple stress test," the smith said, turning and moving to a rack of warhammers on the wall. He selected one of the smaller ones, though by the way he hefted it, Zelda was sure the head alone must weight at least thirty pounds. Swung by a strong man, it would doubtlessly deliver bone-crushing force, and weak armor would crush just as easily. "Here," he said, "Keep your arms out of the way, and I'll give you a light blow across the chest."

"Hang on," Vargus said, putting up a hand in protest, "Put it on a mannequin for this."

"I know what I'm doing," Balthazar said, "I promise she'll be fine."

Zelda's worry had rapidly turned into a small amount of panic when she saw him heft that hammer on its four foot haft, with a steel head the size of a man's own head. And it was one of the smaller ones. But when it came to metalworking, there was no man who knew more, and she did trust him. "All right, do it," she said, "Before I change my mind."

She held her arms rigid at her sides as he stepped up to her. The sense of panic suddenly redoubled when she saw Balthazar swing the hammer back for leverage, and suddenly came forward, slamming into the breastplate with enough force to lift her off her feet, throwing her back and crashing loudly on the floor.

Vargus was suddenly at her side, and three more ninja materialized from the shadows and around corners, hands on their weapons, but Zelda called for them to stand down.

"Are you all right?" Vargus asked.

Zelda looked down at the breastplate. There was no dent, and the metal wasn't even scratched. The terror of what happened started to fade, her breathing slowing back to a normal rate as she realized that other than being thrown on the floor, nothing had happened.

"I didn't feel a thing," she said in disbelief, then was suddenly smiling as she looked up at Vargus, "I've never seen armor like this."

"I did tell you," Balthazar said, returning the hammer to the rack as Vargus helped Zelda to her feet.

"Sorry I doubted you," Zelda said, looking down at the armor and flexing her arms, testing the movement in the joints again, "And with the light weight, this is exactly the kind of armor I needed. I'll still be light on my feet, too."

"One more thing," Balthazar said, moving to a wooden chest near the weapon racks, opening it and retrieving a long object. He turned around, revealing it to be a sword in an elaborate sheath, blue leather overlaid with gold wire, and near the top, the royal crest, accented and prominent. "With the armor, you need a fine weapon to match," he said, offering Zelda the hilt.

The weapon Zelda drew from the sheath was similar to the armor, the metal of the blade almost a mirror, and even in the dim light of the forge, the edge glinted sharply. Other than that the blade was unadorned, though it did not need to be, and the weapon itself carried a magnificent level of craftsmanship.

"It's made with the same technique as the armor," Balthazar said, "Should hold its edge longer than any other weapon I've crafted, be strongly shatter resistant, and never rust."

"It's beautiful," Zelda said, turning the blade, surprised to see her own face reflected in the metal, "This metal technique... How did you find it?"

"I always use a small part of the royal smith's funds to research and experiment with new techniques and ideas," Balthazar said, handing Zelda the sheath, "This technique actually came from an attempt to create a new alloy using iron and coal."

Zelda slid the weapon into it's sheath, the smooth sliding metal clicking home in a satisfying way. "And it didn't work?" she asked.

Balthazar suddenly laughed. He kept laughing as he turned away, closing the weapon chest, his laugh finally reducing to a chuckle as he said to himself, "She holds in her hands a sword stronger and sharper than any known steel, and she says it didn't work."

"I apologize, Balthazar," Zelda said.

"I'm not offended, your highness," Balthazar said, "Amused, sure. In any case, I believe you have more important things to attend to."

"Yes," Zelda said, "It's almost time for the council. Thank you for the armor, Balthazar. It's even more than I ever expected."

Excusing herself, she and Vargus exited the building, joined by the four castle guards that made up the rest of her escort, and moved back toward the castle. The training grounds in the courtyard were full of activity, and the instructors and recruits alike stopped to stare as she walked past them. She found herself smiling, the impressive suit of armor no doubt what caught their eyes, and she had to admit, she felt a sense of pride at wearing such a fine suit herself.

All the better she felt as if she were about to enter a battle of a sort, she decided against changing out of the armor before the meeting.

The war room was not completely finished, with one corner of the ceiling still open to the sky, though if she could wait a few more days, it would have been ready, but the room had been lightly furnished at her request, the center of the room dominated by a large, round table. Ordinarily there would be twenty-one seats at the table, intended for meetings with the military officers, but for now, only seven were set, one for the princess, and six for the Royal Council.

Councilor Rayham sat at his place, to the right hand of the princess's own seat, and to his right was Landural Daphnes, head of the Daphnes family and Zelda's own uncle, and next to him was Michelle Lungress, whose family owned several lucrative silver and iron mines, making them the kingdom's most significant metal suppliers, and richest noble family of them all.

Next was Albert Gottfried, whose land holdings were the largest of the kingdom, most of which were occupied by farmland that fed the majority of the nation's population, and his family's pockets were kept well filled by such lucrative farm operations. The next immediate seat was empty, but the last, to the left of Zelda's own seat was the youngest member of the council, Douglass Haytham. He was selected for the council, as his father, the merchant king of the nobility, was no doubt too busy for such an unimportant job, Zelda had always thought with some ire.

When Zelda herself entered the room, whatever conversations had been going on suddenly ceased, as the five rose from their seats in respect, falling silent as she moved around the table to her seat. Eyebrows were raised at the fact she was in full armor, though Vargus following behind her no doubt drew stares himself, but without a word, she drew her new sword from its sheath and laid the weapon on the table, blade pointing inward toward the center of the table. Rayham recognized the gesture, and drew his own weapon, similarly laying it on the table. A second later, the others hastily followed suit, though most of their weapons were more ornamental than the first two, and all young Douglass produced was a belt knife.

"I see we're short one councilor," Zelda said as Vargus took a position two steps behind and to the right of her seat, standing at perfect attention with his hands behind his back. He had worn his hood and mask up, at her request, simply to make an impression with the intimidating visage it gave him.

"Lucious has arrived, your highness," Rayham said, "I saw him a short while ago. He must simply be..."

The entrance to the room opened, once more and the final member of the council entered the chamber. Lucious Magrodan was a man Zelda had always disliked, from his slicked back hair to his air of superiority. He was also unusually pale, even for a nobleman whose entire fortune was built on his family owning all the banks in the kingdom. Zelda couldn't help but feel just from looking at him that his skin would be slimy to the touch.

"My apologies," he said, "I would have been here sooner, but these things happen."

He eyed the weapons laying on the table, though made no move to draw one of his own, instead simply taking his seat. Zelda shot him a glare, then sat down herself, the other councilors doing so only after she did.

"The guards are dismissed, please wait out in the hall until we are finished," Zelda said, and as the castle guards began to move, added, "Your personal guards, too, please."

One by one, the councilors' personal bodyguards were dismissed, though Lucious was the first to raise an objection. "We dismiss our guards, but yours remains, princess?" he asked, indicating Vargus, who had not budged from his position.

"Vargus is already privy to the information I am about to share with all of you," Zelda said, "And I can trust him to keep his mouth shut, considering the sensitive nature of what this discussion will entail."

A moment of silence followed, then Lucious waved his guard out with one hand. Once all the guards were out the door, it was pulled shut behind them.

"Now first and foremost, gentlemen and lady, what I am about to tell you does not leave this room," Zelda said, "This information is extremely likely to cause a panic if the public is exposed to it too early or in the wrong manner. If anything I tell you in this meeting becomes public knowledge, I will have to consider it an act of treason, and make every effort to find the ones responsible."

"Pardon me, but isn't that a waste when you've already told the people an invasion is coming?" asked Gottfried.

"I've told them that there is a danger coming to us, but not the details," Zelda said, "That is why I've called you here. I have already told Councilor Rayham of the true threat, and believe he understands why I must not allow this knowledge to become public yet."

"The princess speaks truly," Rayham said, "The public can be a fickle beast, and panic would spread like wildfire if this isn't handled correctly."

"You may as well make yourselves comfortable," Zelda said, "You're going to be here a while, because you're going to need to hear the whole story. This started a year ago, when a wizard laid a curse upon the kingdom..."

Once again, Zelda related the entire long tale. The council listened quietly. This time, Zelda spared no details, and though Rayham realized she had not told him some parts previously, such as Ganondorf's identity, as well as the fact Kilishandra had changed sides in the middle, and was now within the city herself, he held his tongue as he waited for her to finish.

She concluded by telling of Link and Ganondorf leading the other group to the far western desert, and their climatic battle with Tharkus at the tower, as well as the destruction of the Twilight Mirror. "Now, as it stands, only one of our enemies remain in the world," Zelda said, "But he has not been completely stopped. I have reason to believe he has come here, to Hyrule, to complete the ritual and summon the demon, and that he may even be concealing himself within the city."

She waited a moment for this to sink in, as the council members glanced around the table at each other. Her uncle, Landural, was the first to respond, "This is quite a tale, your highness. You've already begun taking steps to prepare our defenses?"

"What I can," Zelda said, "We've stepped up recruitment, and have already spoken to Patriarch Darbus about aid from the Gorons."

"Forgive me if I seem impertinent, your highness, "Lucious said, "But your steps regarding the Dra'thul seem rash. You should have waited until we discussed the matter before granting them citizenship, much less knighting one."

Zelda glared at him. "Everything else and that is what you're going to target?" she asked, "We are up against a threat greater than our kingdom has ever known, and the dark elves have been nothing but helpful."

"I agree with Lucious, your highness," said Lungress, "They are traitors to their own people. How do we know we can trust them?"

"There are less than a hundred of them still alive," Zelda said, "They have no future in betraying us, and as I said, have done nothing to make me doubt them."

"But then what of the refugees squatting in the courtyard?" Lucious asked, "If we are to prepare for war, we can't afford to feed unproductive individuals of that number. But if their nation was truly so decimated, I wouldn't dream of turning them away," he added quickly, before Zelda responded, "But they are going to be far more of a drain on our resources than any sort of aid."

"Leave it to the banker to worry about finances over humanity," Rayham said.

"Well, how about some evidence, then?" Lucious asked, and turned directly to Zelda, "Is there any hard evidence that your suspicions are true? Because being realistic, if this turns out to be nothing, we'll be wasting a great deal of money on swelling the army that could be going to help these people and getting them integrated into society."

"It's hardly nothing that I watched millions of people die," Zelda said, "Five kingdoms have already fallen to this monster, and I will not let Hyrule be number six."

"But all we have to go on is your word," Michelle said, "It would help considerably if you had anything to show us that confirmed your suspicion that the danger has not already passed. Without that evidence, we risk our relations with our eastern neighbors in Esteras."

"She has a point, your highness," Rayham said, "A rapid militarization could be seen as a threat to their sovereignty."

"And if Hyrule doesn't stop this nightmare, they'll be next," Zelda said, rising to her feet, "All the evidence you need is in those people outside. Go look them in the eye and tell them that you are convinced this is nothing now. Tell them that the monsters that attacked us on the coast as we fled are no danger to anyone."

"Princess, don't misunderstand our pragmatism," Lucious said, "But if we have no proof that your fears are reality, we can hardly allow the kingdom to be driven to bankruptcy for what could very well amount to nothing..."

He trailed off as a shadow fell over him from behind. He turned, and all other eyes went to the colossal figure that had somehow entered the room without anyone noticing until now.

"Oh, don't worry about that. Her fears are very real, and the fact I'm here is all the proof you need."

Ganondorf walked slowly around the table, moving to Zelda's left-hand side, where he stopped and leaned down with both hands flat on the table's surface. "So, this is the royal council of Hyrule, is it?" he asked, "Can't say I'm surprised, but I can say I'm not impressed."

"What is the meaning of this?" Landural demanded, "This meeting, by order of the princess, is not for outsiders!"

"It's all right, uncle," Zelda said, "This man is the wizard I spoke of. Ganondorf Dragmire. He is here to offer his aid to us, and is fully aware of the coming events already."

"Someone must have a strange sense of humor to take the name of a legendary monster like that," Lucious said with a sneer.

"You don't understand, Lucious," Zelda said, "This man is that very figure of legend."

"That's right," Ganondorf said, "Here I am, the King of Evil, the Coming Darkness, the bane of Hyrule's existence, standing before you. And the fact I am standing here now," he raised his voice over the sudden outcry of several councilors, "should tell you what kind of situation this is, because I am here to fight with the princess against the monster that is rapidly approaching."

"That is preposterous!" Gottfried declared, "If you were really that mythical villain, you'd be ancient!"

"Older than my great-grandfather, even," commented young Douglass, who had remained silent until now.

Ganondorf merely smiled, lifting his right hand from the table, and holding it flat as the Triforce of Power began to glow, and flashed brightly before dimming again. "You should all brush up on your history," he said, "My first wish, after all, was to live forever."

"And you invited a monster like this into our midst as well?" Lucious asked Zelda while pointing at Ganondorf, "The refugees I can understand, and the dark elves, perhaps, but this is preposterous! You spoke earlier of treason, yet this is the single most treasonous act in the history of our kingdom!"

"Necessity makes for strange bedfellows, as they say," Zelda said calmly, "This should show you how desperate this situation truly is."

"And how are we to trust someone who is likely to kill us all with his dark magic at any second?" Ladural asked.

Ganondorf turned to him. "I wouldn't need magic to kill you, friend," Ganondorf said, "If I wanted you dead, I'd have already put my fist through your chest and be spinning you on my arm like a pinwheel.

"Now all of you be quiet and listen to me when I speak. I'll leave you to your waste of time meeting in a moment. You're all looking at me now and think you see the worst evil the world has ever produced. I am so far beyond your weak grasp of such concepts as good and evil that you cannot even comprehend the ways I think. But true evil is coming, and your princess has warned you. If you do not listen to her, and turn a blind eye to this threat, then you of no use to any of us, we'd be better off with this council out of the way.

"I am here because I cannot defeat this monster alone, and neither can any of you. If you had looked into her eyes as I have, you would understand. This is not a simple villain out for personal gain, for conquest or power. This evil is a being so lost in her own madness, her own pure hatred and insanity, that she is utterly convinced the only acceptable route forward for the world is the complete and utter destruction of every sentient being alive. This is not a battle resources, for land, or even for morality. It is a battle for survival. You all think me a villain, but I pale in comparison to this demon.

"I am certain this beast can be stopped. But I need Hyrule to do it. The princess is already shown her willingness to commit to this battle, and has accepted my aid, so I do her a service in return. Know that regardless of how you decide to stand on this matter, I stand with her, and any threat to her authority, or her person, will be met with deadly force. Now, princess," he rose up to his full height and stepped back from the table, "Tell them what is going to happen."

Zelda watched him move back, and he stood behind her on her left side, similar to Vargus on her right. And she was left resenting him, wondering how she was supposed to follow that. The other council members had jumped to their feet when Ganondorf revealed himself, and now she stepped up to the table, trying to look them in the eyes without flinching as every one of them turned on her.

"Councilors," she said, "I am not going to order you to accept this position, because I should not have to. I see the way so many of you are looking at me now. You still think of me as the little girl, too young to rule, and that was why the authority of governing was given to the council, until I was mature enough to take my mother's throne truly.

"That time is past due. The council was never intended to replace the monarch, but to advise her. I've allowed the authority to remain with the council for too long. I would prefer to proceed with your blessing, but I will proceed regardless. The military ranks will be swelled, the kingdom's defenses will be strengthened, and we will ready for battle against an enemy like the world has never seen.

"I'm not a child anymore. I've grown considerably in this past year alone, and can hardly believe I let myself go so long as I was. I will lead my people into this battle, and my authority must not be questioned by anyone. For that purpose, two things must happen. First, the council must support me. If you will not, the council shall be dissolved, removed from practice until further notice, which will not be until after all this is over."

This started immediate protests from all the council members, but Zelda merely held up one hand for silence, before continuing. "The second step to ensuring my authority is set down in stone, and not questioned, is that I will no longer carry the title of 'princess.'

"As children what they want to be when they grow up. Little boys will say king, while little girls will say princess. Why do they do this? Why not queen? It is because the title of king represents authority and responsibility over all. Princess implies youth and beauty, with responsibility, but not too much. Not all the responsibility. The people must understand that I am taking responsibility for them, for their protection. And that is why I declare here and now from this day forth, I shall be taking the title of Queen Zelda Daphnes Hyrule."

This caused exactly the explosion of protests she expected. The words were lost in the mess of voices as they all tried to speak at once. Finally, voices began to lower as Landural said what they all wanted. "You are in no position to decide that!" he said as the other voices finally fell silent, "Hyrule has no king or queen, and has not had for thousands of years! You have no right to change this tradition!"

"I have the only right, uncle," Zelda said, "I have thought long and hard about this. This tradition, no matter how ancient, was created out of fear. One king did not listen to the dreams of his daughter, and for that reason Hyrule has had a princess as its highest authority since. It was fear that the matter would repeat within a single generation if there was another king that caused this so called tradition to take root.

"I am tired of being the frightened princess in need of rescue," she went on, turning to the rest of the council, "The first step to removing fear, is to make it's source nothing. My decision is made, and there is no changing my mind. The only question now is whether you, the council, will stand with me, or if I stand alone. Make your decisions."

"I'm with you, princ- I mean, your majesty," Rayham said, and turned to the others, "She would not be going to these lengths if she did not believe this to be true. It is time to do our duty, and support our queen."

"I'm with you as well," said the young Douglass, and when others shot him dark looks, added, "People tend to look down on me, even with the seat on the council, because of my age. I think it's high time I grew up as well, and showed the kingdom, and all of you, that I'm not a child anymore either."

Zelda turned to Landural. "Uncle?" she asked, "What is your decision?"

Landural crossed his arms, scowling silently for a long moment before answering. "I don't like how you're going about this, but if you are right about this, I'm not going to be the one who turned his back on his family," he said, "I'm with you. And if you're wrong, we'll clean up that mess when it comes."

"Very well, I'm with you as well," Lucious said, surprising Zelda with how easily he said it, "As you said, the council exists to advise you, and I'd rather help you in this endeavor, even without proof, than watch you become a tyrant."

Even with the last second backhand, Zelda was rather surprised Lucious to be one to throw in with her so easily

"You're all crazy," Gottfried declared, "And I, for one, will have no part in this insanity! I warn you that this madness will be the death of our nation!"

"I'm afraid, _your majesty_," Lungress said, putting quite heavy distaste on the expression, "that I agree. Lucious is only half right about you becoming a tyrant. You're already there."

"We'll let history decide that," Zelda said, "The guards will escort you from the castle. Do not return without invitation, except on normal audience days."

"You couldn't drag me back in here," Gottfried remarked as the pair of them walked to the door, and closed it behind them.

"I wish they had listened," Zelda said, "But I am staying true to my word. The Royal Council is hereby dissolved until further notice. Those of you who choose to stand by me are granted the title of Chancellor, and will remain my advisors until such a time as the council is reinstated."

"We'll need witnesses for this," Rayham said.

"You have them already," Ganondorf said, "Now, I suggest a short recess for the lot of you to process everything so far, and we'll meet again in a short time to discuss what we're actually going to do about this coming problem. I have a plan, but it is presently lacking in the specifics, which need to be filled in."

"It's almost noon," Zelda said, "We'll recess for lunch and meet again in an hour."

The former councilers retrieved their weapons, excusing themselves from the room. Zelda took her own sword from the table, returning it to its sheath, then sat back down in her seat, sighing heavily as she did so.

"I didn't expect the whole thing about princess and queen, honestly," Ganondorf said, "Not a bad idea, if a little premature. Might have been better to wait on that one."

"Well, it's too late to take back now," Zelda said, "So, do you mind informing me of this plan of yours?"

"Honestly, we're just going to throw them a few things to improve the city walls and so on," Ganondorf said, turning to her, "Tonight, you're going to take care of your little problem, and tomorrow, I will discuss with you and Link how we're going to save the world. But I need you able to function with us for anything to actually happen."

"Gods, that again," Zelda said, "Give me a little time to think about that, will you?"

"If it's embarrassing, I'll volunteer," Ganondorf said, "No one has to know."

"Ugh," Zelda groaned, "The thought alone is almost enough to make me vomit."

Ganondorf shrugged. "Some people are into that, and worse. In four thousand years of life, I've tried quite a few different things. Vomiting hardly being the most disgusting."

"Just leave me alone, please," Zelda said, "I'll take care of it."

"You'd best," Ganondorf said, "And try to be happier about it. Not everyone gets told they need to get laid to save the world."

* * *

Shortly after noon, Arthur was feeling surprisingly good compared to the past few days. He'd managed to find a bowyer and have a bow and arrows fashioned in a child's size, and was on his way to pick up the boy, Eric, and take him to the archery range. Even as he thought it wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, just the thought of talking to the boy and teaching him something made him feel good inside.

He was whistling as he walked, and smiling and waving at total strangers, who returned his greetings in a friendly nature, though he could tell by their eyes he'd about worn this set of clothing to its limit, and would need to see about a new wardrobe before long. Fortunately, the exchange rate of what gold and silver he had brought with him was fairly good, even if the metal was just going to be melted down, likely to fashion jewelry with.

But he was still smiling as he stepped up to the door of Claire and Eric's home and rapped his knuckles on the door, and started whistling as he waited, looking up to the sky. The sun was bright and clear, and not a cloud in sight. It was a glorious day.

He knocked again, louder, wondering if he might have missed them. If he did, Eric was probably already at the training ground. The curtains in the window next to the door shifted, catching his eye. "Hello?" he called.

The curtain slowly pulled back, and Eric looked out through the dirty glass at him. "Hey," Arthur said, "You going to open the door?"

The boy wasn't looking directly at him. "I can't go out," he said through the glass, "Sorry, I'm not feeling good. I'm just going to stay home."

"Eric?" Arthur asked, "Is something wrong?"

"No, I... I just can't go out!" Eric said, and suddenly closed the curtains.

"Eric!" Arthur said. He got no answer. His happy feeling had suddenly evaporated, and a knot formed in his stomach. He knocked on the door again, but there was still no answer.

Something was wrong, he knew it. He thought about kicking down the door, but decided committing a crime like breaking and entering was not the best way to go about this. So what was?

He started back toward the castle. He'd store the bow and arrows in his tent, and then come back. Maybe between now and then he'd think of something that would get Eric to open up to him.

Something was wrong, and maybe it wasn't any of his business, but the knot in his gut told him he had to do something.


	131. Chapter 130

I'll admit it, I was actually stuck on this chapter. I had the idea of where the plot was going, but it was really lacking the impact I wanted. Yesterday I got my copy of Running Wild's new Album, _Resilient_, in the mail after work, and was listening to it, and it was the titular song that set off the fireworks and made me get to writing immediately. It's kind of funny, because in truth, the song has nothing to do with anything even remotely similar to the events going on, but the meaning behind it was dead on to what I wanted. And honestly, I think this chapter, as a result of this inspiration, is some of the best pure emotion I've written yet.

**Chapter 130: Resilience**

"It's amazing," Silviana remarked.

"What's that?" Alex asked, not looking up from the fruit vendor's produce, and testing an apple with a firm squeeze of his fingers.

"The fact we're in the middle of a crowded marketplace, and my hood is down, and no one is staring," Silviana said.

Alex handed the vendor a small number of the fingernail sized gems Hyrule used as currency, and turned around, passing her one of the apples he bought. "Well, you still stand out," he said, and indicated a pair of Zora not far from them, "But they've got much weirder folks walking around that they're used to."

"I never thought feeling so unremarkable would be so wonderful," Silviana said, and she and Alex stepped back, as did other, to make room for a large Goron walking down the street with a large water cask held up on one shoulder. "Hey, big guy," Silviana said, somewhat nervously as the Goron's footsteps made the ground vibrate beneath her own feet.

"How you doing, miss," the Goron said with a smile, and continued on his way, not waiting for a response, and merely being courteous.

"I wish I'd found this place when I was younger," Silviana said.

"You so want to disappear into a crowd?" Alex asked.

"My primary skill is disappearing," Silviana said, "In a crowd is one method I'd never managed before."

"Well, I've never been that fond of big crowds," Alex said, "The more I think about it, someplace about the size of Ordon seems about right for me."

"I think I can agree," she said, "But I've spent so much of my life alone already. I don't want to be alone anymore."

"I thought we already made that decision," Alex said, slipping one arm around her waist, "You're not going to be."

"And I thought I was the hopeless romantic," Silviana said.

"Don't tell anyone," Alex said, "I'm going for an image of a hard-edged rogue."

"You've already failed," Silviana said with a grin.

"Well, let's go back to the camp," Alex said, steering her back toward the castle grounds, "There's someone I want to try to find. Hopefully he made it..."

* * *

Arthur was walking at a determined pace, back through the streets he was coming to know fairly well at this point, toward Claire and Eric's home. It had taken him about an hour to get to the castle grounds and back, and he was thinking of what could have possibly happened. He was surprising himself with how dark his imagination was getting, and he knew he wouldn't be able to rest until he knew.

He regretted going to that bar the other night, and meeting this woman in the first place, but then, if something bad had happened, the boy wouldn't likely have anyone to help now. His mother was proving herself inattentive if not outright irresponsible with her son's welfare, and that was also likely why she had agreed so easily to let Arthur spend time with Eric yesterday.

The worst part was Arthur saw himself in the woman, at least before he had met Zelda. For a moment, he wondered if he had sired any children during those years back home. Certainly not, or he'd have heard of it, as wealthy as his family had been. And this wasn't even his own son, and yet already he'd become so attached to him. Arthur felt better believing having a child back then would have been his wake-up call, and he'd have taken responsibility then. Claire obviously didn't want the boy to get in the way of her previous life, though at least she hadn't thrown him out in the street.

He paused at the end of the street, looking down toward the house. The door and curtains were all shut. He couldn't see it, but it also meant whoever was inside couldn't see out. If Eric knew it was him, he likely wouldn't open the door again. Was his mother even home?

Arthur decided to go simple, and walked down the street and straight up to the door, and gave it a swift double tap with his knuckles, and called, "Delivery!"

There was a moment of silence, then he heard the bolt slide back as the door was unlocked. It opened, and Eric looked up at him, a sudden expression of terror on the boy's face, and he attempted to slam the door. Arthur was too quick, getting his foot in the door to stop it open and gently pushing it back. "Eric, it's okay," he said, "It's just me."

"You have to go!" the boy pleaded, stepping back as Arthur pushed the door open further, "He... he told me not to let you in! If you're here when he gets back he'll..."

He suddenly stopped. "He'll what?" Arthur asked, and Eric only looked away from him, so Arthur tried, "Who is he?"

"I can't," the boy said, "He'll... he'll..."

Arthur stepped inside, kneeling down to eye level with Eric. "It's okay," he said, "I won't let anything happen. What did he do?"

Eric flinched away from his touch when Arthur tried to put a hand on his shoulder. Dark thoughts filled Arthur's mind, and he was suddenly certain they had to be true.

"Eric, it's okay," he said, "Let me see."

Eric didn't resist as Arthur slowly pulled the boy's shirt up and off over his head. Arthur's fears were confirmed by the black and purple shapes all across the boy's chest and sides. There were more large bruises across his back. Some were shaped in a way that were clearly delivered with a belt or switch, but others were also shaped more like they were given with a fist. And the fact they were all hidden by the shirt, they were delivered full knowing that. There were no marks on the boy's face or neck, or his arms, or anywhere else that were easily visible.

"Dear gods," Arthur whispered, "Eric, who did this to you?"

The boy was gasping for air, likely hyperventilating in fear, but he started to speak, only to stop, suddenly looking up over Arthur's shoulder, causing him to spin around. Claire was in the doorway, her own eyes filling rapidly with terror as she registered what was happening. Behind her was an older man with a thick gray beard, whose expression contorted in a snarl.

"I told you not to open the door!" the man shouted toward the boy, past Arthur. Eric was stepping slowly back as Arthur rose to his feet, turning fully toward them.

"You!" he said, rage filling his own voice unbidden, and pointing a finger toward the man, "You did this to him!"

Claire tried to step between them, but the other man pushed her aside, snarling like an animal as he reached into his coat pocket and drew out a length of heavy chain.

"Eric, get back!" Arthur said as the man wrapped a few inches of the chain around his palm, letting another six inches of it hang freely from the top his fist.

Arthur's own military training was taking hold, sizing this up in an instant. The chain was not a real weapon, but was heavy enough to do some damage if it landed correctly. The real question was whether or not this man knew what he was doing.

Fortunately for Arthur, he was no experienced fighter. He swung the chain as if it were a club, trying to strike Arthur across the face as he stepped forward. It was pure reflex on Arthur's part that caused him to just lean back, letting the chain pass a few inches in front of him, then stepping into the man's own advance, and in an instant Arthur struck a solid punch into his gut, doubling him over.

The chain was easy enough to get hold of, and Arthur pulled upward, stepping around the man and pulling the metal tight across the man's throat, and holding so tightly that the links cinched down in the man's own hand, leaving him unable to drop it even when he released his grip.

Never in his life had Arthur been as enraged as he was right now, and pulling the chain tighter across the man's throat, choking him to the point he couldn't even moan in pain. Arthur couldn't even hear Claire screaming at him to stop.

"You like hitting kids, huh?!" Arthur screamed into the man's ear, "What the hell's wrong with you?!"

The man wasn't able to respond, and his struggles were rapidly growing weaker. Claire was behind Arthur, slamming her fists into his back, screaming at him to let Clint go, but not only did he barely hear her, he barely felt her blows. Then Arthur looked up for a second, and saw Eric, standing in the middle of the room, watching quietly, his face showing nothing but terror.

That woke Arthur up, cooling his rage instantly. He let go of the chain, and the man, Clint, fell forward onto the floor, limp. Claire rushed past Arthur, running to Clint's side as he choked and coughed, regaining his air slowly.

"You bastard!" Claire shrieked at Arthur as he stepped around her, "What were you doing?!"

Arthur ignored her, kneeling down in front of Eric. "Eric, it's okay," he said, the boy suddenly looked at him, as if snapping out of his own trance, "I'm sorry about all this. I can't take you out of here or they'll have me arrested for kidnapping. But if anything else happens, if he tries anything, you know where to find me, right?"

Eric nodded, the fear slowly fading from his eyes.

"No!" Claire said, her voice still an angry shriek, though as Arthur turned around, he saw her sitting beside Clint, who was still coughing, but had risen to a sitting position, and she was crying, though he doubted it was for the right reason, and this was confirmed as she shouted, "You've no right! You can't just butt into our lives!"

"Wrong," Arthur said, "I've got every right, when a despicable human being like you would let that man do this to her own son!

"And as for you," he said, pointing at Clint, and when the man looked up at him, knew he had his attention, "If you ever touch this boy again, I _will_ kill you. Do you understand?"

Clint, still not able to speak, nodded quickly.

"I swear, I'm calling the guard on you for this," Clair said, finally not screaming, but anger clear in her voice.

Arthur stepped down, kneeling in front of her and looking straight in her eyes. "Do it," he said, "I've got the princess's ear. Kidnapping or murder would be one thing, but what's happened here? Call the guard, and let's seen which one the princess will listen to."

She didn't respond, only glaring at him, and he stood up and turned back to Eric. "Remember: Anything at all, come find me at the castle."

"Okay," Eric said, nodding.

Arthur shot Clint one last dark glare before stepping past the two of them and out the door into the street. Claire slammed the door shut behind him and he heard the lock slide into place. Arthur waited outside, listening for some time. If he heard anything, he fully intended to go back in through the window.

Maybe twenty minutes past with no sound from inside. He hated leaving like this, and not being around if that bastard did something else at this point, but he couldn't just stand here all day. Actually, he realized, he could, but it would likely cause more trouble if he was still here when Clint came out.

With a sigh, he started back toward the castle. Somehow, he wasn't sure he'd accomplished anything, or if he'd only made things worse. He hoped Clint's fear of him would be enough to keep the man in check, but the real problem was Claire and her taste in men. Hell, he wasn't even sure treating a child like that was illegal in this country. He decided he would have to talk to Zelda this evening, and this time he wouldn't take "no" for an answer.

* * *

Ganondorf stepped out of the castle into the courtyard, blinking against the sunlight as he fished his pipe and a fresh pouch of tobacco from his shirt. He had decided his presence in the second meeting would be taken wrongly by the remaining council members, and had coached Zelda on what to tell them, though she'd already had mostly the right idea, that strengthening the military force was paramount while scouts scoured the countryside searching for the enemy already within, spying and even preparing for the coming of the real enemy.

Walpurgis Night wasn't far, he reminded himself. The night of the new moon would mark the sinister night, and come the next morning, there might not be a kingdom left to save if things went badly. Zelda had to think of what would come after, of maintaining and rebuilding what was left of the kingdom, but if Ganondorf couldn't find a way to stop this mess, she wouldn't get a chance.

And time was not on their side. When he saw the moon the previous night, he estimated there was less than a week remaining. But Vargus had already found the location the circle was being constructed. If they moved quickly and stopped that in its tracks, Shaklator might miss her window, giving them several years to come up with a more permanent solution. Ganondorf had gone into the hall with Vargus, specifically to speak with the ninja while Zelda spoke to Link.

"We're going to solve this tonight," Ganondorf had said to the ninja, speaking low enough the nearby guards wouldn't overhear.

"You mean the brainwashed people?" Vargus had asked, "The princess said she'd have an answer tomorrow."

"She's weak," Ganondorf had said, "Not as much as she used to be, as she is growing up, but her pity will stay her hand. And if she does order them dealt with, the guilt will eat at her for years to come. If you want to help her, it would be best if she doesn't even know who is responsible. Not to mention, if the evidence is destroyed in the process, ordering the execution of a large number of people could cause a lot of problems for her in the immediate future."

"What do you intend?" Vargus asked.

"You know how to dress a scene," Ganondorf said, "Make it seem as if an unknown group of vigilantes committed the act."

"A bloody mess, as if there was a large battle," Vargus said, "Yes, we could do that."

"The witches and Zero will be a different matter," Ganondorf said, "I'll have to come along to deal with them, but if we do this properly, we can stop this whole thing in its tracks, and even the princess doesn't have to be the wiser. I think that will be best all around."

Vargus had remained silent for a long moment as he thought, finally nodding and replying, "Okay. Meet me at the south end of the market square just before midnight. I'll bring thirty of my men and we'll handle this quickly and quietly."

It was several hours until dark yet. That was fine. It gave him time to wander the courtyard and decide how to handle the next objectives he had in mind. Part of being several steps ahead of everyone else involved actually thinking through things and making the plans, then steering events the right direction.

The part that was bothering him the most was that Zero was going through the effort to construct such a relatively permanent magic circle for a one-time spell. Even if he intended to use blood as the reagent, it was a lot more effort than was needed, even on Walpurgis Night. Hell, all he needed was some fine white sand and sufficient magical charge. With Walpurgis Night so close, Ganondorf could himself jump between dimensions with simple lines drawn in the dirt, and not much effort. Why, he could even hop over and grab Minerva without tiring himself so completely right now.

He stopped, a slow, sinister smile began to grow on his face. He wanted to kick himself for not thinking of it sooner. He needed to do something about that anyway, to see about rescuing survivors, and Minerva herself could prove an extremely useful ally. Even a near-god creature like Shaklator would have no idea how to deal with a girl capable of creating magic from nothing more than her imagination.

Ganondorf turned and started walking at a deliberate pace toward an open area of the courtyard. He had scarcely selected a spot when he saw Kilishandra enter the courtyard and called her over. He stooped down and started tracing the lines into the earth as she approached.

"What's happening?" she asked as she came to edge of his rapidly forming circle.

"We're taking a short trip back home," Ganondorf said, "I think it's time to check in on Minerva and see what it's going to take to either stop the Blight or start moving people over here."

"Thank the gods," Kilishandra said, moving in to help with the circle, "I was starting to think I was the only one who remembered them."

"Leave this to me," Ganondorf said, "I need you to go find the princess and inform her of what we're doing. If we start bringing people through here, it will be a good idea that everyone know what we're up to."

"Right," Kilishandra said, "I'll be back."

It took time to make preparations, of course. Following her meeting, Zelda herself showed up at the circle, asking for clarification, even as Kilishandra helped finish the outer runes in the earth and setting up several thin-wicked white candles, to help hold the portal open by maintaining the charge for a time.

"How many survivors are we talking about here?" Zelda asked when he explained his plan, "Our resources aren't unlimited here."

"Don't know yet," Ganondorf said, "Depending on the situation, we might not have to move anyone. I haven't been there in over ten years now, and Kili hasn't been there for at least six."

"Closer to seven," Kilishandra said.

More and more people were gathering to watch, both from the castle staff and the refugee camp. Link and Midna pushed through the crowd, coming to the circle and asking what was happening, and being informed by Zelda.

"Okay, that should be it, aside from the spell itself," Ganondorf said, standing up from his work and drawing all eyes to him, and he turned to Zelda, "Now, this isn't going to be an actual travel spell. I'm going to open a gateway, and will have to remain here to maintain it. Kili, you and..." he paused, spying Link near Zelda, "How about you, Link? Go in and see what's happening."

"Why Link?" Midna asked, but Link immediately stepped toward the ring, and said, "Okay."

Kilishandra glanced at him, and he gave her a small nod.

"Link, why?" Midna asked, "You suddenly trust him that much?"

"No," Link said, "But I've promised more than one person I'd try to help those people. Besides, Ganondorf wouldn't be sending her through if he intended this to be some kind of trap."

"You're getting smarter, boy," Ganondorf said, "Now, best case scenario, nobody will have to move, and the two of you will just need to bring Minerva back through. Maybe best to not tell her about Khall and the others until I can talk to her."

"Yes," Kilishandra said, turning to Link, "She and Khall were very close before we came here. She may have even loved him. Best not to tell her you were the one who killed him, at least for now."

"So is it just going to be the two of us, then?" Link asked.

"Of course not," Midna said, "I'm going too."

"No, you're staying here," Ganondorf said, and when she turned on him ready to snarl something at him, added, "They won't be in any danger. I'd be more worried about the state you're in, remember, with that curse and all. Dimension hopping could be unhealthy without the Twilight Mirror."

"Stay here with Zelda," Link said to Midna, "I'd rather not take that kind of risk."

"I doubt there is a risk," Midna whispered to him. "He's just trying to get me away from you."

"It'll be fine," Link said, and turned back to Ganondorf, "So what do we do?"

"It will be about an hour while I prepare the spell itself," Ganondorf said, "You can wait here, or come back then."

"I'll get a few things ready in case we do end up with more people suddenly," Zelda said, turning to go back toward the castle.

The day wasn't ready to stop yet for Zelda, though, as she had barely reached the castle doors, which were being opened for her by the guards when Arthur appeared from the courtyard entrance, with a determined expression on his face, and when he spotted her, he started directly toward her.

"I need to talk to you," he said as he came close, causing her to have to wave down guards who were quickly stepping forward.

"And I need to talk to you," she said, "I'm busy right now, but come to my room tonight, at about dinner time."

His determination suddenly melted away. "Your... you mean your office, right?" he asked.

"No," she said, "My private room. What I need to talk about... Well, it's private."

Arthur's face was suddenly burning hot, and his tongue was suddenly tied in a not, and he only managed to nod.

* * *

Alex found who he was looking for in the camp, the man idly watching the clouds as he smoked a tobacco pipe. Alex stopped about fifteen feet away from the fire pit where Maylow sat and turned to Silviana. "Okay, I need you to wait here for just a moment," he said.

"Alex, it's..." she started, but he interupted her.

"It's okay, I'll be back in just a second," he said, "Trust me, it'll be worth it."

She sighed in frustration as Alex walked toward Maylow, the former king of Whitos-Neiki, who glanced up as he approached.

"Can I help you?" Maylow asked.

"King Maylow, I'm sorry to bother you..." Alex started, when Maylow interrupted him.

"Hardly a king when I don't have a kingdom," the half-elf said, "Even less when I've got nothing to do most of the day."

"Well, if you have a moment, there's someone I'd like you to meet," Alex said.

"Oh, gods, look if this is about a girl, just tell her to come talk to me," Maylow said, and took a puff from his pipe, "Don't think I'd be that interested right now anyway."

"Well, it is a girl, a woman, actually, but not like you're thinking," Alex said, and looked at Silviana, waving her to come over and turning back to Maylow, "Actually, this might be a bit of a shock. Come to think of it, didn't I read that your mother was an elf from Tyr?"

"That's right," Maylow said, "And this matters why?"

"Well, no offense, but then where did your darker skin tone come from?" Alex asked, "I remember the nobles of Whitos-Neiki being pretty fair-skinned, by and large."

Maylow sighed. "It's complicated. Seems a princess in our ancestry took a shine to a west-born native of the tropics, they were pretty dark complexions. This was back before the ancient war, even. It seems I just hit a strange generation wherein it remanifested itself, at least according to the historians."

"That's funny, because if you were much darker, you'd look like a dark elf," Alex said.

"Is that an insult?" Maylow asked, suddenly rising to his feet.

"Alex," Silviana whispered, moving up beside him, but he didn't wait for her to finish.

"No, actually," Alex said, "See, this is Silviana, a dear friend of mine, and..."

"Alex, will you let me tell you something?" Silviana asked.

"I'm almost done," Alex said, glancing at her as he said this, then back to Maylow, "You see, some years ago, she was living in the forest south of Whitos-Neiki, and a prince from your family met her and they had a bit of a relationship. And from that, they had a son, who was taken back to the castle, where he lived ever since."

Alex paused, waiting for Maylow to make the connection himself. Silviana pulled his sleeve, forcing him to turn to her. "I didn't ask you to do this," she said, barely above a whisper.

"Sil, don't you understand?" he asked, "Maylow here, he's your son! He has to be!"

"Of course he is!" Silviana said, her frustration evident in her voice.

"Wait a second..." Alex said as the realization hit him, "You knew?"

"I was a Judge, remember? Did you really think I wouldn't be able to find him?" Silviana asked, "I said I hadn't seen him since they took him, not that I didn't know where he was. I was constantly checking in on him without the nobles finding out."

"Then why didn't you ever see him?" Alex asked.

"Because the bastards that took him from me were right," she said, "He had a good opportunity, and a dark elf mother would cock that up right and fast."

"Wait a second here," Maylow said, interrupting them, and stepping closer, looking down at Silviana, "This man is claiming that you... are my mother?"

Silviana turned to him, taking a breath and licking her lips as she tried to think of what to say.

"Hey," Alex said to her, "There's no problem of it now, right?"

"I suppose you're right," she said, and looked up at Maylow, "That's right. You were barely a year old when you were taken from me. I stayed out of sight so you would have a chance at your birthright. Your father, the prince, promised me you'd have that, but not if anyone found out you were a dark elf half-blood."

"That..." Maylow paused, looking at her for a long moment before he finished, "is insane. I know my mother. She was from Tyr, educated at the Academy of Magic. You... I've never seen you in my life."

"Exactly," Silviana said.

"Wait, wait! That can't be it!" Alex said as Maylow started to turn to walk away, and Alex turned to Silviana, "There has to be something."

"The bear claw," Sivliana said, and Maylow suddenly stopped, and slowly turned back toward her. "You have a leather cord with a single bear claw that you wear around your neck. Your father would never tell you where it came from, only to never lose it."

Maylow reached up to his shirt, pulling the leather cord and mentioned claw from within, where it hung around his neck. "But how did you...?" he started.

Silviana pulled a cord from the front of her own shirt, with three claws decorating it, one larger than the other two. "Because I'm the one that killed the bear it came from," she said, "That claw was the only thing I was able to send with you."

"It's hardly like these are the only bear claw necklaces in existence, you know," Maylow said.

"But you know I'm telling the truth," Silviana said.

"And what?" Maylow asked, "Suppose you are my real mother. I don't know you. I know the woman who was there when I was a child. And it wasn't you."

Silviana tried to blink back tears, failing to do so as she felt them running down her face. "I know," she said, "And I'm sorry. I wish I could have been there... I wish I'd never let them take you... And now, everything I wanted you to have was for nothing."

"I guess it was," Maylow said.

"I'm sorry," Silviana said, "I won't bother you gain."

She turned and started to walk away. "Wait!" Alex said, but she didn't stop, and he turned back to Maylow, "You know, I thought I was doing something good for both of you. Didn't think you'd be such an asshole about it, though. Hey, Sil! Wait for me!"

He left, going after Silviana, and Maylow watched them silently for a moment. He looked down, and realized he was still holding the bear claw in his hand, and let it fall against his chest. For some reason, it suddenly felt incredibly heavy to him.

* * *

An hour later, and he was ready. The air around Ganondorf was practically crackling with energy, and his clothing was billowing as if in high wind, though the air was deathly still as the gathered crowd watched. Then, with only a few words and one hand forward, lighting struck the ground and colors swirled up from the earth, spinning in a circle and growing larger by the second, stopping when the circle was about six feet in diameter, the spinning slowing and stabilizing into a soft blue glow.

"I'll be able to keep this open for about two hours without taxing myself much," Ganondorf said to Link and Kilishandra, both of whom were checking their weapons were clear in their sheathes, though both were sure there should not be real danger waiting, "It shouldn't take that long. Find Minerva and figure out what's wrong."

"What?" Kilishandra asked, this being the first time he indicated anything was wrong, "Is there something wrong?"

"It's Minerva," Ganondorf said, "I'm using her as the beacon for the portal, but she's faint. She's far weaker than I expected or she should be. Hurry."

With a nod, she glanced at Link, who nodded to her, and the two of them took a running leap into the portal.

Link was somewhat disappointed at how quickly they landed on stone roadwork. He didn't know what to expect, but he'd thought there'd at least be some kind of tunnel of light or something, not such instantaneous landing. He thought it hadn't worked until he looked up and saw the desolation in front of him.

"Oh gods," Kilishandra whispered as she looked up at the sight.

They had landed in a city that too all appearances, should be fine. But it was empty. The streets, at this time of day, should have been full of people. An oppressive silence hung in the air, pressing down and making Link's ears ring as he searched for a sound, any sound, that would mean life.

It was even worse that the city looked perfectly fine. Had it been a ruin, it would have less impact. But this, it was simply wrong. The two of them turned around, and found the portal had dropped them directly in front of the central keep. It, too, seemed fine, but Link couldn't focus his eyes on it, there was some kind of strange shimmer in the air between them and the keep.

"Oh, gods, I didn't think it had fallen back this far," Kilishandra said, starting toward the keep.

"What fell back?" Link asked, moving with her.

"That shimmer in the air," she said, "That's the barrier that was supposed to protect the city, to keep the Blight away from the farmland and keep the water clean. If it's fallen back this far, the keep is the only place still protected."

The same disease of the earth that had turned Mystara into a wasteland, Link thought. He remembered what Kilishandra had told him before, that this entire world had been taken. It seemed it was well and truly lost.

"So if anyone is alive, they're in the keep," Link said.

The shimmer in the air parted easily, allowing Kilishandra to pass through without even slowing her pace, and Link followed a moment later. It left a strange feeling of warmth on his skin, though not an unpleasant one. Kilishandra reached the castle's main doors, and with a solid shove of her shoulder, forced one open, and Link stepped in after her.

The city was bad enough, but what was in here was worse. First was the smell that assaulted them. That horrid sickly sweet smell that had become so familiar to both of them, that only one thing in the world could ever create. The smell of death.

The main hall was littered with bodies, most reduced to skeletons with a few ragged scraps of cloth hanging from their bones, but others were much fresher, only partially rotted, and most with insects crawling across them, or even masses of maggots writhing on their flesh. But none of them had any visible wounds from violence that Link could see. They also did not lay in any manner that would indicate a battle. What could have done this?

"The central garden," Kilishandra said, her voice trembling slightly as she tried to keep herself from vomiting at the sight and the smell.

They picked their way through the chamber, reaching the far door, ignoring the halls leading to other areas of the keep, Kilishandra slowly pushed the door open, and Link wondered what the next horror would be.

The door opened into sunlight, a round chamber open to the sky, and Link almost didn't believe his eyes when he saw the green grass on the ground, and butterflies flitting through the air. There was even a small pool of water and a fish jumped into the air from it. Birds were singing in the trees scattered through the garden. The chamber was only about thirty feet in diameter, but it was alive. And in the center, their goal.

A shaft of light, extending skyward, and within that light was the figure of a woman, her feet floating several feet of the ground, her arms held wide, and her eyes closed. She was nude, giving him a clear view of her stunning, statuesque perfection. No living woman could possibly be that perfectly shaped and proportioned image of beauty, and yet there she was. The only aspects that even slightly reduced her appeal were her chalk-white skin tone, and starkly visible blue lips. Neither were the result of illness or anything else though, and were the showing features of her odd heritage, the daughter of a demonic father and human mother.

And she was not the only one there. Around the center of the garden were more people. Link counted less than twenty all together, most adults or near adults, and two children. Every one of them were emancipated, their bone struckly plainly visible through the sunken skin of their arms and faces, and those without shirts ribs were plainly on display as well.

A battle would have been easier to take. The people in the main hall had starved to death. Link had become so hardened to the sight of blood that any level of violence barely fazed him, yet this felt like someone had just stabbed him in the chest and was now squeezing his heart in their hands. He looked over at Kilishandra, and saw her clenching her teeth, and the tears running down her face.

He slowly reached over, putting a hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn her head, and giving her a gentle squeeze he hoped was reassuring, not sure what he'd actually accomplish.

"Too late," she whispered, turning back to the sight in front of them, "We came too late."

Her voice caused the people to stir, eyes opening and looking up at them.

"They're alive!" Link said, moving forward.

There were only a few of them, but they could be helped yet. And they were weak, but as Kilishandra quickly explained about the portal, several climbed to their feet, and started to help those too weak to do so.

"I'll take them back and come back for Minerva," Kilishandra said, picking up one of the children in her arms, "Look around the garden and make sure we aren't missing anyone."

"Right," Link said, helping a weak woman to her feet, and she thanked him as she started after the others.

The garden wasn't large, but Link combed every inch looking for anyone who might have been missed. It only took a few minutes, and he soon found himself back in the center. The only one left was Minerva, in the column of light. "How are we going to wake you up?" he asked.

"I have been since you arrived."

He suddenly took a step back as her eyes opened, looking down at him. Before he could respond, the light suddenly vanished. Minerva fell toward the floor, and Link moved quickly forward again, catching her as she fell, letting her down as gently as possible as she fell limply into his arms. "Are you all right?" he asked.

She looked up at him. She was such a strange looking woman, her skin so pale, and yet her hair was dark as a raven's feathers, and yet she had such a haunting beauty surrounding her, so perfectly sculpted she was. She also appeared healthy, unlike the others, and yet Link felt so little strength in her arms as she looked up at him.

And those eyes. Link felt as if he was going to be swallowed into those dark eyes. Bright red irises surrounding dark pupils like holes in the world. At the same time, it felt as though they were piercing right through him, seeing all his memories and secrets with no effort at all. And he may have been right.

"You killed Khall," she whispered.

Damn, he was right.

"There's more to it than that," Link said, remembering Ganondorf's warning, though not sure exactly how he was going to fix it now.

"It's okay," she whispered, "I knew I would not see him alive again. If he did not die in battle, my blood would kill him."

"That sickness," Link said, "And Kilishandra told me about the demon blood..."

"Yes," Minerva said, "Before we met, Khall's flesh was pierced by a needle carrying a small amount of my blood. It was going to kill him eventually regardless of anything else. The most pain I've ever felt was looking at him as he smiled at me, and knowing it was me that was killing him. But how did he die?"

Link thought back to that moment, when his sword had pierced Khalls flesh, and the wizard had looked him directly in the eye. He had seen no fear in Khall in that moment, only regret, maybe for his actions, maybe for his failure, but one thing could be said.

"He died a warrior," Link said, "I think he was ready."

"Yes, he was," Minerva said.

"He also wanted me to tell you," Link said, nearly choking, though he didn't know why it was so difficult to say, "He wanted you to know that he's sorry for lying to you."

"I know," Minerva whispered, "And I'm sorry I failed. I couldn't protect the people until they could be saved. Those here were all that remained."

"You must have known it was an impossible task," Link said.

"Yes," Minerva said, "But it was for him."

She finally looked away from him, turning her eyes toward the open sky. She looked as if she was about to go on, but after a moment, said nothing. Link suddenly realized she wasn't breathing. He quickly checked her throat for a pulse.

There was nothing. Minerva had just died in his arms.

The grass under him suddenly turned brown, the entire garden wilting in seconds, the leaves of the trees and blades of grass crumbling to dust. The fish in the pond surfaced, floating on their backs as the birds fell from the trees, landing on the ground with dull thuds.

With Minerva died the last life of this world, lost to the Blight, unleashed by Tharkus at the bidding of Shaklator, for no purpose other than engineering the war in Mystara that now approached Hyrule, for the sake of her hate-filled revenge on a single man.

Perhaps this was what separated Link from other men. This moment, realizing that an entire world was dead, and a second was soon to follow, would have caused so many to break, to give up. To give in to fear and hopelessness. In Link, it galvanized him. His teeth clenched as his fists did, shaking with righteous fury. No more, he silently swore. He was sick of watching people die. Too many times, and he had hit his limit.

Just a short time ago, he had wondered if he would be able to make such a sacrifice as Ralthas had, to give his life for the sake of others, for people he had never met. Probably still not, but now Link could see his own home in Ordon, the houses burning, and then the bodies would be the people he knew. The people that were his family.

When he came face to face to Shaklator, he would kill her. Even if he did not survive, it didn't matter, so long as she was not able to harm one more person that could not defend themselves. Eight thousand years ago, she had been trapped because Darius had lacked the will to kill her, because on some level, he had loved her.

Well, that wasn't going to be Link's problem. Now he was almost eager for the bitch to come, so he could finish this at long last. He gently closed Minerva's staring eyes with one hand, silently wishing her to find peace in the next life that this one did not give any of them.

* * *

"This is all of them?" Zelda asked, looking around at the people that had come through the portal, now being tended by the doctors and even some of the refugees.

"All but one," Kilishandra said, turning back toward the portal, "I need to go back for Link and..."

She stopped as another figure emerged from the portal. It was Link, and he was carrying Minerva's body in his arms.

"Oh no," Kilishandra whispered as she saw Minerva's arm and neck hanging limp.

Link swallowed heavily, half expecting Ganondorf to go crazy. The wizard merely watched silently as Link carried the body toward the crowd. "This woman gave her life to save these people," he said to the crowd gathered around, "She deserves a proper funeral."

"Prepare a pyre," Ganondorf said, "Minerva wished to have her ashes scattered to the wind. It is only right to do so."

"It will be ready," Zelda said.

The portal had quietly vanished as Ganondorf closed it, and he moved up beside Link. "Let me have her," he said.

Link quietly allowed the wizard to take Minerva's body in his arms. Ganondorf looked down at her face for a long moment before saying, "I wish it could have been different. I really do."

* * *

It took less than an hour to have the pyre prepared, the oil-soaked wood stacked up, and Minerva's body laid across the top of it. There weren't many gathered for the funeral, nor where they expected. Ganondorf allowed a Hylian priest to give her last rites, though he wasn't sure they'd do much for a creature of Minerva's heritage, but if anyone deserved a chance at peace in the next life, it was her. He was certain now she had maintained the barrier for so long that it began to tax her own health and life, until finally, when she let it go, she had nothing left to keep herself going. For a person of such power as she possessed, going out so quietly seemed wrong to him, but maybe she preferred it that way.

It was regrettable that she would be unable to help in the coming battle, but that seemed so small now, compared to the loss. He had saved Minerva from herself, so long ago, and she looked up to him, like a father, much as Kilishandra did when she was young. Strange to think he got so attached to this girl he knew for such a short time.

He really wasn't the man he used to be. Back when his hatred and own greed were the only driving forces in his life. At least, after Nabooru was gone. When he realized she had died, it was like all the light in his life had vanished, and he had nothing to live for, other than to keep going as he had been.

The priest was still droning on, and Ganondorf looked over at Kilishandra. Link was next to her, probably merely here out of respect, and Midna wasn't far from his side.

Kilishandra... She was the light that reentered his life, almost a century ago now. He still remembered it as if it were yesterday, that look in her eyes as she grabbed his cloak, crying and babbling about her mother and monsters. And he couldn't shake the feeling of looking down at her then, and seeing himself, as he was so long ago, his back cut open by Aveil and left for dead in the desert, everything he knew destroyed, and the realization in that instant of what he had become, and that if someone didn't help her, she would become the same.

He still didn't understand it. There was no logic in it. But regardless, he had taken it upon himself to ensure Kilishandra did not become what he had. Maybe it was a thought that had things with Nabooru not gone as they had, they might have had children, and they might have been like Kili. And maybe Minerva would have been like his second child. He didn't know. And never would.

His hatred had driven him for so long, and now, he was driven by another emotion, which he had never thought to feel again after Nabooru died. It wasn't the same as it had been with her, but it was there.

As the torch was set to the pyre, the flames rising high over Minerva's body, he believed he finally understood one of the worst feeling a person can imagine. Though his face was as emotionless as ever to those watching, he was torn inside.

No parent should have to bury their child.

* * *

"I'm so sorry it turned out this way," Zelda said to Kilishandra after the funeral, "If we'd known it was so bad..."

"There's nothing you could do about it," Kilishandra said, "All that matters now is that the monster responsible for all of this pays dearly for it."

"I agree with that," Link said, and turned to Zelda, "If there's anything at all I can do to help, you'll let me know?"

"Of course," Zelda said, "But I have something else right now."

She reached to her belt and unbuckled one of the two weapons hanging at her side. "I believe this now belongs to you," she said to Kilishandra, offering her the Master Sword, "It chose you before, and now you intend to stand with us, yes?"

Kilishandra nodded solemnly, accepting the weapon, and slowly drew the blade from its sheath. The blade hummed and glowed a soft blue for a moment, returned to the hand it had chosen as its wielder.

"I didn't expect it to find someone other than Link to wield it, honestly," Zelda said, "But now, you have no idea how glad I am to have both of you here."

"I'm with you until the end," Kilishandra said, "Whatever that may be."

"The weight of the world is pressing down with each passing day," Zelda said, "We're prisoners of our time, I've discovered. It seems there's so little we can actually do except wait for the end to come to us."

"Well, I don't know about you two, but I'm going to plant my feet good and solid," Link said, "So long as I'm still breathing, I won't let it be over."

"I can think of a lot of cases that you wouldn't have a say in it," Kilishandra said.

"Then you'll just have to protect me, won't you?" Link asked.

Kilishandra couldn't believe herself, but she involuntarily chuckled.

Ganondorf was leaning against the castle wall, watching the flames and the group, though he was out of earshot. "Bad things just keep piling up, don't that?"

He turned to the voice to see Sheila lean against the wall next to him. "I don't know how he does it," she said, gesturing toward Link, who was now smiling and had both Kilishandra and Zelda laughing, "He keeps going, like he isn't even effected by it, putting on that stupid smile and the bad jokes. And then he expects the rest of us to do so, too."

"Link has a way of thinking that works for him," Ganondorf said, "His problem is he tends to think everyone else should think the same way."

"Yes," Sheila said, "I have a hard time believing everyone else can shove out the bigger problems and only worry about what's close and personal, especially now."

"Ah, that," Ganondorf said, "Well, I'd think of it this way: Maybe he says that because he actually is affected by the bigger things. Maybe he uses that as a shield to hide a warrior's pain, even from himself. Would he be here at all if he didn't care what happened to this kingdom?"

"You don't know how strange it is that you're standing up for him," Sheila said.

"I can respect him for some things," Ganondorf said, "All of us are carrying our pain, for all our lives. Some people collapse under the pain, they break and are no use to anyone. Link's method of coping is just one of many. Some prefer to forget, and others put their pain into their work."

"And what should I do, if I'm feeling helpless and overwhelmed?" Sheila asked.

"I see, that's what this is," Ganondorf said, "I'd say first you need to take your mind off things, if only for a short time. Sometimes rest, even for the mind, is vital. Then you might have a clearer picture of how to work on these things."

Sheila snorted. "I can't even talk to most anyone about what's coming, because the princess wants it kept under wraps. I can't stop thinking about it even now. What can I do?"

"Get drunk, get laid, whatever," Ganondorf said, "Whatever it takes to stop it for at least a short while. Do something you'll regret. I don't really care. I'm burying my daughter, after all."

"Sorry," Sheila said, "I didn't mean..."

"Of course you didn't," Ganondorf growled, turning pointedly toward the pyre, watching as it burned, smoke rising high into the sky over the city.

Taking the hint, Sheila silently turned and walked away, back toward the refugee camp.

* * *

The sun was down, and Ganondorf was getting restless. Everyone else was getting ready for the night, going to bed, and in the case of Zelda, he hoped fixing her other problem. He still had hours left before he was to meet Vargus, and he didn't want to be seen standing around in the streets and tip Zero off.

At this moment, he was sitting at the table in his room, playing chess against himself just to distract himself for a time. He didn't look up when he heard the click of the door latch behind him. The hinges creaked ever so slightly, and feet stepped softly onto the carpeted floor. The door creaked back and the latch fell into place, followed by the click of the lock being slid home.

Feet on the carpet, approaching slowly, and then the rustle of cloth and something falling softly on the floor. He could feel her breath on his neck as she reached her arms around his neck, sliding them down his shirt and through the hair on his chest.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who needs a distraction," Sheila whispered in his ear.

Ganondorf picked up the black bishop on the chessboard, moving it over to checkmate the white king before standing up and turning around, pulling her naked body against him gently. "You're going to regret this later," he said.

"That's the idea," she said with a smile, pulling him toward the bed.

* * *

_Premonition's creeping up on me_  
_I am just right in a storm_  
_Shifty tricks and hostility_  
_Really can't do me no harm_  
_Temptations are everywhere_  
_To switch off your mind_  
_Contemptuous lies are in the air_  
_The pure and the true to grind_

_There's no hiding - it just won't go away_  
_So keep on fighting to foil their plans_  
_Madness is rising - slaves are marching on_  
_The free are striding to shake off the trance_

_Resilient - We resist till the end_  
_We're taking our pride in the rage of the fight_  
_So we're gonna take our stand - we gonna stay resilient_

_Resource management in control_  
_They won't just take a bite_  
_Not your body - they want your soul_  
_But we gonna give 'em a fight_

_There's no hiding - it just won't go away_  
_So keep on fighting to foil their plans_  
_Madness is rising - slaves are marching on_  
_The free are striding to shake off the trance_

_Resilient - We resist till the end_  
_We're taking our pride in the rage of the fight_  
_So we're gonna take our stand - we gonna stay resilient_

_And I always will defend what I'm believing in_  
_I am never giving in - standing proud till the end_

_Despair and apathy - everywhere - surrounding me_  
_Resignation and frustration - everywhere - got a hold on thee_

_There's no hiding - it just won't go away_  
_So keep on fighting to foil their plans_  
_Madness is rising - slaves are marching on_  
_The free are striding to shake off the trance_

_Resilient - We resist till the end_  
_We're taking our pride in the rage of the fight_  
_So we're gonna take our stand - we gonna stay resilient_

- _Resilient_

Written and Performed by Running Wild, 2013


	132. Chapter 131

I know the three-week update schedule I've been on for the past few chapters might seem unjustified, but this close to the end I've been analyzing and reanalyzing my plans and trying to make sure absolutely everything is perfect and in place. And then I end up with the oddity of this chapter, and the realization of how much of this is basically lumped into the same chapter, yet considering what's happening in the next chapter, there isn't really a means to space it out and still have it in good taste at this point.

**Chapter 131: The Eve of Battle**

Sheila hadn't been sure what she was getting herself into when entered Ganondorf's bedroom, but she was genuinely surprised at his behavior after she did, and also surprised at her own. The wizard was obviously not one for talk during the act, and yet he behaved like no other lover she'd ever had in her three centuries of life. While the lovers she had in her younger days could be described at best as enthusiastic, and at worst as in too much of a gods damned hurry, Ganondorf moved slowly, almost methodically, in perfect control of himself.

The rough calluses of his hands scratched against her softer skin, yet his touch was surprisingly gentle as he explored her body. As he climbed into the bed over her, the sheer difference in their size struck her for the first time. He stood nearly twice as tall as her normally, yet he had to be nearly four times larger than her in sheer mass. She could only guess how many times he outweighed her, likely six or more.

And then there was the age. Ganondorf was four thousand years old or better, and made no secret of his promiscuity. How many women had he been with in his lifetime? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Even as she told herself the thought of a man with that many women should have disgusted her, for some reason, it was thrilling. It excited her.

His experience was just as clear, as he moved with practiced control, rather than jumping ahead as most men did, though never making a sound, even as the two of them moved in union and her voice was beyond her control. Sheila hit her breaking point, and her own cry left her ears ringing even as he continued through it, a moment later a single grunt was the only sound announcing his own release.

The two of them were covered in a sheen of sweat as he rolled to the side, letting his weight down on the bed next to her, while she fought to recover her breath, basking in the afterglow. It wasn't long before Ganondorf sat up, shifting so he was sitting on the side of the bed, back to her, and started to stand when something caught his eye.

"And what's this?" Ganondorf asked, leaning down to pick something up off the floor.

Sheila leaned up on her elbows, looking down at him at the foot of the bed as he sat back up. The black cover of the journal she had received was in his hand. The book itself was dwarfed by his big hand, and she thought for a second he could have easily crushed it in his fist if he desired.

"A bit of a strange present," she said, "I received it from a ghost on the way across the sea, if you will believe that."

"I've said it before, I have very little incredulity left in me," Ganondorf said, gently opening the cover and leafing through the pages, including the loose sheets of Sheila's own efforts at translation, "Oh, this dialect is old. It was old even when I was young. Looks like your translation is a fair way off the exact wording here and there, though I think you're getting the meaning fairly close."

The sun was down, the room dark except for the light of a single candle, to which he was angling to book to make out the words. Even in the dim light, Sheila could make out the single massive scar along the wizard's back, running from his right shoulder to nearly his left hip. Sheila knew this had to be the wound given to him by Aveil, the Gerudo chieftain who attempted to end his life before he united the tribes thousands of years ago. For as much battle as the wizard had seen in his life, his body was remarkably free of scars, but this one had been given to him before he gained the Triforce of power, and his inhuman healing ability. The only other visible scar she could see was the strange white scar on his stomach, which glowed faintly in the dark, though not brightly enough to do more than locate it with.

"What did you give this ghost, out of curiosity?" Ganondorf asked.

"Someone to talk to," Sheila said, "We spoke for several hours. About leadership, morality, that sort of thing."

"Pirates aren't usually philosophers," Ganondorf said, closing the book.

"He's been trapped on the coast for thousands of years," Sheila said, "I think he just wants to be free."

"And you want to help him?" Ganondorf asked, turning toward her, "You'd have better luck trying to drain Lake Hylia with a straw."

"Ghosts only stay in this world because they feel they have unfinished business," Sheila said.

"And if this guy's as old as I think he is," Ganondorf said, tossing the book so it landed near her, "he doesn't even remember what that business is. As I said: Lake Hylia. Straw."

"Is this the only way you can talk to people?" Sheila asked, snatching the book, "I don't think in the time I've known you that you've said even one thing that wasn't negative or backhanded in some way."

"You'd almost think there's a pattern or something," Ganondorf said, and glanced back over his shoulder, "Up to you how you want to take the fact I was right, though."

"Yes, yes, I remember, you can have any woman you want, even me," Sheila said, "You really wanted to reinforce the image in my head that you were a disgusting pig."

"And something has convinced you I'm not?" Ganondorf said.

"Well, I'm sure others would say I'm wasting my time, but you have those moments when you're willing to talk more than others, when you're not holding up that wall that your such a villain," Sheila said, and laid the book beside her on the bedside table, then sat up straighter, "I think I'm finally starting to understand you."

"This should be good," Ganondorf said, though he turned away from her, clasping his hands and leaning his elbows on his knees, "And what exactly do you think you understand about me?"

"Maybe there was a time you were everything both you and those legends Link and Zelda have told me you are, but I think you're different," Sheila said, "Your attitude and your personality are too inconsistent at the perfect times."

He didn't so much as flinch when she put her hands on his shoulders from behind, softly running her fingers along them and up to his neck, then forward as she leaned against his back. "I think that in spite of everything you say, you're a good man," she said, and put one hand over his heart, "Somewhere in here is the proof you're not what you pretend to be."

"Then you're even more of a fool than I thought," he said, standing up and pushing her off him as he did so. He took two steps from the bed and paused for a moment, then turned back to her. He was quite the vision, like a mahogany god standing there naked in the flickering candlelight, the shadows seeming to dance on his statuesque musculature, the white scar on his stomach clearly visible even though it seemed to shed no light as it glowed.

"I have lived for four thousand years," Ganondorf said, "Think of how many people I've killed since you've met me, and extend that back that far. I've been killing for longer than anyone alive today can even comprehend, and I lost count of the number of bodies in my wake millennia ago. I don't do it for any noble purpose or divine reason. I do it because they are in the way of what I want.

"The path I walk is of my own choosing, and it is without end. No matter how far I go, no matter how many corpses I step over, the killing will never end. And when it comes to it, that's what I want. Nothing is more exhilarating to me than the sound of clashing steel coupled with the smell of fresh blood.

"I am not a good man. And I will never be. And that is why you are a fool."

Sheila didn't respond immediately, and slowly lowered her gaze from him, but even as he thought she had given up, she suddenly looked up, a small smile on her face. "Who are you trying to convince?" she asked, "Me, or yourself?"

"Oh, don't start that crap," he said, "You're wasting both our time."

"No, no, I think that's it," Sheila said, slowly sliding off the bed and standing up, "The change in you, it's recent, at least by your standards. What came into your life that could have caused such a drastic change so quickly? It was your daughter. Or daughters. Kilishandra and Minerva. That look you gave me earlier, when you said you were burying your daughter today... It was so genuine. You let your guard down and real emotion was showing. You do have something more important to you than yourself. I was right."

"And you believe something so cliché as a villain changing because he has a child could apply to me?" Ganondorf asked.

"Something being cliché doesn't make it any less true," Sheila said, "In fact, clichés only exist as clichés because they are very real, and surprisingly common. You can't deny you very nearly killed yourself to save Kilishandra, and she is still among us as a result. I'd almost think..."

Sheila paused, realization striking across her face like a lightning bolt. "That's it!" she said, "You're playing up your villain act to draw attention away from her! She destroyed two cities, and there are those around who still remember and want her dead for it. You're giving them another target because you want her to be able to stay here after everything is over."

Ganondorf crossed his arms over his chest, but his scowl had slowly been changing to a smile as she spoke. "You finally put it together," he whispered at last, "I'll hand it to you, you're a lot smarter than I first took you for. You'll need to train that head of yours quite a bit yet if you want to actually keep up with me, though."

"So, what does this mean?" Sheila asked, "Are you intending to die before this is over? Just to get out of the picture for her?"

"No," Ganondorf said, moving back toward her, only to step around her and sit down on the bed, "As long as I've lived, as much life as I've seen end, there's one thing I've never been able to conquer, and that's my own fear."

"What could someone like you possibly fear?" Sheila asked, sitting down next to him, though this meant she had to crane her neck to look up at him.

"Death," Ganondorf said, and after a pause continued, "Everyone fears death. Anyone who doesn't is an idiot. The sermons the priests give about Heaven and Hell are nice stories, but I've traveled through so many different worlds, and encountered some that resembled what they described, but they were not truly the same. The truth is no on knows what becomes of us when we die, because no one has ever returned to tell it. There's no magic that can truly return life to the dead, and the gods no doubt intended it that way.

"I've thought about it, you know. Ending it once and for all. More than once, in fact. As long as I've lived, there's not much more for me to see. Suppose I succeeded in taking the world for myself. What would be next? Taking several? Leaping across dimensions, adding each to my kingdom, until finally I storm the gates of Heaven and take the Throne of Eternity? And then what? Where do I go from there? Maybe I'd find even more to scale, that there is a race of beings as far beyond the gods as the gods are beyond us, and they'd be next on my list.

"That is the tragic path of a conqueror," he concluded, "A never-ending climb toward an impossible goal. And the more I think about it, the more disillusioned I become. But in the other direction... It is not physically dying that I fear. I've seen enough die to know the pain doesn't last long. It is what comes after that which I fear. The unknown. Do I find release and peace from this bloody path I currently walk, or is my torment just beginning?"

"You're right," Sheila said, "Everyone fears the unknown. But can't you find another way to live? You don't have to keep fighting, you know."

"But I do," Ganondorf said, "It's the only thing I'm good at. The difference between a soldier and a warrior. You see, a soldier may be very good at what he does, and willing to fight for what he believes in, but it goes no further than that. A warrior simply does what he's good at. He fights because it's all he knows, and he enjoys it. You, Sheila, are going to fight for Hyrule in this coming battle, and you will do well, but when it is done, you will stop. This is because you are a soldier. I, however, am a born warrior. If I don't fight, and challenge myself, I start to get the itch. I can't stay in one place, and have to find something.

"It happened before. I tried to settle down, to live a more peaceful life after the war in the world which Kili was born in. I didn't make it ten years before I had to go, and I came straight back here, spoiling for a fight with Link and Hyrule. This is who I am, and it's not going to change."

"Maybe what you need is someone to share it with," Sheila said, "Have you ever loved anyone, since Nabooru? She pass thousands of years ago. There must have been someone you cared about."

Ganondorf shook his head. "No one," he said, "Kilishandra... but that's different. The pain I felt when Nabooru turned on me... I'm afraid my heart is simply too hard to risk real love a second time. And if that is your intention coming here tonight, don't waste your time."

"I wasn't," Sheila said, "At least, when I came here, I told myself this was a one time thing. It was something I was going to regret, at your own suggestion, but now..."

"Don't," Ganondorf said, turning his head to look down at her beside him, "If you try to follow this, you will regret it, far more than you even know. Even if I could, you and I would not work."

"And what if I said I'd found something to hold on to?" Sheila asked, climing up on the bed and moving around behind him, leaning again against his back, her arms reaching around his neck, hands resting on his chest, "What if I want to help you?"

"Then you are the single most foolish person I've ever met," he said.

"I'll even keep your secret," Sheila said, "Play the villain around the others, but when we're alone, you'll have someone you can really talk to. And as for me, we'll just take it one day at a time and see what happens. I'm not expecting to find something that lasts here, but I'm feeling better now than I have for weeks, and I think a secret lover is exactly what I needed."

"So you're past your dead boyfriend, then?" Ganondorf asked.

Oh, gods, Richard. The thought struck her so quickly and hard, and suddenly she saw it again, his severed head flying through the air, blood staining the snow and the heat of it splashing across her face. Ganondorf flinched as she fisted her hand in his chesthair and gave it a sharp tug. "I think how close I keep that is my business," she said.

"This can only end badly," he warned her.

"I'm expecting it," she replied, "Now, are you ready to go again?"

* * *

"I'm really sorry," Alex said for probably the fifth time as he and Silviana walked the castle grounds after sunset, "I thought I was doing something good."

This time, Silviana finally responded, breaking out of her own thoughts. "You were," she said, "I should have told you earlier. It's not your fault."

"Oh, thank gods," he said, "I thought this was going to be another mess."

"Well, to be honest, I knew who he was," Silviana said, "But I didn't expect him to reject me like that. I guess... Well, I guess people are different. I guess I thought when I did finally go to him, he'd accept me without question. I'm such an idiot."

Arthur caught her hand, making her stop walking. "No, you're not," he said, "You're the most amazing woman I've ever met. If anyone's the idiot, it's him for not seeing it."

"No, he's really..." Silviana started, then stopped herself and smiled, "Never mind. You never struck me as the sharpest tool around. And that's part of what I like about you."

"Hey, wait a... Yeah, okay, I get that," Alex said, starting irritated and stopping mid-sentence as he processed what she said more completely.

"You're so bullheaded, you charge straight at any obstacle," she said, "Never quitting, whether it's a solid stone door, or even my own reticence."

"Oh, yes," Alex said, remembering the stone door that had locked them in the vault beneath Tyr seemingly ages ago. He didn't know what he'd been thinking, punching it repeatedly as he had. Thinking back on it now, he knew he would never have accomplished anything that way, yet back then had actually said, "The next punch might be the one that breaks it."

And then he'd broken a bone in his hand on it. It hadn't stopped him at the time, though his grip had suffered considerably because of the pain, and the healers in Darimar had fixed it up when they got back as if nothing had happened

"You know, I've actually been thinking," he said, deciding to change the subject, "You mentioned you liked it out in Ordon, and I'm not exactly a fan of city life myself. What do you say we head back out that way after this is done, and see about getting a plot on the village edge to build a house? I could probably get a job helping with the animals or farming, and maybe you could be a sort of guard or scout? As far as I could tell, the only guard the village has is that Rusl character, and he's not the youngest guy around."

"That is actually a wonderful idea," Silviana said, "I'd love to go back there."

The city was growing quiet and the night watch was going on duty as the pair made their way back to the castle. Though Silviana had protested at first, Zelda had given them rooms in the castle, from among those finished and furnished. Silviana had expected to be sleeping in the courtyard, with the refugees, but Zelda had insisted, saying that while there weren't enough rooms to accommodate them all, the party of heroes deserved decent lodgings for what they'd already accomplished, until they could be properly rewarded later.

The rooms Silviana and Alex had been given were not completely furnished, still lacking basics like carpeting and mirrors, and were essentially bare stone floors with a bed and wardrobe. They counted themselves lucky the windows actually had glass to keep the wind out.

"So, my room's down the hall," Alex said as Silviana opened the door to her room, and perhaps he was the only one who didn't realize how awkwardly he asked, "Unless I can come in?"

"Well, it's not like we haven't slept together before," Silviana said.

Alex's face suddenly felt very hot as he glance around and was glad the nearest sentry was posted at the far end of the hall. "Okay, but sleeping is all that happened last time," he said.

"Oh," Silviana said, humor sparkling in her eyes, "So you were suggesting something, then?"

"Unless you don't want me to," Alex said, "In which case, I'm not..."

"Just come in, you big doof," she said, motioning for him to follow her into the room.

The door was barely shut when he kissed her, and her arms were around his neck as he lifted her from the floor. There was a clatter as his sword fell to the floor, and shortly later it was followed by her bow and quiver, then two more clatters as her forearm length blades fell next to them. Alex sat her on the bed, laying her onto her back as he climbed onto the mattress after her, only to sit up as something jabbed him in the stomach sharply. He looked down to see the culprit, and Silviana pulled a short dagger from her belt, where the hilt had caught him, and tossed it onto the floor.

"Hey, slow down," Silviana said as he leaned back down, "There's no rush. We have all night."

* * *

Link expected it, and wasn't least bit surprised that Ilia jumped up from the fire and hugged him when he walked into sight. "Are you all right?" she asked after releasing him, even as she started looking down at his ripped and tattered tunic, "You weren't badly hurt, were you?"

"Just a few bruises, actually," Link said, "I was fine in literally minutes. Was everything fine on this end? No trouble getting back?"

"Other than delivering a baby halfway here, nothing spectacular," Ilia said, "We're all fine. I've been helping around here however I can. Usually it's just cooking."

"That's good," Link said, "I thought I'd let you know I was able to check in back at Ordon on my way here, and everyone there is fine. Your father was very worried about you."

"That sounds like him," Ilia said, then finally noticed Midna hovering a short distance behind Link, "Wait... I thought you were changed back?"

"It's complicated," Midna said.

"Better I don't ask, then," Ilia said, "Are you two hungry? I think I have enough left here..."

As they seated themselves by the fire and Ilia went to get a pair of bowls, Link noticed Maylow sitting on the opposite side of the fire, barely in the light. He was looking intently at a necklace he was wearing. It looked like a single bear-claw, but the elf was clearly deep in thought about whatever it was.

"Hey, long time no see," Link said, and Maylow snapped up, looking over at him.

"Oh, you... Yes, I remember, you were with Miss Anthress," Maylow said, "Sorry, I don't remember the name."

"We only spoke for a few minutes," Link said, "I'm Link."

"Right, that was the name," Maylow said, "Glad to see you're still alive, all things considered."

"Alive with good news, if it hasn't gotten around already," Link said, "We got the bastard who dropped the castle on Darimar."

"Good," Maylow said, "I hope it hurt. There's talk going around that it isn't over yet, though. That the battle will be coming here."

"Well, we've dealt with nearly everyone that worked with Khall and Tharkus," Link said, "Problem is there's still one left that we're aware of."

"And speak of the devil," Maylow said, looking past him, "There she is now."

Link turned, and saw Maylow was indicating Kilishandra, who was walking the courtyard path by herself, eyes turned toward the sky as she was thinking about something. Link suddenly remembered that she was the one who had destroyed Whitos-Neiki, Maylow's kingdom, and how many were dead because of it.

"Now hang on," Link said, turning back to Maylow, "She's with us now. She's trying to make up for what she did."

"What she did was kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people," Maylow said, "There's no making up for that."

"She was cursed, forced to obey," Link said, "She is not responsible for that."

"Good luck explaining that to the people she slaughtered," Maylow said, "They can't hear anymore."

The elf rose to his feet, and turned to walk away from the fire, into the darkness.

"He's going to cause trouble," Midna said.

"He's angry," Link said, "And I have a hard time blaming him. He just needs time."

After a few minutes Ilia returned with two bowls full of beef and vegetable stew, offering them to Link and Midna. "Where'd Maylow go?" she asked.

"To cool off, I hope," Link said.

"There's talk going around that the city is going to be attacked," Ilia said as she sat back down, "The princess said as much, but she didn't really explain where it's going to come from."

"I don't know any more than that myself," Link said, "I think tomorrow I'll arrange for a carraige to take you home to Ordon, where you'll be safe..."

"No," Ilia said.

Link blinked at the blunt interruption. "What?" he asked.

"I'm staying here," Ilia said, "Link, I know you want to protect me, but I'm helping these people here, even if it is in such a small way. I want to stay."

"I promised your father I'd get you safely home," Link said.

"You shouldn't make promises that depend on more than you," Ilia said, "I'm staying."

Link watched her for a long moment, hoping just the strength of his glare would make her relent, but she only crossed her arms and shot back a glare of her own.

"All right," Link said, "You're staying. I hope we both don't regret this."

"Do you need a tent to sleep in?" Ilia asked, changing the subject, "We do have a few spares around here."

"No, we're taken care of," Link said, "I don't think I'm going to sleep much tonight anyway."

"Why's that?"

"I don't know," Link said, "The air feels heavy. Like something's about to happen."

"You see, it's that kind of talk that gets people nervous," Ilia said.

* * *

Zelda couldn't believe how nervous she was. She'd stood up to the council and even had most of them on her side, in spite of how insane her claims sounded. They'd agreed to various methods of increasing the defenses and word had already been sent to the surrounding villages of the threat, and they were ready to seek shelter in the city walls if the danger suddenly appeared on the horizon.

That seemed like it should occupy so much more of her concerns, and yet now, as she paced back and forth in her own bedroom, she couldn't simply sit down, her hands were shaking, and she was utterly terrified just because she was about to tell Arthur he needed to sleep with her.

Okay, she told herself, it was time to be realistic. Her education wasn't missing vital gaps here. She knew how sex worked, at least mechanically, and she knew that under the right circumstances it would feel good. The Triforce's bizarre effect on her wasn't even her first experience with orgasms, though she had always been alone before. This man was head over heels for her, though she wasn't certain she felt the same about him at this point. There was something there, and she did like him, but something always held her back.

Maybe the reason she was so hesitant was the fact she knew he had been with many women, and she had never been with a man. She was afraid she was going to do something, or not do something, to ruin it.

She had changed out of her new armor, donning her light purple gown, though not bothering with the frills, like the jewelry and regal metal shoulders. She had thought about putting on more makeup, but quickly thrown the idea out due to the fact she hated wearing much at all, and Arthur was used to seeing her without it entirely. Then she had spent ten minutes staring at her jewelry box, looking for something else she could put on to go with the gown and the Triforce shaped earrings she was already wearing, and couldn't find a single thing she liked.

And now she was pacing back and forth like a fool, yet unable to stop herself, going over what she should say again and again, never the same way twice, and unable to stop thinking she was going to ruin what she had.

A knock at the door caused her to jump nearly a foot in the air.

She quickly cleared her throat and tried to make some quick adjustments to her hair before saying, "Enter."

The door opened, one of the guards leaning in. "Arthur is here, your majesty."

"Let him in," Zelda said. The guard stepped aside and the young man stepped into the room, Zelda's empathy telling her he was plenty nervous himself, and she ordered the guard out and to close the door.

"I know why I'm nervous, but why are you?" Zelda asked once they were alone.

"Well, you wanted to see me," Arthur said, "There was something I wanted to talk about anyway, but I wasn't expecting you to call me in here. Wait, you're nervous? Why?"

Zelda swallowed, and found even with all her efforts at rehearsing, she had no idea how to approach this. "Let's talk about what you wanted first," she said, "It'll give me time to collect myself a bit."

"Well, all right," Arthur said, and glanced at the table and chairs, though not moving to them, as Zelda was standing, and rather rigidly at-attention at that.

"Oh, have a seat," Zelda said, realizing what it was about, and moving to one of the seats herself. He sat down across from her, and she suddenly had an idea, and reached to the cubboard to the side of the table, removing a bottle of wine and two glasses from her personal rack. It wasn't the snowberry wine, but much less expensive grape-wine, though still high-quality vintage. Zelda was never much of a drinker, but thought a glass right now might calm her a bit.

"Well, part of why I'm nervous," Arthur said as she found the corkscrew and started twisting it into the bottle's stopper, "I went out on the town the other night... Here, let me get that," he offered to finish job, and Zelda handed the bottle and screw to him, her hands shaking so badly she couldn't get it started.

He twisted the screw into the cork and then with one pull the cork popped free, foam rising from the neck of the bottle and he quickly lifted it to his mouth, taking a pull to stop the overflow before setting it back on the table, the overflow stopped.

"Never thought of that," Zelda commented.

"Well, different wines foam differently," he said, "That one wasn't bad, but there are kinds I'd have been wasting my time with. Anyway," he attempted to continue as she picked up the bottle to pour into the glasses, "I went to a bar just off the town square."

"The Drunken Monkey," Zelda said, "It's where most of the town guard go when off duty."

"That's the one," Arthur said, "Well, while I was there, a woman approached me..."

"What?" Zelda said without thinking, looking up at him from the glass.

"No, don't jump to the wrong idea," Arthur said, "Nothing like that happened. Though it almost did. I was... Hey, careful with that."

Zelda looked down and quickly turned the bottle upright, realizing she had overfilled one of the glasses and it was running over on the table. "Oh, gods," she muttered, reaching for a cloth to dry it, too slow as it ran over the edge, splashing directly onto the lap of her gown, eliciting a rare curse from her, "Oh, damn!"

Zelda stood up quickly, moving away from her seat as she found a piece of cloth to dry the table with, and then tried uselessly to wipe it from the fabric of her gown as well, only to find it a lost cause, and the red wine was surely going to stain.

"Are you okay?" Arthur asked.

"No, but that's beside the point," Zelda muttered, and gave up, throwing the cloth on the table as she sat back down heavily before turning a rather sharp look his way, "Anyway, this woman?"

"Oh, well, okay, let me just say I was getting a little frustrated at the time," Arthur said, "I shouldn't have, really, and was being stupid, and I went home with her, but nothing happened with her, okay?"

"Well, you're not lying," Zelda said, "What do you mean by frustrated?"

"Well, you know, you didn't have time to see me, and I was getting restless," he said, scratching his neck, his own nerves now getting to him, "Look, it was a mistake, and I'm sorry about it. But the real thing I wanted to talk about is this woman's son."

"What about him?" Zelda asked.

"See, he was in the courtyard the other day, watching the soldiers train," Arthur said, "I recognized him from the night before, and talked to him for a bit. I actually offered to teach him to use a bow, and his mother gave permission, and when I was on my way to get him earlier today for that reason... Well, long story short, this woman already has another man coming around, and he hurt the boy. The kind of bruises I saw, no correct discipline would explain. And when he saw me there, at the house, he attacked me."

"Oh, no, you're not hurt, are you?" Zelda asked, her initial distrust suddenly replaced with worry.

"I'm fine," Arthur said, "The training I had back in Darimar put me well above that thug. Here's the thing, though: I almost killed him. I wanted to, because of what he did to the boy. I didn't, though. I wasn't going to do it in front of the kid, at least. And I knew if I took the boy with me, even to keep him safe, they'd have the guard on me for kidnapping."

"Yes," Zelda nodded when he looked to her for confirmation, "You did the right thing there, as much as it might feel wrong."

"Is there anything that can be done, though?" Arthur asked, "I'm not familiar with your laws here, so I don't know if the government involves itself in this kind of thing. But there's nothing that justifies what was done to that child."

Zelda drummed her fingers on the table as she thought for a moment. "I'm afraid without a witness willing to testify, and confirm your belief of what happened, there's nothing I can do," she said, "And even then, unless the boy has other kin willing to take him in, he'll just end up in an orphanage."

"I was afraid of that," Arthur said, "Well, I gave that thug a pretty good scare. Maybe things will be better, but I think I'll go check on them tomorrow."

"Don't kill the man," Zelda said, "At least, not unless he attacks you first and you have other witnesses. Our laws regarding murder and self-defense are plenty clear, at least."

"And having an in with the princess herself does nothing to help me?" Arthur asked, though his smile made it clear he was kidding her, as if her empathy couldn't already tell.

"I might be able to give some leniency, but there's a limit to my patience as well," Zelda said, and slid one of the wine glasses across the table to him.

"So what is it you wanted to see me about?" Arthur asked, picking up the glass and taking a sip of the wine.

Zelda sighed, thinking that even the extra few minutes hadn't helped her come up with any better way of explaining it. Well, he was being honest with her, so maybe she should just do the same.

"Okay, do you remember when I blacked out during the battle at Darimar?" she asked, looking away, not able to muster the courage to look at him directly.

"Yes," Arthur said, "The wizard explained... Well..."

She looked back toward him and saw that he had turned crimson. "It's okay," she said, "We believe we know why I have that difficulty with the power I wielded there, and a way to solve it, so that it doesn't happen when I have to use it."

"Well, that's good, right?" Arthur said, "If you need it, you'd have to be able to do it without passing out."

"Well, that's why I wanted to see you here," Zelda said, feeling her own face growing hot. She clenched her hands, feeling them starting to tremble again. Gods, did everyone go though this the first time this kind of matter was facing them?

"I don't know anything about magic," Arthur said, "What do you expect me to...?"

He stopped as she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, and saw her fists clenched tightly, even trembling now.

"Wait a second..." he said, "If you're saying what I think you are..."

Zelda swallowed, feeling like she was swallowing a rock. "All indication we have says that my... problem... it's because I am a..." she paused, swallowing hard a second time, wondering why it was so damn hard to just say it, "It's because I've never..."

On the other end of the spectrum, this was a subject Arthur had considerable experience with, compared to most, and his own nervousness, while not completely vanishing, he was able to put aside. Or perhaps if she weren't so nervous, he would have been. At the same time, it was quite a change from the strong, confident woman he was used to seeing in her.

He reached across the table, taking her hands in his own. She suddenly turned her face toward him, nearly startled by his sudden move, but he only held her hands gently, looking into her eyes with a soft smile on his face.

"Look," he said gently, "I'm completely smitten by you. I have been since we met. I've never been completely sure that you've felt the same. You know I want to be with you, but do you feel the same about me? I'd hate to think I'm going to be used just for this reason. You are the only woman I've ever felt this way about and when it happens... I want it to be real."

"You... You want it to be real?" Zelda said, managing to keep her voice from shaking, "You, of all people, as many women as you have been with, and me, with no experience at all..." She laughed and added, "How would either of us be sure it's real?"

"I don't know," Arthur said, "I just expect for there to be something that was never there for me before. I saw the way that that other pair, Link and Midna are there names, the way they look at each other. There is something there, something they share that no one else can really see or understand."

"What they have, I don't know if I can," Zelda said, "I really doubt most people find what those two share. As for me... I'm sorry..." She stood up, pulling her hands away from his, turning away and walking several steps from him. "My responsibilities... My kingdom, they must always come first for me. I can't devote myself so completely to a single person."

She heard his chair slide on the floor, and footsteps move up behind her. Arthur put his hands on her shoulders, leaning close and whispering by her ear, "I never said that. But what about your own needs? When you're finished for the day, and are here in the dark... Do you have to be isolated? Or can you share that time with another that you care for?"

Zelda had no education on this matter. Ever since she was a child, she had been trained to lead. Her education had included extensive sessions of everything from art and literature to politic and military strategy. Politics had included a great deal of emphasis on the nature of political marriage and allegiances from it, but the subject of love was one she had no real experience or knowledge with. She liked Arthur, she knew that, but did she care about him like he wanted her to?

All her life, she had expected to be married to a noble, more for politics than anything, but had held onto hope that something would bloom from it. Her memories of her parents were faint, given how young she had been when they died, but she did remember quite clearly when her mother told her that her own marriage to her father had been arranged for those very reasons, and yet real love could bloom even from that. And when Zelda had asked how she knew, her mother had only smiled and responded, "Because your father tells me he loves me every day."

And here was opportunity knocking at her door, a chance without the machinations of office and nobility. And she was so hesitant to grab hold of it, and couldn't comprehend why.

"I want nothing more than to be close to you," Arthur whispered, drawing her back out of her thoughts, "But I don't want to simply be used. If you don't feel the same, I'll leave you be."

"I don't want you to leave," she said, "But I'm afraid... I do care about you, and I'm afraid this will change something between us."

"It will," Arthur whispered, "But for the better."

Zelda's heart was pounding as she turned, looking up at him. He smiled at her, and reached up to push her hair away from her face. Her breaths were rapid, her nervousness still holding strong, as he leaned down and kissed her. It was like lightning had struck her, as a jolt went through her entire body. The feeling of his lips against her own was electrifying. She had been deathly afraid of beginning, but now she suddenly found herself with her arms around his neck, holding on to him and not wanting to let go. Her heart was still pounding, but now from the excitement, which redoubled as his hands slowly caressed her back, down to her hips, and back up again, where he began undoing to ties that held her clothing in place.

His hands were rough and calloused, scratching on her bare skin, yet it felt wonderful as they slipped inside her clothes, the feeling on her back like nothing she had ever felt from another before. The world seemed to melt around them, and Zelda was surprised when she found herself on her bed, completely nude as he climbed up beside her. She felt a lump catch in her throat again when she realized she had no idea what to do from here, and whether she should wait for him, or move for him first. But Arthur was a practiced hand, and was in no rush. He kissed her again, before sitting up and telling her to lie on her stomach. Zelda wasn't sure what he hand in mind, until his hands reached her shoulders again and gently started to knead her muscles, slowly working down.

It was a long, slow massage, and Zelda relished it, not realizing how tense she had been, but the stress of everything had certainly been catching up to her, and soon she was lying flat, her arms out to the sides as Arthur gently worked the tension from her back and shoulders. She had no idea if it lasted minutes or hours, but it was just the beginning, and she shouldn't help but laugh at the tickling sensation when he leaned down to nuzzle her neck, and gave her ear a gentle nip.

"I think the best part of a Hylian lover is when I want to nibble an ear, there's plenty of it to nibble," he whispered, getting another giggle out of her as she turned over, looking up at him, on his hands and knees above her.

She didn't need to say anything, as now they began in earnest. It was even more wonderful than Zelda had ever dreamed, being so close to another person, with no secrets and nothing hidden, the warmth of their bodies growing to a high heat, until both were covered in a sheen of sweat from the exertions. And as for Arthur, even with such an inexperience lover, it was easily the best night he had ever experienced. There was something there, something he had once thought never actually existed, an intangible feeling that made the experience all the greater. It was a feeling of intimacy like he had never experienced before, and it was as though their souls mingled even as their bodies did.

In this relatively short time of bliss, Zelda forgot all the troubles of the world, at least for a while, and reveled in the experience. As they lay beside each other, panting from the exertions and basking in the afterglow, all their worries had melted away. The world would return again come morning, but for now, everything was perfect.

And as for whether or not this would actually help her use the Triforce of Wisdom's power without the previous problems, she no longer cared.

* * *

Some time after dark, Kilishandra had been pacing the courtyard, trying to put her thoughts in order. She wasn't sure where to go from here, except to keep following her father and Zelda. The survivors brought through the portal had been seen to by the doctors and given food, and were now resting as comfortably as one could expect. Most of them had been too weak to even speak when they came through, and even those walking under their own power collapsed into the waiting arms of those willing to help.

And Minerva... Gods, why did it have to end like that? The girl that had been such a nightmare when they first met, and then Ganondorf had saved her from herself, in a way. It had been so strange at first, to have her basically move in, but she had done as Ganondorf said, and never used her magic without permission, and slowly she had been educated on the concepts of morality, something she had no grasp of previously.

And it had always been Khall with her. Kilishandra couldn't remember a time around then that Minerva was far behind him. Kilishandra had thought Khall looked much like an elder brother, guiding and helping Minerva with whatever she needed. He always had time for her, in spite of everything, it seemed. And then Minerva had started to grow. In fact, she had grown abnormally fast. Ganondorf had been gone by this point, so he had not seen it happen. In a way, it seemed as though she had grown because she wanted to, because she wanted to be an adult, and the way she had looked at Khall had changed...

Well, at least they'll be together now, Kilishandra thought. Maybe they'll have peace in the next life. The problem was, what was she to do now? Saving her own world and people had been a climatic failure. An entire world lay dead because of Tharkus, and he had been connected to Shaklator even back then, so the blame was to her as well. And everyone knew she was on her way here.

How many people had they actually managed to save? Nineteen or twenty. It just wasn't enough. It didn't feel like anything good, like they had failed utterly.

It seemed the only thing she had left now was to avenge them. To kill the last one responsible for this nightmare. But after that... what then? It was an empty space that Kilishandra couldn't fill in her head. In a bizarre twist of fate, she had fallen in love with a man whose heart belonged to another, perhaps the gods even punishing her for so ignoring Mur'neth. He was friendly enough, but it was clear he didn't care about her in that way, and it hurt every time he smiled at her, knowing it would never be more than that.

And she had committed crimes against the people of this world that would not be easily forgiven. Most likely if she survived until the end of this, she'd be beheaded. Maybe that would be best. At least then she wouldn't have to live with the things she'd done. It was depressing to think about, though.

Even as she was lost in thought, she was being followed in the darkness. Barely visible in his dark clothing, Maylow walked quietly about thirty feet behind her, stewing in his own thoughts. He had seen firsthand what she did to the people of his kingdom, and such a crime was utterly unforgivable. As many as they had managed to save, it simply wasn't enough, and most of them had died in Darimar anyway, killed by the monsters this woman had called allies, until she had a convenient change of heart.

No, he thought, there was no forgiveness for a monster like this, and he owed it to his people to see her punished for her crimes. The princess of this nation was far too forgiving, that she not only allowed this beast to live, but to walk around among them like this, it would only bring a greater disastor when she did betray them. He thought this as he quickened his pace and silently drew his knife from his belt, closing in behind Kilishandra quickly but quietly. She was so absorbed in thought, she never heard him coming.

And he was so focused on his target that he never noticed his own doom approaching, not until the enormous hand clapped over his mouth and under his chin, the other hand snatching the hand holding the knife, the far larger hand clamping down around Maylow's own fist, making it impossible for him to even release his grip. Ganondorf's strength was far greater than Maylow's, who was completely helpless as the blade turned toward him, and was slammed back into his own chest, the hilt still gripped in his own fist, and his pain was completely muffled by the hand over his mouth.

"I'd say it's nothing personal, except intent to kill my daughter is extremely personal," the wizard whispered in his ear, "Not to mention, when it comes to it, she's a hell of a lot more useful than you are."

Maylow struggled, but Ganondorf's inhuman strength was too great for him to break free, and the wizard twisted the knife, the pain redoubling as it cut a swath of destruction in the stab wound.

_No..._ Maylow silently pleaded, _Not like this! It was for the good of all! We'd be better off without her! Why like this?_

And the fact he had been so focused on this monster that he had forgotten the worse one, the one that created her. The princess's poor choices in allies would no doubt doom this nation, just as the five of Mystara had been doomed.

And so strange, his thoughts slowly drifted away from this, and the image of the dark elf woman from earlier in the day, claiming to be his mother. Why she was coming to his mind, and why the bearclaw necklace he wore suddenly felt so heavy...

The only comfort Maylow felt was when the pain finally subsided, and shortly later, he knew no more, falling limp in Ganondorf's arms.

And now there was another headache he didn't want to deal with. Careful not to let the body bleed on the courtyard ground, Ganondorf gathered him up, and with the barest effort, lifted off, flying into the night sky, over the wall and out of sight of the guards. He found a secluded alleyway and dumped the body there, sure it would be discovered the next day, but none the wiser of who was the killer.

With that task completed, he continued on his way to meet Vargus for their raid this night. He wasn't even halfway there when Vargus found him.

"Is something wrong?" Ganondorf asked as the ninja beckoned him toward a side alley, a different path to the church for which they were bound.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Vargus said, "We have a new problem."


End file.
